EIF: London Symphony Orchestra: Szymanowski and Brahms
Usher Hall - 16/08/23
London Symphony Orchestra - Simon Rattle, conductor
Edinburgh Festival Chorus - Aidan Oliver, chorus director | Iwona Sobotka, soprano | Hanna Hipp, alto | Florian Boesch, baritone
A packed Usher Hall gives an enthusiastic reception to the second concert in the London Symphony Orchestra’s festival residency, (which includes a Thursday afternoon concert for patients and staff at the Western General Hospital). Under conductor Simon Rattle, the LSO and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus produce warmth and earth-shaking force in Szymanowski’s ‘Stabat Mater’ and Brahms ‘Ein Deutsches Requiem’ (A German Requiem).
Chorus Director Aidan Oliver’s preparation of the choir shines through in their performance of Szymanowski’s 1929 setting of the Latin poem describing Mary’s resilience as she stands next to her crucified son. The singers seem to relish the sound of the Polish words – their staccato repetition of a short alliterative phrase before its tune is picked up by the trumpets is a telling detail in the first section. The choir’s music ranges from delicate folk melodies to pounding choruses with brass and drum accompaniment, and they provide firm support for the soloists, Polish soprano, Iwona Sobotka, whose glowing voice reaches the emotional heart of the score, Polish mezzo, Hanna Hipp, who provides warm counterpoint in duets, and Florian Boesch, resonant in his tense dialogue with the choir and orchestra near the end of the work. As the percussion dies away, chorus and soloists unite in the ecstatic melodies and soaring woodwinds of the final movement.
Brahms ‘German Requiem,’ was, like the Szymanowski, written for relatively small forces, and the performance here in May by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus required far fewer bodies and instruments on stage. The huge orchestra and chorus sound is what we’ve come to hear tonight, and while its lushness can seem too much - do we really need three harps? – there are sections when instruments and voices at full volume take the breath away. ‘All flesh is grass,’ the second movement, where the pounding march (the work’s persistent earworm) is built up to a fortissimo only to die away immediately, and the penultimate movement’s evocation of the last trump can rarely have had such blazing brass, outstanding timpani (Patrick King – wow!) and perfectly balanced voices as in this ensemble. Florian Boesch is the stirring solo voice here and in the more reflective conversation with the chorus in the third movement. Monumental as the forces are, Rattle encourages fleetness and precision in the choir and orchestra during the lighter fugal passages. He has said that he wishes Brahms had called this a Human Requiem, and that dimension comes through in the lilting “How lovely are thy dwelling places” with string and woodwinds, in Iwona Sobotka’s consoling solo (sung from the back of the string section), and in the final reassurance of “Blessed are the dead for their works may live after them.”
For me, the work’s humanity was felt more poignantly listening to the smaller forces of the SCO when the words and the textures of the harmonies came over with more clarity. But there’s room for both styles of work, and the Usher Hall audience went home well-satisfied by this stunningly performed concert.
Cover photo: Ranald Mackechnie
