Miah Persson, Ian Bostridge, Duncan Rock, Sascha Goetzel, Salzburg Bach Choir, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra Borusan Istanbul Filarmoni Orkestrasi - Photograph Ozge Balkan |
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Mar 12 2015
Star rating:
Vital characterful performance from Istanbul orchestra in its first oratorio
Joseph Haydn's last oratorio Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons) was conductor Sascha Goetzel's choice for the first oratorio performance by his Borusan Istanbul Phiharmonic Orchestra in the Istanbul Lütfi Kirdar ICEC on Thursday 12 March 2015. Goetzel and the orchestra were joined by soloists Miah Persson, Ian Bostridge and Duncan Rock, and the Salzburg Bach Choir.
Haydn's Die Jahreszeiten was intended as a follow up to his previous oratorio Die Schopfung (The Creation) and again Baron Gottfried van Swieten was a prime mover and he created the text basing it loosely on James Thomson's poem The Seasons. Van Swieten created a parallel English text so the work could be performed in either English or German (as for The Creation) to respond to Haydn's continuing English popularity, but his English translation is only loosely based on Thomson's poem and his English is not ideal and the work is nowadays performed in German as it was in Istanbul.
The Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra (Borudan Istanbul Filarmoni Orkestrasi) performs the majority of its concerts in the Istanbul Lütfi Kirdar ICEC which is the Istanbul conference centre, as the Atatürk Cultural Centre in Istanbul is closed with no current prospect of re-opening. The conference centre provides a large modern space with a surprisingly successful acoustic in the large scale Haydn work and certainly no worse than hearing something in the Royal Festival Hall in London. Sight lines were certainly good.
Sascha Goetzel, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra - Borusan Istanbul Filarmoni Orkestrasi - Photograph Ozge Balkan |
Sascha Goetzel, who has been the orchestra's artistic director since 2009, has been expanding the orchestra's repertoire and this was the first large scale oratorio that they had performed. Goetzel used quite a large orchestra, some 40 strings, and they made a very vital sound. Given the size of ensemble, they brought a surprisingly rhythmic bounce to the work with a real sense of joy in the perkier moments. The sense of power and strength they gave the music was perhaps not quite in the current modern period-style Haydn we are often used to, but the combination of vitality and rhythmic impetus ensured the performance was never heavy.
Making a very present sound, the sense that the players were themselves discovering the music was completely entrancing. Goetzel and his players really brought out the dance-based feel to much of the music, and many of the items were giving a lovely dance-like rhythmic impetus so that we frequently enjoyed some really catchy rhythms and vivid details.
The work interleaves arias, ensembles and choruses with recitatives and there is much vivid word painting in Haydn's writing, to match Swieten's libretto (perhaps more than Haydn's really wanted). A special word must go here the harpsichord and solo cello in the recitatives, both of whom performed stylishly. During the some of the orchestral recitatives the strings did not perhaps always achieve quite the perfect unity in the busier passages, but this was more than compensated for by the fact that every note seemed to mean something and Goetzel clearly encouraged them to highly characterise the music's depictions of the text. Throughout the work, I was repeatedly struck by the real fineness of the wind playing with all contributing some lovely solos.
Miah Persson, Ian Bostridge, Duncan Rock, Sascha Goetzel, Salzburg Bach Choir, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra Borusan Istanbul Filarmoni Orkestrasi - Photograph Ozge Balkan |
Ian Bostridge brought his familiar intensity and care for the words to the tenor solos. But this was always done through the music and Bostridge combined intensity, with a clear sense of Haydn's line and a not inconsiderable sense of style. He gave a real feeling of delicacy to some of the music, whilst singing with great power in others, ensuring the real mean of the text was conveyed.
Duncan Rock had taken over the baritone solo at relatively short notice and had learned the part specially. I only found this out after the concert, and Rock's performance gave not inkling that this was a first time. He sang with an admirable combination of firmness and ease, making the solo part sound as if it was all completely in the centre of his voice. He did not neglect the words either, and we had moments of real verbal drama.
There is a lot of ensemble work, and the three soloists made a finely balanced group and their sense of balance and interaction was one of the joys of the performance. All seemed to respond to the vital and very present sound of the orchestra, and this was overly a highly characterful account of the work, but one combined with great lyric beauty.
Salzburg Bach Choir Photograph Ozge Balkan |
The work was performed with just a 10 minute comfort break between Summer and Autumn during which Goetzel and his players stayed on stage. The audience, without printed librettos, clearly listened to the music with concentrated intensity throughout the performance.
Sascha Goetzel was very much the fons et origo of the performance, both controlling and encouraging his players and giving the singers the space to allow them to develop. This was one of the least dogmatic performances that I have seen, with all joining to give a real sense of the rhetoric and character of Haydn's work. Overall this was a very special occasion, and like the orchestra's appearance at the BBC Proms last year, a very real milestone in its presence on the international orchestral stage. I look forward to returning to Istanbul in the future to hear the orchestra again.
This is one of a group of articles planned, arising from my trip to Istanbul. An overview of the orchestra's work with an interview with their CEO is already on the blog, with an interview with Sascha Goetzel to follow.
Elsewhere on this blog:
- Essential listening: The Sixteen in music from the Spanish Golden Age - Cd review
- Varied selection: O Duo in their own distinctive music on Champs Hill - CD review
- Room to play: First of the BBT Wednesdays at Wiltons - concert review
- Dramatic bel canto: Donizetti's Siege of Calais - opera review
- Featured composer: Dobrinka Tabakova on Radio 3 and at Vale of Glamorgan Festival - interview
- Sparkling double: Malcolm Arnold and Donizetti one-act operas
- Clarity, poetry and strength: Kimiko Ishizaka in Bach - CD review
- Through new ears: Music of Arvo Part from the Tallis Scholars - CD review
- Blown away: Massenet's Le roi de Lahore in London for first time in over a century - opera review
- Few finer: Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Roger Vignoles in French son - CD review
- Beyond Rodrigo: Swiss guitarist Christoph Denoth - interview
- Home
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