Rattle says farewell to Berlin

Jörg Widmann: Tanz auf dem Vulkan (UK premiere)
Lutosławski: Symphony No.3
Brahms: Symphony No.1

Berliner Philharmoniker 
Simon Rattle conductor

31 May 2018, Royal Festival Hall, London *************
In 2018, Simon Rattle's tenure at the helm of the Berliner Philharmoniker comes to a close,  Rattle heads to the London Symphony Orchestra and Russian conductor Kirill Petrenko takes his place in Berlin. 

The last London concert for Rattle and the Berliners was a snap-shot of his life in Berlin.  Admirably championing newer music while accommodating the traditional core repertoire of this famous orchestra in intelligent if not life-changing interpretations.

No sooner had the orchestra finished tuning when it launched into a jazzy theme and on rushed Rattle with stagey expressions of annoyance.  Then the "proper" music was started.  Only at the end does the jazzy music return and conductor walk off stage while the orchestra finishes.  All nicely done in this short new work from Jörg Widmann: Tanz auf dem Vulkan ("Dance on the Volcano").

Then it was the Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski's Third Symphony, premiered in 1983.  It is a very fine work structured around a repeated motif with clear references to the famous opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.  This returns to divide up the sections of the 30 minute piece, many of which thrillingly use "aleatory" writing where the players have freedom to play their sections at their own speeds.  It all culminates in an almost tonal climax of considerable emotion.  The performance was of great poise, clarity and virtuosity.

Johannes Brahms

And then to Brahms, his first symphony certainly not his best but whose outer movements pack a great emotional punch.  From the start the refinement of the orchestral sound was glorious, the strings very weighty and built from the double basses up in classic Brahmsian fashion.  Were the strings a little too numerous?  Perhaps at times they seemed to overpower the woodwind.  And then there was a developing concern that it was all a little rounded and cultured, albeit in a super-refined way. 


But no, we had simply been set up for the coda, the whole concert waiting for the final minutes when we were taken to another level and treated to a truly extraordinary sound: blended, bronzed and with seemingly infinite reserves of tonal depth and sonority.  It was engulfing, uplifting and more than a little awe-inspiring.  Thank you Berliner Philharmoniker.

Sinon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker

Evgeny Kissin hammers the Hammerklavier

Beethoven Sonata No 29 in B flat Hammerklavier

Rachmaninov Preludes;

Op 23 Nos 1-7

Op 32 Nos 10, 12 & 13

Evgeny Kissin, piano
29 March 2018, Barbican Hall, London
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No-one ever accused Evgeny Kissin of understatement.  His technique is prodigious, his dynamic range a match for the largest of halls, and his piano most definitely has hammers.  Indeed for all the obvious wonders to expect, I approached this latest recital with some trepidation.  When last heard at the Barbican, Kissin murdered a couple of Beethoven sonatas with an unremittingly aggressive attack and unclear structural command.

What was painful on that occasion turned out considerably better in the Hammerklavier.  This 50 minute sonata exercised Beethoven for a year and is written with such scale and ambition that any performance is an event.  It carries great dangers of fatigue for performer and listener alike.  I have heard many performances where the overwhelming impression on reaching the fugal finale was that the pianist had made all their expressive points and was just trying to survive to the end.

So let it be said that in Kissin's hands the finale of the Hammerklavier was the pinnacle of the evening and quite unforgettable.  I have never heard such definition and projection in recital.  It was an extraordinary intellectual feat from this pianist.

Earlier on, Kissin’s fantasy-like approach to Beethoven interpretation worked well in this monumental yet strange work.  Kissin treated the epic 20 minute slow movement with sustained emotion and care, but was content to take a more episodic approach to the first two movements. Structurally, Kissin is not one of the masters, but his matter-of-fact but highly cultured approach to phrasing was most effective.  

With Rachmaninov Preludes for the second half Kissin was on home territory.  His approach to each was focused and technically dazzling.  Yet, surprisingly, he did not seem entirely inside this music and the group did not add up to something more than its parts.  And of course there were many encores for a increasingly enthusiastic audience.  Amongst offerings of Scriabin, Tchaikovsky and more Rachmaninov, most arresting was Kissin’s own jazz-flecked Toccata.

Evgeny Kissin

Argerich, Maisky and Jansen at the Barbican

Beethoven Cello Sonata No 5 in G minor, Op 5 No 2

Shostakovich Piano Trio No 2 in E minor, Op 67
Schumann Violin Sonata No 1 in A minor, Op 105
Mendelssohn Piano Trio No 1 in D minor, Op 49

Janine Jansen violin

Mischa Maisky cello

Martha Argerich piano

Barbican Hall, London, 6 February 2018

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Mischa Maisky and Martha Argerich

For an artist who enjoys performing chamber music so much, London’s opportunities to hear the great Martha Argerich outside concertos are surprisingly rare.  So a packed Barbican Hall awaited this concert with much interest. 

For many years, Argerich partnered with Mischa Maisky, Gidon Kremer and Yuri Bashmet in the chamber repertoire.  Here, Maisky and Argerich were joined by Dutch violinist Janine Jansen, herself a leading soloist of a younger generation.  

Janine Jansen

Maisky is as well known a figure for cellists as Argerich is for pianists.  An extraordinary life story includes growing up in Latvia, being taught by two giants of the instrument: Mstitslav Rostropovich and Gregor Piatigorsky, imprisonment in the Soviet Union after his sister left to Israel, release after several years and a splendid career.  His musical style is big and romantic and his dress style more than a little 70s Frank Zappa eccentric with split flares and flamboyant blouse tops.   

A night of many musical splendours was guaranteed with artists of this calibre, to what extent it gelled was an open question.  The Shostakovich was the biggest triumph, its mechanistic savagery, sadness and eerie harmonics extraordinarily intense in the hands of these masters.  Elsewhere Jansen and Argerich did not seem fully aligned in the Schumann and Maisky’s broad musicianship was put quite in the shade by Argerich’s phenomenal dispatch of the piano part in the Beethoven. 

Argerich was, as ever, a wonder.  The vitality and musicality of all she did was life-enhancing and of overwhelming intensity.  Her piano sang, rested, flashed and darted.  Beside her Maisky could seem lead footed.  But Jansen has a creamy, close vibrato and projected effortlessly in the large hall.  She gave every impression of being able to match Argerich’s quicksilver moods with her violin.  

With time this trio could really build rapport.  As it stands, it felt that Argerich was holding court, Maisky was fixed in zen-like calm, and Jansen was obviously the new comer.  Certainly she was not helped by Argerich’s bluff approach once the music stopped.  Each time the three walked off stage was a minor comic masterpiece; Jansen trying to defer, Argerich stopping and starting, Maisky meandering and staying out of it. 

Maisky and Argerich in earlier days

Tosca

Puccini: Tosca

Floria Tosca: Adrianne Pieczonka

Mario Cavaradossi: Joseph Calleja

Baron Scarpia: Gerald Finley

Spoletta: Aled Hall

Cesare Angelotti: Simon Shibambu

Sacristan: Jeremy White

Sciarrone: Jihoon Kim 

 

Royal Opera Chorus 

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Dan Ettinger conductor 

 

7 February 2017, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (live broadcast)

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This featured some fine singing from Calleja in particular and an impressively strong characterisation of Tosca from Pieczonka in an otherwise tradiitional production.  But in the cinema the orchestra was projected so forward as to overwhelm the singers and deafen the audience.  When the clarinet solo in e lucevan le stelle drowns out out Cavadorossi, it is time to complain. 

Primary colours Verdi

Verdi: Rigoletto

Duke of Mantua Michael Fabiano
Rigoletto Dimitri Platanias
Gilda Lucy Crowe

Royal Opera Chorus
Royal Opera Orchestra
Director David McVicar
Revival Director Justin Way
Conductor Alexander Joel

16 January 2018, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
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The plot of Rigoletto is not the last word in subtlety, nor much of a standard bearer for sexual equality.  And Justin Way's approach to the latest revival of David McVicar's Royal Opera production offered no escape.  The Duke of Mantua's court was a lurid place of debasement and sexual exploitation, providing maximum contrast with the innocence of Gilda fresh from her convent.  The sense of dread for her safety was very effectively underlined.  But later her subsequent acceptance and protection of the Duke in all his flaws made little dramatic sense given his plainly horrific behaviour.

Verdi's music is a non-stop delight, clearly one of his most successful scores.  The singing on the whole did not live up to its subtlety.  Dimitri Platanias's Rigoletto was a hugely impressive physical, menacing performance, entirely capable of revenge.  But vocally he projected the more sensitive aspects of the role less successfully.  Lucy Crowe's Gilda had vocal control, but was not fully inside the role. In Caro nome there was no sense of a girl's breathless anxiety, more a singer focusing on her vocal technique.   Michael Fabiano's Duke was by contrast very fine throughout, with a gleaming tone and great command of the stage.

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
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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.

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
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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