The Halle orchestra performed an evening of three very different pieces from the start of the 20th Century – Schoenberg’s 'Verklarte Nacht', Satie’s 'Parade' and Stravinsky’s 'The Rite of Spring'. What they did have in common, however, was the fact that they were not at all well received when first performed, and in fact were the cause of riots!
Transformed Night – Verklarte Nacht – was initially rejected from the Vienna music society as a composition as it contained a dissonant chord that was not uncategorised – an inverted ninth chord.Today when listening, it is hard to think why it caused so much issue with the academics of the day and the audience – who literally hissed in dismay at its premiere. It is a beautifully expressive piece of music. There are some occasional smudges of dissonance which, given the context, perfectly express the emotions of the night-time conversation it is inspired by. The Halle performed the 1917 string orchestra version, adding double basses to the six parts. The large forces work for this piece, originally written in 1899 as a sextet for two violin, two viola and two cello with independent parts, and add a real depth to the emotion.
Schoenberg based this tone poem on words by the poet Dehmel. Part of the consternation around this piece was indeed the subject matter – it is a conversation between a man and a woman in love. The woman shares a dark secret - out of loneliness, she had a child with a man she did not love. There is a sadness and regret, that she did not have enough hope to wait for love, which indeed came. The man is understanding and responds with acceptance and love. It is a rather specific and nuanced emotive passage, and shows a glimpse of the composer as a deeply emotional person. We know that he was also thinking of his future wife, Mathilde Von Zemlinsky, when he composed this. There were hints of Wagner and Brahms in this piece, which is tonal, and it was beautifully expressive. The Halle string orchestra really glimmered and shimmered through this performance which was very well received by the audience.
Parade, a ballet by Erik Satie, 1917, also has an unusual subject matter far removed from the stories of Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. It is the story of three circus acts who are trying to entice passers by to come in to the circus and watch it. They don’t succeed. The story allows Satie to insert his slapstick humour in to the music, including unconventional instruments such as typewriters, milk bottles, a pistol, a foghorn and other instruments. What struck me, though, listening to the Halle perform, was that in spite of the musical jokes which made the audience and orchestra members laugh, this is not a superficial piece of writing. Satie is able to produce a 'sound world' at times with a truly unique use of traditional instruments. There is some clever writing here in terms of structure and orchestration and the Halle delivered both the whims and the depths of the piece successfully.
The performance was a delight and energetic – a welcome ‘lemon sorbet’, as described by conductor Sir Mark Elder and no hissing or shouts of ‘filth!’ or hissing from the audience at all! How times have changed! On the subject of the audience, the Bridgewater Hall was nearly full to capacity and it struck me that a great number of the audience were teenagers or in their early twenties. This was refreshing to see.
The main event of the night, however, was Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. You can understand how this piece was firmly rejected by initial audiences. It is strikingly different from the music of its time in terms of rhythm, structure and its clashing chords. It was presented in the form of a ballet by the world famous Ballet Ruses at the opening of a brand new theatre. The dance style too was completely new. To top it all off, the story was of a pagan ritual wherein a young virgin is kidnapped from the tribe and sacrificed to the gods to bring in a good harvest. None of this was what the Swan Lake loving audience of the day expected or indeed wanted. It was perhaps the most controversial premiere of any piece in music history, with riotous behaviour to the extent that it drowned out the music on stage and the beat had to be shouted out for the dancers to hear.
It is also arguably, the most influential and important piece of music history from a compositional point of view. It embodies, in some way or another, the entire 20th century.
It was a mixed performance in my opinion. Some of the flourishes and lines were lost and smudged – particularly lines that were shared across instruments, while in other parts there was such a precision and high impact. I wonder if the chosen pace got in the way – it is certainly a piece with moments of high energy but it is the hypnotic and mesmerising pulsing which needs a perfectly steady pulse that makes the Rite of Spring truly magical. This came across at times but wasn’t consistent, a few breaths were lost. The opening notes of the second part were not together, and indeed the final flourish – the moment of death for the young virgin – was not together. This added some disappointment to the performance for me, but I will not dwell on a few moments made to the detriment of a performance with many strengths. The brass and percussion sections were astounding, getting across the magnificent power of this work with great precision. There were intense moments when the whole orchestra worked with such synchronisation of both beat and spirit that it was truly scary.
It is hard to imagine music today that would cause such a stir as it did at the start of last century. What would truly shock today’s audience? We have been fortunate to have had such a variety of new styles of music, exploring ideas about the meaning of music and what is or isn’t acceptable, or indeed has value or merit. These works were originally performed in places not dissimilar to the Bridgewater Hall in terms of prestige, and to an audience that was not dissimilar to the audience that attends ‘classical’ music. What is different today is a reluctance by the mainstream orchestras and concert halls to perform truly new works and allow the composers of today a chance to make us all complain, tut and hiss.
Reviewer – Aaron Loughrey
on - 29/11/18
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