SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Janàček: Sinfonietta, Jenůfa (Act 2): London Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Harding (conductor), Angela Denoke (Jenůfa), Elizabeth Connell (the Kostelnička), Christopher Ventris (Števa), David Kuebler (Laca), Barbican Hall, London 14.10.2007 (AO)

“Although I am getting on in years”, wrote Janàček of his Sinfonietta, “I feel a new vein is growing in my work, like a new branch from an ancient tree..... my latest creative period is also a new kind of sprouting “.

Picture © Masuhisa Teruhara
 

It's important to think of Janàček's Sinfonietta in these terms, for it is one of the great works of the twentieth century. The composer may have taken his cue from folk traditions, but the way he wrote was essentially innovative. The piece was written to celebrate the bold, youthful spirit of a new nation, but the composer was well aware of the wider implications. “Europe needs to feel its heart”, he said. Although I've heard this piece many times, this performance demonstrated just how modern – and relevant - Janàček's music really is. It's not for nothing that the Sinfonietta is one of Boulez's favourite pieces and part of the repertoire of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra where Harding has conducted since 1998. Indeed, it was with this very orchestra that Boulez conducted the strikingly innovative production of From the House of the Dead earlier this year. For a discussion of this new approach to Janàček's idiom, please see the review.

Harding's Sinfonietta is a revelation. It crackled with life, every note taut and muscular, bristling with exuberance. Some interpretations soften the edges of this music in an attempt to make it sound “folkloric” but that wasn't Janàček's intention. What inspired him was the sound of military bands celebrating the creation of Czechoslovakia. Thus Harding's razor sharp focus is much truer to the spirit of the music, with its uncompromising clarity of purpose. The orchestra caught the exuberant mood. This was punchy playing at its best, terse, taut and utterly precise. The brass and timpani were so tight that they created an image of a military band – if military bands played with such skill. But Janàček wasn't describing anything literally: what excited him was the heady atmosphere of modernity. The brass shine, musically as well as visually, for their brightness is so fundamental to the sense of shining new possibilities.

Despite the thrust of the overall trajectory, Harding ensured that Janàček’s details were tellingly highlighted. The first violin soared over the orchestra, at once propelling the others along, and yet also adding a highly individualistic voice, vigorous and nostalgic at the same time. Then the flutes sing out, and the trumpets, whose contribution throughout was superlative played. Harding made sure, too, that the softer voice in the extended harp passages was not overwhelmed, for lyricism is very much part of this music. Czech independence wasn't won easily, as the politically aware composer knew all too well. Thus Harding's focus on the inner dynamic in this piece was well thought through. The dark, brooding trombone and tuba passages were lit by sparkling string and wind flurries that flew above the solid ostinato like will-o-the wisps, irrepressibly free and joyous. In the Moderato, the swirling, circular patterns enhanced the mood of turbulence. Later the sudden diminuendos express a fragility which made the resurgent brass sound all the more powerful. Even the slight shrillness in the trumpets sounded deliberate, adding a sassy impertinence which is totally in keeping with the spirit of the music.

Although Harding is very well respected in Europe, his arrival was met with hostility. Yet the London Symphony orchestra is far too good to appoint someone as Chief Guest Conductor and showcase him for nothing. They are, after all notorious for being independent and forthright about what they want. They've played with him for years and know him well. Perhaps it's because Harding's uniqueness is so very different from what people expect. What he's doing instead is evolving a new approach to the familiar, and original ideas always take time to settle. The respect he gets from his virtuoso orchestras and from conductors like Abbado and Boulez might just indicate that there's more to Harding than meets the ear. A few years ago London bullied Franz Welser-Möst, almost destroying his career. Fortunately he's proven his critics wrong and shown his true worth, which they missed. Though young, Harding has more experience and at a higher level than Welser-Möst had then, and he has another 50 productive years ahead of him still. Given a chance, he might even be one of the greats. He has vision. Anyone can conduct well, but it's far rarer to find a conductor with foresight and imagination.

The programme continued with the second act from Jenůfa. Again, that's an example of inspired musical thinking, because it's a chance to compare late Janàček with early Janàček, the better to appreciate just how different the composers “new sprouting of creativity” really was. Harding might alternatively have paired the Sinfonietta with part of From the House of the Dead, in which some of the Sinfonietta's ideas are developed, but it was probably wise to choose a piece more familiar to London audiences. Choosing the second act of Jenůfa is a further sign of well-informed musicality. Although there's more drama in the other two acts, this is the act where the real psychological action happens, and it takes place in the music rather than the overt narrative. Here, the orchestra expresses what cannot be articulated in words. This performance then focussed on the role of orchestral dynamics and colour.

Nearly all the singing falls on the Kostelnička, the other characters, even Jenůfa herself, progressing the inevitable decision she feels compelled to take. We don't see the murder of the baby, but we can feel the tension mounting, and can follow the Kostelnička's mental processes. Elizabeth Connell was compelling, the natural warmth of her voice reminding us that her character is entirely motivated by love, albeit distorted by panic. She has, after all cared for Jenůfa all along. It's only when Laca casually rejects the baby that she rashly gets rid of it. Connell also managed to express the character's emotional turmoil without compromising the long melodic phrases she has to keep afloat. But we “hear” the baby in the music, and the strings warn us urgently that tension is building up. The staccato triangle acts like a nagging alarm. Janàček's characteristic “starlight” themes evoke the cold night outside, the harp perhaps hinting where the infant will end up. The strings play an elegiac dirge, which wells up and subsides, like the river. Hearing the opera as an orchestral work demonstrated clearly how it contributes to the action, and this was a particularly sensitive reading. No surprise then that Harding conducts a lot of opera, even conducting at La Scala in the difficult atmosphere after Muti's departure. He isn't one of those conductors who plays “with his eyes closed”. It must also have been fun for the London Symphony Orchestra to play something outside standard orchestral repertoire. It keeps them lively, and enhances their rapport with their conductor.

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