Melbourne Symphony Orchestra | Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
July 14, 2023, Melbourne Recital Centre
Jaime Martín conductor
Alexandra Oomens soprano
Stephanie Dillon mezzo-soprano
Gondwana Voices
Lyn Williams AM children’s chorus director
Program
Michael Atherton Shall we Dream?
Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night’s Dream: incidental music (excerpts)
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique in five movements
One expects the conductor after walking on to wave his or her arms to start the orchestra. Instead a children’s choir entered Hamer Hall via all the stalls and dress circle aisles as we heard some tuned percussion with the sounds of wine glasses being played by the children. In a startling bit of theatre the glasses had a candle in them (probably small LED candles if I know anything about work-safe practices and regulations) and the murmuring sounds of this work built up to more presence as the children reached the stage. The soundscape and theatre of this work was highly effective and the performance was convincing. It is a work that is recreated by the choir’s director every time it is performed based on a melody by Michael Atherton but re-designed anew for every venue it is performed in. I particularly noted the boy soprano echoing the solo soprano with his clear and fully present vocals. The commitment of the young children to learning this difficult work was evident and I noticed a girl with braided hair throughout the entire offering of this choir, being totally involved and looking enthusiastic and ecstatically happy at being a part of this performance. I think this enthusiasm and delight was representative of all the children in the choir.
The theme could have been called “Shall we Dream?”, the title of the first work given the repertoire that followed.
After the first subdued sounds of the woodwinds opening the Mendelssohn work, the children quietly moved off after the full orchestra joined thus covering the small sounds of their exit. Later they were to move on and off and on and off again with the various sections of the Midsummer Night’s Dream requiring the chorus. Mendelssohn wrote the Op. 61 for A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1842, 16 years after he wrote the overture. The overture in E major, Op. 21, was written by Mendelssohn at 17 years and 6 months old (it was finished on 6 August 1826). After the overture there are twelve movements, sometimes played with only the instrumental excerpts. Today we heard seven of these movements which included the vocal excerpts.
I would imagine that everyone who still has a CD collection of classical music would have the two main works this programme presented. I have known these works for decades and loved them, so this was a popular programme. Upon reflection I realised I had never heard them performed live! In one sense it is so much easier to have a sanitised living room experience being the second conductor with the sound up. While I heard a few issues in this work I do have to say despite not being perfect, it is so much better than the sanitised living room with the glass of red waiting by the side table. The scherzo despite not being as fast as I have heard on occasion, was ghosted, that is to say the rapid string delicate playing was not together. At times the woodwinds were not entirely in tune. However, being a live performance that I was experiencing I heard and saw so much more and had an experience that definitely transcended the lounge room experience.
It is worth noting with the Mendelssohn and the Berlioz pieces that these works were composed not that many years after Beethoven’s ninth symphony (1824). The Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung at the time gushed, “inexhaustible genius had shown us a new world” for Beethoven’s ninth and I would certainly agree, but I personally humbly submit that Berlioz mere years later has shown us a much different and newer world which in one sense leads up to Mahler in terms of orchestration and musical sensibilities. Even the Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture written in a more Germanic style, shows a different world and different orchestration style. However, it is with the Berlioz work that one sees an entirely different orchestral sound and indeed a different approach to melodic material.
Berlioz’s orchestration of the La Marseillaise is still used today and the Symphony Fantastique was written the same year. This is worth noting when listening to the symphony as again I found seeing is hearing, by which I mean that seeing the orchestral sections playing I had my attention drawn to what they were doing and I heard so much more in this live performance.
In particular the third movement was a revelation to me…
…seeing the orchestra meant I could hear the subtlety of the third movement and realised that this is a much under-rated movement with orchestral variety and intricate shaping. This delicacy was rendered in a highly successful way by the MSO and I found this the most convincing movement of the whole evening. The third movement has the shifting sands of our wildest and most illogical dreams musically freewheeling into the true nature of dreams where half remembered thoughts are only half dealt with and returned to later that night or later in the symphony in this case. I felt this strongly in this performance. Berlioz writes melodies which are sometimes short and then sometimes seemingly fizzle out. Are these melodies or simply short motifs? In any case not needing to complete the melody properly is particularly effective for the dreaming theme in contrast to Berlioz’s treatment of the French National Anthem.
The second movement is the usual crowd pleaser waltz where melodies continue on although the oboe melody which starts so hopefully developing into some rapture (perhaps at seeing his beloved) meanders off into nowhere as the rest of the orchestra invades the musical thought. I have always thought this fizzling out a stroke of genius on Berlioz’s part.
The powerful brass section using modern brass instruments with extra tubing and valves etc was not the authentic sound of the early 19th century and I found the brass were sometimes way too loud drowning out the rest of the orchestra. However when needed they really packed a punch at the appropriate times in the fourth and fifth movements.
I found this to be a most enjoyable concert with two popular and well known works as well as a very creative and enjoyable rendering of the Atherton work by the Gondwana Choir. Whilst I had a few minor quibbles about the orchestra, this is a really good orchestra and I strongly encourage all to go to a live concert of your local orchestra to really hear what is going on in the favourites in your CD collection or Spotify list.
