As part of the London Symphony Orchestra’s Edinburgh International Festival residency, Sir Antonio Pappano brought huge forces with him, the Usher Hall platform crowded to bursting with a veritable army of players to tackle Vaughan Williams colossal Symphony no. 1 “A Sea Symphony”. Interpreting the Festival’s theme ‘The Truth We Seek’, Pappano wanted to make the music jump off the page. This performance rang with vibrant, lively and colourful threads, packing a powerful punch.
Elizabeth Maconchy was a gifted child pupil of Vaughan Williams, her dreamy Nocturne captured by evocative strings interweaving with soft trumpet calls and harps. A central restless passage saw dissonance grow as shadows darkened, but calm returned with twinkling stars. Pappano balanced his large orchestra precisely, conjuring moments of intense beauty. Maconchy has angular passages, but there are tell-tale trademark Vaughan Williams pastoral colouring in her orchestration.
Erich Korngold built his classical career in Europe but was also in demand for his film scores in America where he was when the Anschluss was declared. Although his family was able to eventually join him from Austria, the exile was not happy, Korngold vowing not to return to classical composition until calmer times prevailed. He began his Violin Concerto in D major in 1945. Making her first visit to the festival, Vilde Frang gave a spirited performance, golden notes pouring out in the filmic first movement, Pappano responding with velvet string sounds from his thinned down forces.
I enjoyed Frang’s collegiate approach, leaning over to the first violins as she picked up their theme, alive throughout to the orchestral nuances, her cadenza exploratory and fragmented rather than showy. Frang’s luminous playing in the central Romanze ranged from rich deep nutty brown notes to delicate filigree magic in a captivating muted passage. The final Vivace was a blazing show of virtuosity, Pappano exuberant in the orchestral interludes, letting Frang through with her blistering breakneck leaps, soloist and orchestra racing each other to a rousing finish.
Vaughan Williams paints a dark maritime canvas in his Sea Symphony, capturing its tempestuousness, majesty and danger, tragedy and joy. Big choral symphonies were in vogue in 1909, Vaughan Williams captured by Walt Whitman’s mystical poems which make up the structure of the work. Pappano directed his forces with meticulous detail, alive to the sensitivities of soloists and chorus after his years in the opera pit, his players depicting every seascape to perfection. Conducting economically and with no baton, mere fluttering fingers here and there, he fine-tuned the enormous forces, slowing the pace in the opening movement, picking it up for the wave-breaking climaxes. A luxury choice of soloists made this performance memorable. Baritone Will Liverman delivered Whitman’s text with panache, deeply mystical in On The Beach at Night Alone. In gorgeous voice, soprano Natalya Romaniw filled the hall and melted our hearts, especially in the duet in the long final movement as the soul journeys onwards to deep waters.
It’s a formidable sing for the choir. The 150-strong Edinburgh Festival Chorus, now celebrating 60 years, rose to the occasion magnificently beginning with the triumphant opening shout “Behold the sea itself”, then taking us on a lively tour of seascapes. Pappano drove them hard, but was rewarded with magnificent singing throughout, concentration and balance maintained, clear diction, the climaxes shattering in volume. Some of Whitman’s texts were perhaps ‘of their time’, but this was a particularly spirited and exciting performance.
