Grosser Saal, Mozarteum
Per Nørgard – Dream Play
Mozart – Vado, ma dove? oh Dei!, KV 583
Sibelius – Suite: Pelleas and Melisande, op.46
Prokofiev – Symphony no.1 in D
major, op.25, ‘Classical’
Elbenita Kajtazi (soprano)
Camerata Salzburg
Alexander Prior (conductor)
This was a curiously assembled
programme, but since it was one of four concerts to be conducted by Nestlé and
Salzburg Young Conductor prize winners, there may have been any number of
practical reasons for that. Alexander Prior certainly knew what he was doing
and how to get what he wanted from the Camerata Salzburg.
Per Nørgard’s Dream Symphony, not a work with which I
was previously familiar, opened the programme. The opening was surefooted and
colourful, the Salzburg woodwind especially fruity. Strings offered an added touch
of overt late Romanticism, despite the work having been written in 1975, and a
good few ‘wrong’ notes to spice up the harmony. There was great clarity to the
performance, allied to a strong sense of forward momentum (at least where the
piece permitted). The gorgeous acoustic of the Mozarteum’s Grosser Saal helped,
and so did excellent playing, but Prior deserves a good deal of credit; he was
clearly enjoying himself too.
Mozart’s insertion aria, Vado, ma dove? oh Dei!, benefited
equally from warm, crisp orchestral playing (thankfully not a hint of the dread
Roger Norrington’s tenure). Elbenita Kajtazi’s singing and the performance in
general were operatic in a good sense: one could well imagine the piece doing –
very well – what it was designed to do, lifting the work of a lesser composer (Martín
y Soler). Kajtazi’s stylish, often thrilling performance left one longing for
more. I certainly hope to hear more from her.
Sibelius’s smaller works have
often proved more attractive to me than his (dreary) symphonies. Not really on
this occasion, I am afraid, although again the performances were excellent. It
was a long time since I had heard his incidental music for Pelleas and Melisande; he comes a long, long way behind Debussy and
Schoenberg, Fauré too. The audience generally seemed enthralled, though, and
there was no doubting Prior’s commitment. The opening number was rich of tone,
yet stark, clearly suggestive of the dark castle. The English horn soloist
shone in his various solos, and there was a gloriously full orchestral sound to
be heard from what, after all, is a chamber orchestra. The penultimate movement
definitely had a ‘pastoral’ quality to it, prior to a duly grave conclusion.
I was a little puzzled by Prior’s
rather deliberate direction of Prokofiev’s Classical
Symphony, especially during the first movement, which dragged somewhat, at
least to my ears. (I am not one generally to dislike slower tempi.) The Larghetto emerged better, sounding
graceful, yet always retaining a sense of the longer line. I rather liked the
held-back quality to the Gavotta too,
which prepared a still greater contrast with the fleet virtuosity of the
finale. There was no doubting here the aural glimpses (!) of the ballet
composer to come.
