Word: timpanis
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...almost two hours earlier at the concert's commencement, led his group into an encore performance of Beethoven's Egmont Overture. The overture acted as the perfect capstone to an already well-rounded program, its melody passed from woodwinds to strings, undulating through major and minor keys while the timpani underscored the excitement in the audience. This time there were rounds of bravos from the listeners for the orchestra and its beaming conductor, who repeatedly mouthed "thank you" to the appreciative crowd of concert-goers...
...forming on the faces of the string players, and Tipler was jumping around, leaning left, leaning right, trying to urge the orchestra on as a coach, asking for more force. Quite humorously, in the last movement's finale, a page turn set up the last section into a grand timpani role and a horn declaration joined with the strings to end a great concert...
...instrumentation and texture. The winds throughout were exceptional: the extended English horn solo of the slow second movement was technically flawless, delicate and expressive and balanced perfectly with the orchestra. The third movement, with its searing if not overbearing triangle tremolos, was carried by the performance of the timpani. When loud, as in the first and last movements, the brass was sharp and tight; when delicate, as in the opening chorale of the second movement, they showed amazing sensitivity to dynamics and melodic contour. The most memorable moment of the performance, entirely by virtue of Yannatos' direction, was the amazing...
Particularly captivating were the viola-oboe duet and the deep rumblings of the timpani near the end of the first movement--think of the T running underneath the building all of you Wigg residents. The same all-encompassing, electrifying force galvanized listeners throughout the furious oscillation of the second movement's sometimes lamenting, sometimes triumphant phrases...
...rendition of the third symphony seems less calculated than that of its cousins, but the tension is not uniformly kept up through the inner movements, although I appreciate the subtle interplay between the inner voices that abounds in the second and third movements (including a wayward timpani mallet about 18 seconds into the second movement). While Haitink receives my praise for sustaining the momentum in the sublime cello theme of the third movement, I still wish that he had felt just a little more free to lose himself in its glory. Typically, he avoids excessively punching the off-beat accents...