PROM 51: Strauss, Chausson, Shostakovich, Susan Graham (Mezzo), Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Philippe Jordan (Conductor), Royal Albert Hall, 22.08.2006 (JPr)

 

 

Strauss, Don Juan,

Chausson, Poème De L’amour Et De La Mer

Shostakovich, Sixth Symphony

 

 

Adapting the words of the great collector Frederick Horniman I thought up the following during this concert: ‘Those who use their ears obtain most enjoyment and knowledge. Those who hear but do not listen go away no wiser than when they came.’

In Strauss’s own words he rated himself not a first-rate composer but maybe a ‘first-class second-rate one’. Mahler, who worked himself to death in order to compose, admired Strauss greatly as a composer but didn’t like the fact that by the time he knew him he seemed only in it for the money he could get. However, it would be some years before Strauss would gain this reputation and he started as an expert in the art of musical storytelling in purely orchestral works. Don Juan was one of a series of ‘tone poems’ where the composer used his extraordinarily descriptive musical gifts to illustrate and comment on extra-musical ideas inspired by philosophy or literature. Here it was the serial seducer from the 1851 verse drama by the Austro-Hungarian Nikolaus Lenau. For him (and subsequently Strauss) this Don Juan has an intense self-conscious personality suggestive of Byron’s Manfred; here he longs for an end to his libidinous ways but cannot find an escape from this way of life.

The young musicians of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester began the work with the usual adrenaline rush of energy introducing the rising theme for the Don. It has a dotted rhythm that reeks of headlong potent passion. A wonderful oboe solo brought us to the lyrical section where the point of view seems to shift to the post-coital musings of one of the Don’s conquests. Philippe Jordan emphasized Strauss’s subtle pacing bringing clearly out the new, heroic theme for Don Juan in the horns and all the time continually exploring the rich polyphony of his material. It all builds up to the climax where the Don is cut down but unfortunately for me it was a rather flaccid conclusion after so much life and love, There should have been more sound and I wanted more shock and awe.

I have never heard Poème de l’amour et de la mer and while listening to it could not understand how its composer Ernest Chausson, a pupil of Massenet but also César Franck, could feel so insecure as to his abilities and take eight years over this beautiful, if insubstantial work. Indeed, this composer, who died at the relatively early age of 44, was continuously assailed by doubts and contradictions over his artistic talent only leaving a few remarkable works in a life generally unfulfilled. Much is written about other composers’ influence on his work, such as Massenet and Franck themselves, but from his visit to Bayreuth to see the première of Parsifal Wagner may have been his greatest influence. It is there for all to hear. There are two long poems separated by a short interlude and this mini-music drama mixes the imagery of the smells and colours of lilacs and roses with an impression of the sea to depict the longings for, blossoming of and death of love. In the first La fleur des eaux (The flower of the waters) there is Tristan’s approach from Act II of Tristan und Isolde and for the second La Mort de l’amour (The death of love) we hear clearly the music of the Immolation scene from Götterdämmerung.

The mezzo Susan Graham employed many lengthy and melting phrases and did a remarkable job of giving a great performance of yearning and loss that reduced the vast (and empty – more of this later) spaces of the Royal Albert Hall to the intimacy of the salon. However, for me there was not sufficient bloom in her voice and she never seemed at ease; undoubtedly there was great intensity and feeling, fully supported by the young musicians, but too much of the technique of a great artist, no longer at the height of her powers, was at work.

After the interval the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra continued my historical exploration of the life and music of Dmitry Shostakovich in the 1930s with his Sixth Symphony. Shostakovich announced that the successor to his hugely successful Fifth Symphony would be a ‘Lenin Symphony', a massive work involving soloists, chorus, and orchestra, with a setting of Myakovsky's epic poem Vladimir Ilyich Lenin to music. However, in the end he composed a purely instrumental work with an unusual three movement form and an opening Largo that is longer than the following Allegro and Presto together.

Indeed, Shostakovich explained the ‘musical character’ of his new work by stating it would ‘differ from the mood and emotional tone of the Fifth Symphony, in which movements of tragedy and tension were characteristic. In my latest symphony, music of a contemplative and lyrical order predominates. I wanted to convey in it the moods of spring, joy, youth’. That is what he wanted the less discerning to believe.

It was on 21 November 1939 two years to the day after the première of the Fifth Symphony and in the same hall (the Large Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic), with the same orchestra and conductor (the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Evgeny Mravinsky), that the Sixth Symphony was played to the public for the first time. The concert took part under the banner of the ‘All-Soviet Music Festival', and the programme included patriotic works from Prokofiev (Alexander Nevsky) and Yuri Shaporin (On the Fields of Kulikova) together with Myakovsky's symphonies Nos. 19, 20, and 21 and Khachaturian's Violin Concerto.

The opening Largo is inherently lyrical and pensive involving a contrapuntal treatment of the initial two themes. The middle section is a series of recitative-like passages for cor anglais over sustained trills (beautifully articulated in the performance) and the music of the opening returns, in a shortened form, to draw the movement to its close. It clearly represents a brooding requiem for the plight of the Soviet people and if it indeed needs ‘a head’ I suggest try playing it after hearing the final movement of his Fifth Symphony.

The second movement is an initially playful and wistful Scherzo which in a Mahlerian way goes on to mix the coarse, the spectral and the simply earthy together. This short movement gives way to a finale that builds from a tentative beginning to a full-blooded and debauched burlesque music hall or operetta gallop with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra at full throttle and six percussionists banging away valiantly as the trombonists seemingly blow raspberries. Shostakovich was particularly delighted with this finale and the Leningrad audience at the première asked for it to be encored.

The Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, formed in 1986 by Claudio Abbado, specialize in the major symphonic works of the romantic and late romantic era but such raw talent needs strong leadership and I did not warm much to the 31-year-old conductor Philippe Jordan, who strikes me as someone who has spent too many years in front of a mirror trying to emulate his conductor father, Armin. He is a protégée of Daniel Barenboim but is rather too keen on expansive gestures and facial contortions that I wonder whether his young players always fully understand what he is asking them to do. It was only at the very end of the Shostakovich that I felt there was a united sense of purpose. Throughout much of the rest of the evening, especially in quieter more reflective music, a sense of listlessness seemed to creep in from time to time and I began to wonder how well those in the orchestra understood what they were playing or had had it all explained to them.

The biggest disappointment was the attendance in the Royal Albert Hall; four years ago, under their musical director Claudio Abbado, the GMYO took part in what was perhaps the finest Prom concert I have ever been to. It was a full house and since the orchestra’s excellent reputation precedes them, despite Abbado this summer conducting the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, there seemed little reason for them not to draw good numbers.

But, the Royal Albert Hall was barely a quarter-full and this is not a new phenomenon this season. I don’t believe it is Shostakovich saturation or the fear of coming into London that is the problem just that it is all part of the general malaise surrounding classical music in this country; the BBC Proms is in crisis and its current 73 concert Royal Albert Hall lumbering dinosaur format is surely on the edge of extinction.

 

 

Jim Pritchard