CBSO Damnation of Faust review
CBSO'S BERLIOZ HAS NORMAN STINCHCOMBE ON THE EDGE OF HIS SEAT
Berlioz The Damnation of Faust, CBSO at Symphony Hall ★★★★★
An amiable drunken singing contest ensued as the CBSO Chorus's men divided into raucous students and lusty soldiers, everyone out for a night on the town – simultaneously singing in different languages and time signatures. It could have been cacophony but Berlioz brilliantly engineered a harmonious and thrilling climax. It's characteristic of his hybrid work, neither cantata nor opera but a hotch-potch. Yet when played and sung like this, with whole-hearted conviction, energy and edge-of-the-seat excitement, it's a glorious one. Under Edward Gardner's baton even the Hungarian March – a sparkling but irrelevant orchestral showpiece– seemed integral when played with such swagger and verve.
Faust is a tricky role, anti-hero and self-absorbed seducer, much of his music inward, and pensive with the dying fall of ennui. Saimir Pirgu was ardent and well-focused vocally, with an impressive invocation to Nature. Christine Rice's Marguerite was no winsome maiden but a passionate woman bewildered by erotic entrancement, her anguish in D'amour l'ardente flamme devastatingly tender, mirrored by Rachael Pankhurst's cor anglais. Joshua Bloom was not a bitingly sardonic Méphistophélès but a smiling hail-fellow-well-met with a heart of darkness – a big voice used to terrifying effect in the Ride to the Abyss. It was a triumph for the orchestra – delicate, powerful, shimmering as required – and the CBSO Chorus, whether swaying drunkenly with Božidar Smiljanić's Brander, as sylphs, spirits or hurling Berlioz's made-up demonic language through cupped hands. Marguerite was wafted beautifully to heaven accompanied by the angelic voices of the CBSO's Youth Chorus and Children's Chorus.
Norman Stinchcombe
Berlioz The Damnation of Faust, CBSO at Symphony Hall ★★★★★
An amiable drunken singing contest ensued as the CBSO Chorus's men divided into raucous students and lusty soldiers, everyone out for a night on the town – simultaneously singing in different languages and time signatures. It could have been cacophony but Berlioz brilliantly engineered a harmonious and thrilling climax. It's characteristic of his hybrid work, neither cantata nor opera but a hotch-potch. Yet when played and sung like this, with whole-hearted conviction, energy and edge-of-the-seat excitement, it's a glorious one. Under Edward Gardner's baton even the Hungarian March – a sparkling but irrelevant orchestral showpiece– seemed integral when played with such swagger and verve.
Faust is a tricky role, anti-hero and self-absorbed seducer, much of his music inward, and pensive with the dying fall of ennui. Saimir Pirgu was ardent and well-focused vocally, with an impressive invocation to Nature. Christine Rice's Marguerite was no winsome maiden but a passionate woman bewildered by erotic entrancement, her anguish in D'amour l'ardente flamme devastatingly tender, mirrored by Rachael Pankhurst's cor anglais. Joshua Bloom was not a bitingly sardonic Méphistophélès but a smiling hail-fellow-well-met with a heart of darkness – a big voice used to terrifying effect in the Ride to the Abyss. It was a triumph for the orchestra – delicate, powerful, shimmering as required – and the CBSO Chorus, whether swaying drunkenly with Božidar Smiljanić's Brander, as sylphs, spirits or hurling Berlioz's made-up demonic language through cupped hands. Marguerite was wafted beautifully to heaven accompanied by the angelic voices of the CBSO's Youth Chorus and Children's Chorus.
Norman Stinchcombe