Intermezzo

a small portion of Renee Fleming

Renee Fleming / RPO / Dutoit - Royal Festival Hall, 3 November 2009

This concert was billed as Renee Fleming with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, but the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Renee Fleming would have been more accurate. I expect this sort of celebrity recital to feature a fair bit of orchestral padding, but a scant twenty minutes of the ninety actually featured the soprano. The rest was a dreary trudge through Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet (which comprised the entire first half) and Tchaikovsky's Fantasy Overture that left me longing for the flair and passion of a Gergiev in place of Charles Dutoit's throwaway bonbons. 

Renee herself seemed as if she'd rather be somewhere else. Kicking off with a fussy rendition of Tatiana's long letter scene from Eugene Onegin, her voice only clicked into gear towards its end. (Wasn't there any time to warm up?) At which point she took a twenty minute break while the orchestra slugged through their Tchaikovsky.

Then it was CD promotion time, with three brief arias by Leoncavallo and Giordano followed by Manon's Sola, perduta, abbandonata from Manon Lescaut. And that was it.

In a way, verismo is tailormade for Fleming. All those little scoops and gasps and burbles of hers which can seem mannered elsewhere pass for dramatic expression in this genre. And of course her gorgeous pearlescent tone sends her lines beaming out like moonlight. But - and this is a matter of personal taste - sheer loveliness is no substitute for emotional authenticity. Give me the rawness and abandon and textual attentiveness of a Licia Albanese any day.

Was Renee late for another appointment? She wrenched her flowers from the attendant, shoved them to one side, and announced there'd only be one encore before she'd had more than a minute's applause. The offering, O mio babbino caro, floated out exquisitely without the aid of breath or consonants, was the best thing she'd done all night.

Her gorgeous and flattering biscuit satin gown was, by the way, designed by regular concertgoer Vivienne Westwood, best-dressed of the night in a dashing orange-print cape thingy with a burglar stocking pulled down over her hair. Comforting to know that certain people at least will never do things by halves.

*UPDATE* - a comment by Michael below which anyone who attended the concert should read:
"I've just phoned the Southbank Centre. Apparently an email was written by the conductor, Charles Dutoit, saying that they had 'tried to balance the orchestra with the beauty of Renée Fleming' - or something very similar anyway. Utter rubbish - it was the recital version of a smash and grab. I suggested a refund based on the fact that the concert wasn't what was advertised: they didn't seem shocked by this at all, I think a few people have demanded this. If you went and are not satisfied, I suggest you do the same as I'm doing. Tickets and a letter to:
Customer Services
Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road
London
SE1 8XX"

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Prom 60 - Martha Argerich returns. And so does Alice Coote

Prom 60: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Dutoit / Martha Argerich - Royal Albert Hall, 30 August 2009

Proms Chamber Music 13: Alice Coote / Steven Osborne - Cadogan Hall, 30 August 2009

Martha Argerich is often described as ‘reclusive’, but a glance at her busy calendar shows, no, it’s just the UK she doesn’t care for. A recent visit to the Royal Festival Hall aside, she hasn’t played here for an eternity. So her appearance in Sunday’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Prom was unmissable, and not just for me. Every seat was filled and the arena was packed to bursting. I don’t think even the ukulele Prom was this well-attended.

The original programme seemed too good to be true – two concertos, Ravel and Prokofiev’s first. Sure enough, the Proms website announced a few days ago that lack of preparation due to illness meant the Prokofiev would be substituted by a purely orchestral piece (though with no further notices or announcements many in the audience were unaware of the late switch).

But the Ravel alone was worth waiting for. Argerich contained its Gershwinesque exuberance within chamber-like dimensions, conjuring a playful intimacy with her extraordinarily light and fluid touch. Its virtuosic demands were satisfied with carefree spontaneity, her skills seemingly limitless. Watch her and her fingers seem to plunge almost brutally into the keyboard, yet listen and you could believe they’re dancing weightlessly above it, teasing the sound out by charm alone. Her effortless languor in the beautiful central adagio made time stand still.

And there was more! Solo recitals from Argerich are a rare treat these days, but we got a glimpse of what might be from her encore, a Scarlatti sonata performed with the limpid gravity of late Chopin. And here was the real magic – rapidly hammered single note repeats where each note was coloured slightly differently. (Go to 48:35 on the iPlayer broadcast to experience).

Argerich ended a first half which began with an overdue UK premiere - the lush, knotted melodies of Vivier’s Orion, a Messiaen-like journey into outer space beautifully performed by Dutoit and the RPO. But I skipped the second – anything after Argerich would have been a let-down.

Earlier in the day, I went to a couple of the many concerts that the Cadogan Hall hosted over the weekend. Designed to showcase a large number of current and former BBC New Generation Artists in each, they were, inevitably, something of a mixed bag, with no-one given long enough to make much of an impression either way.

Just when I thought the highlight of the day might turn out to be Martinů’s slight but delightful Promenades for flute, violin and harpsichord, Alice Coote and Steven Osborne emerged to end the 2.30 concert with a selection from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Only four songs - Rheinlegendchen, Das Irdische Leben, Wo die Schonen Trompeten blasen and Urlicht - but she dove headfirst into each, so intensely committed and so acutely attentive to textual nuance that it seemed a lifetime of emotions had been laid out before us. Pity poor Steven Osborne who did his best with the half-hearted piano reductions. These songs are transformed in the full orchestral versions - for which (as she volunteered in a pre-recital interview) Alice Coote is open to offers.