Music of Korngold, Rózsa and Orff

St. Louis Symphony, 9/12/2003

As the California recall campaign clearly illustrates, one should never underestimate the power of movies. Carl Orff’s 1936 “scenic cantata” Carmina Burana, which was the centerpiece of this season’s first St. Louis Symphony Concert, was something of a cult favorite in this country until John Boorman’s 1981 epic Excalibur appropriated bits of it for the soundtrack. The resulting upswing in popularity was not unlike that experienced by Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra (or the first two minutes of it, anyway) after the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's a pity that the other two parts of the trilogy of which Carmina Burana is only the first entry - the occasionally pornographic Catulli Carmina of 1942, based on poems by Catullus, and Il Trionfo di Afrodite from 1951 - haven't seen an analogous rise in their fame. I'd love to see the Symphony Chorus take a shot at the intense drama of Catulli Carmina in particular, even if translation of some of the lyrics would pose a problem for the Symphony's more conservative patrons.

Still, a movie can only pique public interest. Carmina Burana has sustained it because its rhythmic drive, its colorful orchestration and the immediate emotional appeal of the secular medieval poems that serve as the text are well nigh irresistible. It’s an unabashedly theatrical piece by an unabashedly theatrical composer and David Amado gave it an appropriately dramatic reading Friday night. His tendency to emphasize extreme contrasts of both tempo and dynamics took a bit of getting used to, but in the end he persuaded me that his view was a valid one.

The vocal soloists followed Amado’s lead with highly charged performances that will likely be controversial among vocal purists. Tenor David Stephens, for example, sang “Olim lacus colueram” – a macabre little piece about a roasted swan seen from the bird’s point of view – almost entirely in his falsetto range, with appropriately chilling results. It’s an approach I haven’t heard since the old Eugene Ormandy recording back in the 1960s and the results were as creepy as an old Bela Lugosi movie (there's that cinema theme again). Baritone Thomas Barrett showed his substantial operatic background in all of his solos. His “Estuans interius”, for example, boiled with the rage and frustration of the disappointed sensualist while “Dies, nox et omnia” burned with the passion of the frustrated lover. Yes, he was willing to sacrifice purity of sound for drama, but it’s a choice I think Orff would have understood. Soprano Mary Wilson rounded out the trio with supple and sensual performances of (among others) "Stetit puella" and "Dulcissime", even if she did stumble just a bit on the merciless opening glissando of the latter.

In keeping with the cinematic theme, the concert opened with a solid if perhaps somewhat too leisurely performance of an overture based on themes from the score for the 1940 swashbuckler The Sea Hawk by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Amado’s loving approach emphasized Korngold’s position as a post-Wagnerian and the symphony brass were models of precision in the rapid-fire fanfare that opens and closes the piece. It’s pleasant enough stuff, if a bit insubstantial. For me however, the great delight of the evening was the "Theme and Variations" from the 1958 Sinfonia Concertante by Korngold’s contemporary, Miklós Rózsa. Like Korngold, Rózsa was a classical composer long before he became noted for his film scores, and he continued to compose concert works throughout his long Hollywood career. The set of seven variations on an original theme have that slightly chromatic whiff of Hungary that characterizes all of Rózsa’s music - rather like Bartok filtered through Hollywood – and it was given a sensitive reading by the father and daughter team of John and Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio on ‘cello and violin, respectively. I was so charmed by it that I’m now motivated to find out what the entire Sinfonia Concertante sounds like.

The next concerts in Powell Hall are Friday and Saturday, September 19th and 20th. On the program are Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony and Haydn’s D major piano concerto. Call 314-534-1700 for ticket information.

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