Chabrier,
Mahler, Beethoven: (Anne Sofie von Otter
(mezzo), Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Philippe Jordan
(conductior), Queen Elizabeth Hall 7.01.2006 (JPr)
Perhaps concert administrators are beginning to think
more and plan coherent, thought-through musical programmes
for the twenty-first century? The Chamber Orchestra
of Europe are celebrating their 25th anniversary season
and in some early publicity for their concert at the
Queen Elizabeth Hall (7 January), it stated that ‘In
an age dominated by aggressive, machine-made sounds,
it’s difficult to imagine the part played by nature
in shaping the sound-world of the past’. (Whoever
wrote this had nothing to do with the printed programme
that was the usual cut-and paste job of written notes.)
The comment was not so difficult for those in the know
I would think but worth saying nevertheless and could
generate at least 100 concerts of musical diversions
from nature-inspired composers down the ages. Unfortunately
there is rarely any such thread occurring in the items
of a symphony concert and this is something I have written
about from time to time and will not repeat the arguments
again here.
Chabrier’s Suite pastorale, Mahler Lieder
and Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony (No.6
in F major) were almost the perfect mix with only Mahler’s
‘I have a burning knife’ seeming out of
place despite ‘yellow fields’ and hair ‘blowing
in the wind’.
In fact the inspiration for Lieder eines fahrenden
Gesellen (‘Songs of Travelling Journeyman’
– usually ‘Wayfarer’) was probably
three-fold. Research has shown that as a child Mahler’s
favourite song was a Czech one At se pinkl Házi
(‘Let the knapsack rock’) the words of which
probably never left him as it begins ‘A wanderer/
a wayfarer/ went from Hungary to Moravia’ and
goes on to have him dancing in an inn. Secondly by 1884
(at the age of 24) Mahler was himself that ‘wayfarer’
as a ‘journeyman’ conductor whose itinerant
progress had led him to a post at Kassel at that time
where the third event occurred in an ultimately doomed
relationship with a singer, Johanna Emma Richter. Six
songs Mahler originally wrote for Johanna became the
cycle of four we now know. They were not orchestrated
for at least a further eight years. Without a wealthy
patron like Wagner had, life went on for Mahler and
he became even more of a ‘summer composer’
because it was a case of ‘I owe, I owe, it’s
off to work I go!’ His symphonies became the operas
he would never write and his songs were the arias. Never
is this more obvious than in his youthful Wayfarer
cycle.
These Lieder are probably more the territory for a baritone
than a mezzo but Anne Sofie von Otter made a compelling
case for a non-sexist approach here. The lyrics are
Mahler’s own, though they are influenced by Des
Knaben Wunderhorn.
The first is called Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht
(‘My sweetheart’s wedding day’), and
the Wayfarer expresses his grief at losing his love
to another. ‘He’ remarks on the beauty of
the world, but how that cannot keep him from being sad
as he goes to sleep. The second, Ging heut' Morgen
übers Feld (‘I went across the fields
this morning’), is the happiest one. It is a song
of joy and wonder at the beauty of nature, in simple
things like the song of birds and dew on the grass.
After ‘Isn’t it a lovely world?’ the
Wayfarer is reminded at the end that despite this beauty,
his happiness will never bloom for him again. In that
full of despair third one, Ich hab' ein glühend
Messer (‘I have a burning knife’), the
Wayfarer likens his agony of a lost love to having the
blade pierce his heart. He obsesses to the point where
everything reminds him of his lost love. The fourth
song definitely brings some resolution with the music
(also reused in Mahler’s First Symphony like the
second song) lyrical, gentle, and subdued, often reminiscent
of a chorale in its harmonies. Die zwei blauen Augen
von meinem Schatz (‘The two blue eyes of my
sweetheart’) deals with how the thought of those
eyes has caused him so much sorrow that he cannot stand
it anymore. He describes sleeping (dying?) under a linden
tree and allowing the blossoms to fall on him, wishing
everything was good again, ‘Everything! Love and
pain, and world, and dreams!’
It is important to explain these songs because it is
difficult to put into words how wonderfully the overall
desolation was expressed in the impeccable voice of
Anne Sofie von Otter who used her dramatic gifts and
extraordinary vocal range to achingly heart-wrenching
effect, never more so than in the dramatic change of
mood at that poignant close to Ging heut' Morgen
übers Feld where Mahler grasps despair from
the jaws of pure unadulterated joy in a way only he
can. Of course, this would be nothing without the bittersweet
musical accompaniment and everything is orchestrated
so delicately in the main but is driven and intense
at times particularly in the third, almost Verdian,
song which nearly justifies my ‘aria’ idea.
The soloist was most ably supported by her young conductor,
Philippe Jordan (son of Armin) who despite a certain
robotic stiffness that makes him uncomfortable to watch
was commanding, alert and extremely musical, not only
during the Lieder but throughout the whole evening.
He was ably supported by his fifty or so musicians who
filled the hall with a refined sound throughout the
concert.
I have dwelt at length on what was undoubtedly the highlight
of the evening but do not wish to dismiss the other
excellent music-making. The French composer Emmanuel
Chabrier is described as a countryman at heart and someone
who worked for too long in the French equivalent of
the Home Office before becoming a full-time composer.
Four of his own Dix Pièces pittoresques
for the piano he arranged as his Suite pastorale
(Idyll, Village Dance, Undergrowth, and concluding Scherzo-Waltz)
producing a melodic masterpiece with vivid orchestral
colour and musical jocularity that is allied to a tenderness
and perfection which almost alludes to Bach at times.
It was an ideal companion piece to Beethoven’s
Symphony No.6 (Pastoral) that concluded the evening.
In the Pastoral Beethoven set himself the task
of blending rustic merry-making, country dances, the
sounds of nature, storms etc. into a symphony. There
is a sort of rural concert in the third movement and
a peasant dance interrupted by a storm (Fourth movement),
the storm subsides and out come the country folk to
seemingly bask in a rainbow when summoned by yodeling
calls on the horn (the horn player unfortunately having
an off night!) and it all ends in the Shepherds’
song of thanksgiving. Beethoven believed it was all
‘more an expression of feeling than painting’
but there is plenty of descriptive music with bleating
sheep, bird calls, a flute nightingale, oboe thrush
and clarinet cuckoo all easy very to hear whilst probably
even more audible are the bustling sounds of nature
depicted by repeated motifs.
With Chabrier and Beethoven it was not exact ‘nature
red in tooth and claw’ and it was an idealized
version of country life typical of townies. It took
Mahler to burst the bubble of this picturesque scene
with some raw human emotion. Nevertheless with the artistry
of Anne Sofie von Otter, the refined conducting of Philippe
Jordan and deft musicianship of the Chamber Orchestra
of Europe we have an early contender for concert of
2006.
© Jim Pritchard
