United States Tanglewood Competition 2024 [1] – Richard Strauss: Renée Fleming (soprano), Boston Symphony Orchestra / Andris Nelsons (conductor). Koussevitzky Shed, Lenox, Massachusetts, 7.7.2024. (ES-S)

R. Strauss – Symphonic Fantasy from Die Frau ohne Schatten, Op.65; ‘Ständchen’, Op.17 No.2; ‘Befreit’, Op.39 No.4; ‘Gesang der Apollopriesterin’, Op.33 No.2; ‘Träumerei am Kamin’ from Intermezzo, Op.72; ‘Die Zeit, die ist ein sonderbar Ding’ and ‘Da geht er hin’ from Der Rosenkavalier Op.59; Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Op.59. Encore: ‘Cäcilie’, Op.27 No.2

The primary Sunday afternoon live performance of the 2024 Tanglewood Competition was devoted to the music of Richard Strauss. The enthusiastic viewers in and across the Koussevitzky Shed didn’t essentially have the chance to take heed to his most distinguished works, however the efficiency was nonetheless a testomony to the particular place the German composer’s music holds in Andris Nelsons’s repertoire.

This system had a symmetrical-concentric construction. At its heart was one of many orchestral interludes from a lesser-known opera, Intermezzo. Earlier than the interlude, Renée Fleming interpreted a number of songs for soprano with orchestral accompaniment and, after it, a few monologues from Der Rosenkavalier. Two orchestral suites extracted from Die Frau ohne Schatten and Der Rosenkavalier bookended the afternoon.

‘Träumerei am Kamin’ (‘Dreaming by the Fireplace’), the second of the 4 orchestral interludes that kind of outline Intermezzo, is imbued with a melodic nostalgia harking back to Der Rosenkavalier and different later works by Strauss. Nevertheless, this small phase isn’t consultant of the wit, self-deprecation and boldness that characterize a lot of Strauss’s writing in Intermezzo, a ‘bourgeois comedy’ primarily based on autobiographical moments. Nelsons and his instrumentalists delivered the music with appreciable heat, even voluptuousness. They underlined the lyrical arches that kind the piece’s sonic framework and highlighted the refined approach through which the wind devices repeatedly emerge from the tapestry of strings.

Strauss composed the Symphonic Fantasy from Die Frau ohne Schatten throughout his self-imposed, post-World-Conflict-II exile in Switzerland, many years after the unique opera’s premiere. He condensed the three-plus hours of music right into a twenty-minute potpourri, omitting many segments that illustrate librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s preoccupation with mythological and symbolic themes, and targeted as a substitute on the music related to the mortal pair, Barak the dyer and his spouse.

After the preliminary attention-grabbing, brass-intoned evocation of the three-syllable title of Keikobad, the fearsome but never-seen God, the music is generally lyrical, with few of the full-of-tension and daring sonorities that permeated the unique rating. Conjuring ephemeral visions of happiness, the strings sounded luxurious below Nelsons’s route, whereas the winds appeared considerably constricted, even within the last orchestral climax. Substituting for the baritone in Barak’s aria ‘Mir anvertraut, daß ich sie hege’ (‘Entrusted to me, in order that I’ll nurture her’), Toby Oft’s trombone sounded unbelievably human, stuffed with longing and tenderness.

Often credited to conductor Artur Rodziński, the afternoon’s different orchestral suite, the one from Der Rosenkavalier, is a pale evocation of the unique opera’s riches. Nonetheless, the music and the libretto’s meanderings are rather more acquainted to the general public, therefore expectations are larger. This rendition was warmly acquired and had no main points, but it was not at all excellent. The general lavishness of the orchestral tapestry was one way or the other muted. The erotically charged horn calls initially have been quite lackluster, and the sweetness of the strings within the wonderful ‘Presentation of the Silver Rose’ was too syrupy, whereas the farcical facet of the waltzes was insufficiently introduced ahead.

Proper earlier than the suite, the viewers had the prospect to listen to the good Renée Fleming interpret, with assurance and confidence, two extracts from the opera, years after she final carried out her signature function of the ‘Feldmarschallin von Werdenberg’ in a completely staged manufacturing. She displayed a exceptional command of her (probably unnecessarily amplified) voice throughout the complete span, absolutely embodying the character’s grace, knowledge and emotional depth. Discreetly accompanied by Nelsons and his instrumentalists, Fleming, as tremendous an actress as ever, imbued ‘Die Zeit, die is ein sonderbar Ding’ with nice nostalgia in addition to humor and undiminished hope.

Her lyricism and refined eloquence have been additionally evident within the suite of songs for soprano and orchestra that she carried out earlier than intermission. She had difficulties sustaining longer strains in ‘Befreit’ and was much less convincing in conveying the fervent depth of the protagonist within the ‘Gesang der Apollopriesterin’. On the similar time, she dealt with with agility the anticipatory octave leaps in ‘Ständchen’ and displayed true ardour within the temporary ‘Cäcilie’, her solely encore. There’s little doubt that Fleming’s voice has misplaced a few of its weight and sheen, however it was an unexpectedly profitable efficiency, and the general public responded enthusiastically.

Edward Sava-Segal