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| Photo: Shirley Burdick |
It
was difficult to assess which aspect of this program had drawn such a large
audience - the line-up of outstanding artists or people's curiosity to hear
seldom-performed works of Mozart and Beethoven. For me, it was both. Taking
place in the Henry Crown Auditorium of the Jerusalem Theatre on April 16th
2023, "The Great Classic", a concert of the Israel Camerata
Jerusalem's Instruvocal Series featured the Collegium Vocale Gent
(Belgium), soprano Elisabeth Breuer (Austria), mezzo-soprano Olivia Vermeulen
(Holland), tenor Daniel Johannsen (Austria), baritone Thomas E. Bauer (Germany)
and eminent Belgian conductor and scholar Philippe Herreweghe.
The
event opened with “Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage”, a short work for chorus and
orchestra composed (1814-1815) by Beethoven to a text by Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe. Beethoven loved Goethe’s poetry and set it to music repeatedly. A few
years after the two met in 1812, Beethoven set Goethe’s popular pair of short
poems "Meeres Stille" and "Glückliche Fahrt" as his opus
112, dedicating it to Goethe. Setting the scene for "Calm Sea",
performance of the short tone poem opened with fragile, sotto voce choral
timbres (the choir giving much emphasis to the various consonants) backed by
plucked notes in the strings to evoke the motionlessness of a windless sea,
then to be punctuated by Beethoven's startling treatment of “fürchterlich”
(terrible), for example, highlighting the word with a stinging
dissonance, or of “Weite” (distances”) where, in the latter, a high soprano
note in a sudden fortissimo crowns a massive dissonant chord. Here,
Beethoven enlists unorthodox procedures to convey the perilousness of sailing
in such calm conditions. Issued in by a fluttering figure in the 'cellos, the
journey is now underway again, with "Prosperous Journey", evoked in a
massive choral and orchestral scene, rugged and fearfully joyous. Here, the
audience becomes aware of Maestro Herreweghe's experiential approach to music
(and poetry), with Collegium Vocale Gent (established by him in 1970) together
with the Camerata players convincing in their expounding of the Romantic
period's intrigue with storms and the sublimity of nature. It remains unclear
why this substantive late Beethoven work has been condemned to obscurity and neglect.
On completing it, the composer sent Goethe a copy, expressing that “I had
united my harmony with yours in appropriate fashion.” Sadly, Goethe sent him no
reply.
As
to Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No.1 Op.21, the composer was 30 when it was
first performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna. The
Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung reported that “this proved to be the most
interesting concert we have had in a long time" with Beethoven's symphony
displaying "great artistry, innovation, and a wealth of ideas; except that
the winds were overused, so that it was music for a band rather than for the
whole orchestra.” For me, hearing the work played by a chamber orchestra
was a revelation. Herreweghe and the
Camerata members brought out its fine details, nuances and colours, the work's
vitality (the Menuetto is indeed a Scherzo!), its elegance, charm and sense of
well-being. Add to those qualities Beethoven's audacity and teasing humour in
the first- and fourth movements. Here was the music of a Beethoven not yet a burdened
man, not yet a man grappling with fate. As to the criticism aired in the
Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung following the symphony's premiere, the work
indeed showcases the winds; the distinctive artistry and beauty of sound of the
Camerata's wind players is never short of rewarding.
Accessible as it is to the listener, W.A.Mozart's
Mass in C minor (Grand Mass) K.427 presents a number of unanswered questions.
As to the task of completing it, Mozart wrote to his father on January 4, 1783:
."It is quite true about my moral obligation... I made the promise and
hope to be able to keep it"...The fact remains that Mozart never completed
the work. What is known is that it was first performed on August 25 1783 in St
Peter’s Church, Salzburg. It is likely that Mozart's wife Constanze sang the
high-lying first soprano part. Mozart himself may have presided at the organ.
What is not known is how or, in fact, whether the missing sections were filled
in at the Salzburg performance. And there is also no consensus on why Mozart
wrote the C minor Mass. A perfect combination of all the genres and styles
known in the late 18th century, from early polyphony to the galant style, it is
nevertheless a wonderfully balanced musical unity, in spite of its
incompleteness. Reconstructions of this tremendous creation only began in the
early 20th century, instigated by the efforts of German musicologist Alois
Schmitt. His pioneering edition has since been superseded, most significantly
by that of American scholar H. C. Robbins Landon (and by several others, those including
Robert Levin, Frieder Bernius/Uwe Wolf and Helmut Eder.) The version performed
at the Israel Camerata Jerusalem concert was that of Robbins Landon. The work,
featuring a double choir at the centre of each of its two halves, is a
celebration of choral writing and Maestro
Herreweghe and his very excellent Collegium singers certainly did not disappoint. The grandiose
"Qui tollis" in G minor, probably the climax of the piece, with its
haunting dotted rhythms, grating dissonances, chromaticism and extreme dynamic
changes, emerged imposing and humbling. The lion's share of the solos belongs
to the female singers. Enlisting her outstanding technical skills, soprano
Elisabeth Breuer gave delicate and deeply moving portrayals of the “Christe eleison” in the “Kyrie” (taking on its two
octave-and-a-half leaps with ease), then executing the coloratura passages of
the composition’s vocal centrepiece "Et
incarnatus est" with brilliance and poignance, the piece's intimate
setting involving three solo instrumental lines at the hands of Muki Zohar
(oboe), Mauricio Paez (bassoon) and Esti Rofe (flute). For the "Laudamus
te", Olivia Vermeulen, her voice warm and finely-anchored, contended
admirably with the dynamics, the shaping and melismatic course of the movement.
Tenor Daniel Johannsen is no new face (indeed, no new voice!) to Israeli
audiences. His profound understanding of sacred works always shines through his
textual and musical delivery. The "Quoniam tu", featuring Breuer,
Vermeulen and Johannsen, resounded radiant and exhilarating, indeed,
constituting a highlight of what was altogether a sparkling performance. It was
H.C.Robbins Landon who had referred to the last month of the year 1791 as
"the greatest tragedy in the history of music" with the premature
death of the thirty-five-year-old Mozart.
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