Party pieces

As 80th birthdays go, an afternoon concert given by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, pianist Murray Perahia and conductor Bernard Haitink must be one of the more memorable ways of celebrating. Of course, when the person who's reached the big eight-zero is Haitink himself, the concert becomes something of a landmark. Schumann's only concerto, completed in 1854, was first up. Perahia brought his usual consummate musicianship to the music; his Schumann glowed, with the Concertgebouw's warm string sound absorbed by the piano. For all its virtuosity, mischevous glee and dancing rythms, this concerto is filled with moments of reflection and introspection; in Perahia's hands hearing it became like listening to someone reading you a favourite poem.
On to Bruckner's Ninth, at three movements technically an unfinished work, but somehow, after a solemn first movement, wrought out of Beethovenian material; an unsettling middle movement which juxtaposes the incisive - almost obsessive - jabbing strings in the scherzo with a trio of -unatural? - sweetness and light, the third movement Adagio, culminating in a huge dissonant chord and a pause that takes the listener to the edge of a void, and ends in acceptance rather than jubilation, seems to be the only ending.