SIR Mark Elder opens the Hallé Thursday concert series with Verdi and Beethoven: excerpts from
the opera Macbeth by the former, and the ninth symphony by the latter. The Hallé Choir play their part, alongside top
operatic soloists Béatrice Uria-Monzon, Scott Hendricks, Natalya
Romaniw, Madeleine Shaw and Allan Clayton.
These
works might seem worlds apart, but Sir Mark says they have something vital in
common:
“As we
were putting this season together, we realized we were (quite unconsciously)
including a connecting thread you could call ‘Northern Legends’ – from Wagner’s
Ring and the material Schoenberg used in Gurrelieder to some of the tales of
old Scotland. Macbeth, of course, is a real Scottish figure as well as a
Shakespeare character.
“But the
common factor with Beethoven’s ninth is that I think both works were what you
could call ‘game changers’ – both composers wanted to do something that was
above the usual.
“In
Beethoven’s case it was using the human voice in a symphony to express
something more than could be done with instruments alone. In Verdi’s it was, in
a way, the opposite: he wanted to take out the purely vocal charm of the
Italian bel canto style and create a kind of musical drama that had not been
done before.
“He wanted
dramatic presentation of the scenes, rather than a display of singing. He
insisted on a dress rehearsal before the first performance – something never done
in opera before – and worked repeatedly on the scenes he wanted delivered in a
realistic way … the ones we are performing on Thursday.
“Two of
our singers are coming straight from a stage performance of the opera in
Brussels, so they will be singing in the way they do in the theatre. Verdi, for
instance, wanted the voices of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in the murder scene to
be hoarse and whispered, because of their fears: that’s what we want to
re-create.”
Sir Mark
is also looking forward to his concert on November 10, when he will conduct
and, it is planned, record Vaughan Williams’ sixth symphony – another in a CD succession
of VW symphonies from the Hallé,
now quite extensive.
“I’m excited to be
doing this work, which is so different, wild and anguished,” says Sir Mark. “The
orchestra will be up for whatever challenges the music gives us. My respect
for, and interest in, Vaughan Williams grows every year.”
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