SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD CONCERT REVIEW


 

Edinburgh International Festival 2010 (4) - Nielsen and Wagner: Juha Uusitalo (bass-baritone), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo (conductor). Usher Hall, 16.8.2010 (SRT)

 
Wagner: Die Meistersinger Overture

The Flying Dutchman: “Die Frist ist um”

Die Walküre: Wotan’s Farewell

Nielsen: Symphony No. 5

As with last night, the Finns shone their coruscating light onto Nielsen, this time in his greatest masterpiece, the fifth symphony. Elemental conflict lies at the heart of Nielsen’s symphonic vision: whereas the Inextinguishable dramatises this with its duelling timps the fifth takes it to even more fundamental levels. The opening seems to suggest mankind emerging from the primordial soup, quivering violas persevering under elemental groans from the winds. Then there’s that snare-drum, which seems to attempt to derail the whole musical project until, towards the end of the first half, the music seems to literally disintegrate before an uneasy calm is restored. Oramo shows an iron-clad grip in this music: at one point he seemed to be single-handedly holding back a tide that threatened to engulf it. He wielded the chaotic elements like a weapon of war and then surprised us all by turning it gently back on itself as the first half resolved into a lonely clarinet solo. His greatest triumph is perhaps in the ending: in the final pages Nielsen is surely having us on with that repeated B-flat on the timpani – only at the last possible moment does it become an E-flat so that the symphony can finally end in that key. A triumph? No way! This is merely an uneasy truce, and it is to Oramo’s credit that in his hands the final blaze of glory felt more than a little hollow.

I was less sure of his direction as a Wagnerian, however. He pushed and pulled at the tempi a lot, to the extent that the orchestra was not always entirely with him after a transition. It can also be distracting for the listener, as in the tremendous broadening out for the great E major section of Wotan’s farewell which then sped up dramatically for “Der Augen leuchtendes Paar”. The playing, however, was top notch with enchanting sparkle in the Magic Fire Music, though the brass were not ideally weighty.

Elsewhere I have been effusive in my praise of Juha Uusitalo’s Wotan in the Valencia Ring. His greatest skill is to point up the vulnerability of Wagner’s great figures without losing the grandeur. So it was here: the searing pain of the Dutchman and the infinite regret of Wotan was etched into every note. The acoustics of a concert hall meant that, inevitably, he was sometimes overwhelmed by the sheer size of the orchestral sound, but the power of his interpretation was never in doubt. The highlight was the sequence at the end of the Dutchman’s monologue when he looks forward to Judgement Day, a climax the intensity of which I will remember for a long time. What is it that Nordic musicians so good at Wagner?

The Edinburgh International Festival runs until Sunday 5^th September in venues across the city. For full details and to book tickets go to www.eif.co.uk.

Simon Thompson

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