Wagner, Thorn and Morton Rolls Over?

Review of... BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Wagner's Tristan and Isolde Act III, City Halls, Glasgow.

Tracey Thorn at Aye Write Festival, Glasgow.

...and a wee bit of Partick Thistle

I checked a dictionary definition for the word Wagnerian just there and it said "massive scale, drama and emotional intensity." I had expected to get that on Thursday night from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra performing the third act of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. However the description can be applied equally well to the football performances of Partick Thistle this week.

I turned up at the "Braidwood Motor Company Stadium" (recent winner in the world's worst stadium name tournament) in Livingston on Sunday for the Challenge Cup final against Queen of the South hoping to see Partick Thistle pick up their first cup trophy since 1971. The first 120 minutes were more tense than entertaining, with Thistle not managing to show what they can do. Then came the twist at the end which would be unrealistic melodrama in an opera. When Thistle won a dodgy penalty in the final minute of extra time we were confident that Aaron Muirhead would put it away to equalise and take it to penalties. However when it was saved, Muirhead was then red carded for sticking the head on Queens' player Higgins (who was basically asking for it). Then in injury time Kris Doolan's goal DID take it to penalties....where we finally did lose it. As a naturally "glass half empty" supporter I was then anxious about the virtual league decider three days later against Morton. I needn't have worried. An amazing crowd of almost 9000 people turned up at Firhill to watch a nervy but solid 1-0 win nudge Thistle nearer to the title and promotion.

After that it was maybe not surprising that I found Wagner's operatic finale a bit of an anti-climax. The BBC SSO conducted by Donald Runnicles have been performing the opera's three acts live to a Radio Three audience from Glasgow's City Halls over the past few months. I've enjoyed the first two acts and written about them here before (Act I, Act II). Wagner's operas are famously bombastic and famously long. However this rendition has now been running almost 7 months, which even for Wagner is far too long a period of time. As well as meaning that I've had to get a story refresher each time we arrive back at the halls, it has also meant that the singers have changed on several occasions, losing all sense of unity in the story telling and leading to quite marked variation in tone and atmosphere between acts. Some singers (such as Marcus Eiche's Kurvenal tonight) act the part, whilst others (particularly Robert Dean Smith's flaccid Tristan) meander through. In fact I wasn't even sure that he'd died as he skulked over to the side of the stage. There was no drama in the performance of this final act tonight, even Isolde's final aria before she dies felt perfunctory. The earlier piece of the night, Richard Strauss's Metamorphosen held my attention more, his mournful piece written in 1944 showing where modern classical music was headed with his marked counterpoint that the likes of Steve Reich would pick up and run with.  Maybe I had just been spoilt for melodrama by the football I'd witnessed this week.

More engaging and enlightening was my evening at the Aye Write Festival to see Tracey Thorn do a reading from her excellent memoir "Bedsit Disco Queen" and Q&A. I've always liked the music of the singer /songwriter from Everything But The Girl. Her recent solo albums, even her Christmas one from this year are well worth exploring too. I was at school when EBTG first found fame and I followed them more attentively after sharing a hotel with them at the 1985 World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow. They were there to perform as part of Britain's cultural delegation, I was there as a kilt-wearing 14 year old delegate from the Glasgow West branch of Youth CND having a good time. Her reflections on this trip in the book were fascinating as she saw events from a different perspective from my recollections. She recalls the "clearly censored and nearly-mute translator-guides". I remember the translators spending their evenings drinking with the Scottish delegates, who kept slightly apart from the English group and my diary describes an 11-aside football match I took part in where Scotland played the Russian interpreters and "one Englishman who made up their numbers, and had to go to hospital with a broken leg". I hadn't dug out all my old photos, memorabilia and diary from that trip until I read Tracey's book mentioning it. I remember them performing in Moscow, along with reggae band "Misty In Roots" and Scottish folk singer Dick Gaughan, who kind of took me under his wing there. I remember Ben and Tracey running along the Hotel Cosmos corridor to their room a few doors down from me and the mileage I got from telling the cool girls at school that I'd seen them. Anyway, Tracey was kind enough to give a few minutes of her time to my reminiscences of that bizarre week tonight as I stood in line to get my book signed. It is a well written, intelligent book and well worth a read if you haven't come across it yet.

George Wyllie vs Rembrandt, Aidan Moffat vs Wagner

George Wyllie vs Rembrandt, Aidan Moffat vs Wagner

Review of George Wyllie Retrospective Exhibition, Rembrandt and the Passion, Aidan Moffat at Cottiers, Wagner- Tristan and Isolde Act 2 BBCSSO

There were two opportunities this week for me to compare internationally acclaimed masters in their field against uniquely Scottish national treasures in the same disciplines.

I often forget about the Hunterian Art Gallery at Glasgow University but the posters advertising their Rembrandt exhibition, "Rembrandt and the Passion", brought me along this week. I'm no religious authority but that is the second Passion themed thing I've seen this winter, and even I know this would chime better at Easter.

Last time I was in here there were clearly a few leaks in the roof and the layout was looking a bit tired, but I was delighted to see that it has all been renovated and re-hung. All of my favourite paintings are still there and JD Ferguson's Les Eus, Joan Eardley's paintings and their unique array of Whistler's are all allowed to shine. If you've not been in a while, go and stick your head through Paolozzi's doors and have a look. The temporary exhibition upstairs is built around the gallery's "Entombment Sketch" by Rembrandt, a wee picture I'm familiar with as it has hung in the Gallery forever. However it does merit the extra attention it gets in this exhibition, hung alongside some of his other paintings (including his "Entombment of Christ" painting on loan from Munich), etchings and works of other artists of the Passion story. It is all very interesting, but £5 entry was a bit steep considering it is usually free to see it on its own.

George Wyllie scul?tures


In the main hall at the Mitchell Library just now is a retrospective of the work of George Wyllie, who died earlier this year aged 90. If you don't think you know his stuff then think back to the huge 'paper boat' floated down the Clyde or the straw locomotive that was hung from the Finnieston crane in 1987 and then burnt (a model of it and a box of the ashes are on show here). He is a David Shrigley, with a blowtorch. 

Model for The Straw Locomotive



At present there is a large question mark hanging from the Finnieston crane in tribute to the man, who described himself as a "Scul?tor". His work was often playful and fun, but usually had a political edge or carried a message about Glasgow's declining industrial hinterlands. His family have brought together a great selection of his work from early paintings to major sculptures for this exhibition, titled "In Pursuit of the Question Mark".

I've always liked his stuff and his "Just In Case" giant nappy pin sculpture that sits at the former site of Rottenrow Maternity Hospital always raises a smile in me when I pass it. Hopefully this exhibition will inspire someone to fix the clocks in his running man sculpture outside Buchanan Bus Station. I'll definitely be back to see this exhibition again, which is free and on until February 2013 and I'll bring my kids, who will love it.

 

Saying that, however, on balance I'd give this one 2-3 to Rembrandt. Despite Wyllie having the home advantage, the big man from the Netherlands just wins here thanks to his superior technique.

This week I also had the chance to compare and contrast the music of Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells in Cottiers on Wednesday night with that of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the City Halls on Thursday. This really was a Champions League clash of techniques, the Scottish underdogs playing their homely tunes against Teutonic efficiency, complex chromaticism and one of the finest orchestras in the country.

Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat

Rick Redbeard, lead singer of The Phantom Band in folkish guise, strumming his acoustic guitar opened and has a solo album out next year. Next up was Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells, who won the inaugural Scottish Album of the Year award in June for "Everything’s Getting Older", a mixture of spoken word pieces, alcohol sodden songs and a quintessentially Scottish glumness. I last saw them perform songs from the album at a gig in Paisley and now about 18 months later it was nice to see how the live arrangements have evolved. Bill was at piano, with a trumpeter up front and Aidan on drums, vocals and bits and bobs. The 10 minutes on the album from "The Copper Top" through to the brutish "Glasgow Jubilee" are some of my favourite minutes of music and it was good to hear those tracks again. He promised a cover version tonight and although he seemed sorely tempted by an audience request for Chas ‘n’ Dave’s "Ain’t No Pleasing You" he settled for Black Heart by girl group Stooshe instead. If you follow Aidan’s drunken MTV music reviews on twitter you’ll know that this type of pop trash is what he loves at 4am. There were also outings for some tracks that they thought "too cheery" to make the album. He is always an entertaining performer and I think I’d enjoy hearing him read a shopping list over Bill Wells’s mournful piano and the muted trumpet, but the wee tales he tells of mundane ordinariness are great.

AL Kennedy and bluebottle address those who arrived early

By contrast the following night I was out to see Act 2 of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, a concert performance over three evenings of the opera, being performed by the BBCSSO. First on stage was author AL Kennedy. I like her Scottish dourness, love her books and she gave an interesting talk, bizarrely interrupted by a persistent bluebottle that landed on her mic and politely listened to the last 5 minutes. I really wonder what the Radio 3 audience would have made of her stopping mid-sentence to utter such things as "Go away, I don’t want to kill you". Presumably they were able to edit these bits out. I had enjoyed the first Act a few weeks ago and it had ended on a cliff hanger. The music and orchestra were fantastic, I particularly liked the bit where Tristan and Isolde meet to the crashing music of a thunderstorm rather than to sounds suggesting joyful love lies ahead. As before, it takes a strong voice to carry out to the audience with the orchestra right at your back rather than in the pit, and there were some cast changes from Act 1 which made for an odd continuity. Nina Stemme's Isolde was released from the Sinex she had to resort to a couple of times on the last outing and was strong and impressive. Her new Brangane, Jane Irwin, had a fantastic voice and presence. Our new Tristan, Robert Dean Smith, however was a shadow of the Tristan from Act 1. Not only did he dress more prissily than everyone else, in his tails and white bow tie, he sang more prissily too, not having the volume to carry his words over the orchestra. So he made an unconvincing subject for Isolde's passion. Peter Rose entered as King Mark towards the end and his booming baritone was full of pathos. Because they are singing, not acting, we were left with a cliff hanger again as Tristan sings "On guard, Melot" and the act ends (you don't get to see him throw aside his sword and allow Melot to severely wound him). So I'm looking forward to Act 3, and as each act lasts 75-90 minutes I can see why it merits this type of treatment, and again focusing on the music of Wagner is enjoyable. However the next act is in April, which does seem a wee bit far away.

So I'd give this one as a surprise victory for the plucky Scottish underdogs who took full advantage of playing in front of a home crowd. The German played a solid game, but couldn't deliver that knockout blow. Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells 3-1 Wagner.

This was all a convoluted metaphor to allow me to shoehorn in a mention of Scotland's football match of the week. No, not Celtic's impressive 2-1 victory over Barcelona, but Partick Thistle's storming dismantling of their main promotion rivals, Dunfermline, this afternoon. 5-1 it ended and Dunfermline were lucky that was all we scored. It was a great game, a great crowd of over 5200 and a wee suspicion is circulating around Firhill that we are looking bloody good this year. Next home game is in 2 weeks, vs Livingston on the 24th November. If you haven't seen them this year, drag yourself along.

 

Wagner. A Review of a Big Opera in Small Pieces

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform Wagner's Tristan and Isolde (Act 1)

I go to see the opera, usually Scottish Opera at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, about once a year. Part of the appeal is the grand costumes, the acting, the staging, the wee ice cream tub at the interval (and also it is a night out where I am at the younger end of the audience spectrum for a change). Sometimes opera feels like a Lloyd Webber musical sung in a foreign language, as you wait for Bizet or Puccini's big hit tune to come along. There is a lot of the cast talking through the story to background music between the hits. Wagner I think is more about the musical piece throughout, the music tells the story and sets the tone, and for that he is credited with giving direction and ideas to a lot of 20th Century music.

I've sat through a Wagner opera in full once, years ago, a performance of The Mastersingers of Nuremberg. I remember the grand costumes and sets, and I remember it being long, but I couldn't hum you any of the tunes. I've also seen a concert performance of an opera only once before, when Scottish Opera did Georges Bizet's Pearl Fishers in a big hall in Govan 15-odd years ago. Stripped away from the usual operatic paraphernalia the music comes to the centre of the stage. This was the case last night when I went to see the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, with chief conductor Donald Runnicles, who reminded me of a well fed David Essex. If done in the full it takes over 5 hours, so for this they've broken it into easily digestible chunks, performing each of the three acts on a separate night, with an accompanying piece of music to highlight some of the themes or inspired by Wagner's music.

Tonight we had Rachmaninov's The Isle of the Dead, a musical poem inspired by seeing a painting by Bocklin of Charon apparently rowing a coffin out to the island of Ponza. The ebbing and flowing of the sound was incredibly evocative and watching the conductor and musicians rise and fall to the music as the storm rose then tailed off I was almost feeling seasick. The big crescendo of the storm was great to hear, and when an orchestra is going full pelt at you it really is an impressive sight and sound. I always feel sorry for the percussionists on these occasions, the one playing the cymbals sat patiently throughout, stood up, did her mighty crash then sat down again. More cymbals Sergei, that'd be my only change, make her work for her money.

After that the sea bound Act 1 of Tristan and Isolde was a calmer affair, to begin with. It's the everyday story of boy meets girl, boy kills girl's fiance, then sends his head on a spike to Ireland, gets his wounds tended by the girl's magic potions and steals her away to be married to his king whilst they both hide their love for each other. Girl arranges maid to give them both deadly tonic but maid swaps it for love juice. Boy and girl swig back their unspoken suicide pact to find birds tweeting overhead as they realise their love for each other. The orchestra clashes and horns blast as they arrive in Cornwall. Surely this is the only piece of theatre that ends with a fantastic crescendo whilst a chorus cries "Hail Cornwall. Hail Cornwall".

Watching the concert performance you are more aware of the music and with the singers centre stage, almost amongst the instruments, at times their singing risks being overwhelmed by the music. Isolde, soprano Nina Stemme, was clearly struggling with a bit of a cold (I haven't seen an opera singer need to take Sinex and pills mid-performance before), but she managed to sing out as clear as a bell over the orchestra. Of the four main singers in Act 1 she was the one who continued to act her piece to get the turmoil of the story told with her voice and expression, not just singing it out. The gentle music builds to a "what happens next?" finale and I had to buy a ticket for Acts 2 and 3 when I got home as it was a great night out. I've read that this is a trick of the music that Wagner writes, building anticipation. It's called "harmonic suspension" apparently, but without knowing that was happening, the orchestra tonight were able to convey it. The Rachmaninov for me was especially good and something that I'd never heard before. A great wee bonus to the main event.

City Halls, Glasgow

I like the City Halls too, I think it's a great concert venue, with good acoustics and sightlines throughout. It also makes me remember the various trade union demonstrations that used to end here, where I'd get to run about and play on the balcony whilst the speeches went on. It's all much smarter nowadays.

I'm reading Haruki Murakami's big 1,000 page tome at the moment, 1Q84, and co-incidentally got to the end of Book 1 out of 3 last night, before seeing Act 1 of Wagner's 3. At the start of book 2 a character quotes from Chekov his famous line about not introducing a gun to Act 1 unless you are going to use it in Act 3, so I fear for the future of Tristan and Isolde and don't fancy their chances of making it to the end of Act 3 now that they've already talked of life threatening wounds and deadly potions. For that matter in the book I don't much fancy Aomame or Tengo's chances of making it to page 1,000. However, in both cases, all will be revealed and in both cases I'm looking forward to finding out.