Jean Sibelius: Finlandia
Carl Orff: Carmina Burana
Conductor: Dalia Stasevska
Soprano: Giuliana Gianfaldoni
Baritone: Mattia Olivieri
Tenor: Marco Santarelli
The holiday season had always been a rather painful time of the year for me, musically speaking, until over a decade ago I serendipitously came across Cantori New York, the fearless choir whose holiday concerts never failed to delight music-loving New-Yorkers with revisited classics and obscure gems from many different counties and centuries. But since I haven’t crossed the Pond for the past four years and, let’s face it, will probably not cross it again for at least the next four years, I’ve had to come up with a plan B that would allow me to celebrate the holidays in Rome with music that did not include too much perkiness or religiousness.
And this year I found exactly what I was looking for right in my neighborhood, when last week the indefatigable Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, as well as its official choir and its children’s choir, a couple of local soloists and a Finnish conductor, all united their impressive forces for a three-concert run of German composer Carl Orff’s ever-green warhorse Carmina Burana. What more could I ask for? Well, how about three pieces by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius?
So early on Saturday evening, after a busy day filled with work and chores, I gratefully made it to the Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone, which turned out to be fancily decked out with countless colorful lights, ubiquitous Christmas trees, dreamy holiday-related projections on its main building’s façade, and hordes of delighted people taking it all in.
Although I, and in all likelihood most of the audience, had bought my ticket as soon as I saw Carmina Burana advertised on the posters popping up all over Rome a few weeks ago, I had also been thrilled to notice the name of Sibelius, a personal favorite of mine, on them too. What I did not know until Saturday though, was that our Finnish conductor for the evening, Dalia Stasevska, is married to, lo and behold, a Finnish rock musician, who also happens to be a great-grandson of Jean Sibelius, essentially turning what may or may not have been a coincidence into a family affair. It is a small world, after all.
That said, family ties or not, our young but highly determined maestra clearly had a deep knowledge of the three Sibelius pieces on the program. The “Swan of Tuonela”, by far the most popular of the four tone poems making up The Lemminkäinen Suite, was as eerily beautiful and profoundly melancholy as a swan gliding on a lake in the Land of the Dead can be, while “Lemminkäinen’s return”, a vivacious description of the hero’s journey home, was appropriately brash and spirited.
To wrap up the terrific trio with a special coup, Roman audiences got to experience for the very first time Sibelius’ big hit Finlandia in the rare version composed for choir and orchestra. Unsurprisingly, it proved to be just as effective as the more traditional version that we all know and love, with its torrent of turbulent music rousingly evoking the struggle of the Finnish people against Russia, before the serene Finlandia hymn took over and brought the Sibelius half of our evening to a peaceful end.
After intermission, we all eagerly sat down again for the mighty Carmina Burana, a sprawling cantata based on an eclectic collection of 24 secular texts and poems written between the 11th and 14th centuries in Latin, Middle High German and Old French. If anybody had ever questioned the enduring appeal of the piece since it came out in 1937, they would have quickly stood corrected at the sight of countless smartphones rising in unison in the packed auditorium to record for posterity (and probably YouTube) the iconic opening number, “O Fortuna”, the gripping lament about the all-powerful Goddess of Fortune in Roman mythology.
Such an electrifying start can be a tough act to follow, but musicians, singers and conductor kept up the excellent work and delivered a terrific musical feast. “In Spring” superbly expressed the glories of the season of renewal, “In the Meadow” happily described the joys of nature, “In the Tavern” was as care-free as rambunctious as expected, and “Court of Love” gorgeously chronicles the evolving relationship of two lovers, not the least thanks to the enchanting contribution of the children’s chorus. And then we had finally come full circle, and who were we to argue with another serving of “O Fortuna” to wrap things up?
It is also worth noting that the evening was a smashing success not only because of the highly skilled orchestra, chorus and children’s chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, but also because of the three distinguished soloists. Baritone Mattia Olivieri was the hardest working one on that stage, and impeccably came through every single time. Soprano Giuliana Gianfaldoni was the perfect embodiment of sheer purity with her flowing white dress and dazzling high notes. Tenor Marco Santarelli was a truly delightful swan, whose brief vocal tour de force even included the cheeky throwing of a handful of white feathers.
The well-deserved ovation was rapturous and endless, and maybe in the spirit of the season, maybe just because, Stasevska eventually decided to treat us to yet another blazing round of “O Fortuna”, which immediately prompted another frisson of excitement and another rise of the smartphones among the audience. And just like that, Christmas came early this year in Rome.
