Havergal Brian - the crossword!

Wonderful idea ! EXCLUSIVE crossword puzzle designed by John Grimshaw, Crosswords setter for The Times, and President of the Havergal Brian Society, in honour of the new Havergal Brian Songbook series from Stone Records. Access it here and have a go, it's great fun . Fairly easy answers, but deviously clever clues, the sign of a good crossword! Winner will get a choice of five CDs from the Stone Records catalogue, which is good and eclectic. Several of my friends were Havergal Brian devotees (including the late Bob Ziedler (died 2005), who was one of Amazon's top reviewers in the days when Amazon reviews were properly written).

So I learned my Brian from interesting people. Hence big respect, even though I didn't "get" the music as they did. The Havergal Brian Society's web page is a great resource because it's compiled as a labour of love. In itself, that says a lot about the Havergal Brian Brotherhood. Their enthusiasm inspires. You could become an instant Brian expert overnight by quoting from the site. But that misses the point, I think, because the appeal of Brian is far more esoteric.  I like quirky, unorthodox peoiple, so I like Brian and his devotees, the real ones that is. Yoiu can't fake originality!  Currently I am enjoying the first CD in Stone Records Complete Havergal Brian Songbook. link here,  I was a bit askance at first, having listened in mixed awe and horror to Brian's grand Gothic symphony at the Proms last year (read more here). But almost isntantly I was hooked. It's great listening. Some of the songs are good, some god-awful, but they're delivered with such aplomb that you're drawn into the spirit. That's why Havergal Brian appeals. It's delicious, in the grand British Eccentric tradition. If you like Gerald Hoffnung and dry British humour, you'll love this. I'll write more about the CD later as it's definitely recommended.

PS the pianist on the CD, Sholto Kynoch, is one of the best song pianists around. He's so good, he lifts Brian's style and makes it sing. Hear him with the Phoenix Piano Trio on May 13 at the Wigmore Hall. 

BBC Proms 2011 Post Mortem

The 2011 BBC Proms are over and what have we learned? Proms series are wonderfully well-planned, with multiple themes that develop as we go along. But that's the challenge. Being judgemental is easy, uncovering deeper trends is much more fun.

One big theme this year were the Choral Sundays which make the most of the Royal Albert Hall's size and acoustic. Massed choirs are a British thing, and the Proms bring together choirs from all round the country - truly uniting the nation in song. Singing is fun.. In a choir you can enjoy yourself without being exposed like a soloist. And what quality we're blessed with! The four youth choirs in Prom 58 Mendelssohn Elijah  were so good they animated Elijah and made it sound fresh and relevant. Mark Berry loved Prom 67 Beethoven Missa Solemnis. Since the BBC supports a huge part of the British classical music industry, it's important that they give choral (and organ) music the best possible showcase.

Another hidden theme in the 2011 Proms season was Faust. This was wonderful because it tied the Proms in with what's happening throughout the year in other venues. Faust seems to be everywhere, in all guises. Particularly intelligent programming in Prom 63 "Trumpets and Demons" where Ivan Fischer brought together Liszt and Mahler, showing how they connect. That was extremely stimulating for those who really care about music and Mahler. More Faust, and Liszt in Prom 15 Liszt A Faust Symphony where Vladimir Jurowski 's flair for drama created one of the best Proms all year. Why the RAH wasn't packed for this I have no idea. It was definitely one of this year's highlights. Lots more devilishly subtle Faust fragments throught the season, even the mutilated rump of Walter Braunfels in Prom 68 and Berlioz's rewriting of Weber in Prom 70, the French Freischutz. Berlioz's Damnation of Faust was not itself in this Prom season, but here was its prototype.

French themes too, throughout, and of course British. Indeed, the Proms are the flagship of British new music. Two premieres for Sir Harrison Birtwisle who is by far the greatest living British composer (Benjamin, Adès, Holt, Bedford and others will get there one day). I loved Angel Fighter instantly, as it follows on from Birtwistle's earlier work. Birtwistle seems to be heading into new territory with his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. I haven't written much about it as it took me a while to get into, but that's often the sign of something really good. (read Ivan Hewett on Birtwistle HERE) "This man doesn't give a damn". But that's exactly why Birtwistle is what he is, he doesn't play to the galleries or court the downmarket rabble. He has integrity, and that's what makes him a true artist.

Similarly Frank Bridge, who did his own thing and taught Benjamin Britten to do so too. Britten, despite his love for the English past, was by no means a "Little Englander", and for that we have to thank Frank Bridge. Havergal Brian did his own thing too, but not quite so effectively. Because everyone wants to be seen as an expert on the obscure, a lot of Brian fans are fakes, though there is a core of those who genuinely hear something in this eccentric character. The BBC has done the feat of giving Brian more exposure than ever before, and in possibly the best performance ever while effectively bursting the bubble. (Read more here about Prom 4 Brian Gothic). OTOH Now we can move on to other composers interesting for their music rather than their personality.

Like Niccoló Castiglioni. Even by Oliver Knussen's fiendishly inventive programming standards Prom 19 was a brilliant puzzle. Programming as art form. Castiglioni's Inverno in-ver is so beautiful that it should become part of standard repertoire. If only it wasn't so difficult to play! As David Robertson has been saying for ages, new music needs the best possible performance to give it a chance. Hence Anne Sofie Mutter's exquisite Wolfgang Rihm Gesungene Zeit (Time Chant). It's an anthem for our troubled times.  Read more about it HERE)

Housekeeping. This too is part of the Proms experience. The usual lack of toilet facilities. How did Victorians cope, especiually with those huge dresses for which you need a hoist to use a loo?  This year the door-guards have been more liberal, but someone needs to drill into the ushers that they must NOT let latecomers in until the interval. Time after time, performances have been disrupted, upsetting other members of the audience. Door 11 and 6 seem to be the worst. Because the Proms are being marketed for "everyone" that means lots of audiences who don't know about music, which is not a problem at all. But it also means people who can't understand why there's so much singing in an opera, so they walk out complaining. Long term, the push should be strategic, informed marketing, not bums on seats at any cost, so those who do come enjoy themselves.

Last Night of the BBC Proms 2011

Friends who were at last night's Last Night of the BBC Proms 2011 had so much fun. This is when Brits let their hair down. Ignore the militarist element, and the attention seekers, focus on ordinary people having fun. The minute I got home last night from the Opening Concert at the Wigmore Hall, lots of lovely messages. The Last Night is something I only watch to see what friends in the Arena are up to. Great warm evening for the dinner jackets and evening gowns, lovely photos, everyone grinning. And then two "strangers" go up and crown Sir Henry Wood's bust with laurels. Could not recognize Nick in a  DJ as his native costume is rather different! Watch Susan Bullock, the kitschiest Boadicea in years! What crazy trills, and that's the voice not the outfit.

So different, too, from the 2001 Prom which was just after 9/11.

Years ago the LNoP was plagued by those who used it as a platform (which is where the flag waving came in). But even then, not everyone was jingoistic. When my mother went in 1945, a refugee fresh from camp, the Last Night really did symbolize "Hope and Glory". But even she wouldn't have liked militarist barracking, (which was what led to her being in camp in the first place). So thank goodness they now only allocate tickets to real regulars not opportunists. Please read this good article in the Telegraph .

Prom 70 - Why The French Freischütz matters

What fun tonight's Prom 70, John Eliot Gardiner and the  Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. So what if it's in French, not German? No doubt the same folk who scream sacrilege at Berlioz's sin will happily go to ENO for Berlioz and much else in English. Der Freischütz marks a turning point in music history, influencing Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Loewe, Wagner, even Franz Schreker, so it matters when it influences a composer outside the German tradition. .

Berlioz was only 21 when he heard a bowdlerized version of it in Paris, and set out to learn the original from the score. He didn't merely translate, but adapted it to French popular tastes. out with the long stretches of dialogue (which I adore), in with brisker recitatives. Berlioz also had the wit to adapt the music to the new text so the lines don't jar but feel natural. And he's learning about orchestration. Berlioz would become the great music theoretician of his age. His Treatise on Instrumentation was avidly discussed by Mahler and Strauss. (there's even a section on the saxophone, which had just been invented). A copy stood on Mahler's bedside table. So don't dismiss what Berlioz is trying to do in the French Freischütz.

 Of course Le Freischütz doesn't sound exactly like Der Freischütz. All his life, Berlioz would be adapting ideas and developing styles. adventuring outside the French musical mainstream. Maybe that's why he's interesting. So think of the French  Freischütz as a missing link between the early German Romantic and other styles that folllow, and not as Weber manqué. This is very early Berlioz and he's still finding his way. (The effervesence of Weber still eludes him).

Weber's Der Freischütz.is notoriously difficult to stage realistically, what with Wolf's Glens and so on. And if Der Freischütz is tricky, remember Euryanthe, which the Royal Opera House did stage about 20 years ago. The plot's so improbable anyway. So the Prom 70 semi-staging is an excellent compromise between theatre and concert   Wasn't it great when Samiel boomed down from an upstairs box, and witches' screams burst out all thru the Royal Albert Hall?

Extremely good singing, Gidon Sacks (Gaspard/Kaspar) gorgeously sexy and demonic, Andrew Kennedy (Max), looking bewildered (as Max should be) but singing with heartfelt determination. Not a weak spot in the singing, but it must be remembered that because the syntax is French, singing styles won't be like German. The chorus (the Monteverdi Choir) is great fun. Yes, fun! No-one ever took plots like this seriously. The idea was to get thrills from the ghostly whippoorwills in the orchestra, and the idea of a confrontation with Samiel, the devil, the joyous overtures and choruses. We luxuriate in the Overture, the chorus of Chasseurs, lovely individual arias and entr'actes.

Anyone who knows Der Freischütz has Carlos Kleiber's recording with the Dresden Staatskapelle (Weikl, Janowitz, Mathis, Schreier) tattooed permanently into their soul. And so it should be, for it's a performance of genius. But that's exactly why we need to listen to John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique in period performance. Period instruments are never going to sound as full and as wonderful, but they remind us of what the sound world of the early 19th century might have been like. Indeed, part of the charm of Gardiner's orchestra is that they are genuinely bucolic. People then would have identified with natural horns and village dances, so they might have heard the warmth of familiarity where we now hear hokey. Berlioz as orchestrator probably knew what he was doing to create the right atmosphere. We don't need sophistication all the time. A dose of period high jinks reminds us how far we've come.

More French Freischütz

John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Berlioz French Freischütz tonight at Prom 70, but here is another version, conducted by Jean-Paul Penin.

Prom 70 - what makes British music British ?

For a change, don't run off for coffee in the interval between the first and second parts of Prom 70 (Bridge, Birtwistle, Holst). Listen, instead to Anthony Payne, talking about British music. Payne is a fascinating person, an intellectual with emotional depth and a practical musician too. He's an authority on English music and made it possible for us to listen to what might have been Elgar's Third Symphony. Listen also to the programme that follows the Prom, where Tom Adès is interviewed by Tom Service. If Birtwistle were a talking man, he'd probably chime in too on the theme of What makes British Music British.

As Payne says, it's only in retrospect that we come to think of any piece as "British" because certain thing acquire a non-music identity from being used in ads, social music, movies etc. The music itself is intrinsically neutral. No composer worth anything doesn't write something original to himself or herself, based on what he absorbs from around him. Parry, Elgar, Bridge, Britten, RVW, all influenced by continental European music. So the idea of pushing composers into a ghetto of "Britishness" is a bit of a con.

Britten, especially, didn't relate to the "ghetto" though he was fascinated by Tudor and Stuart forms. Aldeburgh never was insular.  Long before the Festival began, there was Britten, taking his Mum to Vienna, forcing his pals to listen to Mahler in the 1920's, hanging out with the Prince of Hesse and Hermann Scherchen (or rather his son), Scherchen, significantly, was closely associated with the avant garde of his time. Britten wasn't a little Englander. It was he who championed Shostakovich long before Shostakovich was famous in the west. Britten's support of Shostakovich, Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya was critical, for it protected them from the Soviet Regime. Similarly, Henze wouldn't be Henze without Aldeburgh, tnouugh he was  too naive to realize that connecting to W H Auden in the 50's would mean exclusion from the Britten inner circle.

Harrison Birtwistle is as cow-pat free as it's possible to be. He's his own idiosyncratic self, and more power to him!  I couldn't figure out his new Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, but that's why it's interesting. It's a new direction for the composer, still inventive post 75. It seems to lead to new paths, though I'm not sure where they head. But that's part of the challenge. So what makes British music British? We don't even know what makes Britain British, either.

Warming up for Freischütz Prom 73

On Friday Prom 73, Weber's Der Freischütz turns into Berlioz's transcription thereof, en français. Before one screams sacrilege, remember that Berlioz is trying to figure out what made Weber and Mendelssohn tick (though he never really did). Furthermore, France isn't just Paris. There are hunting traditions in France, just as there were/are in Germany. So enjoy this choir Les Chanteurs Pyrénéens, who sound like they know about Chasseurs. And here is the original auf Deutsch

Was gleicht wohl auf Erden dem Jägervergnügen?
Wem sprudelt der Becher des Lebens so reich?
Beim Klange der Hörner im Grünen zu liegen,
Den Hirsch zu verfolgen durch Dickicht und Teich,
Ist fürstliche Freude, ist männlich Verlangen,
Erstarket die Glieder und würzet das Mahl.
Wenn Wälder und Felsen uns hallend umfangen,
Tönt freier und freud'ger der volle Pokal!
Jo, ho! Tralalalala!

Not all that different in spirit, though the band below is infinitely better and the singers have a more professional touch!

Prom 69 Rihm Mahler Pittsburgh Honeck

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's two BBC Proms 68 and 69 dovetailed nicely, again proving the adage, "Music should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed".

When Anne Sophie Mutter plays Wolfgang Rihm's Gesungene Zeit (Time Chant) she brings out its profound spirituality. Rihm wrote the piece for her 20 years ago, specifically attuned to her strengths and to the violin she prefers. It is one of her signature pieces. She's recorded it twice, first with Levine and more recently with Alan Gilbert (new release on DG here).  In twenty years much has happened to Mutter - and to us - so hearing the piece again in this context is deeply moving. Mutter showed how music can lift us to emotional and spiritual levels which transcend the ordinary grind of life.

Knowing how high profile this Prom would be, Mutter seemed charged with supernatural intensity.  The exceedingly high tessitura seemed to defy gravity, soaring into a stratosphere few dare explore. Her technique is so perfect that she can create pitch so high it's almost beyond the threshold of human hearing. This is the aria of an angel. No human voice could sustain legato that long and at that pitch. The music seems to float in the air, untrammelled by normal constraints. At times it swoops gently down towards the other instruments, lifting them upwards too. Two glorious tumults, when all seem to be singing together. Dark murmuring chorale (listen to the contrabassoona and low winds), col legno meeting tapping in the percussion.  Mutter's line sweeps upwards and hovers. One last low-flying farewell to the orchestra and then back into the stratosphere, beyond mortal realm.

It would be tempting to draw parallels between Rihm's Gesungene Zeit and Mahler's Symphony no 5, but Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra wisely stick to what's in the score. Mahler's views on the chamber-like nature of the piece are fairly clear. The Adagietto has acquired a lachrymose reputation through its use in movies and such things as Compilations for Valentine's Day and so on, but the symphony itself is much greater than popular myth. (There is a long story attached to how this developed, but I won't go into that here). Honeck respects the structural logic of the symphony, so this a fiull bodied, solid reading, satisfying though not specially spectacular.

But why start the Prom with the Prelude to Lohengrin Act 1? It's a grand opening, but listeners automatically go into Wagner-mode, thinking of what will follow in the opera. The days of "bleeding chunks" are long gone, since  nowadays, we're more accustomed to more integrated and demanding programmes. Lohengrin always sounds wonderful, but it might have been better to concentrate on Rihm and Mahler.

Please read about Prom  68 where Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony played Beethoven Tchaikovsky but not Braunfels. There's more on Braunfels on this site than anywhere other than the Braunfels website itself. There's also plenty more about Wolfgang Rihm on this site. Like Braunfels, Rihm's not known to millions, but to tens of thousands, as he's probably one of the most important European composers of our time. Mutter is no fool artistically, she knows why she likes playing Rihm.
photo copyright : Harald Hoffmann

Prom 68 Braunfels Beethoven Tchaikovsky

"Music should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed", a phrase coined by one of my friends. However, Prom 68, with Manfred Honeck and  the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra proved somewhat the opposite. Nice, safe and unchallenging, guaranteed to confirm the comfortable in their comfort. The main relief was Hélène Grimaud's clear sighted intelligence, which lifted Beethoven Piano Concerto no 4 above the realm of feelgood. Pleasant, but interpretively undemanding Tchaikovsky no 5 thereafter. Lots of self-congratulatory chatter on the radio broadcast. Music as social lubricant.

As for music for music's sake? Walter Braunfels Phantastische Erscheinungen eines Themas von Hector Berlioz (Fantastic appearances on a theme from Berlioz) is a significant work by a significant composer. So what was the point of butchering it by two-thirds? Thius is artistic murder, but for what purpose? The work is based on a single theme from Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust, where Méphistophélès sings the song of the flea. It lasts but a few moments, but Braunfels examines it with such close forensic detail that he manages no fewer than 12 different variations and takes 50 minutes to do so. Pay attention! Braunfels is trying to tell us something! Instead, we got episodes from the middle sections of the piece, based around  Ruhig, the slowest movement of all, which in the original is a transitional stage, not the main event.Ask yourself, is Méphistophélès being "restful"? Is Braunfels suggesting that Méphistophélès is there to comfort Faust? Of course not. Indeed, Braunfels is warning us to be alert.

So what was the musical logi ? What motivated Honeck, who does know his Braunfels, to authorize this rump? Braunfels's original is so tightly put together that there are hardly any pauses between segments, so it's not as if movements (or mini-movements) can simply be lifted out of context. The most interesting sections were left out. This wasn't Braunfels we were hearing, but a strange curtailment, as if someone, somewhere hates Braunfels so much they must cut out what makes him distinctive. Perhaps a rump of Braunfels is better than nothing at all, but this does the composer a disservice. Braunfels is by no means obscure, even if he's not mainstream. There is no excuse at all for anyone with an interest in this genre not to know who he is. There is a good recording of Phantastische Erscheinungen easily available, so anyone could look it up. (here it is on amazon).


Braunfels's Die Vögel received an ecstatic reception in 1995, when the Lothar Zagrosek recording was released, one of the highest points in the Decca Entartete Musik series. The very fact that LA Opera did a mega highprofile production last year means that Braunfels is not nobody. So why do we get fobbed off with a 15 minute summary ? A bit like playing a few bars from Mussorgsky's Song of the Flea.

I will write about the full Braunfels Fantastic Appearances later and about other Braunfels works like Die Vögel, the Te Deum and Honeck's new recording of Braunfels's major opera Jeanne d'Arc, with his regular European band, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.  Braunfels was "suppressed" before. There's no reason he should be suppressed yet again.  Please see my earlier post on the Fantastic Appearances HERE.
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Walter Braunfels - Fantastic appearances of a theme of Berlioz

Tonight's Prom 68 could be a milestone. Manfred Honeck conducts the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in Walter Braunfels, Phantastische Erscheinungen eines Themas von Hector Berlioz (Fantastic appearances on a theme from Berlioz).  Braunfels (1882-1954)  is a bit of a cult composer, since relatively few have heard of him, but those who do are passionate. Honeck is one of Braunfels's champions, so this Prom might give Braunfels the prominence he deserves.

The Berlioz theme Braunfels is referring to comes from Berlioz The Damnation of Faust. All year we're having one Faust inspired work after another, from Liszt's Faust Symphony, to Mephisto Waltz,  to the revival of Gounod's Faust at the Royal Opera House, starting soon. Terry Gilliam's Faust in Jackboots ego trip doesn't count.

Braunfels specifically pinpoints the scene where Faust and Méphistophélès enter the Leipzig tavern. Both of them are out of their usual element, among "normal" people, so there's more to the scene than divertissement. Braunfels focuses on the song of the flea, which Méphistophélès sings to describe the way a mad king becomes obsessed with a flea, til his whole court are infested and suffer. Braunfels was writing during the 1914-18 war, although he was conscripted and fought in the western front. It was a traumatic period. He was injured and converted to Catholicism (from being Lutheran). Phantastische Erscheinungen eines Themas von Hector Berlioz develops the basic theme from different angles. We hear Méphistophélès cynical swagger, and a purer, more lyrical approach, which might be Faust. Images of hell, rising from low rumblings in the orchestra,  diminuendos and rising passages, movements up and down. Smoke? Dreams? Tonight, after Prom 68, I will write much more, so please come back and bookmark/subscribe.

This week I've been listening again to Walter Braunfels Die Vögel (the Birds) which comes from the same period as the Fantastical variations. In Die Vögel, birds do what fleas do in Faust : the opera is altogether more complex and sophisticated. Indeed, Die Vögel and the Phantastische Erscheinungen need to be heard together for full impact. The opera is sumptuously beautiful, but with a kick.

There are two recordings of Die Vogel, the first being Lothar Zagrosek's 1996 recording for Decca. It is outstanding, the soprano Helen Kwon truly captures the surreal birdsong which Braunfels incorporates into the part. (Link here to Zagrosek's The Birds on amazon). I hate to say it, but avoid the 2010 LA Opera production which is on DVD. The conducting (Conlon) is leaden and deadening. It is not enough simply to do an opera because it's obscure. This approach is why composers like Braunfels don't get the respect they are due. Die Vögel is much more intelligent and sophisticated, and indeed more musically adventurous as the DVD would suggest.  It's the curse of the myth that Schoenberg somehow "forced" anyone to be modern. Everyone was modern in their own ways. No-one was deliberately retrogressive. I'll write more about Die Vögel when I have time. Until then, please explore this site where there is a great deal in depth about other composers "suppressed" by changes in taste and politics. For more on Braunfels, HERE is a link to a very good German site about him (with English translation)

Don't forget, lots coming up, please explore this site and come back. (try searching Schreker, Korngold, Berg, Haas, Krasa, Theresienstadt, Ullmann, Eisler, Zemlinsky etc for more goodies)

Prom 67 Beethoven Missa Solemnis Davis LSO

So stunned by Prom 67, Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Colin Davis/LSO, that I'm staying up late to hear it again on TV details here). Gosh,  this needs to be savoured !  This afternoon, I was listening again to the repeat of Prom 63, Mahler and Liszt, Ivan Fischer Budapest Festival Orchestra and liked that even more. (See my review "Trumpets and Demons" HERE and follow this link for repeat broadcast)

What characterizes both performances (Beethoven and Mahler) is intellectual rigour. Absolute faith in the music, total integrity. Edward Said said of Beethoven's late work, that old men don't need to sell themselves to please the public. Ergo, late work can free an artist from banal pressures. Maturity without compromise. This Prom won't knock Klemperer off the perch for me, but I was totally impressed by Davis's unfussy sense of conviction. 

Performances like these need to be engaged with on a deep level. So I'm not going to reel off something shallow. So read this review of Prom 67 Beethoven Missa Solemnis, just in, from Mark Berry in Boulezian. Now this is good writing and perceptive !

Trumpets and Demons - Prom 63 Mahler 1, Liszt Fischer

Trumpets and Demons ! Marches and Dances of Death ! In Prom 63, Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra set the Royal Albert Hall ablaze with an exceptionally powerful Mahler Symphony no 1. This was Mahler's Declaration of Independence, the calling card with which he burst onto the world. Already, Mahler is declaring concepts that he'll continue to develop until his death. Conducting this symphony is a test of any conductor's understanding of the composer. This was a truly inspired performance, revealing bold insights.

In Prom 63, Fischer's approach was coloured by Liszt, whose influence on Mahler is underestimated, though Liszt himself dismissed Mahler's Das klagende Lied in no uncertain terms.  Mahler conducted the.Mephisto Waltz no 1 (Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke) several times and knew it well. Mefistofele grabs the violin from a village fiddler. Bucolic folk tune transformed by the Devil himself. Folk idiom juxtaposed with surreal, and macabre. Freund' Hein, who will appear in the sforzando section in Mahler's 2nd Symphony. Lizst's Faust Symphony (read more about this HERE)  springs to mind, and Mahler's Eighth on the theme of Faust's redemption.

If anything Liszt's Totentanz connects even more strongly to Mahler's music. Listen to those savage, angular ostinatos transformed by magical flurries, and think of Mahler's relentless marches and the whips of bright sound that will come in Mahler. Although Mahler was himself a pianist, he wrote but one work for piano, and nothing concertante. His voice "was" the orchestra. Liszt's "voice" was the piano. Dejan Lazić played with assertive authority, easily a match for this orchestra. How full bodied this piano sounds here, imitating the sonority in the orchestra, breaking away with flourishes that defy containment. In Mahler's symphony,  a vibrant new spirit emerges from struggle and breaks free. Mahler discarded the title "Titan" very early on, but it's not irrelevant, since in Jean Paul's Titan, a young hero becomes king.

Blumine is a serenade andante Mahler dropped after the Budapest premiere of the First Symphony in 1889. It's a fragment from the now-lost incidental music to Der Trompeter von Säkkingen, hence the prominent part for trumpet.  Although the piece has charm,. its inclusion in performance is rarely successful, so Fischer respects the composer's second thoughts. By placing Blumine between Mephisto no 1 and Totentanz, Fischer bridges Liszt with Mahler imaginatively.

Fischer's Mahler 1 is audacious. Clear, pure trumpet calls, not quite a reveille. Fischer's players make the call sound searching, soaring. From the low rumblings that follow, emerges a melody one recognizes as Ging heut' morgen übers Feld, from Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. It's not accidental recycling. By incorporating song into the symphony, Mahler is adding an extra dimension to what the symphony might mean. "This moring I strode out across the fields". The poet, (Mahler himself) has been jilted but he leaves his sorrows behind. A bird calls out Ei du! Gelt?. "Isn't the world beautiful!". Is this reveille the awakening of Spring and creative energy ? These strings are certainly lush and verdant, evoking "alles Ton und Farbe". But Fischer makes sure that danger creeps in. Full-toned triumph, but undercut with sharp, chilling alarums. As in the song, the poet takes nothing for granted.

A new theme emerges, balanced between peasant ländler and dreamy waltz. Again, trumpets and brass provide momentum and the section ends abruptly, emphatically. Then the haunted "Funeral March", apparently suggested by Moritz von Schwind's How the Animals buried the Hunter (click on image to enlarge). Another true Mahlerian contradiction. Death fells the hunter, power structures reversed. Fischer doesn't overdo the pathos as some conductors do. These animals are grieving, not seeking revenge. The idea of nature as a cycle, that returns again and again in Mahler. Fischer connects the passage to the steady forward thrust of the march that flows throufghout this symphony, and indeed, through most of Mahler's music. Next transit : the entry of another song from Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. Fischer knows why the march blends with the theme Auf der Straße steht ein Lindenbaum, the symbol of sleep, dreams but not, here, of death, since the music keeps moving forwards until it's shot through by a stunning fanfare.

How full-bodied the orchestra sounds here, such depth and verve. Pounding circular figures, which repeat over and over. The march again in a new guise. Fischer and his orchestra get the bright, dizzying whips of sound particularly well, so there's no sense of stasis. The quiet passage has echoes of something nostalgic, a Ruckblick of some sort, the beautiful waltz theme remembered.  Then suddenly trumpets and timpani explode, horns and trombones call ever upwards. A new theme appears tentaively, submerged into another explosive crescendo, which are created with great crispness and clarity. Then the theme takes over, trumpets and brass "marching" again. This three chord theme always reminds me of Handel's Hallelujah chorus "King of Kings ! Lord of Lords ! He shall reign forever and ever". Whether Mahler was deliberately quoting or not, the concept does fit the mood of the symphony. Fischer's reading isn't as violent as some, and the gentler passages that follow the outburst are elegantly shaped. Again the rolling circular "march" returns, whipped ahead by extremely bright trumpets, heralding the final glorious coda, which here sounded specially golden and vivid.  Such a purposeful, determined and clear-headed. Mahler has arrived !

As a Mahler conductor, Ivan Fischer is much more idiomatic than Semyon Bychkov, whose Mahler 6th (Prom56)  I admired so much. Fischer engages with Mahler on a much deeper level, bringing out the fundamental strong mindedness in Mahler's architecture, which underpins the spiritual searching. "Always, trajectory!" as Pierre Boulez used to say. For Fischer, too, trajectory is a key to meaning. There are many ways to conduct Mahler 1, but this one has me transfixed. 

NEWSFLASH Uproar at the BBC Proms

NEWSFLASH, uproar at BBC Prom 62, Zubin Mehta conducting the Israel Philharmonic. Extremely safe repertoire (which is why I wasn't listening) so the protestors are clearly using the concert for non-musical reasons. You can hear the first part of the uproar on the broadcast where people are shouting, then they cut to a recording. Was anyone there in person?

Latest I've heard : The people shouting Out! Out! are audience to protesters, not protestors to performers. The arena crowd are used to organizing themselves. It strikes me as counter-productive to annoy thousands of other people to promote a cause, regardless of what the cause might be.

Beethoven Ninth, Fitkin Prom 61 Robertson

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony has featured in 114 Proms since 1897. With its message of Alle Menschen werden Brüder !, it could be the theme tune of the BBC Proms, which reach out all over the world, to anyone who has radio or internet access. The BBC Proms are the most effective foreign policy weapon of all. Winning hearts and minds non-violently works better than guns, bombs and threats.

Which is why I've picked this photo to go with Prom 61 Beethoven Symphony no 9 (David Robertson, BBCSO) (copyright David Wen-Riccardi Zhu) It's the statue of Goethe and Schiller in Weimar. The photo is wonderful because they're shown against an open, blue sky, holding laurels. So we too should be inspired by idealism, altruism and basic human decency.

Beethoven's Ninth is the kind of music than can survive bad performance and still sound uplifting. Not that David Robertson and the BBCSO were bad at all. This performance zipped along smartly. Nice clean lines, confident, poised pacing. This was a reading true to the neo-classical spirit, unfussy but uplifting. Schiller's vision is sublime, rising above grubby concerns. This performance made me think of neo-classical architecture : structural balance and elegance. Female soloists on the shrill side, but Spence and Patterson were good. The wind and flute figures around Paterson's singing were very perky, so when the choir burst forth, it felt like light had filled the hall. Choruses very tight and bright.

David Robertson made his name in modern music, having conducted Ensemble Intercontemporain, no less. He's energetic both on and off the podium, and does interesting things. I enjoyed his Beethoven 5th, but even more his Beethoven 7th the year it was paired with an insufferably horrible piece moaning about automated phone systems. Obvioulsy conductors are contracted to do some works, but Robertson conducted that Beethoven with such vehemence it was clear what he thought.

In 2010, Beethoven 9 was played by the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain, which was hilariously funny for me, though Beethoven might have been glad he was deaf !  There have been some dull performances (Noseda, Proms 2009) and some truly overwhelming good ones (Chailly, Leipzig Gewandhaus New Year 2009). Read more about that one HERE. And of course Wilhelm Furtwängler! Now that's an example of music in value-added context. The Party Goons didn't get it, but Josef Goebbels squirmed, because he knew what Beethoven - and Furtwängler - were getting at. Please read about my discovery of papers in Furtwängler's Home Office file, when the BBC tried to get clearance for the conductor to come to London in 1946.

Having heard Graham Fitkin's L on Monday (Cadogan Hall Chamber Prom 3) with Kathryn Stott and Yo-Yo Ma, I wasn't expecting much from Fitkin's Cello Concerto, but it was altogether more stirring. This time Yo-Yo Ma seems to have written the piece as much as Fitkin did. This is a cellist's dream, the music building directly on what a cellist can do. Technique turned into art. Legato extended so long that it must be a challenge to bow as smoothly as this without breaking. Ma plays sensuously, using full range. It's like he's having a private conversation with the instrument he's known so intimately for many years. Again, it's pretty ty[pical; of Roberston tosprend much more time rehearsing pieces wer haven't heard before to give them best chance of success, and assume the rest will be OK.
Please read this carefully. It is a test in whether people read subtle or literal.  Please read the comments on this post here to see why I'm doing this.  Will people get this or will it be over most heads?

Mendelssohn Elijah Prom 58 McCreesh Gabrieli

Droughts, deserts, false gods, angels, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis and a firestorm. Plenty of drama in the Bible. Perhaps what drew Felix Mendelssohn to Elijah (Prom 58) was the personality of the prophet himself. But Elijah is a remarkable statement of faith. Christians may have monopolized the oratorio, especially in this country, but fundamentally Elijah reflects something even deeper in Mendelssohn's spirit. Although he was a devout Lutheran, never did he deny nor denigrate his Jewish roots.  Elijah's God isn't Jesus but the stern God of the Old Testament.  St Paul was written to please his father, but Elijah springs from deeper sources. This gives the oratorio an undercurrent of grit and draws from the composer some of his most passionate, powerful music. No wonder Berlioz and Wagner were jealous and did all they could to destroy Mendelssohn's reputation. The damage lasts still. One antidote is to listen to Elijah and think about what it means.

In Prom 58, Paul McCreesh conducted the Gabrieli Consort and Players. Wonderful choice, as McCreesh and his orchestra are formidably good early music pioneers. This Proms performance was informed by English Elijah performances (Birmingham 1846 and London 1847). The early music sensibility brings Elijah closer to Handel and Bach, who were Mendelssohn's own musical Gods, and who are quoted in the score. The leaner period sound may be why the oratorio initially appealed to the English dissenting movement rather than to High Church tastes. So McCreesh's decision to "reclaim" Elijah from very Late Victorian practice is significant, for it connects to a time when Non-conformism was part of British Christianity, and choral performance an expression of newly emergent middle class independence. Listen again to the broadcast, and contribute to the recording (not BBC). Because this Elijah goes back to the essence of Mendelssohn's beliefs, it's strikingly "modern" in the sense that it confronts dilemmas we still face today, like identity, faith and integrity.

Orchestrally, this BBC Proms performance was wonderful. Instruments like serpents, orginally instruments used in warfare to scare the enemy - baroque fantasy put to practical use. Slide trumpets which still sound natural and relatively unpitched. Goatskin timpani. The Royal Albert Hall Organ restricted to period stops and pipes. Two ophicleides augment the brass, and a magnificent contrabass ophicleides, known as the "Monstre" for obvious reasons. This period sensibility is not merely historic affectation. In the Bible, Elijah is a wild man of the desert who stands up those who worship Baal, who seems to represent consumption and corruption. The orchestra connects to Elijah's spartan nonconformity, and thus has more authority than more elaborate instrumentation. Furthermore, McCreesh's musicians play as if they're evoking ancient Hebrew instruments. Mendelssohn probably wouldn't have heard Jewish liturgical music, but he had observant relatives, and was musician enough to intuit how instruments depicted in Bible pictures might have sounded. Mendelssohn is reaffirming his Jewish heritage discreetly but firmly. McCreesh and the Gabrieli's prove that period practice can be powerful..

The Gabriei Cionsort was augmented by the Wroclaw Philharmonic Chorus, wuith whom they've worked before. Exceptionally precise singing - not a word muffled, despite the size of the hall. Conducting this many singers at once is difficult, but here they were so well drilled, no-one fluffed an entry. Perfect co-ordination, but even better, total committment and enthusiasm. This was the best choral singing I've heard in ages and I've heard a lot. Perhaps it's because the music is so "singable". When the people call out to Baal, their calls are met by silence. These singers seem to listen! Blocks of male and female voices alternate and interweave."Thanks be to God! He laveth the thirsty Land!", the voices sing. Mendelssohn builds into the wild cross-currents images of wind and rain, thundering into parched ground.  There are so many exquisite passages, it's hard to pick out the most beautiful. "He, watching over Israel, slumbers not, nor sleeps" for example, where the words "slumbers not nor sleeps" repeat in lovely tender patterns. Such delicacy from such a huge chorus. And the glorious apotheosis of the final "and then shall your light  shine forth", ablaze with glory, for Elijah has ascended to Heaven in a fiery chariot.

Although the five soloists naturally take the foreground, it's the magnificent background of the choruses that make Elijah the monument it is. Three hundred voices, creating a wonderful opulent sheen. These are the "people of Israel" after all, for whom Elijah sacrifices himself, so it's utterly appropriate. Poised between soloists and massed choir are sub-groups like the double quartet, the quartet and an exceptionally good  trio. "Lift up thine eyes to the mountains", this group sings "whence cometh help". They're so clean and pure, they really do sound like angels.

Of these 300 voices, 181 are the voices of children from four youth choirs who participate in the Gabrieli's Youth Coaching Project. This is an important part of the Gabrieli mission. Even though young voices break, by being involved, they learn the physical joy of singing and appreciate music better whatever they might go on to do in  life. Singing is a community thing, and enhances life. Read more about the project HERE. These singers are so well trained that there's no lapse in standards. Indeed, their freshness and enthusiasm adds excitement to the performance. Someone asked me why a large Polish choir, the Wroclaw Philharmonic Choir was included. Simple answer - they are superb, and McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort are performing Mendelssohn Elijah in Wroclaw, Poland on 18/9 and at Mendelssohn's own Leipzig Gewandhaus on 16/9.

Simon Keenlyside sings Elijah. This is the key part, on which the whole oratorio hangs, and is the only one treated as a single "character". Keenlyside is good, though he's not quite as forceful as Terfel, Fischer-Dieskau or Goerne, but that's OK. We don't need Elijah as wild prophet of the desert every time. His recitatives, "It is enough, O Lord" and "O Lord, I have laboured in vain" could have been more heart rending, because they show Elijah as human and vulnerable, but Keenlyside keeps them "English" and understated, which is perhaps more apt in an English context.  Rosemary Joshua sings the soprano parts and Sarah Connolly the mezzo parts. Both very convincing, though I'm imprinted with Gwyneth Jones and Janet Baker. The Wroclaw Philharmonic Choir were part of that, too. Robert Murray had some tricky moments but better in the Obadiah pasages. Jonty Ward sang the Youth. It's a beautifully written sequence where Mendelssohn contrasts the anxiety of the crowd with the pure, ringing tones of the Youth rising from silence. "It is nothing", he sings three times. Then Elijah begs God for a sign, and the Youth beholds a cloud rising from the waters. It's the incoming hurricane, and from then on all hell breaks loose in the music, and the people cheer. (Joshua sang with McCreesh in the 2009 Proms Haydn Creation. Read about that HERE, because it was a pioneering project and very relevant to this 2011 Mendelssohn Proms Elijah)

Possibly this was the best Prom for me this season, it was that good. Listen again HERE and support the CD. More details on the Gabrieli Consort website, which is packed with information about the music, the players, and the instruments. A great resource.
Please note there's a lot on Mendelssohn on this site, also on Handel ! And Elgar. Please take tim e tpo search.

Sunday Prom 58 Mendelssohn Elijah

FANTASTIC Prom ! Review is HERE with many extra links !  Please bookmark and revisit. In 2009, to celebrate Mendelssohn's anniversary, the BBC Proms did all his symphonies and some other works but not the biggie : Elijah. Or Paulus (which I love). The Three Choirs Festival did Elijah that year so I guess it was too much of a good thing. But when the Proms do something well, they do it ultra well. Week after week of massed choir blockbusters this year, making the most of the opportunities afforded by the Royal Albert Hall and its magnificent organ, the biggest and boomiest in the country. In times of economic and moral meltdown, we need extravagances, because they lift the soul. Besides, these blockbusters honour a grand British traditio : choral singing. One of the pleasures of getting to the Proms early is that you get to see the choristers lined up waiting to go backstage, and afterwards, they mill out among the crowd, still high form having sung their lungs out. In Victorian times, the burgeoning British middle class just loved massive displays. Look at the Albert Memorial, The Royal Albert Hall, the V&A, the Royal Parks. There are accounts of Elijah performances with 10,000 voices, though it's hard to imagine keeping them all together. At least they wouldn't have needed amplification. The excess is ironic, given the nature of the story - Elijah in the desert, the populace starving. Wild man Elijah rejects gods of luxury for an uncompromising God, and gets carried off to heaven in a fiery chariot. But goodness, it's fun!
Sorry I am a bit late with review but in the meantime you might like Elgar Caractacus Three Choirs, Handel Terrorist Samson Prom, Handel Messiah Prom (youth choirs)  Please use search box.

Semyon Bychkov Mahler 6th Prom 56

Of all the Mahler Proms this season, only one really stands out for attention, and it's this, Prom 56 with Semyon Bychkov. When Bychkov conducted Mahler in Cologne, I was disappointed, because he favoured Romantic repertoire. Last Proms, he conducted Mahler's 3rd, which I found too refined, but some of my friends loved. But Bychkov is an extremely important conductor, who has a lot to say in Romantic repertoire and opera. So I was thrilled by this Proms performance of Mahler 6. Oddly, in part, because Bychkov draws the parallels with Mahler 3. It's a wonderful insight.

Dispense with the usual maudlin sentimentality that attaches to this symphony, typical of the period. It's good to know what the hammerblows mean and that the symphony's called the "Tragic" but such myths detract from what's really in the music. As pure music, Mahler 6 is remarkably well-constructed, themes interweaving in constantly repeated patterns, which develop imperceptibly towards resolution. Since it's Mahler, it can't be purely abstract, though a straight autobiographical programme is misleading. Interpretation depends on understanding Mahler's music and mindset on a much deeper level. Whatever Haitink may say, everyone interprets. You can't even read a score without interpreting how the marks fit together. Only a machine doesn't "interpret". What I liked about Bychkov's interpretation was that it evolves from the music itself, rather than what Bruno Walter, or Alma, or anyone else might say.

Right from the start, Bychkov goes for the attack. The powerful opening march leads into a quieter theme - not passive, but contemplative. Then a third, expansive theme, often called "alpine", sounds heard from a distance. Hence cowbells and distant natural-sounding trumpets. These three themes interact throughout the symphony, providing a kind of inner skeleton, the "backbone" of the piece. Bychkov's entry is very bright and assertive. Immediately you sense this won't be a doom laden  wail. Mahler wasn't like that. For all his ruminations on death, it's life he's interested in, and its continuation in other forms after death. Hence the marches that run throughout most of the symphonies. Marches aren't necessarily military. Bychkov's march isn't ragged but elegant, even classical. The Mahler 3 connection becomes clear. (Please see what I've written about that on the labels at right) This isn't barbarism but purposeful forward thrust. It's orderly even though it's relentless. Is this the march of time or of nature ?

After the assertive first movement, Bychkov chooses the Scherzo. In this performance, it makes sense because it keeps up the energy levels, and develops the themes of the first in new ways. Placing the Andante third thus gives respite before the explosion that is the Finale, like the first "allegro energico". Classical structure again, right for this performance. Bychkov keeps this Scherzo almost blindingly bright - sharp, clean playing from the BBCSO, flagship of the whole BBC orchestra fleet. This emphasizes the troubling nature of this movement. It's as if unnatural light is throwing shapes into surreal contrast. Here, the march morphs into screams, repeated shrilly. The brass blare then fall into dizzying diminuendo. The percussion sound deliberately wooden. This is altväterisch, a very Austrian expression evoking nostalgic pastoralism. Yet it's not purely for ethnic colour, since Mahler knows very well that folk sounds aren't nearly as complex as full symphonic expression. Perhaps the hollow knocking is a reminder of a heartbeat, or a precursor of the hammerblows to follow. The "alpine" theme emerges quietly, very much alone amid the tumult, and it, too, spirals downwards. The mysterioso seems haunted. Yet the march returns, uncowed. This doesn't feel like a defeat, but a strategic retreat, which again makes sense of Andante before Finale.

After that Scherzo, the Andante does not seem like peace. Bychkov's poise in the Andante implies that the warmth of this alpine summer is fragile, as summers are in the mountains. The delicate balance is soon ruffled by sweeping chill. Yet the march themes remind us that time, or weather, or life, moves ever onwards.  The surging vigour of the march returns, suggesting that whatever might lie ahead shall also pass. The mood is quieter, but uncowed.

The attack that started the first movement returns at the start of the Finale. It's a monumental statement but again is carefully structured. Cowbells suggest the countryside, simple sounds (like heartbeats) underlying the sophisticated achievement of grand symphonic form. They're not just for decoration. The cartoon makes fun of the cowbells and hammer blows in this symphony, but the subject is complex, and worth discussing in depth. Another time ! Bychkov's clarity shows how carefully Mahler 6 is constructed, everything integrated. The trumpet calls refer to "music heard from afar" and also to communication between horns in the mountains, and even perhaps to cosmic trumpets heard from heaven. The celeste suggests otherworldly sounds, wafting from heights unknown. Marvellously brash discords melt into mysterious murmurs.

The march theme returns again, bright, sharp, almost demonic. Bychkov makes it burst with the vigour we associate with the onward march of spring in Mahler 3. Trumpet calls in marches function to rally forces onwards, and whip them into action. The march in this Finale grows ever more strident and energtic, so the dizzying, blinding flash that cuts it off comes as an absolute shock. Silence. Hammerblows. Silence.  Perhaps the hammerblows signify a heart attack or sudden death.  Certainly they're heart-wrenching because they mean the end of all that remarkable music. Yet remember that marches continue relentlessly, marchers who fall replced by new. Mahler's marches are surges of creative energy that cannot be dimmed.

Please see lots more on this site about Mahler and related subjects. My life work, in  a sense.I'm just passing on what I've learned so it might help others. I cover about 40 Proms each year. Please take a bit of time and read more.

Handel Rinaldo Glyndebourne Prom 55 REVIEW Less is more

Less is more! If ever there was a case to be made for semi-staging, this Prom 55 version of Handel Rinaldo from Glyndebourne proved it. The original Glyndebourne full production was strikingr in parts (please see review HERE) but conceptually flawed.  Handel's glorious opera works because it's hyper-fantasy. Knights, enchantresses, magic, battle scenes, mountains, oceans, anything but literal realism. Handel's audiences had no delusions that the opera and all the other Orlando sagas based on Tasso, had anything to do with historical fact. Handel's audiences thought of the past in terms of Classical Antiquity and Arcadian Idyll so they couldn't have cared less for the faux-profound statement emblazoned across the stage "Were the first Crusades the result of...........".

That's the fatal flaw in Carsen's staging, from which all other horrors (and high points) flow. Reducing the opera to schoolboy dream sequence delimits the fantasy. Bruno Ravella does away with Carsen's excesses, creating a semi-staging that's even more dramatic than the original. Instead of silly gimmicks like bicycle shed battlegrounds, he gets closer to the fundamental fantasy that is the essence of baroque.

Ravella's semi-staging also places more emphasis on the singing, which was more spontaneous than in the original staging. Maybe it's the "end of term" factor, since the Glyndebourne season ended last week. Maybe it's because I was sittting face level with the singers barely a few metres away. But the singing seemed much freer and more exuberant than before, which is a good thing.

This time, Sonia Prina came over much more effectively. I'm even more convinced now that Carsen might have designed the whole production around her. She is a major Handel singer in Europe, and has worked with Dantone and Carsen before, so you can understand why they wanted to make the most of her assets. Freed of having to play along with the schoolboy business, she sang with greater vigour than before, demonstrating why the role isn't necessarily territory for counter tenors like Andreas Scholl, divine as he is. Prina's a woman, but conversely brings out the gutsy, masculine forcefulness of the role.Handel's audiences related to heroes with high, ethereal voices, but Rinaldo's still a fighter and a hero.  Prina's long Cara sposa was very well phrased, demonstrating solid technique and breath control.

Juast as Luca Pisaroni's Argante was getting into his stride in the very difficult Sibillar gli angui d’Aletto, the atmosphere was destroyed by three latecomers who were allowed into the front row of the auditorium. Pisaroni's much too professional to miss a beat, but this was extremely unsettling for others in the audience.  Later another group were let in on the opposite side of the hall, also heading for seats in the middle near the front : maximum disruption. The BBC Proms management really must stop this, which has been happening far too frequently this season.. It's completely unfair on the rest of the audience and on performers. Whoever manages the ushers should make it clear in no uncertain terms, absolutely no late entry til the interval.

This stellar moment was ruined, despite Pisaroni's poise, but the beauty of his singing revealed itself elsewhere, such as the tender richness of  Coma a tempo giungesti  Argante's a complex personality, and the role comes alive created with depth and sensitivity.

Clad in black bondage gear, Brenda Rae created Armida-as-Dominatrix. She's a fabulous actress, and Ravella's semi-staging made the most of her stage presence. Holding a cane, she walks round the audience, like a demented schooltreacher looking for victims to hit. It's a wonderful performance, but the relevance to Handel is marginal. Armida is cruel and powerful, but there's also more to the part. Significantly, Handel interjects long passages for solo harpsichord between Armida's passages. It's a crucial moment in the drama, for Armida's starting to think. Dantone's been playing continuo all along, but now the singing has stopped, she's listening.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are among the best period instrumentalists in Europe (ie the world)  and anything they do is worth hearing, whatever the setting. Wonderful, assured playing, deftly conducted by Dantone. The orchestra creates Almirena even before she comes on stage. Amazingly natural sounding bird song, depicted by sopranino - not flute, not recorder but unique. When Anett Fritsch starts to sing Lascia ch'io pianga, she's haloed by the magical sound around her. 

Tim Mead's Eustazio also blossomed in this Proms performance, freed from the silly changes of uniform.  He's not as stratospheric as, say, Jaroussky or Scholl, but absolutely convincing. Varduhi Abrahamyan sang Goffredo. One of the joys of Rinaldo is that Handel writes start turns for every part. Hence William Towers as the Mago, a Christian version of Armida.  Anyone who still thinks historical realism hasn't heard this part. Would Goffredo and Eustazio have been able to cross seas and mountains to save Rinaldo but for the Mago's magic ? It's not God who saves this hero, nor logic.

Prom 55 Handel Rinaldo was by far superior to the full production because it expressed the true spirit of the opera and its period. Unfortunately, Bruno Ravella, stage director, had to retain the main elements of Carsen's original (schoolchildren, S&M violence) because that was the brief, however confusing it might have been for the audience. But the compensation was that the singing, playing and essential drama came to the fore. (LOTS more on Handel, stagecraft, baroque and the Proms on this site. Please explore )

Staging Handel Rinaldo

Tonight, Prom 55 Handel Rinaldo from Glyndebourne. For background, please read this review of the Glyndebourne production this July HERE  Please also see my Prom 55 preview with more clips HERE.. Here is a clip from a different production from Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 2005. Note how the director, Pier Luigi Pizzi, has combined modern abstraction with over-the-top excess, in the true spirit of baroque. Handel's audiences knew very well that what they were watching was theatre, not fake reality. Glorious costumes, but stylized in the 18th century's idea of the Crusades, which even then audiences would have realized bore no relation to the early Middle Ages. Baroque audience weren't bothered in the least about veracity - they thought in terms of Classical Rome and Arcadian idylls. What's delightful about Pizzi's staging is that he goes along with the fantasy but shows the stage mechanics behind them. In the ocean-crossing scene, the sea is depicted simply by waving a blue cloth across the stage while a ship is dragged along by pulleys. The ship glides very slowly, no storms! But Handel's music is written in a non-naturalistic style and needs time to unfold, so the fit between music and visuals is perfect. Witty and ironic, too.

Birtwistle Angel Fighter Prom Cadogan Hall

Harrison Birtwistle acts nonchalant but delivers seriously. Angel Fighter? (BBC Prom Saturday matinee, Cadogan Hall) Sounds flippant but in fact refers to an all-night cosmic struggle between Jakob and a divine being. Jakob wins and is renamed Israel by the Angel but loses part of his body. Is this a struggle between man and God, and why? Theologians, mystics and Jungians could read much into this. Birtwistle doesn't say, but his music creates such atmosphere that you're drawn in almost as if you're participating.

Shards of dark chords, bright silvery woodwind and brass, alertness, listening. Then the chorus calls, Jakob, wake up! Wonderful mix of circular wailing and staccato, and Jakob (Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts) enters, confused. Do we hear the sound of heavy wings beating the air? "I cannot see!" cries Jakob, confused, "Save me!" Do we hear his fear in the zigzag undulations of the vocal line? Then the angel (Andrew Watts, countertenor) appears, heralded in a wave of clear, pure almost electronic sound. The two voices stalk and entwine each other. Circular themes in the orchestra, throwing and flipping over: wrestling in music. The London Sinfonietta under one of its founders, David Atherton, are at in peak form again, challenged by music they can really come to grips with.  This feels like struggle, churning, pausing, turning. Two sumo-like figures observing each other, grappling, falling back to re-engage again. Staccato thuds, but always a sense of danger : Keep alert, keep listening.

There seems to be a progression of moods, culminating in a whirring, discordant climax which dissipates once more to the two protagonists, facing each other. Emotionally this is very intense, very physical. One thinks of the Oracle in The Minotaur (also sung by Andrew Watts), but also of the muscularity of the Minotaur himself. Maybe that's why the orchestra stamps quiet ostinato, like a beast at bay. Follow the text and you know the ending is near, yet it still creeps up by stealth and catches you unawares as the tenor's voice cuts off mid flow, high on the scale.  This is Birtwistle at his impenetrable, thorny best, much much better than the fairly inchoate Corridor in 2009, definitely up with Birtwistle's greatest. Listen to this again on BBC repeat (starts 48 minutes into the programme).

Wrestling too, on a more esoteric plane in Georges Aperghis's Champ-Contrechamp. The title refers to multiple frames in film, creating parallel images which may or may not meet. Extremely fast, flickering lines, the pianist, Nicolas Hodges, throwing out percussive series of notes, cross cut with similarly electric spark from the orchestra. Up and up the keyboard Hodges goes, teasing and taunting the orchestra, who fight back: nice blurred brass, like they're blowing raspberries. Hodges hits the other side of the keyboard, big, reverberant ostinato that echoes into the void. Is the orchestra silenced? Ultra high pitched responses, so squeaky you almost wince. Fabulously zany interplay between the two protagonists, plenty of inventive incident to keep you alert. It's wonderful that this is a BBC commission and world premiere, for Champ-Contrechamp is way above average and way beyond mundane. An extremely rewarding piece, which repays repeat listening.

It's such joy to hear the London Sinfonietta in full glory again! I went many years without missing a single concert but it's been ages since I had so much fun.

Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell-Davies were close once, then at loggerheads. But they seem to get progarmmed together more now that they're both Grand Old Men of British Music. Max's Il rozzo martello was written nearly 20 years ago, part of Max's fascination with Italianate figures and landscapes. The reference is to Michelangelo and the sculptor's tool breaking into marble in the process of creating art. Perhaps I shouldn't have taken the title to heart, for the music is a delicate filgree that floats about like incense on a  breezy piazza. It's attractive but it doesn't last.