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Phillip T Young Recital Hall
October 1, 2014
"My inclination and my effort have always been to write music which would be comprehensible to the great mass of listeners and at the same time sufficiently free of banality to interest genuine music lovers".
It is unfortunate that we may never be able to ascertain whether Arthur Honegger succeeded in his aim or not, as the "great mass of listeners" rarely, if ever, gets the chance to even hear, much less comprehend, his music.
Wednesday night's concert from Yariv Aloni and the Galiano Ensemble opened their fifteenth season and closed with a spectacular account of Honegger's Symphony No.2, the symphony's second performance in Victoria within five years.
This is not comfortable music, as one would expect given that it was composed between 1937 and 1942 and premiered as the armies of the Third Reich were - still, apparently, invincible - advancing on Stalingrad.
Honegger's Second is the sound of a continent in anguish.
Aloni directed a wonderfully perceptive and superbly played account of what is perhaps the composer's finest symphony: the ominous chords of the opening, with their restless viola figure (Joanna Hood her usual excellent self here) leading to an eruptive, vigorous allegro, with the cellos really digging in. The return of the slow music towards the close reached an almost unbearable level of intensity.
The slow movement is devastating, its high, keening cello and doublebass solos (the wonderful Pamela Highbaugh Aloni and Mary Rannie, respectively) cutting straight to the heart of the matter.
At the opening of the finale I initially thought Aloni's tempo on the slow side, but then quickly realised that he was, in fact, doing what most conductor's seem unable to do: following the composer's directions, for the movement is marked "vivace, non troppo" (lively, not too much). Not only was this faithful to Honegger's intentions, it did nothing to rob the music of its natural bounce and enabled Aloni to produce an accelerando of such subtlety that the listener realised, with some surprise, that the music was now really motoring along at quite a pace.
And then comes Honegger's great masterstroke: a chorale melody shines forth - the trumpet part is marked ad lib but is really essential, even though doubled by the first violins - and a ray of hope cuts through the gloom; an act of great optimism at the time and an unforgettable musical moment. Louis Ranger was sublime, his beautiful tone mellow yet penetrating.
In a word: compelling.
Guillaume Lekeu died at the tragically early age of twenty-four: his Adagio for String Orchestra is a work of enormous accomplishment and great emotional depth; it underlines what a loss to music he was.
The adagio is beautifully written, with some marvellous divisi passages (at one point the cellos split into three parts). Its overall complexity and feel put me in mind somewhat of Strauss's Metamorphosen.
Aloni directed a gorgeous performance: string tone was exceptional and there were fine solos from Ann Elliott-Goldschmid and Joanna Hood. I'd love to hear more Lekeu, but unfortunately there is very little more to hear.
Felix Mendelssohn was probably musical history's most remarkable prodigy. His String Symphony No.11 was composed when he was just fifteen - Aloni chose the work because its composer was the same age as the Galiano Ensemble itself. Although written while its composer was still clearly under the influence of others - Mozart and Beethoven, in particular - and having little of the dazzling originality of the octet which was to follow just a year later, it is still a highly accomplished work by any standards.
It is also a lengthy work, probably longer than any of his officially-numbered symphonies and it is a measure of Wednesday's performance that it did not outstay its welcome (although it came close once or twice).
The rich-hued slow introduction featured excellently-observed dynamics and slid neatly into the energetic allegro, which had overtones of Mozart's G minor symphony, K.550. Aloni observed the exposition repeat - which, in other hands, could have been just too much of a good thing - and summoned forth commendably clean contrapuntal lines in the development.
Oddly, the work is in five movements and features two scherzos; the first is charming and lilting, although it feels more like a quick minuet than a genuine scherzo. The succeeding slow movement is perhaps a little "by the numbers" but was exquisitely played. The second scherzo again could easily be a minuet, but a late-Mozart minuet, such as the robust, almost ländler-like minuet from the E flat symphony, K.543.
Whereas Mozart, famously in the finale of his "Jupiter" symphony, and Bruckner in his fifth, combined fugue with sonata form, here Mendelssohn seems to combine fugue with rondo; there are two fugal subjects: the first travels down through the ensemble, from first violins to cellos and basses; the second reverses this process, starting in the cellos and basses. Fascinating, but, as with the fugal finale of his "Reformation" symphony, it did start to sound a little academic after a while.
Nevertheless, Aloni and his superb ensemble gave as persuasive and involving a performance as one could imagine.
As an opening salvo in the Galianos fifteen season, this really could not have been bettered and will linger in the memory for some time.
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