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SEEN AND HEARD
UK CONCERT REVIEW
Berlioz, Saint-Saëns and Rimsky-Korsakov:
Jean-Philippe Collard
(piano), Orchestra of Welsh National Opera / Kirill Karabits, St.
David’s Hall, Cardiff, 24. 4.2009 (GPu)
Berlioz:
Roman Carnival Overture
Saint-Saëns:
Piano Concerto No.2
Rimsky-Korsakov:
Scheherazade
Like the Chorus of Welsh National Opera, the Orchestra has, over the
years, made very significant contributions to performances in
theatres in and beyond
Wales. Indeed, some cynics have felt that they and the chorus were,
occasionally, the best things about certain productions! The Opera’s
musical directors have included Sir Charles Mackerras (1987-1992)
and Carlo Rizzi (1992-2001, 2004-2007), so to say that the orchestra
has measured up to the standards that such directors have set is to
acknowledge its considerable qualities as an operatic orchestra. It
seems very probable – to judge from the evidence so far – that the
arrival (from August 2009) of Lothar Koenigs as music director will
see the maintenance of similarly high standards in the opera house.
Naturally, the orchestra’s fame in the concert hall is of a somewhat
lesser kind – and it is perhaps inevitable that that should be so.
Yet, being thoroughly competent in terms of musicianship and
technique, it can be relied upon, even in non-operatic music, for
eminently listenable performances, even if it is rare for them to
scale the heights of the truly revelatory. These comments are not –
emphatically not – meant to damn with faint praises. As a body of
musicians it naturally spends less time working on concert
repertoire than on the operatic canon and such works are, as it
were, less fully present in the corporate bloodstream of the
orchestra. But it is never less than worth hearing. Much depends on
the conductors it works with and the rapport established. In the
young Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits the musicians were working
with a conductor well equipped to bring out the best in them.
Karabits, some thirty years old, the son of the composer Ivan
Karabits, studied in Kiev and Vienna and from 1998-2000 was
assistant to Ivan Fischer in Budapest. Since then he has worked
extensively in both the opera house and the concert hall, holding
posts with both the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the
Strasbourg Philharmonic. Later this year he will become Principal
Conductor of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and is soon to make his
debuts with Opéra National de Lyon and English National Opera.
At this concert his work was precise, without fussiness, and he consistently
achieved orchestral textures striking for their clarity. Rhythmically his work
was generally precise and persuasive and the control of dynamics was impressive
and always purposeful. I had the sense that the Berlioz, with which he began the
programme, was perhaps something of a personal favourite – certainly there was
an air of affectionate respect about the performance which was full of energy
and always communicated the music’s structure. The brass section was impressive
throughout and the cor anglais melody was attractively played by Gillian Taylor.
The orchestra – which contains a good proportion of younger musicians – brought
an attractive freshness to the music and reveled in the nicely sprung rhythms,
especially in the saltarello which occupies the second half of Berlioz’ overture
and the coda’s interplay of strings and tambourine was thoroughly enjoyable.
In Saint-Saëns’ second Piano Concerto, Karabits and the Orchestra were joined by
Jean-Philippe Collard, for whom such a piece is surely second nature. But there
was nothing merely routine about his interpretation of the work. He was a
commanding (and immensely stylish!) presence at the keyboard. In the extended
fantasia which opens the work Collard was less obviously ‘Bachian’ than some
pianists are; there were clear anticipations of romanticism about some of his
phrasing, pre-echoes which worked well and which made this quasi-improvisatory
passage sound far less like the pastiche than it can sometimes appear to be.
Collard’s playing was full of attractive and fluent runs, and there was a
glitter to his work that made this one of the less intense readings of the first
movement. The eclecticism of Saint- Saëns’s writing in the second movement was
fully brought out by Collard, his playing being full of sprightliness and
allusive wit. It was here, though, that one had slight doubts as to the
absoluteness of the orchestra’s grip on the music; all the notes were there in
the right places, of course, but just now and then one wondered if the
concentration needed to ensure that that was the case didn’t rather dissipate
the sheer spirit needed in the orchestral contribution if this remarkable and
inventive movement is to be an absolute success. In the closing Presto there
was, for the most part, a strong sense of power and drive from soloist and
orchestra alike, but there were moments when the rhythms got just a little on
the stodgy side and an occasional sense of looseness to Collard’s playing.
Karabits’ reading of the score – or at least the work he got from the orchestra
– occasionally sounded just a bit undercharacterised (perhaps for the reason
mentioned above) and as such the dialogue between piano and orchestra sometimes
seemed a little overbalanced in favour of the soloist. This was, then, an
exciting, but slightly flawed, performance of a fascinating concerto.
No complaints about the Scheherazade which closed the programme. This was full
of character and played with a winning theatricality which made me, at least,
think about the relevant experience of both orchestra and conductor. The
Kalendar Prince, the Festival at Baghdad, the Sea and the Ship – all were
brought vividly to life in a splendidly expressive performance. Helena Wood, the
orchestra’s Guest Leader was a largely convincing soloist in a performance
which, overall, did away with the excessive wide-screen and technicolour effects
that we sometimes get in this music. This was a more intimate performance than
many and that was one of its particular attractions. There was a genuine poetry
to much of what we heard, not that over-the-top Disneyfication to which the work
is sometimes subjected; Karabits beautifully brought out the delicacy of some of
the work’s colours and his exactness in the control and variation of dynamics
paid rich dividends here. Alongside the contribution of Helena Wood, the other
soloists called for by Rimsky-Korsakov’s score all acquitted themselves very
well and the full orchestral sound had a conviction and certainty, as well as
whole hearted lyricism, which hadn’t been so obvious in the Concerto. It was a
joy to hear the expansive melody which opens the third section given time to
breathe – the strings were at their best here, a lovely dreamlike quality of
repose and mystery achieved without any sentimentality. The last section had
plenty of fire and energy and was full of well-executed changes of tempo, the
rhythms fiercely and precisely accented. There was, in short, a real sense of
drama to this Scheherezade. The Orchestra of Welsh National Opera was – at least
metaphorically – back in the theatre rather than the concert hall!
Glyn Pursglove
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