John Eliot Gardiner rehearsing Missa solemnis a year ago.
(Photo: Astrid Ackermann)
The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra actually wanted to perform the “Missa solemnis” in April 2020 on Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th birthday. For known reasons, it largely fell into the water, as did for the orchestra for most of the following year. The fact that the BR Symphony Orchestra are now opening the new season with one of the most important works of sacred music is in keeping with the festive occasion, even if only as a blessing.
In the Herkulessaal in Munich, the audience is once again sitting close together as in the old days. In the friendly applause for the participants at the beginning, and especially in the continuing cheering afterwards, you can clearly feel the audience’s wish that this season should go as planned as possible. The commitment of the soloists, choir and orchestra is correspondingly high, the commitment that they bring to the start.
The Bavarian Broadcasting Choir has seldom been heard more radiantly and more splendidly, powerful in the large increases, sweet and heartfelt in the concluding “Agnus Dei” plea for peace. Conductor John Eliot Gardiner has positioned it in an unusual arrangement: the male voices – the bass on the left, the tenors on the right – quasi grapple with the female voices, which means that they can be heard more clearly than independent voices and the overall sound becomes more transparent. Gardiner is generally interested in clarity, clear articulation in the choir, precise phrasing in the orchestra.
This is important because Beethoven’s “greatest work” – according to the composer’s self-praise – can also be a horribly solemn affair. Pathos quickly eats its way here, the music rushes from ecstasy to ecstasy, making the religious content all the more questionable the more resolutely it tries to authenticate it. The fact that none of this happens at Gardiner proves once again why the 78-year-old is considered by many to be one of the most important conductors of our time: Because he always thinks through and feels the music in concrete terms. There is no general noise here, although the performance is not lacking in strength and verve, neither in intensity nor in religious fervor.
But the force always remains structured, arises from a precisely developed dynamic and from the internal relationship of the voices. And it is balanced by the quiet, the fervent, which in turn never becomes a pious, bigoted devout. The doubts that have always been expressed as to whether Beethoven himself did not disintegrate the individual parts of the mass are dispelled: With Gardiner the proportions, the tempo relations, the transitions, especially between the molded parts, are right. For example at the beginning of “Sanctus”, where Gardiner in the Adagio – “With devotion”, writes Beethoven – accumulates time, only to let it purr like a merryly untangling ball of wool in “Pleni sunt coeli”.
The voices whiz through the curves of the joint like racing cars
One looks in vain for exhibited effects, even the war drums and trumpets in the “Agnus Dei”, often staged as a rather picturesque war backdrop, are of little interest to Gardiner. “Everything flows” could be written above this performance. But this flow creates lightness, and it can be felt more clearly than usual that Beethoven, in addition to the grim struggle with faith, also knew childlike joy in it. Most clearly in the final fugue of the “Credo”, in which Gardiner lets the sung “vita venturi saeculi”, life after the end of all times, become a heavenly frenzy that one would rather be part of today than tomorrow. The fact that the rapid pace does not throw the BR choir off track, but lets the voices whiz through the curves of the joint like racing cars, even elicits a smile from the soloists.
Gardiner has placed them on the right-hand side behind the second violins, instead of in front as usual, where most of the time they just stand there solemnly. Their voices flow into the ensemble, even if you have already heard more homogeneous line-ups of the quartet. The soprano Lucy Crowe often outshines it with her bright, rather straightforward soprano, who copes well with the uncomfortable highs, but sometimes only winds his way up with difficulty. Julian Prégardien is well received with his distinctive, yet differentiated tenor, while the contralto Gerhild Romberger stepped in for Ann Hallenberg a bit suddenly. Tareq Nazmi also stays in the background for a long time, but sings his solo appearance in “Agnus Dei” with a round, full and profound bass. Radoslaw Szulc, concert master of the BR Symphony Orchestra, plays the violin solo in “Benedictus” cleanly and with a fine tone, but could design it more independently, stretching the bow more strongly across the entire piece.
In general, there remains a certain downer with the BR Symphoniker, which is probably due to the difficult last season: There are significantly more wobbles to be heard than before. The string corps does not always sound homogeneous, in slow passages like the “Incarnatus est” in the “Credo” the voices do not interlock securely. In moments like this, one can sense the consequences of the forced break for many ensembles that were previously well-rehearsed. The successful start to the season is a good omen for the future of the BR-Symphoniker.