Search - Schumann, Thomas Beecham, Royal Philharmonic :: Schumann: Manfred; Sir Thomas Beecham

'The lamp must be replenish'd'

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 12/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Schumann's theatrical sense was, I suppose, approximately nil. Nevertheless his mind and his music were deeply influenced by the literature of the early romantic movement. His overture to Byron's Manfred is well known, and a very fine tone-poem it is. In addition, he wrote several pieces of incidental music, much less well known and to my ears `absolute' music rather than anything distinctively dramatic. He has a go at the occasional `effect', but one only has to recall the single chord that Berlioz writes to represent the great beast that pursues Faust and Mephistopheles in their final ride to the chasm to wince at the amateurishness of Schumann's corresponding effort. So there is the problem. There is not enough music, and it is not the right kind of music. For all that, it is very fine music, it is Schumann's music, and it should not languish unheard. There is a specific problem with the drama too, which Beecham identifies as being too much monologue. That seems to me to be true, but on the other hand there is a fairly spectacular cast of spirits and supernatural beings and it should have been possible to make some fine old drama, or at least melodrama, out of those. Berlioz had given his attention to the parallel legend of Faust, Weber did not live long enough to tackle the Manfred theme, I sighed to think what Handel might have done with it all if he had lived a hundred and more years later than he did, and we are left with dear Schumann. Beecham's solution is to take a number of Schumann's piano pieces, order Eugene Goossens and Julius Harrison to orchestrate them, and distribute them around the monologues in an imaginative attempt to compensate for the combined dramatic shortcomings of author and composer. The attempt comes off so far as I am concerned, the performance is extremely good, and the recording is quite excellent for its time. I am old enough to remember Laidman Browne (who has to turn the nice trick of being both Manfred and the Abbot of St Maurice in dialogue) and Raf de la Torre, and Jill Balcon is happily still with us. The famous or notorious RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) diction of the time has real period charm, and the recitation seems to me exemplary in every way. The music is dominated by the great overture, and I bless the shade of Beecham for the tact as well as the insight that he brings to it. Instrumentation, we all know, was not Schumann's long suit, particularly when no solos were involved. Beecham's grand and deeply serious account of it has no hint about it of the fogginess that Schumann's orchestration is always prone to, but on the other hand there are no attempts at artificial highlights or any such cheapening. The three opening chords are masterly right away - they are written syncopated and marked `Rasch', but as they are followed by an unmeasured pause the ear cannot hear them as syncopated. The effect should be breathless and anxious, and Beecham gets them to perfection. The rest of the music is background music by its very nature, done with affection, sensibility and professionalism.A real treasure, this issue, and a real event."