CLASSICAL

Schubert Symphony No 5 & Brahms Serenade No 2

Soli deo Gloria

JJJJJ In a work that leans so much to Mozart, given its youthful and effortless joie de vivre, lyrical ease and crystalline scoring, the clue to cracking the nut of Schubert’s Fifth Symphony is simply to observe the obvious. Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestra Révolutionnaire et Romantique, with its raw precision and characterful woodwinds, hits the nail on the head. They simply let the music unfold with natural charm, imbuing its neatly proportioned phrases with infinite expressive detail. Nothing is a matter of routine, least of all the seething climaxes in the Andante, which erupt with tasteful grit. But it is the overriding sense of irrepressible cheerfulness that truly liberates this performance. There are darker colours in the violinless Second Serenade of Brahms, but this just makes the burnished eloquence of Gardiner’s wind players all the more exciting. The result is a performance of warmth and passion.