In one of the more peculiar concerts that I have been to at the Royal Festival Hall, Vladimir Jurowski conducted excerpts from Das Rheingold in the first half of the programme, and Rachmaninov’s little-known opera The Miserly Knight in the second half. The idea, I gleaned from a pre-concert chat by the conductor and others, was that the first half would shed some light on the second, showing that although Rachmaninov, at one time an industrious operatic conductor, almost certainly never conducted Wagner, he was strongly influenced by him.
The point seems academic, unless you are interested in the minutiae of musical history. Anyway, the Rheingold excerpts failed miserably, on their own terms and as a portent. We began with the prelude, the famous depiction of the Rhine’s flowing. Jurowski conscientiously stuck to Wagner’s dynamic directions, as few conductors do, keeping the volume down to mezzo-forte. But in concert the result is oddly unstirring. We continued with the first scene, the Rhinemaidens teasing poor Alberich, and the interlude that follows. This 43-minute continuous epic segued into the descent to Nibelheim, complete with 18 tuned anvils, followed immediately by the ascent from Nibelheim, complete with 18 tuned anvils. Then came Donner summoning the storm, and the closing music with the male gods (no Fricka) singing their few lines: a recipe for incoherence and possibly for putting tyros off Wagner for life. Dramatically meaningless, musically incoherent, how can anyone now tolerate such an artistic crime?
The punishment that followed the crime showed that the neglect of Rachmaninov’s second opera is almost wholly deserved. Adapted from one of Pushkin’s ‘little tragedies’, it is hard to think of a drama, closet or otherwise, so unsuited for setting to music. It has some striking passages, especially the orchestral introduction, but Chaliapin, for whom it was composed, showed his good sense by turning it down.
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