Prom 13: Beethoven, Dean, Gondwana Voices, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus, David Robertson (conductor), Royal Albert Hall, London,  22. 7.2007 (AO)

 

The BBC website described this programme thus : “Brett Dean's 'sociological cantata' shares a social conscience with Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, whose first performance, in December 1813, was at a benefit concert in Vienna for soldiers wounded in the Napoleonic Battle of Hanau.”  The connection is so tenuous that I thought it was a wry joke.  But as the concert notes show, it wasn’t. Dean’s Vexations and Devotions takes itself very seriously indeed, despite the overlay of cute jokes.  It would have been impressive at a Blue Peter Prom, but whoever programmed it with Beethoven is having the last laugh.

This “sociological cantata” deals with concerns of modern life such as telephone answering machines, business jargon, and mindless TV. An enormous orchestra is used, augmented by unusual extra instruments. In addition to the BBC Symphony Chorus, there’s the large Gondwana Voices, a youth choir flown in all the way from Australia.  The costs of mounting this production – and I use the word deliberately – must be huge.  On the other hand, the costs will be recouped, because extravaganzas on this scale always grab attention because they look so impressive.   No doubt this will be a great success on television, particularly at home where Gondwana are fêted, and royalties will recover the cost long after the Proms are over. Indeed, it is a wonderful vehicle for the choir, and possibly the entire piece was designed around them.  They are so enthusiastic that you can’t help but admire their energy, even though devices like clapping and waving foil sheets are more clever than wise.

Elaborate extravagance can mask weaknesses.  The central movement is titled Bell and Anti-Bell, built around the frustration of being put on hold on the phone.  The first time the recorded message appears, it is cute and amusing, despite being an obvious cliché.  But it gets repeated again and again, descending into parody. Perhaps that’s supposed to illustrate how frustrating such messages are, but what started as a thin joke first time round becomes mindlessly banal.  Similarly, the last movement with its murmured corporate speak, repeats a point that could be made in moments into fifteen minutes of otiose meander. True, that’s what banality is. But does it follow that the music should also be banal?  This work is a paean to the superficial. The jokiness keeps things nice and easy so it’s accessible to all.  It colludes with the assumption that audiences don’t like depth. Perhaps that’s its intent, but if this is a “sociological cantata” and deeply humane, maybe the shallowness of modern life has already irrevocably permeated our minds.

Beethoven uses half the forces, but with a thousand times the impact. Beethoven was most definitely a “thinker”, for whom the events of his time mattered a great deal, but his music reaches universal levels that live beyond place and time. It sprang from the deep inner sources in his soul.  Robertson led the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a vivid, muscular performance of the Seventh Symphony that emphasized the taut dynamic pull, and the tight clarity of the composer’s orchestration.  Even minor quibbles in some parts only served to underline the emotional commitment, giving it the “human” dimension that underpins the work. At the end the Proms audience gave it a huge, well deserved ovation. 

 

Anne Ozorio

 

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