United Kingdom PROM 9 – Brahms, Schoenberg, Mahler: Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor). Royal Albert Corridor, London, 25.7.2024. (CK)

Brahms – Symphony No.3
Schoenberg – Verklärte Nacht
Mahler – Kindertotenlieder

On paper, this BBC Promenade programme appeared slightly odd: probably the most substantial piece – Brahms’s Third Symphony – opened the live performance and took up the primary half; Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, which might usually be the principle (maybe solely) piece within the first half, got here final, following Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht within the model for string orchestra. As well as, it virtually appeared that the live performance was carried out by three completely different orchestras: all of them the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra after all, however very in a different way constituted for every of their three musical choices. Such had been the contrasts between them that it was a shock to notice, as Andrew MacGregor reminded BBC Radio 3 listeners, that every one three fall inside a 20-year interval.

Did it work? Effectively, sure, it did. The marvellous opening of Brahms’s Third Symphony appeared to point some thinness of string tone – every part was a desk in need of the standard full complement, presumably for financial causes – however after the mellow burbling of the woodwind the enjoying grew in firmness and chew. That is music of heroic mood however unsure import: there’s a sense of ambiguities, of tensions held in steadiness however unresolved: this symphony doesn’t provide up its secrets and techniques as simply as the opposite three.

The center actions, much less sternly On Obligation, gave us the chance to benefit from the heat Brahmsian sound, rooted in cellos, horns, oboes and clarinets. Within the Andante there was a beautiful mix of wind and string harmonies and a beautiful fullness of tone, with superb sundown chords on trombones on the finish. Within the Poco allegretto the string tune, swish however with an ache in it, was handed across the sections of the orchestra, taken by the solo horn and gently embroidered by the woodwind earlier than the strings took it again.

The finale started with mysterious, quiet urgency till the trombones snapped the orchestra into life. There have been reminders that when Brahms imitates his grasp Beethoven he’s apt to look reasonably stiff within the joints; however then got here the beautiful loping theme that rides so easily throughout the barlines. Ryan Wigglesworth ensured that there was loads of mild and shade within the enjoying: particularly, the passage because the music begins to settle into its ultimate calm was magical, the romantic horns sounding virtually as if that they had obtained misplaced within the forest Scherzo of Mahler’s Fifth and turned up right here as an alternative. The efficiency was warmly obtained.

Wigglesworth and the BBC SSO strings had been delicate and attentive to all of the echoes and half-lights, alert to each nerve-ending within the first a part of Verklärte Nacht – although the primary stirrings within the depths needed to make their manner up by way of a barrage of viewers coughing.  Wigglesworth’s management of the ebb and move of the music, its important intimacy, was very spectacular: when affirmation lastly got here, it was tender reasonably than luxurious. They will not be the Vienna Philharmonic, however the enjoying of the BBC SSO strings was stunning sufficient: it had an honesty and intentness that commanded our consideration and respect. You could possibly have heard a pin drop on the finish as their sounds started to spiral upwards and evanesce. There was a rapturous reception, absolutely deserved.

A confession. Not having shared the overall enthusiasm when Alice Coote sang Zarathustra’s ‘Midnight Tune’ within the Philharmonia’s efficiency of Mahler 3 final November (carried out by Sir Mark Elder), I used to be getting ready to focus on Mahler’s orchestration on this efficiency of Kindertotenlieder. How fallacious I used to be. Coote appeared capable of finding the suitable color in her voice for each vowel sound, particularly in its wealthy decrease register: no plushness for its personal sake, however a sensitivity to the textual content as effective as something within the string writing in Verklärte Nacht. The singer has to inhabit these heartbreaking songs completely, in any other case there isn’t any level in singing them: however overdo the expression and also you danger tilting the cycle within the course of a dramatic scena for grieving mom or father (maybe the ultimate track is tilted this fashion in Mahler’s dramatic setting). Coote was in a position to inflect every track with emotion – a type of helpless agony within the second, a determined try at affirmation within the fourth – by voice alone. She additionally appeared to know the place Mahler was going: getting ready the bottom for Das Lied von der Erde, the place the solo voice is one amongst a number of – primus inter pares, maybe, however Mahler is ready to endow particular person devices with an eloquence that’s near speech, and to plot a spare texture by which the instrument is one voice, the soloist one other. Within the lonely solos for oboe, cor anglais and horn in Kindertotenlieder he’s already there.

It was a disgrace that we couldn’t emulate Coote’s stillness and focus between every track – every break produced a bout of coughing – however this was a really shifting efficiency. She stood nonetheless on the finish, locked into the ambiance of the songs, till nicely after the applause had began. She significantly cherished the Prommers, and so they cherished her. The truth that I haven’t talked about the enjoying of the BBC SSO and the sympathetic course of Ryan Wigglesworth all through the cycle shouldn’t counsel that that they had no impression: they had been locked into this transformative expertise too, and all of the solos had been fantastically taken.

Inserting the track cycle because the end result of the live performance labored in spite of everything, in a particular efficiency which allowed us to understand its greatness and to go away the corridor with its music in our minds and hearts. I shall lengthy bear in mind Alice Coote’s inflection of the final phrase of the final track.

A quick footnote: I used to be eventually Saturday’s Promenade 11, one of many two CBeebies Proms – Wildlife Jamboree – with certainly one of my granddaughters, rising 5, and her mom: it was reasonably great to see the Royal Albert Corridor full of younger youngsters and their households.

Chris Kettle