United Kingdom PROM 5 – Schoenberg, Zemlinsky: BBC Nationwide Orchestra of Wales / Ryan Bancroft (conductor). Royal Albert Corridor, London, 22.7.2024. (CK)

Schoenberg – Pelleas und Melisande
Zemlinsky – Die Seejungfrau

Schoenberg and Zemlinsky? It was daring of the BBC to recreate a Viennese live performance in 1905 by harnessing these two fin de siècle behemoths (by composing brothers-in-law) collectively, and courageous of Ryan Bancroft and the BBC Nationwide Orchestra of Wales to take them on. Each are costly to mount: Pelleas und Melisande requires over 100 gamers and Die Seejungfrau isn’t far behind. Simply certainly one of them, maybe coupled with a preferred concerto, would have made higher industrial sense (poor Schoenberg – his identify nonetheless mechanically evokes the phrase Field Workplace Loss of life).

However that is what the Proms, uniquely, can do, offering us with treasured alternatives to listen to items in uncommon and illuminating contexts. Planners and performers have been rewarded, not with a full home (the Rausing Circle was sparsely populated) however with the palpable dedication and enthusiasm of those that have been there.

Schoenberg wrote Pelleas und Melisande earlier than he started to really feel the affect of Mahler: Richard Strauss is definitely there (Paul Griffiths, in his programme observe, tells us that it was Strauss who directed the younger Schoenberg to the subject), however in Schoenberg’s unfolding drama (in contrast to that of a Strauss tone poem) nobody aspect – a personality, a theme – stands away from the others: they’re frequently meshing, altering form within the unceasing tug and pull of the music in a psychodrama that mirrors Maeterlinck’s symbolist play, through which nothing is definite and nobody is knowable. Outdoors the decaying citadel is the forest, that central Expressionist image for the Unconscious: and it’s all too straightforward, within the thickets of Schoenberg’s advanced texture, to lose one’s manner.

Besides in a efficiency like this. Huge items have extra room to breathe within the Royal Albert Corridor: however the efficiency’s success was not merely a matter of acoustics. Bancroft sculpted the efficiency along with his batonless fingers, charting the music’s oceanic swell across the nice climaxes as clearly because the passages the place solo devices entwine like filaments of sunshine. And, as my companion remarked, he saved the sooner sections shifting, in order that flexibility averted monotony. The enjoying of the BBC NOW was excellent and sometimes very stunning: they and the conductor appeared to be inside this troublesome music (I nearly wrote ‘comfortably inside’, however that will give completely the flawed impression).

Invidious, maybe, to pick highlights, however arduous to not: the pleasant, waltz-like flutes as Melisande performs with the ring by the fountain, solo devices resulting in a magical string texture; flutes once more, eerie with harps; a quiet bass drum, muted trombones and people flutes once more, flutter-tonguing this time, warning us that the ominous Destiny theme is as soon as extra on its manner. Or, after Schoenberg, for causes greatest recognized to himself, has taken us again to the start (about two-thirds of the best way by way of), the shimmering, unearthly sounds (Griffiths calls them ‘curtains of falling stars’) with which Schoenberg returns us to the story and prepares us for its finish.

It’s attainable, with hindsight, to detect tonality straining on the leash in Pelleas und Melisande; however in Die Seejungfrau, as in every thing he wrote, Zemlinsky remained resolutely and gorgeously tonal. From its bottom-of-the-sea stirrings to its shining ending, three actions and forty minutes later, it ravishes the sympathetic ear: harps usually in play, woodwind darting like fish or glistening like jewels within the darkness. No scarcity of pleasure: the marriage festivities that open the second motion introduced the Hochzeitsstück within the corresponding motion of Mahler’s youthful Das klagende Lied to thoughts; and Bancroft dealt with this motion’s climaxes magnificently. The third motion was additionally superbly performed, from its hushed opening through spooky muted trumpets and trombones, solo horn and harps and probably the most delicate sounds in higher strings, rising in quantity and pressure to a marvellous climax (spectacular timpani).

Zemlinsky might not have damaged new floor as a composer, however it is extremely clear that his music has its personal type of gorgeousness. One other BBC Promenade efficiency of the Lyric Symphony, or the opera Der Zwerg, can be most welcome. In the meantime, hats off to Ryan Bancroft and the BBC Nationwide Orchestra of Wales for one of many headiest concert events I can keep in mind.

Chris Kettle