NCH, Dublin Wagner
Siegried's Funeral March and Finale from Götterdämmerung. Christopher Rouse — Der gerettete Alberich. Brahms — Symphony No 1.
THE NEW YORK TIMESreported that the leader of the Philadelphia Orchestra had cotton wool in his ears for a Carnegie Hall performance of Christopher Rouse's
Der Gerettete Alberich(Alberich saved) in 1998.
The protective gestures were rather more formal when the piece was heard for the first time at the National Concert Hall on Friday. A series of perspex panels safeguarded the players from the full impact of the percussion soloist, Evelyn Glennie.
Rouse presents the work as an exploration of the fate of the dwarf Alberich, which is left undisclosed by Wagner at the end of his Ring opera cycle. Rouse begins, literally, where Wagner left off, quoting the end of Götterdämmerung, and introducing Alberich in the form of the solo percussionist.
It might seem like a recipe for a clever 20th-century reworking of motifs from the Ring. But, in truth, it's a lot less than that, a percussion-fest showpiece for Glennie, with lots of heavy hitting, and even some moments that switch into rock drumming and the orchestra into big band mode. Glennie was her usual high-impact self, a theatrical as well as a musical experience, and the orchestra did as orchestras must in the circumstances, and gave the floor, literally and metaphorically, to the soloist.
Conductor Alan Buribayev gave a sharply-etched account of the relevant Wagner as an opener, and closed with a patiently-argued, finely-illuminated account of Brahms's
First Symphony.
He took an approach to the work that neither hurried nor dallied. He shied away from blended richness of sonority in favour of a manner that gave the various instrumental choirs greater clarity and independence. And he portrayed a Brahms who was relatively light and steady on his toes. In short, his was a performance that will have pleased listeners who see Brahms as a classicist far more than those who want the romantic elements of his music to the fore.
