Seen and Heard Concert
Review
Mozart: orchestral and operatic
music: Orchestra Of Opera North/Janusz, Ripon
Cathedral, 21 May (JL)
There was a full house at Ripon Cathedral for this varied exhibition
of Mozart’s mature art. The second half served up a mix
of arias and duets from three of the late, great operas complete
with their well known overtures whereas the first half provided
meat with a complete performance of the composer’s symphonic
swan song, the Jupiter.
In these days, when a new recording of this symphony is quite
likely to be played with a slimmed down band on original instruments
producing a lean, presumed C18th sound, a performance like this
one, with a modern orchestra playing in a fulsomely spacious acoustic,
is going to sound, paradoxically, “old fashioned”.
This is of little consequence as long as the spirit of the music
is served. The conductor, Janusz, certainly enabled this, steering
the players on an inexorable journey from the grand statement
of the opening movement through the sometimes troubled beauty
of the andante and on to the fiery finale with an absolutely sure
sense of pace. The last movement is a miracle of composition;
a musical roller-coaster where Mozart supplies half a dozen different
melodic ideas and proceeds to push them in all directions, turning
them upside down, making them go backwards and combining them
in a dizzy whirl of counterpoint. The feeling of danger builds
as the possibility of going off the rails increases. At this point,
somewhere in the Cathedral there came the sound of smashing glass,
which, rather than break the spell, added an appropriate frisson
to the proceedings. Everything comes together at the very end
in a triumphant conclusion and we end our roller coaster ride
– against all the odds – still in one piece. Janusz
understands this music, vigorously conveying the excitement to
the players and onward to the audience but at the same time keeping
a firm grip on the overall shape of the work.
Opera North’s Orchestra was more on home ground in the operatic
second half – although you would not know that from its
fine rendering of the Symphony. The vocal numbers were carried
by two up-and-coming, aspiring opera singers. Baritone James Harrison
entered into the spirit of roles such as Figaro and Papageno with
confident stage presence and voice to match. He is a natural Mozartian.
Soprano Martene Grimson, her blond hair strikingly offset by a
bright red, full length dress, took time to settle down but both
singers ended a splendid evening with a delightful rendering of
the witty Papageno/Papagena duet from The Magic Flute
where the characters celebrate their new found love with speculation
about producing little Papagenos and Papagenas.
Arranged by the organisers of the upcoming Ripon International
Festival in September, this concert was a foretaste of things
to come when there will be a welcome chance to hear Janusz conducting
the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in, among other things,
Mahler’s expansive First Symphony, a work that
should come into its own in the vaulted spaciousness of Ripon
Cathedral.
John Leeman
