Magnificent Siegfried and Brünnhilde light up the Proms
Long before Wagner Nights were a twinkle in the eye of the Proms founder Henry Wood, and even longer before the Proms moved to the Royal Albert Hall, Richard Wagner conducted his own music in what was then South Kensington’s grand new venue. At May 1877’s Wagner festival there, the composer himself was already sanctioning the ubiquitous “bleeding chunks” approach to his music – one that persists to this day, though given an intelligent twist with this revival of the Proms tradition of a Wagner Night.
Conductor Marc Albrecht made the “Forest Murmurs” from Siegfried the centrepiece of the concert’s first half, framing it with two other works reflecting the German Romantic fascination with forests and huntsmen. As the founding figure of German national opera, Carl Maria von Weber was a composer to whom Wagner owed much, and it was a neat idea to open the evening with the overture to his opera Der Freischütz. Less smart was the idea to bring in such a non-operatic orchestra as the Royal Philharmonic: despite Albrecht’s best efforts, this diabolical music sounded tame.
There was also not enough
theatrical magic in the RPO’S playing of the “Forest Murmurs”, which was short of rapture and Wagner’s own brand of pantheism. But things picked up with Le Chasseur maudit by César Franck, one of the most Wagnerminded of French composers. A tone poem in the manner of Wagner’s father-in-law, Franz Liszt, this rarely heard work is based on an old German story, The Accursed Huntsman, and certainly echoes the sort of supernaturally inclined Wagner heard in Der fliegende Holländer. Albrecht’s exciting performance had momentum, and maintained tension even in the slow central part.
Substantial sections – swathes rather than chunks – from Götterdämmerung lent welcome weight to the evening’s second half. London has yet to see Christine Goerke’s Brünnhilde on stage, but this was a tantalising glimpse of what she does with the role. Her glowing soprano can soar, yet it also has clarion power lower down, and she was at once fierce and joyful, imperious and very human. Goerke was matched by her fellow American tenor, Stephen Gould, who sang with heft and was moving in Siegfried’s death scene. As music director of Dutch National Opera, Albrecht is an experienced Wagnerian and he drew all the strands together with theatrical relish, inspiring the RPO in the process. Hear this Prom for 30 days on the BBC Sounds app. The Proms continue until Sept 14: 020 7070 4441; bbc.co.uk/ proms