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Farewell but not goodbye, Janáček and Beethoven: Lisa Milne (soprano)/Jane Irwin (mezzo-soprano)/Gordon Gletz (tenor) Matthew Rose (bass) City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Sakari Oramo (conductor) Symphony Hall, Birmingham. 12. 6.2008 (JQ)

Leoš Janáček: Sinfonietta

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 123 (‘Choral’)


Several years before Simon Rattle ended his long spell as Music Director of the CBSO in 1998 I remember saying more than once to friends, as I’m sure many other people did, that it would be an unenviable task to follow him. Several names were mooted as his likely successor, including Mark Elder, who had done a successful stint as the CBSO’s Principal Guest Conductor. In the end Elder went on instead to build a marvellous partnership with the Hallé, the success of which, and his distinguished service to music in Britain in general, has just been acknowledged with a richly-deserved knighthood. Instead of Elder or another prominent name, the choice of the CBSO – and in particular, the choice of its players – as Rattle’s successor,  was a Finnish violinist turned conductor, Sakari Oramo. He had appeared as a guest conductor with the CBSO but it would be fair to say that his was not a well-known name and that his appointment was something of a surprise – and widely perceived outside the CBSO as something of a gamble.

Last Thursday night, as Oramo stepped down after ten years as the orchestra’s Music Director, he could do so in the knowledge of a job extremely well done. Operating, I’m quite sure, in a very different way to his predecessor – no two conductors are the same, thank goodness – he has built strongly on the secure foundations that he inherited from Rattle. So far as I can detect there has been no diminution in playing standards – quite the reverse, if anything – and enterprising programme planning has continued. The respect and affection in which, quite rightly, Oramo is held by his players and by the Birmingham audience was abundantly evident at this final concert of his tenure. Though all concerned, not least Oramo himself, I suspect, will be anxious that he doesn’t get in the way of Andris Nelsons, his successor, there’s a very obvious wish on all sides to continue the Oramo/CBSO partnership. This is reflected in his immediate assumption of the title Principal Guest Conductor and he’ll return next season to conduct six concerts in Symphony Hall.

Generous tributes in the programme book reflected the scale of Oramo’s achievements in Birmingham. During his ten years at the helm he has conducted 404 concerts with the orchestra, 99 of which were overseas. These concerts included 421 separate works, including twenty-six premières. He’s done a significant amount of contemporary music and, gratifyingly, of English music – in particular that of Elgar and John Foulds – has received his full attention and, as Bill Kenny recently reported, his advocacy of Elgar has just been recognised, very fittingly, by the Elgar Society. Every work he’s conducted with the CBSO was listed in the programme and an impressive list it was too, ranging from Adam to Zimmerman. It was an eclectic list too, comprising by my count, music by 123 separate composers and I was diverted to note Julian Anderson (at one time the CBSO’s composer-in-residence) rubbing shoulders with Leroy Anderson in the list!

For his finale Oramo chose two very different celebratory works, both of which are eminently suitable for Special Occasions. The concert opened with Janáček’s Sinfonietta. Here Oramo scored an immediate coup. Besides a huge orchestra the score requires no less than thirteen additional brass players – two tubas and eleven assorted trumpets. Oramo had these players ranged in a long line along the back of the orchestra but positioned up high, immediately in front of the organ console. The effect was visually and aurally arresting. Only these players, plus the orchestral timpanist, are heard in the first movement, playing highly original fanfares. The brass playing was superbly incisive and powerful.

In the four movements that followed we heard more fine playing from the rest of the orchestra. The wind playing was suitably pungent in the second movement. At the start of the third movement Oramo, a violinist himself, of course, drew playing of great warmth from the CBSO’s string section. Here, and elsewhere in the score, he displayed characteristic attention to detail in his conducting but one never felt that this was at the expense of the overall line or shape of the music. As the third movement progressed excitement was generated very effectively, not least through the punishingly high horn whoops, a passage that always excites me in this score.

Come the finale and Oramo and his players built up the tension very well, not least through the shrieking wind solos – the tangy, cultured primitivism of Janáček’s writing for the woodwind in much of this work contributes mightily to its overall effect. When eventually Janáček caps the finale by bringing back the opening brass fanfares it’s a thrilling moment and something of a release valve after the wild, exciting music that’s gone before. Oramo’s brass players made the most of this. At the very end one detail struck me.  The last few bars feature a succession of massive brass chords. The penultimate one was delivered with a biting sforzando, followed immediately by a subito piano and a massive crescendo. I’ve never heard this effect achieved quite so markedly before but it was quite magnificent.

Janáček’s Sinfonietta is one of the most physically exciting works I know – and I’m referring just as much to the quieter passages in saying that. It can be an overwhelming experience. I’m not sure that we heard it quite at full throttle on this occasion but Oramo’s performance was still very exciting and extremely well played.

After the interval the orchestral forces were somewhat reduced for the Beethoven symphony. However, though some of Janáček’s more exotic forces were not required a pretty large orchestra was still assembled – sensibly, Oramo doubled the woodwind to balance the size of the string band. One little detail that registered with me was that, for all its huge, twentieth-century scoring, the Janáček piece actually needs a smaller percussion section than Beethoven uses in his Ninth. Both scores call for timpani, of course, but whereas Beethoven requires three other percussionists and gives them quite a bit to do in his finale, Janáček only calls for a solitary percussionist in his Sinfonietta and then employs the player very sparingly indeed.

Oramo paced the big first movement of the symphony intelligently. The rhythms were sharply observed and the whole structure was well controlled. Perhaps it was just a bit too controlled for although the music was powerfully presented – the main climax was punched home tellingly – I have heard it done with more dramatic force. But the reading was still satisfying and the playing of the CBSO was consistently fine.

The scherzo was taken at a sensible speed, by which I mean it wasn’t rushed off its feet for effect, as sometimes happens. This meant that the music was properly articulated. The reading had energy and vitality. I must confess that my attention did wander just a little in this movement but that was nothing to do with the performance; I’m afraid I do find this one of Beethoven’s more repetitious movements, one in which he makes a little musical material go an awfully long way.

I had no problem paying attention to the slow movement, however. This noble movement was eloquently performed. The strings of the CBSO have been a strong feature as long as I can remember – at least in part this is a legacy of the much-underrated Louis Frémaux. Here they were in their element, producing long singing lines. Their woodwind colleagues impressed too. The music glowed and I felt that the playing was an eloquent testimony to the tremendous rapport that the players and Oramo have built up over the last decade.

Up to now the performance had been very good but it was truly ignited by the contribution that the CBSO Chorus made to the finale. Singing from memory, the chorus gave us the finest rendition of the choral music since – well, since they crowned Simon Rattle’s live EMI recording of the work with the VPO with simply the finest choral signing in this work that I’ve ever heard on disc.

Before we heard the choir, however, Oramo directed a convincing account of the opening pages, pacing the cello/bass recitatives well and integrating the reminiscences of the preceding movements successfully. When the Big Tune arrived I liked the air of mystery with which the lower strings intoned it and the whole exposition of this great melody was very well handled by Oramo, until it was revealed in all its grandeur on full orchestra.

The soloists were positioned in an unusual spot. Instead of being next to the podium they were at the back of the orchestra, raised up, and in front of the choir tiers. I wondered if they might have trouble in being heard but such fears proved groundless for they projected well – and Oramo controlled the orchestral dynamics very effectively during their solos. Bass Matthew Rose set the tone with a commanding and clear opening solo but this was a strong quartet and all sang well.

The chorus was simply superb. When, after the stormy orchestral interlude that follows the tenor’s martial solo, they sang the Big Tune the attack was breathtaking. In that whole passage – and elsewhere – they sang incisively and with impressive weight of tone. The men were sonorous at “Seid umschlungen, Millionen!” and the complex, fugal passage for full choir shortly thereafter was equally imposing. When one factors in also a superb dynamic range and excellent clarity of diction this was a formidable display of choral singing. I know from personal experience that the chorus part in this work is hugely demanding and to sing it to this standard is an immense achievement and one that reflects huge credit on their Director, Simon Halsey, just celebrating twenty-five years in the post. I honestly do wonder if any symphony orchestra currently has a better affiliated chorus.

The conclusion of the symphony was liberating and exultant as it should be as Oramo drove the music to an exuberant conclusion. The very warm and prolonged ovation at the end acknowledged not just a splendid performance but ten years of very distinguished service to the CBSO on the part of its departing Music Director.

So the Oramo years ended in uplifting fashion and Birmingham awaits Andris Nelsons. I think it’s appropriate to say of Sakari Oramo, as one did of his illustrious predecessor, that he’ll be a very hard act to follow.

John Quinn


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