Landscapes have often inspired classical music production: many composers found themselves writing music that would capture what nature offers, trying to describe what the eyes see and which emotions are suggested to the soul. This is what conductor Vlaidimir Jurowski aimed to present to the London audience: the London Philharmonic Orchestra played a programme focused on landscapes that included Beethoven’s 6th Symphony in F major (Pastoral) and the world premiere of Alexander Raskatov’s Green Mass, performed with soprano Elena Vassilieva, countertenor Iestyn Davies, tenor Mark Padmore, bass Nikolay Didenko, and the Choir of Clare College from Cambridge.
Born in Moscow in 1953 from a surgeon and a doctor, Raskatov graduated in composition at the Moscow Conservatoire in 1978 and immediately became a member of the Russian Union of Composers the year after and a member of the Russian Association of Contemporary Music in 1990, thus establishing himself as one of the new faces in the contemporary Russian classical music production. Although he moved to Germany in 1994 and then lived in France for the past few years, his motherland is often present in his works, either by traces of the influence of other Russian Composers or by explicit references to it, for example when composing vocal works based on texts by contemporary Russian poets. After Alfred Schnittke’s death, he was entrusted by Irina Schnittke to reconstruct her husband’s Ninth Symphony, which he completed in 2007. Raskatov’s production touches different genres, from opera to orchestral, chamber music, and vocal pieces; within his recent successes lies the co-production of the opera titled A dog’s Heart (based on the controversial novel by Mikhail Bulgakov), premiered at the Dutch National Opera in 2010 and later performed at the English National Opera, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and Opéra National de Lyon.
Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Green Mass is a long work in eleven movements for large orchestra, choir, and four soloists (soprano, countertenor, tenor, bass), that celebrates the beautiful Russian landscapes that are dear to the composer. Structure-wise, it is based on the Catholic Mass in Latin (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei), but enriched with additional movements shaped around texts related to nature, which are sang in their original languages (English, German, Russian, Italian): William Blake’s The Wild Flower’s Song (sang by the countertenor), Gerog Trakl’s Lebensalter (sang by the tenor), Velimir Khlebnikov’s Zangezi (sang by the bass), Guillaume Apollinaire’s Clotilde (sang by the soprano), and St. Francis of Assisi’s Preghiera (sang by the four soloists with the only accompaniment of wind chimes gently moved by fans on stage). The message is clear: celebrating the beauty of nature, but being aware that it needs to be protected from the damages we are inflicting to it. The texts do reflect this feeling of appreciation accompanied by sorrow and concern, and so does the music, moving from quietness to joy, from celebration to anger. Placed before the ending movement, St. Francis’s Prayer seems to ask God to provide enough strength to avoid more danger from being made; the closing Agnus Dei follows as if begging for forgiveness for the damages inflicted to nature, leaving with a feeling of sorrow for what we are doing to our planet. Raskatov once again confirmed himself as an outsider who doesn’t follow a specific music style and wouldn’t care of identifying himself with a specific one of them, but would rather keep experimenting and being free to compose following his ideas.
Worthy of merit is the execution of Beethoven’s 6th Symphony: Jurowski delivered a superb Pastoral, with an LPO that followed his lead and mastered a clean and extremely enjoyable performance.
CLASSICAL MUSIC & FIGURE SKATING 