Petrushka (1947) - Stravinsky
Das Knaben Wunderhorn - Mahler
The programme for last night's orchestral concert at the NCH was unusual. It consisted of just two works, the 1947 version of Stravinsky's Petrushka and the entire collection of Mahler's Das Knaben Wunderhorn songs.
The National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kasper de Roo played Petrushka with plenty of vigour. Yet the performance did not capture either the bustling energy or the highly-dramatised contrasts of this extraordinary music. Maybe the conductor was aiming for a neo-classical precision and tightness, for this revision dates from the end of the composer's neo-classical period, and tidies up the 1911 score's opulence. Whatever the reason, an emphatic projection of detail was combined with little feel for context.
In the absence of large-scale drive, Stravinsky's dramatically calculated discontinuities sounded like isolated events, and the overall effect was too episodic to make the impact one would have hoped for.
Das Knaben Wunderhorn was not conceived as a musically cohesive collection; but it includes rewards sufficient to make a complete hearing well worthwhile. The orchestral playing was beautifully col oured; but one missed that pliability with melody and timing which could carry the various texts - the military, the dance, and the warm caress of love. The success of the performance depended largely on the soloists, Lynda Lee (soprano) and Andreas Scheibner (baritone). Both were persuasive, but especially Lee, who had most of the better music, and whose judgment with colour and shape was apt and moving.