Oversized Liederin Music and Vision 19 September

Oversized Lieder

GIUSEPPE PENNISI listens to
Schoenberg in Bucharest

Why review the first performance of Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder in Romania? Frankly, there are three reasons: one logistical, one personal and one professional. The logistical is quite simple. I was in Bucharest at the time, at the Enescu Festival. The Gurre-Lieder production was the major event of the week; the huge auditorium was packed and there were music critics from all over, especially because it was an international affair with a Romanian orchestra and chorus but a French conductor, Bertrand De Billy with a long and acclaimed career, and an international group of soloists. On a more personal basis, when a student in the late sixties, a German colleague advised me to listen to Gurre-Lieder as a medicine to get rid of any post-Wagnerian virus. Indeed, although Schoenberg is generally known as the leader of the second Viennese school and the developer of the twelve tone row system, he had a post-Wagnerian phase. Composing Gurre-Lieder required over ten years and, although during that span of time, Schoenberg created masterpieces such as Pierrot Lunaire and Erwartung, in this work he stuck to the grand post-Wagnerian style -- an orchestra of 170, three choruses of totalling some eighty singers, five soloists (in Bucharest they were Violeta Urmana, Nikolai Schukoff, John Daszak, Janina Baechle and Thomas Johannes Mayer), and even a narrator using sprechgesang. Professionally, the most interesting part was a real surprise: the young but up and coming conductor Leo Hussain replaced Bertrand De Billy who cancelled at the last moment. Hussain had only one day to master the complex score.

Leo Hussain conducting Gurre-Lieder at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest. Photo © 2013 Sorin Lupsa. Click on the image for higher resolution

I must confess that I had listened to a live performance of Gurre-Lieder only once before, at the opening concert of the 1999-2000 symphonic season of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome. Even though major conductors have performed and recorded the work (from Stokowski to Rattle, Abbado, Sinopoli, Boulez, and Ozawa), I much prefer Pierrot Lunaire, Erwartung and Moses und Aaron. Gurre-Lieder is an oversized 120-130 minute composition (without intermission) and easily reaches two and a half hours if musicians and audience get a pause.

The George Enescu Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra performing Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder at the Enescu Festival. Photo © 2013 Sorin Lupsa. Click on the image for higher resolution

Gurre is the name of a castle in Denmark where the plot (based on a poem of Jens Peter Jacobson) evolves. After a symphonic introduction, in the first part, the King of the castle and his mistress sing nine lieder about their passion. But the Queen has her husband's mistress killed. After an orchestral interlude, the King laments the loss of his love. But then a real Gothic third part follows; the King calls for his loyal vassals to help him against the Queen; as they are all dead, they must rise from their graves. (In a moment of comic relief, the Palace clown does not want to leave his comfortable tomb to go and fight). The Queen's vassals are well and alive; there is a night fight and the Gurre castle is burned down. But at dawn, the dead vassals must return to their graves and a huge chorus sings the virtues of peace and the beauty of nature.

Members of the George Enescu Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra performing Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder at the Enescu Festival. Photo © 2013 Sorin Lupsa. Click on the image for higher resolution

A multimedia show could have helped to make sense of this with computerized projections. In Bucharest, the situation was made even more complicated because the lieder were sung in German (with subtitles in Romanian) but the narrator was a very well-known local theater actor, Victor Rebengiuc, who spoke Romanian and, of course, acted like in a play without any sprechgesang. This caused Bertrand De Billy to slam the door. Leo Hussain was around there for another concert and studied the complex score in very little time.

Leo Hussain, soloists and members of the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra performing Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder at the Enescu Festival. Photo © 2013 Sorin Lupsa. Click on the image for higher resolution

Hussain is thirty-five years old and has worked as assistant to Riccardo Muti and Myung-whun Chung. Now he is the musical director of Salzburg Landestheater and conducts in several European opera houses and concert halls. He acquitted himself of this difficult task quite well. Conducting Gurre-Lieder is complicated because, whilst the first and the second part are pure post-Wagnerian style, the third part is similar to Mahler's late symphonies: a kaleidoscopic dialogue between groups of instrumentalists. Purists may say that recordings by Stokowski, Rattle, Abbado, Sinopoli, Boulez, Ozawa and others achieve better results. They were recorded under quite different conditions and with more experienced orchestras. The chorus was excellent. Nikolai Schukoff and John Daszak emerged from the soloists group. Violeta Urmana was good, but should control her high notes; she overdid a few of them, maybe concerned by the size of the orchestra.

In any event, fifteen minutes of standing ovation followed two and a half hours of concert.

Copyright © 19 September 2013 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy