LSO (live streaming), 30/09/2020
Dvorák : Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"
Jonathan Heyward
I regret to say that my first 20 minutes of this concert, streamed live from the LSO's London home of LSO St. Luke's, were bedevilled by technical issues. I usually watch this sort of thing on my television set, because the screen is larger, and the sound better, via an Amazon Fire Stick (it's not a smart TV). Unfortunately, Idagio's web site is incompatible with Amazon Silk, and it took me a ridiculous amount of time to achieve stable settings for my laptop. Lastly, listening through earbuds is pitiless; I don't know whether the minuscule pops and crackles I heard came from the source, or from my system, but they were incessant throughout. So, my first conclusion is that I will not be using this platform again on my current set-up. The LSO will be streaming other concerts this autumn through another German platform, Takt1, and I might give that a try, since they apparently have an app fitted to the Fire Stick, which should provide a better result. Anyway, all that to say that, basically, that the Pulcinella Suite was a bust, I really couldn't take much of it in. I may go back and listen again, in the 48 hours I have to do so, but the point of these things is that they are live performances, I don't blog about recorded performances if I can avoid it. The five-minute intermission allowed me to fine-tune things a little, and the Dvorák was heard without any problem other than those tiny clicks I mentioned. The other reaction provoked by these distractions is that I think I would rather see Jonathan Heyward in a concert hall, because seen from in front, he's a little distracting to watch! It's almost as if he's singing along vigorously (though silently, of course) to some unknown text.
The "New World" Symphony, heard so very up close, revealed to me for the first time the difficulties an orchestra can have with the much more spread-out formation they are obliged to adopt due to current sanitary measures. There were the occasional, fleeting, ragged patches (notably in the Scherzo), where you could hear a small measure of disunity between members of the same section, rather than within a whole. It's a bit of a new sound for me, and I don't know if I would have heard it over the television's speakers, or in the hall - earphones really put you in the middle of the sound, rather than in front of it. This is likely to be an ongoing issue that all orchestras are facing, and will deal with, and it was not truly disruptive.
The first movement did not make much of an impression, and the Scherzo didn't quite seem cohesive. The celebrated second movement, however, was beautifully played, not too slow, above all, not too sentimental, and the central section carried a real sense of loss and loneliness. The short transition back to the main theme, where Dvorák seems to be glancing sideways at Beethoven's "Pastorale" for a moment, was like emerging into sunlight, and cast the final section in a more consolatory light. The last movement had plenty of forward energy, strong and confident, with the second theme meltingly presented by the clarinet, to round off the symphony in fine style.
[Next : 4th October]