Thursday 7 December 2017

Recorder overload

Vivaldi Concerti La Notte, L'Inverno, La Pimavera, The Gypsy and the Priest, and RV40.
Works by Giovanni Bassano, Dario Castello, Tomasso Albinoni, Baldassare Galuppi, Guiseppe Tartini, Pietry Locatelli, Biagio Marini, Maurizio Cazzati.

Red Priest

Trinity Church Wimbledon, 21 November 2017
*********************

Red Priest have been a fixture on the Baroque circuit for 20 years, with their refreshing take on the music and the concert ritual itself.  Red Priest was of course the nickname of the flame haired composer Antonio Vivaldi.
  
It’s made up of harpsichordist David Wright, cellist Angela East, violinist Adam Summerhayes and Piers Adams on the recorder.  Amongst these Adams is clearly the leader, happily skipping between soprano, alto and bass recorders, fronting repertoire spanning all the Venetian greats from Vivaldi to Galuppi, much of it arranged for the ensemble.

The concert was the “Venice” instalment in this year’s Wimbledon International Music Festival as part of its "Musical Capitals" theme in 2017.  Despite the undoubted brilliance of Adam’s artistry on the recorders, the relentless recorder-led music lacked variety in the first half.  The performances did not seem to achieve either enough polish or enough fun, falling awkwardly in the middle.  It was a relief when Adam Summerhayes’ violin began to take on more solos as the evening continued.

On the whole the second half proved much more successful, featuring the ensembles rendition of the over-famous Spring concerto of Vivaldi with a healthy injection of fantasy, and culminating in a version of the same composer’s "Gypsy" Concerto given a “wild Romanian” take.

Saturday 25 November 2017

Rattle champions Haydn

Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde
Bartok Piano Concerto No. 2
Haydn An imaginary orchestral journey

London Symphony Orchestra
Denis Kozhukhin, piano
Simon Rattle, conductor

Barbican Hall, London 11 July 2017
****************
Simon Rattle’s commitment to Haydn’s genius produced a memorable Barbican night.  For him this was a reprise of a concert in Berlin stringing together movements from various Haydn works into “An Imaginary Orchestral Journey”.  This type of thing has also been successfully done to Rameau by Marc Minkowski.
The Esterhazy Palace, Haydn's long-term home


As well as giving a more prominent platform for part of the “7 Last Words of Christ”, Symphonies 64, 6, 46, 60, 45, and 90 were excerpted as well as The Creation, The Seasons and the obscure L'Isola Disabitata. There was some lovely moments of fantasy, not least when the little known mechanical organ took centre stage.  Haydn wrote 17 pieces for mechanical organs, one of which was featured here before Rattle paused proceedings to listen to these little constructions being broadcast unadulterated from various locations around the Barbican Hall. Somehow both arch and evocative all at the same time.
Joseph Haydn



Sunday 20 August 2017

Michael Boyd's Debussy

Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande

Pelléas Jonathan McGovern
Mélisande Andrea Carroll
Golaud Paul Gay
Arkel Brian Bannatyne-Scott
Geneviève Susan Bickley
Yniold William Davies
Doctor Dingle Yandell
Shepherd Joseph Padfield

Conductor Jac van Steen
Philharmonia Orchestra
Director Michael Boyd

Garsington Opera Festival, 1 July 2017
************************ 

Debussy's only completed opera is a special one, quite unlike anything else musically in the repertoire.  On an idyllic summer's evening at Garsington Opera on the Getty family estate it was the turn of director Michael Boyd to bring the symbolist opera to life.
Andrea Carroll as Melisande
The setting was an ornate old theatre, seemingly risen again from the bottom of the ocean. Boyd was inspired by old theatres he had seen in Detroit, left in a state of "gloomy, exquisite and overgrown decay".  So, perfect for Pelléas and it provided an inspired setting for a production which was otherwise refreshingly straightforward.

Jac van Steen was a steady hand for the wonderfully atmospheric score with its Debussian take on Mussorgsky and Wagner.  The orchestra had us all entranced, none more so than a woman nearby who spent the entire evening staring at the tympanist's every move.

Andrea Carroll was a very fine Melisande opposite Jonathan McGovern's solid Pelleas.  They were a youthful pairing with excellent support throughout the cast. The production's success was crowned as Acts Four and Five only increased in intensity, and lingered long in the memory.
Garsington Opera's temporary structure

Monday 26 June 2017

Alexander Karpeyev in full bloom

Recital: "1917 The Final Flowering"

PROKOFIEV Vision Fugitives, Op. 22 Nos. 1, 3, 8-11, 14-15, 18-20
MEDTNER
Sonate-Ballade, Op. 27
GRECHANINOV
Prelude Op. 78 No. 1
Lullaby Op. 78 No. 2
Waltz Op. 61 No. 5
Reproche Op. 61 No. 6
Caprice Op. 61 No. 2
RACHMANINOV
‘Nïne otpuschayeshi’ from All-Night Vigil, Op. 37 (arr. Rachmaninov)
Fragments
Etude-Tableux, Op. 39 No. 7
STRAVINSKY
Three movements from Petrouchka (arr. Stravinsky)

Alexander Karpeyev, piano
Savile Club, London, 22 June 2017
*******************
2017 is of course the 100 year anniversary of the Russian Revolution.  A seismic event in so many ways, Russian music was forever changed also. 
Alexander Karpeyev

Russian pianist Alexander Karpeyev here gave a fascinating and satisfying programme built around works from around 1917 by Russian emigres.  All left Russia before or straight after the revolution, and had greatly varying relationships with their homeland afterwards.  

Some like Rachmaninov never returned.  Others like Prokofiev and Medtner did, not that they got along once back in their homeland.  "His playing was good, if a bit boring", the prickly Prokofiev wrote in his diary after a Medtner recital.

No such problems on this night.  Karpeyev has a burgeoning reputation as an interpreter of the period and at a sweltering Savile Club it was not hard to hear why.  Karpeyev's magnificent technique combined with a powerful artistic vision of each piece.  Medtner's Sonate-Ballade benefited greatly from this kind of advocacy and reached an engulfing conclusion.  Karpeyev, amongst other things, is the Artistic Director of the International Medtner Festival.

Rachmaninov, and - a composer new to me - Grechaninov were broadly aligned in their lush late-romantic sound worlds.  Karpeyev strongly characterised each miniature.  A particularly magical moment was a rarely heard piano arrangement of Nyne otpuschayeshi from Rachmaninov's All Night Vigil.  In the original the conclusion requires "octavists", especially low bases customarily found in Russian choirs who sing one octave lower than the normal bass voice.  The piano also concluded deep in its lower registers.

After the pealing bells of Rachmaninov's Opus 39/7 Etude-Tableux, we were left with that most thrilling of 20th century piano showpieces - the Three Movements from Petrouchka.  Stravinsky never thought much of the piano, considering it essentially a percussion instrument.  But what an exercise in rhythm it is, with a stupefying set of technical hurdles for the performer to jump.  Karpeyev's performance was technically spectacular but also brought out its musicality, with transitions particularly beautifully handled.  It was an overwhelming musical experience and brought the audience most deservedly to their feet.

Saturday 24 June 2017

Don Giovanni goes cruising

Mozart: Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni      Ashley Riches
Leporello     John Savournin
Donna Anna      Lauren Fagan
Don Ottavio     Ben Johnson
Donna Elvira     Victoria Simmonds
Il Commendatore     Graeme Broadbent
Zerlina     Ellie Laugharne
Masetto     Ian Beadle


Dane Lam, conductor
Oliver Platt, director
Holland Park Chorus and Orchestra

Holland Park Opera, London, 16 June 2017

******************
As so often at Opera Holland Park, this new production blew all the cobwebs away.  Naturalistic acting, increased contemporary recognition and originality to put many a major opera house production to shame.

The idea here was setting the opera on a luxury cruise ship circa 1910Anyone who has seen Titanic will be familiar with the divisions between first class passengers and those on the lower decks.  This provided the platform for the class divisions that are so central to the plot: aristocrats versus peasants.  Time and again the search and costume change scenes came over as much more dramatically plausible than is normally the case.  It was smart acoustically also, projecting the voices most effectively in a difficult open air location.
Ashley Riches as Don Giovanni
Oliver Platt directed a lean version of the score, not always controlling the orchestra's volume to allow the voices to come across clearly.  One voice that needed no accommodation was Lauren Fagan's Donna Anna, providing the most arresting moments of the evening with her dramatic and thrilling grip on every note.  Ashley Riches and John Savournin were a well-matched pair as Don Giovanni and his servant Leporello.
Lauren Fagan's powerful Donna Anna
Leporello's Catalogue Aria
The Commmendatore was consigned to the cooler after his demise and arrived in full ghoulish form at the climactic dinner scene.  How good to see a genuinely horrible Commendatore instead of the rigid, powdery statue which is the norm.  At the conclusion Don Giovanni is not consigned to the flames but rushes over the ship railings to a watery death. 
Don Giovanni! I've come to dinner
At the very end there were some ill-advised recitative cuts.  Zerlina/Masseto, Don Ottavio/Donna Ana, Donna Elvira and Leporello received no chance to wrap up their plots.   The only genuine misstep in a most enjoyable and stimulating production of Mozart's eternal masterpiece.









Friday 16 June 2017

Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream

Benjamin Britten: A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960)

Iestyn Davies Oberon
Sophie Bevan Tytania
Jack Lansbury Puck
Clive Bayley Theseus
Leah-Marian Jones Hippolyta
Nick Pritchard Lysander
George Humphreys Demetrius
Clare Presland Hermia
Eleanor Dennis Helena
Matthew Rose Bottom
Andrew Shore Quince
Lawrence Wiliford Flute
Sion Goronwy Snug
Nicholas Sharratt Snout
Simon Butteriss Starveling
Elliot Harding-Smith Cobweb
Ewan Cacace, Angus Hampson Peaseblossom
Adam Warne Mustardseed
Noah Lucas Moth
Willis Christie, Lorenzo Facchini, Angus Foster, Nicholas Harding-Smith, Kevin Kurian, Charles Maloney-Charlton, Robert Peters, Matthew Wadey chorus of fairies

Aldeburgh Festival Orchestra
Netia Jones direction, design, projection
Ryan Wigglesworth
conductor

Snape Maltings Concert Hall, 11 June 2017, Aldeburgh

*****************
Benjamin Britten premiered his A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1960 and it has been consistently popular ever since.  After the re-opening of Snape Maltings in 1967 a new production was presented, and now Aldeburgh Festival was celebrating 50 years since this event.

Technology has moved on since the 60s and video projections are increasingly common in production design.  Netia Jones is making a name for herself, with imagery which are better synchronised with the action.  No drops were placed in a character's eye without a huge image of a substance being dropping into water on the wall to wall screens that were the backdrop to the stage.
Iestyn Davies mesmerising as Oberon
Ms Jones, production set the play in the Victorian age.  The visual style a homage to dreamy early Victorian photography.  The boy fairies were ghostly figures in sunglasses.  Tytania wore full Mrs Haversham cobwebby dresses.  Oberon a still and sinister apparition in powdered silver outfit. 

Netia Jones' approach of projecting imagery onto the screens created bewitching light and perspective effects at times.  But for much of the afternoon the projections from the front made the poor singers look like someone trying to give a talk with the powerpoint slides shining in their face.

Vocally this was an outstanding cast with no weak links.  Iestyn Davies was mesmerising throughout, physically and vocally, Sophie Bevan's soprano delightfully agile, and Matthew Rose's Bottom dominated the stage.  The Rustics were gently humorous and the four lovers made the best they could with roles that as written are quite impossible to make interesting.  Diction was a problem throughout, with the honourable exceptions of Davies and Clare Presland's Hermia.  Jack Lansbury had a tumbling good time as Puck.

Ryan Wigglesworth directed a finely nuanced reading.  The orchestra were magnificent, not least in the bewitching opening to Act 3.  Never has Britten sounded more like Arvo Paert.  A dream indeed.
Snape Maltings at interval


Wednesday 31 May 2017

Concentus Musicus Wien farewell the Brahmsaal

Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 59 in A Major "Fire"
Piano Concerto in D
Violin Concerto in C
Symphony No. 45 in F sharp minor "Farewell"

Concentus Musicus Wien
Erich Hobarth, violin
Stefan Gottfried, piano

Musikverein Brahmsaal, Vienna, 28 May 2017.
*************

On the strength of this concert Concentus Musicus Wien remains in rude health, despite the absence of its legendary late music director Nikolaus Harnoncourt.  Its harpsichordist Stefan Gottfried is the current music director and the ensemble has great quality across the board.

This was well illustrated by the superb musicianship of both Mr Gottfried and Erich Hobarth, who stepped up from the ensemble to give their accounts of two well known Haydn concerti. Impeccable, expressive and (as one might expect) beautifully in-tune to the orchestra around them. 

The musical highlight was the Fire Symphony, surely one of Haydn's best.  Concentus Music attacked from the word go, the period strings' gutsy tone added to the taut drama as did the horns terse interjections.  The flow and fun of the finale was quite ideal.  Irresistable.
The Brahmsaal, Musikverein
For the final work, the Haydn Farewell Symphony was given. At the famous premiere, Haydn's Esterhazy orchestra each walked off stage as they concluded their parts in a protest at how long they were being kept from their families.  This bit of theatre was here repeated.

Before the performance, Mr Gottfried spoke.  Concentus Musicus had long felt that it should again be performing in the Great "Golden" Hall of the Musikverein.  Its next season would again be in the Goldener Saal, so here was their farewell to the more intimate Brahmsaal.  On the strength of this performance, richly deserved.
The Musikverein facade, Vienna



Monday 15 May 2017

Respighi from the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia

Rossini: Overture, The Siege of Corinth
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1
Respighi: Fountains of Rome; Pines of Rome 
Orchestra of Santa Cecilia Rome
Sir Antonio Pappano conductor
Yuja Wang piano
Royal Festival Hall, London, 11 May 2017
******************
Antonio Pappano's Santa Cecilia orchestra has been making its mark on the international scene in recent years, but the orchestra's history goes back over a century to 1908.  Its string sound is on the lean side but with plenty of texture; a natural platform for an outstanding set of woodwind soloists.  The repertoire was focused on Italy, with a Rossini overture to start (always welcome) and the better two of the Roman Tryptich of Respighi.  This orchestra has special claims to these pieces having premiered them both in the early twentieth century.  It is highly pictorial music, from its depictions of flowing water to the moods of dawn and dusk.  There was no doubting the sensitivity of Pappano's approach and the superb contributions of his woodwind.  For the ground-pounding conclusion with the Roman Legions marching in triumph into Rome, Pappano stationed the brass high around the hall for extra surround sound effect.  A cinematic touch for the music that launched a thousand movie soundtracks.
 
Antonio Pappano conducts the Santa Cecilia Orchestra

A wonderfully withdrawn Valse Triste of Sibelius led into Rossini concluding the evening with the second encore of the William Tell overture.

Earlier, Yuja Wang had displayed all her supersonic piano technique in the Tchaikovsky piano concerto.  Tchaikovsky wrote a notoriously episodic concerto, and Pappano and Wang did nothing to fix that particular problem.  All moments were given their full indulgence, whether rapt reflection or thunderous attack.  Anything resembling an onward musical flow was lost, from which the big loser was the conclusion of the first movement which was stripped of all majesty and became yet another moment of display.  As so often the second movement fared well and Wang was genuinely thrilling in the finale.  The encores were memorable: a very fine Schubert/Liszt Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel, and then the jazzed up hyper-virtuoso version of Mozart's Rondo all Turca was a show stopper for which an inevitable ovation followed.

Sunday 7 May 2017

Santtu-Matias Rouvali on the rise

Smetana Vltava from Má Vlast
Elgar Cello Concerto
Holst The Planets

Santtu-Matias Rouvali conductor
Alban Gerhardt cello
Leicester University Chamber Choir
Leicester Bach Choir

23 April 2017, Royal Festival Hall, London
*************
Santtu-Matias Rouvali

Santtu-Matias Rouvali was a new name for me, but most certainly one to watch.  The Finnish conductor is about to take up the directorship of the Gothenburg Symphony and here gave plenty of reasons to understand why.

He has a great shock of blond hair and a very demonstrative conducting style with arms high and expressive.  He has an excellent ear for orchestral balance and the evening was littered with fine interpetative moments which showed careful preparation.  One such was during the great tune from Jupiter in The Planets when he scaled back the strings to bring out a woodwind chorale.  Vltava also benefited from a genuine interpretative vision, sounding as fresh as the day of its premiere in Rouvali's hands.

Sunday 30 April 2017

Anna Netrebko throwing thunderbolts

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin

Anna Netrebko, Tatiana
Petter Mattei, Onegin
Alexey Dolgov, Lenski
Alexey Dolgov sings the role of Lenski, and Robin Ticciati conducts. - See more at: https://www.curzoncinemas.com/film-info/met-opera-tchaikovskys-eugene-onegin#sthash.CVaST5DU.dpuf
Elena Maximova, Olga Stefan Kocan, Gremin

Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra
Robin Ticciati, conductor

22 April 2017, The Metropolitan Opera New York, live cinema broadcast
**************
Anna Netrebko as Tatiana
One of the advantages of the Met's live broadcasts is having Renee Fleming speak with the cast, often seconds after having finished an Act.  Poor conductor Robin Ticciati was waylaid in his room when he clearly just wanted to get up to his orchestra for Act III (he arrived late). 

This being Tchaikovsky's famous opera of the even more famous Pushkin novel, various Russian singers were asked the obvious question: explain for a worldwide audience what Onegin means to you.  Apart from its ubiquity on the school curriculum, none left us any the wiser.   

Similarly, we had to take the emotional intensity of the opera's plot on faith in this performance much of the time.  Why does Onegin stir such volcanic feelings in Tatiana?  Why does Onegin change his mind so dramatically in Act III?  Ill health had removed Dmitri Hvorostovsky from the line-up for this performance alongside Anna Netrebko.  Taking his place was Peter Mattei, sure of voice but a stolid acting presence.  Perhaps this was the prime reason why the emotional and dramatic logic of the evening was not always clear. 

Alexey Dolgov's Lenski was on surer ground, and Netrebko's Tatiana a brilliant thing.  The letter scene was magnificently paced, and at its conclusion overwhelming, Netrebko's voice throwing thunderbolts out into the house.

So, an evening filled with very fine singing, but with more uneven acting.  The setting was the usual Met traditional and true to the original.  Although was that a conceptual landscape at the end?  The palace setting for the ball combined with the frozen lake from the duel.  What will the upper east side say? 
Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Štefan Kocán, Alexey Dolgov, Elena Maximova - See more at: https://www.curzoncinemas.com/film-info/met-opera-tchaikovskys-eugene-onegin#sthash.CVaST5DU.dpuf
Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Štefan Kocán, Alexey Dolgov, Elena Maximova - See more at: https://www.curzoncinemas.com/film-info/met-opera-tchaikovskys-eugene-onegin#sthash.CVaST5DU.dpuf
Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Štefan Kocán, Alexey Dolgov, Elena Maximova - See more at: https://www.curzoncinemas.com/film-info/met-opera-tchaikovskys-eugene-onegin#sthash.CVaST5DU.dpuf
Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Štefan Kocán, Alexey Dolgov, Elena Maximova - See more at: https://www.curzoncinemas.com/film-info/met-opera-tchaikovskys-eugene-onegin#sthash.CVaST5DU.dpuf

Saturday 4 March 2017

The Sleeping Beauty circa 1946 re-awakened

Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty

Marianela McGorian, Princess AuroraVadim Muntagirov, Prince Florimund
Kristen McNally, Carabosse
Claire Calvert, Lilac Fairy

The Royal Ballet 
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Koen Kessels, conductor
 28 February 2017, The Royal Opera House, London simulcast
***************

A Royal Ballet classic given some sensitive updating from the iconic 1946 production that re-opened the Royal Opera House after the Second World War.  Marianela McGorian was imperious and technically impregnable, even if not the image of a girlish 16 year old.  Claire Calvert a radiant Lilac Fairy.  This pinnacle of all classic ballets was most satisfying in its "signature" production from the Royal Ballet. 
The Sleeping Beauty 1946 Royal Ballet production

Saturday 25 February 2017

Jonas Kaufmann's Die Walküre

Richard Wagner
Prelude to Tristan und Isolde
Wesendock
Lieder
Act I from Die Walküre 

Jonas Kaufmann tenor
London Symphony Orchestra
Jonas Kaufmann
Antonio Pappano conductor
Karita Mattila soprano
Eric Halfvarson bass

Barbican Hall, London, 8 February 2017
*******************

Jonas Kaufmann's Barbican residency across 4 concerts continued with a much-anticipated Wagner evening.  And it was inevitably the Walkure First Act that dominated proceedings. 

For this he was joined by the no less formidable Karita Mattila as well as Pappano leading the LSO.  The LSO threw us into a most vivid storm after which we heard Kaufmannn's Siegmund emerge.  This was sophisticated Wagner, marked by an intensely lyrical line.  How glorious to hear the role properly sung, rather than shouted.  Wintersturme never sounded more beautiful.

The down-side was that a truly heroic impact was missing from the closing pages of this wonderful slow-burner of an Act. For some true Wagnerian abandon one had to turn to Mattila.  She was less in control, more squally, but delivered an authentic emotional punch.  Standing next to her, both in physical and vocal gesture, Kaufmann gave the impression of pacing himself and guarding his voice for the concerts to come.  That said, the cries of Walse, Walse were thrillingly sustained.

For the evening's complete performance Eric Halfvarson's Hunding was surely as close to ideal as it is possible to hope for.  From cracking bottom notes to physical menace he dominated everything he did.  Not even the weird placement of Pappano directly between him and the other two soloists could spoil the dramatic effect.

Pappano may not be a master of the long line, but the LSO built up a great head of steam in the exhilarating conclusion. Could someone not have set up the singers a more comfortable distance from his podium and those arms so frequently whirling like windmills?   In the first half, the Tristan Prelude did not catch fire but the Wesendonk Lieder again showed off the fine, lyrical beauty of Kaufmann's sophisticated tenor voice.  

Karita Mattila





Sunday 5 February 2017

Martha Argerich: supreme musician

Aram Khachaturian: Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia, Dance of the Gaditanian Maidens and Victory of Spartacus, Spartacus, Suite No.1 & 2.
Sergey Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3
Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No.5 in D minor

St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
Yuri Temirkanov, conductor
Martha Argerich, piano

Royal Festival Hall, London,
*****************

This spectacular concert offered Russia's pre-eminent orchestra playing a Shostakovich symphony which it premiered in 1937. If that was not enough, they were joined by the legendary Martha Argerich for the Prokofiev Third Concerto - a work which no-one on the planet plays better. 
Martha Argerich, then.  Photo: Priska Ketterer
Unlike some other ageing virtuosi, Argerich remains in magnificent shape.  Now in her 70s, her fingers retain their steel and how her hands flicker and flash over the keys.  Her musicianship can genuinely be described as a wonder - instinctive, in the moment, of the greatest sensitivity and alive to every nuance in the score and the musicians around her. 

Her Prokofiev is close to an ideal with its power, lyricism and subtlety.  One example can suffice: in the last moment after the orchestra blooms into a lush melody Prokofiev "steps on the throat of his own song" as the piano enters with a mysterious and pointedly sarcastic interlude.  What introspection and shades of colour Argerich provided here: mesmerising. 
Martha Argerich, now.  Photo: Neumeister

Such is Argerich's reputation for cancellations the packed Hall was cheering as she came on stage.  Famous pianists abounded in the audience,  Nikolai Lugansky and Stephen Kovacevich among them. At the end all were on their feet.  Taking her bows, and afterwards backstage, she seemed more relaxed than in years past.  We were treated to Liszt's arrangement of Schumann's song Widmung as an encore.  

After the interval, the St Petersburgh gave a powerful Shostakovich Fifth.  It was a broad interpretation from Temirkanov, lacking the last ounce of intensity from where I was sitting.  The pay off came in the third movement Largo which underlined the romantic underpinnings of this giant of 20th century music.  
Evgeny Mravinsky who conducted the premiere of Shostakovich's 5th Symphony, together with the composer.
It was left to the encore to display the full glory of the St Petersburgh strings, the conclusion of Prokofiev's Cinderella ballet showing off a bottomless tonal depth to the sound.  Quite awesome and a fitting conclusion to a most memorable afternoon.
The St Petersburgh Philharmonic at home.

Saturday 28 January 2017

Jurowski keeps his nerve amidst uneven Fidelio

Beethoven : Fidelio (Semi-staged, with an English narration)
 
Anja Kampe, Leonore
Ben Johnson, Jaquino
Kristinn Sigmundsson, Rocco
Pavlo Hunka, Don Pizarro
Robert Dean Smith, Florestan
Ronan Collett, Don Fernando
Sofia Fomina, Woglinde

Simon Williams, narrator
Helen Ryan, narrator
Daniel Slater, director 

Vladimir Jurowski, conductor
London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Voices

21 January 2017, Royal Festival Hall, London
*****************

As ever with this opera, Beethoven's massive musical strength and belief in his message trumped all limitations.  The final choral frenzy fairly blazed with joy and hope as the London Voices lined up at the front with the soloists.

There was more than a little relief that we'd made it.  At the end of Act 1, the audience had witnessed an opera presented as a rehearsal with faux-relaxed soloists sprawled behind the orchestra and the director on stage giving instructions.  The orchestra was in civvies with Jurowski sitting on the floor as the auditorium filled up. The message seemed to be, these people are just like us. And indeed, the 1st Act is primarily domestic melodrama, with an underlying dramatic tension provided be Leonore's presence in disguise as a boy, searching for her husband. 

Vladimir Jurowski
More disturbingly, two narrators hovered, offering reflective commentary on the action and the character's psychological states.  It might have worked. After all Bach used a similar effect in the St Matthew Passion, and Fidelio has more than a passing resemblance to an oratorio.  Others have gone down this track before, notably I saw a spectacular Fidelio at the Proms with an Edward Said penned commentary.


But not with the half-baked philosophy of the text this time around, and the night's increasingly shambolic delivery by the narrators.  Was that the silliest thing I just heard on the Festival Hall stage, or did the actor just mess up her line? Pizzaro didn't get enough love as a child.  He was a forerunner of Stalin and Eichmann.  Even a random quote from Tertullian. 

Thankfully the splendid musical virtues of the evening could not be obscured, particularly in Act 2 when all on stage returned with more formal dress and presentation in keeping with the opera's turn to the serious.  Jurowski directed a taut and edgy Act 2 overture and turned up the heat even more for the finale.  Kristinn Sigmundsson's towering presence as Rocco was, more than usual, the fulcrum of the drama and Robert Dean Smith, stepping in at late notice, a subtle Florestan even if a bit tight of voice.

And there was Anja Kampe, the most committed of soloists.  Her every London appearance is a pleasure and her Leonore was unmissable, even if she occasionally strained at the top of her register.  She was every inch the hero of the opera.
Anja Kampe

This was the first concert in a Southbank series "Belief and Beyond Belief".  Jurowski wanted to start with a humanist masterpiece rather than an explicitly religious one.  He and director marked out Hope as the focus of the piece. Who could disagree, and we all need a bit of that in today's world. 

Sunday 22 January 2017

Placido Domingo sings Nabucco

Verdi: Nabucco

Liudmyla Monastyrska, Abigaille
Jamie Barton, Fenena
Russell Thomas, Ismaele
Placido Domingo, Nabucco
Dmitry Belosselskiy, Zaccaria

James Levine, conductor
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

7 January 2017,  The Metropolitan Opera New York, live cinema broadcast
***************
Placido Domingo as Nabucco
Placido Domingo has for some years now been taking on baritone roles after his tenor voice weakened.  Now in his 70s, the voice carries less burnished metal and heft, but Domingo's greatness has always rested on a charismatic and acting talent equal to his technical musical gifts.

He can most certainly still act and carry a stage, is quite wonderfully musical, and the voice too communicates with ease


Around him were more powerful, youthful voices, not least the impressive Liudmyla Monastyrska.   Though of quality they seemed a little cumbersome in comparison.  Or was that the Met Live close miking again, making almost everyone sound like a belter.

In the pit was James Levine, it would appear now wheelchair bound.  The commentary at interval stated Domingo and Levine had done over 1000 performances at the Met together.  As Levine had introduced Nabucco back into the Met's reportoire, it was a fitting choice.  The production was Met-lavish as we have come to expect, and critically the chorus was splendid throughout.  Their rendition of the famous slaves chorus more than justified its immediate repeat.