[ Post a Response | The MusicWeb Message Board ]
CELEBRATING 20,000 Classical CD reviews on-line; 21,000 visitors each day.
Return to MusicWeb International
Posted by Geoff Diggines I would not usually make any comment on a concert. But I thought, in this case, some kind of comment was essential, if only to gauge my response through the perception of others who might have attended; I am not sure who was designated for S & H to review the concert?(in a sense I am glad I wasn't). I have always found Haitink to be unpredictable; many of his performances on record and in concert have either beeen bland, interesting or occaisionally superb, like in his recording of Debussy's Peleas et Mellisande for French Radio. I have rarely found his Bruckner more than interesting and well played. Haitink has claimed that the 'Eighth' holds a special place in his Bruckner preferences. And indeed he made an impressive (if flawed) recording of it with the Vienna Phil in 1995. As for the prom concert last night, I simply don't know what went wrong? For a start the Concertgebouw, who I have never heard play badly, did just that. Very often they were out of tune, especially in brass and woodwinds; the string sections were invariably uncoordiated; and the timpanist, especially in the last movement, made so many late, or early entries, became rhythmically challenged, etc, that I lost count! The correspondence betwen Haitink's beat and the orchestra's response seemed on many occaisions non-existent...Haitink at times seemed to be conducting for himself, eyes shut, impervious to the actuality of the performance. Haitink, who has usually been able to maintain a tempo throughout a movement, tonight let the pulse sag especially in the first movement 'Allegro Moderato'. The Scherzo was rhythmically slack, and the great Adagio, which Bruckner marked 'doch nicht schleppend', directly dis-obeyed this and dragged! With such a depressing state of affairs I was actually glad that Haitink used the Nowak edition which cuts 20 odd bars of beautiful music just before the C sharp minor reprise of the main theme in the development section before the last C major climax, restored in the Haas edition. The last movement, as already noted, was increasingly marred by sloppy playing and all manner of rhythmic inaccuracies; Haitink, here, being singularly incapable of maintaining a sustained set of tempi relationships around the dominant tempo indication 'Fierlich nicht schnell'. (Solemn but not fast) I would be interested in anyone else's response to the performance. It might be that someone found more to praise than I did. It is not that I am basically averse to the occaisional bit of rough playing, I remember a Horenstein prom in the 70's featuring this work with the LSO; plenty of rough playing but subtended, redeemed by Horenstein's rock-like direction. Last night the sloppy playing seemed part of a much more complex problem possibly involoving the orchestra's present relationship to it's one-time chief conductor. They never played like this for Mengelberg, or Van Beinum! Afterthought. As noted part of the problem with Haitink's performance last night was one of misreading the composers specific tempo markings; unusual with Haitink! But here, on the matter of the importance of establishing the correct tempo, I was reminded of another Bruckner performance I heard earlier this year. This time it was the Seventh symphony with Myung-Whun Chung and the LSO at the Barbican. Overall it was a quite well played and rehearsed performance, but let down especially in the first movement 'Allegro moderato', and the trio section of the 'Scherzo', marked 'Etwas langsamer' (A little slower than the main tempo marking for the Scherzo,'Sehr Schnell'very fast'). Chung dragged both these sections at an impossibly slow tempo in direct divergence with the composers markings, thus ruining the overall contour of the work. I am all for conductors engaging in some well thought-out 'poco rubato'. But in terms of 'primo tempo' indications, in my experience, the composer always knows best. Why do so many conductors ignore this simple piece of wisdom and indulge in their own agogic, solipsistic distortions?
on August 25, 2007, 12:58 pm
86.140.98.215
I had a spare prom ticket from a friend who could not attend for Prom 53; Haitink and the Concertgebouw doing the Bruckner 8 in the Nowak edition (new for Haitink who has always used the Haas edition.)
Message Thread:
« Back to thread
Thank you for using the MusicWeb Message Board.
Len Mullenger - Founder of MusicWeb