Debussy : Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien
Berlioz : La Mort de Cléopâtre (Ruxandra Donose, mezzo-soprano)
Julian Anderson : Eden
Sibelius : Symphony No 2
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ilan Volkov
Looking at the considerable forces assembled for the Debussy, you have to wonder about the original performances. I know Ida Rubinstein was obscenely wealthy, and could afford just about anything she set her mind to, but really, the thought of putting on a play with incidental music requiring an orchestra of this size (three harps, for goodness' sake!) is just mind-boggling - not to mention that I think there may have been something of a chorus in the original line-up too, although I could be wrong. What we heard tonight was the four-movement suite Caplet prepared, which is the usual version heard in concert. Playing was good, but not quite possessing that heady, ecstatic quality that some (regrettably few) performances manage to achieve.
Similarly, I've only really heard one perfect "Mort de Cléopâtre" live, and that was Jessye Norman some thirty years ago. Ruxandra Donose made an honourable go of it, on the whole, but the voice doesn't have the heft in the lower register to carry over, or through the admittedly heavy orchestration (Berlioz never did his singers any favours!), and she has a slightly disconcerting trick at times of not quite centring the note. I wouldn't call it singing flat, it's not, but it's not completely focused either. Her French, when audible, was good, as I'd expect of a Romanian (it is their second language), and she presented very well. The orchestra, on the whole, sounded very good, relishing Berlioz's sumptuous orchestration and dramatic effects, though the brass didn't quite have that deep bronze sound that's needed here. However, they gave full measure to the young Berlioz's abundant imagination, especially in the almost luridly graphic final section.
Julian Anderson's "Eden" relies on a decidedly non-standard tuning system, which produced some interesting effects but was, I thought, a bit too distracting, as I sat there trying to convince my ears that I was not hearing a lot of iffy notes, but something very deliberately planned. Maybe repeated exposure would do the trick; if I manage to catch the broadcast, I'll certainly give it another try, but as a one-off, I'm afraid it has rather gone in one ear and out the other, without making much of a (constructive) impact in between.
The Sibelius, on the other hand, was quite simply grandiose. Fluid, expansive, rhythmically supple, perfectly timed, genuinely inspired conducting from Volkov, and very, very fine playing from the orchestra. The strings were richly velvety, yet perfectly clear, the brass had just the right glint of gold to their timbre, and not a cracked note amongst them. This is music from a Sibelius who has still to get completely in touch with his homeland's primeval Nature, as he does in the 7th and some of the other orchestral pieces, but you can see it coming, even while still hearing faint traces of the Russian influence so obvious in the 1st Symphony. Volkov and the orchestra captured all that, gave it all the perfect balance, and the glowing conclusion still lingers with me even now.
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