SCO, 10/12/2021

Ravel : Ma mère l'Oye - Suite

Mahler : Des Knaben Wunderhorn (extracts)

Ana Quintans (soprano)

Julien Van Mellaerts (baritone)

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Jonathan Heyward

This was an unusual concept, the movements of the Ravel suite interspersed with selected songs from Mahler's Knaben Wunderhorn collection of songs.  It was a novel idea, I'm not totally convinced it was a good one, but it did allow you to hear some of the music in another light.  The big difficulty for me was the difference in quality between the Ravel and the Mahler.  Once again, we had a late substitution of conductor, Jonathan Heyward for Joana Carneiro.  It wasn't absolutely last minute, but close enough that I don't know how much work Carneiro had done with the orchestra (if any) prior to the substitution, and how much of what I heard really stemmed from Heyward's own vision.  However, assuming he had successfully imprinted himself on the chosen programme and the players, then it seemed clear that he definitely prefers Mahler to Ravel.  

It's not that the playing of the Ravel was bad; had I heard it in its normal form, all the movements in a row, and with different companion works, I could have been happy enough with it.  Tonight, though it sounded faintly blurred compared to the wonderfully transparent textures Hayward drew from the Mahler, strangely congested, and absolutely not doing justice to the subtle, magical orchestration.  

The Knaben Wunderhorn songs, on the other hand, were beautifully rendered in the orchestra, infinitely varied in colour and texture, completely absorbing from start to finish.  The only thing I would have quarrelled with was the attribution of "Das irdische Leben" to the male voice; with no reflection intended on tonight's interpreter, it's a song I find works better both textually and musically with a female singer.  Ana Quintans struggled a little bit to be heard consistently in "Das himmlische Leben", but her other songs were fine, notably a particularly charming "Rheinlegendchen", and above all the sublime "Urlicht" which closed the evening, where the warmth and burnish of her timbre really came to the fore.  Julian Van Mellaerts's most difficult song was the grim "Der Tamboursg'sell", which seemed a little low for comfort, though the expression was excellent, but otherwise it's a fine, rich baritone voice, and he brought a lot of detail to his songs, with a hair-raisingly spectral quality to "Revelge", and sardonic humour to "Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt".  

An intriguing evening's listening, all in all, and certainly worth it for the Mahler.

[Next : 17th December]