Stravinsky, Debussy, Prokoviev: London Symphony Orchestra (Ladies of the London Symphony Chorus) Valery Gergiev (conductor) 14.5. 2007, Barbican Hall London (GD)

Stravinsky made it quite clear that his 1939/40 Symphony in C should be played/conducted according to his specific metrical indications. The first movement in particular he wanted played in a sustained rhythmically regular ‘Moderato’ with a 2/2 ‘Alla breve’ beat. From the initial animated up-beat Gergiev seemed to be in an excessive rush; maintaining plenty of animation but with no feeling of a sustained moderato. In fact Gergiev’s tempo was so fast the woodwinds had difficulty in keeping up, with the dense, contrapuntal string passages sounding gabbled at times. Stravinsky’s 1962 recording demonstrates perfectly the kind of ‘neo-classical’ sound-scape he had in mind; although the woodwind here are pointed and sharp, they are also lucid and never sound out of breath. Similarly the pointed (canonic) brass texture, in the composer’s recording is mostly at mezzo-forte or a single forte…tonight the often snarling brass sounded merely loud with little dynamic contrast.

The second movement ‘Larghetto’, in the form of an intricately contrapuntal baroque aria went quite well with some nice wind solos, especially from the oboe, but Gergiev did allow the tempo to sag occasionally. The third movement ‘Allegretto’, whose ‘metrical irregularities’, the composer saw as among his ‘most extreme’, did not always meet the strict rhythmic exactitude demanded, and in the fourth movements ‘Tempo giusto’ the ‘strict tempo’ asked for came close in one section to falling apart completely, the timpanist, in particular, losing his rhythmic place for several bars.

Although Debussy’s ‘Nocturnes’ require a totally different orchestral sound texture to the opening Stravinsky work, some of the same problems (to do basically with Gergiev’s conducting) persisted. The opening’ ‘Modere’ of ‘Nuages’ needs to be sustained in the wood-winds by a more precise 2/4 beat, which was too vaguely defined by Gergiev. Too often Debussy’s contrasts between ‘cloudy stillness’ and what he termed ‘Un peu anime’ did not register here. And again the tempo, rather than incorporating the most subtle rubato, which Debussy expected, tended to waver and sag.

This music undoubtedly requires a specific kind of delicate, almost shimmering, translucent, orchestral texture; which can be heard with Martinon conducting a French orchestra, or Dutoit and his Montreal orchestra. Tonight, in much of ‘Nuages’, and indeed the rest of the work, the LSO strings simply sounded too dense in texture, also the woodwind and brass did not always intermesh with the string texture, sounding at times too loud, and even strident.

‘Fetes’ is marked by Debussy as ‘animated’ and ‘in triple rhythm’, and it was certainly animated here, but Debussy’s rhythmic subtlety and his‘flashes of light ’hardly registered at all. The ‘vibrant’ and sustained atmosphere which initiates the ‘procession’ in the distance which draws gradually closer in a crescendo, began too loudly from the three trumpets, which needed to be muted to give the effect of distant approach. The processional crescendo, Gergiev whipped up into a wild volcano of sound, which resulted in certain woodwind and brass rhythmic detail being smudged; and at the height of the whirlwind of sound the percussion and brass far exceeded Debussy’s dynamic markings.

‘Sirenes’, with its female choir, has long been thought, in some quarters of critical opinion, to be not of the same musical quality as the preceding two ‘Nocturnes’. And conductors as famous as Toscanini only ever conducted the first two pieces. Today the jury is still out on this issue. All I can say is that the three pieces make an excellent, interrelated (thematically and tonally) trio. Here this mostly depends on the performance. It must not drag, and it must include that sense of ‘anime’Debussy requests. Tonight Gergiev did catch the sense of animation, often coupled with an over-loud choir, but at the expense of a certain flowing contour intrinsic to the musical structure, caught to perfection by the two conductors from the French school mentioned above, and also by Monteux with Boston forces on a recording from the late fifties. Apart from being over-loud at times (which Gergiev clearly encouraged) the ‘Ladies of the LSO Chorus’ sung quite well.

In general Gergiev found his métier more in the ten movements which comprise the suite from Prokofviev’s complete ballet ‘Romeo and Juliet’. But again there were problems with balance, tuning and occasional messy ensemble particularly in strings and winds. Although the opening ‘Montagues and Capulets’ was generally impressive, articulated with a decisive and commanding swagger, the lower brass (trombone and tuba) were far too loud and thumping, obscuring much important string/wind detail. The ‘Death of Tybalt’ certainly did not erase memories of the classic 1959 recording from Karel Ancerl and Czech Philharmonic. And although ‘Romeo at Juliet’s tomb’ was impressively shaped, reaching a noble climax, it lacked the sense of tragic denouement one hears in the Ancerl recording. Some of the earlier pieces were well delivered ( the ‘Minuet’, and the ‘Dance of the girls with lilies’), the right degree rhythmic inflection in the former, and a charming lilt in the latter, but this did not really compensate for the shortcomings described. In every department Gergiev and the LSO in 2007 are outclassed by Ancerl and the Czech Philharmonic in 1959.