Back from Concert 2 and ready to do a "compare and contrast" exercise on the two Carmina Buranas and the rest
Concert 1 (LSO, Hickox)All in all, a terrific concert. A powerful Chichester Psalms with a very good, interesting treble soloist, the 12-year-old Jesus Duque - an unusual voice, theatrical and not innocent-sounding at all (he also sang Gherardino in the Royal Opera's recent Gianni Schicchi). Laura Claycomb's Knoxville was fine as far as I could tell, though I was at the back of the circle and there is a tendency for words to get lost in the Barbican's acoustic.
Carmina Burana was terrific. Three first-class soloists (Laura Claycomb, Barry Banks, Christopher Maltman); a well-rehearsed, well-disciplined chorus (the LSC). Although he doesn't get much to sing, the highlight was Barry Banks's roasting swan - the best I've ever heard - in heroic full voice right up to the top notes. One musical "oops!" - the piano and the timps weren't in time with one another on the first beat of the piece
Concert 2 (Philharmonia, Frühbeck de Burgos)It turned out that Row B was in fact the FRONT row of the stalls - I hadn't quite bargained on being right under the soloists' noses like that.
I don't feel qualified to pass much comment on Thibaudet's performance of the Khatchaturian concerto, especially after having heard it from practically UNDERNEATH the piano, but I was impressed by it. I enjoyed it as a piece.
Carmina Burana was problematic, and as usual there's a lot more to say about a flawed performance than a very good one.
For a start, there were technical problems, musically speaking. The chorus were often not in time with each other (
Si puer cum puellula fell to bits especially noticeably), the boys were flat, and I'm afraid that David Kuebler was the WORST roasting swan EVER. He cracked some big notes and went into a cringe-making falsetto above the dominant. He was just dreadful
One disadvantage of sitting in the centre of the front row is that - if you're a decent and polite human being - you know that you have to resist laughing or cringing!
Frühbeck de Burgos has some weird ideas, too. I haven't heard his famous recording from donkey's years ago, so I don't know whether he is famous for being quite as idiosyncratic as in his performance this evening. On the one hand, I liked a lot of what he did with it: the slightly restrained tempo in the first half of
O fortuna so that a pickup of speed then reinforces the pickup in pitch and volume; the brisk tempo he chose for
Veris leta facies; the occasional rubato to bring out a bit of detail. But then elsewhere he messed around with the rhythms so impact was lost: he had the flute solo in the middle section of
Swaz hie gat umbe taken as a sort of rhapsodic cadenza, and he slowed the start of the refrains in
Tempus est iocundum right down before doubling the speed at
'Iam amore virginali...'. It made me chuckle at first, but then I thought, we've got FIVE verses of this gimmick, and it makes the movement lose the momentum it should have. I figured if Orff had wanted it done that way, he'd have said so.
On the plus side, the orchestra was extremely good, and so were the other two soloists: William Dazeley wasn't in the best of voice, but he gave a good all-round performance (including an enjoyably hammed-up
Ego sum abbas cucaniensis), while Claire Rutter's
Dulcissime was worth being on the front row for!
