Berberis' World

Saturday, 17 October 2009, Royal Festival Hall.

“This wonderful performance of Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah’ marked the 20th-anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in which Kurt Masur… played a crucial role […] Masur, looking rather like an Old Testament prophet himself, didn’t so much conduct the work as deliver it. His tempos had a momentum that especially suited the chorus… and allowed the choral singing the sort of unforced naturalness that distinguishes the best performances of the great German passions […] the fugues didn’t drown you in a flood of self-conscious counterpoint, and the chorus’s urgent projection gave the awe-inspiring romance of moments such as the storm and the prophet’s ascension to heaven a grandeur far removed from post-Victorian piety.”

Peter Reed, The Classical Source.

“The London Philharmonic Choir was outstanding: full of tone and equally incisive of attack. Large forces are called for here and the thrill of large forces we received.”

Mark Berry, MusicWeb.

The legend that is Kurt Masur announced his arrival at the Bishopsgate Institute by being late and then stripping to the waist. That said, at 82, Maestro Masur is entitled to keep his own time and, given his subsequent 3 hour workout, he’s allowed a change of kit. And it was from the waist up.

We’d been warned that he was a hard taskmaster, and would single out individuals whom he considered not up to that task. For those of us who’d not had the pleasure of working with him before this proved far less daunting than trying to interpret his instructions, both verbal and non-verbal. Sometimes he was crystal-clear, as when he told the tenors “You sing like women!”. Other times, his arms dropped to his sides and he would shake his head, chuntering away to himself for a while before telling us a story, the meaning of which we were seemingly not only supposed to divine but incorporate into our interpretation of the text. On more than one occasion it seemed to more than just myself that the version which finally satisfied Maestro Masur (after maybe 6 or 7 attempts to put his wishes into music) was exactly the same as the first one. However, whilst you are sighing and fidgeting and complaining as the same phrase is repeated ad nauseam, you have to remind yourself that we are not hearing what he is hearing. Also, what he wants to hear is a step on from that. Oh, and he is Kurt Masur.

So, Elijah. To be honest, I’d never heard of it until now. It wasn’t until I read the concert programme that I fully understood what it was all about. This is the ‘Speedread’ version. Elijah for Dummies, if you will…

‘Elijah prophesies years of drought for the people of Israel, punishment for their worship of a false god, Baal. After raising a widow’s son from the dead, he challenges the priests of Baal to slay a bullock and call upon their god to light the sacrificial fire under it. Their prayers go unanswered, but Elijah’s prayer to the Lord God of Abraham is spectacularly successful. The priests of Baal are slain and Elijah’s prayers bring the penitent Israelites abundant rain.’

And that’s only Part 1. In Part 2 ‘Elijah rebukes King Ahab, and Queen Jezebel rouses the people against the prophet. He flees to the wilderness, and laments in a poignant aria Es ist genug (It is enough). Angelic visitations restore his spirits, and he returns to the people, overthrowing kings and finally ascending to Heaven in a chariot of fire. The last section foretells the coming of Christ.’

As an all-but-card-carrying atheist, this is no more than a fairy story to me. The son wasn’t actually dead, just not very well; the only way to start a fire without human interference is by a bolt of lightning; weather systems, not prayers, bring rain; angels only exist in people’s minds, and don’t get me started on fiery chariots or Jesus.

Two of the billed soloists were replaced: John Relyea, who was to have sung Elijah, was suffering from a throat and sinus infection and was replaced by the wonderful Alastair Miles. Rosie Aldridge, who was to have been Queen Jezebel, was replaced by Sarah Castle. Such was the last-minute nature of these substitutions that Elijah had only 2 rehearsals with us, and Jezebel (accompanied by her 8 week old son) had to borrow a dress from one of the chorus. Alastair Miles was clearly a popular sub, although he cut an odd figure in his first rehearsal – tall, balding, and dressed like a farm-hand. However, he opened his mouth and this amazing sound emerged; we were so impressed with one of his arias that we broke into spontaneous applause.

The impending deluge in Part 1 is heralded by the sighting of a cloud in the shape of a hand, spotted from a high vantage point by a youth. Said youth doesn’t have much to do, and the part was to have been sung by a chorus soprano. However, on hearing her Masur asked for ‘him’ to indicate where ‘he’ was. Having been expecting a boy, the Maestro’s disappointment was evident. A boy treble was hurriedly found in time for the final tutti and subsequent performance, and all was well.

I wasn’t aware of this 3rd substitution until after the performance, however, as I arrived late for the Saturday tutti and, as under NO circumstances do you take your place if a rehearsal has begun, I had to sneak in and stand in the corner behind the door in order to hear the last-minute instructions. It was a blessing in disguise, as in the 24 hours between the Friday tutti and the performance I developed a sore throat* that would have been made much worse by an hour’s extra singing. As it was, I spent much of the time in the second half expecting to start coughing uncontrollably. Thankfully this didn’t happen, but the voice was not 100% – there were one or two moments when I had to mime as I didn’t trust myself to produce the right note.  And the only phrase that Neville said he’d be listening out for I still managed to get wrong. Ah well, onwards and upwards, to quote the man himself.

*This morphed into a full-blown and hideous head cold/cough, which I still have as I type.

Text aside, I enjoyed singing Elijah. I love the overture, even if 8 bars of it did become an earworm I couldn’t shift for days. (Neither, I might add, could I get over the fact that the opening bars were used by John Williams for the theme from ‘Jaws’.) I doodled a shark fin in the margin. The way it builds towards the opening ‘Hilf, Herr!’ is brilliant, wonderfully stirring stuff, as is the final chorus.

Masur was very keen to stress that our interpretation should be devoid of any sentiment, and much of his criticism of our performance in rehearsal was that we were being too sentimental. He would stand there, pretending to wipe tears from his eyes and plead with us to “stop singing so beautifully!” Confusingly, he also said that it was not, despite its content, a religious piece. Having never heard it performed, I only discovered after reading one particular review that it had been the Victorians who had imbued Elijah with the cloying sentimentality so beloved of that era, and so inappropriate in a piece which contains quite a bit of vengeance and smiting and destruction.

As of 25th October, I can only find 2 reviews of this concert online. I find this very odd, given Masur’s status and reputation. Also, I can’t find any decent recordings of any of the parts on YouTube. Either the sound quality is really poor or it’s in English or the singing is awful. And I mean awful. Nails-down-a-blackboard, cats-being-tortured, please-make-it-stop-my-ears-are-bleeding awful. Both of these situations can easily be remedied by going out and buying this CD. Or this one. Better still, buy both of them. I’m going to.

PS: Having given up on my totally inappropriately named Creative ‘Zen’ player (it did nothing to improve mine), I now have an iPod Touch. But no Mendelssohn. So I went looking for the 2 CDs that I recommend at the end of this blog entry… only to find that they’re the same. Many apologies to anyone who bought both on the strength of my review. Just me then…

PPS: If all else fails and you, like me, can’t seem to find a German version with A. Miles Esq, then try this one . I should get commission…