The concert with the subtitle Haydn and Shostakovich in G Minor closed the Philharmonia at Home subscription series on Thursday 16 May at the Besední dům. It was also the last concert of the 2023/24 season (not counting Friday's reprise), with the Brno Philharmonic led by its chief conductor Dennis Russell Davies. In the second half of the evening the orchestra was accompanied by singers Jana Šrejma Kačírková (soprano) and Jiří Služenko (bass). As the title of the concert implies, the dramaturgy juxtaposed works by Joseph Haydn and Dimitri Shostakovich, which are almost exclusively linked only by the key in which they were written.
The first, considerably shorter half of the evening was devoted to Symphony No. 83 in G minor by Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), which was named "La poule" (The Hen) after the second theme of the first movement. This piece, part of Haydn's series of Paris symphonies, is a great example of the combination of perfect compositional skill and wit, which is especially evident in the aforementioned theme, where the clucking second subject resembles that of a hen. Nevertheless, it is still disputed whether this motif should represent the actual clucking sound or the typical jerky head movements of the hen's walk. The Brno Philharmonic under Dennis Russell Davies impressed the audience with its great commitment from the very first notes.
The excellent energy that the musicians brought to the piece was sustained throughout the symphony and may have been partly due to the somewhat more expressive gestures than we are used to from Davies. Nevertheless, there were a few inaccuracies in the interpretation, especially with the rhythm. At several points in the second movement, especially when the sixteenth notes were played on the same note, the orchestra was slightly off beat and it took a while before they came together perfectly. In the fourth movement the flute was a little behind in places where it was playing in response to or in unison with the violin. However, these hiccups didn’t last long and were corrected immediately. The Philharmonic made up for these minor superficial flaws with its excellent dynamics in the sudden jumps, as well as the slower crescendos and decrescendos. The ritardandi and accelerandi were just as successful, and all the sudden rhythmic jerks within the orchestral texture as a whole, with several appearing in the piece, were excellent.
Symphony No.14 in G minor by Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), which took up the second half of Thursday evening, was the very opposite of the jocular Haydn. This monumental, almost hour-long work for soprano, bass, strings and percussion sets to music texts by four authors whose central theme is death. If listeners were unaware that this was a symphony, they would probably not have described it as one, especially since it is divided into eleven movements and features solo vocals. Shostakovich's Fourteenth Symphony is enormously demanding for the singers, musicians and conductor, in terms of its length, gravity and heavy sections, where it is rarely the case that all the instruments play the same thing (ten violinists sometimes play ten different parts). It should be noted that the members of the Brno Philharmonic and its conductor did an excellent job. The musicians played wonderfully together and the solos played by the individual musicians were very well done. As in the first piece of the evening, the orchestra was beautifully expressive and worked very well with dynamics. The percussionist especially deserves praise here, as he refuted the preconception that drummers can only play loudly and in several places performed some absolutely exemplary piano parts. The tuning was also excellent and the musicians managed to capture the oppressive atmosphere of the work perfectly. The choice of singers could not have been better. Soprano Jana Šrejma Kačírková and bass Jiří Služenko gave two absolutely sovereign performances with perfect intonation, great dynamic work and nicely expressing the clarity and feel of the poems. Their voices were strong in all positions and the beautiful pleasing colour of both singers' intonation was a major plus.
Linking compositions based solely on a common key can be somewhat risky. However, Thursday's concert proved this to be a great dramaturgical success. The works, although completely different, complemented one another well and the audience was immersed into two wholly different worlds in a single evening. The successful choice of works was supported by a very good performance by the Brno Philharmonic conducted by Dennis Russell Davies and excellent vocals by Jana Šrejma Kačírková and Jiří Služenek.
Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 83 in G minor "La poule" (The Hen)
Dimitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 14 in G minor
Jana Šrejma Kačírková - soprano
Jiri Sluzenko - bass
Brno Philharmonic
Dennis Russell Davies– conductor
Thursday 16 May 2024 at 7 p.m., Besední dům
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