Tara Erraught at the National Concert Hall
Last night’s concert at the National Concert Hall featured star mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught (who is from Mullingar, in County Westmeath, and is artist-in-residence at the National Concert Hall for this season. She was accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra directed by Laurence Cummings. You can tell how much I like Tara Erraught by the fact I went to the concert despite there being a harpsichord involved in some of the pieces; fortunately it was pointed away from the audience so we couldn’t hear it.
Before the concert, I was trying to remember when I heard her sing before. A look at my back catalogue revealed that it was this concert at which she sang a Mahler song-cycle. Last night’s performance comprised very different material, all from the 18th Century. There were three vocal pieces: a cantata in four sections by a name quite new to me, Marianna Martines, also known as Marianne von Martinez; a concert aria by Joseph Haydn; and by far the most exciting piece, Mozart’s wonderful Exsultate Jubilate. Tara Erraught was in fine voice throughout but I was particularly impressed with the precision of her articulation of the ornamented phrases in the last work. The audience loved it too.
The concert was all about Tara Erraught, however. The first half included Symphony No. 25 by Joseph Haydn, a funny little work only 13 minutes long and lacking the usual slow movement that seemed to me like it wasn’t really finished. It’s certainly not among Haydn’s best symphonies, anyway. It was a bit unfair on Haydn to have Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter” on the same menu as that it is one of the great symphonies by any composer. It did however demonstrate very powerfully how much the symphonic form had evolved in the twenty-odd years separating the two compositions (which incidentally are both in the same key of C Major). The Jupiter symphony is not only brim full of ideas, but the themes are woven into a much richer fabric. I might add that it was very well played by the NSO in a performance that was forceful and energetic without being too bombastic.
In the Dark 
November 2, 2024 at 6:47 pm
If you google “Jupiter symphony last movement analysis” you will get some stuff showing what an incredible, staggering genius Mozart was. Here is one such:
youtube dot com/watch?v=YTxYykhQZbI
(Youtube videos seem to hang if I post the actual URL.) I always found it moving that Mozart’s last symphonic composition ended with this amazing piece of music and, now I realise what is going on it, I find it – and the silence immediately afterwards – almost unbearably poignant.
The man wrote this when he was 32, for heaven’s sake, three years before he died. Was he taken from us because the times changed with the French Revolution and music needed a new genius (who duly appeared)? What would Mozart have written has he lived? We shall never know. (Sorry for diverging from Tara Erraught.)
November 2, 2024 at 6:55 pm
Some people say that Nos 39-41 should be thought of as one single composition, with the Jupiter finale being not just about No. 41 for all three.
November 2, 2024 at 7:11 pm
Symphony no.39 is another shivers-down-the-spine, but more for the opening movement. The three symphonies are in different keys. I have Karl Böhm’s recordings of them in a 2-CD set – chosen carefully – and I find it hard to believe that any other could be better.