“Controversial” is a mild word for Robert Lepage’s production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, which has just finished its second cycle of the year at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and has been described as anything from "witless and wasteful" to “merely adequate...
It’s true what they say: you can please some of the people all of the time, and all some of the time, but not all the people, all of the time. And where opera is concerned, it’s possible to please even fewer of the people even less of the time: opera fans are a fierce, dedicated and opinionated bunch.
Outside of Prom season, classical music gets woefully short shrift on the television. Which is why people should have been grateful for the current season on the BBC, celebrating opera.
Puccini's Tosca is one of the stalwarts of the repertoire, with its soaring music and a showstopping number in each act: the evil Scarpia expounding his wicked plans to the background of the Te Deum, Tosca's Vissi d'arte awakening to the harsh world around her and Cavaradossi's lament on death row E lucevan le stelle in Act III. But it rarely comes across as a piece of drama: it's too easy either to hideously overact it or to simply wallow in the gorgeous music and not act it at all.
I had high expectations for the evening after being very impressed with an MSSO performance I had seen as a teenager. The first piece on the programme was the Polovtsian Dances from Borodin’s opera, Prince Igor. The performance highlighted both the playful and brutal elements of the piece which made for an exciting performance. Though occasionally there were slight issues with the changing tempi and cross rhythms in the ensemble, the orchestra delivered a performance that really highlighted Borodin’s colourful orchestration.
I was intrigued to be sent a copy of Bach & Friends, a new DVD which billed itself as "World-class musicians reflect on the power and genius of Bach's music and perform his greatest masterpieces". The DVD turns out to be a series of interviews with a variety of musicians in which each tells us something about Bach and the way it has affected them emotionally and musically.
Last night, a stage on London's South Bank was turned into a small corner of Russia as the London Philharmonic Orchestra and their Moscow-born conductor Vladimir Jurowski treated us to a semi-staged performance of Shostakovich's little-performed opera fragment "The Gamblers". The stage was set with card tables at which an all star cast of Russian singers played cards while singing through Shostakovich's remarkable setting of Nikolai Gogol's acidly oppressive play.
Last week I was struck with the thought of how so many wonderful things get overlooked. I went to a concert at King's Place - the beautiful new building housing The Guardian Newspaper offices located on the edge of the Regent's Canal at King's Cross. It's convenient for transport, houses two intimate concert halls, two art galleries and a wonderful entrance hall with cafe and dining facilities, a canal-side bar and comfortable sofas to meet one's friends. Sadly few people were there last Wednesday for a concert that was another overlooked gem.
Just over a year ago, we reviewed the launch of the Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall: a streaming service which tries to bring to your living room the closest experience they can get to visiting the Philharmonie in Berlin. (You can read the story here). A year on, the service is up and running and the Berlin Phil have built up a year’s worth of concerts in their archive, giving you substantial choice of what to watch, so we went back for another look.
Imagine, for a moment, that you're an 18th century German or French baron deciding what you're going to do with your evening. You might do worse, perhaps, than to invite a couple of dozen friends to your well-appointed sitting room, and bring in one of the great musicians of the day to talk to you about his favourite music and play it to you.
Purcell was born in England, worked at the court of the King of England, and was quintessentially English - correct? Well, yes, but it doesn't quite tell the story: Charles II was brought up in France, and the court had distinctly French musical taste. So Purcell's music has strong influences of Lully and the music from the court of Louis XIV, and remains popular in France.
All of which makes his songs a good subject for a cross-channel CD on the French label Ambroisie, recorded in Paris and performed by two English and two French musicians.
Most of Purcell's settings work on counterpoint between the voice (on this CD, tenor Paul Agnew) and a continuo (bass violist Anne-Marie Lasla). These are accompanied by one or both of Elizabeth Kenny (theorbo and guitar) and Blandine Rannou (harpsichord and organ). The interplay between voice and continuo is beguiling: the bass instrument gives shape and structure to the setting, freeing the voice to wander in the Restoration pastures of lovelorn melancholy. This is most clear in my personal favourite song of the collection (and probably the most famous): "Music for a while".
The performances are superb. Paul Agnew's voice is wonderfully clear and pure, he sings with energy and expression and he's utterly believable as our unrequited lover. All the accompanists have the same energy and show off to perfection Purcell's ability to blend voice and accompaniment. They are also each given some solo spots with pieces by other composers of the period as well as Purcell. Being a guitar player, I was particularly taken by the accompaniment to "I see she flies me", which is high energy and reminiscent of much later Spanish music. The recording quality is also out of the top drawer, and the producers are obviously proud of it, since the sleeve notes include a complete list of the equipment used (including several thousand pounds worth of microphones).
One caveat: that this isn't an album that I can listen to all the way through at a single sitting. There's a limit to the amount of complaint about unrequited love that I can tolerate in one piece and only a handful of the twenty songs fall outside this. If you're more of a lover of Restoration poetry than I am, you won't suffer from this.
But that said, this CD is a treat. At its best, this is the loveliest music, and I can't describe it any better than Dryden:
Music for a while shall all your cares beguile
Wondering how your pains were eased
David Karlin
21st November 2009
