LSO closes its season with hardly ever carried out Shostakovich and ever-popular rousing Carmina Burana – Seen and Heard Worldwide

United Kingdom Shostakovich, Orff: Christina Poulitsi (soprano), Sunnyboy Dladla (tenor), Elliot Madore (baritone), Tiffin Boys Choir, London Symphony Refrain (refrain director: Mariana Rosas), London Symphony Orchestra / Gianandrea Noseda (conductor). Barbican Corridor, London 25.6.2024. (JR)

Shostakovich – Symphony No.3, Op.20
Orff – Carmina Burana

Gianandrea Noseda is working his method by means of Shostakovich’s fifteen symphonies for a cycle launched on LSO Dwell. Up to now, he has recorded numbers 1,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and 15. At this live performance, it was the time to carry out Shostakovich’s Third, not one that the majority music lovers outdoors Russia know. Even in Russia it disappeared from the repertoire for 35 years. Noseda admitted to the orchestra in rehearsal that he had by no means performed the work nor heard it in efficiency. An previous Russian pal within the viewers instructed me after the efficiency that it had been a wonderful efficiency of a piece with little advantage, which nearly sums it up.

One must know the background of the piece to make a fairer evaluation. Shostakovich was 23 and nonetheless a postgraduate scholar on the Leningrad Conservatoire. His First Symphony had been successful, and he was now able to embrace avant-garde experimentalism, which he did in his now hardly ever carried out Second Symphony. His Third Symphony celebrates the official State vacation of the First of Might, is in a single motion, and makes use of a refrain within the closing part, singing ideological texts. It’s a festive salute and was met with Soviet approval, although there are touches of trademark Shostakovich irony within the piece. The work is one in every of continuous distinction because the composer needed to attempt to write a symphony the place not one theme repeats itself. I’m not satisfied the experiment succeeded. There’s some brass band music and the entire work is sort of a grand parade with the employees citing the rear.

Noseda put his ordinary frenetic vitality into the piece however regardless of, or maybe due to loads of decibels, the work did not persuade in any method. I spotlight the 2 clarinettists, Sérgio Pires and Chi-Yu Mo for his or her mellifluous opening of the work. The London Symphony Refrain sang with gusto, notably admirable as they nonetheless had a Carmina Burana to go within the second half of the live performance.

Carmina Burana doesn’t attraction to everybody. Some discover it too banal; some now discover the content material too incorrect, others are swayed by its rhythmic swagger. It often fills a corridor though England have been enjoying within the Euros the identical night which could account for just a few of the empty seats.

Greek soprano Christina Poulitsi was spectacular: she has sung the Queen of the Evening in 17 totally different productions and in 270 performances, so there isn’t any denying that she will hit the highest notes. Orff wrote difficult components for every soloist and Poulitsi was on type. South African tenor Sunnyboy Dladla, because the roasted swan, has little to sing however shone out. Normally his position is sung in a strangulated falsetto, however this was a full drive cry which inspired. Canadian baritone Elliot Madore was most affecting in his low and center ranges however struggled on the prime, his falsetto virtually inaudible, regardless of having a successful stage method.

The refrain have been the celebrities of the present: glorious intonation, particularly the primary sopranos. Diction was crisp and clear; at occasions I might have favored to see extra wild abandon to go together with the quicker sections of the music. The Tiffin Boys did their stuff completely.

Noseda took a quick tempo at any time when attainable which the choir and orchestra took of their stride. Noseda missed a repeat which brought on confusion: Noseda apologised to the viewers for his oversight. Significantly effective contributions got here from the flautist Gareth Davies and the sumptuous timpanist Nigel Thomas.

The live performance was a fittingly large-scale conclusion to the LSO’s season. Over the summer season they’ll make a number of appearances with their new Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano within the UK and overseas, in Snape, Warsaw, Ljubljana and Gstaad, and Britten’s Struggle Requiem on the BBC Proms.

John Rhodes