United States Herrmann, Bartók, Gruber: Christopher Purves (baritone), San Francisco Symphony / Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor). Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, 28.10.2020. (HS)
Bernard Herrmann – Psycho: A Narrative for String Orchestra
Bartók – Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin
HK Gruber – Frankenstein!!
Music director Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Halloween-time program centered on music that, if it was not precisely scary, veered simply bizarre and offbeat sufficient to be eerie.
Performed by the San Francisco Symphony in concert events main as much as the vacation, the point of interest was HK Gruber’s Frankenstein!! The title may lead an viewers to anticipate a retelling of Mary Shelley’s landmark novel a few mad scientist’s try and assemble his personal human from spare elements (and the following fallout). But no. It is a puckishly orchestrated assortment of quick, sly, doggerel-like poems that initially appear evenly amusing however cover a sneaky punch of dread.
Aside from one transient verse that addresses Dr Frankenstein and his monster (‘These lungs are from a criminal, and the brilliant brain as well’ is one key line), the quick poems give attention to a variety of common figures, amongst them John Wayne, Goldfinger, Robinson Crusoe, Superman, Dracula (however as a lady) and a few pesky rodents.
Veteran British baritone Christopher Purves, whose current roles embrace Balstrode at Bavarian State Opera and Alberich in Siegfried for Zurich Opera House, intoned the poems like a demented kids’s storyteller, sometimes accompanying himself with slide whistles and different toy devices. Clad in black tie and black kilt, Purves alternately spoke and sang, veering from bass-like low notes to comedian falsettos.
The poems have been written in 1968 and translated into English by Harriet Watts from H. C. Artmann’s authentic German for Gruber’s ingenious rating, which debuted in 1977. The giant orchestra added tongue-in-cheek colour, together with a beautiful crescendo and fadeout of eerily harmonized hoses whipped round by members of the orchestra, poppings of paper baggage as percussion and a surprisingly candy duet involving a solo trombone and Purves on kazoo. Occasional dissonances added punch to usually simple-minded tunes.
The opening Fanfare and Prologue set the tone, the mock majesty within the brass introducing a sing-songy tune for the road, ‘little mouse, little mouse…how he nibbles at my eye’. Another verse makes use of repetition and a frantic accelerando to twist the road ‘a little mi-ma monsterlet is dancing round our house’, as Purves relished the following chaos. Sexual undertones discovered their manner into ’Superman’ and ‘Batman and Robin’, delivered straight-faced and with harmless music (not less than on the floor).
This was all an excessive amount of for the lady seated behind me at Friday night’s efficiency. Several instances through the 35-minute piece she remarked loudly to her seat mate, ‘I’m strolling out of right here’. Nevertheless, she stayed until the tip regardless of her threats. I feel Gruber would have beloved it.
Various non-musical parts tied this work to the opposite objects on this system. The opener was Bernard Herrmann’s indelible rating to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, an allusion to the traditional 1931 horror movie Frankenstein which starred Boris Karloff. In between these two juicy objects got here Bela Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin, which had debuted in Germany solely 5 years earlier than the Frankenstein movie.
Salonen’s method to Herrmann’s expressive lushness and Bartók’s thorny however colourful music continued a pattern that has been obvious in earlier concert events this fall. In specific, he appeared intent on revving issues up with pedal-to-the-metal buildups to huge orchestral climaxes.
He acquired a pleasant bounce to the rhythmic insistence of the opening music from Psycho whereas bringing out the sinister undertone that gave the movie rating its influence, as did the screeching violins (keep in mind the bathe scene?). Herrmann even reprises that close to the tip of the 15-minute suite. The orchestration’s weight and plentitude of dissonant colour made it a musically acceptable companion to the Bartók.
Salonen dug into the clashing colours from Bartók’s flashy music for the lurid story of the ballet, through which a prostitute lures a collection of males for her thug companions to rob and homicide. The music for the final one, a rich Chinese determine who refuses to die till he consummates what he got here for, will get more and more agitated, and Salonen punched it big-time to a crashing end.
The girl behind me proved how efficient that truly was. As the lights got here up for intermission she opined, loudly, ‘This is a horrible program’.
Harvey Steiman