Schwizgebel/CBSO/Gabel Symphony Hall, Birmingham, review: An impressive and idiomatic performance
The Swiss-Chinese pianist Louis Schwizgebel performed music by Franck, Chopin and Berlioz in a concert dedicated to the late Louis Frémaux, principal conductor of City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Fabien Gabel
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Your support makes all the difference.The spirit of the late Louis Frémaux, principal conductor of City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBO) during the 1970s, informed this concert dedicated to his memory. All three works featured in his repertoire, the unbridled élan of Berlioz’s overture Le Corsaire a scintillating curtain-raiser to a programme which continued with Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Swiss-Chinese pianist Louis Schwizgebel gave an unaffected reading of the solo part - his tone a little unyielding in the opening movement’s limpid second theme, with a poised elegance to the Romanze that never cloyed and a vivacity that saw the finale home in engaging fashion.
The French conductor Fabien Gabel ensured alert accompament, confirming Chopin’s still-derided orchestration as rarely less than effective, then presided over a commanding account of Franck’s Symphony in D minor. Brucknerian in spiritual aspiration this may be, but there was nothing portentous about Gabel’s charged and tensile approach to the first movement, with the central Allegretto exuding a deftness that accentuated its wistful charm. The finale, whose intensive recycling of earlier themes can seem contrived, responded equally well to Gabel’s purposeful manner; building methodically to its triumphal though never overbearing apotheosis. An impressive and idiomatic performance, of which Frémaux would doubtless have expressed his approval.
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