Worth Every Penny for a Student
But maybe not retired Gladys...
Verdi's Macbeth and Beethoven's glorious ninth symphony sound, in isolation, an odd couple. However, I'll admit they worked perfectly together in this context. Not least because they are both objectively great works, but also because of the marriage of voices between the soloists in the symphony, and Macbeth and his scheming wife.
The wonderfully mad combination of Verdi's Italian harmony and the darkness of Shakespeare's script was played on heavily by the exceptional mezzo Béatrice Uria-Monzon, who stole the show as Lady Macbeth. The programme tonight only contained selected scenes, but the decision to close the first half with the sleepwalking scene in which Lady Macbeth descends into madness was undoubtedly the right one. Her strength of character and vocals over her husband in the duet gave the role the depth Shakespeare wrote, even in such a brief selection.
For me, the Verdi was the best half, which, considering the second half's contents, may seem odd.
The reason is only this; Beethoven 9 is almost impossible to reinvent concert after concert. You know it backwards, you can sing along if you'd so please, and for that reason it's difficult for it to leave a lasting impression, other than having the flaming Ode to Joy stuck in your head for five days. The second movement for me is where the fun is. It's always been my favourite movement, and I truly believe you can judge a performance by the second movement. If that were my only measurement, then it was a fabulous performance. However, the soloists were nowhere to be found which caused a delay before the third movement and I do think that slightly unsettled the orchestra.
If it did significantly do so, that wasn't obvious, because the third movement was still sublime. Oddly, it was the fourth that was a little... Underwhelming. That's not to say it was bad, quite the opposite; it was wholly professional but just reminded me of an old Beethoven quote, which is probably more accurately attributed to Twitter: "To play wrong notes is insignificant. To play without passion is inexcusable."
That being said, the Hallé Choir was a wall of sound, the strings sawed away with utter intensity and the brass didn't split a thing despite all the rests. It was by no means a bad concert, on the contrary it was very enjoyable, but I worry about poor old Gladys as we mentioned before, who paid her full ticket price, most likely for the Ode to Joy. I hope she still enjoyed it.
What I, the student trombonist, will take away from it, is to have a wee before you sit down in the first movement, because you've got one heck of a long time to wait. And you'll only be thinking about your bladder if it's full.