United Kingdom On the Transmigration of Souls – Haydn, Kurtág, Adams: Anna Devin (soprano), Hanna Hipp (mezzo-soprano), Rupert Charlesworth (tenor), Trevor Eliot Bowes (bass), Tiffin Youth Choir, London Philharmonic Choir, Jonathan Inexperienced (sound designer), London Philharmonic Orchestra / Vladimir Jurowski (conductor). Royal Competition Corridor, London, 18.1.2025. (CC)
Haydn – Missa in tempore belli (‘Paukenmesse’) (1796)
Kurtág – Petite musique solennelle (2015)
Adams – On the Transmigration of Souls (2002)
A part of the ‘Moments Remembered’ sequence, this live performance introduced a welcome return from Vladimir Jurowski, bringing with hm his trademark programming, juxtaposing works from vastly totally different eras (and pens) associated although exterior occasions:
Haydn’s Mass in C, Hob.XXII:9 displays the final political instability in Europe on the time, and worry of invasion of Austria was palpable. As with the ‘Nelson’ Mass, the soprano half appears to have explicit significance (though the calls for will not be as nice right here). The soloist right here, Anna Devin, was of preternatural readability, with a stunning glint to her voice however no sense of added edge. Hanna Hipp was a powerful mezzo (the 2 are foregrounded within the opening ‘Kyrie’). The male contributors had been hardly much less spectacular, with tenor Rupert Charlesworth robust when known as for (he arguably has the least to do) and Trevor Eliot Bowes was a agency bass with very good higher vary (no change of tone, no sense of pressure).
Jurowski stripped the orchestra down in measurement and used interval devices for the brass and timpani, guaranteeing their contribution to the Agnus Dei (the place 4 trumpets got here into play) had full weight. There was some stunning taking part in elsewhere within the orchestra, too, together with a most expressive cello solo within the ‘Qui tollis’ from LPO Principal, Kristina Blaumane, counterpointing the finely phrased singing of Bowes. The guts of the mass is the choir, although, and beneath its Inventive Director Neville Creed – who retires this summer time after 30 years within the function – the London Philharmonic Choir excelled, proper from the primary robust consonant (the ‘Okay’ of ‘Kyrie’). The ‘Gloria’ emerged in a blaze of sunshine. The choral transparency was splendid all through, however significantly on this phase (the place it actually wants it).
Distinction was an actual a part of Jurowski’s technique, one thing heard to nice impact within the ‘Credo’, between the complexity of ‘Credo in unum Deum’ and the darkly shaded ‘Et incarnatus est’ of the bass (with the soprano’s miraculous response at ‘Et Maria Virgine’) and the choir’s ‘secundum scripturas’ (itself an enormous juxtaposition to ‘Et resurrexit’). Most significantly, counterpoint got here by means of completely.
It was Hanna Hipp that got here to the fore within the Sanctus, full-voiced earlier than the virtually operatic choral drama of ‘Pleni sunt coeli’ and Charlesworth’s resonant ‘Hosanna’. And the way splendidly the soloists labored as a quartet within the ‘Benedictus’, Devin spinning a line of silken legato in opposition to the staccato descents of her colleagues.
The ‘Agnus Dei’ was a religio-philosophical microcosm in itself, the inside choral opening assertion opening out by way of Haydn’s harmonic workings, the trajectory of the dissonances resulting in anguish and trumpet-drenched angst. The quartet’s ‘Dona nobis pacem’ struck deep.
Jurowski’s conducting is so actual and but so expressive. Seeing it once more is a reminder of simply how textbook his approach is, and but how communicative. Accents stung (the orchestra in ‘Benedictus’ previous to the timpani entrance); from the smallest element to the general vista of Haydn’s magnificence, all made good sense.
It’s a great distance from Haydn to Kurtág, the latter’s Petite musique solennelle was written in 2015 to have fun Pierre Boulez’s ninetieth birthday. It doesn’t sound too celebratory, although, extra reflective and, with a tolling bell, ritualistic (maybe a nod to Boulez’s personal Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna). There have been terrific trumpet solos from Paul Beniston (themselves linking maybe to Adams’s Ives reference to observe?). The management general was beautiful, which does have a draw back: cut up notes do fairly stand out. Nonetheless, this was a efficiency of utter magnificence.
The London Philharmonic Choir was joined by the Tiffin Youth Choir for John Adams’s exceptional On the Transmigration of Souls. A response to 9/11, the work focuses on reminiscence in addition to remembrance and is meant as a ‘reminiscence area’. Adams was requested to write down the piece a mere 4 months after the assault, and by his personal admission the project was, to say the least, daunting.
The end result, although, is one in every of Adams’s best works. It required not simply massive forces however a pre-recorded digital ingredient that right here crammed the Royal Competition Corridor: texts taken from lacking individuals’ posters and, in a single case, the phrases of a flight attendant instantly pre-mortem.
The work is deeply felt and comprises little that’s pointless; for the overwhelming majority of the time, Adams’s rating is targeted. It additionally features a trumpet name (see above) that references Chales Ives’s The Unanswered Query (and we must always not overlook that Adams himself penned a piece known as My Father Knew Charles Ives).
Few conductors, I’d counsel, might cave this piece out as convincingly as Jurowski. His sensitivity to Adams’s timbal shifts was mirrored by the razor reflexes of the orchestra, which made the punctuating calling of names all of the more practical within the narrative. A good suggestion, too, to put the solo trumpet within the Royal Field. The brass-saturated climax was all-encompassing.
A exceptional piece, delivered with preternatural drive by Jurowski and his musicians: the choruses had been as one voice, the younger singers providing a unique timbre that maybe speaks of innocence within the face of hateful actions.
Past doubt, we’d like as a lot Jurowski in London as attainable.
Colin Clarke
