A selection of events are reviewed by Irish Times writers.
RTÉ Philharmonic Choir,
RTÉ NSO - Laurent Wagner
National Concert Hall
By Michael Dervan
Mozart - Magic Flute Overture. Schubert - Symphony No 6. Mahler - Das klagende Lied
In the summer of 1883, the young Gustav Mahler sent a score of his cantata Das klagende Lied (Song of Lament), completed three years earlier, to the 71-year-old Franz Liszt, the then president of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein.
The great man sent it back with a platitude about "many praiseworthy details" but expressed disapproval of the text. Mahler had reworked a grisly story in which a flute made from the bone of a murder victim later becomes the undoing of the murderer when he unwittingly plays on it.
The cantata is an uneven, indeed a patchy work. It's in three parts, and it was Mahler himself who dispensed with the first and longest of them, Waldmärchen (Forest Tale), in a revision of 1893; a further revision followed in 1899. The two-movement version was premièred in 1901, but the three-movement piece was not heard until 23 years after the composer's death, in 1934. Since that time, and in any form, the work has remained a rarity in the concert hall.
Friday's performance by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra under Laurent Wagner made it clear both why Mahler would have ditched the opening movement - it's altogether less taut than the other two - and why modern listeners prefer to have it included - it's prolix, rich and premonitory, and tells us a great deal we otherwise wouldn't know about the young composer's gifts.
Wagner conducted the work with keen responses. He was sharp in his observation of its extraordinary colour and gesture, taking the music's vividness at face value rather than attempting to smooth things out in the pursuit of some grander plan. His team of vocal soloists - Orla Boylan (soprano), Anna Burford (mezzo soprano), John Daszak (tenor) and William Dazeley (baritone) - were at their best when working together rather than singly. Burford's contralto-ish strength apart, their contributions tended to sound less persuasive than either those of the orchestra or of the eager and fresh-voiced RTÉ Philharmonic Choir.
Wagner is a man who makes good use of light and shade, and whose notions of orchestral give-and-take involve a lot in the way of redrawn balances for players used to the cluttered middle-ground that often passes muster in both of RTÉ's orchestras.
The pleasures of the Mozart overture and Schubert symphony of the first half were those of greater musical leanness and litheness than the NSO normally musters in this kind of repertoire. But the performances still had a sense of work-in-progress about them. This concert marked Wagner's début with RTÉ's bigger orchestra. Let's hope he's extended the opportunity to continue the work.
Ulster Orchestra - André de Ridder
Ulster Hall, Belfast
By Dermot Gault
Respighi - The Birds. Rautavaara - Clarinet Concerto. Bach arranged Walton - The Wise Virgins. Mendelssohn - Symphony No 4 'Italian' (revised version).
Two rarities and two novelties made up this unusually interesting programme.
The rarities were the Respighi and Walton suites, both mid-20th century arrangements of Baroque pieces.
The Walton, bland in the slow movements and heavy-handed in the fast movements, doesn't stand up especially well, but the Respighi charms with its delicate orchestration, and it was deftly played.
The first novelty was the Clarinet Concerto by Einojuhani Rautavaara, dedicated to, and played by, the American virtuoso Richard Stoltzman. This was its first performance in Ireland. Few composers today have Rautavaara's feeling for romantic harmony and few can match the warmth and richness of his orchestration. The melodic writing conveys an unmistakably Finnish character.
Most of the music is slow or moderate and for much of the time the soloist is a rhapsodic dreamer. The solo part is demanding enough, though, making extensive use of the instrument's strenuous and at times piercing upper register.
Rautavaara is good when he's communing with nature, and the rapid finale was the least striking part of the score.
The other novelty - at least, I suspect it was new to most listeners - was the revised 1834 version of Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony. The first movement remains the same but the other movements are a strange mixture of the familiar and the unfamiliar.
The later version is longer, more involved and thoughtful, and in places more passionate and serious.
Whether it's any "better" is harder to judge - we're too familiar with the original version - but it made for fascinating listening.
