(Live screening, Showroom Sheffield) Berlin Philharmonic New Year’s Eve concert

Wagner, Tannhauser Overture and Venusberg Music; Die Walkure, Act1. Jonas Kaufmann, Siegmund; Vida Miknevičiūtė, Sieglinde; Hunding, Tobias Kehrer. Conductor, Kyrill Petrenko, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

For some time, Jonas Kaufmann’s voice has made me nervous. It seemed unsteady sometimes at the top and I have often heard a sense of struggle when I’ve listened to him in radio performances (II have never heard him live). He gave an interview recently where he explained he had finally managed to deal with a long running throat infection and to get his voice back to full health, and it certainly sounded as though he had achieved this with his performance of Siegmund in act 1 of Die Walkure at the screening, live, of the Berlin Philharmonic’s New Year’s Eve concert. His performance was thrilling, with excellent diction, and a real sense of poetry in his singing. The extended second ‘Walse’ seemed to be a triumphant statement of his return to vocal health. Vida Miknevičiūtė was a good though not exceptional Sieglinde who made less of the words than Kaufmann and didn’t show the same sensitivity to musical line and phrasing. Tobias Kehrer did all that was required of him as Hunding. The Berlin Phil and Kirill Petrenko gave an excellent reading of the Act 1 score – with outstanding oboe and clarinet playing and a real ratcheting up of tension and speed as the Act progressed. The last 5 minutes was one of the most exciting accounts of this music I can remember. The performance of the Tannhauser extracts was equally distinguished, though I wish Wagner had found a way of putting together the extended Venusberg music with the end of the overture……. Somehow the Venusberg music doesn’t really provide a sufficiently satisfying ending when just performed as an extension of the overture.

The one oddity about this live screening was the sound. Whether the work of the local cinema, or somebody involved in the Digital Concert Hall of the BPO, it seemed as though someone had set the sound at too high  a level, so that, where there were climaxes – eg the loudest rendition of the Pilgrim’s Chorus in the Tannhauser overture – the volume level got automatically cut back. Likewise some instruments seemed to be insufficiently cutting through the orchestra at times – I am sure this was the fault of the recording engineers rather than Petrenko and the orchestra. Anyway, this didn’t really detract from an excellent concert………….