SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT

Beethoven: The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, , Ivan Fischer (conductor) Queen Elizabeth Hall, London 4.3.2010 (GD)

Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 36
Symphony No. 3 in E flat, Op.55, 'Eroica'


This concert was part of a Beethoven Cycle by the OAE including all the symphonies and the Violin Concerto. Ivan Fischer (now one of the 'Principal Artists' of the OAE) is sharing the project with Vladimir Jurowski, Leonidas Kavakos and Sr Charles Mackerras. After hearing Fischer's totally convincing conducting in his recent recordings of  the Beethoven Piano Concertos with Richard Goode and Fischer's superb Budapest Festival Orchestra I was expecting a totally absorbing concert experience. And I was not disappointed. Fischer seems to be totally at home with the different tonalities/textures of both modern and 'period' orchestras and tonight he gave us 'period' style Beethoven in the best sense of that term: it never sounded 'period for the sake of period' in the prosaic sense. This was very idiomatic, but interpretatively imaginative Beethoven.  Fischer deployed a quite large string section with four very telling double-basses, with obligatory divided first and second violins. 

The Second Symphony is possibly still the least played of the Beethoven symphonies, but right from the arresting opening 'coup d'archet',   one had the sense of Beethoven still working in the idiom of Haydn and Mozart  but also developing something more dramatic. The 'coup d'archet' had nothing of the decorative feel about it, and when D minor took over from the opening Haydnesque D major, Fischer emphasised the  real  note of tragic drama, managing the transition from the opening into the 'Allegro con brio' exposition with real structural finesse - and for once, this was a real allegro con brio.  In the D minor development, with its daring (for the time) sharp accents and cross-rhythms, what a joy it was to hear the rasping, grainy sound of natural horns, as well as absolutely audible timpani figurations with  hard sticks  and period animal skin drums. Fischer also made us fully aware  in the exultant coda, with high D trumpets, of the cross-references  with the language of Haydn's 'The Heavens are telling' from The Creation. The second movement 'Larghetto' never dragged, Fischer having the historical insight to know that this marking in Beethoven's day had nothing to do with  later 'romantic' sentimental indulgence in slow motion -  Beethoven adding the tempo direction 'quasi andante' in a later piano trio arrangement.  The beautiful harmonies and melodies were kept moving without ever sounding hard driven or one dimensional and  plenty of space was found to intone what Tovey so aptly described as the movement's 'reckless opulence'.  I can remember a time when only Toscanini  could articulate the boisterous little scherzo with the right inflection of matching dynamics, but tonight, with the help of  acerbic gut strings and arresting timpani interventions, Fischer managed the same rhythmic accuracy as the legendary Italian maestro, with deliciously pointed articulation in the mock serious tone of the trio. The boisterous humour of the scherzo spilled over into the playful finale; not really the playfulness of kittens, but as one commentator observed, more like that of tiger cubs! Everything here was a joy from the the abrupt dynamic contrasts, the almost mock solemnity of the transition theme, through to the putative coda - which is actually  a kind of musical 'trompe l'oeil' prefiguring the totally punctual, powerful and fully developed codas of later Beethoven.

All of the positives above also  applied to the the 'Eroica' which Beethoven completed just one year after completing the Second Symphony in 1803 (and originally dedicating his No 3 to Napoleon Bonaparte.) But in that year Beethoven made a quantum leap forward  in terms of a massive expansion and development of the sonata form. After hearing the 'Eroica',  Haydn is alleged to have said, 'music now will never be the same'! Fischer was acutely aware of this advance, launching dramatically into the work with those two strong opening chords. This was a real 'Allegro con brio', very close to Beethoven's crotchet = 60 and it seemed as if Fischer had  the whole symphony in sight from this arresting opening. The vast development section, the second subject's tonal triad around the home key of E flat, really gained from the absolutely clear projection of  the tonal clashes with the foregrounding of rasping natural horns and stalking gut string attack. The remote venture into E minor was particularly clear too through clear and trenchant bass inflections.. The famous 'horn clash' (Tovey's 'collision of shadowy harmonies' ) lost none of its tonal weight or thrust. It was a joy also to hear the first movement coda, the 'victory fanfare' as Beethoven wrote it, without added trumpets so that Beethoven's raw textures were exposed in all their elemental abandon. In the great C minor 'Marcia funèbre', Fischer took a slightly more measured tempo than Beethoven's crotchet = 80, but this really paid off in the solemn F minor double fugue section, which Weingartner aptly called 'Aeschylean.' This develops into a massive tutti climax and must be sustained by an absolutely rock steady tempo, which Fischer convincingly applied. Of particular note too, was Fischer's meticulous articulation of the triplet timpani figure initiating the fragmented coda;  often ignored completely,  or else obscured.  

The brief  but potent scherzo, and the  Promethean theme and variations of the finale, were delivered with tremendous, almost hedonistic, verve and energy. In the scherzo's trio section the full throated horn calls really reminded one, in anticipation, of the German hunting music from 'Der Freischutz'. And again Fischer was meticulous in matters of  clear articulation, with  the coda's crescendo timpani figure as one example.  All the finale's variations were held together without ever diminishing the music's protean contrast and Promethean drive. Predictably,  Fischer gave real thrust and rhythmic swagger to the 'Hungarian' variation. The brief allusion to the initial Marcia funèbre theme, before the Promethean theme's final outing  in C major, was beautifully balanced with the rest of the movement. And the triumphant coda, with a blazing E flat unleashed from its triadic structure, was as splendid as I have heard recently, with shattering timpani, and heroic horns in full tone. 

In a recent re-evaluation of the historical status of Napoleon Bonaparte in a European context, his status was found to have  plummeted, particularly in France, where he was seen by many as a psychotic dictator, mass murderer and plunderer. By contrast,  Beethoven's reputation has steadily risen and is still on the ascendant.  Beethoven, without any arrogance, would have been pleased with this assessment, I think, just as  he would have been pleased, and touched,  by  tonight's concert.

Geoff Diggines