BBCSSO: Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral Symphony’
Usher Hall - 16/04/23
Ryan Wigglesworth, conductor | Emilie Godden, assistant conductor | Ashley Riches, bass-baritone | Nicky Spence tenor
An Afternoon of Bird-song
Some years ago Donald Runnicles conducted three SSO concerts, each of which contained one Act of ‘Tristan und Isolde’, accompanied by a complementary orchestral work. I’m reminded of these concerts this afternoon when Beethoven’s 6th Symphony ‘Pastoral’ is paired with Scene 6: ‘The Sermon of the Birds’ from Messiaen’s ‘Saint Francois d’Assise.’ Interestingly Runnicles, with the San Francisco Opera, conducted in 2002 one of the few staged versions of the whole opera since its premiere in 1983. In his review, the New Yorker’s music critic, Alex Ross, describes the opera as a “Sacred Monster”. “At five hours long,” he says,” it is not easy listening, by turns dissonant, ecstatic and austere.” But more of that anon.
Certainly these two works promise an interesting contrast – perhaps Beethoven’s most cheerful work, written in praise of the natural world, and one of the more familiar works in the repertoire and for most of us the unique opportunity to hear part of Messiaen’s scarcely ever performed opera about the affinity between God, man and nature. Both, of course, celebrate bird-song.
The contrasts to come are clear from the beginning. The modest sized symphony orchestra, around 50 players, sit in front of the large percussion instruments arrayed right along the front of the organ gallery. Wigglesworth’s account of the Beethoven is clear – the first two movements calmly demonstrate the harmony of nature, with the climaxes remaining at mezzo-forte level and the loudest instruments are the horns. Meanwhile the sense of well-being is enriched by the woodwind, always suggesting bird-song and explicitly imitating it at the end of the second movement, when the flute, representing the lark, the oboe the quail and the clarinet the cuckoo all play together.
The people’s part in the rural idyll follows in the third movement, the horns are brassier and the rhythms wilder in the rustic dancing. But the full force of the orchestra isn’t unleashed until the storm interrupts the celebration, and as the music moves without a break into the fourth movement, the timpani, trumpets and trombones are heard together for the first time. Beethoven doesn’t need the wind machine or the thunder sheet lying behind the orchestra to conjure up the wind and the rain. After the storms come the chorale-like certainty of the ‘Shepherd’s Song,’ in which brass as well as woodwind ring out triumphantly as the music moves towards its quiet ending. Wigglesworth’s earlier restraint has led to a secure and radiant performance by the SSO.
The nineteenth century revolutionary, Beethoven, and the 20th century radical Messiaen each wrote only one opera, ‘Fidelio’ and ‘St Francois d’Assise’, each going through many versions before its composer was satisfied. ‘Fidelio’ is so familiar that we forget its ground-breaking qualities, its appropriation of the comic Singspiel format for an opera seria about love and liberty, its celebration of married love, and its musical representations of the emotions of confusion, despair and exultation. Messiaen, a devout Catholic, wished to demonstrate his religious belief through music by choosing St Francis as his hero, the saint he thought was most like Christ. Messiaen sought to make his points through the expansion of the sounds available in Western orchestral music – he combined Eastern influences, recently invented instruments like the ondes Martenot, and did not shy away from cacophony in his praise of God.
All of this was on display in the extraordinary 45 minutes of the ‘Sermon to the Birds.’ It begins with many birds singing, according to the composer’s own synopsis, “in Assisi, under a huge holm-oak.” On stage are thirteen percussionists, five towards the left playing tuned percussion (xylophones etc) five towards the right mixed percussion, including bells, gongs, wooden blocks and the wind-machine, while largely hidden are the three players of the ondes martenots. (The instrument’s inventor was a World War I radio operator who wished to replicate the whooshing and whistling sounds of the wireless.) The audible strangeness is added to by the presence of a young woman towards the back left of the orchestra making necessary tick-tack gestures – the assistant conductor, Emilie Godden, who later also employs a baton to help Ryan Wiglesworth keep this huge orchestra under control.
The opera has a largely male cast, with one soprano angel, and a large chorus. In this scene there’s only St Francis, sung by bass-baritone, Ashley Riches, and Brother Masseo, Scottish tenor, Nicky Spence. Both have the strong voices and stage presence needed to carry over the music, and Riches shines too in his later lyrical passages. The programme tells us that St Francis addresses the birds and the birds reply. Unfortunately, there’s no text in the programme, nor surtitles on stage. Even an expanded synopsis would have helped the audience to follow the conversation between the friars, in which they identify the birds, and speak about their characteristics in an affectionate way. Francis’s recent dream of strange birds on a faraway island is also discussed. (This enabled Messiaen to incorporate the bird-song he’d heard on his journey to New Caledonia.)
But the power of the music, the magnitude of Messiaen’s view of nature, is what carries the work onwards. The birds are loud and very different from Beethoven’s, but such contrasts are what make concert-going so worthwhile. The Scottish Symphony Orchestra have given us a splendid conclusion to their season, and demonstrated, one hopes to the powers-that-be as well as to their committed audiences in the Scottish concert halls, the importance of maintaining the BBC’s orchestras.
The concert was broadcast live from Glasgow on 13th April and is available on BBC Sounds. There’s a French libretto online here which your computer will translate to (sometimes basic) English.
