Players of the Royal Opera House Orchestra, Pappano, Cadogan Hall | reviews, news & interviews
Players of the Royal Opera House Orchestra, Pappano, Cadogan Hall
Players of the Royal Opera House Orchestra, Pappano, Cadogan Hall
Intimate Wagner charms, but Schoenberg's miniMahler can't replace the real thing
Sunday, 27 February 2011
'Spring's peaceful message', the visual equivalent of the Chinese poetry which inspired Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde
What a versatile master is the Royal Opera’s resident dynamo Antonio Pappano. On Saturday night, he was in the Covent Garden pit getting big-band sounds and tender elegies from the whole orchestra in Turnage’s Anna Nicole. And here he was again, moving from a surprisingly fine score to a great one, the shadow-of-mortality approach to Chinese poetry that is Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, albeit in its ingenious chamber reduction by Schoenberg. Oh, and with the small detail of a mezzo’s ultimate challenge being faced by a baritone.
What a versatile master is the Royal Opera’s resident dynamo Antonio Pappano. On Saturday night, he was in the Covent Garden pit getting big-band sounds and tender elegies from the whole orchestra in Turnage’s Anna Nicole. And here he was again, moving from a surprisingly fine score to a great one, the shadow-of-mortality approach to Chinese poetry that is Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, albeit in its ingenious chamber reduction by Schoenberg. Oh, and with the small detail of a mezzo’s ultimate challenge being faced by a baritone.
Eclipsing the so-whats of the first work and the unavoidable disappointments of the song-symphony's transcription was a perfect Siegfried Idyll
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