CLASSICAL MUSIC: Coenraad Visser
A STUNNING performance of Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge gave the South African tour of the London Philharmonic Orchestra a flying start at the Johannesbiurg City Hall this week.
The Variations, one of Britten’s early creations for string orchestra, was a perfect choice for the LPO strings and music director Frans Welser-Msst, who is soon to leave the orchestra for the Zurich Opera. The Britten is an inventive showpiece, definitely not for timid string players, and remains one of the composer’s best orchestral works. Like his Simple Symphony and Les Illuminations, it shows his genius at painting a sound picture that often suggests more than strings on stage.
The LPO strings clearly relished the chance to demonstrate their excellence and versatility, not least in the “special” effects such as the guitar-like strumming of the Aria Italiana, the tremolo figures of the Moto Perpetuo, or the glissando ones of the Funeral
Welser-Msst, likewise, was never short of magnificent, wonderfully alert to the constantly shifting moods of the variations, and delicately raising musical eyebrows in the parodies of Rossini, oh-so-proper classical France and the Viennese waltz. Altogether this performance was quite exceptional. One is hard pressed to imagine how it could be bettered.
The same was not quite true of Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 (Choral). Welser-Msst’s reading was still very much a young man’s instant response to this elusive masterpiece. With the massive thunderstroke at the start of the first movement he made his intentions clear. Marshalling his massive forces, his reading was vigorous, constantly on the move. At the same time his keen ear for detail and probing musical intellect allowed him to highlight felicities in a score with which one has become almost too familiar. He took nothing for granted, and never allowed his audience to relax into the comfort of the familiar.
But this approach also has its downside. At times Welser-Msst was just too keen to get to the point, prying the music open instead of letting it unfold. But this criticism picks at a muscular reading perhaps strongest for its unifying vision of this epic. Needless to say, the orchestral playing was inspired and flawless.
In the final Ode to Joy the LPO was joined by the SABC Choir and the Imilonji KaNtu Choral Society (excellently trained by Susan Cock and Gobingca George Mzadana respectively). The well-drilled choral forces neatly complemented the LPO, and were a credit to their
The soloists were, predicatably, a mixed bag. Virginia Davids and Sibongile Khumalo fared best, with Davids at her best in her melting top register. Raphael Vilakazi gave probably his best performance to date in this repertoire, although he still needs more vocal power to arrest one’s attention at his first entry.
Gordon Christie, formerly attached to various opera houses in England, continued to disgrace himself. His tenor impersonation was limp and sallow, totally beyond the pale. It is bizarre that in one evening we should be treated to the best and the worst of the British.
The LPO will appear at the Sun City Superbowl on Saturday February 18 at 8pm, and with Sibongile Khumalo on Sunday February 19 at 2pm