But the world has moved on and they have been shunted out of their original core repertoire by the authentic instrument movement. How are they reacting to this problem?
Not very successfully, it seemed at the interval. Haydn’s early 13th Symphony suffered from thick sounds and Steven Isserlis’s self-indulgent playing of the baroque cello solo.
Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony fared little better, though they were now led by violinist Joshua Bell. Vigorous it was but also graceless, with the clean textures one hoped for too often smudgy and imprecise.
Thankfully, there was then a transformation, for which credit should be given to the conductor Ian Brown, in an inspiring performance of Brahms’s valedictory Double Concerto. Left to what they do best, Bell and Isserlis took advantage of the smaller forces by their intimate playing in the slow movement, while in the finale their instruments rapturously merged together in a testament to friendship and reconciliation, which surely made this one of the most moving moments of the Festival.
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