SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Mozart and Bruckner: Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski (conductor), Nikolai Lugansky, (piano) Barbican London, 27.1.2008 (GD)

Mozart: Piano Concerto in C major, K 467, No 21.
Bruckner: Symphony  No 5 in B flat major.


Throughout Mozart’s K 467,  Nikolai Lugansky maintained an elegance of phrasing and a sureness of classical line (so important in Mozart). He never overlaid this sense of classical style with any  suggestion of imposed rhetoric, which some pianists justify on the rather dubious argument that Mozart was a nascent ‘romantic’. The real (in Mozart’s terms) ‘Andante’ maintained this classical line whilst subtly incorporating the operatic recitative element with just the right proportion of pianistic ornamentation - as if all the time anticipating the semblance of an aria, say from ‘Figaro’. Lugansky never lost the sense of harmonic/tonal unity throughout the ‘buffo’ juxtapositions of the final ‘Allegro vivace assai’. There was a real sense of dialogue between pianist and conductor here, although occasionally I thought Janowski could have given the march rhythms in the first movement ‘Allegro maestoso’ a degree more ‘gallant’ point and buoyancy. Of special delight however were the many concertante woodwind figurations in themselves, and in accompaniment with the piano solo.

Although in Bruckner’s lifetime,  his Fifth symphony was subjected to all manner of cuts and emendations, mostly by the conductor Franz Schalk, it has survived almost as Bruckner wrote it in the 1951 edition published by Leopold Nowak. Unfortunately,  Bruckner only ever heard a revised edition of his original in a two-piano version, being to ill to attend the premiere in Graz in April 1894.

It is arguable that the Fifth is Bruckner's most classically formed and symmetrical symphony  in terms of tonal/harmonic structure and  the brilliant thematic linking from movement to movement. The final noble peroration incorporates  all the previous themes in the form of a massive B flat major chorale.

I have not heard much of the Polish conductor Marek Janowski, apart from a truly impressive ‘Ring cycle’ he recorded in Dresden. Although he was born in Poland,  Janowski received a thorough musical education and training in Germany holding key positions in Aachen, Cologne and Hamburg  among others. This German training certainly was in evidence tonight. He conducted the huge symphony in one integrated span so to speak. I found his overall approach similar in structure and dynamic projection to master Austrian conductors like Hans Rosbaud and Karl Bohm; both incidently from Graz the city of the work's premiere.  I am not familiar either with Suisse Romande orchestra in Bruckner or in Austro-German music in general. In their long years under the excellent training and direction of Ernest Ansermet they gained a reputation more in music from the French, Russian traditions and the classic modern composers. From the year 2005,  Janowski was appointed Musical Director of the Orchestra and he has obviously molded their excellence to encompass a more Germanic style when needed - although interestingly it is never a completely German sound. As with the Swiss dialect, the orchestra now includes both German and French resonances. The French influence was very notable in the general strong but agile, grainy string sound, also the clear and Gallic sounding, beautifully shaped and prominent woodwind, These elements were complimented by a  brighter toned  brass section, in contrast to the  weightier sounding brass of say the Vienna Philharmonic. But unlike the 'classic' French brass sound,  the rich toned horns in particular,  also sounded more Germanic and devoid of excessive vibrato.

One basic reason why this performance was so memorable was to do with Janowski’s understanding of the tempo relationships in Bruckner. If one takes the trouble to study what is left of Bruckner's notes and original autograph scores (as all conductors worthy of their profession should do) one will constantly find markings such as ‘Bewegt’ (with movement), and ‘doch nicht schleppend’ (‘not dragging’). Janowski understands, as many others do not, that after the opening ‘Adagio’ , Bruckner asks for an ‘Allegro’. Although Bruckner marks the second movement ‘Adagio: ‘Sehr langsam’ ‘Very slow’) the perceptive conductor (like Janowski tonight) can see that the harmonic/tonal layout of the movement demands an ‘Adagio’ with an underlying pulse, with movement. And Janowski understands the importance of this in the movements thematic linkage to the ‘”Molto vivace’ third movement which has the same home key as the ‘Adagio,’ D minor. Each movement has an overall inter-connectivity to the whole symphony and Janowski masterfully fused the D minor, D major syncopations in the first movement's development section - juxtaposing ‘block’ motives in the form of brass chorales with new harmonies in complex cross- rhythms between brass/woodwind and wild string figurations - to the blazing D major/B flat major first movement coda.

As already noted,  Janowski never let the ‘Adagio’ drag or sag, thus sustaining a wonderful  pulse and arch of sound leading  quite inevitably the concluding chorales, alternating between ‘fortissimo’ and ‘pianissimo’ in quite remote tonal clusters and making the pianissimo coda and resolution in D major all the more moving.

The D minor Scherzo is Bruckner's most elaborated statement in this form. Like no other Bruckner Scherzo (actually rarely a joke in Bruckner) is there such tonal/thematic correspondence between the extended development section and the trio proper, which takes its ‘landler’ like sway in 2/4 time from the suggested ‘landler’ ryhthms of the preceding section. Janowski and the orchestra articulated all this with the utmost precision and perception. Overall,  Janowski brought out the underlying dark, even gnomic, tone of the movement, a tone arising from Bruckner's complex juxtaposition of the movements D minor/B flat major  structure.

I said that Bruckner's scherzo didn’t really exude much in the way of ‘joke’ material. But in the opening of the huge last movement (which takes it’s cue from Beethovens’ Ninth in restating the preceding movement;s main themes) Janowski really pointed the ‘keck’ (cheeky) clarinet answers to each entonement of past themes - sounding a bit like something out of ‘Till Eulenspiegel’. The main ‘Allegro moderato’ thrust of this movement, is Bruckners great masterful exercise in counterpoint. Here every fugal entry, every chorale interpolation came over with the greatest resonance and clarity. By the end of the vast development section, which concludes (only partially)  in a great baroque sounding ascending theme variation in brass/woodwind/ string canon from Dminor to D major/ B flat major, I was astonished that I could hear so much woodwind and string detail, usually obscured in the great  onrush of orchestral sound. Although Janowski meticulously observed the movement's wide range of dynamic registers from pp to fff, he wisely held in reserve the unleashing of full orchestral tone for the concluding brass chorale peroration with every strand of the works main themes integrated therein. All perfectly delineated and audible, sounding as noble and powerful as the composer intended, but never loud or strident.

My only quibble was again the non-antiphonal violin placing  that Janowski favoured,  but this sounds a little churlish given the general excellence experienced. A great Bruckner 5.

Geoff Diggines


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