SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVALS 2010
ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL

After a few days in Vail enjoying the music-making of Jaap van Zweden and the Dallas Symphony at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Marita and I drove over to Aspen, about 100 miles away through the mountains. What we found there was a much older community and a festival and school operating on an equally high artistic plane but with a more varied range of goals and activities. True, Aspen has been in the news lately for its administrative infighting which saw music director and conductor David Zinman suddenly resign, and president Alan Fletcher emerge as the man in charge going forward, but on the basis of the two concerts I heard – actually one concert and a dress rehearsal – Aspen is maintaining its status as one of the world’s great oases of musical nurture and development.

Aspen Festival Over Half Century Old!

The Aspen Festival was founded in 1949, and in its formative years it was a philosophy rather than a full-fledged festival. What came to be called “The Aspen Idea” meant a place where people could develop in body, mind and spirit. Soon there was a school and more and more concerts and a performing space was built based on a design by the legendary Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen. As a Finnish-Canadian, Marita took special pleasure in discovering this fact about Aspen.

Saarinen’s tent was replaced by a more permanent structure designed by Herbert Bayer and Fritz Benedict in 1965, and then in 1999 an even more elaborate building was erected – the Benedict Music Tent – designed by architect Harry Teague and acoustician Larry Kirkegaard. The “tent” had now become a 2,000 seat concert hall with a stage spacious enough to accommodate a large orchestra and chorus. An unusual feature of the construction is the tensioned membrane ceiling created by Birdair. The material, known as fiberglass fabric membrane, lets the light in but keeps out the heat of the sun, and apparently does no harm to the acoustics. The sound in the Benedict Music Tent is far more reverberant than one would expect and the overall effect in the two performances I heard – one by a string quartet and the other by a large orchestra – was very impressive.

Chamber Music in 2000 Seat Hall Acoustically Sound!

The Emerson Quartet presented a programme devoted to music by Dvorák, Barber and Shostakovich. I feared their sound might be lost in so large a hall, but that was not the case; possibly the effect of a wooden semicircular baffle placed behind them. I was delighted to hear the Emerson playing some of my favourite music: Dvorák’s “Cypresses.” These pieces began their lives as songs, and years later Dvorák reworked them for string quartet. Dvorák was a master of string quartet writing and these are some of his most beautiful works. To really appreciate them, the proactive listener would be richly rewarded by comparing the two versions of each piece.

“Cypresses” was followed by Dvorák’s String Quartet in E flat major Op. 51, to my mind not one of his best. Nonetheless, the Emerson Quartet gave it the careful preparation and total commitment it gives to every piece it plays.

After intermission came the original version of Barber’s “Adagio for Strings.” Coincidentally, I was to hear the more popular string orchestra version played by the Dallas Symphony in Vail the following night. Both versions are effective but in quite different ways. The quartet version has its own special intimacy, while the orchestra version has a strength and power which cannot be achieved by four players.

Finally, the Emerson played the String Quartet No. 9 Op. 117 by Shostakovich. Its last movement is one of the most exciting in any of the composer’s fifteen string quartets, and the Emerson played it superbly. The chordal pizzicati rang out with accuracy and authority and the contrapuntal writing had boundless energy. The Emerson Quartet brought the audience to its feet and then let it down gently and eloquently with an excerpt from Bach’s “A Musical Offering.”

Open Rehearsal with Hans Graf and soloist Gil Shaham

The next morning I was back in the Benedict Music Tent for the dress rehearsal of a concert by the Aspen Chamber Symphony (ACS) under the direction of Hans Graf, music director of the Houston Symphony. The ACS is one of three Aspen orchestras and each one is a remarkable ensemble. They combine well-known principal players from orchestras around the world and gifted students who have auditioned and succeeded in being accepted at Aspen.

ACS concertmaster is Alexander Kerr, Professor of Violin at Indiana University, and former concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. Principal second violin is Espen Lilleslåtten, concertmaster of the Bergen Philharmonic in Norway, and principal clarinet is Theodore Oien who holds the same position in the Detroit Symphony. All the members of the American Brass Quintet teach at the Aspen School and play in one of the orchestras…and on it goes.

The Aspen orchestras also have a Canadian component. Principal clarinet in the Aspen Festival Orchestra is Joaquin Valdepeñas of the Toronto Symphony, and principal horn is John Zirbel of the Montreal Symphony.

“Composer in Residence” Christopher Rouse Takes Notes

One of the highlights of the dress rehearsal was the opportunity to hear “Odna Zhizn” (A Life) by Christopher Rouse with the composer in attendance and basically supervising the performance. “Odna Zhizn” was conceived as a tribute to Natasha, a Russian friend of the composer. Rouse has said that the piece functions “both as the public portrayal of an extraordinary life as well as a private love letter.” The work had its premiere just a few months ago by Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic.

Like all of Rouse’s orchestral music it is dazzling in its orchestration and dramatically powerful. Rouse seemed generally happy with what he heard and at this final stage of rehearsal only made a few comments about balance. It certainly seemed to me that Hans Graf and the Aspen Chamber Symphony had prepared the piece very well indeed.

Sheer Joy: Shaham Shares Talent and Temperament

The other major work was the Brahms Violin Concerto with Gil Shaham (photo: above) as soloist. Shaham has been coming to Aspen regularly since his student years and he is particularly renowned for his interpretation of this piece.

Now 39 years old, Shaham still exudes a youthful wonder at the world around him. As the orchestra plays the introduction to the first movement, Shaham looks at the conductor and at members of the orchestra as if to say “How can it be so beautiful?” And Shaham’s attitude is as infectious as I am sure it is intended to be. The players in return re-examine the music they are playing as if they had never seen it before, and can’t believe what they are seeing and hearing.

It almost goes without saying that Shaham’s violin playing was joyous and nearly impeccable. But it should be said that while he and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, whom I heard perform in Vail, share an intense commitment to music, they are very different personalities and interpreters. Salerno-Sonnenberg seems to bare her soul in everything she plays, and doesn’t hesitate to go to the dark side if she thinks the music requires it. Shaham, on the other hand, is more of a classicist. It is simply not part of his DNA to personalize the music. Fortunately, there is room for both types of performers in classical music.

Aspen, Colorado: So Much More to Offer than Slopes!

Like Vail, Aspen is primarily a skiing destination. Because of its limited size – it has mountains on three sides – with the crowds that come in winter and more recently in summer too, it is a very expensive place to live. There are only about 6,000 residents and many of them are jetsetters on the order of Michael Douglas, Goldie Hawn, Jack Nicholson and Charlie Sheen. And they generally arrive in Aspen in private jets, dozens of which were parked at the Aspen Airport during my visit. The people who have to earn a living in Aspen mostly live in less glamorous towns nearby.

The Aspen music festival runs for eight weeks and involves about 700 students and 150 faculty, but it’s not the only act in town. Every summer, the very prestigious Aspen Institute attracts many of the most famous minds in politics, economics and the media, The recent Aspen Ideas Festival featured the likes of Bill Gates, Thomas Friedman, Alan Greenspan, David Gergen, and Arianna Huffington.

For Those Wanting More…

The Emerson Quartet recorded all the Shostakovich string quartets in 2000, and they are available in a boxed set as DG 463 2842 2. If you want to hear exactly what Shostakovich had in mind, investigate the recordings by the Beethoven Quartet; this is the ensemble which premiered most of Shostakovich’s string quartets. Their recordings, made between 1956 and 1974, had the approval of the composer. They are now available in a boxed set from DOREMI as DHR-7911-5, and the remastering and restoration work done by Jacob Harnoy is excellent.

Dvorák’s Op. 51 and “Cypresses” are included in the latest Emerson release as DG 477 8765 5. Gil Shaham has a DVD of the Brahms Violin Concerto with Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic, recorded at a concert given in Palermo in 2002 (EuroArts 2051987).

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and “Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music,” both available at Amazon.com. NEW For friends: The Art of the Conductor podcast!

Photo by Marita

SUMMER FESTIVALS BRAVO!
BRAVO! VAIL VALLEY MUSIC FESTIVAL

Imagine a music festival that features three of the world’s top orchestras in successive week-long residencies. Throw into the mix the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and Gil Shaham. Shake things up with some of the best conductors at work today: Jaap van Zweden, Alan Gilbert, Charles Dutoit, and Marin Alsop. And don’t forget to add lots of chamber music. Set all this talent up in one of the most spectacular mountain locations you can think of – say, Vail, Colorado – and run your festival for about six weeks. Sounds great, doesn’t it? But of course, who could afford to do it.

That is the question that kept crossing my mind as I sat in my seat at the awkwardly-named Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival: “How could anyone or any group of people find the money to mount such a festival, especially in the depths of a recession when every arts organization in the country is cutting back or packing it in?” But Bravo! is not a misguided new venture; this festival has been going strong for 23 years. So how do they do it?

It is surely true that Vail must have some of the most dedicated music lovers in the world. It must also be true that these extraordinary music lovers have the financial means to bring their dreams to life.

Classical Music on a Movie Set?

The town of Vail is almost a Disney version of an alpine ski village – charming Swiss chalets bedecked with flower boxes, bustling boutiques, cosy eateries. Since 1962 when it was created, Vail has become an increasingly popular “destination.”

Skiers flock to Vail by the thousands to enjoy some of the best downhill skiing in the world. Après-ski, they gather in their beautifully appointed chalets or in the fine restaurants, bars and upscale stores that abound in the village.

Everything in Vail is carefully managed to maintain the unified Swiss-style, tourist-friendly look. Yes, you will find a McDonald’s here, artfully camouflaged to blend with the alpine character of the buildings and the well-manicured streets. Even cars are controlled in Vail – one doesn’t really need one to get around. The village is compact enough so that one can walk from one end to the other without much effort. For those who are a little less energetic, there is a free shuttle bus that provides an excellent alternative. In the summer, the village and the area’s many mountain paths attract thousands of cyclists and hikers. For those who like some culture with their outdoor activities, there is the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival.

Dallas Symphony Bravo’s Opening Orchestral Act

I visited Vail for the opening concerts of Bravo! 2010. I just missed Yo-Yo Ma in recital, but arrived in time to hear the first of six orchestral concerts to be performed by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO). The DSO will be followed later in the season by the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic in a similar residency.

One might wonder how the Dallas Symphony gets to share the spotlight with two orchestras generally touted as being in another league – certainly true as far as budgets go!

Among the highlights of the two Dallas Symphony concerts I heard in Vail were the Brahms’ Second Symphony, in which the string playing had a dynamic range and a richness that would be the envy of any orchestra; a high-speed Beethoven Fifth that reflected Maestro van Zweden’s fascination with the Gardiner-Harnoncourt original instrument movement; and an extraordinary interpretation of Barber’s Violin Concerto featuring Nadja-Salerno Sonnenberg.

I have heard Ms. Sonnenberg play this Barber concerto many times with different orchestras and conductors and each time I marvel at how deeply she probes the piece. In Jaap van Zweden, she had not only a friend and former class-mate, but an ideal collaborator. Both she and van Zweden – former concert master of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in The Netherlands – studied with the legendary Dorothy Delay in New York at about the same time and went on to make recordings of the Barber Violin Concerto.

In short, the Dallas Symphony, under Jaap van Zweden, is the equal of many of the finest orchestras in the world. There is, however, another reason why the Dallas Symphony belongs in Vail. This town has long been a favourite getaway destination for Texans: skiing in the winter and cooler and drier weather in the summer. To accommodate these Texas patrons, American Airlines even operates two daily non-stops from Dallas to Vail (actually nearby Eagle County Airport).

Challenges of Outdoor Venues Part of Summer Music Fest Fun!

One always has to make allowances for summer concerts. Even at the best facilities, weather and various distractions are inescapable factors. Vail is no different. The idea is to get away from the formality of winter season concerts in enclosed concert halls, and enjoy the beauties of nature with fine music filling the air. So what if the birds often add their voices to the soundscape (Tanglewood, Ravinia, Vail, etc.)? So what if commuter trains often intrude (Ravinia)? So what if traffic from I-70 sometimes makes its presence felt (Vail)?

The weather is unpredictable everywhere, but this year in Vail (and Aspen) the rains came almost every day, and often just when they could cause the most trouble. Lots of walking is required to get from buses and cars to the Ford Amphitheater in Vail and on the way to our first concert, Marita and I got thoroughly soaked. Fortunately, our seats were under cover – by the end of the concert we were dry again! – but how about those with lawn tickets? The first half-hour of the concert was accompanied by pouring rain! Well, the downpour seemed to be part of the experience for the lawn-folk; most came well-prepared with head to toe raingear and plastic sheets to put under and over themselves. And most seemed to be heartily enjoying the event!

Good Sound, Decent Ticket Prices, Glorious Scenery: Bravo, Vail!

What about the facility itself? It is much smaller than most of the summer concert venues used by the big orchestras – the Atlanta Symphony, for example, recently moved into a new summer home seating 12,000. The Vail facility – The Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater – seats about 1,200 and there is room on the lawn for about 1,200 more. This means that even the folks on the lawn are getting a pretty intimate experience.

The Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater was designed by Morter Architects of Vail and it could be characterized as elegant and graceful. There are five large wood ceiling panels, seemingly floating in air over the stage and audience area, and there are large spaces behind and beside the stage to reveal the ski slopes and trees characteristic of Vail. There does not appear to be much in the design that enhances the acoustics. In fact, executive director John W. Giovando informed me that on-going concern with regard to the acoustics has precipitated discussion of adding a solid back wall to the facility. But in the meantime, the sound system is quite good, and patrons under cover and on the lawn seemed generally pleased with what they were hearing.

I hate to keep coming back to money matters, but money does matter to nearly everything in life. There is no getting around it; the economics of the festival don’t make much sense. I have already mentioned the cost of bringing in large and famous orchestras for weeks at a time. And the venue is too small to generate much revenue. So the ticket prices would have to be astronomical, right? Wrong. For the Dallas Symphony concerts, the top price was a mere $65, very low by either winter or summer standards. Top price at Tanglewood this season is $89 and even higher for special events and at nearby Aspen orchestral concerts are priced at $70 and higher. To be fair, however, one must note that ticket prices for both the Philadelphia Orchestra and New York Philharmonic concerts – which perform at the height of the summer season in Vail – are higher.

Looking at the festival economics from another perspective, we should all be grateful to the folks who live in Vail and who care enough about music to support it for themselves, for their community, and for the tourists who have come to realize that Vail is a unique and magical place, not only in winter but in summer too!

Bravo! Artistic Director Eugenia Zuckerman Plays Mozart

Flutist Eugenia Zukerman has been artistic director of Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival for the past 13 years and this season she is stepping down. Among her farewell concerts was an appearance as soloist in Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto with harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, in a Bravo! concert with the Dallas Symphony, conducted by Jaap van Zweden.

Zukerman is largely responsible for putting together artists and programmes for the six-week festival and by all accounts she has done fine work. She will be succeeded next season by another well-known performer, pianist Anne-Marie Mcdermott.

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and “Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music,” both available at Amazon.com.

Photo by Marita

I try to get to Dallas as often as I can to bask in the glory of the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, one of the world’s great concert halls. After listening to concerts in other venues, it is always a shock to experience the Meyerson. To hear every instrument in the orchestra as it was meant to be heard, and to hear the perfectly blended sound of a fine orchestra, with a presence that is palpable, is satisfaction beyond words. Simply put, as the saying goes: “You had to be there!”

Of course, the Meyerson is simply a space, albeit a very carefully designed space, and like a Strad or any other fine instrument, makes no sound by itself. One needs musicians, and a gifted leader who can make things happen.

By now we know that Jaap van Zweden is an exceptional leader able to take full advantage of a stage peopled by excellent intrumentalists and singers, and of the hall itself. From the opening bars, one knew that this was going to be a typical van Zweden performance – intense and exciting, but absolutely rooted in the composer’s instructions.

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (”Resurrection“) has been important in the life of the Dallas Symphony Ochestra (DSO) for a long time; for example, when the Eugene McDermott Concert Hall in the Meyerson Symphony Center opened in 1989, music director Eduardo Mata began his tenure with this inspiring piece; in 2006, music director Andrew Litton ended his tenure with it; four years later, in May, 2010, Jaap van Zweden celebrated both the end of his second season as music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and the end of the orchestra’s 20th season in the Meyerson with the Mahler Second.

This Mahler Shook the Rafters and Touched the Soul!

All the previous performances were apparently memorable; the latest, under van Zweden, was arguably as good as it gets. To cite just one moment in the Mahler Second performance, when the organ joins the orchestra and chorus towards the end of the last movement: you don’t just hear it – you feel it through your whole body.

The piece opens with the violins and violas playing a tremolo with the dynamic marking fortissimo. Then, in the second bar, cellos and basses play a sixteenth-note figure marked triple forte, and – perhaps for the first time in symphonic music – “wild,” meaning in English “wild” or “violent”.

In this first movement, Mahler is depicting the dark side of life, the struggle of man against natural and human forces, and against oneself. It is the struggle to achieve something worthwhile and to make something of oneself. More specifically, it is a struggle for faith in God. For Mahler, this was a very real struggle in his own life and his faith was utterly destroyed many times.

The Mahler Second begins in turmoil and angst, but ends in joy and affirmation of belief in life everlasting. Or was this affirmation simply wishful thinking for Mahler? His personal struggle with faith went on for years and found expression in every piece of music that he wrote. Sadly perhaps, there is neither joy nor affirmation in the final bars of Symphony No. 9 – his last completed symphony.

The conductor’s challenge in the opening bars of the Mahler Second is to not only to play what the composer has written, but also to give it the life and death intensity that defines the essence of Mahler. This is not accomplished by getting the strings to play “loud.” Mahler very carefully calibrated all the dynamic markings and a conductor who ignores the nuances will not come close to realizing the meaning of entire phrases, passages and movements. Van Zweden and the members of the enlarged (for this performance) DSO had clearly rehearsed painstakingly, to accomplish a performance so detailed, accurate and engrossing.

Chorus, Soloists, Orchestra Magnificent Match!

Soloists for the “Resurrection” were soprano Heidi Grant Murphy and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, who recently triumphed in the Met production of John Adams’ opera “Dr. Atomic,” and was seen by millions in the Met HD Live broadcast.

In the Urlicht movement, van Zweden achieved a remarkable blend of vocal and instrumental sound. The brass players breathed as one in their quiet, slow-moving passages, and perfectly matched Ms. Cooke’s phrasing. Even though the soloists were positioned toward the back of the orchestra, Ms. Cooke’s voice came through with both intensity and clarity. The soprano part is much less prominent in this work, and Heidi Grant Murphy did not seem to be at her best.

The Dallas Symphony Chorus (DSC) is one of the finest ensembles of its kind anywhere and it certainly distinguished itself in this performance of Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony. Longtime DSC director, David R. Davidson, passed away last year, and he deserves great credit for bringing the choir to its present level. Indicative of the seriousness with which these choir members take their responsibilities, is the fact that they sang this performance without scores.

Hellos, Goodbyes, and Forever Mahler

With this concert, the DSO introduced Edward Stephan, its new timpanist. It was an auspicious debut, to say the least. His very first timpani roll, four bars before letter 2 in the score, was absolutely thrilling and his strong and multi-faceted playing will be a great asset. Incidentally, Mr. Stephan is no stranger to the Dallas area; he has been playing for some years just down the road, so to speak, with the Fort Worth Symphony. Nonetheless, he had no inside track to get the job. He auditioned and prevailed over dozens of other candidates.

On a somewhat sad note, concertmaster Emanuel Borok recently announced his retirement effective in August, making this Mahler Second his last subscription concert. As usual, he was superb in his solos and his leadership will be greatly missed.

More Mahler to come from van Zweden in Dallas. One of the highlights of the DSO’s 2010-2011 season will be Mahler’s Symphony No. 6. Also programmed: Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8 and Tchaikovsky’s “Manfred” Symphony, both conducted by van Zweden.

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and “Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music,” both available at Amazon.com.

Photo by Marita

The 100^th anniversary of Mahler’s death is in 2011, but conductors and orchestras are already programming his music at every opportunity – Symphony No. 2 with Jaap van Zweden in Dallas at the end of May, for example; and more recently, Symphony No. 1 with Peter Bay leading the Austin Symphony Orchestra.

Mahler’s Long Lost Blumine Blossoms on its Own

Maestro Bay opened the evening’s programme with ”Blumine,” which began its life as part of the Symphony No. 1 until Mahler decided it didn’t belong there after all.

At the first three performances of the Symphony No. 1 in the 19^th century, “Blumine” was the second movement. After the performance in Weimar in 1894, Mahler deleted it from the score. In fact, the music had all but vanished into the dustbin of history when musicologist Donald Mitchell found it 72 years later (1966). Conductors then rushed to play and record the newly-discovered Mahler, most often putting it back in the Symphony No. 1.

While it is always interesting to hear the first thoughts of great composers, performers also have an obligation to take a composer’s last word as serious and authoritative. Mahler was quite clear about what he wanted to do with the “Blumine” movement and his intentions certainly didn’t involve putting it back into Symphony No. 1.

“Blumine,” which began life in 1884 as part of the incidental music Mahler wrote for Scheffel’s play “Der Trompeter von Säckingen” (The Trumpeter of Säckingen), is lovely and interesting music in its own right and deserves occasional performances as a separate piece. Not surprisingly, some of the most notable features of the piece are the extended trumpet solos. “Blumine” is the only piece of this incidental music that has survived .

It is not clear why Mahler took the “Blumine” movement out of Symphony No. 1. It is a songlike ABA piece of a vaguely pastoral character, but rather slight compared to the other movements. Perhaps he found it too lightweight in a symphonic context.

“Blumine” does, however, have curious symphonic connections – with Brahms rather than Mahler! The first six notes of the trumpet melody in “Blumine” are identical to those of the famous C major tune in the last movement of Brahms’ Symphony No. 1.

Even listeners familiar with both first symphonies can be forgiven for not noticing this connection since Mahler’s melody has a different rhythm and metre. If I am not mistaken, the “Blumine” melody is the longest and most elaborate melody Mahler ever wrote for the trumpet – if you exclude the posthorn solo in the Third Symphony – and in this performance it was played beautifully by the Austin Symphony’s principal trumpet, Robert Cannon.

Peter Bay made a wise choice in programming “Blumine” as a separate piece, on the same programme with the Symphony No. 1.

You may well ask why the “Blumine” movement has a title, whereas the other movements of the symphony do not. In fact, in the original version of Symphony No. 1, Mahler did attach titles to all the movements, including “Blumine” – or “Flowers” – but later decided to remove them all and send the symphony out into the world purely as music.

Mozart’s Last Piano Concerto, No. 27

There are at least a dozen Mozart piano concertos among the greatest creations of the human mind. The musical content is sublime and the interplay between winds and strings is often deeply personal and affecting.

Mozart’s last piano concerto, No. 27 in B flat major K. 595, is a wonderful piece although it would not be my favorite Mozart piano concerto. Some others are melodically more memorable, harmonically richer and have more elaborate wind writing. But the winds are still important in No. 27, and conductor Bay and soloist Christopher O’Riley showed that they understood this very well by placing the wind players at the front of the stage where the cellos would normally sit. This meant that they could be heard more easily and could collaborate more effectively with the keyboard.

In several of the Mozart piano concertos, the keyboard part seems to be merely sketched rather than fully written out. That is the case with K. 595, especially in the slow movement. Mozart obviously didn’t need to write out all the notes since he was the soloist and would have added his own ornamentation during the performance. O’Riley followed the composer’s example in this respect and added a great deal of his own embellishment.

Austin Audience Warms to O’Riley’s Mozart

Christopher O’Riley is probably best known to music-lovers as the host of the NPR programme “From the Top.” It is a programme that introduces extraordinary young talent from all over the United States, and O’Riley has a gift for making these gifted kids feel at ease. He acts as accompanist for many of them as well, and has a busy life outside radio as a soloist in recital and concerto performances. O’Riley has made numerous recordings and on several of them he plays his own transcriptions of songs by the rock group Radiohead.

As soloist with the Austin Symphony in Mozart’s K. 595 O’Riley seemed a little nervous. He played all the notes, but seemed to want to vary the tempo more than one would expect in Mozart. It also struck me that the dynamic range of his interpretation was even more limited than the constraints we associate with Classical style. It’s fine to be aware of authentic performance practice, but why use a grand piano and a fairly big orchestra playing on modern instruments if one is going to require that they never be allowed to rise above mezzo forte? Fortunately, by the time they got to the last movement, both orchestra and soloist seemed to be better in sync and O’Riley was beginning to dig into the notes with a little more gusto.

Mahler More Than Big Sound With Bay and the ASO

Peter Bay demonstrated his affinity for Mahler with an excellent performance of the “Resurrection” symphony last season. The First Symphony is a much easier piece to play and to comprehend, but it is still far from a simple undertaking, and even celebrated conductors can be caught out of their comfort zone.

A case in point was Gustavo Dudamel in his inaugural concert last fall as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Some of his interpretative choices were questionable to say the least. He made a big sound, but that is perhaps the least important requirement in a performance of Mahler One.

Maestro Bay in Austin had a much less formidable orchestra to work with than the LA Philharmonic, but his careful preparation and respect for the score, together with an enlarged Austin Symphony playing near the top of its game, produced a performance of rare commitment and distinction. Of course there were a number of horn cacks – with eight of them playing fortissimo and in the highest register of the instrument, that is to be expected in even the best orchestras – but more importantly, there were numerous solos of exquisite beauty.

When the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra (SHFO) played in Austin this season, the double basses were placed on the left side of the stage in the Long Center, whereas the Austin Symphony basses are always positioned on the right side. I was curious to hear if the SHFO setup was an improvement. In fact, I could hardly hear the basses at all in that concert, whereas in the Bay/ASO Mahler First, the basses came through very well indeed. In theory I thought the opposite would be true; we learn something every day.

For Those Wanting More…

Anyone interested in Mahler’s early years – the time of the First Symphony – will find a wealth of meticulously researched information in “Mahler“ by Henry-Louis de La Grange (New York: Doubleday, 1973). Also very useful is Donald Mitchell’s “Gustav Mahler: The Wunderhorn Years” (London: Faber and Faber, 1975).

There have been dozens of recordings of Mahler’s First Symphony made over the years. Bruno Walter’s 1961 recording with the Columbia Symphony is especially important because Walter was a close friend and protégée of the composer.

Among the best of the DVD versions of Mahler’s First Symphony is Leonard Bernstein’s performance with the Vienna Philharmonic. It is Bernstein who is generally credited with starting the Mahler revival in the 1960s. This 1973 performance, however, strikes me today as slapdash. Bernstein rushes ahead for no apparent reason in many places and inexplicably slows the music to a crawl in others. And the Vienna Philharmonic? Remember the horn cacks I alluded to earlier? There are literally dozens of them in this very uneven performance.

If I had to choose one recording that combines insight, virtuosity and inspiration beyond nearly all others it would be a 1990 performance by Klaus Tennstedt and the Chicago Symphony, and released by EMI on DVD (EMI Classics 0946 3 67743 98).

Tennstedt toiled most of his life behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany. When he finally emerged, the wider world got to know him as one of the great interpreters of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler. But it was too late. He was struck down by one medical problem after another and ultimately he had to give up conducting altogether.

While he had the strength, Tennstedt enriched the lives of those who saw and heard him, not least of all those musicians who had the good fortune to play under him. The 1990 performance alluded to is also important as documentation of the Chicago Symphony in its prime. Two players in particular are by now legendary and deservedly so: principal trumpet Adolph Herseth and principal horn Dale Clevenger.

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and “Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music,” both available at Amazon.com.

Photo by Marita

There is no one hotter in the world of classical music today than Chinese pianist Lang Lang. What a coup for Maestro Christoph Eschenbach and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra (SHFO) that he agreed to be the featured soloist on their first North American tour!

In this extraordinarily long tour of twenty-three concerts in thirty-two days, Lang Lang played concertos by Prokofiev, Mozart and Beethoven, withEschenbach at the podium.

I caught up with this remarkable road show at the Long Center in Austin, Texas.

An Intimate Destination for Music Festival Connoisseurs

The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival is based in Salzau Castle, 100 kilometers north of Hamburg, Germany. Over the past thirty years it has grown into one of the most prestigious festivals in Europe.

Each year, a new festival youth orchestra is created after months of international auditions. One hundred young musicians are selected from over a thousand applicants around the world, and these fortunate 100 spend the summer in Salzau working with some of the world’s greatest conductors.

Leonard Bernstein founded the Orchestral Academy of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and his work has been carried on by conductors of the stature of Valery Gergiev, Kurt Masur, Sir Georg Solti and Christoph Eschenbach.

Fabulous – Fast and Furious – Clearly The Best of the Best!

The SHFO Austin concert opened with Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 “Classical,” played with great precision and panache. I particularly liked the way Eschenbach shaped the brief Gavotta, reminding us that Prokofiev was, after all, a great ballet composer. The Finale went like the wind, showing off the orchestra’s virtuosic winds to great advantage.

Attentive listeners might have noticed a quote from Beethoven’s Seventh in this symphony – an example of Prokofiev’s ‘affectionate parody’ of classical style.

Lang Lang’s Mozart Showy and Exquisite

Lang Lang continues to astound audiences the world over with his incredible technique, but lately he is giving audiences much more – a deepening musicianship. He has gone out of his way, for example, to enrich his study of Bach and Beethoven with Daniel Barenboim, and of Mozart and Schubert with Eschenbach – each of these maestros an internationally acclaimed piano virtuoso in his own right.

On this night, Lang Lang collaborated with Eschenbach on Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major K. 453. There is room for virtuosity here – Mozart, like Lang Lang, enjoyed showmanship – but the higher musical values required are beauty of tone and maturity of phrasing, and in this performance, Lang Lang demonstrated that he can play Mozart as well as he plays Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. The rapport between pianist, conductor and orchestra was remarkable. The give and take was exemplary from beginning to end.

As Only Lang Lang Can!

For his encore, Lang Lang chose the thrilling finale from Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 7. He played with incredible abandon and the kind of bravura that is nearly unique today.

Traditional Beethoven Mindful of the Masters

This evening’s performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony opened with an unusual ‘delayed’ first chord; this was quite deliberate on Maestro Eschenbach’s part, but at least one critic reviewing an earlier performance on this tour complained about a lack of unanimity in the orchestra.

In fact, Eschenbach was employing a style of attack considered the norm when Furtwängler and Böhm were conducting. German orchestras were trained to play the first chord in classical works after, rather than on, the conductor’s downbeat, the goal being that the musicians should feel the first chord together, and enter accordingly.

With orchestras trained in this tradition, this tactic works quite well – as it did in Austin.

Eschenbach’s approach throughout the symphony was traditional rather than, as is ‘fashionable’ today, an emulation of the style advocated by the period instrument specialists.

There was lots of vibrato in this performance and tempi were moderate rather than fast to the point of unintelligibility. The timpani were forceful, but not intrusive as they so often are in period instrument performances. The performance had plenty of excitement, as Eschenbach whipped up his players in all the right places.

As an encore Eschenbach and the SHFO offered a powerful performance of Beethoven’s “Prometheus Overture.”

For Those Wanting More…

If you are interested in hearing the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra on its home turf, plan to be in North Germany this summer between July 10 and August 29. The festival will be celebrating its 25th anniversary, and the theme this year is the music of Poland.

Among the guest artists will be Valery Gergiev, Alan Gilbert, Christopher Hogwood, Thomas Hampson and Matthias Goerne. There will be 136 concerts during the seven-week festival, and the concerts will be given in 74 different locations in the Schleswig-Holstein region. For more information visit the festival website.

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and “Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music,“ both available at Amazon.com.

Last week, at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, Peter Bay and the Austin Symphony presented an all-Russian program: Rachmaninov’s “Vocalise,” followed by the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3, and closing with the Shostakovich Symphony No. 5, this Russian composer’s most popular symphony.

As always, Maestro Bay had prepared well and interpreted the music with assurance and without exaggeration of any kind.

In the opening piece, Vocalise, Bay went for a nuanced, understated beauty that suited this slight work very well. Personally, I would like to hear more expansive phrasing in some sections, but then I may be biased by my own current research on that most rhapsodic of conductors, Leopold Stokowski.

Standing Ovation for Nissman’s Illuminating Rachmaninov!’

The Rachmaninov Third Piano Concerto (Rach 3), performed on this occasion by soloist Barbara Nissman, has become a calling card for piano virtuosi or would-be virtuosi from the days of one of the greatest, Vladimir Horowitz. It is a concerto guaranteed to bring down the house with its generous number of good tunes, its fearsome technical demands and its big finish.

But over the years we have learned that, while crucial, impeccable technique is not nearly sufficient for success with this piece. Finally, with Nissman, we got a performance that went deeper and illuminated more of the composer’s vision than any I have heard in a long time.

In Rach 3, many soloists settle for merely playing the notes accurately, in itself a formidable challenge. The great ones go further, as did Nissman, to make the music fresh and original, leaving listeners with a sense of having heard it for the first time.

In Nissman’s performance, this was especially true of the playful sections. Yes, the famously “sourpuss” Sergei Rachmaninov did indeed have a playful side. True, he wrote dark pieces such as “The Isle of the Dead,” but he wasn’t always morbidly depressed.

The third movement of Rach 3 has a scherzando section; it is here that we discern whether pianists are interpretive artists or merely technicians. Nissman played this section as it was surely meant to be played, in an improvisatory fashion, capturing all the sparkle and fun. It is not ‘Marx Brothers funny’ but it is witty and light-hearted. To capture the true spirit of this section is to add another dimension altogether to this great work, and Nissman did just that.

In the big peroration at the end of the concerto – clearly modeled after the ending of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 – Nissman played with both power and exuberance. There is a lot going on here with tempi and dynamics changing in almost every bar. Conductor and soloist had not quite managed to reach complete consensus; nonetheless, this was joyous music-making.

Ginastera-Nissman Collaboration Has Deep Roots

The Austin audience, clearly moved by Nissman’s performance, demanded an encore. She obliged us with music by a composer with whom she is closely identified.

Nissman first met Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera when she was a student at the University of Michigan. She went on to become one of his foremost interpreters and his Piano Sonata No. 3 Op. 55 is dedicated to her.

On this occasion Nissman played two of Ginastera’s Danzas Argentinas Op. 2. The first of these is a lovely song with simulated guitar accompaniment and the second, a celebration of the Argentinian gaucho or cowboy in a virtuoso piece bursting with Latin dance rhythms – both great encore pieces – which Nissman played with the utmost panache and authority.

Shostakovich Fifth Symphony Music or Politics?

Scholars still argue over the meaning of the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony – the last work on the program – particularly the final section with its triumphant, major key fanfares. Many, at the time of its writing (1937), took this music at face value, concluding that Shostakovich was forced to compose this kind of ‘programmed propaganda” music under threat from the Soviet authorities.

Shostakovich, since the premiere of his opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” in 1934, had been branded as a composer with ‘formalist’ tendencies, meaning that instead of writing music to celebrate the worker’s revolution, he was composing difficult and depressing music.

Before the premiere of the Fifth Symphony, Shostakovich himself had suppressed his Fourth Symphony, one of his most forward-looking and uncompromising works, realizing that if it saw the light of day, he would probably be signing his own death warrant.

Taking into consideration the history of the Fourth Symphony, and the political climate in Stalin’s Soviet Union at the time, the Fifth Symphony is thought to have been an attempt by Shostakovich to win favor by writing music which could be more easily understood by the masses and which left its listeners with a positive message. But there is more to it than that.

This assessment was expounded in Testimony: the Memoirs of Shostakovich (1979), a manuscript compiled by Solomon Volkov, and smuggled out of the Soviet Union. In Volkov’s words:

“I think that it is clear to everyone what happens in the Fifth. The rejoicing is forced, created under a threat, as in Boris Godunov. It’s as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, ‘ your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing, and you rise, shakily and go marching off muttering ‘Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing.’ “

The veracity of Volkov’s argument is still in dispute in some quarters, but there can be no doubt that in spite of its largely accessible style, the Fifth Symphony is a piece that contains many pages of struggle and despair. The question remains whether all this angst is alleviated in the end in accordance with socialist principles, or something else.

Timeless Power & Beauty: Bay and ASO Get it Right!

Shostakovich composed the Fifth Symphony well over 60 years ago; Stalin is long dead; and since 1989, the Soviet Union has collapsed and been consigned to the dustbin of history.

Most of us today enjoy Shostakovich’s ’s Fifth Symphony purely as music, and are unconcerned about its meaning. One may argue that it is music composed in a context, to be sure, but it endures because of its beauty, its range of feeling and its power to excite us.

My sense was that Peter Bay approached the music in this spirit; that is, pay attention to getting the notes right and the ‘music’ will emerge as the composer intended.

The Austin Symphony performed very well indeed. From the opening bars, the string phrases were precise and played without exaggeration. The dynamic marking here is only forte, after all, and the effect has a distinctly baroque character. The real drama in the piece is yet to come.

Bay followed the composer’s tempo instructions at the beginning of the last movement admirably. Shostakovich was very precise about wanting the movement to start rather slowly, then gradually accelerate over nearly thirty pages of score. It is very difficult for a conductor to make these tempo increases seamless, and the ideal result can only be achieved through sufficient rehearsal and performance.

Bay got it right. Compare, for example, Leonard Bernstein, a famous interpreter of the Shostakovich Fifth, who, in his classic first recording with the New York Philharmonic, starts with a very fast tempo and then has nowhere to go, having completely ignored the composer’s explicit intentions at the beginning of the movement.

Whether Peter Bay and the Austin Symphony played the final bars of the symphony as heroic or tragic is for the listener to judge, but there is no doubt that they played them loud. The Dell Hall in the Long Center has admirable clarity, but the players have to dig a little deeper to get enough sound out in the big climaxes. For once, timpanist Tony Edwards got the big sound I have been hoping to hear in this hall.

For Those Wanting More…

Barbara Nissman has recorded all of Ginastera’s piano music (Pierian 0005/6 2 CD set) including the encores she played in Austin. She is working on a book about Prokofiev’s piano music and has recorded all nine Prokofiev sonatas (Newport Classic NCD60092/3/4 reissued by Pierian as PIR0007/8/9 3 CD set). Bartok enthusiasts might want to check out Nissman’s “Bartók and the Piano: a Performer’s View“ (Scarecrow Press).

While in Austin Nissman gave a Master Class at UT and a recital of works by Bach, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov and Ginastera, in a private home. The highlight of the recital for me was Nissman’s superb rendition of Prokofiev’s rarely-played Piano Sonata No. 6.

For a complete Nissman discography visit her website.

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and “Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music,“ both available at Amazon.com.

Photo of Maestro Peter Bay by Marita

There are plenty of recordings of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 Op. 60 (”Leningrad”), but one rarely gets a chance to hear it in concert. The same could be said, only more so, for Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto Op. 15. To have them both offered on the same program is a special treat; thus, Jaap van Zweden and the Dallas Symphony (DSO) had me excited even before they played the first note of this concert at Morton Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas.

As it happens, these two works were composed within a few years of each other: the Britten in 1939 and the Shostakovich in 1941. Although the two composers didn’t meet until 1960, they were mutual admirers and each dedicated major works to the other.

The Britten Violin Concerto was first on the program and it brought back to Dallas the extraordinary Dutch violinist, Simone Lamsma, whose performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto last season had made such a strong impression.

Consummate Performance of Neglected Masterpiece!

Lamsa’s rendering of the Britten concerto was beyond impressive. Her technical and intellectual control of the piece convinced me that Opus. 15 is a neglected masterpiece. She soared into the top register of her instrument with total assurance and tossed off the difficult left-hand pizzicati with perfect panache. Such rock-solid playing enabled one to savor the musical argument, and it was profoundly satisfying.

The final movement of this volin concerto is a Passacaglia – a set of variations on a bass line – and surely one of the most imaginative examples of the form by this composer or any other. It starts with a doleful theme in the trombones – performed with perfect intonation by the DSO brass – and goes on from there. It was mesmerizing to hear Ms. Lamsma ring changes on the theme while behind her various sections of the orchestra were going through a series of inventive and complementary permutations on their own. The movement ends quietly and sadly, not unlike the ending of the Berg Violin Concerto.

Lamsma played magnificently, with van Zweden and the DSO providing impeccable accompaniment.

Instrumental Britten Revived and Re-instated

Over the course of his lifetime, Britten was frequently criticized for being, in effect, “too clever.” Critics claimed that his music was superficial, that it had no depth.

With the passing of time, however, many have come to appreciate the extent of Benjamin Britten’s originality. For some, myself included, he is the greatest composer of opera and song that England has ever produced, and I believe his instrumental music will continue to grow in stature.

The Violin Concerto Opus 15 is often written off as “an early work,” but as is the case with Mozart and Mendelssohn, many of Britten’s early works are among his finest. Let me give you just one example of what might be mistaken simply for ‘cleverness’ in this concerto. It’s an extraordinary passage in the Scherzo movement for piccolos and tuba. A ‘clever’ and unusual combination? Perhaps! But exciting as well, when one realizes that, in combination, Britten has given these often stereotyped instruments striking new dimensions of expression.

I have always considered Benjamin Britten to be one of the great masters, but before this concert I had never fully appreciated his Violin Concerto. I am deeply grateful that Lamsma and van Zweden provided the key to such a work. Incidentally, the Violin Concerto has a Canadian connection; Britten completed its composition in St. Jovite, Québec.

Making a Case for “Leningrad”

After intermission came the much longer Symphony No. 7 (”Leningrad”) by Shostakovich, perhaps best known for its Bolero-like first movement (Allegretto) which builds from a soft, repeated snare drum figure to a monumental climax.

Unfortunately, Shostakovich’s theme for this episode is every bit as trite as Ravel’s Bolero and, like its counterpart, it does not improve with repetition. No wonder Bartok made fun of the Shostakovich tune in his “Concerto for Orchestra!”

That said, Maestro van Zweden made the best possible case for the 7^th’s opening theme. He started the section with a virtually inaudible snare drum establishing the rhythm – marked ppp in the score – and built the volume with meticulous care. When the climax came, it was certainly impressive – and earsplitting – as the extra brass (called for in the score) were added to the already large and powerful orchestra. As usual, the magnificent McDermott Concert Hall of the Morton Meyerson Symphony Center handled the huge volume of sound with ease.

For me, however, the best parts of the “Leningrad” are not the towering climaxes in the first and last movements but the second movement (Moderato) and the third movement (Adagio).

The second movement (Moderato) is hauntingly beautiful, beginning with the loveliest oboe solo Shostakovich ever wrote, beautifully played by Erin Hannigan. Then come several sections recalling Mahler, especially in his use of woodwinds in various combinations. Then an entirely original touch – at least in my experience – as the bass clarinet (Christopher Runk) plays an eloquent, extended solo accompanied by the harp, two flutes in their lowest register and an alto flute. This combination makes for an uncommon, uncanny sound. Once again, van Zweden and the DSO played to perfection: tempo just right; rhythms crisp; tonal quality exquisite.

The Adagio movement opens with extremely disturbing block chords that move into music expressing all kinds of lamentation. This is followed by the moderato risoluto section, a kind of ‘danse macabre.’ Van Zweden brought out the syncopation driving the music forward and made sure we also heard the rich sonorities of the Dallas strings, especially the double basses.

First Violins of DSO Savor Challenge!

This is music of endless soul-searching, probing the best and the worst of the Russian spirit during one of the worst periods in the country’s long and troubled history – the siege of Leningrad by the Nazi forces in an unimaginable campaign lasting two and a half years.

If music can adequately express such horrors, the Shostakovich Seventh Symphony is where you will find it. It is not easy listening, but like all great art, it penetrates and articulates the human condition in a universal language.

In closing, I must applaud the members of the first violin section of the Dallas Symphony led by Emanuel Borok and Gary Levinson. In this symphony, there is one passage after another where they must perform death-defying high wire acts in their instrument’s highest register. This is cruelly exposed music. Not only did they play these passages with unfailing accuracy; they also gave them superlative shape and character. This was first-class playing by any standard and Dallas is fortunate to have such gifted and dedicated musicians.

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and “Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music,” both available at Amazon.com.

Photo by Marita: Maestro van Zweden and DSO in rehearsal

A centenary celebration is in order for one of the greatest of American composers, Samuel Barber (b. March 9, 1910), and yet the scheduled tributes in the country of his birth are few and far between: the Philadelphia Orchestra, for example, which premiered many of Barber’s compositions, has programmed just a handful of works, scattered over the course of their 2009-2010 season.

The Austin Symphony Orchestra (ASO), notably an exception, last week presented an all-Barber program under its imaginative music director, Peter Bay. As Maestro Bay correctly stated in his opening remarks, the ASO is very likely the only professional orchestra in the entire United States offering such a concert this season. What’s more, tickets sold very briskly for the two concerts and the audience seemed to enjoy what they heard. It probably didn’t hurt that the dynamic and flamboyant Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg was the featured soloist.

Barber Out of Sync with Contemporaries

Barber is by no means a ‘difficult’ composer and never was. In fact, he was often accused of being old-fashioned and too conservative to be taken seriously as a composer of contemporary music. While much of his music does indeed have recognizable melody, it is often complex in its musical argument, and there is frequently a deep sadness in his music that can be unsettling.

The “Adagio for Strings,” by far Barber’s best-known composition, has become one of the staples of string orchestra repertoire and is often performed at funerals and occasions of public lament. It is a richly beautiful piece, shot through with anguish, expressing at its climax, a kind of primordial scream. Peter Bay and the ASO played the work with the utmost sensitivity and gave full value to the eloquent rests which are so integral to the work.

The concert opened with “Medea’s Meditation and Dance of Vengeance” Op. 23a, taken from a ballet score written for Martha Graham in 1946. I must confess that I have never really warmed to this piece – it always sounds to me like a second-rate version of the “Dance of the Seven Veils” from Richard Strauss’ opera “Salome” – but Bay and the ASO played it very well indeed.

Flashy Organ Concerto Suits Occasion

The “Toccata Festiva” Op. 36 closed the first half of the concert. Barber composed this piece in 1960 to inaugurate the new organ installed at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, which, at the time, was the home of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The “Toccata” remains a largely ceremonial piece to be trotted out on special occasions, such as this. Christoph Eschenbach (with organist Olivier Latry) performed and recorded (Ondine ODE 1094-5) the work at the inauguration of the new organ in Verizon Hall in Philadelphia in 2006.

The audience at the Long Center was utterly fascinated watching the stagehands bring on the portable organ console piece by piece and then assemble it onstage. One of the highlights of the “Toccata Festiva” – apart from the setting up of the organ – is undoubtedly the remarkable cadenza which is almost entirely played on the pedals. This is exciting to watch, especially if the keyboards and pedals are facing the audience, as they were in Austin. The organ soloist was Stephen Hamilton, Minister of Music at the Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City.

Nadja-Salerno Sonnenberg “owns” this Concerto!

After intermission came the two works which stand for me as among Barber’s greatest achievements: the Violin Concerto (1936) and the Symphony No. 1 (1939).

The soloist in the Violin Concerto was Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, who has been playing this piece with love and virtuosity for decades. She doesn’t just play this piece; she enters into the soul of it. From the almost inaudible opening bars she seems to be improvising, slowly bringing the music to life before weaving an engrossing tale of beauty and emotion.

The first melody at the opening of the concerto is exquisite. The tune first played by the oboist (Ian Davidson) at the beginning of the second movement is even more beguiling.

For all its beauty, the last movement of this concerto is problematic for some listeners – especially critics – in that it seems too short and too different from what has come before. But in Salerno-Sonnenberg’s hands it is, as Duke Ellington liked to say, simply “beyond category.” This is a perpetual motion movement in which the soloist’s fingers and bow are a blur from beginning to end. Unique to Salerno-Sonnenberg’s performance is the way in which she so perfectly catches the infectious ‘swing’ of the music. Bay and the ASO were right there for her in all the passionate moments and in the lightning fast and metrically complex finale.

And After Intermission…a Performance Worth the Wait!

I expected that there would be a rush for the exits after the concerto. In cities famous and not so famous all over the world, listeners tend to head for home after the celebrity guest artist has done his or her thing. As far as I could tell, not a single person left the hall on this occasion. There are some serious music-lovers in Austin and they are not all on Sixth Street!

In fact, fleeing patrons would have missed a fine musical experience; the performance of Barber’s Symphony No. 1 nearly topped what had preceded it. The Austin Symphony played superbly and Peter Bay conducted with total mastery of this complex score. There is an achingly beautiful oboe solo in this work too and once again Ian Davidson rose to the occasion.

Samuel Barber Then and Now

All the music on this concert except for the “Toccata Festiva” dates from 1936-46. Looking back, this was Barber’s golden period and a gradual decline in productivity and quality set in after that. Depression, alcoholism and a break with his life-long partner Gian Carlo Menotti all contributed to an apparent loss of confidence and energy.

Many people admire Barber’s opera “Vanessa” (1958); I am not one of them. It has always seemed to me somewhat ‘precious’ and lacking in drama. In 1966, Barber wrote another opera, “Antony and Cleopatra,” on a commission from the Metropolitan Opera. At the time, the consensus was that this was a fiasco and Barber was deeply hurt by the experience. Many of his admirers blamed the excessively grand staging by Zeffirelli for the opera’s failure and it has since been produced elsewhere with some success. This coming March Curtis Opera Theatre will mount a new production at the Kimmel Centre in Philadelphia as part of its year-long celebration of the Barber Centenary. Barber studied at Curtis as a young man and later returned to teach there.

For all his ups and downs, Barber created a substantial body of work. Along with Ives, Gershwin, Copland and Bernstein, he has earned the right to be considered one of the major American composers of the Twentieth Century. As we begin to make our way through the second decade of a new century, Peter Bay and the Austin Symphony reminded us of Barber’s stature in a very positive way.

And For Those Who Want More…

Some years ago Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg made a recording of the Barber Violin Concerto (EMI 54313). She currently leads her own orchestra, the New Century Chamber Orchestra in the Bay Area and with this ensemble she has released an album called “Together.” For more on NSS visit her website.

For more on Samuel Barber, the biography by Barbara Heyman is essential reading: “Samuel Barber: the Composer and his Music” (Oxford University Press). I recommend also the fine appreciation of Barber in a long essay by Paul Wittke.

Barber’s songs are at the heart of his compositional output and it will be a long time before his music finds a better interpreter than Thomas Hampson. The distinguished American baritone has recorded all of Barber’s songs (DG 435 8672) along with soprano Cheryl Studer, pianist John Browning and the Emerson Quartet in a 2-CD set.

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and “Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music,” both available at Amazon.com.

Classical Travels
This Week in Italy

Beethoven’s” Missa Solemnis” has always had a reputation for being monumental and impossibly difficult to perform – especially for the chorus. The difficulty stems in part from the fact that the work dates from late in Beethoven’s life, by which time he was completely deaf and almost totally oblivious to the natural limits of the human voice. The great ‘et vitam venturi’ fugue in the “Credo” is a killer for sopranos and is rarely done well, particularly in “live” performance.

A recording of the piece that I have always treasured – one which still stands as an incomparable achievement – was done by Toscanini with the NBC Symphony and a chorus trained by Robert Shaw.

I once had the opportunity to ask Shaw how he had prepared his sopranos for the challenges of the ‘et vitam venturi’; with typical modesty he responded that what one hears on the recording is pretty much an illusion, with the singers letting the orchestra do much of the heavy lifting.

Recently, in Rome, Maestro Antonio Pappano (photo: right) tackled the “Missa Solemnis” with the chorus and orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and there was nothing illusory about his achievement. The chorus, prepared by the legendary Viennese choirmaster Norbert Balatsch, was magnificently fearless.

The acoustics of the Sala Santa Cecilia in the Auditorium Parco della Musica are somewhat problematic, but the volume and accuracy of the 80-member chorus was remarkable by any standard.

While Maestro Pappano has been building a solid reputation as chief conductor at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, he is also much-admired in Italy for his work with the country’s leading orchestra. Several weeks ago, EMI released a live recording of the Verdi “Requiem” by Pappano and the Santa Cecilia orchestra and chorus. It has received rave reviews.

Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” is a very different kind of challenge. That too, Pappano met with distinction. Obviously familiar with all the trouble spots in this work, he took the time to sort them out in rehearsal; this performance was meticulously prepared.

Was it Pappano who encouraged the use of natural (i.e. no valves) trumpets here for a more authentic sound? His trumpeters appeared to have no problem at all with these demanding instruments, and the pure but penetrating sound was impressive.

He might also have encouraged his timpanist to use harder sticks more often in this piece, and play a more prominent role. Throughout the performance, I had the impression the orchestra could have played much louder without coming close to covering the chorus, especially in the climaxes at the end of the “Gloria” and the “Credo”.

This is where the acoustic deficiencies of the Sala Santa Cecilia come into play. I was sitting about half way back on the ground floor – surely a pretty good location – but the basses in the orchestra scarcely registered at all and the other string sections, for the most part, didn’t fare much better.

Concertmaster Carlo Maria Parazzoli was reasonably prominent in his extended solo in the” Benedictus”  - he played beautifully – but the strings generally lacked warmth and presence.

This is a fairly common failing in most modern concert halls and in this respect the Sala Santa Cecilia is typical. It may be that at 2,800 seats, the hall is simply too big. I had anticipated better acoustics when I settled into my seat at the start of the concert and marveled at the fine wooden surfaces evident everywhere, including the ceiling.

Soloists for this performance were soprano Emma Bell, contralto Anna Larsson, tenor Roberto Sacca, and bass Georg Zeppenfeld. Bell’s sound seemed unfocussed. Zeppenfeld could hardly be heard at all, except for his solo at the beginning of the “Agnus Dei”.

The excellent programme notes revealed that Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” had its first performance in Italy in 1924, with the Santa Cecilia orchestra conducted by Bernardino Molinari. Since then, this orchestra has made the piece part of its basic repertoire, presenting it on no fewer than eighteen occasions under conductors such as Victor de Sabata, Eugen Jochum, Carlo Maria Giulini, Giuseppe Sinopoli and Wolfgang Sawallisch. Norbert Balatsch has been the chorus master for every performance – five of them – given over the past twenty-five years.

On the whole, Pappano’s performance of the “Missa Solemnis” was impressive. The choral work was outstanding and the discipline of his reading was altogether admirable. Tempi were well-considered and when they were a little quicker than usual, control was never in doubt.

In the darker moments of the work, however, I felt that Pappano’s discipline seemed more than a little unyielding. This was especially true in the “Agnus Dei”. This final movement of the “Missa Solemnis” has disappointed many a listener over the years. It is often felt to be abrupt and unsatisfying.

This, surely, is a place where the conductor must pay less attention to what the score says or doesn’t say, and must enter into the spirit of the composer’s vision.

Beethoven’s ‘dona nobis pacem’ (give us peace) comes from the depths of the composer’s soul and needs to be performed accordingly – with phrasing a little more expansive and emotional in the final bars. Pappano’s reading was true to the letter of the score but missed the meaning of it all.

These disappointing final bars notwithstanding, one left the Sala Santa Cecilia grateful for having heard a superbly prepared “Missa Solemnis” in which Beethoven’s fearsome technical challenges were met with fine musicianship.

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar“, and “Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music“, both available at Amazon.com.

Parco della Musica photo by Marita

Like many institutions in the state of Texas, the Austin Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is more than a little to the right of center – it takes few risks in matters of programming; nonetheless, music director Peter Bay keeps finding ways to energize his concerts and challenge his listeners. The latest example of this irrepressible spirit was a performance of Cary Ratcliff’s “Ode to Common Things”, a major work for soloists, chorus and orchestra based on poems by the Chilean master poet, Pablo Neruda.

The concert began with Mendelssohn’s “Incidental Music” to Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Nights Dream” (MND), programmed as part of the ASO’s ongoing celebration of the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. In this performance, the ASO was joined by the Conspirare Symphonic Choir.

From the “Incidental Music” that he had composed for Shakespeare’s play, Mendelssohn later extracted a purely orchestral suite comprised of some of his best-loved music, including the glorious ‘Wedding March’ which has ushered millions of happy couples out the door of a church into a life of ‘wedded bliss’.

Maestro Bay chose to add to Mendelssohn’s orchestral suite program some other bits and pieces from Mendelssohn’s MND “Incidental Music”. The problem is that these bits are ,well – incidental, and don’t make a lot of sense on their own without some of the text they were meant to support.

In my opinion, it would have made more sense to open with the orchestral suite…and then link that to the selected “Incidental Music” by means of narration and/or spoken excerpts from the the play – A “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” – itself.

Be that as it may, Bay and his musicians played the music very well indeed. The horn and flute solos were not impeccable, but the style of playing was impressive. I particularly liked Bay’s tempo for the scherzo, which is marked Allegro vivace and not Presto, as too many conductors seem to think. Bay’s comfortable tempo adeptly brought out the charm of the piece.

The brief vocal solos were a little shaky and the chorus occasionally seemed to lose focus, but overall this was a good night for Mendelssohn.

Ratcliff has lived in Rochester, NY for many years and plays keyboards with the Rochester Philharmonic. He has produced a large body of work which includes, among other things, ’songs’ for Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

The poetry Ratcliff chose to set to music in “Ode to Common Things” is by Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda, and dates from the years 1954-59.

Some years ago I became interested in Neruda and that interest deepened considerably after a visit to Chile in 2008. Then – as it happens – just this last week, during an ocean voyage, I read a fine biography of Neruda by Adam Feinstein.

Neruda is perhaps most widely known and admired for his love poetry, but during much of his life, he was a political activist and diplomat. An ardent communist, he got into all kinds of trouble with friends and opponents alike. At one stage, when the Chilean government sought to arrest him, Neruda was forced into hiding. He later escaped on horseback over the Andes into Argentina. In another period, he alienated friends by stubbornly continuing to support Stalin even after the dictator’s monstrous crimes came to light.

Neruda died of prostate cancer in 1973, just after the heartbreak of seeing his friend Salvator Allende overthrown and probably murdered in a coup led by General Pinochet. Neruda’s funeral procession became one of the first public protests against the Pinochet government.

Neruda wrote numerous odes, but the “Ode to Common Things” is perhaps exceptional. An analysis and celebration of everything we take for granted in our lives, Neruda’s poetry in this piece is perceptive, surprising, beautiful, sad and funny – often all at the same time. And so too is Ratcliff’s music. In fact, when the poetry and the music are combined, there is almost too much sound and information to comprehend – at least at first hearing.

Fortunately, for this performance, Neruda’s poetry was made available to the audience as an addition to the printed program. Unfortunately, when words are set to music they are often elongated to the point of being unrecognizable, especially when the tempo is quick, and so the tiny font size (8pt!) used in the program accentuated the difficulty of digesting large blocks of text in time to appreciate its particular musical expression.

These are problems, however, that will likely disappear with repeated hearings as one becomes more familiar with this complex piece. And let me be clear about this: Ratcliff’s “Ode to Common Things” deserves repeated hearings.

Ratcliff composes in a style that I would describe as ‘eclectic traditional’. The harmonies are traditional but the ways in which voices and instruments are used and combined are decidedly original.

In a choral work based on Chilean poetry, most composers would go all out with Latin rhythms. The orchestration would include a good deal of Latin percussion and bits of tango and samba would be everywhere. Ratcliff’s composition is more subtle; it’s Latin elements are never predominant.

Ratcliff pays Neruda the compliment of respecting him as not only Chile’s greatest poet, but also as a man whose thoughts and words have universal significance.

Singing in the original Spanish, the Conspirare Symphonic Chorus, prepared by Craig Hella Johnson, was wonderful. The nearly 100 voices handled the tricky rhythms and textures with both finesse and enthusiasm.

Soprano Ava Pine, mezzo-soprano Dana Beth Miller and tenor Bryan Griffin were all excellent. Miller was particularly impressive in her duet with acoustic guitar in ‘Ode to the Guitar’.

Maestro Peter Bay is to be commended not only for introducing Ratcliff’s “Ode to Common Things” to Austin, but also for conducting it with extraordinary technical command and acute sensitivity to the myriad expressive demands of the piece.

A good night for Mendelssohn! A great night for Pablo Neruda, Cary Ratcliff and Peter Bay.

As you Like it!

After hearing a work like “Ode to Common Things”, listeners may want to read more poetry by Pablo Neruda and listen to other pieces composed by Cary Ratcliff. They may also want to watch a beautiful film about Neruda during a period of exile when he lived in Italy, and make the acquaintance of some Neruda songs by another composer, Peter Lieberson.

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar“, and “Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music“, both available at Amazon.com.