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PERFORMANCES OF THE YEAR 2007 :
Seen and
Heard Reviewers present the concert and oper performances that
gave them the most pleasure during the past year. Click the blue
links to see their original reviews. (BK)
Mark Berry (UK) Notwithstanding
Valery Gergiev's arrival at the healm of the London Symphony
Orchestra, London's hottest musical draw remains the partnership
of the LSO with its President, Sir Colin Davis. I could have
chosen my performances of the year solely from this team, but
faced with the proverbial gun to my head, I opted for their
superlative performance of Haydn's Creation. Recorded
for LSO Live, this performance, overflowing with joy and
wonder, at last provided a rival for Karajan and the Berlin
Philharmonic. If Karajan's soloists will probably never be
matched, Davis arguably just had the edge in terms of orchestra
and direction, and his magnificent London Symphony Chorus
outstripped all rivals. http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2007/Jul-Dec07/haydn0710.htm Moving across town
from the Barbican to the reopened Royal Festival Hall, the
Philharmonia has benefited recently from the rekindling of its
relationship with erstwhile principal conductor, Riccardo Muti.
Muti also gave two concerts this year with the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, the second of which presented works by Prokofiev,
Falla, and Ravel. Far from negligible in the core Austro-German
repertoire – he remains one of the
world's greatest Mozartians and peerless in Gluck – Muti can
nevertheless be relied upon to excel in works demanding an
exacting array of orchestral colour. The encore, Verdi's
Overture to La forza del destino, was so brimming with
fire that it almost convinced a hardened Verdi-sceptic such as
myself.
http://www.musicweb-international.com/sandh/2007/Jul-Dec07/muti0610.htm The London
Sinfonietta under Diego Masson opened the South Bank Centre's
splendid festival Luigi Nono: Fragments of Venice
with works by Schoenberg and Nono. Prefaced by a
fascinating conversation with the wonderful Nuria
Schoenberg-Nono, daughter and widow of the composers, the
concert also turned into a tribute to the greatly
missed longtime Sinfonietta flautist, Sebastian Bell. The
audience was compelled by Nono's extremes of expression to
listen ever more closely, but none of this could have been
possible without such committed performances. We now look
forward to the 2008 British premiere of Prometeo,
Nono's 'tragedy in listening'.
http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2007/Jul-Dec07/nono0110.htm Finally, I cannot
but mention Bernard Haitink's long-awaited return to Covent
Garden, for Parsifal. A number of staged operas merited
consideration: Daniel Barenboim's superb Berlin account of Don
Giovanni, let down by a catastrophic production and some
indifferent singing, the Edinburgh Festival's Capriccio,
and the Deutsche Oper's Elektra. Haitink too suffered a
pretty much unredeemable production, whereas the two Strauss
operas had benefited from far stronger theatrical values. Yet
somehow, against all odds, Wagner's miraculous late score, 'lit
from behind', won through by virtue of the conductor's towering
yet unassuming greatness.
http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2007/Jul-Dec07/parsifal2112.htm
Bernard Jacobson (USA)
Verdi’s Trovatore as a detective story narrated by
Hercule Poirot? Darmstadt pulled it off, with superb artists in
the leading roles to boot. (Sorry to pass over my home base by not
choosing one of this year’s innovative productions inspired by
prematurely ousted artistic director Lazaridis, but…:) let’s hear
it for one of Germany’s most interesting smaller opera stages
Best Concert:
A concert at Athens Lutheran Church attended by
a mere handful of people was by far the more stirring than any of
the big Athens Concert Hall events I attended this year:
Tsalahouris’ Lenz, performed by the Opus Femina Chorus
under Falia Papagiannopoulou and featuring Evgenia Kalophonou,
mezzo soprano:
There were so many other excellent performances
that it won’t be fair to single out others, and in any case
I'm limited to four!
Soloists; City of
Birmingham Symphony Chorus; Members of the City of Birmingham
Choir; City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari
Oramo. Soloists; Three
Choirs Festival Chorus; Gloucester Cathedral Choristers;
Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Andrew Nethsingha. At the opposite
end of the spectrum from the intimate scale of Monteverdi’s
Vespers came this impressive Three Choirs performance of
War Requiem. Andrew Nethsingha directed a committed and vivid
performance. Among the trio of soloists pride of place must go to
tenor James Gilchrist whose outstanding and immensely
communicative singing is the clinching reason for choosing this as
one of my Performances of the Year.
Glyn Pursglove (Wales and Spain) The Allegri
Quartet, in a venue not in itself especially intimate, created a
real sense of semi-private conversation, a conversation of which
the audience were an integral part, in a programme made up of
Haydn, Bartok and Beethoven. Conversation seemed the natural
metaphor for a performance in which individual voices asserted
themselves and their ‘views’, without ever failing in respect for
the other voices.
Marc Bridle (Canada)
I did not have the opportunity to attend that many concerts
during 2007 but of the two I did review for Seen and Heard
it was the striking differences between them that I most remember.
On the one hand we had the
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (my first encounter with
them) and a big-name soloist in a popular violin concerto; on the
other, we had the Wiener Philharmoniker, an orchestra I have heard
countless times, with an orchestral principal playing a popular
cello concerto. That Franz Bartolomey left a far greater
impression in Elgar’s Cello Concerto than Sarah Chang did in
Mendelssohn’s E minor Violin Concerto spoke volumes: his was an
imaginative and highly individual interpretation that brought
freshness to a work one thought one knew; hers was simply too
comfortable and too assured to delve beneath the surface.
Both concerts featured Wagner – and if the
Vienna Symphony Orchestra’s Overture to Rienzi made
for a more interesting beginning to events than the VPO’s Prelude
to Tristan that was in part due to, this time, an orchestra
and conductor having something fresh to say.
Both concerts also closed with magical performances of two great
symphonies. The VSO’s Rachmaninov Second was lean but opulent,
taut and dramatic. The Wiener Philharmoniker’s Nielsen Fourth,
under an inspired Sir Simon Rattle, was a revelation: luminous,
volatile and eschewing the pitfalls this notorious work can so
often induce in interpreters.
Marc Bridle
Geoff Diggines (UK)
Prom 71: Although I had reservations about
Levine’s conducting of the Brahms symphony the UK premiere of the
Elliott Carter Three orchestral Illusions was for me a very
special musical event. The pieces, as I said, are concertos for
orchestra in microcosmic form (aptly preceding the greatest
concerto for orchestra). The playing of the Boston orchestra, for
whom the work was commissioned, was of the highest order; not just
virtuosic but deeply musical and perfectly attuned to Carter’s
highly original orchestral textures. Although Carter (coming up to
his one hundreth birthday) uses a large orchestra he deploys it in
an almost chamber-like fashion, each piece lasting no more than
three minutes. Like Anton Webern Carter here condenses an
incredible range of harmonic, contrapuntal, tonal complexity and
orchestral elegance and lucidity into the most ecomically
conceived form. The three pieces were inspired by literary
examples from classical antiquity and the early modern age. As I
said in my review the prospect of Carter extending these
orchestral ‘Illusions’ to the multiple and dazzling illusions of
our own age of celebrity obsession and media/political distortion
and illusion is a tantalising one.
Beethoven, Mozart and Mendelssohn:
Viktoria Mullova (violin) Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir Charles
Mackerras (conductor), Queen Elizabeth Hall, 10.5 2007 (GD)
There are few conductors alive
today who can match Mackerras’s sheer musical and stylistic range.
At just turned eighty he shows absolutely no sign of conductorial
decline; if anything he seems to be going from strength to
strength. This was a very conventional concert with an overture,
concerto and symphony. What struck me most of all was Mackeras’s
total mastery of each works idiom and style; the ‘Hebrides’
Overture was lucid and fresh with just the right balance between
lyricism and drama; the Beethoven Violin Concerto (with excellent
playing from Mullova) was a model of orchestal accompaniment and
dialogue. But perhaps it was Sir Charles’s ability to let Mozart’s
great last symphony play itself (as Mozart wrote it) with no
conductorial points or mannerisms to intrude between the work and
listener, which really made this concert special. Throughout the
Philharmonia responded superbly to Mackerras’s, and the composer’s
demands; every texture and nuance was absolutely clearly and
lucidly delivered.
Geoff Diggines
Göran
Forsling (Sweden)
As always it was opera that constituted the majority of my live
experiences during 2007 and two premieres at the Royal Stockholm
Opera go to the top of my list. In May
Cosi fan tutte was a real charmer with absolutely
beguiling sets, breakneck direction by Ole Anders Tandberg and
superb acting and singing by the whole cast headed by Maria
Fontosh and Peter Mattei.
In September the last part of Stockholm’s Ring des Nibelungen
was launched and even though this
Götterdämmerung wasn’t quite on a par with Die Walküre
it was a glorious conclusion of this brave project with mainly
home-grown forces and Katarina Dalayman as a world-class
Brünnhilde.
Just a couple of weeks before that premiere I visited the Helsinki
Festival and heard the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under
Herbert Blomstedt and with the young Antti Siirala as piano
soloist in a stunning
Brahms programme. The orchestra was on top form and
Blomstedt is certainly one of the leading conductors in the
central Austro-German repertoire.
Finally an oddity – but a truly charming one:
Vienna songs from the good old days juxtaposed with songs
by several present-day Viennese composers who were all present in
Alte Schmiede, located just a stone’s throw from Stephansdom in
central Vienna. We were no more than 40 people there but there
were pleasures a-plenty.
Göran Forsling
Bruce Hodges (USA)
As usual, New York City has far too much music for any one person
to contemplate, mush less absorb. Among scores of concerts, I
felt lucky to attend two superb recitals by Marc-André Hamelin,
three evenings of contemporary works paired with Mahler by Simon
Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Metropolitan Opera
reprising its striking productions of
Janáček's Jenůfa
and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin,
both with stellar casts. And adventurous concertgoers were faced
with countless fascinating evenings by smaller ensembles, many
unearthing repertoire no one else will touch. Either/Or, directed
by composer Richard Carrick and percussionist David Shively, is
one of the newer groups on the ascent in New York’s contemporary
music landscape, along with the tireless International
Contemporary Ensemble (a.k.a. ICE), counter)induction and the
American Modern Ensemble.
This fall, New Yorkers finally got the chance to discover “The
Dude” for themselves, and the good news is, conductor Gustavo
Dudamel lives up to the hype. If his debut with the New York
Philharmonic to my ears felt “merely” excellent, rather than
supersonic, his two concerts,
HERE and
HERE with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela
caused many of us to muse in grand terms about the future of
classical music. But the New York Philharmonic need not fret that
Dudamel has been spirited away to the West coast, since
conductor-designate Alan Gilbert is already demonstrating how to
expertly construct a concert. His evening of two Bach
arrangements—by Stokowski and Webern—melded with Ligeti and
Schumann was a study in symmetry and overlapping commentary
(review
HERE) but hardly a mere intellectual exercise with the New
York musicians playing so brilliantly.
But ultimately, two chamber music concerts
nudged each other for top honors, and I have to award a tie.
Programming, programming, programming—this is what distinguishes
the groundwork for a great evening, and in October, James Levine
and the extraordinary
MET Chamber Ensemble presented one of the wittiest turns of
the fall. Who could have dreamed up enlisting John Harbison,
Elliott Carter and Milton Babbitt for Stravinsky’s L’histoire
du soldat, along with outstandingly sung samples of each
composer’s vocal music? And back in the spring, the venerable New
York New Music Ensemble presented a tightly organized display of
virtuosity titled
Madness and Battle Scenes, again showing canny
decision-making, superb musicianship and the vocal and theatrical
pyrotechnics of soprano Haleh Abghari, all conducted by Jeffrey
Milarsky, an increasingly indispensable presence on the new music
scene.
Bruce Hodges
This year, the editorial powers-that-be tell us, we are restricted
to a Draconian maximum of four choices, but a preliminary word
about the omissions is not (by me at least) to be resisted. The
near misses include a stunning Seattle Symphony performance of
Debussy’s Ibéria conducted by Stéphane Denève, whom I
hadn’t previously heard of but surely will again; a magnificent
recital by Deborah Voigt; arresting Beethoven and Brahms concerto
performances by, respectively, those evergreen pianists John Lill
and André Watts; Eri Klas’s masterly reading of Sibelius’s Seventh
Symphony; cellist Joshua Roman’s equally masterly Ligeti Solo
Sonata; a brilliant Haydn C-major Cello Concerto played by Gerard
Schwarz’s 16-year-old son Julian; Huw Edwards’s Elgar First with
the Portland Columbia Symphony; and Nuccia Focile’s compelling
Mimì in the Seattle Opera’s La Bohème. This leaves me with:
Verdi, Falstaff:
Seattle Opera Young Artists Program, soloists,
members of the Auburn Symphony, cond. Dean Williamson, dir. Peter
Kazaras; Meydenbauer Center, Bellevue, WA, 01.4.2007 (BJ)
Sweeping all my reservations about pre-opening stage business out
of my mind, this Young Artists Program Falstaff fully
matched the customary standards of the parent Seattle Opera, and
demonstrated that in Peter Kazaras the program has an artistic
leader of genius.
Brahms:
Ignat Solzhenitsyn, cond., Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia,
Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia Chamber Chorus, Perelman
Theater, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, 21.5.2007 (BJ)
After the previous season’s all-Mozart program that I saluted in
these columns, Ignat Solzhenitsyn’s traversal of three major
Brahms works maintained the level of his brilliant work with the
Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. It’s good news that he has now
turned his attention to Brahms’s solo piano music, with a
recording scheduled to appear before long.
Messiaen and Ellington:
Geoffrey Simon, cond., Jay Gottlieb, piano, Thomas Bloch,
ondes Martenot, Northwest Mahler Orchestra, Benaroya Hall,
Seattle, 9.9.2007 (BJ)
Any local premiere of a work as vast and challenging as Messiaen’s
Turangalîla Symphony is worthy of commendation, and the
quality of this one led by the ever-enterprising Geoffrey Simon
went well beyond what could be expected from largely amateur
orchestral forces.
Britten, Liszt, and Shostakovich:
Gerard Schwarz, cond., Arnaldo Cohen, piano, Seattle Symphony,
Benaroya Hall, Seattle, 17.11.2007 (BJ)
Gerard Schwarz’s interpretation of Shostakovich’s epic Eleventh
Symphony yields to none in its fierce intensity and unerring
expressive focus. Even finer now than when I first heard him
conduct the work a decade ago, it put a recent Gergiev reading
with his touring Kirov Orchestra in unflattering perspective.
Bernard Jacobson
Bettina Mara (Greece and Germany)
Best Opera:
This has been an unusually good year for live
performance. Perhaps by sharing these, we can re-live something of
the experience.
Mahler – 8th Symphony, Berlin, 09.04.2007
This was truly exceptional. Boulez’s understanding of Mahler is
based on such deep affinity with the composer that this was a
truly transformational experience. There were so many insights,
into the symphony, into its place in Mahler’s music and thought,
and into the very spirit of musicianship. This was truly inspired
– Boulez really understands “Veni, Creator spiritus “.
Henze – Phaedra, Berlin, 10.09.2007
Henze overcomes the painful traumas from which this opera emerged
by writing a piece so strikingly innovative that it may take some
years for its depth to be truly appreciated. He deals with
eternal themes of death, love and creativity in a powerful,
personal way. It’s a very rewarding opera for those prepared to
engage with it.
Nono, La Lontananza, London, 21.10.2007
Nono’s work is sadly misunderstood in this country. The South
Bank’s series, Fragments of Venice did a lot to restore the
balance. This concert encapsulated what makes Nono such an
important figure in modern music. A great masterpiece, created by
two performers closely connected to the composer. (the other
concerts were good, but this was ground breaking)
Janàček – From the House of the Dead, Amsterdam, Boulez,
01.06.2007
Boulez and Chéreau create a highly intelligent and intense
realization of this opera, showing how Janàček, at this late
stage, was developing new ideas. This was also a superb example of
how musically-informed, innovative staging can enhance the impact
of the music.
Anne Ozorio
John Quinn
Recital by Dame Felicity Lott and Malcolm Martineau, Cheltenham
Festival
Dame Felicity mixed nineteenth-century French mélodies and
twentieth-century art songs by American composers in a captivating
recital. It was a flawless, involving and marvellously
entertaining recital by a superb singer at the very top of her
form and working in a true partnership with a pianist who was
demonstrably “with” his singer at all times. I loved every minute
of it.
Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934): The Kingdom Op. 51
Over the weekend of Elgar’s birthday Sakari Oramo and the CBSO
performed all three of his great oratorios in Symphony Hall. This
performance of The Kingdom was the final offering. Oramo
led a performance that was dedicated, convincing and deeply
satisfying. He and his performers did Elgar proud.
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643): Vespers of 1610
Ex Cathedra Choir, Soloists and Baroque Ensemble; His
Majesty’s Sagbutts and Cornetts conducted by Jeffrey Skidmore.
This superb performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers in
Gloucester Cathedral was one of the highlights of the 2007 Three
Choirs Festival. Under the inspiring leadership of Jeffrey
Skidmore the performers communicated most effectively to the
audience their sheer enjoyment of this splendid music. It was a
concert that I will not quickly forget.
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) War Requiem Op. 66
John Quinn
Tim Perry (Australia)
Dvořák,
Smetana, Janáček:
Sydney Symphony, Sir Charles Mackerras (conductor), Sydney Opera
House Concert Hall, Sydney, 12.10.2007 (TP)
This was the pick of the Sydney
Symphony concerts I reviewed this year. There was a palpable
sense of occasion for Sir Charles Mackerras' "coming home" concert
with the Sydney Symphony, one of a series celebrating the
orchestra's 75th birthday in 2007. Sir Charles galvanised the
orchestra in performances of three Czech scores he knows so well,
capturing the natural lilt and inflection in each.
Mayr, Mozart, Haydn, Schuster:
Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano), Australian Brandenburg
Orchestra, Paul Dyer (conductor), City Recital Hall Angel Place,
Sydney 03.03.2007 (TP)
This concert was typical of the
Australian Brandenburg Orchestra's enterprising programming,
with the Mayr and Schuster rarities complementing Haydn's Bear -
a fabulous symphony that is often recorded but too seldom
heard live. The popular item on the programme, Mozart's 21st
piano concerto, received a sparkling performance on the
fortepiano from
Kristian Bezuidenhout. I will be following his career with
interest
Tim Perry
The Allegri Quartet. Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, 13.10.2007.
Philharmonia Orchestra / Andras Schiff, St.David’s Hall, Cardiff,
31.03.2007
Schubertiades are, necessarily, somewhat rare in South
Wales. Even if they were a common occurrence, I suspect that we
would have to wait a long time to experience one finer than this
evening with Schiff and the Philharmonia. Emotional complexity and
formal inventiveness, grace and substance alike, were everywhere
evident in richly resonant performances of the second and fifth
symphonies and of the D899 impromptus.
El viaje a Simorgh: Soloists, Coro y Orquestra Titular del Teatro
Real, Madrid, conducted by Jesús López Cobos.
15.05.2007
José Maria Sánchez-Verdú’s opera made for a memorable evening’s
theatre, lavishly staged with visual spectacle in abundance;
enigmatic and episodic the whole evening gripped the attention,
and the diversity of Sánchez-Verdú’s music - drawing on the
western avant-garde, violas da gamba and amplified violin,
Spanish Renaissance music, electronic music and Islamic chant -
was exhilarating.
Glyn Pursglove
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