SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW

Berg, Sibelius, Shostakovich: Soloists, Guildhall Symphony Orchestra/Sian Edwards, Barbican Hall, London, 20.3.2010 (J-PJ)

 

Berg: Three Fragments from Wozzeck

Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 49 in D minor

 

Soprano – Charlotte Beament

Soprano – Inês Simões

Violin – Anna-Liisa Bezrodny


With an audience packed full of fellow students, friends and family, the reception for this performance by players from the Guildhall School of Music of Drama was bound to be rapturous. But the standard of playing and musical insight also put the concert on a par with others by well-established professional orchestras.

Berg’s Three Fragments from Wozzeck made for a highly charged opener. Put together as a concert hall taster before the opera’s eventual premiere in 1924, the suite includes some of the most intense moments of the drama. The decision to have two different Maries for the first and second fragments was an odd one – explained later by their joint appearance in the third fragment. Charlotte Beament exhibited a bright but brittle tone, not altogether inappropriate for her flirting with the soldiers as they march past her window. But Inês Simões was heavy, thick voiced and unconvincing as the guilt-ridden Marie. Both singers reappeared at the end of the final fragment, sharing the roles of the mocking children and Wozzeck’s orphaned son. This was an inspired move, and certainly ratcheted up the pathos. The orchestral playing was a little loose in parts, with some unravelling of Berg’s orchestral textures.

Anna-Liisa Bezrodny’s performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto was astonishing. Bending, twisting and swaying throughout, it was as if her whole body was attached to the music. The technical demands held no fears for the young Russian virtuoso, and her partnership with conductor Sian Edwards ensured a seamless performance across the three movements. The central slow movement was especially well-played. Bezrodny’s rendition of the main melody against a background of throbbing lower strings couldn’t have been more intense.

Shostakovich’s fifth symphony – the ‘Soviet artist’s reply to just criticism’ – is a complex, ambiguous work, riddled with questions. The Guildhall SO’s performance provided no answers, but gave plenty of opportunities for reflection. The first movement was something of a disappointment. The orchestra took some time to build up momentum, and the quiet, reflective ending was marred by plodding brass. After an unremarkable Scherzo, the orchestra really found its feet in the haunting Largo. Woodwind and divided strings managed to penetrate the emotional core of the symphony, and prepared the way for a well rounded finale. Here was Shostakovich’s politically acceptable ending in all its empty and mechanical vulgarity, haunted by brooding harmonic shadows.

 

John-Pierre Joyce