Intermezzo

Eugene Onegin in Amsterdam

Eugene Onegin - De Nederlandse Opera, Het Muziektheater Amsterdam, 18 June 2011

By telling the story largely in interactive flashback, Stefan Herheim's new production ingeniously restores elements of Pushkin's verse novel absent from Tchaikovsky's adaptation. Flitting between Pushkin's time and today, Onegin and Tatiana take turns to contemplate their past.  At the same time, modern Russia's identity crisis is explored via a procession of national stereotypes from peasant to patriarchs, communists to cosmonauts. This feels over-ambitious, though to be fair it is truthful to the novel, which is drawn on a larger scale than the opera. The production as a whole though is still an extraordinary theatrical experience, enhanced by the brilliant playing of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Verdi's Requiem reconfigured - Salzburg Easter Festival part 2

Berliner Philharmoniker / Jansons - Grosses Festspielhaus Salzburg, 2 April 2010

Soloists - Krassimira Stoyanova, Marina Prudenskaja, Jonas Kaufmann, Stephen Milling; Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks

 
I'm sure Mariss Jansons wouldn't agree that practice makes perfect. Always in search of further refinements to his interpretations, he continues to study even the most familiar works, confident of gaining fresh insight each time he does so. Nevertheless, three performances in Berlin a couple of weeks ago, plus another one here in Salzburg earlier in the week, not to mention his long history with the work must all add something to the technical quality of the performance, which was almost inevitably unimpeachable.

And yet he still managed to add something new. It's often trotted out that there are two ways to tackle the Requiem, operatic or ecclesiastical. But Jansons has uncovered a third, the symphonic, where all the disparate 'numbers' are integrated into the whole in a way I've never heard before. A seamless narrative unfolded, punctured only by bold silences, held to the limit. Within this overarching structure, Jansons explored every dramatic extreme, from the fire-and-brimstone Dies Irae to the tender vocal pianissimos. However sudden the shifts, they always seemed musical and inevitable, never just vulgar attention-seeking effects.

Jonas Kaufmann sounded perhaps the best I've ever heard him, his dynamics perfectly calibrated and every word weighted with meaning. Just two words - a thrilling kyrie eleison - and he had me. The rest of the soloists came close to matching him. Stephen Milling wobbled a little in his first few bars, but soon settled into a steady and rounded performance. The Requiem ideally needs a rich, creamy mezzo, and Marina Prudenskaja (who impressed me as Octavian in Stuttgart recently) was more skimmed soy, but she sang with tremendous expression attention to text. Krassimira Stoyanova began well, with rich, radiant tone, but flagged towards the end, falling behind the beat here and there and not always intoning correctly.

Still, it was an enthralling and tremendously powerful performance, fully deserving of the unanimous standing ovation it received.

*****   photos and more overleaf   *****

the magic baton of Mr Jansons

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam /Jansons - Barbican, 12 and 13 December 2009

Last weekend's flying Concertgebouw visit packed in two concerts in less than 24 hours. The better of the pair was Sunday afternoon's Mahler 2.

Mariss Jansons had me gripped right from the hovering, shimmering strings of the first bar. There's something magical, almost mystical about the way he balances architecture against details, form against texture, head against heart. I never felt any aspect of the music was being sacrificed in pursuit of insights elsewhere. His path was secure, unerring, and in a work that tempts theatrics from even the best, ultimately truthful. His music is the sort that doesn't need to shout to be heard. Quite overwhelming.

Saturday night's concert was more fragmented and ultimately less satisfying. The glowing strings, warm brass and sonorous woodwinds of the Concertgebouw are pretty much a given, so no complaints on that score. But where Jansons's restraint in the Mahler was revelatory, in Saturday's Brahms 4 it seemed more like a brake. There was an abundance of elegant craft, but I found myself longing for the do-or-die passion of Rattle, Barenboim (on a good day) or even Daniel Harding.

Smetana's Bartered Bride overture was energetic but inherently throwaway, and Martinu's Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano and Timpani I simply don't care for, never have, sorry. In some ways, the encores, a Dvorak Slavonic Dance and Brahms Hungarian Dance were the most effective elements of the evening.

Perhaps my diminished enthusiasm has something to do with the seating though. I was, unusually, sitting in the balcony, where the view is perfect and the sound exquisitely blended. But the famously dry acoustic of the Barbican is a thousand times more apparent here than downstairs. The seats are fairly priced (a positive bargain in fact) to take account of tthe problem, but it's an economy I shan't make again in a hurry.

*****   more photos on next page   *****

Prom 61: Wild Bears and sports bras

Prom 61: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Jansons / Magdalena Kožená

Magdalena Kožená needs underwear advice and she needs it now. I don’t know if her gorgeous gold lace gown was a genuine Chanel or an inspired ‘tribute’. Whichever, I’m sure it would have looked better without a black sports bra showing through. Karl would die. And she so nearly got it Catherine Deneuve-right for once with her elegant pearl accessories and sleekly whipped-up hair.

She couldn’t quite get it together musically either. After an uneven and sometimes inaudible start to her five Duparc songs, her voice settled into that cool, otherworldly glow that lends a touch of magic to everything she does. But it was impossible to tell what language she was singing in, let alone any of the words, and her detached manner suggested commentary more than experience. Her encore, Debussy’s Ballade des Femmes de Paris, was more effective for being more relaxed. But it remained abundantly clear that French – at least the French of the exquisitely turned mélodie – is not her language or her idiom.

Ravel’s second Daphnis et Chloé Suite, a work so perfectly conceived it doesn’t leave a conductor much interpretive leeway, was the Concertgebouw’s follow-up. Mariss Jansons couldn’t find anything new, but a dazzling display of taut, responsive playing made it worthwhile.

The first symphony of Sibelius was the uneven opener to the upside-down programme. Beautifully played throughout, but after a fiery first movement, returns diminished. A tendency to drag was marked by a restless audience (surprisingly, far from capacity).

Two splendid encores – Debussy’s Clair de Lune and Elgar’s Wild Bears – were (as so often at the Proms) the highlight of the evening.  

What's on in London in September

Summer is nearly over, and at last the concert calendar is filling up.

Proms and alternatives
The Proms seem to have gone on forever, but it'll all be over for another year on 12 September.

Remaining highlights include Mariss Jansons with the Concertgebouw, Riccardo Chailly with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta and Franz Welser-Möst (replacing the scheduled Harnoncourt).

On 4 September there's an unmissable double header - first Matthias Goerne and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester in Mahler, Ligeti, Schoenberg and Strauss, then a late-night George Crumb special.

Incidentally, operatic highlights for the 2010 Proms - you heard it here first - are expected to include Die Meistersinger with Bryn Terfel, Glyndebourne's Don Giovanni, and a substantial chunk of Tristan und Isolde from the Orchestra of the 18th Century with Ben Heppner.

If you want to skip the ghastliness of the last night - something I cannot recommend too highly - alternatives include the Wigmore Hall season opener which is Die schöne Müllerin from Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis.

Or there's a FREE screening of the 1929 silent movie Piccadilly on an outside wall (don't blame me if it rains) of the Royal Festival Hall accompanied by a new score from composers Suki Mok and Ruth Chan. Following the screening, the score "will become the lynchpin of a cross-artform work incorporating dance, drama and video against a backdrop of the original silent movie".

Opera
The Royal Opera House season opens on 7 September with two concert performances of Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix conducted by Mark Elder and featuring Alessandro Corbelli alongside the hotly-tipped Eglise Gutiérrez and Stephen Costello.

Don Carlo has started rehearsals and promises to turn out even better than first time round. Semyon Bychkov conducts, Jonas Kaufmann is in the title role, and the rest of the cast is much the same as it was first time round, with Marina Poplavskaya, Simon Keenlyside and Ferruccio Furlanetto reprising his definitive Philip.

Don't expect much on stage except the singers in born-again minimalist Christof Loy's new production of Tristan und Isolde. Tristan is Ben Heppner and Isolde Nina Stemme, with Matti Salminen, Michael Volle and Sophie Koch completing the cast. Pappano conducts.

English National Opera's season opens with the much-travelled, highly-praised production of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre by La Fura dels Baus.

The Arcola Theatre's variable but occasionally brilliant (and cheap) Grimeborn opera festival continues until 5 September. Handel, Poulenc and Mozart are included amongst the mostly contemporary works.

There's an opportunity to hear Rossini's rarely-performed Il Signor Bruschino and La Scala di Seta as well as The Rake's Progress from British Youth Opera between 4 and 12 September.

And Valery Gergiev conducts the LSO in a concert performance of La Damnation de Faust on 22 September, with a cast including Joyce DiDonato, Michael Schade, Thomas Quasthoff and Florian Boesch.

Concerts
The LSO's season opener is on 20 September, with Gergiev conducting Debussy, Dutilleux and Ravel.

At the Royal Festival Hall, Bernard Haitink conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on 23 and 24 September. And on 25 and 26 September Vladimir Jurowski and the LPO tackle Mahler's 2nd Symphony. Anne Sofie von Otter visits on 30 September with songs from her Theresienstadt CD.

At Wigmore Hall, Matthias Goerne continues his Schubert marathon on 18 and 20 September (a different programme on each night).

And on 28 September it's Imogen Cooper's bus-pass birthday concert. She'll be joined by Wolfgang Holzmair, Mark Padmore, Sonia Wieder-Atherton and Paul Lewis.

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.