Orchestra of the Royal Capital City of Krakow under Katarzyna Tomala-Jedynak in ADDA Alicante

Surprises come when least expected. On entering the ADDA auditorium, it was at least a shock to see so little of the stage occupied. So used have we become to seeing a platform crammed with seats and percussion hardware in preparation for a “big” work that the apparently scattered chairs and stands that awaited the arrival of a moderately size string orchestra was at least startling. And there was to be only one double bass!

Providing a perfect example of the phrase “less can be more”, the orchestra of the Royal Capital City of Krakow proceeded with a program that surprised and delighted the audience almost with every note.

We began with the Sinfonietta Number Three of Penderecki, a reworking for string orchestra of his String Quartet No. 3, subtitled “Pages from an unwritten diary”. The composer’s style, outside of his religious works, tends towards the episodic. Seemingly simple ideas come and go, and via abrupt transitions and apparent non-sequiturs, we are led around an idea that reworks itself, perhaps without reaching even musical finality, let alone a position of argument or comment. Celebrating Penderecki's 90th anniversary, this piece’s subtitle was apposite. What might have been written if this diary had been complete? The Sinfonietta Number Three is thus an example of what might have been, its apparent raw edges deliberately left unsmoothed.

There followed a performance of a thoroughly different kind of work. The Concerto for String Orchestra by Grazina Bacewicz is a masterpiece. She uses the string orchestra in a largely neo- classical manner, in a way that seems to alternate between the concerto grosso and sonata form. But there are also harmonies here that come from popular music, and all this is encased in a rhythmic drive that never lets the piece flag in its apparently relentless progress. It is succinct, tightly argued, and makes perfect sense in a surreal, unexpected way. Clearly, this is a piece that the orchestra plays often, and they clearly enjoy it every time.

The real surprise came after the interval with Mendelssohn’s Ninth String Symphony. The product of a mature mind aged about twelve, the piece is an astounding achievement. It is tightly structured and musically convincing. The surprise comes in the slow movement, which Katarzyna Tomala-Jedynak did not try to conduct.

Using just eight players, the movement begins with four violins in counterpoint. There follows a balancing section of two violas, cello and bass, before a conclusion, where the four violins are joined by the others in an octet. Treating this as chamber music and leaving the decisions to the players emphasized the whole program’s closeness to the chamber music experience. By the end, the communication that this engendered between performers and audience more than compensated for the lack of volume. The orchestra of the Royal Capital City of Krakow offered a short, but energetics dance movement as an encore.

Pinchas Zuckerman with the Sinfonia Varsovia in Penderecki, Schubert and Beethoven – a real delicacy

The word “delicacy” can mean many things. It can signify refinement in a personality, something good to eat, or describe something too fragile to handle. Situations can be delicate, also, and perhaps Pinchas Zuckerman, despite his many years of the peak of his musical and performing powers, felt that last night’s concert in Alicante qualified as a rather “delicate” occasion.

The Sinfonia Varsovia’s advertised conductor, Tatsuya Shomono, had to cancel his leadership of this concert, which had originally planned a performance of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, after the first half when Pinchas Zuckerman would play the Beethoven violin concerto. But the conductor was ill and could not travel. So Pinchas Zuckerman picked up the baton as well. Or, rather, he didn’t, because he didn’t use one!

A change of program saw the Beethoven Concerto moved to the second half, and the new first half presented works by Penderecki and Schubert. The Sinfonia Varsovia string players opened the evening with Penderecki’s Chaconne In Memoriam Pope John Paul II. And they played it without a conductor, with apparently all the delicate communication skills of a chamber ensemble. Delicate also applied to the music, which seemed to examine, and then re-examine feelings of loss. Played thus, seemingly without active direction, save for a gesture, or a bow stroke from the lender, the Penderecki Chaconne began this evening in a thoroughly original way, though quietly, without show, with delicacy.

Pinchas Zuckerman then conducted Schubert’s Symphony No. 5. In this work, a young Schubert takes his compositional lead from Mozart and Haydn. The music exudes control, form, structure and process, rather paroxysms of emotion. And, as such, it worked beautifully, allowing the orchestra again to play like a chamber group with elegance, poise and, yes, delicacy.

After the interval, Pinchas Zukerman, was soloist and director for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Now I have often heard the soloist treating this work as if it is a grandiose statement, as if every phrase needs staccato attached. And so this evening’s performance by Pinchas Zuckerman came as a real surprise, almost like a breath of fresh, delicate air. He stressed the shape and phrasing of this music and, crucially, demonstrated how the soloist blends with, interacts with, and times contradicts the orchestral accompaniment.

I first heard Pinchas Zuckeran in London’s South Bank about half a century ago and I don’t remember the concert. But I will remember this location, especially for the refined, and subtle delicacy that he brought to the music and the occasion.

Visibly tired by the end, he kept returning to the platform since the ADDA audience never wants to let anyone have an easy time. He did offer an encore, a short cradle song, to which he invited the audience to “Sing along”. It was a grand, memorable, delicate gesture.