Fundamental Forces: Orchestra Wellington’s first concert of 2023

The first concert of Orchestra Wellington’s 2023 Inner Visions season takes place this Saturday night at the Michael Fowler Centre. The programme, entitled ‘Fundamental Forces’, presents Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite, C.P.E. Bach’s Symphony in E minor, Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto in D (with soloist Natalia Lomeiko), and Haydn’s Symphony No. 39 in G minor. This powerful confluence of visions and forces, realised through an eclectic programme, prompted us to ask Orchestra Wellington’s Music Director, Marc Taddei, about the connections between these musical works:

‘We see the genesis of the Empfindsamer Stil and Sturm und Drang representing the Dionysian impulse in music (which is the theme of the season), with an example of a kind of apotheosis in the Scythian Suite (a New Zealand premiere, as far as I am aware). I like the idea of CPE Bach’s father being represented by a neo-classic homage by Stravinsky, which … presents the opposing Apollonian impulse.’

– Marc Taddei

So, how to learn more about Empfindsamer Stil (‘the style of sensitivity’), Sturm und Drang (‘storm and stress’), Apollonian rationality, harmony, and restraint, not to mention the unbridled passion and ecstatic excesses of Dionysius? Our collection holds the answers! In this post, we will highlight some material that contextualizes this music and its creators. Firstly, all members of Wellington City Libraries can access to Oxford Music Onlinevia the eLibrary – you just need your card number and PIN to log in. Oxford Music Onlineoffers concise articles about Emfindsamkeit and Empfindsamer StilSturm und Drang, and Neo-classicismOxford Music Online also contains biographies of C. P. E. Bach, Haydn, Stravinsky, and Prokofiev.

In addition, there are several books that provide still greater breadth and depth of discussion, all by leading authorities in music history, engaging for general and specialist audiences alike. Our recommendations include:

The beloved vision : a history of nineteenth century music / Walsh, Stephen
Despite its title, Walsh begins the story of The Beloved Vision in the eighteenth century, demonstrating the pivotal role played by C. P. E. Bach and Haydn in the later development of nineteenth-century music. The alternately exquisite and visceral elements of Bach’s Symphony in E minor – exemplifying a sensibility attuned to the eloquent expression of drama and tenderness, the very epitome of Empfindsamer Stil – would find a later and more extreme expression in the Sturm und Drang of Haydn’s Symphony No. 39. Works such as these, Walsh argues, while firmly of the eighteenth century, were some of the earliest expressions of characteristics we’d come to associate with Romanticism. Walsh explores late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century thought concerning volatile expression in poetry, and how those ideals might find expression in music. Walsh’s discussion of Empfindsamer Stil and Sturm und Drang in their literary and musical manifestations, and as forms of reaction to the confident certainties of Enlightenment, provides useful context for listening to the music of both C.P.E. Bach and Haydn.

The Faber pocket guide to Haydn / Wigmore, Richard
Richard Wigmore’s concise exploration of Haydn’s life and music offers an ideal introduction to the composer, as well as offering insights into his work for the connoisseur. Wigmore discusses a range of Haydn’s work, anatomizing many of the subtle elements of his aesthetics that are often overlooked. The expressive depths of Haydn’s music, which are especially evident in such Sturm und Drang works as his Symphony No. 39, form a significant part of Wigmore’s broader discussion in this useful and comprehensive book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0253372658/ref=ase_wellingtoncit-21 Image from https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0253372658/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0Haydn : his life and music / Landon, H. C. Robbins
H. C. Robbins Landon’s Haydn: his life and music was one of the first comprehensive critical studies of the composer that explored Haydn on his own terms, considering the different phases of his career, his development as a composer, the struggle of balancing his duties as a Kapellmeister to the Esterhazy princes with his own creative ambitions, and the great fame that he experienced later in his life. This is a scholarly book, minutely researched, but the author used his sources so carefully that it’s also constantly engaging, leading the reader through the vicissitudes and triumphs of Haydn’s life and linking these with his music. One early review of Haydn: his life and music describes the ‘presentation as laconic’ and the author’s tone as ‘infectiously lively’ – qualities that are absolutely appropriate to Haydn himself.

Stravinsky : a creative spring : Russia and France, 1882-1934 / Walsh, Stephen
In the first installment of his two-volume biography of Igor Stravinsky, Stephen Walsh examines the composer’s early life, the development of his career, the extraordinary collaboration with Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, and the years in Switzerland and France. Walsh highlights the relationship between Stravinsky’s pragmatism and business sense, his aesthetics, and his identity as a Russian composer outside his mother country. Walsh also explores in fascinating detail the genesis of Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto (1931) – a work of Apollonian balance and clarity – and the controversy the piece provoked. Stravinsky: a creative spring is a meticulously researched biography that brings the enigmatic composer vividly to life.

Sergei Prokofiev : a biography / Robinson, Harlow Loomis
Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite dates from 1915. Its music comes from the score of a ballet that Sergei Diaghilev had commissioned from Prokofiev for the Ballets Russes. Unfortunately, Diaghilev did not accept Prokofiev’s work Ala i Lolli, a story based on ancient Slavic mythology with a proposed scenario by the symbolist poet Sergei Gorodetsky. In the wake of the furore caused by Stravinsky’s score for The Rite of Spring and the drama of its premiere with the Ballets Russes, Prokofiev wanted to create a similar stir, with a similarly Dionysian score. After Diaghilev dropped the project, perhaps because he felt the music was derivative of Stravinsky’s Rite, Prokofiev instead transformed some of the music into the four-movement Scythian Suite, a virtuosic orchestral work that sketches out the storyline of the ballet. The story of Diaghilev’s commission, Prokofiev’s ambitions for the project, and the (small) scandal provoked by the premiere of the Suite are described in Harlow Loomis Robinson’s Sergei Prokofiev: a biography, along with an engaging account of the Suite‘s premiere:

One of those most offended by “The Scythian Suite” was Glazunov, who made a great show of leaving the concert hall eight measurers before the end …. Even the musicians were upset: the timpanist broke through the skin on his timpani, and [a] cellist complained to Prokofiev that he agreed to play only because he had a wife and three children to support.’

– H. L. Robinson

The Sound of 12 Stradivari

When the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed and restricted concert activity in 2020 and 2021, many artists developed unique recording projects that could go ahead in the new circumstances. One example of these innovative turns is Dutch violinist Janine Jansen’s new album, 12 Stradivari. The adventure with twelve exquisite and extremely valuable violins made by Antonio Stradivari in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was the idea of Steven Smith, managing director of the internationally renowned fine violin dealers J. & A. Beare. Smith saw the opportunity to bring together a dozen of the world’s best violins by Antonio Stradivari on one recording and approached Jansen (who currently performs on the 1715 Shumsky-Rode Stradivarius) to curate the recording in collaboration with pianist Antonio Pappano. The result is a fascinating exploration of twelve unique instruments, each with its own extraordinary associations with many of the leading violinists of the last three centuries. Jensen’s selection of repertoire reflects the history of the violins, while also highlighting the differences in the sound and personality of each instrument.

This post explores Jansen and Pappano’s 12 Stradivari, and introduces some of the other recordings in the WCL collection that feature instruments from Stradivari’s Cremona workshop. To find out more about the history of the instruments, and how they were made, have a look at the excellent  Tarisio site as well!

12 Stradivari
Jansen chose the repertoire for this recording to align with the history of the twelve violins and the musicians who played them. For the music of Fritz Kreisler, she plays his Syncopation on the 1734 ‘Lord Amherst’ violin, and his Liebesleid on the 1733 ‘Huberman’ violin, both of which were Kreisler’s instruments. Jansen plays the ‘Haendel’ Stradivari — the instrument long associated with the inimitable Ida Haendel (1924-2020) — in the first of Karol Szymanowski’s Mythes, op. 30, ‘La Fontaine d’Aréthuse’, a work that Haendel recorded in 1996. For  Henri Vieuxtemps’ Romances sans paroles, op. 7, Jansen chose the 1710 ‘Vieuxtemps’ Stradivari on which the Belgian virtuoso performed between 1870 and 1881. Jansen’s choice of a variety of short character pieces and transcriptions provides a portrait in miniature of each violin, while also demonstrating her own artistry in both the well-known and rarer works she plays. Pappano’s stylish playing complements Jansen, in an intuitive partnership.

Violin concertos 2 & 4 Sinfonia concertante / Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
Image from amazon.co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000KC82MG/ref=ase_wellingtoncit-21In this recording, Maxim Vengerov plays the 1727 ‘Kreutzer’ Stradavarius (you can read more about his connection with this violin here). Violist Lawrence Power also plays beautifully in the Sinfonia Concertante, and the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra makes a stylish contribution. Both Vengerov and Power offer rich, yet subtle, interpretations of Mozart, emphasizing the lyricism and wit of each piece. The central Andante of the Sinfonia Concertante is a particular highlight, while it’s also gratifying to hear Mozart’s Violin Concert No. 2 in G major, which is too rarely performed or recorded.

Violin concertos / Beethoven, Ludwig van
Another opportunity to hear Jansen, this time playing the ‘Barrere’ Stradavarius (1727) in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D, and Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto. The pairing of these two works is unusual, but it had been a longstanding desire of Jansen to present them in one recording, and the result is compelling. In Beethoven’s Concerto, she plays with lyricism and precision, exploring the gentle moments of the first and second movements with particular poetry. The finale, in contrast, is buoyant and joyous, exulting in the dialogues between soloist and orchestra. Likewise, in Britten’s Concerto, Jansen and the orchestra are true partners, working together to emphasize the tension that permeates this work.

1930s violin concertos. Vol. 1
The first volume of Gil Shaham’s 1930s Violin Concertos is an opportunity to hear the 1699 ‘Countess Polignac‘ Stradavarius, as well as five violin concertos from a turbulent decade. The concerti by Barber, Berg, Britten, Hartmann, and Stravinskhy reveal the diverse paths taken by these modernists. In addition, Shaham plays each piece with a different orchestra: Barber with the New York Philharmonic, Berg with the Staatskapelle Dresden, Hartmann with the Sejong Soloists, Stravinsky with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Britten with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. As an opportunity to hear a fine violinist play with several of the world’s leading orchestras, this recording is unrivalled.

Simply baroque / Ma, Yo-Yo
Yo Yo Ma has played the ‘Davidov’ Stradivarius cello – previously one of Jacqueline du Pré’s instruments – since the late 1980s. The instrument is named for Karl Yulievich Davydov (1838-1889), whom Tchaikovsky once dubbed ‘the czar of cellists’. Initially, Ma used the ‘Davidov’ primarily for baroque and classical repertoire, including this collaboration with Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Here, Ma performs several arrangements and transcriptions of popular extracts from Bach’s cantatas. ‘Erbarme dich’ from the St Matthew Passion works particularly well, as does the ‘Air’ from Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3. However, Ma’s performances of Luigi Boccherini’s cello concerti in G major (G. 480) and D major (G. 478) are the highlights of the disc, two galant works that Ma explores with drama and sensitivity.

Sonatas for fortepiano and violin. Vol. 3, K. 302, 377, 379 & 454 / Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/ B08YNV8MB9/ref=ase_wellingtoncit-21Isabelle Faust plays the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Stradavarius in this recording of four sonatas for keyboard and violin. Alexander Melnikov’s instrument is a fortepiano by Christoph Kern modelled on an Anton Walter instrument of 1795. The ‘Sleeping Beauty’ has an especially fascinating history, as Alessandra Barabaschi explains.  In the third volume of their journey through Mozart’s sonatas, Faust and Melnikov perform the Sonata in E-flat major K. 302 (which Mozart composed in Mannheim in 1778 and dedicated to Maria Elisabeth, the Electress Palatine); the Sonatas K. 377 and 379, in F major and G major (composed and published in Vienna in 1781 and dedicated to Mozart’s piano pupil Josepha Auernhammer); and the Sonata in B-flat major, K. 454. Mozart wrote K. 454 for Italian virtuosa Regina Strinasacchi who was then touring Europe. At their concert, in Vienna’s  Kärntnerthor Theater on 29 April 1784, Mozart had not yet committed the piano part of the Sonata to paper, and performed it from memory.  Faust and Melnikov play with panache and humour. The timbre of the fortepiano and the resonance of the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ complement each other in an ideal fashion.

Image from amazon.co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00A9A506U/ref=ase_wellingtoncit-21 The late string quartets, String quintet / Schubert, Franz In 1990, the Emerson String Quartet recorded Schubert’s Quintet in C major D956 with one of the greatest cellists of the twentieth century, Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007), to be included on their CD of Schubert’s ‘late’ string quartets. For the members of the Emerson, this collaboration was the most memorable of their careers, almost overwhelmed by Rostropovich’s boundless zest for life, his idiosyncratic ideas about when and how to rehearse, and of course, his legendary musicianship. At the second rehearsal of Schubert’s Quintet in the Dreifaltigkeitskirche in the town of Speyer, David Finkel of the Emerson Quartet recalled that:

we were left in the musical dust as Slava took command of everything, summoning up metaphors, noticing details in the composition, stopping for detailed work, exhorting us to do more of just about everything we thought we were already doing. It was like being dragged by a freight train. It was exciting, exhausting, and unnerving to be playing with someone who could hear so acutely, whose understanding of the music was so deep, and whose charisma was so
overpowering.

In this recording, Rostropovich plays the 1711 ‘Duport’ Stradivarius, which was his instrument from 1974 until his death. It is likely that this is the instrument on which either Louis or Jean-Pierre Duport played Beethoven’s sonatas for the King of Prussia, with Beethoven at the piano; in the 1840s, the ‘Duport’ Stradivarius was the instrument on which August Franchomme would perform Chopin’s Cello Sonata, with Chopin playing the piano.  Rostropovich would later record Chopin’s Sonata, a piece that the ‘Duport’ Stradivarius already ‘knew’.  In his collaboration with the Emerson Quartet in their recording of Schubert’s Quintet in C major, the distinctive tone of Rostropovich’s cello is audible, but the ensemble is perfectly blended in a poetic interpretation of the piece.

Stylus phantasticus: New recordings of baroque music for violin

The late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw virtuoso music for solo violin burgeon, its proliferation driven by outstanding violinists extending the technical and expressive capacities of the violin. Consequently, the status and prestige of the violin increased as it became associated with the highest realms of eloquent musical art. While the six sonatas and partitas for solo violin by J.S. Bach are arguably the pinnacle of this repertoire, many other composers (especially violinists from Germany and Italy) provided the foundations for Bach’s solo works.

Three new recordings added to our collection by violinists Rachel Podger, Isabelle Faust, and Alina Ibragimova, illustrate the extraordinary riches of the era, including examples of the stylus phantasticus, a style of composition especially characteristic of the early-to-mid baroque era. Athanasius Kircher, a polymathic Jesuit priest and author of Musurgia Universalis (1650), wrote of the stylus phantasticus that:

The fantastic style is especially suited to instruments. It is the most free and unrestrained method of composing, it is bound to nothing, neither to any words nor to a melodic subject, it was instituted to display genius and to teach the hidden design of harmony and the ingenious composition of harmonic phrases and fugues. – Athanasius Kircher

In the following recordings, these attributes emerge especially in the music of Gasparini, Tartini, and Vilsmayr, while every work displays the genius of the composer and the performers alike. Read on for a more in-depth review into these recordings below!

Tutta sola / Rachel Podger
Following her landmark 2019 recording of J. S. Bach’s Suites for solo cello (BWV1007-1012), the first recording of these works transcribed for violin, Rachel Podger’s most recent recording explores fascinating seventeenth- and eighteenth-century solo violin repertoire, including some tantalising surprises from manuscript collections. She opens the CD with a transcription of J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, which is remarkable enough, before taking her listeners on a journey through more obscure territory. Diverting short pieces by Gasparini, Vitali, Lonati, Purcell, and Corelli, from the collection Select Preludes or Voluntaries for the Violin by the Most Eminent Masters in Europe (London: 1705) are interspersed between more substantial works: Podger plays a Partita from the Artificiosus Concentus pro Camera by Johann Joseph Vilsmayr, an Austrian violinist who was likely a pupil of Biber, composer of the Rosary Sonatas. In this partita, the dance movements are separated by a series of graceful arias. Concluding the recording is the ‘Piccole Sonata’ by  Giuseppe Tartini, imbued with hints of folk music from Tartini’s birthplace in Pirano. Throughout every piece, Rachel Podger’s playing moves effortlessly between delicacy and high drama.

Isabelle Faust plays Bach / Bach, Johann Sebastian
Bach’s biographer Philipp Spitta wrote of his subject’s solo violin music that: ‘The overpowering wealth of forms pouring from a few and scarcely noticeable sources displays not only the most perfect knowledge of the technique of the violin, but also absolute mastery of an imagination the like of which no other composer was ever endowed.’ Violinist Isabelle Faust demonstrates the veracity of Spitta’s words in a new collected edition from Harmonia Mundi that brings together a range of her solo and ensemble performances. In eight CDs and one DVD, Faust presents not only Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas, the sonatas for violin and harpsichord with Kristian Bezuidenhout, and the concerti in A minor and E major, but also a wealth of Bach’s orchestral and chamber music in which the violin takes a leading role. The inclusion of the sinfonias from Bach’s cantatas Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis BWV21, Ich liebe den Hochsten von ganzem Gemute BWV174, and Himmelskonig, sei wilkommen BWV182 highlight the beauty of the autonomous instrumental music in the cantatas, as well as the quality of the ensemble between Faust and her colleagues, but removed from the context of their cantatas these overtures seem oddly isolated. However, the ensemble presentation of the Trio Sonatas in C major (BWV529) and D minor (BWV527) more than compensates, the musicians bringing vividly to life the intricacies of Bach’s counterpoint.

Fantasias for solo violin / Telemann, Georg Philipp
Telemann’s solo Fantasias represent a unique contribution to the violin repertory, but have been overshadowed by Bach’s sonatas and partitas. Telemann published the collection in 1735, and alongside his twelve Fantasias for solo flute and twelve Fantasias for solo viola da gamba, these works demonstrate Telemann’s understanding of each instrument’s capacities. The violin Fantasias explore a range of keys and affects with pure unadorned melody and complex contrapuntal writing. Alina Ibragimova, one of the most versatile violinists of the day – equally at home on a modern or period instrument, as a concerto soloist or chamber musician – plays beautifully and eloquently throughout this recording.  She transcends every technical and musical complexity with ease, creating a uniquely persuasive character for every Fantasia.

 

The Music and Poetry of Jenny McLeod

On 28 November 2022, Aotearoa lost one of its most ingenious and original composers, Jenny McLeod. While it is impossible to do justice to the scope of her creative achievements in this post, tributes by Elizabeth Kerr, Keith McEwing, and SOUNZ  offer fuller portraits of McLeod’s life and work. You can also hear  McLeod speaking about her work in her poetic 2016 Lilburn Lecture, and in an interview on the occasion of her eightieth birthday.

McLeod’s command of the craft of composing became evident in one of her early orchestral works, the Little Symphony of 1963. Written partly in response to hearing Stravinsky’s Symphony in C, McLeod’s piece demonstrates her awareness of twentieth-styles, hinting at Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Bartok, and others. However, the piece is entirely original in its construction and expression. The Little Symphony also exemplifies McLeod’s command of counterpoint and deft hand at orchestration, all of which belie the fact that she was just in the third year of a Bachelor of Music degree when she composed the piece.

From that point on, McLeod’s music encompassed a great array of genres, some requiring gigantic forces with significant community involvement: her Earth and Sky (1968) is a multimedia work involving multiple choirs, a large orchestra, dancers, children, and recorded narration. Similarly, Under the Sun (1970), composed to mark the centenary of Palmerston North included required four orchestras, adults’ and children’s choirs, a five-person rock combo, projected paintings by children from local schools, and the dance participation of the audience.  In complete contrast to these massive, cross-genre works are McLeod’s chamber and solo pieces, including the song cycles Under Southern Skies for mezzo-soprano and piano, and Peaks of Cloud for tenor and piano, and of course, the twenty-four Tone Clock Pieces for solo piano.

Wellington City Library’s classical music collections hold a variety of McLeod’s compositions, as well as her poetry. In this post, we offer a selection of this material, encompassing a variety of repertoire that demonstrates the inimitable craft, innovation, and beauty of her music.

https://www.atoll.co.nz/album.php?acd=223 Portrait with piano / McLeod, Jennifer Helen
A collection of fine music for solo piano and ensembles by Jenny McLeod, this 2021 release from Atoll Records includes performances by several outstanding New Zealand musicians, including pianists Rae de Lisle, Sarah Watkins, and Stephen De Pledge, percussionist Eric Renick, and violinist Andrew Beer. The repertoire spans five decades of McLeod’s creative life, from the exceptional Piano Piece, composed in 1965 while she was studying with Olivier Messiaen in Paris, to the Seascapes for Trio, arrangements of Tone Clock piece VIII and Tone Clock piece XI dating from 2015. The quality of the music and the performances is exceptional throughout, making for a bold and nuanced Portrait with Piano

The emperor and the nightingale / McLeod, Jennifer Helen
The Emperor and the Nightingale is a work for orchestra and narrator, bringing to life Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale of the same name. The work was commissioned by the Wellington Regional Orchestra (now Orchestra Wellington) for performance at the 1986 International Festival of the Arts in Wellington. In this recording by the NZSO, Helen Medlyn provides a memorable narration of the tale. Pianist Eugene Abulescu performs the Rock Concerto, an arrangement of McLeod’s 1985 Rock Sonata. In the composer’s own words, the Concerto is ‘strongly impelled by the spirit of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Liszt, Debussy, Gershwin …’ who are the ‘distant friends’ alluded to in the first movement of the piece. The central movement of the Concerto, ‘Elegy for Charlie French’ is both tender and austere, before the ‘Latino romp’ of the finale.  This recording is a landmark for New Zealand music and merits a larger audience.

Image reproduced by permission of Rattle Records. https://rattle.co.nz/catalogue/releases/24-tone-clocks24 tone clocks / McLeod, Jennifer Helen
Dierdre Irons and Michael Houstoun perform all twenty-four of the Tone Clock Pieces in this monument to three decades of McLeod’s work and her fascination with Peter Schat’s theory of chromatic harmony that she discovered in the late 1980s. The performances by Irons and Houstoun are nuanced and pellucid, demonstrating both musicians’ longstanding connections with these pieces. As such, this 2016 release from Rattle Records is also an invaluable testament to the artistry of two of New Zealand’s outstanding pianists.

Mutterings from a spiry crag / McLeod, Jennifer Helen
A poet of words as well as of tones, McLeod’s first collected work of poetry, explores the local landscape around her home in Pukerua Bay and comments on international crises. As with McLeod’s music, the  Mutterings from a Spiry Crag the themes are eclectic, witty, expressive, and cerebral. This book is part of the New Zealand reference collection and is not available for loan, but you can access it by contacting Heritage Queries.

 

Talking music : conversations with New Zealand musicians / Shieff, Sarah
In this book, Sarah Shieff has interviewed more than a dozen leading figures in New Zealand classical music to assemble a series of fascinating biographical essays, including a profile of Jenny McLeod.  The reflections of McLeod and her peers on their training and careers offer fascinating personal perspectives on performing and composing. We also read candid accounts of how these artists’ dedication to music has shaped their personal and professional lives in different ways. Shieff’s Talking Music is an engaging, thought-provoking historical record of significant lives in New Zealand music. This book is part of the New Zealand reference collection and is not available for loan, but you can access it by contacting Heritage Queries.

Image from source http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/ B0000E2RL3/ref=ase_wellingtoncit-21 and replace B000XXXXXXX with the ISBN10 or ASIN number from the item information on Amazon.New Zealand women composers  
Composer and conductor Odaline de la Martinez directs the British ensemble Lontano in performances of music by four New Zealand women, Dorothy Ker, Gillian Whitehead, Annea Lockwood, and Jenny McLeod. McLeod’s For Seven (1966) dates from her time in Cologne studying with Stockhausen, and the composer described it to Elizabeth Ker as her “high European effort” devised mathematically and structured around patterns of accelerandi and ritardandi. Scored for flute, clarinet, vibraphone/marimba, piano, violin, viola, and cello, Four Seven received its premiere in 1966, before further performances in Darmstadt and Berlin. There was no New Zealand premiere until 1992, but the piece has subsequently been performed and recorded by Stroma. This album demonstrates not only the quality of McLeod’s composition but also the rich talent of New Zealand’s composing women.

 

 

Miniatures and fragments for piano, voice and violin

In the aesthetics of Romanticism, the notion of the ‘fragment’  – a piece of art, poetry, or music left ‘unfinished’ (whether deliberately or not) – was studied and cultivated by philosophers and aphorists. Shards pottery of ancient civilisations, unearthed by budding archaeologists, lightning-damaged oak trees, ruins, or poetry left incomplete by the death (or boredom) of its creator were all grist to the interpretative mill of the aesthetically-minded.  Critic and philosopher Friedrich Schlegel (1772-1829) declared that ‘a fragment, like a small work of art, has to be entirely isolated from the surrounding world, and be complete in itself, like a hedgehog.’ The fragment should be considered in relation to other fragments, requiring a sense of wit and irony to be understood.

Some musicians, notably Robert Schumann, actively engaged with the creation of ‘fragments’ and short incidental piano works (preludes, nocturnes, impromptus, intermezzi, caprices, variations) exemplify these forms. Four recent additions to our classical CD collection, performed by a variety of eminent artists, include music that epitomizes the Romantic fragment: short pieces that may, or may not, be part of larger works, but which also exist autonomously, short poems in musical form.

Encores
Recorded in Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, a hall with which Daniel Barenboim has an especially close connection, this CD of short pieces by Schubert, Albeniz, Liszt, Schumann, Chopin, and Albéniz is also highly personal. Each work offers an exquisite portrait in miniature of Barenboim’s artistry, and a reflection upon his extraordinary career. The four extracts from Schumann’s Op. 12 Fantasiestücke are exceptionally fine, exemplifying Barenboim’s inimitable understanding of this enigmatic composer.

Romantic piano masters
The title of Georgian pianist Mariam Batashvili’s new album suggests a cornucopia of popular classics, or even old chestnuts, but instead offers some surprises. Batashvili presents Franck’s Op. 18 Prélude, Fugue et Variation – a piece conceived for organ, and dedicated to Saint-Saëns – which she executes with grandeur and panache, emphasising the composer’s homage to J.S. Bach. Then she moves into theatrical territory, exploring the Romantic tradition of transcription, the practice of re-imagining for the piano – often in the most virtuosic manner – other composers’ music. Liszt’s transcriptions of songs by Schubert, and his fantastical interpretation of the waltz from Gounoud’s Faust, sit alongside the extraordinary Grande Caprice on motifs from Bellini’s La Sonnambula by Sigismond Thalberg. This juxtaposition of composer-pianists is a witty one, given their famous rivalry as both men strove to be the most famous pianists in Europe.

From afar
Ólafsson’s From afar presents the listener with ‘a window into his musical life story‘ that also hints strongly at the legacy of the Romantic fragment: alongside an Intermezzo by Brahms and extracts from Schumann’s Waldszenen and Kinderszenen, Ólafsson includes his own arrangements of music by Mozart and Bach. In stark contrast is the presence of Bartók’s Three Hungarian Folksongs from the Csík District, and a selection of short pieces by another Hungarian, György Kurtág. While not of the ‘Romantic’ era,, these pieces are also fragmentary but, like Schlegel’s hedgehog, complete in themselves. Ólafsson includes performances of these pieces on both a concert grand piano and on an upright, suggesting the piano upon which Ólafsson practised as a child. This evocation of memory and perhaps even yearning for the past is diverting, is a beguiling but sometimes rather contrived concept. The quality of Ólafsson’s musicianship is, however, superb.

Kafka-fragmente / Kurtág, György . The song cycle is a genre most readily associated with the nineteenth century, but Kurtág’s song cycle Kafka-fragmente (Kafka Fragments) is an extraordinary approach to the form dating from the mid-1980s. Kurtág built the cycle for soprano and violin around forty tiny fragments of text from Franz Kafka’s personal writing, letters, diaries, filled with paradoxes and cryptic vignettes.  Often the text for a song is just one short, unfinished sentence, or (in the case of the nineteenth song in the cycle)  just two words, ‘Nichts dergleichen’ (‘nothing of the kind’). Every listener can form their own interpretation of each fragment. The virtuosity of soprano Anna Prohaska and violinist Isabelle Faust is unsurpassed here. Two entirely equal partners, they surmount every one of Kurtág’s  challenges with acerbic wit and sincere expression.

 

 

 

 

‘Break forth into joy!’: Handel’s Messiah

Saturday 10 December sees the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Wellington’s Tudor Consort perform Handel’s Messiah. Although now a fixture of the Advent and Christmas seasons, Messiah was first performed 280 years ago on Good Friday, 13 April 1742, in Dublin. Conceived as a Lenten piece, the second part of the oratorio offers a meditation on the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ, before Part III’s message of redemption and victory over sin and death. However, Part I, with its Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah’s birth and the New Testament annunciation texts, is now firmly associated with Christmas.

Whether you’re attending Saturday’s performance, or if you make listening to Messiah an annual event at home, this is a great opportunity to explore some of the books about Handel’s life and music in our collection, alongside some CDs of Messiah.

Messiah : the composition and afterlife of Handel’s masterpiece / Keates, Jonathan
A detailed and authoritative study of the most frequently performed pieces of Western art music. Keates, a renowned biographer of Handel, explores the background of Messiah, the circumstances that led to its composition, the collaboration and conflicts between Handel and his librettist Charles Jennens, the social context of early performances, and how our understanding of spirituality in Messiah has changed between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries.

Messiah Dublin, 1742 / Handel, George Frideric
The Edinburgh-based Dunedin Consort, presents a stylish and expressive Messiah, reconstructing the version and performing forces that would have been found at the oratorio’s first performance in Dublin on 13 April 1742. The Dublin version of Messiah contains some music that is only rarely heard in performances today, offering a new perspective on Handel’s original conception of the oratorio.

Handel : the man and his music / Keates, Jonathan
This is a revised and updated version of Jonathan Keates’s ‘masterful’ biography of Handel that first appeared in 1985; the new edition reflects new research into Handel’s life and music that occurred in the 1990s and early 2000s. The result is a scholarly yet readable account of Handel’s life, set out alongside commentary on his works.  Keates’ use of correspondence and other primary sources also helps to bring alive the world in which Handel lived, whether in Germany, Italy, or London.

Handel, who knew what he liked / Anderson, M. T
This humorous yet detailed biography of Handel is accessible and informative for children and enjoyable for adults as well. The author skillfully weaves together memorable incidents in Handel’s life to illustrate how the composer overcame difficulties in his childhood, and obstacles in his later professional life to realise his ambition and practice his art. M.T. Anderson and Kevin Hawkes make this book a witty and accessible introduction to Handel and the eighteenth century.

The Cambridge Companion to Handel
The collection of essays in the Cambridge Companion to Handel provides a fascinating guide to the life and work of the composer, as well as the social context in which he lived and worked. The chapters on Handel’s sacred music  and oratorios explore how Handel’s own faith and theology shaped and reflected the music he wrote. Donald Burrowes also discusses the performances of Handel’s oratorios during his lifetime, offering a tantalizing glimpse of the sometimes-chaotic premieres and revivals of Handel’s music.

Handel in London : a genius and his craft / Glover, Jane
Conductor and scholar Jane Glover charts the growth of Handel’s career in London, the city where he made his home. Glover’s very readable text examines Handel’s composing life, the challenges, rivalries, and feuds of the music business, and Handel’s interactions with other composers, singers, the nobility, and the public. Glover’s understanding of, and love for Handel’s music reverberate throughout the book.

Messiah / Handel, George Frideric
Emmanuelle Haïm directs the choir and orchestra of Le Concert d’Astrée and four outstanding soloists in this 2014 recording of Messiah. Haïm’s interpretation provides diverting contrasts to the approach taken by John Butt and the Dunedin Consort. The musicians of Le Concert d’Astrée’s orchestra play impeccably, and Haïm emphasises the dramatic, almost theatrical elements of Handel’s score. The vocal soloists are outstanding, delivering eloquent accounts of the most expressive moments throughout the oratorio.