Review - Solemnity and acclaim as Harnoncourt receives the  RPS Gold Medal

Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Opus 123

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam
Nikolaus Harnoncourt - conductor 

Marlis Petersen - soprano

Elisabeth - Kulman alto

Werner Güra - tenor

Gerald Finley - bass

Groot Omroepkoor (Dutch Radio Chorus)

22 April 2012, Barbican Hall, London

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Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt is a rare visitor to London, so the prospect of him directing Beethoven's epic Missa Solemnis with that Rolls Royce of orchestras - the Concertgebouw - was mouth-watering.  And it was a high-fibre audience that attended.  In my immediate vicinity at the Barbican were the directors of the Proms Festival and the Barbican Centre and the conductor Semyon Bychkov.

An ideas man, Harnoncourt was sure to be at his best in a work teeming with ideas.  Beethoven famously deploys military march interjections in the concluding Agnus Dei to undercut the prayer for peace in the mass text. However it was with an aura of calm that the performance was conducted.  With reverence and clarity, Harnoncourt directed his forces.  Not for him the excitable gear changes of others in this massive composition that Beethoven composed over 5 years towards the end of his life.  Originally intended for the enthronement of his patron Archduke Rudolph in 1820, Beethoven did not finish the work until 1823 and at 80+ minutes it reaches far beyond any practical liturgical purpose.

Not that it was leaden: the underlying dance rhythms were brought out, the Sanctus flowed smoothly and the Agnus Dei was as intense and draining as it should be.  Harnoncourt's vision was supported to the hilt by his very fine musicians: the Concertgebouw Orchestra was supple and refined, the Dutch chorus did not flag in a taxing work, and the soloists kept the histrionics to a minimum, producing a beautifully blended sound as a quartet.  Elisabeth Kulman's mezzo was nicely dark and withdrawn, while Gerald Finley's baritone entry in the Agnus Dei worked hard to not stand out too much from the chorus directly behind him. 

This was commmunal music making of a high standard and it was fitting that this preceded the presentation that followed.  At the end John Gilhooly (director of Wigmore Hall and President of the Royal Philharmonic Society) presented Harnoncourt with the RPS Gold Medal.  This must surely be one of the 2 or 3 most revered prizes for a musician.  It has been awarded since 1870 to commemorate Beethoven's birth in 1770 and its recipients are most exalted: Brahms, Richard Strauss, Elgar, Stravinsky, Bernstein and current leading musicians including Barenboim, Domingo and Boulez.  Harnoncourt's career leading the period performance movement and then transferring much of that skill to modern as well as period instrument orchestras places him centrally in the development of orchestral performance since the 1960s.

Harnoncourt's speech was a model: paying tribute to the composers without whom he could do nothing "for I cannot write a note!", he then accepted the award on behalf of all the musicians he has worked with for 60+ years because "without them I am but dust".