Tippett A Child of Our Time; Beethoven Symphony No 9, Choral. London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Antonio Pappano conductor; Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha soprano; J’Nai Bridges mezzo-soprano; Sean Pannikar tenor, Soloman Howard, bass
With the Barbican Hall completely sold out. this was an extremely generous programme, in terms of content and the demands on soloists, choir and orchestra – it can’t have been often in its performance history that A Child of Our Time is billed as a curtain-raiser. I remember hearing a number of performances of this work in the 70’s, including maybe one conducted by Tippett in 1979 but I have not heard it once live in the past say 25 years. It is wonderful music but the performance context has changed a lot since the 1930’s, and what once seemed a brilliant idea – African-American spirituals as a kind of contemporary quasi-Bach chorale – now can seem awkwardly like cultural appropriation (something I am sure Tippett was aware of in his later years). The LSO handled that problem for this performance by having all four soloists with a non-white heritage – two African Americans, one South African and South Asian background. That runs the risk in turn of looking like tokenism, so maybe this is just a problem we now have to accept with the work. Certainly the sight of 100 or so overwhelmingly white middle-class not-young people singing spirituals seems a bit questionable, in retrospect. Nevertheless, this was a moving and enjoyable performance. Of particular distinction was Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha‘s high soprano circling beautifully above the choir singing ‘Steal Away to Jesus’, and the sonorous voice of Soloman Howard whenever he was singing (which makes me look forward to his Hunding at ROHCG in May with Pappano). The choir were particularly good in the fast, light spirituals – ‘Nobody knows the trouble I see’, for instance, and their contribution to the ‘general ensemble’ of ‘I would know my shadow and my light’ at the end was wonderful. All in all this was a very satisfying performance.
And so to Beethoven 9 after the interval. This has to be the best played performance of the work I have ever heard. The LSO were stunning throughout. Pappano used a big orchestra (5 horns, 8 double basses) but the overall impact was dynamic and light-footed – very different from the elephantine Berlin Philharmonic 10 days before, As an example of the crispness and sheer expertise of the playing the piccolo in the closing bars, taken at great speed, was absolutely accurate and clear in its notes. The timpani player – who has an important role in this work – was spot on every time with taut playing, and the strings, woodwind and brass were extraordinarily precise in the scherzo. The horn section – with many exposed passages to tackle which can often entail wobbles – were throughout confident and bright.
Altogether I enjoyed the first two movements very much. Often the way this work is written about (and sometimes performed) there’s a feeling that holy mysteries are being unveiled in the first movement There wasn’t much sense of mystery about the opening of this performance – what the whole movement did remind me of (it was taken at quite a pace) actually, in its sheer inventiveness and energy, was Haydn and the same is true of the second movement. It’s perhaps worth remembering that story about Beethoven being turned round by the contralto at the first performance to see the cheering audience – the fact is that they were cheering, that this wasn’t seen as ‘difficult’ music particularly, and Pappano’s performance heightened those connections with Haydn. The problem comes with the slow movement, which Pappano, in common with every other conductor I’ve ever heard live, conducted too fast (in my opinion). I reminded myself afterwards from the programme that this movement was described by Beethoven as ‘Adagio molto e cantabile’. The only conductors I’ve ever heard giving this a true ‘Adagio molto’ at the beginning are Furtwangler and Klemperer in recordings. And if you don’t do the adagio at the start as molto then you risk undermining some of the faster ‘cantabile’ passages later on, in the variations, by speeding them up in a way that damages their beauty. I am sounding a tad dogmatic about this, and there may be metronome markings in the score that justify Pappano’s (and others’) speeds, but I can only record what I felt. The last movement was very fine – gloriously played and sung, and rapturously received by the audience. I have this slight feeling of let-down at every single Beethoven 9 I have ever heard…..I have a ticket for Kachun Wong’s performance of the work with the Halle, in May. It will be interesting to hear his take on the work…..I live in hope.
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