Intermezzo

Tristan und Isolde at the Royal Festival Hall

Tristan und Isolde: Philharmonia Orchestra - Royal Festival Hall, 26 September 2010

This semi-staged production arrived in London at the end of a mini-tour that took in the unholy trinity of  Lucerne, Dortmund and Birmingham. No surprise after all that practice to hear unusually disciplined playing from the Philharmonia - barely a note out of place all night. The puffed-up programme note - irritatingly braggadocious as an X Factor contestant - claims it "has the greatest claim of any orchestra to be the UK's national orchestra". Well, on this showing they were certainly the best-rehearsed.

Good Gott - Salzburg Easter Festival part 5

Götterdämmerung - Grosses Festspielhaus Salzburg, 5 April 2010

If only Stephane Braunschweig's Götterdämmerung was half as interesting as the zombie death bunnies I spotted in this Salzburg baker's window. 

The lacquered minimalism of his boutique hotel-style sets was certainly easy on the eye, but hardly fascinating enough to compensate for a largely static production, bereft of dramatic tension or any overarching concept. Wagner's contextual challenges were dodged with limp fire and water projections and a Tarnhelm that brought to mind that immortal line from Raising Arizona: "son you got a panty on your head". It's hard to escape the conclusion that he simply lost interest in the project somewhere down the line.

Anne Sofie von Otter celebrates Korngold

Anne Sofie von Otter/Bengt Forsberg/Pekka Kuusisto - Queen Elizabeth Hall, 27 October 2007

I might have got more out of this Korngold-special evening if the Southbank Centre had managed to print enough programmes to go round (no excuse for it, the hall was only half full). Not something I'd usually moan about, but with mostly obscure work on offer, it would have helped a lot.

But at least pianist Bengt Forsberg provided a useful bit of introduction to Anne Sofie von Otter's opening songs. A selection from Korngold's contemporaries, bookended with a couple from his child prodigy period, they included Karg-Elert's take on Rückert's Du Bist die Ruh (inevitably not a patch on Schubert) and Sommertage from Berg's Sieben frühe Lieder.

Anne Sofie was elegant in a black velvet top with floor-sweeping burgundy taffeta skirt - shoes invisible - fluffy bunny slippers perhaps? Her polished silvery tone certainly sounded comfortable and assured, though with a tentative edge to her high notes that suggested she was saving herself for something that never came.

Then it was the turn of Bengt Forsberg and Pekka Kuusisto (a pixie Nigel Kennedy in a sparkly-sleeved shirt) to tackle Korngold's Violin Sonata. This failed to grab me until the final movement, a set of variations on one of the songs Anne Sofie von Otter had sung earlier. Kuusisto was relaxed to the point of nonchalance, and some bowing and intonation errors suggested he wasn't 100% focussed.

After the interval came more Korngold songs, some of them Shakespeare settings. Korngold's folksy cadences flavour these quite differently from the German songs. Anne Sofie von Otter popped a few estuary vowels on top as she played to her comedic strengths in the last one, For the Rain it raineth every Day - or the Rhine it Rhineth as she had it.

In between the songs came another violin/piano piece, a suite from Korngold's incidental music for Much Ado About Nothing. And, almost upstaging teh Otter, one of the highlights of the night, Bengt Forsberg's storming Interlude from Das Wunder der Heliane.

Otter fought back, scorching through her intoxicating closer, Glück, das mir verblieb (Marietta's song) from Die tote Stadt. It's one of her specialities (scroll down for a vid of a 2000 performance), and it held the whole hall gripped.

Maybe too much was jammed into the two and half hour programme, but it was an intriguing glimpse of this underexposed composer.

Anne Sofie von Otter performs Glück, das mir verblieb live at the Théâtre Musical De Paris - Châtelet in 2000:

Anne Sofie von Otter expelled from International Diva Club for wearing same dress twice

Anne Sofie von Otter/Bengt Forsberg  - Wigmore Hall, 13 June 2007

Yes, this pic was taken at Finland's Kuhmo Festival, but Anne Sofie von Otter brazenly sported the same dress again for tonight's Wigmore Hall gig - and she didn't even frockswap at half time. Not to mention accessorising with the same skulking bespectacled pianist.

Neither did she pander to instant gratification with celebrity repertoire - instead her programme ranged from the underexposed to the unfamiliar.

A group of charming nature-themed songs by Agathe Backer Grøndahl set the scene for a mostly light-hearted all-Scandi first half, the highlight of which was Grieg's limpid Zur Rosenzeit. Anne Sofie was in marvellous voice, settling in instantly, her full silvered tone effortless and even throughout her range. Her voice is not enormous, and the piano was sensibly on half stick, but she projected more than adequately through the compact Wigmore Hall. Her physical ease complemented her unmannered delivery, and she moved freely round the stage, a welcome change from the stand and deliver performances more usually seen at the Wigmore.

Although she used a music stand throughout, she seemed barely to refer to it, one reason perhaps why she managed to re-secks a couple of German nouns and skip a whole verse of her last number, though I'm not sure she or indeed most of the audience noticed any slips.

For the second half, Brahms and Debussy groupings were given appropriately grave attention before Anne Sofie cut loose and had some fun with the six songs of Offenbach's recently-rediscovered Les voix mystérieuses. These were totally new to me, and are worth the exposure simply for the exquisitely melodic settings of choice texts, but the underdeveloped musical ideas and pedestrian accompaniment wouldn't I think last many listens. They were leavened by interspersing with brief numbers from Alkan's Esquisses played by Bengt Forsberg alone. These aren't as virtuosic nor ultimately quite as interesting (on first hearing anyway) as some of Alkan's other work, but definitely deserve a listen. Forsberg also covered Anne Sofie's mid-act tea breaks alone - his first half Sibelius was unremarkable, but the extraordinary Chabrier Impromptu in C that split the second half is worth revisiting.

The only false note in the evening was struck by the last of several encore numbers - Paul McCartney's Blackbird, which needs a looser approach than could be supplied by her high threadcount delivery, more suited to the preceding Kommt Seelen dieser Tag.

Anne Sofie will be performing Berlioz's Les Nuits d'Été at the Proms on 29 July - on this showing, it should be unmissable.

Photos: A Tulima