Oh dear. I hate writing things like this.
I know Korngold is difficult to play, difficult even to decipher, and can be overwritten etc etc, but still I don't think that's any excuse for what I heard last night.
It purported to be the Sinfonietta that EWK penned at the tender age of 15 and which induced Sibelius to describe the youngster as 'a young eagle'. Of course it's great that they programmed it - but I couldn't think when I last heard a professional orchestra and conductor produce such a dreadful performance of anything.
Most of it went around half the necessary tempi. The balance was non-existent. The dynamic contrasts likewise. Light, shade, colour, ebb, flow, the white-hot energy that flows in Korngold's musical veins, all were spectacular by their absence. Some of the players seemed to be struggling and ensemble didn't really come into it. My companion put it well, saying she was astounded that such non-four-square music could be made to sound - utterly four-square. Korngold normally changes his time signatures and expressive instructions every few bars - flexibility is crucial... The best I can say is that they played it at all.
The culprits? The BBC Concert Orchestra under Barry Wordsworth. One didn't expect the Berlin Philharmonic, of course, but it was depressing, particularly as the concert was well sold and most people there would never have heard the piece before and won't know how beautiful it can be. Besides, Wordsworth is probably the only conductor in Britain who knows the work well, having performed it a number of times at the Royal Ballet for La Ronde. Perhaps it would have been better if he'd decided just before the concert that he didn't believe in it...
Before the interval our friends Philippe Graffin and Raphael Wallfisch did a splendid job with the Miklos Rozsa Sinfonia Concertante and afterwards we all went for a pizza, which was nice.
5 comments:
How did that happen? It is way difficult to conduct, but you should still ask. Some things just cannot be done with the standard rehearsal time now allotted.
Yes, that wouldn't surprise me at all. Lack of adequate rehearsal time is a big problem for many of the UK orchestras, and it was a very complicated programme. None of it was music you hear, or play, every day. Music by Hans Zimmer from Gladiator to start, then the very tricky Rozsa, and Korngold to close...
That's very disappointing to hear re: the Korngold. It's always sad to anxiously await hearing a piece that's rarely performed and then wish they hadn't bothered because of the performance (or in the case of opera, the production).
Hopefully, the LPO Das Wunder der Heliane in November will be better prepared and conducted! :-)
Oh dear! How glad I am that I did not make the journey to London for this.
As for HELIANE, I am assured that a supreme effort will be made, especially as the entire performance will apparently be issued on CD!
You may well complain about how badly Korngold was served in London. You should have been in Hagen last week. Theater Hagen produced "die tote Stadt" for EWK's 50th death-anniversary. It was truly appalling: the most misconceived production I have ever seen I (and I've seen 10). Paul was a raging psychopath murderer who had apparently slaughtered his wife, who slaughtered Frank and who slaughtered Marietta. The people in white coats came and fetched him while he sang his final aria and (I hesitate to mention this) he filled empty milk bottles with urine on stage. No wonder several people left at the interval. The singing was adequate; the orchestra wasn't. Oh dear.
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