Gustavo Dudamel

At home in the East

Vivier: Zipangu
Debussy: La Mer
Stravinsky: The Firebird (complete ballet)

Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
Gustavo Dudamel conductor

Barbican Hall, London, 17 March 2013
**********************

Gustavo Dudamel is of course one of the most glamorous conductors on the circuit today.  As is well known, he was a product of El Sistema - Venezuela's famed music academy which teaches underprivileged children musical instruments and oversees over 100 youth orchestras - and graduated to direct its flagship orchestra: The Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra.  He now also leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra where he was greeted with street posters shouting "Dudamel pasion".  It was this ensemble that he brought to London for a weekend residency, fronting it with an attractively unassuming stage manner. All music played was from the 20th and 21st centuries and it was in the most recent music that the biggest treasures were to be obtained from this conductor and ensemble.
The Sunday night programme was heavily weighted towards the early 20th century with masterworks of Debussy (La Mer) and Stravinsky (The Firebird).  These were delivered with the massive technical assurance which we have come to expect from this and other leading American orchestras.  But real orchestral magic was in short supply despite these scores providing abundant opportunities to conjure it up.  Dudamel seemed intent on clean, literal readings although the direct and fearless dispatch of Kastchei's infernal dance had some audience members spontaneously applauding.  Could Kastchei be the new March from Tchaikovsky's 6th in its ability to mislead listeners of the true ending? 
However Dudamel's more directional interventions could be electrifying.  No better demonstration of his obvious talent was in evidence than a mesmerising pianissimo transition into the final climax of the ballet.

Real musical intensity was delivered at the start with a work of Claude Vivier from 1980: Zipangu. Canadian composer Vivier's life was cruelly cut short when he was murdered in Paris in 1983. His ritualistic and colourful music was deeply influenced by extensive travel in Asia.  One of the countries he visited was Japan, and Zipangu was the name given to Japan at the time of Marco Polo.  

Claude Vivier, before his fateful visit to Paris

Igor Stravinsky, before he moved from Paris to 

Los Angeles

At the Barbican, the combination of excellent rehearsal, assurance and a strongly projected reading of the score provided the ideal kind of super-committed reading. "New" music deserves this treatment but does not always receive.  Through contrasting "typical" classical structures and more free forms suggestive of the natural world (bird calls on violins, the hum of forest life) the music skilfully created a strong sense of a culture clash between Europeans and the Japanese world.  The climax of sorts was a solo on the double bass - of all instruments - which pushed it outside its comfort zone, again enhancing the sense of a culture at its limits.

So, an eerie and memorable experience.  Not until that transition at the end of Firebird did this concert again deliver something so powerful.

Lutoslawski festival -  Salonen and Zimerman turn on the style 

Lutoslawski: Musique funebre
Lutoslawski: Piano Concerto
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe ballet
 
Philharmonia Orchestra
Philharmonia Voices
Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
Krystian Zimerman piano
 
30 January 2013, Royal Festival Hall, London
*********************

Lutoslawski with Salonen

Lutoslawski has been a particular favourite of mine since I discovered his stunning 3rd Symphony – Beethoven for the late 20th century.  So it is a particular pleasure that Esa-Pekka Salonen and his Philharmonia Orchestra are playing a full tribute to the Polish composer on the 100 year anniversary of his birth in 1913.
 
The first concert of three at the Royal Festival Hall kicked off with the work that grabbed international attention for the composer at the second Warsaw Autumn Festival in 1958.  The Musique funebre has a tone equivalent to Strauss’ Metamorphosen and commemorates the 10th anniversary of the death of Bela Bartok.  It remains an arresting composition and Salonen was a model of restraint, emphasising the subdued and intimate atmosphere it generates. 
 

Lutoslawski and Zimerman performing together

From this followed the much later Piano Concerto of 1988 and we were treated to a typically polished and prepared performance from the work’s dedicatee – Krystian Zimerman.  Lutoslawski first discussed the project with Zimerman in 1976 so it had an extended gestation.   Thinner, often luminous orchestration is coupled with much surprisingly traditional writing for the piano.  Zimerman evoked the sparse, probing opening with the crystalline beauty we have come to expect, and revelled in the passacaglia finale which contains writing of a Lisztian bent.  In between it was possible to imagine that Chopin or Brahms were involved, but Lutoslawksi’s characteristic structural clarity, superb orchestration and magica improvisatory qualities were everywhere evident.  Kissing the score, Zimerman departed the stage after an ideal performance of this fine work.

After such concise, focused brilliance in the first half, it was perhaps unfair to throw out one of Ravel’s most bloated scores.  Fair or not, Daphnis well outstayed its welcome, however brilliantly it was played and sung by the Philharmonia Orchestra and Voices.   The orchestration was at times ravishing of course, but much of the ballet feels like sub- Rimsky-Korsakov and the worldless vocalising of the chorus has not dated well.

Bring on more Lutoslawski!

Terfel, Kampe, Salminen - a Wagnerian triumvirate

Richard Wagner: The Flying Dutchman (concert performance)



Baritone Bryn Terfel

Bryn Terfel The Dutchman
Anja Kampe Senta
Matti Salminen Daland
Martin Homrich Erik
Fabio Trumpy Steersman
Liliana Nikiteanu Mary

Zurich Opera Orchestra 
Zurich Opera Chorus
Alain Altinoglu conductor


15 December 2012, Royal Festival Hall, London
****************

Anja Kampe



This performance of Wagner’s opera came straight from the Zurich Opera House.  As a result this was not one of those stilted concert performances which howls for sets and props.  The singers immediately created engaging relationships with eachother and the Festival Hall stage.  When underpinned by Wagner’s orchestral narrative, the evening was as enthralling as any staged version.

The Steersman and Captain Daland brought out humour as well as atmosphere from the opening and only Mistress Mary was an awkward presence, seemingly in two minds whether to act out her role as a very coquettish 50 year old, or hold true to more formal conventions of concert performance.

 
Wagner’s opera tells the tale of the Flying Dutchman, doomed to sail the seas until the day of

Richard Wagner

judgment unless he is redeemed by the love of a true woman.  He can return to land every 7 years to find such a person and the opera starts as he meets Daland, discovers he has a daughter Senta and strikes a bargain that he will give the father all his dazzling treasure in return for marrying her.  And – who would have thought - Senta has a picture of the Flying Dutchman on her wall. She spurns the advances of the hunter Erik in preference for awaiting the doomed man.  She is ecstatic on the Dutchman’s arrival but in the end the Dutchman suspects she has failed him and sails off.  Senta proves her love by throwing herself from a cliff into the sea as the opera ends.

Alain Altinoglu was directing this performance and was unfussy and direct throughout.  This brought greatest benefits when the orchestra reaches full frenzy as the human and ghostly ship crews dialogue in the final act.  Elsewhere it was not a reading of the score to set pulses racing.  Probably just as well though, because the singers were setting the air alight.

The evening had been marketed with Bryn Terfel as the headline act.  What we actually received was a spectacular triumvirate of Wagner singers: Terfel sharing the stage with two unforgettable performances from Anja Kampe as Senta and Matti Salminen as Daland.  When the three sang together at the climax of Act 3 this was clearly a vintage Wagner evening.

Matti Salminen

Salminen was the first on stage and his interpretation combined a powerful voice (a little hoarse sounding although he is a ship captain) with a wry and engaging interpretation of the character.  He brought a depth to the role that took it beyond the simple opportunism that it suggests. The Steersman was nicely clear and true.


The entrance of Terfel ratcheted up the temperature.  This was a vocal masterclass as Terfel introduced the audience to the Dutchman’s massive existential angst.  His delivery of the repeated calling for the end of the world was unforgettable.  As ever his voice combined power with great attention to the words and a remarkable ability to speak very directly to the listener.    


Kampe and Terfel together in the Zurich production

So far, all was going very well indeed.  Then Act II began.  After a bumpy spinning chorus and that slightly jarring Mary, Anja took control.  Even before she sang she seemed to radiate the type of indwelling confidence that a Senta should have.  After all she ignores all advice around her to wait for and then commit herself to a cursed ghost.  Once she was singing it became clear that she had a powerful voice combined with real artistic bravery.  She evidently has a few Sieglinde’s under her belt – I would pay good money to hear that on this showing.  She was far from flawless – suffering a power-failure in the Act 2 duet with the Terfel – but she sang with a generosity and abandon which suited the role very well.  Some Sentas may bring a more girl-ish aspect to both voice and acting, but Anja’s sledgehammer high notes at the opera’s conclusion were electric.  She all but knocked holes in the back of the hall. 


If Senta delivered the greatest thrills and spills Terfel’s Dutchman is difficult to imagine being bettered.  The intensity of his stage presence and singing was breath-taking and when he and Senta finally clinch, the moment was remarkable for its strangeness: Senta seemingly in a trance, the Dutchman consumed with not missing his chance at redemption. Tender it was not.  This was a triumph and a golden Wagner night.
 

Opera House Zurich (above) or Royal Festival Hall (below): which would you choose?

A watery grave 

Antonin Dvorak: Rusalka
 
Wioletta Chodowicz Rusalka
Mischa Schelomianski Vodnik
Anne Mason Jezibaba
Ladislav Elgr Prince
Tatiana Pavlovskaya Foreign Princess
Glyndebourne on Tour Chorus & Orchestra
Jakub Hrusa conductor

9 November 2012, Wimbledon Theatre, London
********
 
As with so many fairy tales, this is a grim story.  The water sprite Rusalka falls in love with a prince.  But if she is to win him she must enter the world of humans and lose the power of speech.  Warned that this will be disastrous she goes ahead and finds that the prince tires of his mute bride and is drawn to a foreign princess.  Rusalka returns to the water cursed but the prince now follows and all ends dismally.

 
The opera turns on the duality of the water sprite’s world and that of the humans on land.  Glyndebourne’s production, directed by Melly Still, sought to convey this through elaborate choreography of the water scenes using long serpent tails and movement actors.  A tad over-fussy, it also proved quite intrusive when poor Rusalka is being lifted, spun and pawed by choreographic assistants as she sings her Song to the Moon.  This most famous music in Dvorak’s favourite opera was very nicely done by Wioletta Chodowicz, integrating it into the scene rather than separating it as an artificial “show-stopper”.

The wedding scene clearly had a good concept but the central angled walkway became a health and safety disaster when water was inadvertently spilt on it.  How the killer-heeled princess failed to fall remains a mystery, but it brought unwanted elements of drama to the celebration.

Don't slip!

Vodnik was a powerfully malevolent presence throughout and held our sympathies as Rusalka is undone at her wedding by the foreign princess.  His appearance at the climax of Act 2 was the musical highlight of the night.
 
All in all a fine evening at Glyndebourne on Tour, though this was a production with its heart in the sodden depths of the lake, which meant that the underpinning love story was underplayed.  While the tale is dark, it is the power of this love that triggers the plot.  At no point in Act 1 did it ring true – a fatal flaw.

Maazel finally delivers

Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet ballet excerpts
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique"

Philharmonia Orchestra
Lorin Maazel conductor
Vadim Repin violin 

8 December 2012, Royal Festival Hall, London
******************** 

Lorin Maazel - teenage prodigy

A night that was never less than enjoyable finally achieved full lift off in the last movement of the Tchaikovsky.  After the histrionics of the third movement march the audience interrupted with extensive applause.  Maazel paused, and allowed an extended silence to intervene.  And then the great fourth movement lament was ushered in.  Maazel and the Philharmonia finally seemed to breath as one as he coaxed great monolothic phrases out of the orchestra in almost Brucknerian fashion.  The strings were at their most elequent in hushed pianissimo, and the conclusion was weighty and desolate. It was a masterly 10 minutes and worth the price of admission in itself. 
The Tchaikovsky had to that point been unimpeachably good, only held back by the Philharmonia's not always stylish contributions, whether in collective coordination or in individual utterances from the woodwind.  Maazel chose relaxed tempi but these navigated the emotional roller-coaster ride of this extraordinary work most effectively.  Much the same could be said of the Romeo and Juliet excerpts which scored big hits without removing the impression that the orchestral punches lacked the last ounce of sophistication.  Maazel started with a pungent Montagues & Capulets, proceeded onto the Tomb scene before ending with that most spectacular of show-pieces - The Death of Tybalt. 

Vadim Repin

Vadim Repin also delivered a cool Second Violin Concerto.  The first movement of this equivocal work did not entirely settle but the slow movement struck an excellent balance between the folk-derived emotion and Prokofiev's cool neo-classicism.  The finale was pressed on very urgently and spectacularly to its conclusion. 

Maazel today remains a conductor worthy of admiration.  His stick technique is a model of clarity, and he has a proven record of making the big moments count.  In New York I heard him resurrect in the last movement what had been a super-polished but sluggish reading of Brahms' 4th Symphony.  His Tchaikovsky in London formed a pair with that experience.  The magic again revealed at the end. 

Lorin Maazel in more recent years

A conversation at the ballet

A conversation overheard at the cinema during interval watching a live broadcast of the Royal Ballet between two well spoken ladies in the row behind me.  

Lady A:  ... afterwards I'll get a taxi up the road as I didn't bring my car here.  
Lady B: Do you live far away?
A: Oh not far, just in Hampton Road.
B: Oh well I can give you a lift, I'm going that way.
A: Well that's very kind of you.  Most kind.  Can I give you something for petrol money?
B: Oh no that's not necessary.
A: Well thank you again.  My name's Karen.
B: Mine is Susan.
[pause]
A: I'm going to New York next week, I hope to see the New York City Ballet.
B: Oh that would be good.
[pause]
A: Yes it will be all Star Wars and shopping.
[pause]
A: I'm a Jedi you see.
B: Oh?
A: Yes, I go to all the Jedi knight conventions.
B: Ah.
[Conversation ended by thunderous advertisement for Royal Ballet DVDs]

Prom 57 - Bach feeds 5000

Wagner: Parsifal – Act 3 Prelude and Good Friday Music

Berg: Violin Concerto

Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier – suite

Ravel: La valse

Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester
Daniele Gatti conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann violin 

26 August 2012, Royal Albert Hall, London

******************

The Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra was founded in 1986 by Claudio Abbado and draws its members from the UK to Russia.   With the normal Proms programme, concert-goers were handed a separate programme covering the GMYO's 2012 Summer Tour.  Having two parallel programmes was actually quite instructive.  The GMYO's was a heavily corporate production on the orchestra's 25th anniversary, complete with words from the sponsors, president etc, and even a rather earnest Mission Statement ("Talent with professionalism, Musicianship without borders, Dedication and enthusiasm", in case you were wondering).  There were also some nice clashes: the GMYO was "the leading youth orchestra in the world" in its own brochure, but only "one of the world's leading youth orchestras" in the Proms programme.

Parsifal at Bayreuth in 2010 conducted by Daniele Gatti.  Photo: Enrico Nawrath

Gatti chose Wagner and Parsifal to open the concert.  In 2010 he directed the opera at Bayreuth and is booked to return again to the Wagner mecca. The GMYO sections are impressive units, and Gatti coaxed a nicely blended sound out of the group as a whole, although some on the woodwind were rather under-projecting their solo lines.  The concluding sections of this luminous music were beautifully shaped by conductor and orchestra.

Frank Peter Zimmermann

Alban Berg

With the Berg we were in for a treat with Frank Peter Zimmermann playing the solo part. Even after many listenings, Berg's melancholy and disturbing Violin Concerto has lost none of its mysterious power.  Sub-titled "To The Memory of an Angel", it was composed following the death at 18 of the daughter of close friends. The heart of the work comes as Berg quotes Bach's chorale Es ist genug ("It is enough!") in the woodwind.   And Bach reappeared, unexpectedly, as the highlight of the evening.  Zimmermann delivered an encore, the gently rocking Andante of Bach's A Minor Solo Violin Sonata.  It is music of simple, profound genius, and it was indescribably moving to see the Albert Hall - that 5000 capacity Colosseum - unified and transfixed by Zimmermann's hushed lullaby. 

The second half brought a cavalcade of waltzes.  First up was the pastiche of doubtful authenticity taken from Richard Strauss' opera Der Rosenkavalier.  Here too the competing programme notes diverged.  Did Strauss have no involvement in it and probably would have disliked it (Proms notes) or did he compose it possibly with some assistance from others such as Artur Rodzinski (GMYO notes)?  Personally I prefer the Proms version, as Strauss would surely have loathed the way it does not follow his own poetic conclusion to the opera but instead reprises high spirits from Act 2, and some of the gear changes between contrasted operatic moments are laughably insensitive. 

Things were taken to a whole extra level of sophistication with Ravel's masterwork La valse.  It was conceived as a homage to the great waltzes of Johann Strauss, but the First World War intervened and by its completion in 1920 Ravel had rounded it off with a violent climax which breaks the waltz with a terse, military conclusion.  It is a classic example (along with Bolero) of Ravel setting up a strictly rhythmic musical structure which then goes haywire at the end.  The GMYO brought an impressive, lithe sophistication to the piece with excellent contributions from the brass section, but Gatti rushed his fences at the end which substituted a frenzy for what should be a shocking change of rhythm - a virtual waltz-murder.

Peter O'Byrne