British composers from Stanford to Howells have preferred to get their Magnificats done and dusted in five minutes, maximum 10. Not so Ryan Wigglesworth, whose 30-minute mega-Magnificat received its UK premiere at Bridgewater Hall. Inspired, perhaps, by the expansive voice of his wife, soprano Sophie Bevan, Wigglesworth looks to Monteverdi for his model, as he explores the dramatic boundaries of what he calls Mary’s “personal manifesto”.
Gently discordant brass weaves the cocoon from which the solo soprano emerges, hushed and awestruck, as the choir chants and chatters over bass drum and tam-tam. Soon after, a quartet of trumpets break into Monteverdian fanfares stippled with pealing bells. The orchestration gleams with Byzantine half-lights, driven by rhythms striking in their contrapuntal complexities. Across five movements, Wigglesworth treats us to shimmying syncopations in the “Et exaltavit”, baleful brass for “Fecit potentiam” (late Stravinsky springing to mind) and glittering tuned percussion in Suscepit Israel.
A well-documented battle with colorectal cancer has left no trace on Bevan’s generous instrument. In this, her return to the concert platform, she alternated passages of warm lyricism with a dramatic urgency that brought the expostulating virgin vividly to light. The Hallé Choir was on outstanding form, crisp and disciplined, in music that has its fiendish patches. Likewise, the orchestra, virtuosic under Wigglesworth’s authoritative baton.
Mahler’s Fourth Symphony was the companion piece, a work that ends in a childlike vision of heaven, a world not a million miles removed from the Magnificat’s handmaiden of the lord. Wigglesworth, who in a pre-concert talk acknowledged Mahler as a role model, knows how to finesse his intricate independent lines and primary instrumental colours.
In a reading strong on grace, great care was lavished on shaping Mahler’s evolving themes. Not every transition was as effortlessly elastic as it might have been, and the odd top-line melody failed to cut through, but the Hallé went with Wigglesworth cheek by jowl. Instrumental solos were enthusiastic and characterful. If the scherzo was more eerie than Mephistophelian, the finale, peppered with audacious dynamic contrasts, positively fizzed. The mighty adagio, however, its textural balances perfectly judged, proved the beating heart of an elegant interpretation.
