Silvery Moon
The Berlin Philharmonic brought a spooky Halloween treat to New York on Thursday night, just a few days late. They are at Carnegie Hall for a three-night residency, offering the complete Brahms symphonies along with selected earlier works by that ugly duckling of Brahms disciples, Arnold Schoenberg. They are also far from home during Berlin’s anniversary celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, having taken a prominent role in the celebration twenty years ago. And it was an American – one Leonard Bernstein – who conducted Beethoven’s Ninth at the Wall, famously supplanting the word Freiheit for the word Freude in its finale. For most of last night, it would seem these remembrances were far from their minds.
When the pretty, slender Evelyn Herlitzius entered the stage to sing Schoenberg’s 1909 atonal monodrama Erwartung wearing a long, blood-red roll-necked gown, she was already fully in character – a curiously icy and zombie-like stare perfect for Pierrot Lunaire. But she sang a work more akin to Salome than Pierrot, a full-voiced, lyrical account of Schoenberg’s expressionist scena tempered by a somewhat steely, cold tone.
In very good voice, she artfully careened over the perilous cliffs of orchestral crescendo, occasionally shrieking (there is no other way) through Schoenberg’s manic stream of consciousness, and exhibiting considerable vocal might where it mattered. This was not a sensual, dreamy account of Erwartung, but rather a terrifying, waking nightmare.
Choosing to swallow some consonants or reshape a vowel in service to the melodic line, Herlitzius didn’t fall into the pseudo-Sprechstimme trappings of many Erwartung executants, opting for a precise, yet fully sung, account of Schoenberg’s vocal tone-poem. As she observed the body of her beloved lying in the mulch, she leaned on the words “Er liegt da!,” stressing the long vowel but without any hint of vibrato or color. No breathy faking here, she delivered even staccato “Ah!” exclamations with a supple roundness and firm tone. Though she clearly worked for the big notes, her sound was not forced, and in the end she prevailed against a formidable Berlin orchestral torrent. She won a similar torrent of adulation from the audience, and it is safe to expect that we will see more of her.
Perhaps the orchestra shone brightest of all in the evening’s “overture” (of a perverse sort), Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1. Originally scored for 15 solo instruments, the composer’s full orchestral version presented here bears a whole catalog of challenging ensemble problems. Solo strings link up with tutti strings in freakish triplet figurations, complicated woodwind entrances overlap with daunting brass countersubjects, all amid a puzzle of dynamic shadings. This huge orchestra tossed it off as if it were chamber music, in a breathtaking display of orchestral virtuosity and surgical precision.
The Brahms Second Symphony started out weirdly Brucknerian. Rattle took a lackadaisical approach to the more expansive bars, then churned out huge crescendos in the more rhythmic passages, but avoided climax or catharsis. He tends toward under-conducting, showing few beats, instead drawing shapes or posing in the air while several whole bars of music pass by. Though they should be used to him by now (he has been music director since 2002) it seemed to confuse the players, who occasionally dropped notes and played in rests. Rattle and the Berlin orchestra have been the topic of some gossip suggesting they do not always see eye-to-eye, especially in the German romantic repertoire. This was the evidence.
By the finale, however, it no longer mattered – the obvious joy with which this orchestra plays this music was irrepressible. After soaring through the hopeful second subject’s recapitulation, and landing on the tutti chords that announce the end, they seemed to want to pull back the tempo, to stay in the moment, before diving into the coda with smiles on their faces. A recognizable sound and feeling filled Carnegie Hall – a golden-hued tenor of pride and nostalgia – and if you closed your eyes, it could have been that same Berlin Philharmonic of 1963, or 1978, or November of 1989: Unvanquished.
Nice review, squirrel. (And a great pic).
Herlitzius is a wonderful singer. Although the actual sound and timbre may not be to everyone’s liking, her musicianship and control of the voice are exceptional.
I heard her sing an amazing Färberin in FroSch in Amsterdam, which was secure and she certainly had no trouble whatsoever with the high-lying, loud passages and hysterical outbursts, while still retaining a core of vulnerability to the sound at certain crucial moments.
I thought her assumption of the role was superior to Brewer’s, having heard the latter in the same role only months before in Paris.
Thursday she seemed quite dead-set on greatness. Pretty sound or no, it’s wonderful to encounter an artist so focused on wringing every drop out of a performance. Erwartung is a hysterical piece, of course, but there was an extraordinarily flammable, self-consumed quality to her stage presence that is very compelling.
It made me wonder – is she like this all the time?
Well, Herlitzius is a singing-actress, which, by any stretch of the imagination, la Brewer is not. I also saw this FroSch in Amsterdam after the Wilson zzzzzzzzz-fest in Paris, and of course it was a more theatrical occasion than in Paris. I’ve also seen Herlitzius in Henze’s Bassirids, Reimann’s Lear, and as Brünnhilde in Bayreuth. When I first saw her I thought she had a “Gwyneth-lite” quality about her. She’s a really exciting Theatertier. I’ve never been disappointed by her performances, even if the voice is a bit squally à la Jones. I’d love to see her Salome, Elektra, Isolde and on the strength of the clip, Ortrud.
yes, it is Fabelhaft, isn’t it?
credit: REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo (SPAIN SOCIETY)
La Cieca likes this Herlitzius!
Homage a Wieland? Or unacknowledged rip-off?
yes, uncanny isn’t it?
It’s Lehnhoff’s production, He was Wieland’s last assistant at Bayreuth, so it is almost certainly a self-conscious homage. The production can be seen in toto from Baden-Baden and it’s very distinguished (with Waltraud M as the angry lady).
This performance dramatically approximates some of the hair-raising interpretations Leonie and Gwyneth used to deliver, even if vocally Herlitzius isn’t in their league.
Re: FROSCH, Brewer was amazing in Chicago and Herlitzius was impressive in the Netherlands audio stream. Wish we had a video of at least some of Ludwig’s Faberin. That was a, or rather THE, performance for the ages.
(squirrel kind thinks she’s hot!)
No surprise there!
I agree with your assesment of the BP as a triumphant orchestra-I went to the concert wednesday, and the same could be said. In the end it did not matter terribly that Rattle’s tempos were rather berserk in the 4th movement; the sheer thrill of hearing the united forces of the orchestra was what really shone through. I regret the fact I had neither the funds nor time to hear the other concerts.
It’s a great sound, no doubt, but I didn’t feel that Sir Simon had anything to say about Brahms, the performances of the 3rd and 4th were oddly perfunctory. This was no Furtwangler, Bruno Walter or Toscanini Brahms. I wonder if rumours about growing dissatisfaction with Rattle are true.
Actually, Herlitzius sort of seemed to me like what Jones
would sound like as Ortrud. Dramatically, the scene was pretty hot and Herlitzius has that slightly squally
quality that Gwyneth could also do oh so well.
I had Jones Ortrud on LP, I never replaced it with the CD version. Actually I remember that as I pretty interesting Lohengrin but then I’m a Lohengrin junkie.
This is fabulous. Jones sounds much more effective in this than I recall on the much earlier studio recording. But I’m going from memory…
Very sorry to have missed this as I’ve been curious for some time about her.
Perhaps Mr. Squirrel will be our reviewer for the Polaski Erwartung coming up?? That would indeed be swell. Very interesting, once more.