SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Stravinsky:  Soloists and Narrator, Chorus of the Mariinsky Theater, Andrei Petrenko, principal chorus master, New York Philharmonic, Valery Gergiev, conductor, Avery Fisher Hall, New York City, 30.4.2010 (GG)

Stravinsky: Orpheus, Oedipus Rex (1948)

Jeremy Irons, Narrator
Waltraud Meier, Jocasta
Anthony Dean Griffey, Oedipus
Alexander Timchenko, Shepherd
Mikhail Petrenko, Tiresias/Creon/Messenger,

Stravinsky’s Orpheus is one of his most beautiful, transparent scores yet, as far as his orchestral music goes, very likely the least played and recorded. The New York Philharmonic had previously played the music under Erich Leinsdorf twenty years ago, and those were the very first performances for the orchestra. It was welcome that Gergiev put this piece on the schedule for the Russian Stravinsky festival, but the lack of familiarity showed.

Every piece of music sounds better when musicians are more familiar with it, the results are more supple and musical. Orpheus on the page is crystalline, objective and can even seem stiff, but the inside the music is frequently lively and expressive. This is a ballet after all, it’s about motion, not statis. There’s also Stravinsky’s fascinating sense of irony; some of the brightest, most energetic music is given to the darkest figures, like the “air” for the Angel of Death, and the “Pas des Furies.” It was these passages that were most problematic. In the former, concertmaster Glenn Dicterow hit all the notes but also hit all the rhythms mechanically, without any sense of expressively pushing and pulling at the phrases. In the tricky “Air de danse” that concludes the “Pas des Furies,” Gergiev had his head deep in the score, navigating the ensemble through some extremely tricky metrical changes. The Philharmonic made it through without mishap, but they left much of the music behind. It takes more than just concentrated rehearsal for an orchestra to really incorporate a piece of music, and while there were no obvious mistakes in the performance, there is an enormous difference between playing the notes and making music.

There were strengths in the performance as well. The sound of this piece is lustrous, and Gergiev developed a velvety surface that in other performances can be exceedingly bright. The “Pas d’action” and “Pas de deux” of Orpheus and Eurydice were finely played and all the “Interludes” were confident and expressive. In the climax and conclusion, the Baccantes attack on Orpheus and Apollo’s appearance, the orchestra had great control of the balance between dynamics and the violent phrasing, followed by a warm and quite moving close, with an absolutely gorgeous orchestral blend and intonation in the final chord.

Oedipus Rex was superb. It was a non-staged performance and had more drama than any staged one I’ve seen. Much of the credit goes to Jeremy Irons, who was an extraordinary narrator. His readings were intimately conversational and elegant, yet also slightly insinuating and threatening. He completely fulfilled the role Cocteau created, which is not merely to describe the action but to take us into it, to make us feel as if we are citizens of Thebes, joining our fellows in commenting on the unfolding events. Irons turned Avery Fisher into a Greek Amphitheater, and Gergiev placed a powerful and intense musical performance at its center. The opening was fast and loud, then Stravinsky’s unique polyphony for the chorus and timpani had a focused, controlled intensity, lighting the fuse for the dramatic detonation to come. There was some sacrificing of refinement to overall power, Petrenko’s bass voice was engulfed a few times in the overall orchestral textures, and Meier was drowned in the cabaletta portion of Jocasta’s great aria, which she sang forcefully. Gergiev took that at a fast tempo, an unusual choice that worked in the context of his overall interpretation that eschewed a static, set-piece feeling for real forward momentum. Anthony Dean Griffey’s voice easily cut through the orchestra, and he conveyed both command and fear as Oedipus. Gergiev’s accompaniment for when Oedipus realizes his fate was focused and held back just enough for maximum effect. The final scene, from the fanfare, through the amazingly direct announcement of Jocasta’s death to the powerful confluence of material heard before – the rising and falling orchestral cadence, the timpani tattoo, the lamenting men’s voices in the chorus – was superlative.

George Grella