La Leyenda del Príncipe y el Lago Helado: Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky in ADDA, Alicante with Orfeón Donostiarra and Silvia Tro, plus Beethoven!

I last heard Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky in April 1985. It was a performance of the complete film score alongside the film itself, recently reconstructed, in London’s Royal Festival Hall. The orchestra was the London Philharmonic and the conductor was Mstislav Rostropóvich. I could remember the venue and the music, but not the performers or the date. Those were filled in by artificial intelligence. That would also be the last time I saw the film.

Last night’s performance by the ADDA orchestra under Josep Vicent featured the cantata that Prokofiev constructed out of his incidental music to Eisenstein’s film This choral work has since become a concert hall regular, perhaps the major cantata of all twentieth century music. Performances are not offered very often, however, because it is a work that needs a lot of resources, large numbers of human beings and, if it is to be done well, lots of rehearsal time.

This performance, subtitled “La Leyenda del  Príncipe y el Lago Helado”, of the purely musical work was accompanied by a brief passages from the film, projected above the heads of the Orfeón Donostiarra chorus. There was enough visual material to provide context, but no more. In any case, Prokofiev’s cantata score does not follow the film’s action sequentially, only thematically. Rest assured that this is a massive work and, for many concert goers, it is probably a one-in-a-lifetime experience. Not only does it demand a large orchestra and a full chorus, it also has a soloist, mezzo-soprano Silvia Tro this evening, to sing an orchestral song towards the end. Silvia Tro’s performance of this patriotic text was moving, though its propaganda message was better left untranslated.

From the start, indeed, we can hear that this is a Prokofiev score because of the filled out and emphasised bass. The orchestration is simply spectacular and the ADDA orchestra delivered perfectly all the unexpected and frankly surprising textures. Even the opening chords, delivered softly offer the listeners something of a surprise.

Josep Vicent had placed the percussion not at the back, because Orfeón Donostiarra were there. Hence the players of extensive percussion section were immediately behind the violins. This brought all the percussive colour to the fore, and the effect was spectacular. At the start of the battle on the ice scene, it seemed as if the assembled army on stage had come alive as a single insect-like force, scratching its way towards the audience. Simply spectacular.

Truly spectacular had been the first half of the concert. Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony is clearly a favourite of Josep Vicent and the ADDA orchestra. I have heard them perform it at least three times and, if it were on offer again today, I would be first in line for a ticket. I will limit my description of the piece, because it has featured regularly in ADDA concerts.

This was playing of the very highest quality. Not only was it accurate and controlled, but it also came across a slightly reckless, even improvised. But of course, it was not, but this performance had the quality of experiment at breakneck speed. The performance of Alexander Nevsky was both welcome and spectacular. But it was Ludwig van Beethoven who stole this music show.

 

A concert of surprises - Beethoven Piano Concert No4 and Symphony No4 featuring Joachim Gustavsson and Antonii Baryshvskyi

What could possibly be surprising about a concert whose program listed two works by Beethoven, both numbered four, one a piano concerto and the other symphony? Well, the answer is just about everything. To start with, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 is certainly not the most played of his symphonic works. I am sure I have heard it in the concert hall before, but I am also sure it was more than four decades ago. The fourth piano concerto, on the other hand, is a regular inclusion on concert programmes, and I have heard it several times in the last decade and countless times via recordings. But it has never sounded quite like this.

The first surprise, though it was announced in advance, was the identity of the soloist. Antonii Baryshvskyi played the concerto instead of Judith Jauregui, who stepped down on medical advice. In addition, the evening’s conductor was Joachim Gustafsson, a guest of the ADDA Simfonica, was making, I believe, his first appearance with the orchestra.

The fourth piano concerto of Beethoven is a masterpiece. It has that amazing concept of a slow movement where the quiet piano competes with angry strings and wins them over by gentle persuasion. It is perhaps one of the most original pieces of music ever written. In the hands of Antonii Baryshvskyi, the movement attained perfection.

But so did the first and third movements. Antonii Baryshvskyi’s style throughout was sensitive and accommodating of an orchestral sound that refused to dominate. This was real human dialogue between soloist and orchestra. In fact, the orchestral textures throughout - except, of course, for the strings in the second movement - were light and played softer and with less attack than would be the norm. The overall effect was to render the whole work profoundly human and humble. Then, given the nature of the argument of its second movement, this approach rendered the experience utterly moving from the first note to the last. Surely everyone present was deeply affected by this perfect music making.

Antonii Baryshvskyi chose to play different credenzas from any that I have previously heard. This concerto has several cadenzas written by various composers and pianists. I did not recognize the ones that the pianist chose, and conclude, therefore, that they were his own. It was both surprising and startling to have contemporary-sounding cadenzas appearing in such familiar music, but nothing was out of place. Everything made perfect musical sense. Joachim Gustavson’s muted approach to the music allowed the experience to develop and the space thus created was emotionally very special. Antonii Baryshvskyi then played two encores. The first was Chopin’s Revolutionary Study – how apt, given what we had just heard! - and the second, again I speculate, was probably his own work. The ADDA audience gave him the warmest possible applause in recognition of something profoundly special.

So after the familiar cast anew in the first half, the second half embarked upon the less familiar fourth symphony. The fourth symphony’s opening could pass for Mahler and the rest is hardly less revolutionary for the first decade of the nineteenth century.

Beethoven wrote the work after the Eroica and before the anger of the fifth. It is a work that could be superficially classed as a tranquil interlude between two great statements. But anyone who listens to this music will conclude that it is wholly original and indeed visionary. There were times when we might have been listening to Mendelssohn, forty years early!

Again, Joachim Gustavsson’s reading of the music was perfect. The music seemed actually to be human, so much did it seem to breathe. Anyone unfamiliar with this work, and there will be many, even amongst regular concertgoers, should listen intently to its argument because it makes perfect sense. The rhythmic variations Beethoven used in the scherzo are reminiscent even of the seventh symphony. This was a performance that will live in the memory forever.

The evening’s third encore was something completely different, the Intermezzo from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana. Like everything else on this wonderful evening this was a surprise.