Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra Usher Hall Edinburgh Review 21st April 2024
Photo of Maria Ioudenitch © JennyChou
Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra were at the Usher Hall Edinburgh this evening (part of the Sunday classics programme of concerts) and this programme of music featuring some of the most popular in the classical music repertoire was clearly designed to appeal to a wide range of listeners. This was also, as this concert programme progressed through the evening, a clear example of why this orchestra have been so popular with audiences across the world, and over its long history become a firm favourite of so many people.
Opening this concert was a work that I have to admit to not being too familiar with, Modest Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina Prelude. This opera, also known as The Khovansky Affair, is very Russian in its subject matter dealing primarily with the opposition to Peter's accession by Prince Ivan Khovansky and his son (thanks to Wikipedia here). Unfortunately Mussorgsky died before the vast bulk of the orchestration was written, leaving behind only a piano score. Over the years, more than a few illustrious names have given the orchestration their attention.
This prelude of some five minutes in length is, however, far from the sounds that you would expect of an opera with such a heavy political theme to it and is instead a wonderful tonal picture of dawn rising above the Moscow river with church bells tolling in the distance to create an atmospheric world of calmness and serenity.
Following on from this almost dream-like soundscape that Mussorgsky created was perhaps one of the most loved by audiences across the world violin concertos of all time, and certainly one which any serious violinist and certainly any self-respecting soloist would be expected to have in their repertoire, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.
There are many reasons for this violin concerto being so popular and many musicologists have dissected and analysed this work in minute detail over the years and, yes, there are many innovations such as the violin starting right at the beginning rather than waiting for the orchestra to set the tone. Perhaps none of this really matters as it is the emotional impact that this work has upon so many listeners that is what, in the end, really makes it such a much loved work.
With three very distinctive movements over a performance time of some 22 minutes, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto is always, to me, in parts looking backwards in time and perhaps unknowingly to the composer looking forwards in time too. Here in the first movement we have the clear influence of traditional folk music and I can always imagine in my minds eye Stéphane Grappelli playing this music along with Django Reinhardt & the Hot Club de France and people calling it Gypsy Jazz. Elements from the second and third movement have also clearly influenced some of the biggest stage musicals of the 20th century. Whatever the influence though, this work is not only so full of the joys of being alive, but it is also exactly what so many people, even those who have never been to a classical music concert, probably expect a violin concerto to sound like.
This is the work of a musical genius of his day at the peak of his abilities and it was completed in 1845 (oddly this work had a long gestation period), only two years before his untimely death at 38 years old.
To bring this work fully to life in a live performance it needs to be played by someone with not only the wide range of technical skills on violin that it requires, but also someone who can interpret at an emotional level, and tonight a fast rising star in the classical music world, soloist Maria Ioudenitch clearly had all the qualities required and her audience applause was well deserved.
Finishing off this evening’s programme of music and taking up the entire second half was one of the most popular symphonies of all time, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6, aka the Pathétique Symphony. As always, we have to take care and make sure that the French meaning of pathétique, a state of deep emotional melancholy, is used here and not the English word pathetic.
There can be few, if any, of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies that have divided people so much in their interpretation of what he was trying to tell us through his music. The fact that a mere nine days after this work’s initial performance in St Petersburg on 28th October 1893 Tchaikovsky was dead, having drunk unheated water in an area where there was a cholera outbreak, only adds to the many different theories that surround this work.
This work is always a bit of an enigma to me as, yes, one movement does clearly belong to the almost obligatory (and usually demanded by the Russian authorities) celebration of all the pomp and circumstance of an Imperial Russia, but in the opening movement and elsewhere there is real darkness here, real sorrow, and as we know from letters from Tchaikovsky himself, he was struggling with many personal issues whilst writing this remarkable work. Equally though, there are many moments of just celebrating the joys of being alive. I always get this sense of a man who was struggling with his own thoughts on many days, but also finding light in that darkness, and under the careful direction of conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky, the Dresden Philharmonic capture every emotion, every colour of this work and in doing so maybe bring us a little closer to what Tchaikovsky himself was experiencing in his days as he wrote this remarkable work.
To many people, elements of Symphony 6 are a cry for help, and if we take the final moments of the closing movement of this work at its most emotional level, perhaps even a last goodbye from the composer. The many moments of blazing colour and light, of sheer energy in other parts though make me think that, yes, Tchaikovsky was in part using his music as almost therapy to confront his inner demons, but he was clearly in control of them and more than often defeating them.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Opening this concert was a work that I have to admit to not being too familiar with, Modest Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina Prelude. This opera, also known as The Khovansky Affair, is very Russian in its subject matter dealing primarily with the opposition to Peter's accession by Prince Ivan Khovansky and his son (thanks to Wikipedia here). Unfortunately Mussorgsky died before the vast bulk of the orchestration was written, leaving behind only a piano score. Over the years, more than a few illustrious names have given the orchestration their attention.
This prelude of some five minutes in length is, however, far from the sounds that you would expect of an opera with such a heavy political theme to it and is instead a wonderful tonal picture of dawn rising above the Moscow river with church bells tolling in the distance to create an atmospheric world of calmness and serenity.
Following on from this almost dream-like soundscape that Mussorgsky created was perhaps one of the most loved by audiences across the world violin concertos of all time, and certainly one which any serious violinist and certainly any self-respecting soloist would be expected to have in their repertoire, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.
There are many reasons for this violin concerto being so popular and many musicologists have dissected and analysed this work in minute detail over the years and, yes, there are many innovations such as the violin starting right at the beginning rather than waiting for the orchestra to set the tone. Perhaps none of this really matters as it is the emotional impact that this work has upon so many listeners that is what, in the end, really makes it such a much loved work.
With three very distinctive movements over a performance time of some 22 minutes, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto is always, to me, in parts looking backwards in time and perhaps unknowingly to the composer looking forwards in time too. Here in the first movement we have the clear influence of traditional folk music and I can always imagine in my minds eye Stéphane Grappelli playing this music along with Django Reinhardt & the Hot Club de France and people calling it Gypsy Jazz. Elements from the second and third movement have also clearly influenced some of the biggest stage musicals of the 20th century. Whatever the influence though, this work is not only so full of the joys of being alive, but it is also exactly what so many people, even those who have never been to a classical music concert, probably expect a violin concerto to sound like.
This is the work of a musical genius of his day at the peak of his abilities and it was completed in 1845 (oddly this work had a long gestation period), only two years before his untimely death at 38 years old.
To bring this work fully to life in a live performance it needs to be played by someone with not only the wide range of technical skills on violin that it requires, but also someone who can interpret at an emotional level, and tonight a fast rising star in the classical music world, soloist Maria Ioudenitch clearly had all the qualities required and her audience applause was well deserved.
Finishing off this evening’s programme of music and taking up the entire second half was one of the most popular symphonies of all time, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6, aka the Pathétique Symphony. As always, we have to take care and make sure that the French meaning of pathétique, a state of deep emotional melancholy, is used here and not the English word pathetic.
There can be few, if any, of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies that have divided people so much in their interpretation of what he was trying to tell us through his music. The fact that a mere nine days after this work’s initial performance in St Petersburg on 28th October 1893 Tchaikovsky was dead, having drunk unheated water in an area where there was a cholera outbreak, only adds to the many different theories that surround this work.
This work is always a bit of an enigma to me as, yes, one movement does clearly belong to the almost obligatory (and usually demanded by the Russian authorities) celebration of all the pomp and circumstance of an Imperial Russia, but in the opening movement and elsewhere there is real darkness here, real sorrow, and as we know from letters from Tchaikovsky himself, he was struggling with many personal issues whilst writing this remarkable work. Equally though, there are many moments of just celebrating the joys of being alive. I always get this sense of a man who was struggling with his own thoughts on many days, but also finding light in that darkness, and under the careful direction of conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky, the Dresden Philharmonic capture every emotion, every colour of this work and in doing so maybe bring us a little closer to what Tchaikovsky himself was experiencing in his days as he wrote this remarkable work.
To many people, elements of Symphony 6 are a cry for help, and if we take the final moments of the closing movement of this work at its most emotional level, perhaps even a last goodbye from the composer. The many moments of blazing colour and light, of sheer energy in other parts though make me think that, yes, Tchaikovsky was in part using his music as almost therapy to confront his inner demons, but he was clearly in control of them and more than often defeating them.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Please note that unless requested by performers/pr/venues that this website no longer uses the "star rating" system on reviews.