Eddins, ESO revel in The Rite of Spring
Piece reveals strengths — and weaknesses
Review Friday Masters: The Rite of Spring Company: Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Cello Soloist: Lynn Harrell Conductor: William Eddins When: Friday night, second show Saturday at 8 p.m. Where: Winspear Centre Tickets: $20-$79, edmontonsymphony.com
Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, arguably the most notorious piece of classical music ever, was 100 years old on May 29.
On Friday, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra gathered together 90 musicians at the Winspear to celebrate the anniversary, and to close their 2012-213 season.
That original performance took place (as a ballet) to almost continuous shouting, and the police, to maintain order, eventually arrested more than 40 people.
The controversy was understandable. The work ushered in a new age of classical music, one of modernism, brutalism, of the expression of naked, raw rhythms. But it also represented the end of an era, of taking conventional harmony and the colours of the Romantic orchestra to their limits.
The ESO had played it once before, in a reduced version for the 80th anniversary, but this was the first time they had played it as it should be heard.
One would have imagined that a full century would have ameliorated the shock of the new, but clearly conductor Bill Eddins thought otherwise. For he preceded it with a 15-minute analysis illustrated by the orchestra, pitched (a teacher assured me) so that a Grade 6 student could understand it. This was a highly questionable procedure, and clearly there were those in the audience who had come to hear the music, and not to be patronized. It belonged to a pre-concert talk.
The actual performance exemplified the current strengths and weaknesses of the orchestra — and its conductor.
As always, there was some lovely playing from oboe and clarinet, and fine contributions from the brass. The swelling opening of Part Two was particularly effective, as was the Sacrificial Dance.
However, whereas Eddins has got the orchestra to a fine concerted body, the concentration on solo lines being a rigid single colour, the insistence that there are no idiomatic shades of rhythm, leads to soulless, unemotional performance. It is time the orchestra moved forward from this.
One suspects, though, that this was not really Eddins’ ideal piece. He clearly revelled in the climactic moments, but that’s what they were – moments. For all the analysis, there was very little sense of overall shape to this performance, that the piece is a whole.
In the end, it was test-tube growth rather than the great organic explosion of nature itself.
Canadian composer (and Edmonton resident) John Estacio’s recent work, Brio, which opened the concert, was entertaining enough, but I wish I could be more positive about it.
There was nothing to take exception to in the work, but it seemed to be stuck (apart from the John Adams-like opening) firmly in the 1950s, with obvious influences from film music and from Shostakovich.
The danger with writing in such an outdated style is first that others have probably said it better already, and second that there won’t be an individual voice speaking.
That is what happened here. By far the most effective was the elegiac middle section, written just after Estacio heard of the death of his friend and supporter, the Edmonton composer Malcolm Forsyth. This heartfelt music elevated the whole piece.
But that aside, please could we have 21st-century music for the 21st century?
The most enjoyable parts of the concert were the two concertante works with the distinguished 69-yearold American cellist Lynn Harrell.
His playing seems to have arrived at the happy stage where he is simply in a mellow world, with no division between him, his cello, and the music.
Fauré’s lovely Élégie was a little dialogue of internal passion on the cello, though it is clear that the orchestra is not entirely at home with French music of this period. Again, the rather four-square approach, the lack of nuance, counts against them, as does their inability to play collectively a true pianissimo.
The orchestra was much happier, though, in a welcome rarity, the most enjoyable performance of the evening. SaintSaëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1 may not have a solo cello tune as memorable as his Swan from Carnival of the Animals, and the outer movements may lie under the shadow of Beethoven, but the central movement is a real delight. Its dance looks back to an earlier age, and forward to Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances.
Harrell obviously loves the work, playing it as if he was having a happy reminiscent conversation with an old friend. Music making to warm the heart.
The concert is repeated Saturday night, and the ESO is offering, as an end-of-season bonus, all remaining seats at $20. In spite of my reservations, it’s a bargain not to be missed.