After the visits of several
distinguished guest orchestras, as the Festival drew to a close, Edinburgh's
Usher Hall returned its platform to a native group, the Royal Scottish National
Orchestra. The festival spirit though continued with the appearance of American
guest conductor David Robertson. Mr Robertson, who studied at the Royal Academy
of Music in London and is known for his interpretations of English music, brought us one piece of this genre, one from his native California and one from
New England, in a varied programme which
ably demonstrated the width of his range. He showed a charming and gracious
demeanour to performers, soloist and audience alike throughout this demanding
concert, indicating finally after taking several curtain calls that he wished
to retire to slake his thirst!
Under his baton emerged a
shimmery, silken and characteristically West-coast sound, as the RSNO opened
the programme with Charles Ives's Unanswered Question. As with Simon
Rattle on Thursday with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the two opening works were segued into each
other, here the Unanswered Question with Morton Feldman's Coptic
Light, which had the effect of illuminating both and bringing a pleasing
lightness of touch. The entire first half
was very slow; gentle, graceful, serene with a diffuse sound world.
Morton Feldman was a leading musical and cultural figure of the American West
Coast in the 1950s and 60s, being closely associated with John
Cage (whose music has been performed recently at
the BBC Proms this year) but also with practitioners of other art forms
such as the painter Mark Rothko: one of Feldman's seminal works is Rothko
Chapel, and there is a similarity of mood in their output. Coptic Light is a shorter piece and – at about thirty
minutes - more practical for concert performance, but from the same
compositional period. It's quiet, subtle and expansive, but with a slightly
melancholy undertow pervading it.
After the interval, the Edinburgh
International festival's music programme closed as it had opened: with a big
choral work. This was a more straightforward performance than the opening with Delius'
Mass of Life: an exciting and dynamic account of the well-known
'Belshazzar's Feast'.
This picked up a recent Festival theme in that it echoed the
theme of vengeance in James McMillan's short opera, Clemency,
which I recently reviewed. Walton's
Israelites however celebrate with shouts
of joyous triumph rather than MacMillan's Abraham having an ambiguous struggle
with the avenging angels. This thematic connection was highlighted by the use
in the programme of Rembrandt’s painting, Belshazzar's Feast, showing the
disembodied hand descending to write in Hebrew on the wall of the King's palace.
The brass playing was especially
good; where a 'God of Brass' is referred
to, there was brass in the gods, a musical pun which worked well in the large
space of the Usher Hall. This enjoyable performance with the popular local
Festival Chorus received a rousing reception from a generous audience which
mixed locals and festival-goers.
Edinburgh International Festival, Usher Hall, Sat 1st September
Neal Davies - baritone, Edinburgh Festival Chorus, David Robertson, RNSO
The Unanswered Question – Charles Ives
Coptic Light – Morton Feldman
Belshazzar's Feast
- William Walton
We did not enjoy this concert. Since we are not familiar with the Ives and have never heard the Feldman we had no idea that the two pieces were combined. We could only assume that the first half was only the Ives piece and that the interval was taken early, or that the Feldman was skipped over.
ReplyDeleteThe Walton piece was played with great vigor and great volume. There was nothing subtle about the performance. In fact it all felt much too bombastic. Not sure if the fault is with Walton or Robertson, but have to assume the conductor could have taken some liberties to diversify the dynamics or accentuate any variety that the score offered. One beautiful slow section, the penultimate, stood alone in contrast to the excessive grandeur of everything else.