France’s Berlioz Festival 2011 celebrated the Liszt Bicentennial “Berlioz, Liszt & The Devil” August 18-28

Berlioz and Liszt enjoyed a close collaboration at the helm of the European Romantic
Movement in music from the 1830s until the 1860s, so it was only fitting that this
year’s Festival Berlioz should celebrate Liszt’s bicentennial under the title “Berlioz,
Liszt and the Devil”. Berlioz, it will be remembered, dedicated his légende dramatique
La Damnation de Faust, composed in 1846, to Liszt , who in turn dedicated his Faust
Symphony to his French colleague in 1854. The small town of La Côte-Saint-André,
birthplace of Berlioz in 1803, hugging a steep hillside deep in the Isère with the French
Alps hard by, was the venue for the annual Festival Berlioz – the Lyon-Vienne-Grenoble
region’s key summer musical event. Now in its 22nd edition, the nine-day Festival Berlioz,
attended by some 20,000 people, ran this year from August 18-28, comprising 50 concerts,
staged at various locations, notably the 15th century Château Louis XI above the town,
with recitals & concerts in churches in La Côte and environs and film screenings,
conférences and other events held at various venues including the Musée Berlioz. The
opening concert of the festival held in the château courtyard saw Lyon’s Chambre Philharmonique
– a period ensemble conducted by Emmanuel Krivine - perform Liszt’s Les Préludes and Mazeppa
tone poems, along with Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict Overture and the ever poignant Les Nuits
d’été song cycle with the vibrant soprano Anna-Caterina Antonacci. Aptly enough the French
pianist Roger Muraro, a Liszt specialist who studied under Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen at the
Paris Conservatoire, followed suit in the rather murky La Côte-Saint-André Church on the
second day with a gripping rendering of Liszt’s piano transcription of Berlioz’s Symphonie
fantastique – for many years the only edition of the work available to the general public
- composed in 1833. Liszt wrote some 40 piano transcriptions of music by other composers,
including Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Choral), a work aired in the nearby Abbey Church of
Saint Antoine by pianist Maurizio Baglini and the Solistes de Lyon Choir. A few days later
the original orchestral version of the Symphonie fantastique was performed at the festival
on period instruments by the chamber-scale Anima Eterna Brugge under Jos van Immerseel, an
eerie, curiously slow Fantastique. The Bruges ensemble's historical instruments included
shrieking valved horns with crooks, ophicleides and two up front harps, one on each side
of the conductor’s podium as were two sets of three double basses (further back). The busy
timpanists played with the sticks Berlioz specifically called for and two Erard pianos (on
the right) were used instead of bells in the "Songe d'une nuit du Sabbat", a practice
endorsed by Berlioz in cases where it was impractical to use bells. The standard of
orchestral playing by French provincial orchestras has increased dramatically in recent
decades, a trend exemplified at the festival by the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie (Savoy)
– which delivered a riveting Weber/Beethoven evening under its intensely communicative
baton of  Nicolas Chalvin – and the Orchestre d’Ile de France (Greater Paris) under its
incisive maestro Yoël Levi – which turned in an absolutely idiomatic account of Berlioz’s
Harold en Italie with the London-based Russian virtuoso violist Maxim Rysanov in dazzling
accompaniment. This was followed by a cracking high voltage extract from Bizet’s L’Arlésienne
suite as encore on a night when a sudden torrential Alpine rainstorm forced the organisers
to cancel the first half of the concert. Liszt’s two major symphonic works – the Dante and
Faust Symphonies - both received high calibre treatment – the former from French conductor
François-Xavier Roth’s outstanding Les Siècles Chamber Orchestra, who also played Berlioz’s
rarely performed Tristia – a triptych which concludes with the moving Funeral March for the
Last Scene of Hamlet complete with wordless choir and volley of musket fire. The Faust was
performed by the first class Orchestre national de Lyon and the Choeurs de Lyon-Bernard Tétu
under Eliahu Inbal, along with excerpts from Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette. Roth – well known
in the UK as visiting conductor at the London Symphony Orchestra – rounded off the festival
in style with the Orchestre Européen Hector Berlioz – a composite youth/period instrument
band – in a programme devoted entirely to Berlioz pieces not often heard in the concert hall.
These included the Huit Scènes de Faust – the 1828-9 forerunner to Damnation of Faust – and
‘lollipops’such as the Marche Marocaine, Marche d’Islay  (absolute rarities), the plaintive
Plaisir d’amour and the rumbustious Marche Hongroise (from Faust). Berlioz’s gloriously
trenchant 1830 orchestration of the Marseillaise (complete with double choir) provided a
rip-roaring climax to the festival. Next year’s Festival Berlioz will focus on Berlioz &
Italy; in 2013 the theme is to be Berlioz & Wagner in connection with the Wagner Bicentennial.

Christopher Follett
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Christopher Follett reviews some of the key Berlioz concerts at this summer’s BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. 

It was an imaginative piece of programming to link some of the most moving Romantic
love music of the 19th century at Prom 21 on August 1 with the Orchestra of the Age
of Enlightenment under Sir Simon Rattle. On the agenda were the Love Scene from
Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette Dramatic Symphony and the equally searing Act 2 of
Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde - and there is a direct connection between the
two works. Wagner, who first heard Roméo et Juliette  in 1839 in Paris, said the
quality of the musical inspiration ‘made him feel like a schoolboy’,
acknowledging its influence later when he sent Berlioz a published full score of
Tristan in 1860 with the simple inscription: “To the dear and great author
of Roméo et Juliette from the grateful author of Tristan und Isolde”. It was
a larger-than-life Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on cracking form under an
ever attentive, meticulous Rattle, which played these two full-blown romantic works
on period instruments, switching between French and German-style wind and brass
instruments, the strings using minimal vibrato, to provide a thinner, more grainy
sound texture than modern orchestras. Another interesting detail was the use in both
pieces of nine double basses lined up backstage - many of them played by females - as
the orchestra throbbed and swayed vibrantly to the poignant, yearning harmonies of
the Scène d’amour with its subtle interplay between the strings and the woodwind
and final impassioned climax.

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There is something uplifting, exhilarating and ultimately life-affirming about youth
orchestras and the European Union Youth Orchestra, with its British Concert Master
Sarah Sew and musicians in their early twenties from all 27 member states, is one
of the very best. The EUYO’s sheer class was in evidence again at Prom 32 on
August 9 when they managed to pull off impressive performances full of gusto and
passion – even under the rather uninspiring conducting of elderly Swiss conductor
Matthias Bamert. Until recently Music Director of the Malaysian Philharmonic, Bamert,
who has a history with Swiss Radio and the London Mozart Players, had been called in
to replace the indisposed Sir Colin Davis at short notice. Bamert’s rather
plodding, deliberate approach with the baton - and the orchestra – tended to
favour the viola soloist in Berlioz’s Harold in Italy after the interval, when
Maxim Rysanov, the young London-based Ukrainian virtuoso and clearly a favourite with
the Prom audience, turned in a superbly reflective performance of Byron’s
enigmatic hero. Late in the final Brigands’ Orgy, the violist’s exchange
with two violins and a cellist who echo the theme from the pilgrim’s march –
the atmospheric second movement – seated together ‘off stage’ on the
left of the podium behind the serried ranks of the first violins - was carried off by
Rysanov (and the players) with great effect – his last solo utterance before the
full body of the orchestra intervenes, the brigands take over and Harold is banished
from the scene. 

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It was Paul Valéry who said that poetry was not speech lifted to the level of music, but
music brought down to the level of speech, but in Berlioz’s song cycle Les Nuits
d’été, set to the high tide Romantic poetry of Théophile Gautier, both triumph.
Gautier saw in his composer friend “a representation of the Romantic musical idea…
who was capable of expressing …longings and questionings of the soul, mysterious
sentiments not to be rendered in words, something more than all which escapes language
but may be divined in music.” A poorly attended Prom 51 on Monday August 24 saw
the quite excellent Swedish Chamber Orchestra under its Danish chief conductor Thomas
Dausgaard take to the podium, with Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, winner of this year’s
Olivier Award for her performance in Tristan und Isolde at Covent Garden, tackling the
Berlioz. So sensuous and expressive is Gautier’s use of the French language in this
poignant six-piece song cycle of lost love and agonised loneliness, that non-French
vocalists can have trouble with its quintessential Gallic nature; but the Swedish language
is also a lovely vehicle for song and Stemme – despite exposing an occasional
Swedish accentuation in her French  - was able to dig deep into the Romantic vein of the
work, delivering a passionate performance. Not a cough, splutter or sniffle were to be
heard from Prommers totally absorbed by Stemme’s intense recital of wistful romantic
longing, with the ever attentive Dausgaard drawing detailed orchestral pointing from his
resilient ensemble.

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LSO launches Festival d’Aix-en-Provence residency with all Berlioz concert on July 17 2010

With its elegant 17th & 18th century fountains, mansions and squares,
its famous tree-lined Cours Mirabeau, set in the heart of Provence
with Cézanne’s towering Montagne Sainte-Victoire as backcloth, beautiful
Aix-en-Provence has been host for one of France’s most important
international summer festivals of lyric art since 1948. After a four-year
residency at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence by the Berliner Philharmoniker,
the London Symphony Orchestra took over to launch its four-year summer
presence at Aix on July 17 and 18, a triumphant inauguration despite the
withdrawal of Sir Colin Davis due to illness. Called in as last minute
replacements for Sir Colin were 41-year-old French conductor Stéphane
Denève, musical director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and
Japanese Kazushi Ono, chief conductor of the Lyon National Opera Orchestra.
Denève had the daunting task conducting the LSO’s opening concert – a
showcase of Berlioz masterworks – on July 17 at Aix’s impressive Grand
Théâtre de Provence, a 1400-seat Italian style auditorium designed by
Vittorio Gregotti and completed in 2007. Denève appeared nervous at the
start but settled down – aided by obvious sympathy from the players – to
give an utterly gripping interpretation of the Symphonie fantastique with
the orchestra in full cry. The Revêries and Passions of the first movement
were delivered with great feeling – as was the initial appearance of the
fateful idée fixe - but it was in Un Bal, the second movement, that the
performance took off, never to look back; Christine Pendrill’s haunting
cor anglais dialogue with the off-stage oboe in the Scène aux champs, the
third movement, was a moving experience as always; in the two hectic final
movements, the LSO under the fiery Denève ripped into the general hysteria
with great gusto, with two full-sized bells – not the customary tubular
ones - mounted upside down on the podium floor and struck with a sturdy
metal hammer used for the Dies irae. The opening concert started with a
sparkling rendering of Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict Overture, the woodwind
in particular revelling in the rippling wit and bustle of the piece; this
was followed by a competent but none too nuanced performance of the
Nuits d’été song cycle by the French soprano Sophie Koch, who somehow failed
to fully bring out the variety of mood and individual feeling of the work’s
six pieces .In this sublime work with all its vocal subtlety, sheer
refinement and range of emotion and language, the leading sections of the
orchestra were coaxed by Denève to reveal orchestral detail not heard in
performances by more dominant vocal soloists. At the LSO’s second and final
introductory concert on July 18, Kazushi Ono conducted stylish performances
of the Mozart Figaro Overture and Sibelius’s Symphony No.5 but the pearl of
the evening was Danish violinist Nikolaj Znaider’s Beethoven Violin Concerto,
performed on his famous 1741 Guarneri instrument, Kreisler’s fiddle, no less.
The LSO’s July residency at Aix for the 2010-2013 seasons envisages
alternating orchestral and operatic programmes and this summer’s première
called for two purely orchestral concerts by the orchestra, which next year
will perform in the pit in new productions of Verdi’s La Traviata and Mozart’s
La Clemenza di Tito at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché (Bishop’s Palace).
Alongside the LSO’s stage activity, the orchestra is also undertaking LSO
Discovery projects each year at Aix, working with the public, schoolchildren,
adults with learning difficulties and Academy students, to stage education
and outreach events.

Christopher Follett

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Six performances of the rarely staged Béatrice et Bénédict opera formed the
kernel of an 11-day Berlioz Festival at the Paris Opéra Comique during the
French winter mid-term school break, an event which also involved choral &
song recitals, lectures, video presentations and a special family concert
devoted to the composer and his music. Although a happy sign that the Berlioz
revival in France continues unabated, it was only the Opéra Comique’s third
ever staging of the composer’s last major work. Dating from 1862, in two
acts, and premiered at Baden-Baden – Béatrice et Bénédict - a divertissement
after The Trojans  - is based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing
- and this was the Salle Favart’s first performance of the work in its original
form with linking recitative. It was a delight to see Béatrice et Bénédict in the
theatre at last, but unfortunately this co-production with the Grand Théâtre de
Luxembourg was curiously lacklustre, missing out on much of the wit, bubbling
effervescence and tunefulness of this captivating opera. Apart from the rather
uninspiring singing by a cast of (under-rehearsed?) largely non-French singers,
the main problem with this production must be laid at the door of French-based
British director Dan Jemmett, a former Punch & Judy marionettist, who had tampered
with the original libretto to set the opera up as a puppet show in Renaissance
costume complete with Puppet Master. This meant the repeated raising and lowering
of a puppet theatre on to the stage and all sorts of unnecessary (and repetitive)
action, with the dramatis personae obliged to strut on and off like mechanical
dolls, an irritating dramatic ploy which served only to distract attention from
the main flow of the plot. The Sicilian Puppet Master, Alberto, played by Royal
Shakespeare Company actor Bob Goody, does not appear in the Shakespeare play, but
 his presence as a sort of Master of Ceremonies meant that the quotes from Much Ado
 in Berlioz’s spoken dialogue were delivered in English (duly surtitled in
 French for the Paris audience) and that was of interest, unlike some of the
 character’s overacted slapstick manoeuvres. Conducting the period-instrument
 Chambre Philharmonique was the reliable Emmanuel Krivine, conductor-in-chief of the
Luxembourg P.O., and once one got used to the rather undernourished orchestral
sound – particularly noticeable in the contrapuntal bustle of the energetic
overture – the ensemble proved their worth with some solid orchestral playing
throughout the opera’s two-hour duration. In Act I, Irish soprano Ailish Tynan
as Héro coped without much enthusiasm (or was it just her poor French?) with her
Je vais le voir, je vais le voir! (I shall see him, I shall see him) aria looking
forward to Héro’s reunion with Claudio returning victorious from the Moorish
wars; Tynan recovered though to deliver a more vibrant rendering of the celebrated
Nocturne with maid Ursule (Elodie Méchain) – Nuit paisible et sereine! (Serene
and peaceful night) - one of those heavily sensual moonlit Mediterranean mood scenes
in which Berlioz excels. Things went less well for British tenor Allan Clayton as
Bénédict who failed totally to enter into the spirit of exhilaration of the Ah!
Je vais l’aimer, mon coeur l’annonce (I will love her, my heart tells
me so) rondo aria, dishing up a down-to-earth plod in one of the opera’s most
splendidly exuberant pieces. Relief came though at the beginning of Act II with
 maître de chapelle Somarone’s drinking song: Le vin de Syracuse, Accuse,
 Une grande chaleur (The wine of Syracuse, Bears witness, To a great warmth),
 Belgian baritone Michel Trempont revelling in Berlioz’s delicious jeu de
 mots, aided and abetted by a disarrayed and drunken Les Eléments Chamber Choir,
 which was also good in the ‘grotesque’ wedding chorus music.
 Despite problems with her French, British mezzo-soprano Christine Rice, as Béatrice,
 delivered spirited enough performances of the aria in which Béatrice finally
 realises  (in great agitation) that she is in love with Bénédict: Je sens un
 feu secret, Dans mon sein se répandre  (I feel a hidden fire, Spreading through
 my breast) as well as in the final defiant Scherzo-Duettino with  Bénédict:
 Oui, pour aujourd’hui la trêve est signée; Nous redeviendrons ennemis demain (Yes, for
 today a truce is signed, We’ll become enemies again tomorrow).    

Christopher Follett
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The London Symphony Orchestra did not get round to performing Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique
until 1925 under Felix Weingartner, an early champion of the composer’s work, today it is one
of the best Berlioz bands in the world. Sir Colin Davis, now 82, has been conducting the Fantastique
for decades, recording it at least four times, but rarely can he have delivered a more passionate,
blazing performance of this pivotal work than at his sold-out Barbican concert with an LSO in top
form in February. Pages of the Fantastique - notably the March to the Scaffold - were lifted from
the unfinished opera Les Francs Juges – composed before the death of Beethoven. This makes the
Episode de la vie d’un artiste a staggeringly original work – a milestone in the history of 19th
century music just as Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps was to be for the last century – 83 years after
Habeneck’s première of the Fantastique in the Salle du Concert at the Paris Conservatoire. The Fantastique
– with its myriad orchestral innovations – is a central part of the orchestral repertoire – and
Davis’s secret, his uncanny ability to keep things asizzle after a whole life experience of conducting the
work – is surely his perfectly judged sense of balance in Berlioz – between the classical and the
romantic, the symphonic and the fantastical. That Davis has a profound passion – and the orchestra a deep sense
of commitment - for this piece, was in the air from the very start as the long sad largo of
Rêveries-Passions got underway and the LSO violins in tense unison ushered in the famous idée fixe
and a mood of utter romantic yearning was established with some magnificent playing. Andrew Marriner
shone in his eloquent clarinet solo at the end of the almost dervish-like whirl of the Bal and the
haunting woodwind continued their path of glory in the shepherds’ piping sequences in the Scène aux Champs, a
Poussin-like landscape in which Christine Pendrill on the cor anglais delivered the solo performance
of the evening in the instrument’s evocative dialogue with the off-stage oboe – and the other woodwind
all excelled – notably Gareth Davies on the flute. In the closing moments of this pastoral movement
when the shepherd’s piping fails to elicit any response from across the valley but distant thunder rolls
on the timpani, one of the most moving moments in all Berlioz, just the right poignant feeling of
mal de l’isolement was brilliantly achieved by the orchestra. In the last two movements, the
Marche au Supplice and the Songe d’une Nuit de Sabbat – when the opium begins to take its toll –
the LSO delivered some scorching playing with faultless braying brass, buoyant bassoons, punctilious
percussion, hectic woodwind, prickly pizzicati and ghoulish church bells chiming from the back of
the podium. Surely one of Sir Colin’s greatest outings ever with the Fantastique!

Christopher Follett


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Grande Messe des Morts (Requiem)
	14 October 2009 – Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Valery Gergiev – Orchestra & Chorus of the Mariinsky Theatre;
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra & CBSO Chorus;
Sergei Semishkur, tenor


Birmingham’s Symphony Hall provided an even more magnificent spectacle than usual for this concert (repeated the following
evening), with two orchestras and two choruses combined – those of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and of the City
of Birmingham.  Berlioz himself would no doubt have revelled in the sight of almost 190 instrumentalists (including 99
string players: 26 first violins, 22 seconds, 20 violas, 17 cellos and 14 basses), plus a chorus of well over 200.
Equally remarkable was the first piece performed: Prokofiev’s 50-minute Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October
Revolution, set to texts by Lenin and Stalin (taken from their speeches) with a minor contribution from Marx.  This made
ample and regular use of the full forces available, including sirens, alarm bells, a megaphone, a brief interlude of
relative calm with six accordions, and the entire percussion section tramping their feet in unison to represent the
proletariat on the march. 
Though slightly creepy (it’s not often that a librettist is also a mass murderer), and very noisy, it was altogether quite
good fun.  The Berlioz Requiem was relegated to the second half of the concert, and came as something of a relief after all
this revolutionary bombosity.  The performance made less impact than it might have done, for two reasons.  Firstly, the
acoustic of Symphony Hall is far from ideal for this particular work: it is actually too clear and analytical, whereas the
Requiem needs spaciousness and reverberation.  As a result, we got the majesty, but not the mystery, and some of Berlioz’s
effects – notably the flute and trombone chords in the Hostias and Agnus Dei – sounded simply strange and rather
blatant, instead of conveying the ineffable vastness of the gulf between Creation and its Maker.  Secondly, the performers had
put so much energy into the Prokofiev that there was inevitably some lack of focus in the Requiem – only Gergiev, surely,
 would have had the idea of performing both in the same concert.
That said, there were plenty of fine things to admire about the performance.  The four extra brass bands were placed in the
balcony at the four corners of the hall.  Eight timpanists, with 20 drums between them, were arrayed right across the back
of the stage.  In front of them were another eight percussionists, doubled woodwind (four each of flutes, oboes and clarinets,
and eight bassoons) and twelve horns, not forgetting the 90-plus string players.  It is perhaps hardly surprising that with
such enormous forces, coming from such disparate musical backgrounds, there were some lapses of ensemble.
In other respects the first four movements were well done.  The Tuba mirum made the shattering impact it should, although it
was in louder passages such as these that the brazen nature of the Symphony Hall acoustic produced an undesirably “in
your face” effect.  The unaccompanied Quaerens me was sung by the Russian choir alone, with much greater vibrato on
the part of the women than we are used to; I gather this was disliked by some, but I found it quite effective.
As so often, the Lacrymosa and the Offertorium made a highly effective pairing, especially the latter with its contrast
between the heavenly grace and beauty of the orchestral part and the earthly plainness of the choral interjections.  The
tenor in the Sanctus, placed high up in the corner of an upper gallery, was Sergei Semishkur, another Russian from Kirov:
he was outstanding, but (again thanks to the hall) more muscular than ethereal.  The final Agnus Dei seemed to drag a
bit – it was the longest movement of the whole work, although the final Amens with their accompanying timpani rolls
restored some magic at the end.
Interestingly, the overall timings were not that dissimilar from those of Sir Colin Davis’s recorded performance for
Philips.  Gergiev was actually about four minutes quicker; but of course Sir Colin had the benefit of a warmer, broader
acoustic.  I can comment on these timings because of another unique feature of this concert: an EMI Classics CD recording
of the Berlioz was available within minutes of the end of the actual performance, being churned out on banks of recording
machines in the foyer.  Although this may not be the version I return to most often, it makes a splendid reminder of a very
special occasion: I shall count myself lucky if I ever hear another performance of the Requiem with forces as impressive as these.


ALASTAIR ABERDARE
October 2009
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Berlioz Society Visit August 24-31 2009

The small town of La Côte-Saint-André, birthplace of Berlioz in 1803, nestling
on a hillside deep in the Isère with the mighty Vercors and the French Alps as
backdrop, is the attractive venue for the now annual Festival Berlioz – one of
the Lyon-Grenoble region’s – and indeed France’s - major summer musical
events – visited by a group of Society Members during its second week. Now in
 its 20th edition, the fortnight-long Festival Berlioz, attended by some 18,000
 people, ran this year from August 17-30, comprising 36 concerts, staged at
 various locations, notably the 15th century Château Louis IX above the town,
 the medieval Halle and the Musée Berlioz itself, with recitals & concerts in
 churches in la Côte and environs and lectures, film screenings, seminars and
 other events held at various venues. An impressive array of orchestras and
 ensembles performed at the festival, which aired most of Berlioz’s basic
 repertoire, notably the Overtures, the Les Nuits d’été song cycle (with splendid
 soprano Véronique Gens), Harold en Italie (British violist Philip Dukes), Roméo
 et Juliette (RAI Symphony Orchestra), the Mélodies irlandaises (Camerata
 Ireland/Barry Douglas) and the Rêverie et Caprice Romance for Violin & Orchestra,
 ably delivered by the excellent Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud and the
 first-class Orchestre national de Lyon under dynamic Armenian conductor
 Ruben Gazarian. Works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Gluck – Berlioz’s
 god in musical terms - were also on the festival programme; a Gluck-Haydn-Mozart
 concert with the ‘local’ Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble under Marc Minkowski proved
 particularly memorable as was a Beethoven evening with Lyon’s Chambre Philharmonique
 – a period ensemble - conducted by the distinguished French-Russian-Polish maestro
 Emmanuel Krivine. The climax of the Festival was a rare performance of the entire
 Symphonie fantastique, preceded by an actor’s narration of the composer’s explanatory
 literary programme of the work’s five movements, as stipulated by Berlioz himself but
  hardly ever heard at concerts today; the Fantastique was followed (after the
  interval) by Lélio, ou le retour à la vie (Return to Life) - the sequel - a "lyrical
  melodrama" relating the composer's "return to life" after turbulent traumas in his
  life in the early 1830s. The works were given a forceful rendition by the Lyon-based
  Orchestre Les Siècles and the Choeurs de Lyon-Bernard Tétu under the vigorous, ever
  incisive baton of François-Xavier Roth, with the popular actor Charles Berling
  playing the lead role in Lélio and Pascal Bourgeois, tenor, and Vincent Deliau,
  baritone, as vocalists. A triumphant end to a highly successful festival.
 
CHRISTOPHER FOLLETT
August 2009
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Berlioz’s Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale   Monday 3rd August 2009, Royal Albert Hall
BBC National Orchestra of Wales,  Thierry Fischer

The sheer space and glowing resonance of the Royal Albert Hall made it the
ideal setting for a rare concert performance of Berlioz’s vast, ceremonial
Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale, which was given a stirring rendition by an
extended BBC National Orchestra of Wales under its ever attentive   Swiss
chief conductor Thierry Fisher at Prom 25 on August 3. Commissioned to mark
the 10th anniversary of France’s July 1830 Revolution, the work was performed
in its wind instrument version with a 17-strong percussion section, eschewing
optional parts for strings and chorus. With the 90-strong woodwind, brass and
percussion ensemble placed across the back of the podium and two sets of four
floor tom-tom military drums up front on the left & right of the stage, Fischer
eased some monumental playing from this buoyant Welsh ensemble in a piece which
Wagner famously described as “great from the first note to the last.” The first
movement – a protracted Funeral March in sonata form – full of drama, sombre
drumbeats and rushing crescendos - was delivered with great precision, while
Donal Bannister was the moving tenor trombone soloist in the eloquent Oraison –
the Funeral Oration. The orchestra rose brilliantly to the rousing final
Apothéose with its drum rolls, fanfares and a rare (virtuoso!) appearance of
the pavillon chinois  - the Turkish Crescent or ‘Jingling Johnny’ – that most
weird of military percussion instruments – with bells attached – shaken & rattled
with great aplomb by percussionist Giles Harrison. The evening opened with a
tingling rendering of Berlioz’s masterly overture to Les francs-juges, a lost
opera, fragments of which surface in the Oraison, followed by Swiss composer
Michael Jarrell’s Sillages – an Orchestre de la Suisse Romande/BBC Commission –
and a noble performance of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony – the funeral march of
which inspired Berlioz in his symphony - rounded off a splendid evening.

CHRISTOPHER FOLLETT   August 2009

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Berlioz’s Te Deum   Sunday 2nd August 2009, Royal Albert Hall
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Susanna Mälkki

It was the singing of the Charity Children in St Paul’s Cathedral in
1851 which inspired Berlioz to add another choir to his Te Deum, so
it was fitting that a score of St Paul’s Choristers took part in Finnish
conductor Susanna Mälkki’s towering performance of the work with the BBC
Symphony Orchestra at Prom 24 on August 2. Including the orchestra, 560
performers filled the rostrum and choir areas of the Royal Albert Hall;
the other choirs involved were The Bach Choir, the BBC Symphony Chorus,
Crouch End Festival Chorus and Trinity Boys Choir, far short of the 950
performers at Te Deum’s première in St Eustache in Paris in 1855, but very
impressive nonetheless! Mälkki, Music Director of Pierre Boulez’s Ensemble
Intercontemporain, conducted the massed choral and orchestral forces with
admirable clarity of line and precision, delivering an uncluttered Nordic
take on a work which is essentially Catholic – despite the composer’s oft
declared lack of faith. The huge orchestra played brilliantly throughout,
taking in its stride the surging chords of the piece, its ever changing
textures and its protracted dialogue with the organ – with Simon Preston
manipulating the mighty ‘Jupiter’ to great effect; German tenor Jörg
Schneider sang the fervent ‘Te ergo quaesumus’ with consummate expressiveness,
paving the way for the climax of the work – the sixth ‘movement’ – the
prayer-like Judex Crederis – a colossal fugue with pounding rhythms, blazing
brass and sweeps of choral majesty. The first part of the Prom was devoted to
32-year-old Paris-based British composer Ben Foskett’s ‘From Trumpet’ – a new
BBC commission – and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4, which Mälkki delivered with
taut, bouncing pungency.

CHRISTOPHER FOLLETT   August 2009
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Thursday 30th July, Royal Albert Hall
Benvenuto Cellini, La Mort de Cléopâtre, Susan Graham (mezzo)
Sir Mark Elder - Hallé

Prom 14 on the evening of 30th July was given by the Hallé conducted
by Sir Mark Elder.  It opened with a dashing performance of the
overture Benvenuto Cellini.  The playing was incisive, firmly
underlining the character of the "hero".  This item was followed by  a
touching performance of La Mort de Cléopâtre by Susan Graham, beautifully
accompanied by the orchestra, complete with some of Berlioz's bizarre
effects such as the trombones descending, apparently for ever, in
semitones, while the piece ends ecstatically trailing away into silence.

The interval was followed by a performance of Mendelssohn's 2nd Symphony,
"Lobgesang", for which the orchestra was joined by three soloists and the
Hallé Choir and Youth Choir.

DAVE MAY   August 2009

The Royal Albert Hall awaits the concert.

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Les nuits d’été	Wednesday 13 May 2009 – Cadogan Hall, London
  Dame Felicity Lott (soprano),  Sir Colin Davis – English Chamber Orchestra

  Les nuits d'été, as the concluding highlight of this programme, was preceded
by Haydn's delightful Surprise Symphony (no 94), superbly performed by Sir Colin
and the ECO, and Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, with Anthony Pike (the orchestra's
principal clarinet) a disappointingly unpoetic soloist.  After the interval Felicity Lott
appeared: a veritable vision in shocking pink, with ample décolletage, in case anyone in
the audience might have considered taking their eyes off her.  This striking outfit may
also have helped to distract attention from her voice, which can occasionally sound a
little thin these days: there were moments, especially in the fifth song (Au cimetière),
when it seemed under considerable strain.
  Despite that, this was a thoroughbred performance, with some glorious moments:
notably the ending of Le spectre de la rose ("Ci-gît une rose, que tous les rois vont
jalouser" - her wonderful enunciation of that final word stayed in my head for the rest of
the evening) and the whole of the third song, Sur les lagunes.  Perhaps some of the other
songs were sung with more art than true feeling, but the art was none the less impressive. 
Words were generally (but not always) clear, and Lott's French diction was . . .  not as
good as that of a native French singer.  Above all, though, this was a magnificent team
performance.  I am not referring to Sir Colin's occasional, rather endearing, inability to
resist joining in with the singer, but to the uniquely laid-back way in which he (and his
orchestra) conjured up an almost palpable Mediterranean (or perhaps North African)
atmosphere for the songs.  The orchestra (about 30 players in all, with 24 strings) and
the hall were ideally sized, and generated a languid warmth of sound which was truly
redolent of a summer's night with all its romantic possibilities.

Overall, I would give both Les nuits d'été and the concert as a whole four stars out of five
(no doubt to the horror of readers who dislike such ratings), for live music-making of the
highest order in a very congenial setting.  We could ask for little more, just as our own
thoughts were turning towards the prospects for summer - preferably without the amorous
disappointments underlying Gautier's poems.


ALASTAIR ABERDARE
May 2009


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Te Deum  Monday 23 February 2009 – Barbican Hall, London

Sir Colin Davis – London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus; Choir of Eltham College; Colin Lee, tenor
The Barbican Hall was less than packed at the start of this concert, no doubt because it was
the second consecutive performance of the same programme, and on a Monday
evening to boot.  However, quite a few of the empty spaces were filled for the
Te Deum itself in the second half, following a most appealing performance
in the first half of one of Mozart’s less well-known piano concertos, No 18 in B
flat (K456), with Richard Goode as the impeccable soloist.
We were then treated to as good a performance of the Te Deum as one is ever likely to
hear – in this hall.  The Barbican is far from ideal for this work.  It is
almost entirely lacking in resonance, and the organ had a rather electronic
sound – although it did have the merit of being place at the back of the hall,
opposite the orchestra, as Berlioz wished.  With a chorus of about 150, plus 25
or so boys from Eltham College and an orchestra of just under 100, the stage
area was absolutely jam-packed.  The balance was tilted rather in favour of the
orchestra; but it would have been well-nigh impossible to fit in more singers.
Within these parameters, it was a magnificent performance, sweeping all before it through the
drive and energy generated by Sir Colin and his forces.  How brilliantly he
communicates the drama of Berlioz’s music – if anything, the last two
performances I have heard him conduct, of L’Enfance du Christ in the
Cadogan Hall in January and now this Te Deum, have been more thrilling
than ever.
After a sonorous opening Te deum laudamus, the cymbals in the Tibi omnes
were pure theatre.  Four percussionists wielded four enormous pairs of cymbals,
all in perfect synchronisation, seeking to outdo their previous efforts with
each subsequent fortissimo clash, or achieving magical sliding effects.
The woodwind played a properly prominent role, and held their end up against the regularly
rampaging brass.  The chorus performed splendidly to offset their fundamental
disadvantage against the orchestra, and the boys made a thoroughly worthwhile
contribution, despite falling so far short of the number Berlioz asked for
(there were 600 at the first performance in 1855) – they even cupped their hands
in front of their mouths to amplify the sound as much as possible at climactic
moments.
Colin Lee was a fine soloist in the Te ergo quaesumus, and the Judex crederis
brought the work to a suitably overwhelming conclusion.  As so often when Sir
Colin conducts Berlioz, there is not much to say about the interpretation: it
had a sense of inevitability and rightness which make it irrelevant to pick out
details.  Berlioz himself would no doubt have been as thrilled as the audience –
even though he might not have chosen the Barbican as his preferred venue for the
work.

ALASTAIR ABERDARE
March 2009

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This website prepared and maintained by Ian Hickman Partners (Eur. Ing. D.I. H. May BSc.Hons, C.Eng, MIEE, MIEEE, and D. M. May B.A.Hons, A.C.I.L.)  www.ianhickman.org.uk
	

 

  

    

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