SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW
 

Brahms and Cherubini: Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano), Hallé Choir, Hallé Orchestra,Markus Stenz (conductor). Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 11.11.2010 (MC)

 
Brahms - Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op.83 (1878/81)
Cherubini - Requiem in C minor (1816)


I suppose it’s rare to see a Brahms concerto and a Cherubini sacred choral score together on a concert programme. Although not quite relegated to a mere footnote in history I suspect the majority of the audience had yet to attend a performance of any work by Cherubini. It’s not easy to find many connections between Brahms and Cherubini. The most obvious link is that they both wrote requiems. Brahms’s requiem was an unconventional setting that used a self-chosen text mainly from the Lutheran bible. This ecumenical declaration to mankind was predominately a mass to provide consolation for the living.

By comparison Cherubini’s two remarkable incense infused requiems follow the traditional Roman Catholic Latin requiem mass. Both Cherubini’s requiems tend to be overlooked on concert programmes in favour of more illustrious scores from Mozart; Verdi; Brahms and Fauré. The Cherubini requiem programmed this evening, the earlier C minor Requiem for mixed chorus, has lofty origins. Composed in 1816 for a memorial service for the former king of France, Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette; guillotined Bourbon victims of the French Revolution.

 

The Cherubini Requiem was finely controlled by Markus Stenz the Hallé’s principal guest conductor. I found the mixed chorus of the Hallé Choir extremely well disciplined with voices satisfyingly blended. I loved the way the choir highlighted the drama of the setting with a freshness and excellent diction. Several passages of spine chilling emotionality swelled through the hall; notably with the words ‘Kyrie eleison’; ‘benedictus’ and ‘Lacrimosa’. I found the Graduale section and the text ‘Hostias et preces tibi, Domine’ and, ‘Fac eas, Domine’ tender and radiantly sung. Another highlight was the Pie Jesu section as soft as feather down. Quite divine was the build up to the climax at Lux aeterna that lightened in weight and slowed right down to a hush where you could hear a pin drop. The woodwind in a central role were superbly in tune with the principal clarinet projecting a lovely mellow timbre. Ideally this splendid Hallé choir could do with being expanded by the addition of twenty or so more male voices.

I’m not certain if Georgian pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja has played with the Hallé Orchestra before but with considerable assurance she certainly stamped her credentials on the Brahms B flat major Concerto. Brahms wrote his First Piano Concerto as a young man and it was over twenty years before the massive Second Piano Concerto in B flat major appeared. The complex opening movement had a quality of turbulence and anxiety. Within the intense mood swings, ranging from blustery to gale force, Leonskaja brought welcome shafts of bright sunlight. Impressive playing from the soloist of great intensity in the mellow Andante ranging from steely determination to seasoned tenderness. The ending was dreamlike of an almost ethereal quality. In the genial and buoyant mood of the final movement Leonskaja’s playing was committed and full-blooded with a conclusion that was simply electric. Throughout Leonskaja was a confident performer with the innate ability to display effortless control. At times especially in the Andante she stroked the keys with an incredible degree of delicacy.

Under the baton of the talented Markus Stenz the Hallé played with a slightly hard edge that really suited this programme. I love the way the controlled brass never over- dominate and the string sound is cultured especially the seductively warm violas. At the heart of the Hallé sound the exemplary woodwind section continue to impress. The combination of Brahms and Cherubini was a winning one providing a heady mixture of a familiar concerto and an overlooked choral masterpiece.

Michael Cookson