The two major works on the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s “Jaime conducts Debussy & Strauss” program were Strauss’ tone poem, Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life) and Debussy’s La Mer (The Sea).
Maestro Martín explained that the third work – Dame Ethel Smyth’s overture to The Wreckers – also concerned heroism and the sea. Smyth’s opera, The Wreckers, revolved around the destructive force of the sea (shipwrecks), while Smyth herself, Martín explained, displayed heroism in her advocacy for women’s rights. The MSO’s website describes Smyth as “a heroic rebel of the highest order”.
Smyth had a precocious talent and enjoyed some early successes. One of her operas, Der Wald (1903), was the first (and remained the only) opera by a female composer to be staged by New York’s Metropolitan Opera company until 2016; her 1911 song, “March of the Women”, became the suffragettes’ official anthem; and the overture to The Wreckers was a regular feature at the Proms between 1913 and 1947.
“The Wreckers” (1906) concerns a nefarious (mythical) Cornish community that had built a business model around plundering the ships lured onto the rocks until “betrayed” by two conscience-stricken individuals (the pastor’s wife and her lover) in their midst.
The Overture opens with a vigorous theme – described by Smyth as “indicative of savage energy” – and indeed the MSO, augmented by students from ANAM and the MSO Academy, hurled itself at Smyth’s dramatic score. The tension mounts as the initial phrase is tossed around the orchestra, and the MSO maximised its impact, filling Hamer Hall with crashing chords. The orchestra also made the most of the less intense moments, such as the lighter, folksy theme, and delivered the chorale with an appropriately warm and blended tone.
Debussy’s, La Mer (The Sea – Three Symphonic Sketches) was written contemporaneously with The Wreckers, but Debussy’s sea had very little in common with the destructive forces at work in The Wreckers.
Debussy named the three sketches “Dawn to noon on the sea”, “The play of the waves” and “A dialogue between the wind and the sea” and explained in a private letter that while writing it he drew on happy childhood memories of holidays by the sea. Debussy also apparently drew inspiration from Hokusai’s woodblock print, The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, which appeared in the first edition of the score, and was hanging on the wall of Debussy’s study when Igor Stravinsky photographed Debussy at home in 1910.
Under Martín’s baton, the MSO delivered a nuanced and sensitive interpretation of this well-known work. Debussy’s precisely crafted score creates an illusion of spontaneity that is particularly well suited to conveying the fluidity of the waves and the wind. There were many colourful moments where solo instruments or sections flitted in and out of the soundscape, variously evoking the rippling or rolling waves, light sparking on the water, a shimmering stillness and the turbulence of waves in motion.
The performance was very well received, with each section and soloist rightly acknowledged for their stellar individual and collective contributions.
The second half of the program was devoted to Ein Heldenleben. Strauss reportedly conceived of this work as a companion piece, as a serious counterpart to the comical hero of Don Quixote. Ein Heldenleben has six movements, each depicting a different aspect of the hero’s life.
Those who attended the pre-concert talk had been primed to appreciate the heroic, three-octave span of the hero’s theme in the first movement, and the dramatic double-bass entry soon after.
And while Strauss refused to confirm whether he was the subject of this work, he was prepared to acknowledge that the adversaries depicted in the second movement (by flutes, oboes and lower brass) were his critics, and the companion in the third movement was his wife. A solo violin, performed exquisitely by Associate Concertmaster, Tair Khisambeev, played the part of the hero’s companion, displaying a mercurial, capricious nature with free-flowing lyrical passages and cadenzas over a harp accompaniment. At one point, three trumpets leave the stage and are heard in the distance before returning to their places. The fourth and fifth movements depicted the hero’s actions in war and peace respectively. Strauss drew extensively on themes from his own works to depict the hero’s works of peace, lending a familiar feel to this penultimate movement.
In the sixth movement the hero retires from the world in order to live, quoting Strauss, “only for his thoughts, his wishes [and] the unfolding of his own personality in quiet contemplation”. In a sublime ending to the hero’s life, a solo violin and horn expressed what could best be described as an exquisitely soulful, musical sigh. Then the violin fell silent. From behind the strings, a pellucid major chord rang out, lingering until Maestro Martín finally lifted the spell.
Throughout the evening it seemed that Maestro Martín and the MSO were a perfect match; completely at one in their interpretation of these three quite different works.
Photo supplied.
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Sue Kaufmann reviewed the MSO’s performance of “Jaime conducts Debussy & Strauss” at Hamer Hall on May 9, 2024.
