Busoni : Berceuse élégiaque
Busoni : Sarabande et Cortège
Weill : Die sieben Todsünden
Measha Brueggergosman, soprano
Synergy Vocals
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ilan Volkov
I've said it before, I'll say it again; it's programmes like this that make the BBC SSO concerts really interesting. Because of their status as a radio orchestra, their programming follows different criteria from that of a standard symphony orchestra. They tie into broadcasting plans that can (and frequently do) take them into territory less trod, and all the more welcome for it. For without that, what would be the interest of having a second, quality symphony orchestra in a city that already has one, if it would only be to go over the same type of musical ground? That we're fortunate enough to have three international-class orchestras is a constant wonder to me, yet it's clear that each has its place, because each one has its distinct public with, as far as I've seen, little or no overlap. Add to all that a conductor who relishes the untoward, the unusual, who was once the orchestra's Chief Conductor and is now the Principal Guest Conductor, and you get this sort of evening's concert, as unusual as it was absorbing.
It's always a bit shocking to realise that Busoni is not only a compatriot, but an exact contemporary of Puccini, because you could hardly get two more opposed figures. Puccini is notable for his absorption of the modern influences of his time, you can hear it in his music, but he bends that influence to works that are part of a continuity. Busoni comes completely out of left field, with a sound world distinctly his own, subtle and kind of muffled, as if veiled, discreet, atmospheric and unsettling.
The Berceuse élégiaque reminded me in an odd way of the Sixth Door of Bartòk's Bluebeard's Castle; not musically, not at all, but in an impression of a lake of tears, a silver-grey, shimmering, aqueous surface, disquieting yet serene. The Sarabande and Cortège, orchestral sketches for Busoni's unfinished opera Doktor Faustus are similarly other-worldly, apparently familiar at first glance, until you become aware of the movements under the surface, of the shadows and shapes slipping in and out of view. All of this was beautifully captured by Volkov and the orchestra, an enigmatic introduction to the second half of the programme.
The link is that Weill was, for a couple of years, Busoni's student, but there's little obvious connection. Weill's orchestration is as acerbic as Busoni's is luxuriant, his musical idiom direct and unequivocal. His masterpiece is The Seven Deadly Sins, originally conceived as a "sung ballet", with a text by Brecht, for his wife Lotte Lenya and the dancer Tilly Losch, playing two sides of the same coin, Anna, who embarks on a tour of seven American cities, working, one way or another, to earn money to send home in order to build a new house for her family. The "sins" are supposedly the impediments to her completing her task, that she must overcome, no matter the spiritual cost, but this is Brecht, and in the end, there is only one true sin, Greed. All the rest spin out from that.
This was a relatively up-beat reading of the piece, with the Epilogue sounding like repose, and Anna II's final "Ja, Anna" bright and optimistic. I've heard others, bleaker and more expressive of the damage done to Anna over her seven years' travail, which I'm inclined to think is the stronger interpretation, but the quality of the orchestra in particular carried this version off perfectly satisfactorily. Where there was a problem was with the voices, in that they all seemed a little under-powered. There were microphones on stage, but since the concert was being recorded for broadcast, I don't know if the microphones for the singers were there simply for the radio, or to actually assist. If it's the latter, it was a failure, and they should have been given hairline microphones, such as used in a musical.
Both the male voice quartet Synergy Vocals and the Anna of Measha Brueggergosman were occasionally drowned, particularly in the lower registers of the voices. Brueggergosman, at times, opted for a kind of confidential tone, perfectly justified in the context, but it disappeared in the orchestral texture, though she could be heard clearly in the upper register. Otherwise, the voice was attractive, warm and sort of plush, an inviting timbre, nearly smug at times, as Anna I is inclined to be. I'll be interested in hearing the broadcast on Monday, the balance will probably be corrected, and I'd like to hear her properly. For the concert hall, however, her voice lacked a touch of that buzz-saw quality, that Anna Reynolds liked to joke about, but which Lenya, or Gisela May, for example, certainly had.
However, questions of balance aside, this was an excellent performance, the orchestra full of nervous energy, electric and vital, acidic, ironic and exciting. This is a magnificent score, too rarely heard, a last gasp from the partnership of Brecht and Weill that brought out the best in both, given full measure from Volkov and the BBCSSO.
[Next : 22nd October]
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