Tanglewood 2019, part 1: Ravel's big score

I spent the last weekend in July at the Tanglewood Music Festival in the scenic Berkshires as part of a group of two dozen music critics attending the annual meeting of the Music Critics Association of North America (MCANA). It was a Wagner weekend, with three of the four concerts on our schedule dedicated to a complete concert performance of Die Walküre: Act I on Saturday night and Acts II and III in separate concerts on Sunday. Not surprisingly, the Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI) sessions we attended were focused entirely on Wagner and his world.

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Sue Elliott
Photo by Hilary Scott

Day one began with "Wagner's Alchemy: Die Walküre and the Ring Cycle" by TLI Director Sue Elliott. A well-informed and engaging presenter, Ms. Elliott led us through a fascinating glimpse "under the hood" of Wagner's creative process, complete with musical illustrations.

Next was a lunch session with Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) Music Director Andris Nelsons and soprano Christine Goerke, who was singing the demanding role of Brünnhilde in the Walküre performances. Moderated by Tanglewood Director Tony Fogg, the discussion featured some insightful comments from Ms. Goerke on singing Wagner, enlivened by her droll sense of humor.

I missed the next two sessions-a discussions of "The Wagner Voice: Truths and Myths" with English dramatic soprano Jane Eaglen and "The Struggle Between Power and Love" (the subtext of the entire "Ring" cycle) with pianist Jeffrey Swann. But I was back for the MCANA opening night reception and the presentation of our annual Best New Opera Award.

This year, the award went to p r i s m, a complex work by Ellen Reid (music) and Roxie Perkins (libretto) about a woman trying to work her way back to reality after a sexual assault that leaves her with a crippling case of PTSD. The opera had its premiere in Los Angeles last November. Ms. Reid was unavailable to accept in person because of a family wedding, but Ms. Perkins was on hand and spoke eloquently for both of them.

The evening concluded with a concert by Mr. Nelsons, the BSO, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus that was rather a case of too much of a good thing. Running around two hours and twenty minutes, the program consisted of Shostakovitch's oddly schizoid Symphony No. 2 ("To October"), Mozart's early Piano Concerto No. 12 with soloist Paul Lewis, and a performance of the complete score of Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé ballet.

Pianist Paul Lewis

Written for a 1927 celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, Shostakovitch's second symphony consists of a graphic orchestral description of the violence of the revolution that ends with the sound of a factory horn (or, in this case, members of the brass section) followed by a noisy hymn to Lenin with the chorus. The choral section is a bit creepy in its adulation of the revolutionary theorist ("Oh, Lenin! You Forged freedom through suffering," and so on) but the overall effect was certainly rousing and entertaining in a campy Ed Wood way. The elegant and superbly balanced Mozart concerto that followed was a welcome palate cleanser, with impeccable playing by Mr. Lewis.

The performance of the Daphis et Chloé that concluded the evening was certainly a powerful one, with some bravura singing by the chorus, although at times the tempi Mr. Nelsons chose were a bit too loving for my taste. I'm not convinced that all ballet scores work as concert pieces, in any case, particularly when they have repetitive narrative sections that make sense in a fully staged performance but become a bit tedious otherwise. I think Ravel's own Daphnis et Chloé suites are a better choice for the concert hall.

Still, it was a gratifying finish to my first day, and the sound of the Koussevitzky Music Shed, at least from our seats in section 1, was quite good. Even the 45-minute slog in heavy traffic back to our hotel couldn't dampen the mood.