The Mercy of God in Music and Vision 16 February 2017

The Mercy of God

GIUSEPPE PENNISI listens to
Robert Schumann's oratorio
'Das Paradies und die Peri'

God is merciful. This is the conclusion of Das Paradies und die Peri, a 'profane oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra' by Robert Schumann, completed in 1843, and published as Schumann's Op 50.
The work is based on a German translation (by Schumann and his friend Emil Flechsig) of a tale from Lalla Rookh by Thomas Moore. The Peri, a creature from Persian mythology, is the focus of the story: having been expelled from Paradise, she tries to regain entrance by giving the gift that is most dear to Heaven. Eventually the Peri is re-admitted after bringing a tear from the cheek of a repentant sinner touched by the sight of a praying child.
Peter Ostwald, in his biography Schumann: The Inner Voices of a Musical Genius, records that Schumann confided to a friend that 'while writing Paradise and the Peri a voice occasionally whispered to me what you are doing is not done completely in vain'. Even Richard Wagner praised this work. The oratorio is generally held to be a significant achievement by Schumann, but it perhaps appeals less than it might otherwise to modern audiences due to the flowery, Eastern-inspired verbiage of the libretto, which represents a vogue for orientalism that was in full swing in the nineteenth century, but which has receded considerably today. This is one of the reasons why it is seldom played in Rome: the last performance was in 1974 under Wolfgang Sawallisch's baton. Moreover, it requires an enormous cast: eleven soloists, a huge orchestra and a double chorus. It is often performed for the inauguration of a symphony season. The symphony orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia played it three times on 8-10 February 2017. I attended the first performance.

A scene from Schumann's 'Das Paradies und die Peri' in Rome. Photo © 2017 Musacchio & Ianniello. Click on the image for higher resolution

Daniele Gatti was in the pit; he is quite well appreciated by the National Academy of Santa Cecilia audience and is rumoured to become the next musical director of Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. As Gatti's direction showed, Schumann's concept, pitched somewhere between opera, oratorio and orchestral song cycle, is totally original. The score may get more conventional and formulaic as the story becomes more sanctimonious, but the best of it is out of the top drawer. As Andrew Clements of The Guardian wrote in commenting on a performance of the oratorio conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, some two years ago in London, there are echoes of Schumann's symphonic writing and persistently of his Lieder, but some parts, such as the vividly depicted battle scene with which the first of the three parts ends, or the glittering scherzo-like number for the Peri and the chorus in the second, are unlike anything else in his output.

The eleven soloists acknowledge the audience applause at the end of Schumann's 'Das Paradies und die Peri' in Rome. Photo © 2017 Musacchio & Ianniello. Click on the image for higher resolution

The orchestra and choruses were at their best, keen to impress the conductor, and the refinement of the strings and especially the tactfulness of the brass showed what the orchestra is capable of when playing for a conductor who actually cares about the sound being made.

Daniele Gatti conducting Schumann's 'Das Paradies und die Peri' in Rome. Photo © 2017 Musacchio & Ianniello. Click on the image for higher resolution

American soprano Angel Blue has made the role of the Peri a speciality in recent times, and her performance is impressive in fervour and sheer stamina. Brenden Gunnell was a model of clarity as the narrator. The other soloists (Regula Mühlemann, Jennifer Johnston, Martina Mikelić, Patrick Grahl, Georg Zeppenfeld, and in secondary roles members of the Santa Cecilia Academy chorus: Maria Chiara Chizzoni, Patrizia Roberti, Francesca Calò and Tiziani Pizzi) were at their best.

American soprano Angel Blue (centre) as La Peri in Schumann's 'Das Paradies und die Peri' in Rome. Photo © 2017 Musacchio & Ianniello. Click on the image for higher resolution

The public was enthralled. Many of them had discovered a masterpiece.

Copyright © 16 February 2017 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy