SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW

Shostakovich and Szymanowski: Carolin Widmann (violin) London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski (conductor) Royal Festival Hall 16.1.2010 (GD)

 

Shostakovich: Five Fragments
Szymanowski: Concerto No. 1 for violin and orchestra, Op. 35
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op.43


The Five Fragments, which opened tonight’s concert, comprise orchestral sketches that Shostakovich made in the summer of 1935, in preparation for the Fourth Symphony. And they make fascinating listening; a glimpse into the composers workshop, as it where. The fragments range from a 'Moderato' in 12/8 time for woodwinds with harps to a  fascinating waltz like episode for solo violin with supporting side-drum, double-bass and woodwind, anticipating the waltz parody in the last movement of the Fourth Symphony. This kind of integrated and imaginative programming is what we have come to expect from Jurowski.

Szymanowski’s beautiful First Violin Concerto from 1922, was also well chosen in terms of idiomatic contrast and in the sense that this work is hardly standard repertoire, at least not in London concert life. The concerto is in the form of four continuous and contrasted movements. Although the concerto is imbued with shades of  Debussy, Ravel, and even Stravinsky (particularly in its elaborate and economic orchestration) one never has the feeling that the composer is merely 'taking' from others; everything is reworked into an orchestral (solo) texture, and compositional contour/structure which are entirely Szymanowski's own. In the original programme, the violin solist was to have been Julia Fischer.. and as the concerto unfolded I kept imagining how much more varied in tonal diversity and contrast Fischer, or even moreso, Alina Ibragimova would have been. Not that the Munich based Carolin Widmann (tonight’s soloist) was disappointing. In fact,  her relative lack of mannered  stylistic ostentation in a concerto where the quite explicit solo part can be made to sound either over- sentimental with too much vibrato, or too virtuosic with a lack of lyrical contrast, was most welcome. But at certain moments in the work’s development - I am thinking of the solo part on a high B, providing a magically hushed tonal contrast after the richly textured dynamics of the 'schezando' and the beautifully ascending and sustained cadenza in the concluding 'vivace’ - I wanted more tonal finesse, harmonic range and contrasting contour, found in versions by the likes of Ilya Kaler and Chantal Juillet. Overall though, this was a most satisfying musical experience, especially from Jurowski and the orchestra, in which the conductor predictably  demonstrated his ability to integrate the concerto’s elaborate (exotic) harmonies, textures in to a coherent structural whole.

It is something of a cliché to say that Shostakovich's huge Fourth Symphony of 1935 is 'fascinating' yet the term sticks. Alternatively, it could almost be called Shostakovich's 'Fantastic Symphony' but then any such labelling inevitably sounds vapid. The work’s fantastic (or bizarre?) effect on audiences probably registers more in the West however, which is to say that the symphony is very Russian. While it does pay homage to Western sonata form’s structures - exposition, development, recapitulation - it also deviates from that tradition by incorporating discontinuity and disruption of standard sonata logic and progression.  Sudden eruptions and transitions into fantastically repetitious ostinato sequences happen and dance/folk ideas are sometimes forcibly restrained by rhythmic dislocations and unnerving gear changes. On a superficial level there are  some obvious references to Mahler especially in the final C minor funeral march figure, but closer listening reveals how Bach comes into view  in the form of the long held B flat pedal in the first movement, and the work’s final C pedal and C minor chord. Many Western commentators/critics from the post Webernian avant garde (especially Adorno and Boulez) have found the work hopelessly regressive, not least in terms of its gargantuan orchestral forces, Shostakovich recommended at least eighty four  players in the string section alone, not to mention a  massive deployment of woodwind  and percussion. One could almost make the analogy between this music and the muted Western reception of certain forms of Russian literature; or indeed the continuing dissonance between that which is truly Russian and its otherness vis-à-vis Western culture as a whole. As it happens, Shostakovich, and  this symphony in particular , have found their most empathic interpreters in Russian conductors and orchestras. This is not to imply of course that many Western interpreters have given us anything other than a legacy of  valuable Shostakovich interpretation, but I still find that  conductors like Kondrashin and Rozhdestvensky (to name just two) somehow tap into this Russian soundscape in ways which sound totally idiomatic, although more coarse grained.

So how did the the young Russian Jurowski fare in this work? Well, very impressively overall. This was a relatively brisk/ straightforward reading and all pulled off in just under 58 minutes. What I particularly liked about Jurowski's traversal was his eschewing of interpretative points, and his overall sense of the work’s structure. He didn't always manage the dramatic/abrubt transitions in the long first movement - particularly the sudden scurrying and wild string crescendos toward the movement’s coda - in the way I have heard from Kondrashin and the composer’s son Maxim, but so much was superbly contoured. There was a real sense (and never simply for its own sake) of the parody-like contrasts between massive tutti stretto figures and carnivalesque folk melodies and playful waltz tunes. One disappointment was in the way that Jurowski failed to register  the crescendo ostinato timpani figure inaugurating the concluding magnificent but baleful C major parody brass chorales. That all happened too suddenly but, almost as a compensation, he did articulate the last pp C minor chord, leading to oblivion - or rest/peace - with great subtlety and empathy for the final note of ambiguity. Overall, the LPO responded to composer and conductor admirably. There were some occasional tuning problems, especially in the woodwind, and a few patches of rough ensemble but none of this detracted from the overall excellence of the playing, particularly in the complex and demanding brass passages. From were I was sitting in the stalls, the restricted Festival Hall’s acoustic couldn't quite manage the   massive tuttis  making them sound constricted or distorted. I would love to hear Jurowski conduct this work in the Great Hall of the Conservatoire in his native Moscow.  

Geoff Diggines