The Hallé ‘Summer Season’ of live music in Manchester has included streamed film versions of three of the concerts, and the final one, which I had to miss seeing in person, is now available. Sir Mark Elder conducts and the programme is all Russian music: Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov and Stravinsky.
A ‘Russian night’ was often a popular
formula in the orchestra’s summer Proms a decade or so ago, but this was no set
of Tchaikovsky and others’ greatest hits: though Stravinsky’s The Firebird
suite would be a draw any time, the other two pieces are comparative rarities
and it was a great idea to include them.
As through the entirely filmed ‘Winter
Season’, the production standards of this document of the orchestra’s playing
are extremely high. The virtuosity of the camera operation and mixing and the
splendour of the recorded sound are almost the equal of the musicians’ playing
in itself. And again there are bits of chat between items, from Sir Mark and a
number of orchestra members and staff, which are fascinating to hear and bring
light to the whole experience. There’s also something unexpected, both at the
beginning and the end: the former a rather superfluous succession of thank you
statements from and about Siemens for their sponsorship (not that those are
undeserved, but they dampen the atmosphere a bit at the start) – the latter I’ll
tell you about later.
Rimsky-Korsakov’s suite from his opera The
Tale of Tsar Saltan proved a rich mine of sonic jewels and musical
storytelling. Its opening depiction of the Tsar setting out on a journey leapt
into life with precise and spritely jollifications, and the following seascape
(not completely unlike the one in Scheherazade) had plenty of subtlety
in Sir Mark’s reading – the rolling billows had to be kind enough for a
princess and baby to survive floating on them in a barrel, according to the
story. The music worked up a head of steam, however, for the finale’s picture
of golden-helmeted knights and their galloping steeds, in which the orchestra, led
by Kanako Ito and spread out on the extended stage as so often before in their
lockdown era, sounded magnificent.
Rachmaninov’s The Rock is an early
work and interesting if only for the signs of the genius to come, but it was
played with such care and love that the beginnings of his extraordinary gift
for uncurling, everlasting melodies proved a wonderful vehicle for the woodwind
players and for heartstring-tugging tone from the violins. And the sweet and
thrilling sounds continued in Stravinsky’s The Firebird suite (1945
version), the Final Hymn, dramatically punched out in its emphatic ending, no
less than the thunderous Infernal Dance.
One of the memorable things about these
filmed performances (and I seemed to notice it more in this than most others)
is the chance to see the conductor as the orchestra see him … and indeed in
close-up, too. It’s an experience in itself, and gives you an insight into the
art of the musician who never makes a sound but enables all the others to do so
as one.
And the unexpected final bit? Rimsky-Korsakov
wrote The Flight of the Bumble Bee for The Tale of Tsar Saltan,
though it’s not in the suite. It comes as a bonus (or an encore if you like to
think of it so) at the end of the film.
The recording of the concert is available until
29 October: link thehalle.vhx.tv/products/
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