RSNO: Symphonie Fantastique
Usher Hall - 27/05/22
Well, this was a great concert! A packed Usher Hall had turned out to see our own Nicola Benedetti play Mark Simpson’s Violin Concerto, written for her in 2021, though sadly illness deprived us of both player and concerto.
Instead, at very short notice, the young Dutch violinist, Noa Wildschut, stepped in and played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. Obviously, many people had come to hear the newly appointed Director of the Edinburgh Festival play a fantastic new piece, described last year at its premiere as an instant classic, but disappointment turned to delight as we were treated to an outstanding performance of the Mendelssohn concerto, rightly lauded as one of the great violin concertos.
Firstly, we heard a short piece by an unheralded 19th century French composer, Augusta Holmès, ‘L’Amour et La Nuit’, an interlude from a larger work ‘Ludus pro Patria’. I’m willing to bet that 99% of the audience had never heard of Madame Holmès or her work, but it instantly announced itself as an interesting composition, opening with a mysterious sweeping melody, reminiscent of Offenbach. Augusta Holmès was born in Paris in 1847, into a literary family with Scottish and Irish roots. A composer of over 150 songs, she was also known for her patriotic and unashamedly passionate music. Forbidden by her sex for entering the Prix de Rome, the most prestigious prize for a composer of the time, she entered a composition for the City of Paris Music Prize, under an assumed (male) name, Hermann Zenta, and won. However, on discovery of her subterfuge, she was immediately stripped of her prize, as it was clearly impossible for a woman to write music worthy of such an honour! To be fair, this created something of a scandal, and Madame Holmès was commissioned to write a grand celebratory piece to mark the centenary of the French Revolution, ‘Ode Triomphale’, a massive narrated work for over 1200 performers.
Her family’s wealth allowed her to write more freely, although her mother had originally forbidden her to compose (as unladylike!), and she was admired by Wagner, whose music she adored, and César Franck. Sadly, after her death in 1903, at the age of only 56, she vanished from history, only to be rediscovered recently. Certainly, the short romantic piece we heard tonight revealed a clear ear for melody and a rather splendid style. She wrote four operas, the last being premiered at the Opéra de Paris in 1895. and I think a revival is overdue. With the production of Ethel Smyth’s ‘The Wreckers’ just opening in Glyndebourne this week, perhaps we should hear ‘La Montaigne Noire’ sometime soon.
The conductor for this concert was the French maestro, Fabien Gabel, who was for many years a leading trumpet player. He led us nicely through the Holmès piece and reappeared on stage with Noa Wildschut for the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto.
Although I was sorry not to hear the new Simpson concerto, it is always a pleasure to hear again Mendelssohn’s magnificent composition, written in 1845 for the Concert Master of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Ferdinand David. It instantly became a favourite with audiences throughout the world and has remained popular ever since. Mendelssohn’s tragic early death at 38, apparently after a series of strokes, deprived the world of music of an exceptional talent, not a revolutionary but one whose penetrating gaze reawakened interest in J S Bach and Schubert, two mighty geniuses whose music was in danger of being forgotten (in Bach’s case, even of being totally unknown), and whose own compositions demonstrated a superb melodic gift and a sense of rightness, rare to find.
Noa Wildschut came on stage to a fine welcome from the audience. It must be daunting to replace a favourite local artist like Nicola Benedetti, but she won us over immediately, standing out, in a brilliant white trouser suit of supreme elegance, from the black formality of the orchestra members. An elfin figure, she caresses her violin, and plays in a restrained and poised way, possessing a delightfully delicate touch which perfectly matched the sweetness of Mendelssohn’s music. There was no heavy German Romanticism here, but a mercurial deftness of sound, which seemed to escape like wisps of smoke from within the orchestral texture. Famously, the violin enters almost immediately in the first movement, and Ms Wildschut played the well-known melody with a sweet tone. As usual, the players of the RSNO were alert to the sound of her solo playing, and Mr Gabel was ever conscious of the balance. The slow movement was beautifully played, and all the light frivolity of the last movement poured out into the auditorium. The performance was greeted with much cheering and bravoing, well deserved by all involved. Ms Wildschut came out again and introduced a lovely encore (a Bach Partita) in a softly spoken way, apologising for not being Nicola. There was no need for an apology, as we are all quite used to people suddenly having to cancel in this strange time.
The interval gave us time to stretch our legs, and prepare for the most audacious symphony ever written, the Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz. I still find it extraordinary that the 27 year old composer produced this astonishing work, basically out of nowhere. There had been nothing like it before, and it must have hit its first audience in Paris on December 5th, 1830, like a tornado! There are all sorts of reasons for the creation of this symphony, from the composer’s obsession with the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, to excessive opium use. Certainly, the programmatic element of the score, in particular the last two movements, where the protagonist is led to execution, having murdered the object of his desires, and then at his funeral is involved in a Witches’ Sabbath, during which ghosts and ghouls, including a terribly transfigured Harriet, pull him to his doom, to the tolling of the Dies Irae, does seem almost crazy.
Berlioz stands apart from all other composers through the complete rejection of formal convention, and perhaps this is also why his music tends to appeal to a more esoteric listener. I have been lucky to have been brought up listening to a magnificent Berlioz specialist in Sir Alexander Gibson, whose concerts with this same orchestra in this hall 50 years ago brought the composer to my attention. In addition, I was lucky enough to sing the Ghost of Hector in two productions of ‘Les Troyens’, conducted by that great Berlioz maestro, Sir Colin Davis, with the LSO and at La Scala, Milan. I have sung Méphistophélès in ‘La Damnation de Faust’ in Canterbury Cathedral, the Pope in ‘Benvenuto Cellini’ at Chichester and Herod in ‘L’Enfance du Christ’ in several venues over the years, and have come to love this quirky, extraordinary French genius.
This performance by the RSNO with Fabien Gabel was magnificent. Colours, rhythms, melodies, all were brought out by an excellent conducting technique, coupled with a Gallic sense of elan, and all the sections of the orchestra played at their best. To the usual nods to the superb woodwind soloists, we can add salutes to the magnificent brass, especially trombones and tubas, and to Paul Philbert and Tom Hunter on timpani and to Simon Lowdon and his percussion team. There was great playing by Henry Clay on cor anglais in dialogue with Rachael Clegg on off-stage oboe in the third movement, for me the only moment when Berlioz overplays his hand. I’ve always felt that movement, ‘In the Country’, outstays its welcome, even performed as excellently as this, as one longs for the ‘March to the Scaffold’ to begin!
The overwhelming end of the symphony blew us away, and the roars of the audience rightly greeted a great performance. I was delighted again to see more young people in the audience. This, I think, was due to the Benedetti factor, but I hope that, even without Nicola, these younger people could see that this is life- affirming music, and not some dull old art form for elitist oldies!
