Disc three is devoted to one long (80 minutes) piece by Morton Feldman. A good friend of mine, Anthony Genge, did a doctorate in composition with him at SUNY Stony Brook. Feldman wrote a lot of very long pieces in his later years and the Salzburg Festival is doing a mini-festival of his music next summer. Listening to Piano and String Quartet from 1985 is a strange experience. The piece is simplicity itself, with slow arpeggios on the piano answered by quiet sustained chords from the string quartet. The music slowly changes like the movement of clouds in the sky, or the slow advance of the tide on a lonely beach. As the music goes on, the piano and quartet change roles, occasional pizzicati appear, but the simplicity remains. One realizes that this music has a healing quality. It is as if a hundred hours of bad, crashing, awkward and unpleasant music was slowly washed away by the honest simplicity of these chords.
This is a performance by Víkingur Ólafsson (piano), Sigrún Edvaldsdóttir (violin), Bryndís Halla Gylfadóttir (cello), Una Sveinbjarnardóttir (violin) and Thórunn Ósk Marinósdóttir (cello) from a festival in Iceland in 2013:
Disc four has String Quartets 2, 3, 4, and 5 by Philip Glass. They are so terribly busy after listening to the Feldman. At this point Glass' music is hardly surprising. He somehow manages to find more possibilities within the fairly narrow range of rising minor thirds, lots of eighth notes and diatonic scales. Mirabile visu, Glass has managed to construct a new tonality that offers a stable, repeatable platform for any number of string quartets, symphonies (is he up to ten by now, or eleven?), concertos, operas and so on. He is the Vivaldi of the late 20th century avant-garde.
For some reason Blogger won't embed the Kronos recording, so here is the Catalyst Quartet with the Closing of the Mishima quartet, No. 3:
As I recall, we had the Catalyst Quartet down here for a winter series chamber concert a few years ago and they may have even played this piece.
At my talk yesterday, one person asked about the Kronos Quartet. Coincidentally, that same day I received from Amazon the box of ten CDs of their 25th Anniversary collection.
The Kronos Quartet, as we learn from the extensive notes in the booklet accompanying the discs, was founded in 1973 in Seattle by violinist David Harrington. In the first few years there was some turnover of personnel before settling into the long-term lineup that included violinist John Sherba, violist Hank Dutt and cellist Joan Jeanrenaud. The plan from the very beginning was to reconceive the string quartet in a new way that would be an ideal medium for composers in the last quarter of the 20th century and on into the future. They were spectacularly successful in this regard and ended up commissioning some four hundred pieces by a wildly diverse group of composers. They created an audience of young, enthusiastic listeners who were open to all sorts of new kinds of music.
What the heck, let's review the box. Disc 1 is devoted to John Adams and Arvo Pärt. I have mixed feelings about John Adams--some pieces I really love, but others I find tedious. The music here, John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994) is new to me and on first listening, it is a real winner, displaying Adams' humorous side with titles like "Dogjam" and "Toot Nipple." The music is a suite of crazed and inventive dances that continues to surprise. This is followed by four pieces by Arvo Pärt that, while not very surprising if you know his music, are certainly a faithful performance of his mystical, hazy harmonies. The piece new to me was the Missa Syllabica for string quartet and quartet of singers.
Disc 2 is music by Ken Benshoof, the first composer commissioned by the quartet (first commission payment was a bag of donuts!) and Harrington's composition teacher at the University of Washington. The first piece, the original commission, Traveling Music (1973), is a real delight, moving imperceptibly from downhome sashaying to more incisive expression. Also included is a newer piece, Song of Twenty Shadows (1994). The rest of the disc is devoted to music by Astor Piazzolla and the quartet are joined by the composer himself on bandoneón. This is a very faithful performance of Piazzolla which means that since I didn't like his music much before, I like it even less now. Sorry! But I find Piazzolla to be tedious in the extreme with his meticulous exploration of two and only two moods, neither of which I care for.
Up next are two discs devoted to Morton Feldman and Philip Glass which I will take up in a future post. For now, let's have an envoi of Ken Benshoof's Traveling Music:
Yesterday I gave a short talk on composition. I was asked to give the presentation by a friend, Ben, who lives in a grand and rustic house in the country. Apart from a couple of friends I really didn't know who was going to show up. I was surprised and pleased to see two ex-presidents of the chamber music festival there. There were also a few writers and painters so it was an artistically aware group. Here is a shot of the space:
Click to enlarge
That doesn't give a good sense of the room, which had a fourteen foot ceiling and lovely bullseye windows on the other end. Just right for this sort of presentation. My violinist was out of town so I played some recordings of my music and talked a bit about what composers do and what different kinds there are. I mentioned that historically composers largely provided music for the church and nobility. Nowadays an important group of composers are those nearly anonymous Swedish songwriters that provide a lot of the material for the pop divas. Yes, Swedish! Then there are the film soundtrack composers like John Williams. And finally, there are the "contemporary classical" composers like myself.
I played some of my older pieces, like this song, "Listening to a Monk from Shu" on a poem by Li Po:
I explained that the influences on that piece were the sound of the pipa or Chinese lute. Next I played a piece for violin and guitar that is influenced a bit by Debussy called "Cloudscape."
Next I played a piece for violin and piano called "Chase." This was a pièce d'occasion written for a couple of friends of mine and it uses some Latin American rhythms. The intent was merely to be musically enjoyable. Here is the link:
Finally I played a recording of my new piece, "Dark Dream." I am going to finally post that piece over the weekend. I have been hesitating because it was such a departure for me, the first piece in which I really feel I have ventured onto unexplored ground and brought something new to composition. Though, indeed, there is some Asian influence and it owes a bit to the Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina. But more about that later.
What impressed me so much was the reaction to my music. Everyone was so positive. They said they really felt that the music was deeply expressive and took them on a journey. In other words, my music touched them. As a composer, you spend so much time working alone and often you don't know how your music will be received, especially if it is exploring new territory. So this experience was very gratifying for me. Here are some photos afterwards.
From left to right, our host, Ben, a guest, myself, Barbara (ex-president of chamber music festival) and John, author of numerous books
Myself, with Barbara, who has asked me to give some presentations at her house in town next year
I just placed my order for tickets to next summer's Salzburg Festival. Looking at the offerings I decided to focus on concerts in the second half of August. Here is what I ordered:
ORDERS (9)
15
Aug
CONCERT 11:00, Grosses Festspielhaus
Vienna Philharmonic · Muti
1 Ticket Category 6 € 85.-
16
Aug
CONCERT 19:30, Stiftung Mozarteum — Großer Saal
Beethoven Cycle 8 – Levit
1 Ticket Category 3 € 55.-
17
Aug
OPERA 20:00, Felsenreitschule
Richard Strauss
Elektra
1 Ticket Category 6 € 75.-
20
Aug
OPERA 18:00, Grosses Festspielhaus
Modest Mussorgsky
Boris Godunov
1 Ticket Category 7 € 75.-
21
Aug
CONCERT 18:00, Stiftung Mozarteum — Großer Saal
Camerata Salzburg · Lonquich
1 Ticket Category 4 € 60.-
23
Aug
CONCERT 11:00, Stiftung Mozarteum — Großer Saal
Mozart Matinee · Á. Fischer
1 Ticket Category 4 € 60.-
25
Aug
CONCERT 19:30, Felsenreitschule
Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester · Metzmacher
1 Ticket Category 4 € 85.-
27
Aug
CONCERT 19:30, Grosses Festspielhaus
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra · Honeck
1 Ticket Category 6 € 80.-
28
Aug
CONCERT 11:00, Grosses Festspielhaus
Vienna Philharmonic · Dudamel
1 Ticket Category 6 € 80.-
The Vienna Phillies are performing the Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven which I have never heard in concert. The Levit concert is part of his complete cycle of the Beethoven piano sonatas. This concert includes op. 109, 110 and 111, three of my favorites. Back in the late 80s when I was a student there, they did a lot more of this. That year Brendel played all the Schubert sonatas, the Alban Berg Quartet did all the Beethoven quartets and Stockhausen's ensemble did seven concerts of his chamber music.
Then I am going to two operas. I chose operas I didn't know over a couple of Mozart operas which I sort of know! Hope I made the right choice. I am really looking forward to Boris Godunov. This version was orchestrated by Shostakovich. The concert on the 21st is rather a marathon. It goes from 6 to 11pm and will include ALL the Beethoven piano concertos with Alexander Lonquich both as soloist and conductor. The Mozart Matinee includes an early symphony and the 41st. The Mahler Jugendorchester has this program:
MODEST MUSSORGSKY
Prelude 'Dawn over the Moscow River' from the opera Khovanshchina
Songs and Dances of Death
DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH
Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43
The Pittsburgh Symphony concert includes the Beethoven Violin Concerto and the Bartók Concerto for Orchestra. The Dudamel concert includes a Liszt Piano Concerto and the Firebird. And I forgot to book a ticket to the Daniil Trifinov concert with a terrific program of 20th century music. So I went back and added that one. Sometime around the end of March I will find out if I have been "alloted" the tickets.
So, looks like a very full and satisfying festival. Will I see any of my readers there?
For our envoi, how about that Symphony No. 4 by Shostakovich? This is the one he withdrew from rehearsal in 1936 after he was denounced in Pravda. He wrote the Symphony No. 5 to restore his standing with Stalin. Bernard Haitink probably conducting the Concertgebouw:
Frank Zappa is reported to have said that "All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff." In today's environment he might add that they were also white males. Culture produced by dead white males is the target of "cancel culture," the drive to eliminate anything that might be construed as "oppressive." There was a recent example of a Canadian school eliminating Shakespeare from a literature course in favor of works by Indigenous authors. Today I read an article about a move to cancel Gauguin, another dead white male: The move to cancel Gauguin could kill off Western culture.
At a current Paul Gauguin exhibition at London’s National Gallery, visitors are warned that the famous French painter had sexual relationships with young girls, including two with whom he fathered children.
A wall text notes, “Gauguin undoubtedly exploited his position as a privileged Westerner [in French Polynesia] to make the most of the sexual freedoms available to him.”
The “warnings” against Gauguin are another step toward excommunicating every Western creative talent from the realm of permissible enjoyment. If left unopposed, the PC fascists will inevitably ban everything by Western-world artists, writers and musicians due to perceived “sensitivities” or “colonialist” violations.
This is likely an exaggeration of course, rhetoric to make a point. Alongside projects to show only women painters or publish only women writers, it does make one wonder, will we get to the point where someone like Beethoven, undeniably a dead white male, will simply be "canceled" in favor of Clara Schumann or Fanny Mendelssohn? It really doesn't seem possible at the moment. I was just at a concert a few weeks ago where music by Clara Schumann for violin and piano was programmed alongside music by Beethoven and frankly, the comparison was not to her advantage. Will music-lovers simply ignore the fact that Beethoven is at the heart of the Western classical tradition and replace him with lesser composers simply because they are women or of a racial minority? It doesn't seem possible, does it? But a few years ago we would have denied the possibility of replacing Shakespeare by Indigenous authors.
The whole idea makes me uneasy... You might remark that Beethoven's biography does not offer the kind of shortcomings that we find in Paul Gauguin: no dallying with young girls or owning of slaves [UPDATE: I didn't mean to imply that Beethoven owned slaves; I was thinking rather of the accusations against the Founding Fathers in the US, some of whom did own slaves]. But I have the distinct impression that the real reason great artists are being "canceled" is simply that they are great artists and greatness is perceived by those who are mediocre as being, well, oppressive. Pathetic, really.
Sometimes an artistic experience can assume an elevated sense of urgency due to its context. After 9/11, the Berlin Philharmonic’s performance of Beethoven’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies at Carnegie Hall felt like a triumphant assertion of a civilizational inheritance in the face of lethal attack. Last month, German baritone Christian Gerhaher’s recital of Mahler songs at Lincoln Center seemed no less momentous. While not as cataclysmic as 9/11, the current assault on the tradition that gave birth to those Mahler songs may prove more devastating over the long run. Gerhaher’s transcendent performance was a reminder of what is at stake.
A few markers of our present moment: every arts institution in the United States is under pressure to discard meritocratic standards in collections, programming, and personnel, in favor of race and gender preferences.
I really don't think that most people are aware of how destructive this is to the practice of art (not to mention science and just about everything else). I notice that the singer Christian Gerhaher is giving a lieder recital at the Salzburg Festival and I was planning on attending that one.
When Christian Gerhaher and his long-time accompanist, Gerard Huber, stepped onto the stage of Alice Tully Hall on October 29, in other words, they were entering what university precincts call a “contested” space. Their featured composer—Gustav Mahler—is a dead white male; Gerhaher and Huber are themselves white and male. And they were offering works that represent the pinnacle of a civilization routinely denounced in the academy and the political arena as the font of the world’s racism and sexism. Gerhaher and Huber demonstrated why the preservation of that inheritance is the most pressing imperative of our time.
Not just preservation of, but continuance of! I haven't previously thought of Heather MacDonald as being a music critic as she writes on many things, but she gets quite involved in the details of this recital and her aesthetic judgment seems sound.
This sublimation of the performer’s ego to the composer’s genius became a key feature of classical music in the nineteenth century. In a world dominated by identity-based narcissism, when individuals obsess over ever more arcane aspects of their allegedly victimized selves, to witness Gerhaher and Huber’s all-consuming commitment to a mind outside of themselves reaffirmed our common humanity and inducted the audience into a higher realm. Their recital was a triumph over the tribalism and hatreds of identity politics.
Let's listen to one of the songs from the recital:
Who was St. Cecilia and why do we care? She is the patron saint of music, which is why there are odes and masses by Purcell, Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti and Haydn named after her. There are also modern works honoring her by Britten and Arvo Pärt. Here is the Ode for St. Cecilia's Day by Henry Purcell:
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Ok, now Kanye has the Correctional Service doing promotional videos for him:
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Wasn't there supposed to be a tequila shortage a while back? Doesn't seem to be one here in Mexico:
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And while we are doing images, here is an Irish Wolfhound with sub-woofers:
Much 18th-century repertoire suffered the same fate as the bows of that era. In the 1800s, such works were considered fit to be studied but were rarely performed. Rameau (1683–1764) is an example of a composer whose works were thus neglected, and attempts to play his music with a ‘modern’ bow (one made in the 19th or 20th century) cannot do justice to the articulation required. This is because modern bows have a different balance – they have considerably more weight at the tip than their 18th-century counterparts. In particular, inégalité (unequal weighting of down and up bows) is very difficult to execute with a later bow.
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I can identify with this: MY JOURNEY WITH BIRD SONGS. When I was a child I would wander around in the primal woods of northern Canada for hours and try and imitate the sounds of the birds.
For the past 11 years, I have been working on incorporating bird songs into my music. When I say “my music”, I am talking about my improvisations, because all of the music I compose starts with improvisation, which I then sculpt into compositions. To me, this is a more “natural“ way to go, but then again, that’s been my approach my entire life. When the composition is set, I leave space for improvisations based on the bird songs, as well as motifs created from the surrounding soundscape. Six of my bird song compositions that are currently in my repertoire were originally created back in 2008 during a 5-week residency at The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire.
It's a visionary plan that still has a million details to be ironed out.
But if the Detroit Symphony Orchestra has its way, in a couple years every single Detroit schoolchild who wants to play an instrument will get one, free of charge, as well as access to musical instruction.
Detroit Harmony, as the project is called, represents a bid to dramatically expand music education throughout the city, one that hopefully will generate demand for an entirely new workforce of music teachers and craftsmen to repair and refurbish used instruments.
The pianist and scholar Charles Rosen once said, "The death of classical music is perhaps its oldest continuing tradition." His humorous bon mot simultaneously pokes at the perennial hand-wringers who forecast the demise of a centuries-strong art form and reminds us that the classical music fortress is not impenetrable.
The past 10 years in classical music, which this episode of All Songs Considered explores, has been a roller coaster ride of high points and derailments. Hence the dramatic title, "A Decade of Reckoning." Symphony Orchestras and opera companies floundered financially, some going belly up and others rebounding as newly created organizations flourished. Women seemed to take a few steps forward and a few backward: While five of the last ten music Pulitzers were awarded to women, their music was conspicuously absent from our symphony halls. And tragically, both women and men, in many facets of classical music, were victims of sexual abuse and harassment.
The thing that always gets me about these kinds of essays is the assumption that the fortunes of classical music in North America are the whole story. As we see from the Plácido Domingo fiasco, classical music has quite a different narrative in Europe.
“One of the challenges for arts organizations is that as they get more threatened financially, they tend to get more conservative artistically," Kaiser said. “The number one thing it takes to be a financially healthy arts organization is to create really amazing art.”
That’s when Alsop spoke up.
She said she’s proposed several innovative programs she believes have the potential to get widespread attention, unite the city and develop a new audience. But she said that even when initiatives get adopted, they don’t receive sufficient publicity and supportive programming to allow them to achieve their maximum impact.
Baltimore has a lot more problems than the deficit of the orchestra.
The US conductor and scholar Richard Taruskin argued fiercely that what was seen as the recreation of an authentic past was in fact the creation of a newly modern and vital performing style. His intervention did not deter either performers or record companies, now boosted by the arrival of the CD, from re-recording masterpieces in period-style performances
Well, no, of course not. His point was not to discourage anyone from reinterpreting the music, but just to recognize that all this stuff about "original instruments" and "authentic" performance practice was just propaganda and marketing to conceal that fact that what was being promoted was a new way of playing entirely suited to 20th century taste that might in some ways correspond to what we know about historic practices (and be utterly different from them in other ways).
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Yuja Wang played the new John Adams concerto at The Barbican the other night and it seems her clothing budget was slashed again! Norman Lebrecht calls these "backless dungarees."
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Our envoi will be the Missa Sanctae Caeciliae by Joseph Haydn:
