--- REVIEWS ---
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 and much of the slow
Bal movement – 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
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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Benvenuto Cellini, Thursday 30th July, Royal Albert Hall
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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L’Enfance du Christ – Cadogan Hall
Choir of London and Orchestra conducted by Sir Colin Davis
Saturday January 24, 2009 - Cadogan Hall, London
L’Enfance du Christ – Berlioz’s sacred
trilogy – an oratorio recounting the tale of the flight to Egypt – “a work
written in the manner of old illuminated missals” as the composer put it – was
the subject of a rapt concert at Cadogan Hall on January 24 with the Choir of
London & Orchestra conducted by Sir Colin Davis. Perhaps the most intimate of
Berlioz’s main works, “L’Enfance” is remarkable for its originality, subtle
pastel shading and restrained orchestration, all of which Sir Colin was able to
amply eke out of what is basically a chamber orchestra comprising young players
drawn from music colleges and assorted orchestras and ensembles and a choir
composed of professionals with an ongoing commitment to charitable work. Of the
seven vocal soloists, Nicholas Mulroy proved an authoritative narrator and
George Humphreys a suitably fraught Herod, while mezzo-soprano Catherine Hopper
excelled in the delicate role of Mary, delivering the tenderest of performances.
The Choir itself was highly articulate and clear in diction, indeed the standard
of French sung by all was laudably high, crisp and lucid throughout; the lovely
choral Shepherds’ Farewell was movingly delivered and on the purely orchestral
side, the harpist and two flutes gave an atmospheric rendering of the young
Ishmaelites’ Trio – the only piece of chamber music composed by Berlioz – warm
in Mediterranean ambience. The Choir of London, founded in 2003, has given UK
and world premieres of works by the likes of John Tavener, Stephen Leek & John
Rutter; it maintains a special focus on the Middle East, with plans this summer
to return to the West Bank to perform and help stage an international music
festival at venues across the Palestinian Territories – its fourth such project.
The destruction in an Israeli air strike last December of the Gaza Music School,
located in Palestinian Red Cross Society premises in the centre of Gaza City,
has seriously disrupted the planned launch of the Choir of London Trust’s
Bursary Scheme for young musician applicants from the territory.
CHRISTOPHER FOLLETT
PS. The concert was something of a family occasion for Sir Colin as four
of his own children played in the orchestra: viola player Kurosh (42)
violinist Kavus (41) and cellists Sheida (31) and Yalda (29).
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Berlioz: Les Nuits d’été Monday October 13 2008 – Wigmore Hall, London
Véronique Gens, soprano; Jeff Cohen, piano
The French soprano Véronique Gens, who has in recent years built up a solid
reputation in Baroque repertoire and Mozart opera, revealed the true Gallic
side of her musical talent at this all-French BBC Lunchtime Concert, delivering
intense performances of vocal settings by Berlioz, Debussy & Offenbach.
Whilst Les Nuits d’été – an attempt to launch the German concept of the lieder
cycle in France in the 1840s – echoes Berlioz’s beloved Shakespeare’s
“Midsummer Night’s Dream” in its title, the work is in fact a sequence of songs
of romantic longing based on six poems – la Comédie de la Mort - by his friend,
the high romantic poet Théophile Gautier. Gens, accompanied by Jeff Cohen in the
original voice-and-piano version, dating from June 1841, brought out all the subtlety,
restraint and sheer pain of some of Berlioz’s most sublime music, her intelligent
inflection of the language, sheer vocal & emotional range and varied register
pointing up the subtle nuances of the music. Gens’s voice is not large but her crisp
diction and elegance of phrasing pointed the haunting nature and floating phraseology
of the songs admirably, playfully folksy in the opening Villanelle and the closing
L’Ile inconnue with its saltarello rhythms, suitably tragic in the dreamy, timeless
Le Spectre de la rose. Rarely has destiny seemed so cruel and the sense of lost love
& lonely desolation so poignant as in Gens’s dramatic rendering of the vibrant lament
Sur les lagunes: “Ah sans amour, s’en aller sur la mer”; Absence, with its plaintive
yet hopeless call: Reviens, reviens, ma bien-aimée…La fleur de ma vie est fermée,
Loin de ton sourire vermeil” was delivered with great intimacy of expression as were
the twisting vocal melismas stressing the desperate finality of the tomb in Au cimetière.
Gens’s performance of Les Nuits – available in the orchestral version along with other
Berlioz songs on a Virgin Classics CD with Louis Langrée and the Orchestre de
l’Opera National de Lyon dating from 2001 - can be said to compare very favourably
with other memorable versions of this glorious song cycle, notably by Régine Crespin
(whose 1963 recording under Ernest Ansermet enjoys near legendary status),
Janet Baker, Susan Graham and Anne Sofie von Otter. As encores Gens (intriguingly)
chose to sing little known versions of two of the Gautier poems in the Nuits d’été
collection composed this time by Gounod & the great diva & muse Pauline Viardot;
Gautier, Berlioz & Gounod were of course all long-term members of the Viardot circle.
CHRISTOPHER FOLLETT
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Les Troyens in Boston under James Levine.
On Sunday, May 4, 2008, at 3pm in the Symphony Hall, Boston,
there was a Concert Performance and a Symposium devoted to Berlioz's opera,
Les Troyens, given by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Levine.
A review of this major event can be seen at
http://www.berkshirereview.net/music/berlioz_troyens.html
This page last updated 18th November 2009
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