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New York Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A Musician on a Mission to Make Us Pay Attention to the Viola
Hector Berlioz's 'Harold in Italy' is full of wandering. In his memoirs he wrote that, through this symphony with viola obbligato, based on the mood of Lord Byron's poem 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage' and inspired by the composer's unfruitful time in Italy, he sought to make the viola 'a kind of melancholy dreamer.' The violist Lawrence Power has spent his whole career playing 'Harold in Italy.' But, he said in an interview, he has always been 'completely uncomfortable and just confused by the whole piece.' It's essentially a symphony, but completely different from a conventional one, with a viola solo part that drifts in and out of the action. Berlioz 'obviously had something in mind to have the viola separate from the orchestra,' Power said, guessing that the composer 'had something theatrical in mind.' In a dramatized performance of 'Harold in Italy' with Aurora Orchestra at the Southbank Center in London late last month, Power leaned into that wandering, theatrical spirit, something that has also become a hallmark of his recent work. After whistling the piece's idée fixe, or recurring theme, while strolling from a raised platform amid the ensemble, Power recited searching sections of Berlioz's memoirs and wandered through the auditorium, playing sections of the obbligato part with a distant, slightly aloof expression. This is just another idiosyncratic project by Power, somebody who has championed the viola for the past 25 years, with a particular focus on new work. He's not alone: Viola soloists often have to become champions for their instrument, which has been underappreciated throughout its history. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Guardian
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Aurora Orchestra/Collon/Power review – Italian immersion with introspective Berlioz and extrovert Mendelssohn
So much shared, yet so utterly different. Mendelssohn wrote his Italian symphony in 1833, revising it the following year. Berlioz wrote his Harold en Italie symphony in 1834, following a stay in Rome during which the two composers had spent quality time together. Thus the Aurora Orchestra came up with the smart idea of putting the two Italian symphonies side by side. Beyond their loosely shared inspiration and form, however, the two works have little in common. Mendelssohn's is an expert and extrovert piece of symphonic writing, tight and technically impeccable. That of Berlioz, meanwhile, follows a wandering star all its own, broodingly romantic and constantly innovative, exemplified by the solo viola that depicts the melancholy of Byron's introspective hero Childe Harold. Left to themselves, these two works could have formed a well-contrasted programme of a traditional kind. But the Aurora and their conductor Nicholas Collon don't do traditional. They are above all else performance players, committed to immersing themselves and the audience in the excitement of live musical experience. It is one of the many reasons audiences love them. So in the second half, the Mendelssohn was played from memory, an Aurora speciality, the score taken at terrific tempos and with the players standing up and interacting. It was hard to resist, especially when the players then dispersed into the hall to encore the Italian symphony's breakneck final movement saltarello. Watch out for the Aurora giving the same treatment to Shostakovich's fifth symphony at the Proms this summer. Harold, meanwhile, was presented as a 'dramatic exploration'. Texts based on Berlioz's Mémoires were declaimed between movements and from amid the orchestra by actor Charlotte Ritchie. Collon and the viola soloist Lawrence Power chipped in, too. Power even whistled his idée fixe theme before wandering Byronically through the hall as he played the lonely music at the symphony's heart. It would be churlish not to be caught up in this. But it can sometimes distract. In his recording of Berlioz's symphony under Andrew Manze, Power is as poetic and nuanced a Harold violist as any on disc. But amid so much other activity, the Aurora's orchestral balance sometimes did him fewer favours. When he stood stock still to deliver Harold's skeletal arpeggios at the end of the second movement, it was a reminder that Berlioz's music provides its own theatre.
The Guardian
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Aurora Orchestra/Collon review – reduced Mahler still packs a punch
Back when Mahler's symphonies were still rarely played in Britain – and, yes, there really was such a time – Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) was the most familiar of his major orchestral works. Much of that was the legacy of Kathleen Ferrier's inimitable recording of Das Leid's final song, Der Abschied (The Farewell) under Bruno Walter before her early death in 1953. But then came the Mahler renaissance of the 1960s and performances of The Song of the Earth – in effect a six-movement song symphony for tenor and alto – became part of the new and much more varied Mahlerian picture. Renewed interest in chamber reductions of Mahler has been part of this change. Iain Farrington's version of Das Lied for the Aurora Orchestra is the latest example, and formed the centrepiece of this spring-themed concert under Nicholas Collon. As with Arnold Schoenberg's 20th-century version, completed by Rainer Riehn, the reduction is abrupt, with just a handful of solo strings and winds in place of a full orchestra. But most of the detail is still there, allowing the winds to be heard with particular clarity, and, under Collon's fluent and vigorous direction, it still packs a true Mahlerian punch. Sometimes indeed, in the confined spaces of the Kings Place hall, the pummelling felt too fierce. Few tenors can expect much mercy from the conductor in Mahler's explosive first song, and Andrew Staples duly did his best to be heard, but the words were close to being lost in the mezzo's fourth song, Von der Schönheit (Of Beauty) too. Fleur Barron is a rich voiced mezzo, projecting the darker music of Der Abschied with noble effect, but it was a good idea to know the texts already in order to distinguish important passages. Before the interval, Collon offered two characteristically interesting springtime contrasts. Lili Boulanger's 1917 miniature, D'un Matin de Printemps, pulsed gently and delicately, while Jean-Féry Rebel's Les Élémens of 1737 struck sparks. The Rebel was an opportunity to celebrate one of the French baroque's most daring pieces of harmonic experimentation, with its grinding lower strings, its daring Berlioz-level orchestral harmonies and its joyful birdsong, energetically delivered by the Aurora's percussionists.
