|
Editorial Board
Melanie
Eskenazi
Webmaster: Len Mullenger
|
Seen and Heard Promenade Concert Review
Prom 18: Rihm, Schumann, Mahler Hélène Grimaud (piano), Inger Dam-Jensen (soprano); Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Jonathan Nott (conductor): 27.07.2006 (AR)
Wolfgang
Rihm’s twenty minute Verwandlung
(UK premiere)
was a rather predictable and disappointing work and did
not live up to the composer’s other scores such as Tutuguri
II Musik nach Antonin Artaud (1981). Verwandlung
is pure
pastiche, a mélange; snatches of Stravinsky,
Varèse,
Schoenberg and Berg but where was Rihm?
I have heard Hélène Grimaud many times and always found her playing very impressive and imaginative but tonight something was lacking in her concentration, clarity and the poetry in Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor. This could of have been partly due to the sweltering heat of the badly ventilated hall, although the Bamberg players were on top form in the Allegro affettuoso, giving sensitive support, especially in the beautifully pointed oboe and clarinet solos. Nott conducted with an assured firmness of hand, delivering taut rhythms and firm tempi throughout.
In the Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso there was some wonderful phrasing and orchestral playing with a lovely deep celli tone so rarely heard from our orchestras. Unfortunately, Grimaud was rather grim, bland and opaque, robbing the music of its sparkling serenity and it felt as if she was absent and alienated from the orchestra.
In the concluding Allegro vivace Grimaud lacked rhythmic bite, her playing being all on one level with no variation of colour or tone, whilst the closing passages were rushed, resulting in smudged crotchets.
Jonathan Nott conducted Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No.4 in G major from memory without the aid of a score – and it showed. Throughout Nott made a mockery of Mahler’s scoring and virtually recomposed the symphony, making it sound more vulgar and sentimental than it is, sounding more akin to George Melachrino.
When recently asked: “Is there a Bamberg way of playing Mahler?” Nott replied: “Teasing, caressing, acerbic, full of double-meaning and everything but non-committal: that's what I'm aiming for…Mahler's Fourth Symphony should leave you feeling disturbed and a little sick.” * Whatever Nott was aiming for he certainly left me feeling disturbed and a little sick, but for all the wrong reasons, and the end result was pretentious and mannered.
Nott introduced dozens of agogic slurrings, accellerandi, harmonic declensions, dynamic distortions, which were merely indulgent impositions on the structure of the work, with quite damaging results. He also introduced all manner of sentimentalising portamenti and glissandi, not only in the string texture, but also in woodwind and brass. Everything the conductor needs to know for a good interpretation is in the score, which is in the form of genres taken from the German-Austrian, 'classical' tradition:’ Mahler never really thought of himself as a symphonist but more as a synthesiser of special sound effects and leit motifs, but nevertheless his Fourth Symphony does hold together as a symphonic whole and is well structured and scored despite its overtly ersatz sentimentality.
In the first movement, Bedächtig. Nicht eilen (Deliberate. Not hurried) orchestral dynamics were distorted with brass and timpani being far too loud whilst the strings played with an exaggerated portamento making them sound over sweet. Again in the second movement In gemächlicher Bewegung. Ohne Hast (With leisurely movement. Without rushing) Nott imposed his own capricious will on the score rather than letting the music play itself: the music is already rhetorical enough and does not need further hamming up.
Whilst the third movement Ruhevoll (Calm) is far too long and repetitious and needs drastic cutting, Nott dragged the music out even more, making it sound so turgid and laboured, seeming to go on ad infinitum. Nott was unable to sustain a basic steady tempo, allowing the music to fragment and fall apart. As a result the playing was often slack and sluggish and again there was an awful schmaltzy slurring of the strings, resulting in revolting sentimentality.
The concluding chorale of the bass dominant figure, on brass and timpani, did not evolve as it should from the previous reprise of the development section, and sounded loud, raucous, and too fast and glared rather than shone. Nott slowed down grotesquely for the reflective coda, thus sentimentalising the whole section.
In the concluding movement - Sehr behaglich (Very cosy) - Inger Dam-Jensen sung her mercifully short part more like a contralto than a soprano and not sounding ‘boyish’ as Mahler wanted - Bernstein actually featured a boy soloist in his recording. Once again Nott hideously distorted dynamics and tempi here, making the music sound hysterical and kitsch all at once; whilst the closing passages were flagrantly milked for all they were worth. I was tempted to ask my neighbour to “Pass the sick-bag, Alice!” Nott’s wayward way with Mahler is certainly not my way.
As usual the uncritical Prom audience lapped it all up and applauded with their usual indiscriminate fervour. A prom audience goes primarily for the ‘herd’ rather than ‘heard’ experience.
|
| ||
|
||||
