Beethoven, Honegger, Bach:  Joanne Lunn, Sophie Daneman (soprano), William Towers (countertenor), James Gilchrist (tenor) James Rutherford (bass-baritone), BBC National Chorus of Wales, Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum, Dean Close School Chapel Choir, BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Thierry Fischer (conductor), St. David’s Hall, Cardiff 14.12.2007 (GPu)

Beethoven, Symphony No.2

Honegger, Cantate de Noël

J.S.Bach, Magnificat in D major


Since his appointment as Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Thierry Fischer has brought an alert and individual mind to the matter of programming. While by no means neglecting central areas of the repertoire he seems to have been eager to get beyond the familiar and to offer performances of works which appeal to his obviously enquiring musical mind. So, this Christmas, no performance of the Messiah and yes, some Bach, but not the Christmas Oratorio. I am sure I was not the only member of the audience who had never previously heard what was, in more than one sense, the ‘central’ work of this concert, Honegger’s Cantate de Noël, here placed in a carefully chosen ‘frame’.

Given Honegger’s well-known fascination with the music of Bach – evidenced alike  in large scale works such as the chorales which close Le roi David and the second symphony, and in his charming Arioso and Fughetta on the name of BACH – it was natural and proper that Bach should also be represented on the programme. Since one of Honegger’s earliest musical enthusiasms was for Beethoven it was also right and fitting that the evening should begin with work by his early ‘master’. It all made for a varied, yet integrated programme.

In an (excellent) pre-Concert talk, Fischer spoke of Beethoven’s second primarily in terms of exuberance and optimism. His performance of the work clearly brought out its transitional nature, responsive both to the echoes of the previous century (it belongs to the years between 1799 and 1802) and to the anticipations of more romantic modes of expression. This was a high energy performance, but full of delightfully clear textures. Throughout, the dialogue between orchestral sections was compellingly articulated. In the larghetto the leisurely, quasi-Mozartian charm benefited from some beautifully shaped phrasing from the violins, yet not at the cost of a sense of the music’s emotional substance and gravity, a sense greater than is sometimes felt or heard in performances of this movement. The lyrical and the dramatic coexisted with unexpected ease. The scherzo was played with impressive attack and rhythmic emphasis, the repeated dynamic contrasts by no means underplayed and the faux-innocence of the trio prompting thoughts (in hindsight, as it were) of the trio in the ninth symphony). The explosions of the closing allegro molto were integrated into a sense of the movement’s (and the work’s) shape to a degree that made them far more than striking effects; there was a real sense of the work’s compositional wit, articulated in part by the continuing dynamic contrasts and the sureness of touch and purpose with which the fractured phrasing was played. This was a fine performance, well-calculated to bring out the too-easily-underestimated qualities of Beethoven’s second.

The other ‘frame’ for Honegger was provided by a performance of Bach’s Magnificat in D major – the key of the evening, as it were. Christian Schubart, in his Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (1806) described D major as “the key of triumph, of Hallejuahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing”, observing further that “heaven-rejoicing choruses are set in this key”. The “heaven-rejoicing choruses” to be heard on this particular night came in the form of Bach’s revised version of the work. Premiered in Leipzig on Christmas Day of 1723, the Magnificat was originally written in E flat major and contained four interpolations into the Latin text of the Magnificat, interpolations designed to make it more specifically seasonal. Later in the 1720s Bach revised the work, removing the seasonal interpretations (making it suitable for performance at other points in the church year too), replacing recorders by flutes, and oboes by oboes d’amore in a couple of the movements, and tweaking one or two melodies here and there. And he changed the key to D major – the more normal key for works with trumpets at this time. Fischer elected to use natural trumpets (though the orchestra otherwise played on modern instruments) and they certainly gave a better balance than modern trumpets generally do in music such as this. One of Fischer’s soloists, the generally admirable Sophie Daneman was clearly unwell. She struggled through her solo in ‘Et exultavit spiritus meus’ (without being able to communicate much sense of rejoicing) in the second movement of the work and then left the stage, only returning just before the tenth movement, the trio setting of ‘Suscepit Israel’. Unease about Daneman seemed to infect some of the singing and playing and, taken as a whole, this performance of the Magnificat was a slightly patchy affair. James Gilchrist was – as he seems always to be these days – excellent and Joanne Lunn’s ‘’Quia respexit humilitatem’ was beautifully expressive; nor did William Towers or James Rutherford do anything to let the side down. Towers blended delightfully with Gilchrist in a tender ‘Et misericordia’ and Rutherford was powerful without mere heaviness in ‘Quia fecit mihi magna’.  There were moments in both ‘Omnes generationes’ and ‘Fecit potentiam’ when the chorus were fully stretched and signs of strain were evident, but they were impressive and radiant of sound in the closing ‘Gloria’. I hope Ms. Daneman is fully recovered by now.

And what of the Cantate de Noël? Impressive and striking, eminently accessible, with moments of real beauty, but also with one or two minor longeurs was my sense of it after this initial hearing. It demands pretty huge forces, fullish orchestra, organ, baritone soloist, sizeable adult chorus and a children’s choir. It was Honegger’s last composition, commissioned by Paul Sacher, completed in 1953 (though first planned long before) and premiered on the 18^th of December in that year in Basle. It traces an arc, spiritually speaking, from initial darkness and near despair to final light and the sense of peace. It opens with a dark-toned organ solo which leads into a ‘De Profundis’ for the adult choir, the closing plea of which (‘O viens, o viens Emmanuel’) is answered by the first intervention from the children’s choir (here placed above the orchestra and chorus): ‘Freu dich, freu dich, o Israel / Bald kommt, bald kommt Emmanuel’). The libretto’s use of Latin, French and German contributes to the work’s closing aspirations and affirmations, couched in the words of the Laudate Dominum: ‘Laudate dominum omnes gentes’. The baritone soloist announces the glad tidings of Christ’s birth and the main body of the work begins, as we move towards spiritual light. Mostly tonal, the work’s few unexpected harmonies mostly come in its introductory phase; after that the musical language is essentially traditional, and in terms of musical material much use is made of well-known carols. A Bach-like quodlibet of carols includes Stille Nacht, Es ist ein Reis entsprungen and Il est né le divin enfant and others I couldn’t put a name too. Much of the writing is musically complex, but Honegger has the skill to make it rarely sound so. At the end we move into the musical territories of plainsong and Lutheran chorale, before the work closes with a final orchestral ‘Amen’, in which much of the preceding music is remembered and which subsides into a silence which promises peace and comfort.

There is much spectacular music here, a huge range of tonal colours, both vocal and orchestral. The interplay of simple and complex and the ease of access which never becomes merely simplistic give the work a genuine attractiveness. The whole seemed an almost over-rich mixture when heard for the first time, but it’s essential shape was clear and effective; Fischer obviously had a very firm grip on both larger structure and smaller detail and even without having heard the enthusiasm he expressed for Honegger (and for this work in particular) in his pre-concert talk, one would have had no difficulty in recognising this as a passionate and committed performance. He seemed, too, to have convinced his sizeable musical cast to share his enthusiasm. The boys of Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum and the girls of Dean Close School Chapel Choir were obviously very well drilled and sang with beauty and precision; the BBC National Chorus of Wales seemed to be enjoying itself a good deal and they certainly performed with both gusto and delicacy as appropriate. Given a characteristically reliable contribution from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and authoritative work from James Rutherford, especially radiant in the Gloria, Honegger himself could, I suspect, scarcely have asked for a performance better calculated to put the case for his Cantate de Noël. The nobility of the orchestral conclusion left one in no doubt as to the serious (but unsolemn) nature of the work and the whole left me favourably impressed. I would happily listen to the work again – but I wouldn’t, I suspect, want to hear it every Christmas. Now where did I put those tickets for the Messiah?

 

Glyn Pursglove