Anne Sofie von Otter

Conductor Richard Hickox

Philharmonia Orchestra

Elgar's Sea Pictures are a kind of English version of romantic-depressive
Lieder cycles like Winterreise and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. A
despairing fantasy of exultation by dissolution in the elements, in
particular in the sea, is worked out in a sequence of incredibly bad poems.
(One of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's worst is far and away the least bad.)
Yet Elgar's music makes them sound glorious, providing the splendour of
storms and the ecstasy of drowning that the words fail miserably to
deliver. His setting for mezzo is sympathetic and deeply moving.

I'm not sure whether there is any significance in Elgar's choice of a
female voice -- he wrote the piece for Clara Butt, which was reason enough.
I keep thinking of Stevie Smith's mantra in her dream of a house by the
sea, "then you can have your lovely sleep", and of "not waving but
drowing".

Tonight's performance was part of a three-concert Elgar series by the
Philharmonia. The Festival Hall was almost full, though I had the
impression that some of the audience felt superior for going to a concert
that didn't include the Cello Concerto.

Ann-Sofie von Otter seems exactly right for this music. Her introspective,
precise manner keeps the sweeping melodies from excess. Unfortunately,
Richard Hickox didn't have the same control over the Philharmonia. The
contrasts of dynamics were all boom and swoop, and von Otter was often
drowned in the wrong sense. There was something gymkhana-ish about the
white horses in The swimmer, or even My Little Pony, galumphing pretending
to be cute when the music should embody complete abandonment to despair and
death.

But it would be great to have von Otter make a recording, or do a
performance in a smaller venue. Her diction is impeccable, with every word
audible in the quietest passages, from the back of the balcony at least.
She shapes the vocal line expressively, without melodrama. And her voice is
very beautiful, though you realise it only slowly.

I heard someone comment that von Otter warbled sweetly, but didn't have
much to her performance. I suppose the contrast is with Janet Baker, who is
much more muscular. You could call Baker's performance (with Barbirolli and
the LSO) Wagnerian. Von Otter's recalled Handel's last oratorios, with the
simple sentimental visions of death in "Angels ever bright and fair" and
"Waft her angels", and the martyrs' ecstatic vision of heaven at the end of
Theodora.

She may have been under-rehearsed tonight, and was definitely
under-supported by the orchestra. But when she gets on top of the Sea
pictures, it will really be worth hearing.