SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

MusicWeb International's Worldwide Concert and Opera Reviews

 Clicking Google advertisements helps keep MusicWeb subscription-free.

Error processing SSI file

Other Links

Editorial Board

  • Editor - Bill Kenny

  • Deputy Editor - Bob Briggs

Founder - Len Mullenger

Google Site Search

 



Internet MusicWeb


 

SEEN AND HEARD  UK  CONCERT  REVIEW
 

Berlioz, Saint-Saëns and Rimsky-Korsakov: Jean-Philippe Collard (piano), Orchestra of Welsh National Opera / Kirill Karabits, St. David’s Hall, Cardiff, 24. 4.2009 (GPu)

Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No.2
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade


Like the Chorus of Welsh National Opera, the Orchestra has, over the years, made very significant contributions to performances in theatres in and beyond Wales. Indeed, some cynics have felt that they and the chorus were, occasionally, the best things about certain productions! The Opera’s musical directors have included Sir Charles Mackerras (1987-1992) and Carlo Rizzi (1992-2001, 2004-2007), so to say that the orchestra has measured up to the standards that such directors have set is to acknowledge its considerable qualities as an operatic orchestra. It seems very probable – to judge from the evidence so far – that the arrival (from August 2009) of Lothar Koenigs as music director will see the maintenance of similarly high standards in the opera house.

Naturally, the orchestra’s fame in the concert hall is of a somewhat lesser kind – and it is perhaps inevitable that that should be so. Yet, being thoroughly competent in terms of musicianship and technique, it can be relied upon, even in non-operatic music, for eminently listenable performances, even if it is rare for them to scale the heights of the truly revelatory. These comments are not – emphatically not – meant to damn with faint praises. As a body of musicians it naturally spends less time working on concert repertoire than on the operatic canon and such works are, as it were, less fully present in the corporate bloodstream of the orchestra. But it is never less than worth hearing. Much depends on the conductors it works with and the rapport established. In the young Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits the musicians were working with a conductor well equipped to bring out the best in them.

Karabits, some thirty years old, the son of the composer Ivan Karabits, studied in Kiev and Vienna and from 1998-2000 was assistant to Ivan Fischer in Budapest. Since then he has worked extensively in both the opera house and the concert hall, holding posts with both the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Strasbourg Philharmonic. Later this year he will become Principal Conductor of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and is soon to make his debuts with Opéra National de Lyon and English National Opera.

At this concert his work was precise, without fussiness, and he consistently achieved orchestral textures striking for their clarity. Rhythmically his work was generally precise and persuasive and the control of dynamics was impressive and always purposeful. I had the sense that the Berlioz, with which he began the programme, was perhaps something of a personal favourite – certainly there was an air of affectionate respect about the performance which was full of energy and always communicated the music’s structure. The brass section was impressive throughout and the cor anglais melody was attractively played by Gillian Taylor. The orchestra – which contains a good proportion of younger musicians – brought an attractive freshness to the music and reveled in the nicely sprung rhythms, especially in the saltarello which occupies the second half of Berlioz’ overture and the coda’s interplay of strings and tambourine was thoroughly enjoyable.

In Saint-Saëns’ second Piano Concerto, Karabits and the Orchestra were joined by Jean-Philippe Collard, for whom such a piece is surely second nature. But there was nothing merely routine about his interpretation of the work. He was a commanding (and immensely stylish!) presence at the keyboard. In the extended fantasia which opens the work Collard was less obviously ‘Bachian’ than some pianists are; there were clear anticipations of romanticism about some of his phrasing, pre-echoes which worked well and which made this quasi-improvisatory passage sound far less like the pastiche than it can sometimes appear to be. Collard’s playing was full of attractive and fluent runs, and there was a glitter to his work that made this one of the less intense readings of the first movement. The eclecticism of Saint- Saëns’s writing in the second movement was fully brought out by Collard, his playing being full of sprightliness and allusive wit. It was here, though, that one had slight doubts as to the absoluteness of the orchestra’s grip on the music; all the notes were there in the right places, of course, but just now and then one wondered if the concentration needed to ensure that that was the case didn’t rather dissipate the sheer spirit needed in the orchestral contribution if this remarkable and inventive movement is to be an absolute success. In the closing Presto there was, for the most part, a strong sense of power and drive from soloist and orchestra alike, but there were moments when the rhythms got just a little on the stodgy side and an occasional sense of looseness to Collard’s playing. Karabits’ reading of the score – or at least the work he got from the orchestra – occasionally sounded just a bit undercharacterised (perhaps for the reason mentioned above) and as such the dialogue between piano and orchestra sometimes seemed a little overbalanced in favour of the soloist. This was, then, an exciting, but slightly flawed, performance of a fascinating concerto.

No complaints about the Scheherazade which closed the programme. This was full of character and played with a winning theatricality which made me, at least, think about the relevant experience of both orchestra and conductor. The Kalendar Prince, the Festival at Baghdad, the Sea and the Ship – all were brought vividly to life in a splendidly expressive performance. Helena Wood, the orchestra’s Guest Leader was a largely convincing soloist in a performance which, overall, did away with the excessive wide-screen and technicolour effects that we sometimes get in this music. This was a more intimate performance than many and that was one of its particular attractions. There was a genuine poetry to much of what we heard, not that over-the-top Disneyfication to which the work is sometimes subjected; Karabits beautifully brought out the delicacy of some of the work’s colours and his exactness in the control and variation of dynamics paid rich dividends here. Alongside the contribution of Helena Wood, the other soloists called for by Rimsky-Korsakov’s score all acquitted themselves very well and the full orchestral sound had a conviction and certainty, as well as whole hearted lyricism, which hadn’t been so obvious in the Concerto. It was a joy to hear the expansive melody which opens the third section given time to breathe – the strings were at their best here, a lovely dreamlike quality of repose and mystery achieved without any sentimentality. The last section had plenty of fire and energy and was full of well-executed changes of tempo, the rhythms fiercely and precisely accented. There was, in short, a real sense of drama to this Scheherezade. The Orchestra of Welsh National Opera was – at least metaphorically – back in the theatre rather than the concert hall!

Glyn Pursglove


Back to Top                                                    Cumulative Index Page

counter to
blogspot