Haydn : Symphony No. 70
Mahler (arr. Cortese) : Das Lied von der Erde
Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano
Simon O'Neill, tenor
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Robin Ticciati
Concert programming must get a little tricky when you want to perform one very significant work, at least three-quarters of an hour in length, but know that that can't be sufficient in itself for a public, paying concert. If there is a connection between the Haydn symphony that opened tonight's concert, and the Mahler vocal symphony that concluded it, it's beyond me, so I simply enjoyed the first half as it came, a sprightly interpretation of a work that's not at all familiar to me. It's quite a quirky piece, which is saying something, because Haydn and quirky tend to be something of a given in any event. However, the way the key oscillated between major and minor, and the teasing rhythmic structures of the outer movements were particularly interesting. It's not, perhaps, the most immediately appealing of Haydn symphonies, unlike, for example, the "Clock" (No. 101), or the "Hunt" (No. 73), but it formed a tangy entrée before the prospectively rich feast of the pièce de résistance.
Das Lied von der Erde is, for me, Mahler's masterpiece, encapsulating all his strengths in orchestral and vocal colour, in word setting and in emotional and psychological profundity. Unfortunately, one doesn't get to hear it much in concert because it's ferociously difficult to pull off. A standard performance requires a very large orchestra and a very delicate handling of balance from the conductor, and two very fine soloists. While quite a few mezzos can probably envisage their role with a certain degree of confidence, I imagine a lot of tenors likely view theirs as a train-wreck waiting to happen. It's the tenor who launches proceedings, "launch" being the operative term, because he has to come in at maximum volume, at the top of his range, in the teeth of the full orchestra. Once in a blue moon, you will get a singer actually capable of making it work; most of the time, it's the aural equivalent of a fly splatting on a windscreen! The audience knows this, and usually makes allowances for it, and life gets (a little) easier for the tenor thereafter. Mahler habitually revised his orchestral song settings after their initial execution, but he never had the opportunity to do so with Das Lied, because it was given its premiere posthumously. One can only wonder if he might have adjusted that opening song slightly had he ever heard it played.
Knowing that this performance was to be of an arrangement of the Mahler for small orchestra, I had thought that tonight's tenor, Simon O'Neill, might not be obliged to work quite so hard as would be necessary with the original version. Unfortunately, whatever adjustments Glen Cortese made to the scoring, the matter of balance still remained a delicate one, and it was all wrong here. Perhaps Glasgow's City Hall is a little small as a venue for this score, even in reduced format, but in any event, the winds were overpoweringly loud and obtrusive almost all the way through. The brass, modest in number though they were, seemed equally overbearing, while the strings were too few to produce the velvety tone Mahler requires, and although playing feelingly, tended to sound rather thin. In a bigger space, things might have evened out somewhat, and the soloists' voices carried better.
O'Neill is unknown to me, but his bio clearly indicates that he sings the helden repertory; power of output should not be a problem, and yet in all three of his songs, parts of his phrases were quite simply drowned out. It was only in the last, "Der Trunkene im Frühling" that we really heard the upper notes ring out unfettered, as they should. Even the otherwise excellent Karen Cargill suffered at times, her big, lustrous voice swamped in the middle of "Von der Schönheit". Only when the orchestra was finally pared right down to accompany the voice in the long, final song, "Der Abschied", were we really able to appreciate the glowing warmth of her timbre. In the end, the serenity of that sublime last movement came through as desired, and it's perfectly understandable that a chamber orchestra, particularly one of the calibre of the SCO, should want to incorporate into its repertory some pieces that are normally beyond its scope. However, judging from tonight, this version of Das Lied is not effective, or else it needs some special handling that Ticciati and the orchestra were unable to bring to it.
[Next : 31st January]
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