Hallé/Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
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Your support makes all the difference.There may have been no cataclysmic flames engulfing Valhalla at the end of the Hallé's concert performance of Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) but that did not stop it catching fire. Mark Elder has previously displayed his opera-house credentials to Manchester audiences in "bleeding chunks" of Wagner. But the programming of the final part of the Ring, spread over two evenings, was surely a peak of Elder's ambitious plans to put the Hallé centre-stage in British musical life.
Even without the challenges of theatrical production, Götterdämmerung – with its vast orchestral resources, detailed characterisation and reliance on dramatic drive and inner tension in perfect harmony – is a logistical nightmare. But when a performance is blessed with such a stellar cast and a conductor who entices playing of such ravishing beauty, the problems simply melt away.
Katarina Dalayman was a wonderfully vivid Brunnhilde, attentive down to the tiniest emotional detail, while Lars Cleveman was poised and expressive as Siegfried, coarsening his attractive timbre appropriately when disguised as Gunther. Susan Bickley was a heartfelt Waltraute, Andrew Shore an appropriately weird Alberich, and Nancy Gustafson a radiant Gutrune. Peter-Coleman Wright gave us an eloquent Gunther, while Attila Jun stood out as a menacing Hagen, wicked in manner but rarely brutish in voice.
With a deftly light concert staging that played up the dramatic goings-on with minimal distraction from the music, the performance was notable for its alertness to the many dimensions of the score. With the Hallé Choir, BBC Symphony Chorus, London Symphony Chorus and the chorus of the Royal Opera on duty, the vassals of Gibichung Hall sang like men possessed, while the women's voices gleamed.
No amount of rehearsal time, however, could have achieved that incredible Wagnerian sweep were not the band on such strikingly good form. Sensitively balanced in the luminous passages with the Norns and Rhinemaidens, powerfully lean in the granite-like dark moments and simply stunning in "Siegfried's Funeral March", each section displayed impeccable style, capturing the idiom perfectly.
This performance of 'Götterdämmerung' will be broadcast on Radio 3 on the 8 and 9 June
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