SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Sibelius: Helena Juntunen (soprano)  London Philharmonic Orchesta,    Osmo Vänskä (conductor) Royal Festival Hall, 3. 2.2010 (GD)

Luonnotar, Op.70
Symphony No. 4 in A minor, Op, 63
Symphony No, 5 in E flat, Op. 82


It was a piece of excellent programming to include the rarely heard Luonnotar; an evocative tone poem for orchestra with soprano. Written in 1913, it stands chronologically between the two symphonies  in tonight’s concert and like the symphonies Luonnotar contains a wide range of compositional innovations within the staggeringly economic time span of 10 minutes. The text comes from the genealogy of Finnish legends/myths contained in the Kalevala, and is an allegory about the creation of the world occurring through Luonnotar's cracking of a duck's egg. The poem is full of allusions to virginal luminosity, furious tempests and stellar eruptions, gushing ocean waves and chimerical birds in flight: more than enough allegorical imagery for Sibelius  to transform into long ostinato sequences, bi -tonal interjections from sharply contoured brass figures and fascinating tempo changes and rhythmic oscillations suggesting various emanations of flight;  all demonstrating that Sibelius was  a master of 'movement'.

The Finnish soprano Helena Juntunen sang her part superbly. I had the impression that, unlike many singers, she not only knew her part thoroughly, but had studied the orchestral part to the extent that she was able both  to  blend into the orchestral soundscape and to effect a vocal emanation of the various orchestral sonorities and textures. Juntunen is obviously a major vocal talent in her own right, but it helped enormously that she is Finnish, thus naturally understanding the singularities of her native tongue which is neither of Indo-European or Slavic origin.  Vänskä and the LPO responded superbly  both to Miss Juntunen and to Sibelius; brass and strings were in particularly excellent form in this work. 

Although Vänskä conducted an impressive Sibelius 4 tonight, his reading didn't quite have the trenchant coherence and grim power as in a performance I heard him give with the LPO nearly two years ago. Also, his recording of the symphony with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra possesses a distinctive power not entirely matched tonight. The opening plunge into the almost menacing tri-tonal figuration in the lower strings was well delivered but lacked the luminously dark thrust inflected in the ff marking. As a whole, this movement lacked the previously heard sense of structural coherence and sustained, dark tension so that  on occasion the movement’s sombre drive  sagged somewhat. The second movement  'Allegro molto vivace' with its spiralling declensions from mezzo-forte to sustained ppp was well managed, although some of the rhythmic/tonal  shifts sounded less precise and mercurial than before.  In my review of Vänskä's last performance of this symphony with the LPO, I noted that the great slow movement 'Il tempo largo' had an inevitability about it, the 'sombre modal tread' 'playing itself', so to speak. But tonight Vänskä had problems in establising an initial tempo, something not helped by the initial m/f flute figure having acute tuning problems and sounding too loud and strident. But by the time we reached the final statement, the grand ascending chorale theme (in D minor modulated from the opening F sharp) to which the preceding thematic unfolding had been leading, the 'rugged' and 'stark' nobility were every bit as impressive as before.

The 'Allegro' finale' with its kaleidoscopic tonal/harmonic shifts, and tri-tonal interrelations with the first movement, was for the most part as impressive as before, although at one or two moments, the modal climaxes were not so sharply etched and soundly structured. But Vanska  did manage the same sense of abrubt, stoical resignation in the repeated m/f A minor chords which conclude the symphony.

Much the same criticisms applied to the performance of the Fifth Symphony. As in Vänskä's recording of the work with the Lahti SO, a fine sense of the overall architecture emerged. Even so, by the time we reached the first movement’s blazing coda, pounding out the tonic E flat on the full orchestra, I didn’t quite have the sense of an inevitable tonal progression from the opening statements through to G major and B major. Woodwinds and horns also had tuning problems in the distinctly B major opening of the second movement 'Andante' and the huge finale took a while to get into gear so to speak.

The resplendent tonic horn motive that gets into swing in the main 'Allegro' (for Tovey 'Thor swinging his hammer') didn't quite have the grandeur implied by the nordic allegory either. The massive modal shift from G flat to the tonic E flat, which launches the finale, with Thor swinging his hammer in 3/2 time, was impressive but there was a disappointing lapse in the coda. The six great tutti chords which punctuate the tonic E flat didn't make their full resounding effect, the fourth chord not together and smudged, thus effecting a sag in intensity and robbing the passage of its full majestic radiance.

Geoff Diggines