The French conductor Louis Langrée
is largely known for his work as Music Director of the Mostly Mozart
Festival in New York as well as being Music Director of the Orchestre
Philharmonique de Liège. He established great rapport with the
London Philharmonic Orchestra, who played immaculately for him, although
what made this concert so extraordinary was the way Langrée negotiated
the notoriously dry and recessed Royal Festival Hall acoustics: the
LPO had great clarity, weight and forward projection; a rare thing here.
The concert opened with the UK
premier of Kaija Saariaho’s Song for Betty written in celebration
of the 80th birthday of patron Betty Freeman, who was in
turn one of the supporters of the commission of the composer’s opera
‘Love from afar’. Saariaho based her five-minute Song for
Betty on its closing scene. The composer’s sound world is truly
unique and no other composer seems to echo her scores. Time in music
is uncannily deceptive and no more so than in Song for Betty
which seemed to drift on into eternity. The subterranean sounds give
the sensation of coming from a great distance but being unsettlingly
close at the same time, shattering space and time. The orchestral textures
were cool, refined and distilled, creating a sense of claustrophobic
vastness, with the music hovering and shimmering in a sea of sadness,
devoid of movement, suspending sound in time itself. An extraordinary
and disturbing experience, which was very sensitively conducted and
played.
What made Joshua Bell’s refreshingly visceral playing of Max Bruch’s
popular Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 26 so miraculous was
that he made the work sound so much better than it really is. Bell’s
multiple tones defy easy description, for his playing is paradoxical:
it has a rugged refinement and ordered anarchy. Throughout the performance
Bell would turn his back to the audience and observe the LPO, becoming
both totally immersed in their playing and complementing them.
The famous romantic theme of the
Adagio (which you can hear exactly repeated note for note in
Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony) was stripped of the usual
trite sentimental lyricism we often hear. Instead we heard subtle playing
where the sounds became thin shards of mirror-like, melting light with
a beautifully graded intonation. The Finale: Allegro energico
was just that: energetic with Bell throwing himself into the music,
producing an extraordinary range of sounds from a seductively rough,
deep dark tone to a brilliant razor sharp lightness. This last movement
is often played too slowly and Langrée’s fast tempi were perfectly
judged matching Bell’s white-hot energy and drive.
Bell goes beyond mere virtuosity
for the sake of it; he can do that with ease. What makes Bell a truly
great artist is his risk taking and desire to take the notes to the
limit: a spellbinding performance that the audience clearly appreciated
in their enthusiastic ovation.
Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique
was given a pristine and polished interpretation by Langrée
but one that seemed for the most part to lack a sense of characterisation
and occasion. The opening Dreams were almost too measured to
the point of dragging and sounded more like being in a coma. With Passions
things improved, with the throbbing pulse of the LPO ‘cellos and double
basses producing a weighty and deep ruggedness. While Langrée
secured taut buoyant rhythms and superb playing from the LPO there was
no sense of magic or emotion.
In A Ball, Langrée
produced rather heavy textures and lacked grace though the woodwind
and four harps played with pointed precision and style. The Scene
in the Country seemed to drag on eternally and came across as flat
footed and ponderous, though again the strings played with polish and
concentration: this scene simply lacked imagination with the essential
characterisation of a ‘performance’. Yet the cor anglais solos
were truly eerie as were the menacing timpani rolls, incisively played
by the three timpanists. Hard sticks in the March to the Scaffold
had a powerful and extraordinary effect further emphasised by suitably
rugged playing from the strings
The conductor was a little better
in the Dream of a Sabbath Night which had a little more drama
and tension with the LPO woodwind playing with a cutting shrillness,
evoking ghoulish laughter. The snarling trombones and horns were also
quite outstanding. But this work is more than a mere showcase for virtuoso
orchestras and somehow an element of the macabre was missing here.
However, the blood curdling ending
for the full orchestra was given extra weight by the timpanists bringing
this rather clinical account to a sensational conclusion with two thudding
bass drums.
Alex Russell