The Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall What a gorgeous, lush score Berg wrote for his ingenious adaptation of Büchner’s fragmentary, pre-expressionist masterpiece. That may not seem the most obvious description of Wozzeck but in this semi-staging, ending the nine month-long Vienna: City of Dreams series, The Philharmonia under Esa-Pekka Salonen mined the gooey centre beneath the shell. The performance could scarely have made the work more accessible and if it took the sting out of Berg’s demanding score, it was only in the best sense.
Berg structured the work carefully, with a symmetrical five segments to each act but, as he said himself, “No one gives heed to anything (the various fugues, inventions, suites, sonata movements, variations and passacaglias) but the vast social implications of the work.”
One could hardly fail to be aware of the frequent orchestral interludes that break up and link the disjointed scenes, played by the Philharmonia with romantic fervour, but it was the impact on Büchner’s tragic characters that made the strongest impression. At the centre was Simon Keenlyside’s superb wretch of a Wozzeck, ground down by inhumane superiors, haunted by visions and slowly sinking into mental disintegration.
It’s a role that suits Keenlyside’s talents down to the ground. He’s already played it in Paris and he gave it all he’s got. This was no concert performance but a fully-formed characterisation, ably supported by Katarina Dalayman’s excellent Marie, Peter Hoare’s crazily-obsessive Captain and Hans-Peter Scheidegger’s quietly sadistic Doctor.
Enhancing all was a background of video projections: a mix of smeary, live-action images, brief pre-recorded sequences and swirls of ice and fire that occasionally coalesced into recognisable fragments of Kandinsky. It made for a rich concoction, arguably (with surtitles as well) too much to take in, but the stylish visuals by Jean-Baptiste Barrière and his team supported Salonen’s luscious interpretation impeccably.
This was no quasi-staging, merely making up for the limitations of the venue, but a flow of expressionistic impressions: not everyone’s idea of Wozzeck, lacking the grime and grit and an experiment in form more than anything, but a fascinating evening nonetheless.
Wozzeck will be broadcast on Performance on 3 on Thursday, 15 October 2009, 7.00pm
