I am, admittedly, no great fan of British music. I could never listen to a whole Vaughan Williams symphony without feeling I’ve been cheated out of a few hours of my life, and I find Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance Marches perfectly dreadful.
And don’t get me started on Gilbert and Sullivan. Still, de gustibus, I suppose.
Yet there are those pieces and composers that transcend any nationalistic or stylistic labelling.
The MPO’s latest orchestral concert from its Manoel Theatre series struck the right balance betweenthe quintessentially British andthe universal.
The concert opened with Vaughan William’s The Lark Ascending. No one has ever captured the ‘green hills of England’ better than Vaughan Williams.
Listening to The Lark Ascending, I was kind of hoping he captured a little bit more than just grass. Still, Marcelline Agius did a splendid job of the violin solo.
The violin represents the soaring flight of the lark, with the orchestra merely providing an aural backdrop. Musically, it translates into one giant cadenza for the violin, and one which Marcelline Agius tackled with great clarity and feeling.
Britten stands as one of Britain’s finest musical exports after Purcell. His merits lie not only in his musical craftsmanship, but also in the universality of his musical language. Les Illuminations, a song cycle on poems by the French poet Rimbaud, is one such example.
One might think that an English composer setting a French text isa recipe for disaster, but Brittenhas such a deep understanding of the text that he transcends all nationalistic boundaries.
The song cycle was sung by Gillian Zammit, who was in top form. She looked absolutely gorgeous, and has an incredible stage presence. She also has a voice to match, perfect for this repertoire, combining intimacy with drama that is crucial to such works. She has a clear diction and solid technique. Unfortunately, from where I was sitting, some of the lower register was not clearly audible, but it was more a question of tricky acoustics than anything else.
Les Illuminations is not just a challenge for the singer, but also for the string orchestra. The MPO, under the baton of Mro Michael Laus, provided a solid and vibrant support. It was also great to hear such a compact string section, and it really shows how much the orchestra has grown over the last few years.
At this point I must apologise to Elgar. It is unfair to judge him solely on the Pomp and Circumstance Marches. True, I also find The Dream of Gerontius unbearable, and can just about make it through the Salut d’Amour. But, the Enigma Variations; that is the real Elgar.
The work is a set of 13 variations on a theme, with each variation being a musical portrait of his friends and family. Mro Laus elicited many tonal contrasts out of the orchestra, and each ‘portrait’ was a finely wrought miniature in its own right. Although the opening and first two variations were somewhat hesitant, the work blossomed to its glorious finale.
As much as I love the Manoel Theatre, it is far from an ideal space for the MPO. The orchestra ends up getting squeezed back into the stage, leaving the woodwinds sandwiched between the brass and the strings in what is almost a deaf spot. This upsets the whole acoustic balance, leaving the woodwinds mostly inaudible, especially from the stalls.
Given that the MPO has more than proved its worth over the last decade, the country owes it a proper home. After all, everyone needs a roof over their head!