SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW

Beethoven: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Ivan Fischer (conductor) Royal Festival Hall, London 10.3.2010 (GD)

 
Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op.21, Symphony No  8 in F major, Op. 93, Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67.

This was the second of two concerts with Ivan Fischer in the OAE's current Beethoven Symphony cycle. Many of the qualities outlined in my review of Fischer's first concert last week applied to this evenings ; plenty of crisp, clear playing and articulation, and a real sense of Fischer's interpretative conviction, eschewing any sense of going 'period' simply for the sake of it. This impression was confirmed by the bright and resolute wind band opening C major of the First symphony.

Fischer demonstrated the 'art' of transition in the lead into the ‘Allegro con brio’ which was not quite up to Beethoven’s crotchet = 112 but had plenty of vigour with the development section emerging 'naturally' from the constellation of themes around G major in the second subject. I didn't quite have the sense of matching dynamics I mentioned last week, the ff not always in sequence or 'in line' with the sudden pp declensions and the powerful little C major coda needed more accuracy in rhythmic articulation and thrust. The F major Andante was  a real joy however with Fischer blending  the important 'con moto' with a beautifully phrased 'cantabile'. Here I was particularly reminded of the 'andante' from Mozart's Symphony in C K 425, the 'Linz', from which Beethoven incorporates the underlying timpani/trumpet rhythm in C and G. The Menuetto and the quasi rondo finale were delivered with tremendous vitality and rhythmic verve. Of particular note was the wonderfully light 'gossamer' woodwind phrasing, with crisp octave violin figurations, in the trio section of the Menuetto; and the precise matching dynamics in the C,G modulations in the development section of the last movement. There were some slight rhythmic inaccuracies in the C major coda which did not seriously detract from the overall sense of fresh power and vivacity.

Of all Beethoven's symphonies I am inclined to think that the Eighth is probably the most misinterpreted by conductors, at least those of the older school who tended to treat it as a relaxed, rococo, graceful and even cosy interval between the Seventh and the Ninth. Undoubtedly, this had a lot to do with rhetoric about the 'even-numbered' symphonies being somehow less 'serious' and 'heroic' than those with 'odd' numbers. Thankfully all this sounds outdated and otiose today. We can recognise that for Beethoven, 'size' mattered much less than trenchant symphonic content. We can even see the Eighth now as a counterpart to the last String Quartet Opus, 135, also in F major,  which is similarly short but by no means 'less'. One of the many qualities of Fischer's performance  was his projection of the work's ironic humour, especially in the quasi-recitativo second movement 'Allegretto scherzando' in which Beethoven was parodying the tick-tocking of Dr Mälzel's new metronome. Fischer's inflection of the recitatives evinced added humour at the thought of some kind of vocal overlay and he  emphasised the muscular thrust of the first movement 'Allegro vivace e con brio',  realising  one of Beethoven's rare deployments of an fff marking in the climax of the development section. The 'after you' p - pp coda was managed with just the right touch of inflected irony and the parody of the old style minuet which constitutes the third movement was correctly graceful, while at the same time  rhythmically punctuated with resonant trumpets and drums. The wonderfully 'modern' trio with horn and cello recitative (so admired by Stravinsky) was dispatched with just the right degree of subtle rubato with a slight ritenuto in the first horn in his solo 3-note lead in to the following 'dolce' for two horns.

Sir Donald Tovey, who certainly did not subscribe to the 'even' 'odd' number fallacy, called the 'Allegro vivace' finale 'one of Beethoven's most gigantic creations'. And I absolutely understand his meaning. Although very few conductors have been able to realize the movements protean diversity, as just one aspect of its 'gigantic' design. In this respect Fischer did exremely well, although ultimately not quite bringing off all the movements diversity and contrast. One problem was an inability to really project the movements very abrupt tonal transitions, as in the sudden wrench into A flat after the melodious second subject. The pounding ascending sforzando triplets in timpani and trumpets/horns, which cap the intensely condensed development, didn't quite have the dramatic, rhythmic 'sostenuto' that Toscanini used to bring to this music. The immense, but so economic, coda with its array of remote tonal oscillations from C sharp to E sharp, was all delivered with a degree of dynamic determination and resolution although not quite having the sense of finality  that Tovey described as 'ending as punctually as the planets complete their orbits' -  but then, very few performances do. Overall, even with these reservations,  this was a most satisfying reading with superbly intense, accurate and engaged playing from the OAE.

No other composition in Western classical music is overlayed with quite the same degree of  accreted  interpretive and literary rhetoric as Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. There is nothing from Beethoven, apart from conjectural, anecdotal material, to suggest that he intended it as anything other than his Fifth Symphony in C minor. And this is the way Fischer viewed the symphony tonight eschewing all the Romantic distorted humanist rhetoric of 'Fate knocking on the door'; of  the 'destiny' of mankind from 'darkness to light' - rhetoric that even a Beethoven contemporary  like  Hegel found obsolete.

With one powerful downbeat Fischer played the famous four bar opening as it is written 'Allegro co brio', with no ponderous separation of each measure, and no protracted fermatas. I particularly liked the way in which Fischer reminded us that the  scansion of the four-bar-rhythm pervades the whole movement, even the plaintive oboe cadenza before the movement's dramatic coda. The bassoon's contribution to the opening theme at the beginning of the recapitulation, once thought to sound inappropriately comic,  took on a wholly symphonic dimension. Beethoven couldn't have made it more clear that he wanted the second movement 'Andante' to be played with movement, 'con moto'. But this has not prevented generations of esteemed conductors taking the movement more as 'molto adagio' and tonight Fischer demonstrated how fresh and ambient the opening variation theme, on violas and celli, sound when played as written -  and for once the C major tutti statements of the theme didn't sound like one of Wotan's baleful pronouncements. The Allegro Scherzo's triumphant opening had extra grainy resonance with those natural horns, and the C major fugato trio initiated in the basses, lost none of its thrust  through being played with reduced strings; if anything, sounding more rhythmically accurate thereby. I particularly admired the way in which Fischer clearly articulated the pp bass recitative figure, often smudged, in the long pp passage with its throbbing drum beat, leading to the C major blaze of the finale. Fischer also had the good sense here to refrain from any kind of crescendo before Beethoven asks for it - eight bars before the finale proper.  Fischer observed the Finale's repeat, but not that of the Scherzo. The Finale itself was notable for its orchestral clarity, a clarity and lucidity so often missing  in this rather heavily scored movement. Also, and as with Toscanini, there was a convincing control of tempo and rhythm, the music never running away with itself, or sagging, as in many performances heard in concert and on record. The coda itself with its repeated chords and affirmation of C major, never sounded too long, sometimes degenerating into curtain - lowering chords,  with Fischer carefully ensuring that the structural contour of the coda cohered as an  essential part of the pattern of the whole symphony.

Overall, another excellent and fresh contribution to this current OAE Beethoven cycle. In more general terms too, this was another innovative contribution to the  range of interpretative insights offered by Beethoven's  protean and enduring symphonic legacy.

Geoff Diggines