SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

R.Strauss, Beethoven: Solveig Kringelborn (soprano); Philharmonia Orchestra/Sir Charles Mackerras. Royal Festival Hall, 10.4. 2008 (CC)


Recently, I was discussing the present state of music with a colleague, and we both found it hard to come up with a living great conductor. The name Mackerras never even entered into the conversation, and yet this Philharmonia concert suggested that perhaps we had overlooked a treasure.

The 'Eroica' was an exceptional performance. The one-in-a-bar trajectory of the first movement gave it great drive but, amazingly, it never sounded rushed. Mackerras used his by-now trademark combination of modern and authentic instruments (the latter comprising timpani and trumpets) and included the repeat. Timpani attack was therefore razor sharp throughout. Above all of this, though, was the miraculous marriage of long-range thought and local detail that Mackerras effected. Surely this is some sort of ideal that most conductors dream of (and few achieve). Woodwind passages that so easily gets missed in full symphony orchestra traversals of this piece was readily identifiable, all knitted together into one seamless musical fabric.

Definition was amazing throughout, from the low string anacruses of the Funeral March to the second horn descending arpeggios in the Trio of the third movement. In fact, the balancing between the three horns was little short of miraculous, and surely the fruit of much rehearsal.

Mackerras chose not to go straight in to the finale, raising in the process perhaps my only quibble in the whole performance – the gesture of the initial bars gains so much by doing so. Yet this was more than compensated for by the affection Mackerras lavished on the variations. It was telling that 'virtuoso' would have been the appropriate appelation for first violin semiquaver articulation were it not for the fact that moments like these were subsumed within the overall conception. A performance to cherish.

The first half consisted of Don Juan and the Four Last Songs. If the first arrival point after the initail upward rush of the opening of the tone poem was not truly together, such criticism meant nothing in comparison with Mackerras' quixotic performance. Contrasts were marked, and effected with quicksilver responses. Individual elements (radiant oboe, swaggering horns) all emerged as highlights in this considered reading that was so much more than a curtain-raiser.

Solveig Kringelborn was the soloist in the Four Last Songs. She has a lovely voice, but time and time again it seemed too quiet. When the strings went down to ppppp or thereabouts at her entrance, it initially seemed to be an invocation of stillness. Impressions were positive at first, her voice inviting comparison with Lisa Dalla Casa in its freshness and fine way with diction. Mackerras seemingly had no option but to hold his orchestra back to a mere whisper. It appeared at times that this was a deliberate interpretative decision – to make the voice just one strand in the texture. But the impression was insubstantial.


Nevertheless,  this will be one of my Concerts of the Year for that 'Eroica'.

Colin Clarke


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