Why it is time to end the sound of silence

Before the start of this all-mozart concert, Roger Norrington mused from the podium on recent changes in concert etiquette. “Why this deadly silence between movements?” he asked. “People used to clap all the time, even within movements. Audiences are part of the performance, they contribute. So please, feel free!” Behind me, a patron demurred. “What’s wrong with silence?” he growled. Some people find Norrington’s high jinks a bit much. But I was happy to be swept along by them – and to applaud – because the music-making was so technically superb, so joyous, and so full of expressive insight.

Norrington was abetted by virtuoso horn player Roger Montgomery, who played Mozart’s first and fourth horn concertos using a natural horn contemporary to Mozart. Natural horns do not have valves, so it was fascinating to see how Montgomery coaxed forth the notes by pushing his hand further into the bell, or by pursing his lips.

Alongside the concertos were two of Mozart’s symphonies, which were full of telling expressive details. The minuet of Symphony No. 33 was deliciously stately and slow, a welcome change to those fleet and fast performances one so often hears from “period” orchestras. Symphony No. 36, the “Linz”, was, if anything, even more joyous. Norrington didn’t exactly conduct so much as draw attention to interesting details – a rocketingskywards figure here, a surprising offbeat rhythm there.

My only quarrel with this piece was the slow movement. Played at Norrington’s dancing pace, it certainly sounded graceful enough, but the interesting dark patches were skated over. But Norrington and the players relished the way the music’s phrases in the finale bounced from one instrumental group to to the next. The sheer energy of the music-making was irresistible. At the end as the applause rang out, Norrington applauded us back.