BY ANGUS MCPHERSON
Anima Eterna Brugge
Beethoven Symphonies 8 and 7
City Recital Hall, 22 January
For Belgian conductor Jos van Immerseel, an understanding of the instruments available to composers in their day is essential for a meaningful interpretation of their works. He brings this belief to life with his orchestra Anima Eterna Brugge, an ensemble of period instrument specialists, who are performing the entire cycle of Beethoven Symphonies as part of the Sydney Festival.
The third concert in this series opened with Beethoven’s tightly condensed Symphony No. 8. The symphony originally premiered on a program after the seventh, and was thought to have suffered because of the comparison, but for Beethoven it was the better work. In this performance Van Immerseel placed the eighth first, the broader seventh following the interval.
From the grand beginning of the first movement, it was clear this ensemble was something special. The string section, playing on gut strings with period bows, was flawlessly cohesive and incredibly alive, their pizzicatos full-bodied and resonant. Koen Plaetinck’s timpani cut through the orchestra with crisp, biting attacks. The winds (for whom technology changes in the 19th Century were the most dramatic) added wonderful and varied colours to the ensemble’s sound. They gave the metronomic pulsing in the second movement (which has been likened to Haydn’s ‘Clock’ symphony) a soft roundness. The minuet was unrushed, both stately and liltingly dance-like and the soft buzzing of the Allegro vivace’s opening semiquavers was charged with energy.
Van Immerseel’s conducting was economic and understated; he has the bearing of a fascinated scholar poring over the score. Even in the most dramatic moments his gestures rarely reached above the elbow, but the orchestra responded to his smallest twitch with incredible energy and force.
In the seventh symphony, the orchestra’s fortissimos were rich and warm, and the period instruments certainly didn’t lack power. There were many beautiful wind moments: Jose Domenech Lafont’s oboe solo in the first movement was played with a pristinely beautiful tone and flexible rubato.
The second movement began with solemn gravitas: not funereal, but certainly a very restrained Allegretto. Here the genius of Beethoven’s orchestration was emphasised further by the period instruments. While modern orchestras tend toward timbral homogeneity across the string section, the distinct tone colours of Anima Eterna’s basses, cellos, violas and violins, vividly highlighted Beethoven’s accumulating layers of music. By the time the winds took over the melody, the pace had picked up and the Allegretto was no longer restrained. During the fugato, the individual voices intertwined with remarkable clarity and personality.
Hearing Beethoven’s symphonies performed on the instruments of the day offers a unique insight into his music. The subtle differences in tone and balance bring to life captivating elements that are often lost or obscured in modern performances. The idiosyncratic timbres of the winds, as yet untamed by the next two hundred years of technological refinement, allow us a tantalising glimpse of what Beethoven’s audiences might have heard when these pieces were first performed.
Image supplied.
