Music review: Christmas Concert at Cathédrale Saint-Pierre, Geneva (25 December 2010)

• Saint-Pierre-Fusterie Orchestra
• Jean-Claude Picard, conductor
• Zéphyrin Rey-Bellet, cello

Programme

1. Beethoven – Overture to Coriolanus
2. Tchaikovsky – Variations on a rococo theme op. 33
3. Cherubini – Symphony in D major

I have a real issue with people who open concerts with Beethoven. They seem not to realise the power of his sounds!! Beethoven’s music is so impressive, it sticks so firmly in one’s mind and ears, that I feel I always need at least an interval before I can take in any other music. In this case, the Overture to Coriolanus was so intensely superb, so rousing, so moving that by the time I’d ‘come down’ from the experience, the orchestra was already into the second movement of the Tchaikovsky variations, which were so pretty that I was immediately sad to have missed the first one.

The Cherubini more or less washed over me: it had a few interesting crescendos but nothing thrilling when compared all that went before it. It was just ‘ok’ and I could easily have left, happy, after the variations.
Four stars for the orchestra, three for the programme planning, five for the Beethoven, four for Tchaikovsky, three for Cherubini…a 3.8 overall.