United Kingdom Schubert: Allan Clayton (tenor), Aurora Orchestra / Nicholas Collon (conductor). Queen Elizabeth Corridor, London, 14.3.2024. (AK)
Schubert (arr. Hans Zender) – Winterreise
Idea and Course – Jane Mitchell
Co-director – Allan Clayton
It was with some trepidation in addition to joyful anticipation with what I used to be trying ahead to this efficiency. Schubert’s Winterreise, composed in 1827 to poems by Wilhelm Müller, may very well be considered sacrosanct. The 24-song cycle describes the ideas of a younger man who was dejected in love however arguably it is usually a farewell to life which the very sick Schubert composed a 12 months earlier than his loss of life. Regardless of the which means, this cycle for voice and piano is among the nice masterpieces of the canon.
In 1993, German composer Hans Zender provided his impression of the cycle in his ‘Schubert’s Winterreise – A Composed Interpretation’. Zender appears to depart Schubert’s vocal line intact – there could be some melodic modifications which I didn’t discover, and there may be some Sprechstimme which I did discover – however he re-imagines the soundscape for the accompaniment which he extends by about half an hour. Schubert’s piano introduction to the primary music (Gute Nacht) is six bars lengthy; Zender’s orchestral introduction to the identical music is about three minutes. The size of orchestral extension varies from music to music, relying on the textual content of the every one.
The devices utilized by Zender embrace strings, wind, brass, harp, timpani and percussion but additionally melodicas, a saxophone, guitar, an accordion in addition to a wind machine. Moreover, the usage of devices creates additional number of sounds. At this live performance, the introduction to the primary music began with the timpani participant very slowly and really gently shifting the palm of his hand on his instrument. The sound was barely audible however progressively elevated and was joined by the string gamers including col legno and pizzicato to the slowly rising soundscape of the snow. Zender’s use of instrumentation and of his particular person devices just isn’t haphazard: he chooses any mixture of his devices based on how he interprets Wilhelm Müller’s poems (and Schubert’s response to them).
Zender advised some stage path to a few of his gamers, corresponding to strolling slowly whereas enjoying their devices. I’ve not but seen his rating however I suppose that Zender might need wished further sound results by such directions.
I’m unsure which stage path got here from Zender and which from co-directors Jane Mitchell and Allan Clayton on this manufacturing. Nonetheless, what I skilled was 90 minutes of thrilling theatre. There was no interval throughout the efficiency and latecomers weren’t allowed in. For ninety fascinating minutes we skilled, virtually lived via, the painful journey of Schubert’s lonely protagonist (or of Schubert himself).
Tenor (and right here co-director) Allan Clayton is astonishing past phrases. I’ve lengthy admired the purity and integrity of his singing, however this time he was on the stage for total time portraying textual content and music by facial expressions, strolling (on stage and at one level within the auditorium), crawling, sitting, mendacity down, giving an Elvis impersonation with a guitar, dancing, and fading out of life on conclusion. Clayton would have been deeply shifting even when he didn’t sing a single be aware. However he additionally sang Schubert’s demanding cycle, together with his customary creative intelligence and integrity.
I’m not positive in regards to the stage design and lighting, there was a lot occurring. All I can say is that the general impression was an incredible theatrical expertise which included the staging, lighting and video projection. I’m sure that these parts should have been, up to some extent, dictated by restrictions on the Queen Elizabeth Corridor live performance stage. I might like to see this complete manufacturing in a small theatre, even when we might lose strolling within the auditorium (which the tenor in addition to members of the orchestra did at one level).
Certainly the Aurora Orchestra is exclusive nationwide and worldwide. They play their devices to a excessive commonplace, they play largely from reminiscence and, on this manufacturing, they convincingly act as, for example, the villagers, the postman and even the crows alongside the journey. Whereas enjoying their devices, they stroll on stage, they stroll within the auditorium, they sit, kneel, throw snowflakes and are wholly integral to the theatrical expertise. Their founder conductor, Nicholas Collon, raised the bar excessive for different teams to attempt to comply with this versatility. Within the meantime, Collon and his Aurora current music at its greatest.
Agnes Kory
