
On the eve of Sir Georg Solti’s centenary (also closely associated with the London Philharmonic, of course), Masur opened this concert with his beloved Mendelssohn, the wonderful Overture that he wrote for the Leipzig Theatrical Pension Fund’s production of Victor Hugo’s melodrama Ruy Blas (of “doomed passions, mistaken identities, scheming villains and vows of revenge”), a play that the composer apparently detested and who thus wrote his introduction to it purely for charitable purposes and in a manner that might be thought against its subject, so noble and pulsing with good life and glorious melody is it, something that Masur and the LPO laid out with certainty and generosity.

Masur had conducted the Schumann with minimal gestures, the tactful accompaniment always complementary to Gerhardt’s discretion. The ear was aware of a close musical rapport. The two men hugged at the end of the performance, and Gerhardt came back after the interval to sit at the back desk of the LPO’s cellos for the Beethoven – he was the unnamed eleventh cellist! It was a night of reminiscence – for Solti, to whom this concert was dedicated – and for reunions, not just for Masur returning to the LPO but it was also nice to see timpanist Russell Jordan revisit his former orchestra, now as Guest Principal; he has been hidden in the pit of the Royal Opera House for a decade and more.
Masur conducted framed within a sturdy wooden enclosure with a thick rail across the back of it – the lack of one was literally his downfall in Paris – and he now eschews a raised platform but resists a chair, although quite why the bottom part of this structure was draped in black cloth is a mystery. What was there to hide? Nothing. And surely the colour could have been less funereal and forlorn-looking?

If this performance was neither surprising nor revealing – save for reminding that Beethoven’s music doesn’t have to be taken fast or rushed off its feet to be exciting, or pared down in personnel, or nasal-sounding, or undernourished in tone – it was certainly inspiring and entered our hearts and minds with much gratification. The reception was of much cheering and standing. At one exit Masur left the platform arm in arm with Jeongmin Kim (principal, second violins) and, having returned, when he left again this time it was with Susanne Beer (co-principal cellist). He had a spring in his step! Masur now goes to Paris for a Brahms concert, then conducts more Brahms over two weeks in New York, and finally this year heads to the Dresden Philharmonic for a complete Beethoven symphony cycle. Yes, indomitable.