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Orchestra's 'Das Paradies und die Peri' (2nd rev

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3 minute read
691 Grant Murphy Heidi 02
Not quite Paradise

STEVE COHEN

The much-heralded Philadelphia premiere of Robert Schumann’s Paradise and the Peri is more than a curiosity but less than a masterpiece.

Das Paradies und die Peri is a massive enterprise, requiring a large chorus and six solo singers. Listeners who expected the grandeur of Beethoven’s Ninth or Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand were disappointed. In actuality, this is a quiet, contemplative composition with many lovely passages.

The story is a Persian religious fable about the exclusion of the incorporeal creatures called Peri from the Garden of Eden because they are the illegitimate offspring of angels and mortals— a foretelling, in part, of Wagner’s Ring. Few listeners today could give a damn about the plot or the simplistic poetry. The music, however, has beauty and can lift your cares after a hectic workweek.

Schumann’s audacious gimmicks

Champions of Paradise and the Peri claim that it’s been neglected for the past century and a half because the public lost interest in massive vocal works. That’s not true. Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang, Verdi’s Requiem, Mahler’s Second and Eighth symphonies and, of course, Beethoven’s Ninth were all greeted with enthusiasm. This composition alone has been avoided.

Because Das Paradies is performed so rarely, some may have feared it would sound strange or difficult. The first few minutes put smiles on skeptics’ faces. Many times during its two hours I too found myself smiling, and sometimes almost laughing at Schumann’s audacity in piling on another gimmick— sometimes a tremolo, sometimes an evocation of the Orient or a celestial sound effect, with songs assigned to angels, Indians, and genii of the Nile. It’s corny, but at least it’s tasty corn.

World-class voices, for a change

The vocal quartet lined up at the rear of the stage was exceptionally excellent. Soprano Christine Brandes, mezzo Bernarda Fink, tenor Joseph Kaiser and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni are world-class singers. Fink and Kaiser, in particular, are known for leading opera roles. We don’t often hear such strong casting in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s vocal concerts.

Capping them all was Heidi Grant Murphy, standing at the front of the stage as she sang the part of the Peri. Murphy is known as a reliable high lyric soprano in roles such as Sophie in Rosenkavalier. Here she gave a rounded dramatic performance that encompassed many moods and a wide range. She never forced, never pushed, but floated her slender voice over the orchestral texture. This is a beautiful accomplishment.

Less satisfying was the British tenor Mark Padmore, who sang the narrator as he has done previously with Simon Rattle in England. Padmore projected the text, but his voice lacked color, and it thinned out in many of the lower-lying passages. I wish that Kaiser, with his vibrant tenor voice, had been asked to learn this longer part. The Philadelphia Singers Chorale sounded wonderful.

Where Sawallisch failed….

Toward the end of Wolfgang Sawallisch’s tenure as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, he led a Schumann Festival. His personal wish was to include one of the composer’s large-scale vocal compositions, either Paradise and the Peri or Schumann’s only opera, Genoveva. Budget restrictions forced him to abandon that idea. It’s a particular shame, because Sawallisch is internationally known for his opera experience. Rattle, by contrast, somehow managed to get the funds to hire the large forces needed for Paradise and the Peri.

His interpretation was simple and straightforward, keeping volume muted to allow all the voices to be heard. I might have preferred a more lilting, pressing-forward approach, in the Furtwangler manner. Alternatively, it would be interesting to hear Das Paradies the way former Philadelphia maestri Stokowski and Ormandy conducted big pieces, with strings digging in and projecting boldly. But I can accept the argument that Schumann’s music, on the whole, is simple, and that he meant this composition to be devotional. Rattle clearly complied with the composer’s intentions.



To read another review by Tom Purdom, click here.
To read another review by Robert Zaller, click here.

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