June 13th, 2013: Britten's 'War Requiem'

I attended this concert with my brother because he was in town on break, and our mom was singing in the choral. Even though I was there by default I did expect to enjoy the music thoroughly, based on little bits I had heard in advance, as well as reading a little about the piece. However, the whole thing was slightly more dissonant than I expected, and to me it lost its ability to deliver a really powerful emotional experience due to the relative absence of beautiful, engaging harmonies.

We sat about six boxes back on the right side of the second tier. The right side of the stage was blocked from our view by the other boxes, and overall I was not thrilled with the quality of the seats.

Before the concert began, the lights dimmed on the audience, and then on the stage as well. Very unusual, but clearly intended to set a dark mood prior to the beginning of the piece. Morlot and the two male soloists entered the stage slowly into that darkness, and they received applause from the almost full house, slightly marring the effect created by the darkened stage. Morlot then began the piece and the lights on the stage began to brighten slowly until after not too long it was lit like normal.

The music was quite underwhelming, constantly implying something grand and meaningful, but never utilizing harmonic or melodic techniques that would allow that grand, meaningful something to be fully conveyed to the audience.

The solos of the tenor and baritone singers in particular were sinfully boring, as they read English texts about war interspersed with the traditional latin texts of the Requiem mass being sung by the choral. The texts were great, but the music was practically non-existent. There was also a boys choir performing from boxes A and B on the left side of the second tier, and their passages were usually quite haunting. The organist sat with them in the box with a little organ, and he would seem to teleport between that one and the big organ on stage. That was the running joke, because we never paid attention when he got up to leave, so it seemed like he was suddenly at the other organ, and suddenly back again.

Certain parts of the Dies Irae and the Lacrimosa did enchant my ears, and perhaps if I were very familiar with the piece there would be parts that I'd really love listening to, but it was a slight let down in its use of dissonance beyond what I expected.

Much of the audience was following along with the text in the program (due to the English sections of poetry sung by the soloists) and when we'd come to a point where the page in the program would need to be turned, there was a massive wave of shuffling sound emanating from the audience as everybody turned their program page. It was pretty funny how loud and prolonged it was every time it would happen.

At the end of the piece, Morlot held a silence for at least twenty seconds, which some members of the audience did not respect. They shuffled around and coughed and what not instead of holding still in the atmosphere that Morlot desired to sustain beyond the end of the last note. When applause finally began though, there was a full standing ovation that called the performers back to stage at least four times.

Next up is the season finale concert on June 29th, conducted again by Ludovic Morlot!

____________________________

http://www.seattlesymphony.org/symphony/buy/single/production.aspx?id=12306&src=t&dateid=12306