Elder, Hallé Orchestra
and Choir, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
The Victorians liked
their oratorios long and loud (most of the time), and when Dvořák wrote St Ludmila for the Leeds Festival of
1886 he got the style exactly right.
Sir Mark Elder brought
his and the Hallé’s celebration of Dvořák to a thunderous close with a
performance which also unveiled a new English translation from the Czech text
by David Pountney (and deftly abbreviated the score).
The story is about the
conversion of the Bohemian Princess Ludmila to Christianity and her role in the
subsequent conversion of Prince Bořivoj and, naturally, the whole nation.
Although Hallé history
does include a previous St Ludmila,
that was just after the Leeds premiere, so it has taken 130 years to get to a
second, and Elder was determined to reveal its virtues to today’s listeners. Was
he right?
The piece was made for
and in the North of England choral tradition, and the Hallé Choir (trained by
Matthew Hamilton) made a showpiece of it, with clarity throughout and power
when needed. The orchestral writing is never less than imaginative, and the
orchestra gave that its splendour.
Its first listeners
heard echoes of Handel and Bach in it, which tells us more about how Handel and
Bach were performed in those days than anything else, but the fugal outbursts
and block-solid harmonies were thrilling, Elder’s operatic instincts to the
fore in the climactic final pages.
But there is more to
the work than that. It opens with a liquid orchestral texture like a precursor
of Rusalka, includes a soloists’ trio
(portraying Christian conversion) to a walking bass like that of Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony pilgrims, and has a
hunting chorus akin to a symphonic scherzo.
It also provides its
soloists with great opportunities. Emma Bell, in the soprano role of Ludmila,
had both a pretty barcarolle (Sullivan not far away for a few moments) and a
dramatic aria in Part One, and exploited their potential. Christine Rice met
the challenge of 19th century contralto writing in fine style, and brought
distinction to the lovely and richly orchestrated triple-time hymn that
dominates Part Three.
That she shared with
James Creswell, whose saintly Ivan (bass) was betimes mellow and stentorian;
and there were two tenors: Stuart Jackson as the Farmer, and Nicky Spence as Bořivoj.
Each gave character and finesse to their part.
It was an education,
and an experience, to hear St Ludmila
rediscovered. As its first Manchester Guardian reviewer said, it has genius in
it but attention is not held throughout. He was spot on.
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