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 ian 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 page last updated 21st September 2012
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
Les Troyens Sir Antonio Pappano – Royal Opera House Orchestra & Chorus
Royal Opera House, 22 June 2012 (general rehearsal)
Royal Opera House, 25 June 2012 (first night)
Royal Albert Hall, 22 July 2012 (BBC Proms 2012)
Grande Messe des Morts Sir Colin Davis – London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
St Paul’s Cathedral, 26 June 2012 (City of London Festival)
Te Deum Geraint Bowen – Philharmonia Orchestra
Hereford Cathedral, 27 July 2012 (Three Choirs Festival)
Grande Messe des Morts Thierry Fischer – National Orchestra of Wales
Royal Albert Hall, 11 August 2012 (BBC Proms 2012)
This was truly an “aestas mirabilis”, a miraculous summer, for a UK-based Berlioz lover. Having completed a heptathlon of six
performances of major Berlioz works in less than eight weeks (admittedly only three different works, but two of them more than once),
I feel that someone definitely deserves a gold medal: not me, of course, but perhaps the organisers of the Cultural Olympiad, of
which all these events formed part.
The marathon (do you detect a theme?) began on 22 June with the general rehearsal of the new production of Les Troyens at the
Royal Opera House. Two days later came the Berlioz Society’s Study Day on the opera, and then the opening night itself, which,
believe it or not, coincided with the Requiem under Sir Colin Davis at St Paul’s Cathedral; fortunately for Berlioz fanatics, this
was repeated the very next evening. Almost four weeks then passed, just long enough for these performances to sink in, before a
concert performance of the ROH Troyens at the Proms; a week later came the Te Deum at the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford, with
the Requiem again in another two weeks at the Proms as a suitably grand finale.
I don’t plan to write full reviews of each or all of these performances: I lack the energy (I must be more of a Bolt than a Farah),
and I prefer just to wallow in happy memories, since all of them were pretty magnificent. So this will be more a series of
thoughts and impressions arising from the happy conjunction of so many great Berlioz works.
First, the Covent Garden Troyens. I shall count myself lucky indeed if I ever see and hear a finer overall realisation of the
work – surely Berlioz’s greatest when performed like this. I have truly been astonished at some of the carping by critics who
appear to have seen a completely different production – or more likely, completely missed the point.
What is the point? Simply that it worked; it made total sense. These were actually the people and events Berlioz was writing
about; we understood who they were, and what they were feeling, and why, and why Berlioz cared. The Royal Opera House, and
Antonio Pappano as Music Director, and David McVicar as the production director, all deserve huge credit (as well as their
knighthoods!) for performing the opera as Berlioz wrote it, virtually without cuts as far as I could tell, and performing it
superbly well.
Berlioz was writing for the Paris Opéra, so the work needed to be on a grand scale, and it needed to include ballets. To perform
it without them, or with the ballets severely cut, would be little better than those adaptations of Der Freischütz by Castil-Blaze
that Berlioz himself so deplored. And most of the ballets were well done: the Pantomime in Act I with Andromache and her son; the
dances at the start of Act III in Carthage, for the builders (with a nice reference to the Olympics), sailors and (especially moving)
farmers; the Royal Hunt and Storm. Only the Act IV sequence of dances seemed to risk outstaying its welcome – which is precisely the
effect it has on Dido herself, of course. Generally I thought the staging superb. The sense of release was palpable at the start as
the Trojans poured out of the prison-like walls within which they had been immured for ten long years. No wonder they paid no heed to
Cassandra’s warnings. The Octet in Act I was shattering; the fire-breathing horse was splendid (only a head, but what an impressive
head it was, more than adequate for the number of Greeks needed to open the gates of the city). The final scene of Act II was
heart-wrenching (despite the miscalculation of having the Greeks right in the midst of the dying Trojan women, rather than observing
from a distance).
In Act III, set in a warm and embracing Carthage diametrically opposed to Troy, the relationship of love and trust between Dido
and her people was brilliantly depicted, and for once the repetitions of the Carthaginian national anthem didn’t pall. The Royal Hunt
and Storm made a decent stab at following Berlioz’s directions; Act IV took time to get going – the quintet and septet seemed to make
rather less impact than they should – but culminated in a wonderful rendition of the Love Duet. Act V was simply shattering, with both
Aeneas and Dido reaching peaks of emotional expression: who cared (or even noticed) that Dido’s anguished monologue was sung in front
of a blank curtain? The ending is always something of a problem, and was no better solved here than elsewhere: who was the gigantic
figure of a man, modelled somewhat similarly to the horse in Act I, meant to represent? It surely couldn’t be Hannibal, whose failure
Dido had already foreseen; could it have been the Emperor Augustus, for whom Virgil wrote the Aeneid?
No praise is high enough for the cast – all of them, virtually without exception. Brian Hymel was far more than satisfactory as
Aeneas, singing with fine tone and musicality; whenever he needed to “deliver the goods” (at his first entrance in Act I; in
Act III when revealing himself to Dido, and again when bidding his son farewell; in his final Act V aria), he did so with
conviction and passion. Anna-Caterina Antonacci lived the part of Cassandra, both in voice and action, while Eva-Maria Westbroek
managed to transform herself from the carefree queen of Act III to the tragically doomed lover of Act V. Other stand-outs in a
stellar cast were Hanna Hipp as Anna, Ed Lyon as Hylas, Brindley Sherratt as Narbal, Ji-Min Park (one of three fine Koreans in the
cast) as Iopas … and everyone else.
Hearing the Requiem the day after Les Troyens was a little strange, and perhaps not ideal. But with Colin Davis conducting the
LSO and the combined forces of the London Symphony Chorus and the London Philharmonic Choir in the sublime setting of St Paul’s
Cathedral, this was certainly not an occasion to miss, nor one to go wrong. The assembled forces looked magnificent, as did the
cathedral itself, and they produced a magnificent effect: as shattering as I have ever heard in the passages where the full weight
of the brass and percussion is deployed.
Themes from Les Troyens – mainly, with the occasional Requiem passage – continued to revolve in my head throughout the
interval before the Proms performance of the opera on 22 July, exactly a month after the general rehearsal. This had to face two
considerable disadvantages, in comparison with the ROH performances: it was not staged, and in the vast spaces of the Albert Hall it
was hard for the singers to make an impact. It was a triumph all the same, above all for Brian Hymel and Eva-Maria Westbroek, both of
whom seemed to have grown appreciably in their roles.
Musically this was probably the finest of the three performances I heard. Despite that, it convinced me totally of the greater
value and importance of staging the work properly (I use the word advisedly); the full impact of Berlioz’s conception cannot be
realised by a concert performance, even though that may indeed be a whole lot better than a poorly staged production.
Forward another fortnight and it was the turn of the Three Choirs Festival to mount another of Berlioz’s great sacred works, the
Te Deum, as part of an “Olympic Fanfare” concert on the penultimate day of the Festival. This was generally a fine performance by
the Philharmonia Orchestra and the choirs of the three festival cities under Geraint Bowen, even though the three choirs combined
fell short of the numbers ideally needed: woefully so in the case of the children’s choir, which numbered about 32 rather than the
600 specified by Berlioz following his attendance at the Charity Children’s Concert in St Paul’s Cathedral in 1851 (with 6,500
children singing). However, the tonal weight of the chorus was somewhat reinforced by their being arranged in rising ranks in front
of the west window of the cathedral, and what they lacked in numbers they mostly made up for in enthusiasm.
Not everything about this performance was perfect, by any means, but the heart of the piece was there, with a really stupendous
organ/Pope rather lording it over the orchestra/Emperor from the opposite end of the nave, as envisaged by Berlioz, and lots of good
moments, although Wynne Evans’ singing of the “Te ergo quaesumus” was not really one of them (it doesn’t quite fit his “Gio Compario”
persona). As a bonus, we even had the March for the Presentation of the Colours at the end, complete with a parade of flags, but sadly
with only two of the twelve harps specified by Berlioz. This was fun to hear live for the first time (although the absence of the
extraordinary sound of the twelve harps welling up through the entire orchestra is a severe loss), but comes as an anti-climax after
the splendour of the “Judex crederis”; it might have been better to put it earlier in the piece (at the first performance in 1855, it
seems that Berlioz himself may have placed it third, between the “Tibi omnes” and the “Dignare”).
This astonishing series of Berlioz events culminated in another stunning performance of the Requiem, this time conducted by
Thierry Fischer in his final Prom as Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The forces involved made a
splendid sight, with a line of 16 timpani ranged right across the back of the stage amidst the almost 150-strong orchestra
(including the brass bands), while the chorus of over 400 singers from the BBC National Chorus of Wales, the Huddersfield Choral
Society and the London Symphony Chorus completely filled the areas on either side of the Royal Albert Hall organ.
Despite these large numbers, the opening was wonderfully hushed, at a tempo that might have seemed dangerously slow, although
Fischer succeeded in bringing it off. As with previous Berlioz performances I have heard him give, his was a very measured approach,
which brought great dividends in the quieter passages, such that the contrasts with the great brass and percussion outbursts were
particularly effective and the beautiful unaccompanied “Quaerens me” became an unusual highlight.
The four extra brass bands were placed, uniquely in my memory, at the four corners of the orchestra itself, as specified by Berlioz,
rather than more widely spread around the hall. As a result the spatial effects were not quite so dramatic, but there was a
real gain in precision of ensemble. And how stirring it was to be able to hear the chorus ringing out even when the orchestra was
in full cry in the “Tuba mirum”.
The one significant disappointment was Toby Spence singing the tenor solo in the “Sanctus”. I understand he has only recently
started singing again after an operation for thyroid cancer, but one must question the wisdom of accepting this particular role in
such an exposed setting, especially only two days after singing Ivor Novello songs in another Prom.
Overall, though, this was a glorious valedictory Prom for Fischer with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and the best of the
four performances of major Berlioz works I have heard him give. It reminded me of Brian Wright’s fine performances of the
Requiem in the early 1980s and again in 2006, also in the Albert Hall, and convinced me (even after Sir Colin’s brilliant
rendition in St Paul’s) that there can be no finer venue for Berlioz’s great masterpiece.
ALASTAIR ABERDARE
August 2012
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“Berlioz and Italy – A Roman Carnival” was the title of the 2012 Festival Berlioz held in late
August-early September in and around the small town of La Côte Saint-André, the composer’s birthplace
in south-east France’s Isère département. The festival, attended by a record 22,000, focused on the region’s
close cultural affinities with neighbouring Italy, staging some 50 concerts featuring a wide range of French and
Italian music and focusing on the important influence Italy had on Berlioz, who lived there in 1831-32 as Prix de
Rome prizewinner based at the French Academy’s Villa Medicis in Rome. The festival took off in true Italian
carnival fashion with colourful street parades, Italian regional folk ensembles and vocalists, an open air musical
banquet and a Taverne italienne strategically set up at the 15th century Château above the town, where most of the
concert activity took place nightly. Throughout the Festival the downtown Hector Berlioz Museum hosted in the early
evening “Sous le balcon d’Hector” performances in its back garden, in which instrumentalists
from Rome, Genoa, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia & Corsica performed. Of special interest was a splendid trio from Sicily
who sang hauntingly in their local dialect, playing the piffero, a popular double-reed oboe and or the cornemuse
(haggis-like bagpipes), the accordion and the tambourine; it was this traditional music – performed by the
pifferari – the wandering minstrels that Berlioz encountered on his hikes in the Abruzzi Mountains –
that is echoed in such works as Harold in Italy. It was the acclaimed Orchestre National de Lille, under
Jean-Claude Casadesus, which set the Festival rolling on August 23 with polished performances of Berlioz’s
popular Carnival romain overture, the song cycle Les Nuits d’été (with French Classical Music Award.
Winner mezzo-soprano Isabelle Druet) and the Symphonie fantastique. A highlight of the early days of the
Festival was a cracking performance by the 60-strong Banda Nazionale Dell’Esercito (The Band of the National
Army of Italy) in full regalia playing items by Verdi, Rossini, Bellini and Berlioz’s rarely performed
Symphonie funèbre et triomphale, a public ceremonial piece composed to mark the 10th anniversary of the July 1830
Revolution. In the second week, the warm acoustics of the 900-year-old Saint André Church, where Berlioz was
baptised, hosted a rendering of a powerful piano transcription for two hands of the Symphonie fantastique, performed
by Jean-François Heisser (the transcriber) and Marie-Josèphe Jude, spoilt at times by an excess of pedal and lapses
in coordination; other piano recitals in the atmospheric church featured Liszt’s L’idée fixe, andante
amoroso (François-Frédéric Guy) and works by Liszt, Schumann and Chopin (Roger Muraro). One of the absolute triumphs
was a vibrant performance by soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci – fresh from singing Cassandre in Les Troyens at
Covent Garden and in true tragedienne mode – of Berlioz’s Cléopâtre (1829) cantata for the Prix de Rome,
which amazingly failed to win him the prize. The final weekend started with a performance of Berlioz’s Harold
in Italy symphony for viola and orchestra, a work abounding in themes worked on during the composer’s stay in
Rome, played here by the excellent Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg under the baton of Alain Antinoglu, with
Renaud Capuçon, France’s leading violin virtuoso, making his premiere in public performance with the viola.
Fortunately the violent Alpine storm which rendered appreciation of the music in the first part of the concert
difficult, died down after the interval, but Capuçon seemed to play his ‘new’ instrument with excessive
caution and at low voltage, turning in a rather distant, introvert rendering of Harold. “Roméo et Juliette is
in my opinion Berlioz’s supreme masterpiece,” French conductor François-Xavier Roth told this commentator
at a reception and his brilliant Orchestre Européen Hector Berlioz – a composite youth/period instrument band
– proved his point in a wrapt, committed performance with the Britten and Symphonic Youth Choirs positioned
off-podium, fed by television monitors, and glorious vocalists, notably Nicolas Cavallier (Friar Laurence/bass baritone).
The Festival concluded in style with a grand performance of Berlioz’s Requiem by the impressive Orchestre National
de Lyon under its new chief conductor Leonard Slatkin; prodigious forces were involved including the Philharmonia Chorus
of London, Washington Choir and local Choeurs de Lyon-Bernard Tétu; off-stage band effects were fully indulged round the
Château courtyard with Australian tenor Steve Davislam singing the Sanctus loud and clear from a window high up on the
first floor!
Christopher Follett
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Grande Messe des morts at the Proms –
August 11, 2012 / BBC National Orchestra of Wales/ Thierry Fischer
Berlioz once wrote that if he were forced to burn all his work bar a single score,
he would plead for the Requiem (Grande Messe des morts) to be spared, a sentiment one
can well appreciate with this fine Prom performance by the BBC National Orchestra of
Wales, National Chorus of Wales, Huddersfield Choral Society and London Symphony Chorus
under the direction of Swiss maestro Thierry Fischer. This was not an epic rendering
of Berlioz’s mighty opus such as Sir Colin Davis’s performance in St. Paul’s
with the LSO earlier in the summer, more a straightforward, solidly performed
Grande Messe, a requiem to live with. And of course the Royal Albert Hall is by
far the best venue for this work in London. Berlioz had long lost his faith by
the time he composed his mass in 1837, altering the standard text of the requiem
mass so the work emerges as more of a lament to the predicament of mankind faced
with a godless fate than a song of praise to the Almighty. In addition to a vast
orchestra and massed choirs, the requiem is perhaps best known for its use in
three of the work’s 10 movements of a major drum battery and four brass groups
positioned normally around the main body of the orchestra. While Sir Colin had
these brass bands located separately in the balconies and transepts of St
Paul’s, giving a fantastic ‘stereo’ effect, Fischer eschewed this Revolutionary
tradition, placing the brass groups at opposite corners of the performance area
and somehow blurring their antiphonic impact, in particular in the thunderous
Tuba mirum. The massed battery of 10 drums, spread high across the centre of
the podium, were more effective though, notably in the Lacrimosa. The
performance of the massed choirs was impressive always, but a brave Toby Spence,
posted high above the orchestra by the great ‘Voice of Jupiter”organ, seemed
overstretched by the high tenor demands of the Sanctus, although in this
section the five percussionists excelled themselves in their pianissimo swishes
of the cymbal to the accompaniment of women’s voices, strings and flute. Fischer
and his forces also captured well the pleading, peeling, wailing horn and
woodwind-led tones of the opening Introit, which reoccur so movingly in the
closing Agnus dei, with its concluding Amens and ever slower drum beats,
fading out in a mood of profound resignation.
Christopher Follett
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Les Troyens (The Trojans), Royal Opera House, Covent Garden June 25 – July 11, 2012
Making its reappearance at Covent Garden after 40 years absence, Berlioz’s epic
Les Troyens (The Trojans) in Sir David McVicar’s new production with Sir Antonio Pappano
at the helm was a musical experience of high carat. McVicar respected Berlioz’s original concept
for his great opera, resisting the temptation of many of his colleagues to reset operatic masterpieces
in Nazi Germany; McVicar and his designers – Es Devlin for sets and Moritz Junge for costumes –
chose a different course to Sir Colin Davis’s classic toga-clad 1969 ROH Trojans revival, setting
the action in the period of the Crimean War – in which France was heavily involved - about the time
Berlioz composed the work, a neutral solution that worked. The curtain rose on the first act to reveal
Troy as a rotund, metallic fortress, with the infamous horse made not of wood but of nuts and bolts, the
debris of war, rocking, fuming and indeed nodding on occasion. Anna Caterina Antonacci’s Cassandre
was a gripping, passionate performance, sung with grim poignancy and deep artistic involvement, while
Fabio Capitanucci put in a solid rendition as her betrothed Chorèbe. Les Troyens is a five act opera
and it is important that the contrast is made clear between the tragic, doom-laden atmosphere of the first
two acts which relate the Fall of Troy and Enée’s departure to found Rome and the happy, celebratory
mood prevailing in sun-drenched Carthage at the beginning of Act Three; this was effectively marked by the
use of a curtain depicting the lapping of a warm, placid Mediterranean; this drape changed later on to show
an agitated seascape in anticipation of the tragic denouement of Act Five, while the set for Carthage was a
sunny terracotta Kasbah which symbolically broke asunder as the tragedy neared its climax. US tenor
Bryan Hymel, called in to replace an ill Jonas Kaufmann as Enée, a role he played recently for the Nederlands
Opera, sang his challenging role throughout with impressive power and conviction; Hymel, who had obviously
put a lot of work and study into the part and mustered a good French, was particularly fine in his Act 4
‘Par une telle nuit’ duet with Didon and his solo aria ‘Inutiles regrets’ in Act 5
where Enée expresses his remorse at having to leave and press on with his destiny. Other delights included
Ed Lyon’s superb Hylas, the Phrygian sailor high up on the masthead of his ship, Adrian Clarke and
Jeremy White as the two Trojan sentries who sing a lament at having to leave Carthage, not to forget strong
performances by Polish contralto Hanna Hipp as Anna, Didon’s sister, and Ashley Holland as Trojan pries
Panthée. Pappano conducted with great zeal throughout with tempi though on the slow side generally, taking
some 30 minutes longer to get through Les Troyens than Davis did. This had the effect of making
Acts 3 & 4 seem to sag a bit on occasions, lacking in tightness and deftness of tableau change. The
various ballet/dance scenes were well handled by choreographer Andrew George, although the squirming bodies
which whirled around during the nine-minute long Royal Hunt & Storm sequence which opens Act 4 seemed
somewhat excessive, marring the intensity of the love scene. Dutch mezzo-soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek –
fresh from her triumph as Playboy model in Turnage’s Anna Nicole at the ROH – showed
her versatility, delivering a moving Didon with a wide range of nuance from passion to doubt, fear and raving
at her fate as she mounted the funeral pyre and predicted vengeance on Rome – the metallic Trojan horse
now back on stage, its head recast in the form of Hannibal.
Christopher Follett
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The penultimate BBC Prom of the 2011 season at the Royal Albert Hall on September 9
brought us the 1841 Paris Opera version of Weber’s Der Freischutz, that most
archetypal of German romantic operas, in a sensitive, low key French arrangement by
Berlioz, his passionate disciple and champion. Entitled “Le Freyschütz”
in French, with libretto by Emilien Pacini, the opera contains a most subtle recitative
by Berlioz as well as including the French composer’s well-known orchestration of
Weber’s Invitation to the Dance (for piano) as divertissement in the final act,
as stipulated by the Paris Opera. It was as if the forests, the hunting, the revelry and
the foreboding mystery of German high romanticism had been injected with a dose of
French style - and it came off brilliantly in Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s.sympathetic
performance with his excellent Monteverdi Choir and (period instrument)
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique.
The cast was first class with tenor Andrew Kennedy a very idiomatic Max and South African
bass Gidon Saks suitably satanic as Gaspard, the evil servant of Samiel, the
Black Huntsman, whose spoken role was carried off with a grumpy gothic growl by
Christian Pelissier, while bass Luc-Bertin-Hugault delivered a solid Hermit. The sopranos
– both natural French speakers – covered themselves in glory: the sweetly voiced
Belgian Sophie Karthaüser’s two arias (in the role of Agathe) were showstoppers, while
Virginie Pochon, former member of the Lyon Opera ensemble, sung the part of Annette, cousin
of Agathe, with wit and conviction. The concert performance of the Berlioz version, which
used the identical cast as Gardiner’s Opéra Comique production in Paris in the spring,
was semi-staged at the Albert Hall, complete with (real) gunfire, smoking bullet-casting
cauldron in the Wolf’s Glen scene and (occasionally somewhat histrionic) off-stage effects.
Christopher Follett
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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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