RSNO, 20/11/2021

Sørensen : Evening Land

Berlioz : Les nuits d'été (Catriona Morison, mezzo-soprano)

Sibelius : Symphony No. 2

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Thomas Søndergård

Placed under the sign of travel - both in the literal and the spiritual sense - there was also the strong Nordic element to it, with the pieces by Sibelius, and contemporary Danish composer Bent Sørensen to commence the evening.  The Sørensen work was a 2017 commission from the New York Philharmonic, and Sørensen's programme note evokes the juxtaposition of two twilight landscapes, one from his childhood, overlooking the fields from his home, the second from a high balcony overlooking New York City.  The piece begins with the faintest of threads of sound from a solo violin, and quietly builds through vaporous, sliding harmonies to a bustling climax, then back down again to silence.  Sørensen uses smudges of string sound, like the most nebulous type of Impressionist painting, which creates quite a poetic atmosphere, while underneath rhythmic patterns gather together for the noisier, more energetic central section, and you do get that notion of one image melding into the other, and then back out again.  

Berlioz's Les nuits d'été are also all about atmosphere, each one different from the rest, and yet connected in one way or another.  The outer songs are apparently more light-hearted, though not without their shadows; the benevolent spirit of the rose has a less charming echo in the melancholy ghost of the cemetery, absence is framed on either side by death; it is a constant game of checks and balances, and all about restless, mostly unsatisfied souls.  This was a restrained reading from Catriona Morison and the orchestra, sparing in the big moments, and keeping things on a very intimate level, which can be hard to do with orchestral songs, certainly much harder than with just voice and piano.  Morison's lovely timbre was clear and warm, and her French excellent, and if there were one or two places where I was not totally happy with the reading (notably in the last song - the response to the request seemed unusually contemptuous, and that jarred), on the whole she drew us in easily to Berlioz and Gautier's romantic musings.

Sibelius's 2nd Symphony was certainly a voyage, in these hands.  The slightly bucolic aspect of the first movement might have sounded relatively calm, but it was clearly under a shadow from the outset, while the complex second movement came from a dark place indeed.  The scherzo's frenetic scurrying was filled with a nervous excitement, an escape plan being hatched, with a particularly sweet contrasting trio, perhaps representing hopeful dreams, and a flawless transition into the turbulence of the last movement, its storms finally, triumphantly dissipated by the rising sun of the coda.  

Søndergård paid particular attention to the sonorities of the orchestra, making sure the strings had that rich yet cool texture, and the brass gleamed darkly in their chorales.  In one sense, and particularly in the third movement, he was bringing out what Sibelius still owed to Tchaikovsky - it's very obvious in the 1st Symphony, but usually less so in the 2nd - but that was actually part of what made this interpretation so interesting.  Sibelius can often come across as emerging fully-formed from the mysterious depths of the Finnish forests, and it's helpful to be reminded that he did actually have antecedents, while not detracting in any way from the uniqueness of his sound world.  This orchestra has a long tradition with Sibelius, it's good to see it being maintained.

[Next : 25th November]