A CONCERT’S DISCORDANTS NOTES…
Given that the theme of this year’s MUSON Festival was “Celebrating the School of Music”, one could be forgiven for approaching this past Sunday’s Classical concert with reduced expectations, prepared to cheer on fledging students, but with no anticipation of advanced musicality. In the event, however, while the students on the programme acquitted themselves well, it was the supposed professionals who disappointed, specifically the MUSON Symphony Orchestra, whose lapses marred otherwise fine vocal performances, and whose persistent deficiencies, previously remarked upon on these pages, were brought into stark relief.
The programme was a mix of orchestral pieces and operatic staples. The orchestral pieces all had a common feature: they were grand in scale, brassy and loud. During the interval a member of the audience suggested to this writer, somewhat tongue in cheek, that the orchestral pieces appeared to have been deliberately chosen so as to mask the orchestra’s intonation problems. If that was indeed the case, the plan failed spectacularly.
The concert began with the Festival Suite Mocagua, a modern piece by the young Brazilian composer Nikolai Brucher. A threemovement epic musical poem with plenty of bang, the first movement had a cacophonous, intoxicating rhythm, driven by the brass and percussion sections. The main feature of the second movement, the Lamento, was a haunting theme for strings, begun by the cellos, which then led to a furious dance by the strings brass, brought to an explosive finish. The energetic guest conductor, Walter-Michael Vollhardt, showed command of the orchestra, but he could do little about the persistently faulty intonation, especially in the strings and brass. That said, it was a fairly decent accounting of a difficult piece.
The next piece was Vissi d’Arte from Puccini’s Tosca, arguably the most famous and certainly one of the most beautiful soprano arias in all opera. But if the previous performance was decent if uninspiring, this one was an utter shambles. The soprano, Ifeoma Anieze, a good singer, was completely let down by the orchestra. There were missed cues – at the recapitulation of the main theme the entire orchestra simply failed to come in – as well as odd choices, such as having the third chair cello, rather than the principal, play the solo accompaniment; The violins were off tune for much of the performance, and it was a relief when the piece came to an uncertain and abrupt end. The conductor looked furious, and it was easy to see why.
The next piece, another operatic common place, La Donna E Mobile from Verdi’s Rigoletto, was little better. The always-reliable tenor Guchi Egbunine was in fine form, but again the orchestra seemed to be having an off day. It was a disjointed and uncertain accompaniment, and when the conductor insisted that it be performed again after the first attempt, with only marginally better results, one found oneself wishing that he had let it alone.
There were a few decent performances in the half, however. The soprano Genevieve Ogu sang a beautiful Si Mi Chiamano Mimi from Puccini’s La Boheme, but without the doe-eyed innocence that this aria demands. The always entertaining Ranti Ihimoyan wowed the audience with a brilliant Mein Herr Marquis from Strauss’ Tritsch-Trasch Polka, and Genevieve Ogu and an uncredited John Paul Ochei looked a pretty pair in La Ci Darem La Mano from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, even if Ochei inexplicably failed to bring his usual impishness to the performance; The MUSON Diploma School Choir shone in a performance of On a Persian Market by the English composer Albert Ketelbey. A spirited if rather disjointed performance by the orchestra of Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King brought the first half to a close.
The second half began with a world premiere performance of Departure by Leslie Vollhardt, the conductor’s son. This was the stand-out orchestral performance of the evening. The strings played with passion and were (mostly) in tune, and the conductor seemed to infuse energy into the players as the piece careered towards a rousing finish. The next piece, Tonight, a duet from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story was less successful. The soloists, Ifeoma Anieze and John Paul Ochei showed good chemistry, but there appeared to be problems with amplification, and the soloists were mostly drowned out by the orchestra. The amplification problems continued in the next performance I Feel Pretty, also from West Side Story, performed by Ranti Ihimoyan, although Ihimoyan brought her usual vim and sass to the piece.
Then came Guchi Egbunine, in a performance, somewhat inevitably, of Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot. It was another assured performance from Egbunine, although his high B in the climax could have done with more power. However, again orchestral shortcomings marred the performance, with the woodwinds being out of tune for much of it. Here again the conductor required a do-over, and whether this was done by way of amends or as an encore was anybody’s guess.
O Mio Babbino Caro from Puccini’s Gianni Schichi, another operatic staple, performed by Ifeoma Anieze, came next. Despite an inauspicious beginning – Anieze seem to start the piece on an entirely different key altogether – she soon hit her stride, and delivered a stirring and powerful rendition.
The orchestra then next performed Malambo¸ by Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera, a rollicking ride of a piece that was played with some gusto by the orchestra. The drinking song Libiamo from Verdi’s La Traviata, performed by Anieze and Egbunine and supported by the school choir, brought the concert to a close, and then the orchestra reprised their performance of Malambo as an encore.
Despite some decent performances, particularly from the singers, one had an overall impression from the concert of insufficient preparation and under-rehearsal. It was an interesting and ambitious programme, as one often finds with the MUSON orchestra, but then, as has also often been found with them, the scale of the orchestra’s ambition was not equalled by the quality of their playing.
We have now reached a point in our musical development here in Nigeria where our vocal and choral performers can stand unashamedly before any audience in the world, and this achievement is almost entirely due to the efforts of MUSON. A similar development, and consistent standards, is urgently needed for instrumentalists, especially string players, in Nigeria. It is to be hoped that MUSON will lead the charge here also, so that some of the lapses in Sunday’s concert can become a thing of the past.