United Kingdom Icons Rediscovered: Wagner’s Grand Competition: Rachel Nicholls (soprano), Peter Wedd (tenor), Derek Welton (bass-baritone), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Vasily Petrenko (conductor). Royal Albert Corridor, London, 13.3.2024 (CC)
Wagner – Huldigungsmarsch (1864); Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868): Prelude to Act I; Was duftet doch der Flieder; Das Rheingold: Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge; Die Walküre: Experience of the Valkyries; Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fireplace Music; Götterdämmerung: Daybreak (Prologue); Duet and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey (Act I); Siegfried’s Dying and Funeral Music; Brünnhilde’s Immolation and Finale (Act III)
It at all times feels a bit odd touring to the Royal Albert Corridor out of term-time (BBC Proms): a really completely different expertise, what with all these enviornment ground seats and all. There was motive sufficient for the journey although.
The live performance was an echo of a ‘grand opera spectacle’ that Wagner himself dropped at the Royal Albert Corridor in 1877, bringing some Bayreuth soloists in tow. Lasting from Might 7 by means of to 29, the sequence of concert events discovered conducting duties shared between Wagner and Hans Richter.
This homage to these spectacles started with a rarity: the Huldigungsmarsch (fashionable listeners in the event that they understand it in any respect might understand it from Neeme Järvi’s Chandos recording with the Royal Scottish Nationwide Orchestra. The piece was written in 1864 as a tribute to King Ludwig II of Bavaria (who had been so financially beneficiant to the composer, together with rescuing the Bayreuth mission). The title certainly means ‘Homage March,’ and the piece is bisected in two, the opening filled with aching phrases and the quicker part quite mild, and positively ripe for brass band transcription (certainly, its unique scoring was for army band). All credit score to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for his or her stunning phrasing, the creamy decrease brass contributions and the exact taking part in. It was Vasily Petrenko whose interpretation allowed the piece to be heard in the perfect mild, although, encouraging element and permitting the piece’s pure variegation to shine by means of.
It was logical sufficient to begin with a chunk of Wagneriana. And the second half was all-Götterdämmerung, in order that’s honest sufficient. The primary half was a patchwork quilt, one during which items zigzagged from one period of Wagner’s writing to a different. So, after the march got here Die Meistersinger (1868) then again to Das Rheingold (1854) and on to Die Walküre (1856). Shifting from Meistersinger to Rheingold does the latter few favours, frankly.
Nonetheless, the Meistersinger Act I Prelude kind of mirrors the Huldigungsmarsch in its brightness, and Petrenko supplied a brisk, no-nonsense account (his tempos have been usually on the quick aspect all through the night). It was the woodwind solos which enlivened the efficiency, a lovely-toned clarinet specifically (Katherine Lacy). There was some inevitable lack of definition because of the RAH’s plane hangar-like acoustic, and what Petrenko’s account actually wanted was a thread of stress from first to final. As a substitute, there was the odd sag. Clearly, we had the live performance ending earlier than the Fliedermonolog. The soloist right here as Hans Sachs was Derek Welton, who went on to sing Wotan within the Rheingold and Walküre excerpts.
Playing cards on the desk: it was Welton who had acquired me on the District line to South Kensington within the first place as I heard him as Wotan in an traditionally knowledgeable efficiency of Rheingold in Dresden final yr (you learn that proper: A= 435 Hz, string portamento, ‘genuine’ supply of textual content). He’ll sing the Walküre Wotan in Might in Dresden once more beneath Kent Nagano; right here we had some bleeding chunks, preceded by an outstanding Fliedermonolog characterised by very good diction however once more that includes a Petrenko-led sag. Welton’s voice is that of a bass on first encounter, so rounded and full is his decrease vary, however his higher, baritone register is full and highly effective, too. From Rheingold, ‘Abendlich strahlt’, the singer’s pitching completely good (what a disgrace the string tremolos didn’t carry extra weight). From Walküre, by way of a brisk Experience of the Valkyries that was however filled with element, the farewell, really impassioned from Welton. The odd scrappiness within the strings hardly distracted as Welton supplied a efficiency that moved from the purest tenderness to a commanding evocation of Loge. It has been some time since I’ve heard this closing passage from the primary a part of the Ring fairly so quick, although; Petrenko might need had a technique to go residence, too.
And so to Götterdämmerung and an opportunity for Rachel Nicholls and Peter Wedd to shine. And shine Wedd did, in his assumption of Siegfried within the duet (from Brünnhilde’s ‘Zu neuen Taten’ by means of to the well-known ‘Heil’s) and thence to Siegfried’s demise, all preceded by the orchestra’s opening Prologue, the RPO horns exuding a creaminess of which the Czech Philharmonic would have been proud. Wedd has power galore, and he clearly is aware of and lives (and loves) each observe of this half. There is no such thing as a doubt Rachel Nicholls has the vary for this – a firmer decrease finish than many a extra well-known Brünnhilde – however her voice doesn’t open out sufficient when required. Extra worrying was her large vibrato, verging on the unsteady. One factor she does have, although, is a prime C (and so does Wedd), making certain the part was topped with acceptable quantity.
Petrenko’s approach with the orchestra was a little bit finer than within the first half; the Funeral Music did have some suspense operating by means of it. A pity, then, when it got here to the Immolation, that ‘Trog keiner wie er!’ (‘none deceived as he!’) carried so little weight, decidedly perfunctory from Petrenko. Nicholls’s best moments got here round ‘Fliegt heim, ihr Raben’, and her efficiency gained in gravitas from that second.
An interesting night, then. It’s a good distance from the Huldigungsmarsch to Brünnhilde’s Immolation, and all credit score to the RPO for giving their all all through.
Colin Clarke
