This film marks Chailly’s
first concert as Chief Conductor of
the Gewandhausorchester. It also celebrates
the city itself, and the Orchestra’s
founder, Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn’s
legacy is both musical and spiritual,
building on Leipzig’s history as a city
of culture and learning. His place in
music history has been obscured by decades
of Wagner-inspired downgrading: this
concert also reinforces his significance
as an innovator who drew on the inspiration
of the past to create new, striking
music, transforming the musical landscape
of his time.
The overture to A
Midsummer’s Night’s Dream is so
well known that its initial impact is
easy to underestimate. Shakespeare himself
was being rediscovered in the German-speaking
world. The play subverts a conventional
classical format by introducing a parallel
world of humans, then subverts that
still further by magic and fairies.
Nothing is quite what it seems. Mendelssohn
uses the full richness of orchestral
form. The golden ambience of the Gewandhaus
orchestra’s sound is legendary. As Chailly
says, this is an orchestra that doesn’t
need "warming up". They’ve
known this music since infancy. But
they are just too good for sterile repetition.
Thus Chailly emphasizes the element
of surprise and magic in the score that
contradicts complacency. Against dark
blocks of sound, images of light flicker
past, like spectres only half seen.
Even without the play, this would be
strikingly dramatic music, filled with
invention. The "bewitchment"
melody, especially, is here beautifully
caressed into shape. What a fitting
start to an evening of magic!
Rihm and Mendelssohn,
one might ask? The première of
Rihm’s Verwandlung 2 doesn’t
come as such a shock after an overture
played with the vivacity that had gone
before. Rihm is one of the great cutting
edge contemporary composers, yet this
new piece seems to follow on organically
from the Mendelssohn. It was a special
commission for this concert, so the
references to Mendelssohn’s inner world
of light, dark and magic aren’t accidental.
Verwandlung means "transformation".
The significance of Chailly’s emphasis
on the "bewitchment" melody
that illustrates Bottom’s transformation
while asleep suddenly comes clear. Here
are shifts from quiet to fortissimo,
though by Rihm standards, fairly subdued
– apart from a lovely solo passage,
the trumpets are muffled. Rihm incorporates
tradition into his new inventions. Attention
is drawn to new developments by drum
rolls, an old device, here sounding
totally fresh. Several times, the music
seems to be building up to a climax,
but then suddenly subsides, until another
wave starts again. Chailly’s expressive
face lights up in excitement as the
surprises in the score reveal themselves.
It’s quite helpful to have this when
listening to a completely new piece
of music: Chailly and Rihm are close,
and as conductor, Chailly has a clear
vision of how the music unfolds. Verwandlung
in one form or other will be premiered
in San Francisco in March, and in London
later this summer.
The theme of "old"
and "new" music continues
in the juxtaposition of Mendelssohn’s
Psalm 114 and his Second Symphony,
the "Lobgesang". Mendelssohn
was crucial to the revival of interest
in Bach and in oratorio. In an age before
recording and easily available printed
scores, what people listened to was
what was being played at the time. Mendelssohn
not only promoted Bach but also, thoughtfully
incorporated the spirit of piety into
his own music. Psalm 114 itself
probably owes more to Handel in that
it is purely choral, without soloists,
recitatives etc. but for Mendelssohn’s
time it was a striking piece of music.
On another level, it symbolizes the
composer’s dual heritage. The Psalm,
set in its entirety, celebrates the
escape of the Jews from servitude in
Egypt. It is a hymn to freedom, in tune
with the modernizing, liberal spirit
of the Enlightenment. Leipzig, and the
Gewandhausorchester in particular, was
the crucible of the movement that ended
the division of Germany. The relevance
does not seem to have been lost on the
massive Gewandhaus choir, who gave a
powerfully committed performance, male
and female voices pitted against each
other, then combining in solidarity.
The Lobgesang
was written as a grand civic gesture
to celebrate the city’s history. It
requires such huge choral and orchestral
forces that it isn’t often performed,
but this evening was an obvious occasion
to present it in its full glory. Keeping
these vast forces together is quite
a feat. Chailly has conducted it several
times over the years (once in London)
and seems to appreciate its complex
structure, part oratorio, part symphony,
part theatrical experience. It is liturgical
music adapted for community purposes.
For Mendelssohn it represented a synthesis
of the music of the past which he loved
so much, and of the Zeitgeist of his
own time. His much criticized "smoothness"
was part of this belief in harmony and
progress. Innovation doesn’t always
have to "shout". Despite his
reputation as a modernist, Chailly firmly
believes that the past informs the present:
he lets the music speak for itself without
excessive interpretation, because it
has plenty to say. It is a blockbuster,
three quarters of which is choral. Just
as Psalm 114 was about freedom,
the Lobgesang places its faith
in God and in progress. Anne Schwanewilms
is spectacular, her voice powerfully
soaring over choir and orchestra, yet
perfectly balanced and pure. She is
so good that she almost outclasses the
other performers, excellent though they
are. Peter Seiffert sang the dark Stricke
des Tods with such conviction that
it emphasized the aria’s crucial point
in the overall structure. But it was
the choir that shone in this most choral
of symphonies.
This being a film of
a live concert, it obviously doesn’t
have the perfection of a studio production
or the context of a documentary. But
it captures a moment at a crucial time
in the Gewandhausorchester’s history.
Will Chailly lead then to greater heights?
His love of natural lyricism meshes
well with the orchestra’s own traditions,
and they seem to have a similar vision
of Leipzig’s greatest strengths. It
bodes well for the future.
Anne Ozorio
Anne Schwanewilms, Peter Seiffert, Petra-Maria
Schnitzer (soloists) 
EUROARTS
2054668 [121:00] 
