Anniversary concerts come and go, but to grace the occasion with a specially formed orchestra (and a pretty good one at that) – now that really is big news. “Today in one corner of Europe there is a desperate war”, wrote Sir Georg Solti towards the end of last year; “we watch it on television and do nothing. This concert is the one thing I can do.” The World Orchestra for Peace employs the talents of top-ranking orchestral players from America, Europe, Russia and Israel, most of them – including the 15 section leaders – having been chosen by Solti himself. Musically, things get off to a spectacular start with the most compelling William Tell Overture I’ve heard in years – at once tender (Stephen Geber’s lead cello is eloquent beyond words), rousing and positively Toscanini-like in the quick-fire excitement of its closing “Gallop”.
Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra is hardly less remarkable, not so much for its showmanship (the finale, although typically energetic, occasionally blurs around the edges) but more for its poetry. One might sample the piano dolce oboe at 4'09'' into the first movement, the expressively accented violins and violas soon after, the wonderfully rapt calmo strings 5'31'' into the “Elegia” or that magical moment at 2'56'' into the “Intermezzo interrotto” where (at bar 120) the strings return – again marked calmo – with expressive material from the first section. Here and elsewhere, Solti’s unaffected lyricism touches our hearts, while the “Giuoco delle coppie” is more a chuckle than a game (crotchet=94, as per Boosey & Hawkes’s 1993 revised score) and impulsiveness only occasionally turns to impatience.
Fidelio is of course the musical symbol for what Solti terms “the qualities of brotherhood, liberty and humanity” and this vigorous account of the finale finds all concerned entering the fray – with a particularly distinctive contribution from the Don Fernando of Andreas Kohn. “Never can we praise too much...” sing the assembled, apposite words that might equally apply – both in musical and humanistic terms – to this admirable venture. Decca’s sound is lively and full-bodied.'