Above: Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, onstage at Carnegie Hall; photo by Richard Termine
~ Author: Ben Weaver
Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th birthday celebrations at Carnegie Hall continued with a visit from Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique for a series of concerts to perform Beethoven’s 9 Symphonies. Gardiner founded this period instruments orchestra in 1990 specifically to perform Beethoven and other Romantics: their first project, performing and recording The Nine for the Archiv label, hit the musical world like a cannon ball. Earlier period instruments recordings of the Symphonies tended to be light and fragile, the gut strings’ nasal squawking coming across as brittle. Gardiner and ORR’s muscled, blazing sound was truly revolutionary in how we hear these works. In fact, of all the period instrument specialists, I find Gardiner is the only one who manages to summon the echoes of past centuries and how people heard these works when they were new: the shock and confusion these sounds inspired in listeners in the 19th century can often be recognized when Gardiner is on the podium. Last year’s Berlioz concerts at Carnegie sent chills down my spine more than once with the sheer rawness of invention and sound that, we know, horrified first listeners.
Now 30 years later - how has Gardiner’s approach to Beethoven’s 9 changed? Most noticeable is that the driving, hard-hitting sound he draws from his musicians has gotten even more driving. Sometimes that works: first movement of the Fifth, for example, or the Storm in the Sixth were galvanizing. But occasionally the drive got in the way: the playful Eighth was humorless and hard. Fortunately, Gardiner and the players of ORR are all marvelous musicians and if the Eighth was a misstep, the slow movements all tended to be near perfect. The sombre Marcia funebre of the Third sounded as if it carried the weight of the world on its shoulders.
In the Ninth the Adagio molto e cantabile was soulful and deeply moving. The final movement, the Ode to Joy, included a superb quartet of soloists and, of course, Gardiner’s magnificent Monteverdi Choir. This is one of the very finest choral groups in the world; Gardiner’s nurturing of singers (many of whom have over the years graduated to soloists) is one of the the many miracles he performs. Their singing of this devilishly difficult music was note-perfect. And the soloists, soprano Lucy Crowe, mezzo-soprano Jess Dandy, tenor Ed Lyon, and bass Matthew Rose (replacing Tareq Nazmi, who was unable to get a visa…we can only speculate as to why, but our current political climate is a source of shame in that regard…); the soloists, standing behind the orchestra, were superb. The ovation that greeted the conclusion of the Ninth and the full cycle was unlike anything I’ve ever seen: literally the entire audience was on its feet and nobody was rushing up the aisles for the exits.
When the Symphonies cycle was first announced, the announcement included Beethoven’s early ballet, The Creatures of Prometheus, a delightful and melodically rich work (some melodies were later re-used in other compositions, including Third Symphony). I was excited to hear this unjustly neglected work. Alas, by the time the concerts arrived the ballet was reduced to just the Overture and a few excerpts. They left me wanting more!
Above: soprano Lucy Crowe and Maestro Gardiner; photo by Chris Lee
Also included were the exciting vocal cantata “Ah! perfido!” from 1796, and the aria “Komm, Hoffnung” from Act 2 of Leonore, the earlier version of Fidelio. Some parts of this aria found their way into the more familiar and dazzling Fidelio “Abscheulicher!” But the earlier version is even more challenging, with some coloratura thrown in for good measure and a wider range of moods and styles. Both arias were performed superbly by Lucy Crowe: her voice filling Carnegie effortlessly throughout the range. Her middle and bottom were solid and strong, and the high notes were like lasers.
There will be another cycle of Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies later in the season, performed the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. It will be a very different experience: the rich strings of the Philadelphians alone will be worlds apart from the razor edge of gut-strings and the muscled, revolutionary drive of Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique.
Above: Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his musicians receiving an ovation at Carnegie Hall; photo by Chris Lee
~ Ben Weaver