Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet ‘Fantasy Overture’ and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9

I am a very lucky man. I was lucky to have a father who enjoyed classical music and indulged in a hefty stereogram in the early sixties. I am lucky to have gone to a school where we were taken on a regular basis to Liverpool Philharmonic and lucky to have enjoyed trips to Glyndebourne from my early twenties to the present day. In my twenties I worked with a lady who was an opera fan but admitted that she sat through it with her eyes closed as she found the acting embarrassing. I was amazed, shocked even. My enjoyment of music is as much visual as aural. Opera without watching seems crazy to me and the same for concerts of all kinds. I love the spectacle and the the detail, following the conductor as they point out the various instruments, stir up the excitement, the pace and the volume then gently direct into the calm… you get the picture.

And what better programme to display this than the pairing of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet ‘Fantasy Overture’ and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. The Tchaikovsky is full of beautiful and familiar tunes, some that have been perhaps over-exploited by movies and TV, but at the same time it soon becomes clear that had Piotr been born decades later, Hollywood might have gobbled him up. The Romeo & Juliet ‘Fantasy Overture’ is so very descriptive, a scant knowledge of the play is all you need to know exactly what, through music, he is describing. It simply works and The Glyndebourne Sinfonia is at its best in the energetic hands of conductor Adam Hickox, he is so connected to each and every player and at the same time to the whole ensemble. He is a fascinating watch, so totally immersed in the music from the tips of his fingers to his toes.

Beethoven 9 too has some very familiar moments and it too has often been raided for those themes, but the joy is in the anticipation of those. Each movement has its own character and revels in the separate sections of the orchestra, the joy of the winds and brass, the fine detail of the violins, the insistent burst of timpani and the simply luscious and in my view the highlight of the piece, the violas who all too often are “second fiddle”, not here!

Of course the whole culminates in the power of the Ode To Joy, Friedrich Schiller’s poem that has become an anthem for all. Here we get the power and rich depth of the Glyndebourne Chorus directed by Aiden Oliver. What fun it must be to direct and deliver this for the entire ensemble, and I could not resist imagining how Beethoven must have felt when, on completing it, he set down his quill and perhaps thought – “Mmm, yes, that is rather good!”. It is good and the orchestra, chorus and four excellent soloists, in particular bass Sam Carl and Tenor Stuart Jackson, both it has to be said, given more to demonstrate their talents with than soprano Madeline Boreham, who more than proved herself in The Marriage Of Figaro as the countess a few weeks ago, and richly toned mezzo Natalie Lewis.

Music of this calibre is a joy indeed and best absorbed as a visual and aural feast. Live!!!

Andrew Kay

Glyndebourne

30 October

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