You need courage to programme major repertoire as enthusiasts, even with the support of some professionals. Ludwig Van Beethoven's 5th Symphony is a demanding masterpiece and the too rarely performed Stabat Mater by Francis Poulenc is so grand and at the same time fragile and intimate that it may demand even more than the Fifth.
All that hay of these true masterworks was taken on the forks of the Vlaams-Brabants Symfonisch Orkest, the Gemengd Koor Omnia Cantica and the choir Salvocalee, soprano Noa Vanden Broucke, under the direction of conductors Rik Ghesquière and Wouter Versavel. Personally, I find it somewhat difficult that enthusiasts, however dedicated they may be, take on such heavy pieces. The risks are very high, even for seasoned professionals, so it is more than daring to perform not just one, but two works of and for eternity. And yet...
The concert opened somewhat cautiously with a broadly spun 'Introduzione' from Beethoven's 'Christus am Ölberge'. Don't rush the pianist, but do give him advice: with two masterpieces on the programme, a shorter introduction is actually not necessary. But well, the work sounded reasonably in that large, high cathedral, yet rather woolly. What would then happen with THE Fifth of fifth symphonies? The Mechelen cathedral is actually not suitable for this repertoire. Whatever orchestra brings symphonic work there plays with much difficulty hoping to get enough articulation. Conductors and soloists sometimes really exert themselves and the result remains, especially from the middle to the back of the church, too much a turbulent play of sounds not fully coming into their own, everything mingles into an unclear mush. Mechelen lacks a real classical concert hall.
It turned out once again, as it has been for 250 and more years, that the cathedral is indeed very suitable for choral music and smaller musical ensemble, but not for a large romantic orchestra. A pity for a city that is one of the five art cities in Flanders to have no hall. Assessing a performance on its quality is and remains difficult, and so it was this time no different with Beethoven V. This was possible with the fragile Stabat Mater by Poulenc. A very beautiful, intimate, tear-inducing work that the Suffering Mother, whether it is the Mother of Jesus watching her Son die on the cross, whether it is any mother anywhere in the world who must give up a child, small or even adult. The pain is always there and it is always different for a mother who gave the child life. Poulenc knows how to set it to music, profoundly even. The orchestra, now in a smaller ensemble better able to hold its own and the choirs performed to a healthy average which for amateurs is already almost a maximum. A disappointing setback was soprano Noa Vanden Broucke whose voice is really inadequate for this demanding work for which you need a full, experienced opera voice. Know your place in the musical world and bring what is fitting to your instrument, in this case the voice. There is so much possible...
A mixed feeling was the result: very much respect for the achievement of the enthusiasts who did it anyway, a pity about the concert venue where too many details disappeared into the high vaults. Mechelen, you know what to do: provide that real concert hall...