Symphony No 7 - Beethoven
Siegfried (exc) - Wagner
The National Symphony Orchestra's current Beethoven and Wagner series under principal conductor Alexander Anissimov returned to form on Friday night. But, since the form has not been good, that made for an unrewarding evening.
Anissimov's track record in Beethoven had not been particularly impressive before the series started, and there's been nothing much to lift it in the performances offered so far.
His handling of the Seventh Symphony on Friday was a humdrum affair. It lacked a sense of clear focus. There was little evidence of good judgement in balancing the various instrumental choirs.
It's hard to imagine, for instance, that Beethoven intended the trumpets to have the obliterating quality Anissimov seemed prepared to tolerate. Also, the placing of climaxes suffered from a lack of delivery at key moments.
The sharp control of dynamics, which so impressed in Anissimov's early performances of Russian repertoire, have not been a feature of his Wagner conducting in the current season. The effect in the "Forest Murmurs" from Siegfried was to render the music more inert than atmospheric.
Listeners' enjoyment of the extended closing scene cannot have been enhanced by having part of the sung text omitted from the printed programme.
Christine Teare's Brunnhilde revealed her to be the sort of Wagnerian soprano whose pitch-obscuring vibrato and rhythmic freedom are an acquired taste. Alan Woodrow's Siegfried was altogether better centred, but far from involving.
