SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Brahms and Schumann: Stephan Loges (bar), Rachel Nicholls (sop), Benjamin Hulett (tenor), Scottish Chamber Orchestra, John Storgårds (conductor), Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 6.5.2010 (SRT)

Brahms: Serenade No. 2, Four Serious Songs

Schumann: Mass in C minor

For all his significance in the development of music Schumann seems to be the slightly awkward cousin among the Romantics. It is good to hear more of him in this, his anniversary year, and it is especially interesting to hear his Mass. He wrote it in 1850 after moving from Lutheran Dresden to Catholic Düsseldorf. Around the same time Schumann was becoming increasingly interested in Bach (he was rehearsing the B minor Mass and St Matthew Passion when he began work on the Mass) and for me the closest link was the explosion of euphoria at the beginning of the Gloria. The unusual insertion of the Offertorium, however, sounds like it has been lifted straight out of Palestrina, a solo soprano with cello and organ continuo accompaniment. That said, the piece is 100% Schumann. The brooding gloom of the Kyrie or Romantic sweep of the Credo is entirely consistent with the world of his orchestral music, and I even fancied I could hear the fanfares of the Spring symphony at the Hosanna. The SCO chorus picked up by far the bulk of the work and sounded crisp and articulate throughout, a testimony to the great work being done by Gregory Batsleer, their new director. Soprano Rachel Nicholls sounded bright and rather ethereal in her moments and the very brief contributions from Benjamin Hulett and Stephan Loges were resonant and helpful.

Earlier, however, Stephan Loges had comprehensively stolen the show in the Four Serious Songs. These sombre meditations need a voice and manner that projects authority and weight, and Loges provided this triumphantly. His dark, magisterial tone was perfectly suited to this repertoire and he combined command of the music with wonderfully subtle shading, most obviously in the moment in the third song around which the whole cycle pivots when death changes from being bitter to acceptable to the needy soul. In the hands of an artist of this stature this potentially grim music flowers and prospers and it is this that will live in my memory for longest. It would be a shame, however, if it totally blocked out a lovely performance of Brahms’ second Serenade, memorable especially for some delicious wind playing that sparkled with colour. John Storgårds, currently chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic, moulded the music with a sense of organic unity and growth, balancing the solemnity and the fun very well.

Simon Thompson