RPhO's gift to the resurrected city falls short at opening Gergiev festival

By Willem Jan Keizer

Rotterdam - The fifteenth edition of the Gergjev Festival officially kicked off Friday evening in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen in concert hall de Doelen with a concert by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Valeri Gergjev. Although the festival takes place at some 20 locations in the city - not only in de Doelen but also in the Laurenskerk, the conservatory, museum Boijmans van Beuningen and numerous other unexpected locations - the festival is virtually invisible in the city. In the neighbourhoods where some of the existing or potential audience lives, there is no poster, no triangle sign to be seen. In the past, the piercing eyes of namesake Valeri Gergyev looked at you everywhere in the city; now it is guesswork what is happening where. You start to wonder what the point is of all these big-boned marketing departments of music organisations and whether they really understand their job. At a time when major cutbacks are inevitable and there is even talk of closing down one or two orchestras, it is unthinkable that such a lax approach is taken to publicising activities. Or have they just thrown in the towel already?
In any case, the decoration of the Doelen, more so the lack of it, does not inspire more positive thoughts. The central theme of this festival is Resurrection, the resurrection of the city of Rotterdam after the fatal bombing in May 1940. Only a wall of photographs at the Friends of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra stand makes the theme visible, otherwise it might as well have been an average concert.
So the gift the RPhO had in store for the now rebuilt city had to come from the stage. The concert was dedicated to Shostakovich, by himself the eighth symphony and by his pupil Boris Tishchenko (born 1939) the first cello concerto from 1963 that was reorchestrated by Shostakovich. Shostakovich's war symphonies have been the focus of an earlier festival. Performing this composer's symphonies four to ten in one week made an indelible impression then. This festival in 2001 resulted in Shostakowich being definitively added to the canon of classical music. His music now has the same standard as that of, say, Bruckner, Mahler or Tchaikofsky: elevated above discussion and widely accepted as the cornerstone of music.

So an isolated performance of the eighth symphony must also be listened to differently from a performance framed with works from the same period of creation. It remains a monument, a pillar hewn from emotional granite of war anxiety and rejection of armed conflict. All the while, the Soviet government of the time had hoped for a glorification of Russian heroism, a hymn of praise for victory over the evil enemy that had besieged Leningrad only to fail to get through in the end. In the first movement, the composer builds up through a thunderous mock climax to the real climax: a sorrowful alto oboe solo in which all the melancholy, sadness and anguish of the misery endured is summed up. On Friday, the strings below sounded beautifully dark and with an open sound. The solo was performed magisterially by alto oboist Ron Tijhuis, who rightly received a thunderous ovation for it afterwards. Also contributing to the overwhelming impression that this work always leaves behind were the lingering tanks in the third movement. Still, conductor Gergjev allowed routine to seep through here and there, including in the oppressive final measures that bear the inscription morendo (dying away) for good reason.
By contrast, Tishchenko's cello concerto was a missed opportunity. With this work, Shostakovich's pupil Tishchenko shows himself to be no more than an epigone. The musical language is entirely indebted to that of his teacher, except that the emotional undercurrent that characterises Shostakovich's works is completely absent here. Cellist Tim Hugh bit into the notes but could add nothing to the predictable pattern these notes would follow. He is a good cellist but not one from the highest echelons. His tone production is pretty standard without that creamy, sometimes velvety sound that the real top players convey. The orchestral accompaniment as Gergiev envisaged also added nothing to this work.
Anyway, that's how it is with newly introduced works: sometimes (as at last year's Gergyev Festival with Rodion Shchedrin's 5th piano concerto) an outright find, mostly the music turns out to be mediocrity. Not bad, but certainly not standing out. This work by Tishchenko shows that. So, all in all, the RPhO's present to the resurrected city is a bit meagre.

Concertgebouw de Doelen: opening concert Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival. Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Valeri Gergiev with Tim Hugh cello. Attended Friday evening, 3 September