United Kingdom PROM 55 – R. Schumann, Smetana: Víkingur Ólafsson (piano) Berliner Philharmoniker / Kirill Petrenko (conductor). Royal Albert Corridor, London 31.8.2024. (CSa)
R. Schumann – Piano Concerto in A minor
Smetana – Mà vlast
Visits by the Berlin Philharmonic to the UK have turn out to be slightly extra frequent over the past 20 years, however they continue to be red-letter days within the nation’s live performance calendar and their appearances are events to be treasured. Dubbed by many as ‘the most effective band on the earth’ they’re the orchestral model of a Daimler Benz: famend for its meticulous technical precision, excellent management, and opulence. It has performed on the BBC Proms at least 22 occasions since 1927. Nearly a yr to the night time since their final look in 2023 beneath their Chief Conductor Kirill Petrenko, the gamers returned to a sold-out Royal Albert Corridor and a hero’s welcome for the primary of two live shows: Robert Schumann’s virtuosic Piano Concerto in A minor and Smetana’s cycle of six grippingly patriotic tone poems: Má vlast (‘My Fatherland’).
At first blush, the pairing of those two works in the identical programme gave the impression to be unconnected. In spite of everything, Má vlast was written by Smetana nearly 20 years after Schumann’s demise and owes little in substance or fashion to the latter’s early Romantic orchestral compositions. But Robert and his spouse Clara have been personally recognized to the youthful composer. They met briefly in Prague in 1844 in the home of a Czech nobleman, the place Smetana, then a younger music pupil, served as a kids’s tutor. It’s mentioned that Smetana sought Robert and Clara’s opinion on a sonata he had written however was rebuffed.
From a political perspective, each males have been – albeit in numerous methods – fervently concerned within the nationalist motion in German-speaking Europe. For Smetana, the burning subject centred on the nationwide identification and freedom of his homeland which was at the moment trapped throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire. There was one other programmatic hyperlink too, or extra precisely, a fairly curious and tragic coincidence. Each Schumann and Smetana contracted syphilis. In Schumann’s case, it contributed to extreme psychotic episodes and an tried suicide which led to his admission into an asylum close to Bonn in 1854. He died there two years later. In Smetana’s case, he grew to become utterly deaf whereas composing Má vlast, and 6 years after its completion in 1884, was incarcerated in an asylum in Prague.
The Piano Concerto in A was written between 1841 and 1845, a interval of optimism and private happiness for Schumann. He meant it to be performed by Clara, an completed pianist in her personal proper. Reasonably than a virtuosic piece wherein the orchestra is ‘a mere spectator’ it takes the type of a lyrical dialogue between the gamers and the soloist. On this event the soloist was famend Icelandic pianist Vikingur Ólafsson. Trying significantly youthful than his 39 years, and soberly attired in a Rishi Sunak fashion slim-fit swimsuit, skinny tie and outsized spectacles, he could possibly be mistaken for an accountant on his approach to the workplace till the second he took his seat on the piano and his fingers contact the keyboard.
His taking part in has been described as breathtakingly good, with a capability to show the piano into bodily panorama of feeling. Saturday night time’s efficiency conclusively confirmed that such plaudits will not be exaggerated. From his first dramatic entry beneath Petrenko’s pin-point baton, Ólafsson maintained an intimate and evenly balanced dialog with the finely honed orchestra. His capability to play softly but audibly within the vastness of the Royal Albert Corridor was a unprecedented accomplishment, notably within the delicate cantabile part of the primary motion the place his mild piano accompaniment floated calmly on an undercurrent of strings. The Intermezzo second motion was taken at a leisurely tempo, subtly colored, and performed with a Mozartian grace and tenderness which momentarily belied the ability of Ólafsson’s expressive fingering. Any lingering impression of fragility was instantly banished in an explosive Allegro vivace wherein Ólafsson ramped up the momentum whereas Petrenko, full throttle, took his gleaming Daimler Benz of an ensemble all the way in which to a thrillingly virtuosic conclusion.
When a baying crowd of 6,000 demand an encore, it’s tough to refuse. Ólafsson duly obliged with a elegant account of the Adagio from Bach’s Fourth Organ Sonata, tailored by Smetana’s pupil, the Czech composer and pianist August Stradal. From the contemplative nearly hushed first moments to the slowly swelling grandeur of the motion’s climax, Ólafsson, his head bowed low as if in prayer, remodeled the huge auditorium right into a small and sanctified house – one wherein he held his viewers transfixed and completely nonetheless.
A full complement of 117 Berlin gamers assembled after the interval to play Smetana’s mighty Mà vlast, a piece typically thought to be having established a brand new and genuine Czech musical fashion. This large set of six symphonic poems runs for nearly 75 minutes. In it, Smetana traces the historical past, legends, folklore and panorama of what’s now generally known as the Czech Republic. The work has been described as a wealthy slice of Bohemian village life, with an ingenuous high quality of a folktale, with a rating that appears to spring from the bosom of Bohemia. It’s maybe because of this that the work is never carried out in its entirety, save in Czechoslovakia by Czech musicians.
But, Smetana’s elementary message of freedom is common and never confined to the Czech homeland or its folks. Moreover, its wealthy canvas of instrumental color and profusion of beautiful melodies present the right showcase for an orchestra of any nationality.
Within the first of the 2 poems, Vyšehrad, two harps introduce the turbulent historical past of the eponymous fortress perched on a rock excessive over the River Vltava close to Prague. The tapestry of historic occasions and the majesty of the setting, woven into Smetana’s rating have been dramatically evoked by distant horns, muted winds and sighing strings, all combining to present Smetana’s musical narrative an ethereal, nearly weightless really feel. In Vitava, the second and greatest recognized of the poems, the Berliners’ luxurious sound conjured photos of a robust fast-flowing river winding its method via the Bohemian countryside, whereas the vengeful heroine and wild and rugged panorama depicted in Šárka have been completely captured in a dynamic however restrained efficiency. A richly colored and gorgeously pastoral account of From Bohemia’s Woods and Timber, was adopted by the 2 final poems, the anguished Tábor and uplifting Blanik. Right here, Petrenko delivered to bear all his expertise, eliciting a tightly managed nearly febrile depth from his gamers, mounting all the way in which to an exciting conclusion. This was an apt approach to have fun the 2 hundredth yr of Smetana’s start, and a memorable efficiency by an orchestra and conductor on the high of their recreation. Let’s hope that the extended applause and roars of approval encourage them to come back once more quickly.
Chris Sallon
