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Author Archives: robinengelman

THE DIVINE PURCELL

This is the first article in a series devoted to aspects of composers works and lives not generally known by average concert goers. Purcell’s genius, rated by some music critics as being superior to that of Bach, is known by only a mere fraction of his oeuvre. Yet once explored in depth, his music, most admirably his vocal music impresses upon the listener a world far removed from the more systematic works of Baroque and Classical composers. Perhaps these articles will encourage readers to dig further into the life and times of other composers.

My high school band director asked me to conduct Henry Purcell’s Trumpet Voluntary on one of our band concerts. I enjoyed the experience and later, whenever I heard the tune, I would recall my conducting debut. Years later I learned musicologists had attributed the voluntary to another British composer and contemporary of Purcell, Jeremiah Clarke who called the work Prince of Denmark March.

About 20 years ago I heard Barbara Hannigan sing Purcell’s The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation. I was taken by an incredible change in the song which after the concert I described to Barbara as madness. Barbara replied,“That’s exactly what happens to her. She is coming to terms with the fact that she is going to be the mother of Jesus Christ”.

I purchased a CD of Purcell’s vocal music with a version of that incredible song. The singer, though very good, did not take the dramatic plunge into madness. Nevertheless those songs introduced me to a Henry Purcell I had never known. For sure he has a way with words, but his ear for melodic lines and inventive use of simple materials continue for me as an ever fresh bouquet of musical delights.

I then purchased one of the finest books on Purcell,titled simply Purcell, by J. A. Westrup. Though out-of-print, it is still available from rare and used book sellers. It was my reading of this book that led me to Purcell’s operas or as they were called in the 17th century, Masques or semi-operas. In these operas one can hear irresistibly fresh and young vocal writing alongside humor in goodly measure.

The first masque I listened to was King Arthur written in 1691 to a text by Dryden. King Arthur is one of Purcell’s greatest works. In Arthur one can hear the hallmarks of Purcell’s orchestral and vocal prowess.

Purcell was born in either 1658 or 1659 in the city of Westminster, London. During his later years he was referred to as Purcell the divine and he is buried next to the organ in Westminster Abbey. The music played at his funeral was the music he had composed eleven months earlier for the funeral of Queen Mary, 1662-94.

One of the shortest works in the Music for Queen Mary’s Funeral is the March for brass and kettledrums. It is also profoundly moving music. I never tire of hearing it and am always touched by the mood it creates and Purcell’s genius.

The recorded performance below is by The Early Music Consort of London conducted by David Munrow, EMI Classics, 7243 5 69270 2 5. Munrow was a brilliant musician and linguist who created a public interest in Early Music. He employed Christopher Hogwood among others. He recorded 50 albums of early music and in 1976 at the age of thirty-two, committed suicide by hanging.

https://robinengelman.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/05-march.mp3

NYC, Part 2: Hannigan and Rattle

14 Jan

The purpose of our trip to New York prior to Christmas 2010 was to see Seiji Ozawa conduct once more and to finally hear the Saito Kinen Orchestra in person. It was also to hear Barbara Hannigan perform on a chamber concert with conductor Sir Simon Rattle. We purchased our tickets in August in anticipation of a holiday of good music, food and friends. In neither of these were we disappointed.

As an undergraduate studying voice with Mary Morrison at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, Barbara had sung with Nexus and continued to do so for a brief period after her graduation. She went to England and then moved to Amsterdam where her career began to grow and attract international attention. In some respects Barbara’s career reminds me of the great Cathy Berberian (1925-83) ¹

Berberian was an artist with an eclectic repertoire and often performed music by Luciano Berio (1825-2003). Hannigan, who also has wide ranging tastes, has an affinity for the music of György Ligeti (1923-2006), and it is Ligeti’s “Mysteries of the Macabre” (1991) which she performed in Zankel Hall with the ACJW Ensemble conducted by Simon Rattle. In 2006, she sang Stravinsky’s “Les Noces” (1917) with the Berlin Philharmonic on one days notice and since then has appeared with them seven times. Just last year, she sang the Nightingale in Stravinsky’s “Le Rossignole” (1914) with the same orchestra, Pierre Boulez conducting. Though Barbara has concentrated primarily on contemporary music, I’ve heard she’s also been engaged by the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto to sing Donna Anna in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” K.527.(1787)

Barbara’s vocal range is wide, but once told me she’s happiest when all the notes are above the treble clef. I’ve never heard anyone sing notes as high as those in “Mysteries of the Macabre” and in fact, never thought them possible, at least not expressively and in tune. And the vocal virtuosity and acting skill necessary to bring this work off is something Barbara achieves with deceptive ease.

Zankel Hall, tucked three floors under the main stage of Carnegie Hall, is a comfortable space for chamber music, Not too large, not too small. The program featured Ligeti’s “Mysteries of the Macabre” (1991) and his Violin Concerto (1989-93) performed by the German violinist Christian Tetszlaff (b.1961). The program opens with music by Jean Phiippe Rameau, the Suite “Les Boreades”. The work is in seven movements and the fourth movement, “Rondeau” opens with a drum roll. When I heard it, the drum roll, the question immediately sprang to mind, “Do conductors hear percussion?” This drum was simply a tenor drum tensioned too high for the music, but the worst part were the plastic heads which were not properly tuned, thus producing ‘false’ overtones’ and a tinny sound. I know that as a percussionist I might be finicky, but come on. The sound was so ridiculously out of place I felt like screaming. Had the orchestra played 100 notes out of tune, the effect would not have been worse. Otherwise the work was beautifully played.

I was not as enthusiastic about the Ligeti Violin Concerto as was Sir Simon,² and though I’d heard his name, I had never heard Tetszlaff perform live or on recordings. I enjoyed his playing very much particularly during the lovely violin solo in Richard Strauss ‘ (1864-1949) “Metamorphosen” at concert’s end.

“Mysteries of the Macabre” was next. The first time I encountered Ligeti was in 1972 when I played the percussion part to “Nouvelle Aventures” which was very definitely an adventure for me. Today, the only thing I remember about the performance is tearing butcher’s paper and throwing an entire set of cheap dishes into a large wooden box, the bottom of which had been lined with metal stage weights. Serendipitously, the Soprano soloist was Mary Morrison.³ It was great fun and whenever I think of Ligeti, this concert comes to mind.

For all the responsibilities demanded by her role Barbara certainly has fun. She makes her entrance in a jet black wig, black leather trench coat and laced knee-high black boots. Midway through the performance she “disrobes” revealing black mesh stockings and a 1920s Berlin Marlena Dietrich, Kurt Weill femme fatale top that only could be displayed by a woman with Barbara’s panache.

As the drama intensifies, Barbara pushes Sir Rattle aside and begins conducting. He retaliates by pushing her away with his foot and regains control of the orchestra. At one point Rattle, unhinged by Barbara’s vocal antics, loses his cool and runs into the orchestra yelling something about Justin Bieber and orchestral decorum, before returning to his conductoral duties. The entire work which lasts only about 10 minutes is a tour-de-force for all the performers. The audience, many of whom were Juilliard students who had come to hear their friends in the ACJW Ensemble got right into the mood, and applauded enthusiastically. Barbara took four or five elongated bows necessitated by her outfit and swept off stage to lingering applause. ⁴

HANNIGAN and RATTLE rehearsing with the ACJW ENSEMBLE.

2006-BARBARA HANNIGAN in her MYSTERIES of the MACABRE OUTFIT with conductor REINBERT de LEEUW.

A goodly amount of time was needed to clear the air and stage for Strauss’ “Metamorphosen: A Study for 23 Strings”, (1945).⁵ Paul Sacher, the eminent Swiss conductor and patron of contemporary music, commissioned Strauss to write the work for 23 solo strings and premiered it in January 1946 with his Zurich Collegium Musicum. Metamorphosen was written towards the end of the Second World War as a lament for the destruction of Germany, particularly for the bombing of the Munich Opera House and the Goethehaus, which Strauss called “the world’s most holy shrine”. The violin solo, played by Tetszlaff with exquisite introspection and lack of affectation, rivals any of Strauss’s melodic output . Strauss’ sense of sadness is later underscored by a brief quote from the beginning of the Funeral March from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

There was plenty of room for thought between Ligeti, Rameau and Strauss and the quality and scope of performances remained with us as we walked slowly across the street to the Redeye Grill where a lite repast gave us time to absorb the evening’s music.

The works of Symbolist author Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) are not popular today, but the painters and musicians of the European fin de siècle admired his depiction of humanity in symbolic rather than realistic terms. Debussy, after struggling for years to find a story suitable for a stage work, found Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande met the requirements of his dramatic and musical ideas.

And it was this opera that Rattle had chosen to make his Metropolitan Opera debut. The story is dark, the opera is long and the music, so different from anything in the Verismo repertoire, have combined to make “Pelléas et Mélisande” a favorite with aficionados, but not with the general public. Therefore, on the afternoon of Rattle’s second performance, my wife and I had no problem purchasing wonderful seats, center balcony.

Rattle snuck unnoticed into the pit and sat quietly beside the podium as the rest of the orchestra entered the pit and tuned. His discretion allowed him to begin the opera without any applause from the audience. And thus Debussy began to cast his spell. The first two acts went by as in a dream and I think I took my first breath after I realized there was going to be a pause.

We had never before heard an opera in the Met. The Met is huge, almost 4000 seats, but retains a certain intimacy and its’ open pit which extends beyond the stage reminds me of the new opera house in Toronto. The sound is fine, and the playing of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra is as good as almost any symphony orchestra in the world. The pianissimos, and there were many, were softer, more controlled and in tune than any I’ve ever heard. At one point I found myself being pulled forward towards the pit by a remarkable diminuendo that seemed unending.

“Pelléas et Mélisande” is set in a castle , a forest or grotto and the blue gray scenery reminded me of the colors in chalk drawings of Renaissance artists. Their sombre, brooding tones fluctuated occasionally from dark to darker. The set would periodically rotate, very slowly, allowing singers to move through a doorway into another room, a garden or forest without interrupting the spell.

As the fifth act came to a close, a single chime note began to peal, its dissonance underscoring the tragedies that had taken place. By themselves, these last few minutes rival the most poignant, melancholy music ever written. During cast bows, the Met orchestra players joined the audience to enthusiastically demonstrate their appreciation for Rattle’s sensitive direction.

Footnotes:

1.From 1950 to 1964 Berberian was married to Luciano Berio, whom she met when they were students at the Milan Conservatory. They had one daughter, Christina Luisa, born in 1953. Berberian became Berio’s muse both during and after their marriage. He deconstructed her voice in Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) (1958) and wrote his Circles (1960), Folk Songs (1964), Sequenza III for woman’s voice (1965), and Recital I (for Cathy) (1972) for her.

2. The day of the concert I heard a televised interview with Simon Rattle during which he made a very intelligent and impassioned plea for the necessity of performing contemporary music. He referred to the the Ligeti Violin Concerto as being comparable with the music of Johanne Sebastian Bach.

3. Mary Morrison is a revered vocal teacher and mentor. Her students perform on the world’s stages and when in Toronto, often stay with her in her hone. Mary’s career as a performer, and teacher as well as her famous ebullience, was rewarded by the Canadian government when it made her a member of the Order of Canada.

4. “. . . amid-all this Ms. Hannigan’s pinpoint vocalizations and fluid acting conveyed Ligeti’s parody of a secret–police chief with scalpel-edge sharpness”. The New York Times, December 2010.

Two reviews of the 2006 Alice Tulley Hall performance:

.”To call Barbara Hannigan a soprano is like calling Robin Williams a public speaker; the term doesn’t begin to cover her fearless verve or elasticity … the 8 minute theatrical tour de-force left her spent and the audience roaring. Who said the avant garde can’t be fun?” New York Newsday, January 2006.

“Mysteries of the Macabre” was performed here by the fearless soprano Barbara Hannigan. Wearing fishnet tights,spiked heels and a leather trench coat, Ms. Hannigan was a demonic presence. But even scarier was her uncanny ability to toss off the hysterical coloratura flights and nonsensical words . . . Ms. Hannigan, Conductor de Leeuw and the players were brought back for five bows by the audience”. The New York Times January, 2006.

For examples of Barbara Hannigan’s artistry, see YouTube videos , particularly those of 2010 and 11 New Years celebrations from Amsterdam.

5. The performance of “Metamorphosen” reminded me of the day I first visited the home of composer Bruce Mather. His wife Pierrette served a splendid lunch and Bruce, a member of the exclusive Burgundian wine fraternity, Chevaliers du Tastevin which owns the property and chateau that produces the great Clos du Vougeot, selected the wines. Fine wines. After lunch Bruce played a recording of Strauss’ choral work “Deutsche Motetet”. As I fell under its spell, I fell asleep, prone on his living room sofa and remember waking up in Halifax. My excuse is simple. I had never drunk wines of any kind, let alone great wines, from Burgundy. The food, wine and music were too rich. I’ve since learned to tolerate the combination.

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Posted by robinengelman on January 14, 2011 in Articles, Contemporary Music

Tags: Barbara Hannigan, György Ligeti, Jean Phiippe Rameau, Luciano Berio, Richard Strauss, Simon Rattle

JapanNYC

07 Jan

The JapanNYC festival’s artistic director is Seiji Ozawa. The festival’s first half took place during November and December 2010 at the Film Forum featuring Japanese films with music scores by Takemitsu and later in December featuring three concerts with the Saito Kinen Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and a Tribute Concert to Toru Takemitsu in Zankel Hall. The festival’s second half will occur in March and April and concentrate more on chamber music and other art forms, with venues in Alice Tully Hall and other locations in the city.

Monday, December 13:

We arrive in New York, check into our hotel and meet percussionist Alan Zimmerman, artist Larry Schulte and composer Eric Richards for dinner. We had learned too late of a performance of Canadian music by a New York group with the name Continuum. Ironically, I had briefly conducted a Toronto group with the same name. This New York Continuum was to perform works by Murray Schafer (b. 1933), Gilles Tremblay (b. 1932), Ann Southam and Claude Vivier (1948-83). This missed opportunity was truly poignant as Ann Southam had passed away on 25 November, just a couple of weeks before we arrived in New York.

Tuesday, December 14:

8:00 PM – The first of three concerts by the Saito Kinen Orchestra. The program: Atshiko Gondai, “Decathexis”, US Premier, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 3 in C minor, Mitsuko Uchida soloist and Brahms Symphony No.1 in C minor.

Seiji Ozawa and Kazuyoshi Akiyama established the Saito Kinen Orchestra in 1984 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the death of their teacher and founder of the Toho Gakuen School of Music, cellist Hideo Saito.¹

It was great once more to see Seiji Ozawa in front of an orchestra even if he sometimes had to sit. He has been ill for a long time. His cancer of the esophagus is in remission, but now sciatica is so painful he cannot conduct an entire concert while standing.²Perhaps because of his recent illnesses, Ozawa programmed works he had conducted for most of his career. The Brahms which concluded the first concert was his solo contribution to the evening. He shared the first two concerts with conductor Tatsuya Shimono.

“Decathexis”( 2010 ) by Atshiko Gondai began with the wind players breathing through their instruments, a cliché from the 1960s, and my heart sank a bit. But in short order these sounds were combined with pianissimo string tremolos and a new world began to develop. The work was a beautiful example of orchestration and my only feeling was that it was too long. We met the composer briefly after the concert in a sushi bar across the street from Carnegie Hall. He was part of a large group of people which included a great surprise, Asaka Takemitsu, Toru’s widow.

The Saito Kinen Orchestra is famous for its string players and their reputation was verified during the Beethoven concerto and the Brahms Symphony. Though their sound is less warm and broad than either the Vienna or Berlin orchestras, I have never before heard a group of string players with such a unanimity of spirit, precision, attack, intonation and tone. In these aspects they may be the finest orchestral string section in the world and they are primarily products of the Toho Gakuen school.

But this great string section does not make Saito Kinen a great orchestra. If the concerts I heard were a true indication, some of the the winds, brass and percussion players from the school are not up to the international standard of their string brethren. Also, these sections seem to be a mix of free-lancers and professional players available at the time of the orchestra’s concerts. For example, Sherman Walt principal bassoonist with the Boston Symphony orchestra and a favourite player of Ozawa, was, until his death, also principal bassoonist in the Saito Kinen Orchestra. Vic Firth, a close personal friend of Ozawa and longtime timpanist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, had been for many years Saito Kinen’s timpanist and I expected to hear him with the orchestra during JapanNYC..

Therefore, I was surprised to see the Berlin Philharmonic timpanist Rainer Seegers and the Philadelphia Orchestra timpanist Don Liuzzi listed as the two Saito Kinen timpanists. Liuzzi has played with Saito Kinen for quite awhile, his picture appearing in orchestra photos taken at its summer home in Matsumoto, Japan. But Seegers played this opening concert. He was of course, first-rate, but unlike, the more pointillistic playing of Vic Firth which matched the style of the Saito Kinen strings, Seegers’s dark, full bodied sound so suitable to the Berlin Philharmonic, was to my ears,out of place.

Wednesday the 15th:

8 PM, the second concert by the Saito Kinen Orchestra.
Toru Takemitsu, “November Steps” with Yukio Tanaka, Biwa and Kifu Mitsuhashi, Shakuhachi. Hector Berlioz Symphony Fantastique.

At first I was disappointed to see that Ozawa was not conducting “November Steps”(1967). He had conducted the premiere of this work by Toru Takemitsu with the New York Philharmonic and had then performed the work in Toronto. At that time the biwa soloist was Kenshi Tsuruta (1911-95) and the shakuhachi was played by the Buddhist monk Katsuya Yokoyama (1934-2010). It is a challenge for me to convey the artistry of these two musicians. The soul-searing intensity, blissful calm and, what better way to say it, the dramatic Nowness of their music simply defies description. They are two of the greatest musicians I have ever heard.⁴ (Before her death Kenji Tsuruta lamented the fact that there was no one in Japan who could carry on the tradition of her classic biwa).⁵It was Yukio Tanaka and Kifu Mitsuhashia’s misfortune, at least in my mind, to follow them. But then, who could?

Ozawa has always had an affinity for Takemitsu’s music.⁶ I have heard no one conduct Takemitsu’s works with such nuanced flexibility and intimacy as Ozawa. I was hoping to revisit the other-worldly-space of “November Steps”, but it was not to be. Perhaps it’s indeed true that one can never go back.

“Symphony Fantastique” (1830) was an altogether different experience. I suppose Ozawa could by now conduct this work from a deep sleep. There were balances and other details I had never heard before, mostly in the strings, and the interpretive flare Liuzzi and Rainer Seegers instilled in the thunderstorm and “March to the Scaffold” gave the music a fresh fearsomeness and sense of dread that was exhilarating and revelatory.

A friend of mine had told me a percussionist living in New York City had been hired specifically for these concerts. There were problems in the percussion section regarding orchestral style during the “Symphony Fantastique”. Except for the cymbal player and timpanists, the rest of the sounds were weak and unsuited to the music.

The Saito Kinen Orchestra is twenty-six years old. Seiji once said he wanted an orchestra of players that had a uniform style and felt this orchestra to be a musical instrument of like minds. However, its goal seems not to be a great orchestra in the mold of the Vienna, Berlin, and Concertgebouw. It seems to be developing its own unique style and that is commendable. But what about the other half of the orchestra? The winds, brass and percussion ?

If the Toho school can begin developing percussionists on par with Yasunori Yamaguchi, Sumire Yoshihara, Atsuchi Sugawara (a member of the Takemitsu Ensemble with Sumire and Yasunori, ) , Midori Tokada and a half dozen more, all graduates of the Tokyo University of the Arts or Geidai, and develop first rate wind and brass players, then they would be well on their way to achieving Seiji’s dream and an international recognition, recognition beyond their delighted and proud Japanese constituency.⁷

Friday the 17th:

6:30 PM. Takemitsu Tribute Concert. Curator, Maki Takemitsu

Our tickets for the New York Japan Festival had been purchased in August and held for us by friends in New York. What a surprise then, to discover our seats right next to Takemitsu’s wife and daughter, Asaka and Maki. My wife and I had not seen Asaka and Maki since the Glenn Gould Prize ceremony in Toronto which honored Takemitsu posthumously in 1996.

Maki had organized this concert. Four jazz musicians, two guitarists, an accordionist and drummer, Tomohiro Yahiro, played and improvised on music from Takemitsu film scores and Pop Songs. Many of the tunes were recognizable to me. My former colleagues from Nexus and I had made percussion arrangements of the same tunes and many also appeared on one of my all-time favorite CDs by the Japanese pop singer “Seri, Toru Takemitsu Pop Songs”. A great moment on that CD is an accordion solo by a man with the singular name of Coba. Coba’s wife was seated next to Asaka Takemitsu and the poet Shuntaro Tanikawa who had written many of the lyrics for the songs.

My wife and I did not attend the third Saito Kinen concert, a performance of Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem” (1962). We needed a break and there was much more on the New York music horizon.

Footnotes:

1. As recently as a New York Times review of the Japan/NYC Festival opening concert, Saito was referred to as a violinist and this error is regularly repeated..

2. Ozawa did conduct the entire third concert of the Festival which was devoted to Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem”. The effort kept him from attending a special ceremony during which he was to have been given a Japanese award for distinction in international cultural affairs. His daughter Seira and son, Yuki accepted it on his behalf.

3. In her “A Memoir of Toru Takemitsu”, iUniverse, Bloomington, IN, 2010, Asaka Takemitsu relates the story of Seiji Ozawa conducting the first rehearsals of “November Steps” in Toronto with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He did this because he was afraid of the New York Philharmonic player’s traditional response to new music. Asaka relates how Ozawa considered Toronto to be a “warm city”, a good atmosphere to introduce Kenji Tsuruta and Yokoyama, the soloists who had never before been in North America. Ozawa’s fears were well-founded. Many of the New York Philharmonic players snickered when Tsuruta and Yokoyama walked on stage for the first New York rehearsals.

4. A Toronto Symphony recording from 1968 was digitalized and released by RCA Victor Japan in 1990 (BVCC 6048) with the title “Takemitsu November Steps, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa”. This is a brilliant record of Tsuruta and Yokoyama’s artistry.

Ozawa also recorded “November Steps” with the same soloists and the Saito Kinen Orchestra in 1991, on Philips (PHCP-160). Technically, this is the better recording, but here the soloists lack the spontaneity, freshness and “nowness” of the magical Toronto recording.

Takemitsu wrote a very lovely and strange work for Tsurata titled “Voyage”(1973). This work was coupled with Takemitsu’s “In and Autumn Garden” for Gagaku orchestra (1979) and was released by Deutsche Gramophone on vinyl, (G2457). “Voyage” contains an example of Tsuruta singing in the Japanese hatari style.

5. Before her death, Tsuruta, a very successful businesswoman, sold her home and gave her considerable fortune to the Biwa Association, Ibid

6. Asaka Takemitsu recalls Toru inviting Ozawa to a performance in Japan of Takemitsu’s “Eclipse”(1966) for Biwa and Shakuhachi. It was this exposure to the sound of classic Japanese instruments that inspired Ozawa to suggest to Leonard Bernstein that the New York Philharmonic commission Takemitsu to write a work for these instruments and Western orchestra. Ibid.

“November Steps” created a sensation among young composers when it was premiered. However, Takemitsu was not convinced of the works efficacy and wrote only one other work for Biwa, Shakuhachi and Western orchestra,” Autumn”(1973). “Autumn” was recorded on Denon, CD with the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra in 1997. Yokoyama plays Shakuhachi, but Tsuruta is replaced by Kakujo Nakamura, Biwa.

The reader is strongly advised to see Takemitsu, Toru, “Confronting Silence”, Fallen Leaf Press, Berkeley, CA,1995., page 677.

7. Kuniko Kato and Rika Fujii (daughter of Mutsuko and sister of Haruka) are graduates of the Toho Gakuen School of Music. Both are making significant contributions to the percussive arts..

Robin Engelman

Author Archives: robinengelman

THE DIVINE PURCELL

NYC, Part 2: Hannigan and Rattle

JapanNYC

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