It only took the better part of two decades, but Thursday evening at Davies Symphony Hall, Robin Holloway’s Clarissa Sequence finally received its first San Francisco Symphony performance. Holloway’s original Clarissa Sequence, that is, the one for soprano and orchestra.
A bit of clarification is in order. The work in question derives from Holloway’s Clarissa, a two-act opera based on Samuel Richardson’s 1748 novel. Holloway composed the opera in 1976; 14 years later, it received a single performance at English National Opera. In the interim, the British composer wrote a Clarissa Symphony, which was premiered in 1982 by the Birmingham Symphony under Simon Rattle.
The Clarissa Sequence, a three-movement suite for soprano and orchestra, is the second concert piece Holloway drew from the opera. Composed in 1995-1996, it was commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, which scheduled it for performance in 1998. Then Andrea Gruber, the soprano scheduled to sing the premiere, cancelled. Holloway hastily reworked the score for orchestra only, and the performance went forward, with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting. For various reasons, the original version with soprano didn’t make it back onto a Symphony program until last week.
Better late than never. With soprano Erin Wall as soloist, Thursday’s performance, which repeated Friday and Saturday, represented one of Tilson Thomas’ most inspired acts of advocacy this season. Delayed gratification, in this case, was still immensely gratifying.
Holloway’s opera may never achieve repertory status, but the Clarissa Sequence is magnificent — richly scored, bracingly dramatic, and hugely virtuosic. The composer’s tonal language owes a debt to Debussy and Wagner, as Tilson Thomas acknowledged in his prefatory remarks. But the score is distinctly Holloway’s own.
Composed in three movements, the work begins with a “Prelude and Scena” introducing Clarissa, a young woman who endures multiple indignities: assault, arson, imprisonment, an arranged marriage to a man she abhors, and abuse from one of the worst fathers in all of literature. Ushered in on brooding low strings, the anguished heroine outlines her limited options; the music roils and surges, while the soprano part demands forceful attacks and leaps at enormous intervals.
The remainder of the score is entirely orchestral. The central movement, “Dreams and Fantasies,” incorporates some of the opera’s dance music; rapturous melodies suggest Clarissa’s happy memories, albeit viewed through a haze of trauma and confusion. The finale, “Fire and Apotheosis,” telescopes the brutal Act 1 scene between Clarissa and the villainous Lovelace with the opera’s gentle, dreamlike conclusion. Holloway makes the journey undeniably Wagnerian in its power to envelop and release the listener.
Tilson Thomas conducted an exhilarating performance, eliciting articulate contributions from every section of the orchestra. The effect was outsized, but what was striking was how clear and how transparent everything sounded. Wall was an excellent soloist; the Canadian soprano boasts a large, lustrous voice, and she sang Holloway’s music with assurance, cutting through the huge waves of sound emanating from the orchestra and summoning incisive tone, palpable despair, and an apt sense of her character’s vulnerability. It was the kind of performance composers dream of: Holloway came onstage for his bows looking slightly dazed, and obviously pleased.
Will these performances inspire adventurous opera companies to stage the complete Clarissa? One can only hope.
Wall was also the soloist for Mozart’s concert aria “Bella mia fiamma …Resta, o cara,” which proved a fine warm-up for the main event. The thematic ties were clear — “Resta, o cara” is a dramatic outpouring in which the singer grieves the loss of a spouse — and if the performance got off to a bit of a shaky start, Tilson Thomas quickly righted it. The orchestra played with buoyancy, and Wall’s penetrating tone and dramatic assertiveness were decided assets.
After intermission, Tilson Thomas and the orchestra returned with a forceful, dynamic performance of Schumann’s Symphony No. 3, “Rhenish.” The conductor achieved attractively sculpted sound, a sublime sense of flow, and superb ensemble playing throughout the orchestra. The outer movements were brisk and beautifully colored, while the inner movements unfolded with nobility. The “Rhenish” may lack the operatic qualities of Clarissa, but this performance made it sing.