"A child of our time" felt tired

By -

On Saturday, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Gennadi Rozhdestvensky and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus (Christopher Bell as chorus master) performed Michael Tippett's "A Child of our Time" at Edinburgh's Usher Hall as part of the Edinburgh Internation Festival. I found it odd the festival chose to perform a piece by a British composer using American folk music, conducted by a Russian. Much of this years festival music and performers were from Eastern Europe, so the choice in conductor was not so strange. However, the choice of music didn't seem to fit.

Mr Rozhdestvensky did not seem to struggle with the music, the tempo or any technical aspect of the piece. However, the orchestra played with a lack of enthusiasm that made me feel as if they were bored with the music, perhaps with the festival. The music needed to have a passion, a punch to it. Only on a couple of occasions was this passion evident. Most of the time the players seemed to be just going through the motions. Could this be attributed to Mr Rozhdestvensky, who also seemed to be going about the paces, but not really giving the performance any more than absolutely necessary? Numerous points during the performance, the orchestra overwhelmed the vocalists. Part of this was the orchestration, but certainly the conductor has to know when to allow the orchestra to play out and when to hold them back. The BBC Scottish Symphony displayed a range of dynamics, but not necessarily always at the right time, and certainly not with the finesse necessary for a festival performance.

Fortunately, this is not true of every one on stage. The vocalists were excellent. Nicole Cabell, a soprano from the US, did a fabulous job of interpreting the music, giving it a sense of soul and passion it desperately needed. Jane Irwin, mezzo-soprano, was not as strong vocally struggling to be heard at a couple point in her rendition of "Man has measured the heavens with a telescope" but shined when it came to "Pity breaks open the heart." John Mark Ainsley, tenor, gave a lovely performance of "I have no money for my bread" but suffered with an orchestration that seemed to pit the orchestra against the tenor. John Tomlinson, bass, was perhaps my favorite with a clarity and power unmatched by anyone on stage. His voice cut through at every moment with diction to make what he sang not only powerful, but understandable.

The Edinburgh Festival Chorus are in a class of their own, however. The depth of emotion they achieved, with clarity and feeling that any chorus would be envious of. Christopher Bell has a reputation for getting the most out of his performers and this chorus only added to his list of credits.

In the end, the evening was enjoyable. While I was not impressed with the orchestra, the chorus and vocalists more than made up for it. Over all I'd rate the performance three out of five stars. The subject matter of this piece should have left me exhausted, it didn't. It did, however, feel as though rehearsing this piece exhausted the orchestra.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In ...
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

By -
In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
Read more