SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Janacek and Suk:  Sofia Fomia (soprano) Adrian Thomas (tenor) London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Choir/ Vladimir Jurowski (conductor) Royal Festival Hall 20.2.2010 (GD)

Janacek:  Taras Bulba, The Eternal Gospel

Suk:  Asrael Symphony in C minor, Op. 27


This was another imaginatively programmed concert from Jurowski and the LPO, with a rarely performed choral work by Janacek, and the massive and still relatively little heard (in the West at least) Asrael Symphony by Josef Suk. Although Janacek remained an agnostic, he was familiar from his youth with church music, and this very Czech setting of a poem from the book of Revelation by the twelth-century mystic Joachim of Fiore, seemed a fitting response  in 1913 to the growing tone of war in Europe, the poem, telling as it does, of eternal salvation and mercy in the midst of war and desteruction. It was also important for Janacek, as a kind of protest against German cultural hegemony in Czechoslovakia at the time, to set the poem in its original Czech -  Janacek later developing the particular rhythms of the Czech language  in his unique cycle of  operas. Tenor Adrian Thomas was called in at very short notice to replace an indisposed Michael Konig. And given these circumstances Thomas coped extremely well with his opening meditation on the coming of Revelation. Occasionally his Czech diction was a little stretched but this is to be expected in most non - Czech singers. Russian Soprano Sofia Fomina predictably sounded more at home with her naturally Slavic vocal inflections, working particularly well in her lyrical  invocation of the prophecy of the Angel of Revelation through the Passion and Mercy of Christ. Overall the LPO choir managed their mostly unpolyphonic modal declarations well, despite a few rough edges in tonal unity and Czech delivery. Jurowski conducted in a direct and straightforward manner, achieving an overall and telling unity. As in the choral contribution, there were the occasional patches of rough ensemble, in the florid accompanying string figurations, particularly between first and second violins, which Jurowski, in his customary manner, deployed antiphonally.

It is quite amazing that Josef Suk's monumental 'Asrael' Symphony has been almost exclusively the province of Czech conductors and orchestras. No performances from the likes of Toscanini, Beecham, Klemperer, or Furtwangler! Recently we have had some  recordings of the symphony from Ashkenazy,  and a particularly fine rendition from the German conductor Claus Peter Flor, and a soon to be released recording of tonights performance on the LPO's own label. It could be that the magnificence of recorded performances form Czech masters such as Talich, Kubelik and Neumann are simply a hard act to follow for any conductor! So how did the Moscow trained Jurowski measure up to this Czech orientated legacy? Well, again Jurowski conducted in a direct and straightforward manner with tempi mostly on the swift side; just under 60 minutes in total. But throughout I frequently had the impression that more rehearsal time would have produced more convincing results. Also there was a kind of blandness, in terms of phrasing and the articulation of transitions; almost as though we were sitting in on a run through. This blandness was particularly apparent in the slow fourth movement 'Adagio', a heartfelt lyrical love song and threnody dedicated to the memory Otylka Dvorak's daughter, who also became Suk's wife. This lyrical incantation encompasses a range of tonal/harmonic modulations, related motivically to the modal structure of the whole symphony.. It is also embellished by elaborate figurations from solo violin. Here everything was simply too loud! No real sense of pp. The tutti passages for strings and woodwind producing a overall 'glaring' tone rather than one that caresseses each melodic line and dynamic gradation. Three months before the death of Otylka, Dvorak Died in 1904. And the allegory of 'Asrael' the angel of death ( from the Islamic faith) who delivers redemption from death to angelic love  can be seen as the symbolic foundation for a Requiem recast into symphonic form for Suk's mentor and father-in-law.   Musically and thematically the tritonal death motive pervades the whole symphony. It is most dramatically intoned in the first movement 'Andante sostenuto', from a series of E major variations to its C minor unleashing of grim power puncuated by four-note figure on bass drum. Jurowski correctly played the bass drum figure as a single F, but needlessly rushed the passage, the bass drum figure sounding indistinct,  the whole crucial sequence losing its sense of triumphant menace.  The finale 'Adagio e maestoso', with its wonderful transformation from the opening tritonal drama (ascending major keys of C, D, E), to the redemptive calm of the coda, intoned by the fate motive in C major chorale mode, was again 'played through', rather than invoking the mood of dramatic transfiguration and ethereal resolution, so beautifully captured by the likes of Talich and Kubelik. As already alluded to, the LPO tonight was not on top form. Throughout the symphony there were frequent ensemble and tuning problems, especially from brass and woodwind; and strings in the third movement 'Vivace', with its contrasting dynamics and cross-rhythms.  Also, in the dramatic tutti passages, loudness and stridency seemed to prevail over any sense of sustained power and tension from within the works dramatic structure. I am not sure whether or not this was due to lack of adequate rehearsal time, or unfimiliarity with the work! Possibly an element of both factors?

Alas, the same problems permeated the opening work; Janacek's 'Orchestral Rhapsody' Taras Bulba', taken from Gogol's narrative of the dramatic events leading to the Ukrainian Cosack Taras Bulba's execution, as a kind of symbolic prophecy of Slavic freedom and independence. Tonights performance lacked any sense of line, of unfolding drama leading to the final vision of Slavik victory, a peroration intoned in brass corale motives and punctuated by off-beat timpani figurations. As in the symphony, all this sounded sounded rather loud and strident tonight, robbing the music of its sustained sense of noble victory over oppression..

Geoff Diggines.