Intermezzo

What's on in London in March

Is February over already?

Opera 

At the Royal Opera House, I Capuleti e i Montecchi with Anna Netrebko and Elina Garanca opens on 2 March. Kill for tickets.

Next up is a new double bill of Dido and Aeneas with Acis and Galatea opening 31 March. Choreographer Wayne McGregor, whose work demonstrates little musical sensibility, is the odd choice of director. Sarah Connolly, Lucy Crowe, Iestyn Davies and Danielle de Niese make their ROH debuts.

On 13 March there's a one-off performance of Verdi's Messa da Requiem . Antonio Pappano conducts Barbara Frittoli, Olga Borodina, Piotr Beczala and Ildar Abdrazakov. Sold out, but check for returns towards the date.

At ENO, there's a revival of one of their better recent productions, David Alden's Jenùfa with Amanda Roocroft.

English Touring Opera bring the Magic Flute to Hackney Empire on 12 and 14 March, with Katya Kabanova on 13 March. For authentic 'period' atmosphere (and a bargain), buy the cheapest balcony seats, then stand at the back with your beer (the balcony bar is open throughout the show).

On 2, 4 and 9 March the Royal Academy of Music present Haydn's charming La fedeltà premiata in their bijou but perfectly-formed theatre.

Jiří Bělohlávek and the BBCSO attempt an overdue rehabilitation of Martinů's Julietta in concert at the Barbican on 27 March, with Magdalena Kozena in the title role.

And on 28 March David Parry and the LPO bring Rossini's Ermione to the Royal Festival Hall. 

Not opera

At the Barbican, 7 March is the BBCSO's Xenakis day. On 11 March Thomas Quasthoff presents a Bach and Handel programme. On 12 March it's the turn of Valery Gergiev and the LSO, who perform  Parsifal's Act 3 with the awesome Rene Pape and the remarkably-tattooed Evgeny Nikitin. Bernard Haitink and the Concertgebouw visit on 14 and 15 March with Beethoven's 7th and Bruckner's 9th.

The Royal Festival Hall hosts Maurizio Pollini on 4 March and the not-so-retired-after-all Alfred Brendel on 7 March (it's a charity concert for Comic Relief and he's credited as 'poet'). On 12 March at 6pm there's a FREE concert of Oliver Knussen's vocal works, conducted by the composer himself, with Claire Booth. A few tickets remain for countertenor Philippe Jaroussky in the Purcell Room on 23 March. On 29 March Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra are joined by Anja Harteros in a programme that includes the Eroica Symphony and Strauss's Four Last Songs.

At Wigmore Hall,  Mark Padmore visits on 12 March with a Brahms and Schubert programme. Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk appear on 26 March. Check the website for the inevitable returns.

Waiting for the Bavarians

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra - Royal Festival Hall, 29 November 2008

A year ago, a Saturday night concert by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Royal Festival Hall might reasonably have been expected to sell out, or thereabouts.

It's a measure of the times, and no reflection on the orchestra itself, that there were swathes of empty seats. A couple of LPO concerts I've been to recently (and not had time to write up) have barely scraped half a house full - and that's even with twofer offers and giveaway student prices. So Mariss Jansons - the world's greatest conductor? - doesn't need to fear his crown is slipping. Though it does force me to wonder how much longer there'll be funding for visits from orchestras of this quality.

The opener was Mozart's Linz Symphony - half an hour of agreeableness programmed on the slightly limp grounds that it's named after Bruckner’s hometown. Executed neatly and without any hint of preciousness, it nevertheless remained rather earthbound. Untransported, I entertained myself observing the Jansons baton technique - flicked crisply in the right hand in tricky timekeeping spots, replaced by wafty hands for a bit of cantabile, and tucked efficiently in the left hand in between.

Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony was another matter altogether. The BRSO somehow combine American-style slick technique with unfettered expressivity to produce a sound that's refined but never sanitised. Strings are warm and dark, winds immaculate, brass imposing but never blaring. Individual virtuosity was highlighted in the tricky first horn part, stamina also, and the white-haired soloist justly received a massive ovation as he humbly took his applause. A single unfortunate trumpet squawk, far from detracting, only highlighted the surrounding perfection.

Mariss Jansons could take his musicians from the shivering pianissimo of the opening bars to the thundering peaks of the scherzo with the assurance of a dressage rider on a perfectly-schooled horse.  In his hands the monumental structure was cleanly sculpted and yet there was a delight in the smallest of details. Even the second movement, a classic moment of hands-in-pockets going-nowhere Bruckner became a sparkling jewel turning slowly in the sunlight. Time, for however many minutes, truly was suspended.

Mariss Jansons' Bavarian Wagnerthon rolls into town

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Mariss Jansons / Mihoko Fujimura - Royal Festival Hall, 8 March 2008

Wagner:
Tannhäuser - Overture
Götterdämmerung - Siegfried's Rhine Journey
Lohengrin - Prelude Act 3
Götterdämmerung - Siegfried's Funeral Music
Tannhäuser - Bacchanale
Wesendonck Lieder
Lohengrin - Prelude Act 1
Die Walküre - Ride of the Valkyries

It was a surprise to see the Royal Festival Hall not quite packed to the rafters for one of the world's greatest orchestras (not to mention one of the greatest conductors). It seems the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra still don't have that name recognition factor amongst the wider public. The all-Wagner programme, a novelty in symphony-loving London, perhaps had something to do with it too. But the welcome couldn't have been warmer, almost a standing ovation even before a note was played.

With time-consuming changes of orchestral personnel between each piece, the programme had a stop-start feel. But that didn't compromise the measured elegance of the performance or Jansons' incredible attention to detail, displayed right from the beginning with the exquisitely balanced pianissimo opening of the Overture from Tannhäuser and the masterfully-built crescendo that followed. His tempos were generally expansive. Only in Siegfried's Funeral Music was there a slight tendency to drag. The Ride of the Valkyries on the other hand had a bit too much of the sprint to the finish line about it. But these are small quibbles in a mostly superb performance where the fat polished woodwind sound and the burnished control of the brass were particularly impressive.

Mihoko Fujimura was the mezzo soloist for the Wesendonck Lieder, here arranged for orchestra. Technically adept though she is, her delivery had the flawless sheen of a cultured pearl, a tutored brilliance that eliminates faults rather than seeking beauty. I couldn't knock her performance, but I wasn't able to warm to it either.

Jansons shows how to be cool

Prom 60: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Jansons - Royal Albert Hall, 29 August 2007

Mariss Jansons and his Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra took a distinctly fireworks-free perspective on tonight's programme, Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra and Sibelius's 2nd Symphony. He's a master at treading the right side of the narrow line between subtlety and plain dullness, and he finessed it perfectly again tonight.

The portentousness of Zarathustra offers a certain temptation towards vulgarity. But instead Jansons gave us a dignified and immaculately nuanced narrative, probing towards the unresolved ending.

The odd croaky brass entrance aside, the orchestral playing was a wonder of balance and technique. Bright, molten strings are at the heart of the BRSO's sound. There are no back row passengers in this orchestra, as reflected in their remarkable uniformity and ensemble.

The Sibelius 2, though maybe a little too far on the chilly Nordic side for my own tastes, was nevertheless thoughtfully weighted and immaculately performed. Watching Jansons on the podium was an education in itself, as his entire choreography switched for each new musical idea. At one point he simply stood with his hands glued to his sides for several bars, raising them into the air again as those bars were repeated with a different inflection.

The performance was a little less enthusiastically received than some others have been this week, but maybe this is a reflection of its cool gloss.

Perhaps just to prove they could raise the temperature if they chose, the BRSO warmed up considerably for their splashy encores, the maudlin Sibelius Valse Triste, and a manically energetic snippet from Bartók's Miraculous Mandarin suite. For sheer excitement, this was the high spot of the evening, but it also threw into relief the cultured restraint of the main programme.