Royal Northern Sinfonia’s (RNS’s) new “Small but Perfectly Formed” series got off to a great start with a brilliant performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s “Transfigured Night” in Sage 2, the chamber music venue at the Glasshouse, Gateshead.
It is a famous work originating in the second Viennese school but with a fascinating and little-remembered connection with Newcastle, where the version for string orchestra performed by RNS had its British debut exactly 100 years ago.
Transfigured Night is a work of late romanticism composed by Schoenberg as a string sextet in 1899, inspired by a poem of the same name by Richard Dehmel (1863-1920) and by the composer’s meeting with his wife-to-be Mathilde Zemlinsky.
The version for string orchestra was written by the composer in 1917 and brought to Newcastle for its British premiere in December 1924 by Edward Clark, who was born in Newcastle in 1888 and educated at the Royal Grammar School.
He was a student of Schoenberg in Berlin between 1910 and 1912 and went on to become a leading figure in European music circles as well as musical director of the BBC’s Newcastle station, which in its early days had its own orchestra. He died in 1962.
The Transfigured Night concert at the Glasshouse
Transfigured Night, with its deeply emotional foundations in Dehmel’s poem depicting a man walking in the moonlight with his beloved, who is carrying a child not his own, is ideal to enable the strings of RNS to show off their range of chamber music skills, and none more so than the orchestra’s artistic partner Maria Wloszczowska. She, and they, play in a style that is by turns passionate and tender.
Also on the programme was the Slow Movement (Langsamer Satz) by Schoenberg’s Viennese associate Anton Webern, another stirringly romantic piece belying the composers’ reputation as difficult.
Completing the evening was a superb performance by the strong and clear soprano voice of Rebecca Bottone of “Les Illuminations” by Benjamin Britten, another work inspired by poetry, this time by the French Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891).
Small but Perfect
The “Small but Perfectly Formed” series is designed and directed by Maria Wloszczowska in her new role at the RNS’s artistic partner following three years as leader of the orchestra.
More performances will take place in Sage 2 in November, January and April again featuring works by Schoenberg and Berg as well as Anton Webern, Franz Schubert, Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy.
“I want,” said Maria Wloszczowska according to the programmer notes, “them [the concerts] to reflect the excellence and chamber music skills of all the players involved, showcasing their individual character and love for collaboration.” Judging by this first performance in the series, she is succeeding.
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