Honoring Dutilleux, or Not

Henri Dutilleux, the celebrated French composer, died in 2013, so it is natural that at some point his local neighborhood government would commission a plaque to commemorate him at his residence (12, rue Saint-Louis en l’Ile). The possibility of doing so has reopened debate about the composer's connection to the Vichy regime. On Monday, a petition was created to gather signatures in support of Dutilleux, with just as much noise in opposition. Pierre Gervasoni published a long article on the controversy (Henri Dutilleux, « plaqué » par la Mairie de Paris, March 17) in Le Figaro (my translation):

As noted by Danielle Tartakowsky for the Comité d’histoire de la Ville de Paris in 2014: "I must point out some facts about the collaboration with the Vichy regime," she said. "Henri Dutilleux, when he was the singing master at the Opéra de Paris, composed the music for the propaganda film Forces sur le stade (1942)." As described in a reference book on the subject, Les documenteurs des années noires by Jean-Pierre Bertin-Maghit (éditions Nouveau Monde), it is a "propaganda film intended for factory bosses to convince them to build sports fields near the workplaces of their employees." Mme Tartakowsky goes on to state that "the implication of Henri Dutilleux in a political act of collaboration is not otherwise documented," and that "he does not seem, unless it can be proved otherwise, to have directly harmed or pursued the persecuted." As a result, she decided that "this homage was justified" and concluded with a proposal of four lines that might figure on the plaque. [...]

Unlike the Commission d'histoire de la Ville de Paris, we have actually watched Forces sur le stade. What does one see in this 15-minute documentary, initially titled Travail et grand air? More and more insistent images demanding that one exercise one's body through sport. What does one hear? Background music. Solemn (when the doors of the Jean Bouin Stadium open with fanfares from old-fashioned trumpets), playful (when children launch into a variation of Pop Goes the Weasel [Il court, il court, le furet]), and Hollywood-esque (for the end, which superimposes images of laborers at work and sports players in action).

Like most film composers in that period, Dutilleux recorded his music without ever hearing the spoken commentary. By the end of 1944, his score was used as the soundtrack of the Actualités du Comité de Libération du Cinéma Français. Gervasoni firmly rejects the idea that Dutilleux could have been a Pétainiste, citing the interception of his mail, which was censored by the Vichy authorities. He may, furthermore, have been silently reproaching himself all his life for his music appearing, even generically, in Forces sur le stade, including his 1990 commission for the Boston Symphony Orchestra to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, The Shadows of Time (1997), which has at its heart a vocal episode "dedicated to Anne Frank and all the world's children, innocents."

Schiff, Second-to-Last Sonatas

Schubert, Piano Sonatas, A. Schiff (ECM, 2015) Beethoven, Final Piano Sonatas, A. Schiff (ECM, 2008)

András Schiff has decided to have a look at the phenomenon of autumnal last works, by playing recitals devoted to the last three piano sonatas of four composers from the Classical period. The first of these concerts in Washington, presented by Washington Performing Arts on Sunday afternoon at Strathmore, inaugurated a series of three, planned over two years. Some music historians and listeners hear a difference in some composers' final three sonatas, especially those of Schubert. Not surprisingly, this program focused on that composer, who wrote his final three piano sonatas in the shadow of the death he knew was waiting for him, by ending with his antepenultimate sonata. (This follows on his last two recitals here, which focused on Bach and Schumann.) While Beethoven's last three sonatas have also played into this idea of a composer's "late style," part of Schiff's programming seemed to show that these groupings of last sonatas are perhaps as arbitrary as any other.

Haydn's C major sonata (no. 60, Hob. XVI:50) sounded much like other Haydn sonatas, and in Schiff's hands that was charming, idiosyncratic, and slightly self-indulgent. The laconic opening theme, played comically with a single finger, received Schiff's typically clipped staccato attack, and the tempo, although plenty fast, bubbled more than rushed. Throughout this piece and its light companion in the same key, Mozart's no. 16 (K. 545, the one that you certainly know), Schiff used the repeats to add fun embellishments. Formal delights, like the false recapitulation, deep in the bass register, in the middle of the Haydn first movement, were pointed out wryly rather than obtrusively -- as in the third movement, where the rondo subject takes these funny wrong turns, getting hung up on surprise harmonic areas. The second movement had the feel of an opera aria, very free rhythmically and with an ultra-delicate touch, even in the octave passages. The Mozart felt equally blithe, late sonata or no, with a development section so short that one could almost describe the piece as a sonatina. Both of these works, which had much in common, made nice openers for the more substantial sonatas that followed them.

Other Reviews: Robert Battey, Pianist András Schiff is note-perfect at Strathmore concert (Washington Post, March 17) Anthony Tommasini, Andras Schiff Turns Mischievous at Carnegie Hall (New York Times, March 13) Jay Nordlinger, A knight in recital (The New Criterion, March 11) David Gordon Duke, Classical review: Andras Schiff excels with Last Sonatas (Vancouver Sun, March 2) Mark Swed, András Schiff slyly and expertly plays late sonatas of legends (Los Angeles Times, February 19) Joshua Kosman, András Schiff review: Pianist’s magnificent sonata display (San Francisco Chronicle, February 16)

As music scholar Charles Rosen has observed, Beethoven intended his three final sonatas (op. 109-111) as "exemplars of great spiritual experience," and op. 109 (E major, composed from 1820 to 1821) remains my favorite of them, because it reveals Beethoven’s adventurous tinkering with sonata form. William Kinderman describes the composer’s “intense interest at this time with parenthetical structures that enclose musical passages within contrasting sections,” and this hiding of themes within other thematic sections, a game of unexpected detours, runs throughout the piece. Schiff's approach, again with plenty of rhythmic freedom, seemed to show a connection forward to the rhapsodies and paraphrases of Liszt, and an attacca transition to the second movement, forceful but not as fast as it could be, blurred the boundaries somewhat. In the theme of the third movement, and in the plainer variations, Schiff's interpretation foundered a bit, in terms of interest, but the more eccentric ones were quite diverting.

Schubert's C minor sonata (no. 19, D. 958) did not play to the same strengths, as Schiff is not really a forza kind of player, reveling most in the first movement's eccentric development section, the whole thing pretty but a little snoozy. This was matched by a gloomy but rather delicate second movement and a Menuetto, with its stops and starts and murky trio, that was on the precious side. Finally, in the fourth movement, the piece came to life in Schiff's hands, the pervasive dotted rhythms devilish and the intricate hand-crossings handled beautifully. For encores, Schiff stuck with Schubert, giving polished renditions of the Ungarische Melodie in B minor, D. 817, and the Impromptu No. 2 in E-flat major, D. 899. (There was a third, I am told: a Beethoven Bagatelle, op. 126, no. 4.)

Dominique Labelle at Dumbarton Oaks

Moments of Love, D. Labelle, Y. Wyner (Bridge Records, 2014)

Charles T. Downey, Dominique Labelle masters a subtle style at Dumbarton Oaks (Washington Post, March 17)

Canadian-born soprano Dominique Labelle gave a recital of sometimes frustrating contrasts on Sunday evening at Dumbarton Oaks. Some of her selections, mostly on the second half, showed her voice in its best light, with limpid and floating high notes, while others revealed musical struggles.

Both Labelle and her talented accompanist, the composer Yehudi Wyner, were at their best in Ravel’s enigmatic “Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé.” Here Wyner gave just enough sound to the rustling, often static harmonies of the keyboard part so that Labelle did not have to force her sound. The result was just the right amount of suggestive... [Continue reading]

Dominique Labelle (soprano) and Yehudi Wyner (piano)
Friends of Music
Dumbarton Oaks

SEE ALSO:
Charles T. Downey, Gluck Sells out the Concert Hall (Ionarts, February 3, 2010)

Perchance to Stream: Ides of March Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio and online video from the week gone by. After clicking to an audio or video stream, you may need to press the "Play" button to start the broadcast. Some of these streams become unavailable after a few days.

• Listen to the performance of Au Monde, the new opera by Philippe Boesmans and Joël Pommerat, recorded last month at the Opéra Comique in Paris. [France Musique]


• Watch a performance of Vicente Martín y Soler's 1787 opera L'arbore di Diana, recorded at the Bayerische Theaterakademie. [BR-Klassik]


• Listen to the performance of Rossini's La Donna del Lago, starring Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Florez, from the Metropolitan Opera. [ORF]


• Music of Charpentier and Handel performed by Le Concert Spirituel, conducted by Hervé Niquet, recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris. [France Musique]


• Egils Silins and Adrianne Pieczonka star in Wagner's The Flying Dutchman, recorded at the Royal Opera in London, under the baton of Andris Nelsons. [Radio Clásica]


• John O'Donnell leads the Ensemble Gombert in a program of Renaissance polyphony, composed by Brumel, Josquin, Obrecht, and others, recorded at the Xavier College Chapel in Melbourne. [ABC Classic]


• The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin performs at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. [Avro Klassiek]


• From the Barbican Hall, the BBC Symphony Orchestra performs Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle, starring Michelle DeYoung and Gabor Bretz, plus music by Schnelzer and Ravel. [BBC3]


• Herbert Blomstedt leads the Vienna Philharmonic in Haydn's "Clock" symphony and Beethoven's "Eroica." [RTBF]


• Listen to music of Purcell and Locke performed by the English Concert and conductor Harry Bicket, with soprano Rosemary Joshua and mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, recorded at the Wigmore Hall in London. [BBC3]


• Zubin Mehta conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in music of Ligeti, Marx, and Bruckner's ninth symphony. [ORF | Part 2]


• Listen to the recital by pianist Yevgeny Sudbin, performing music by Haydn, Beethoven, Chopin, Scriabin, and Saint-Saëns in Lyon. [France Musique]


• From the Salle Bourgie in Montreal, Ensemble Caprice performs two Bach cantatas, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit and Lass, Fürstin, lass noch einen Strahl. [Radio Clásica]

• Semyon Bychkov leads a concert by the Berlin Philharmonic, with violist Maté Szücs and cellist Bruno Delepelaire, in music by Strauss and Schubert. [RTBF]


• Paul Agnew leads singers from Les Arts Florissants in Monteverdi's seventh book of madrigals, recorded last year in Prague. [ORF]


• From the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, Arvo Volmer leads the Orchestre National de Belgique and pianist Alexei Volodin, in the world premiere of Erkki-Sven Tüür's Le poids des vies non vécues, Beethoven's third piano concerto, and Nielsen's fourth symphony. [RTBF]


• Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Berlin Staatskapelle, with pinaist Daniel Barenboim, with music by Brahms and Chopin. [France Musique]


• Giovanni Antonini leads Il Giardino Armonico in music by Fontana, Merula, Schmelzer, Telemann, Vivaldi, and Biber. [RTBF]


• The London Philharmonic, under conductor Andrew Manze, performs Elgar's Introduction and Allegro, Ireland's piano concerto (with Piers Lane as soloist), and Walton's first symphony. [BBC3]


• Music by Fauré, Mozart, and Messiaen performed by the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and the Maîtrise de Radio France. [France Musique]


• Angélique Kidjo sings Philip Glass's Ifè: Three Yoruba Songs with the Bruckner Orchester Linz and conductor Dennis Russell Davies, plus music by Zemlinsky and Gershwin. [ORF]


• Simon Standage and Agata Sapiecha lead Collegium Musicum 90 and Il Tempo in music of C.P.E. Bach and Telemann. [RTBF]

• William Christie presents the young singers of his Le Jardin des Voix program with Les Arts Florissants, in a concert recorded earlier this month in Melbourne. [ABC Classic]


• From Brangwyn Hall in Swansea, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales plays Shostakovich's tenth symphony and Tchaikovsky's piano concerto with Nikolai Demidenko as soloist, under conductor Thomas Søndergård. [BBC3]


• Semyon Bychkov leads the Munich Philharmonic in music by Dvorak and Richard Strauss, recorded last year in Bonn. [ORF]


• A recital by pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet with music by Beethoven, Debussy, and Ravel in Lyon's Salle Rameau. [France Musique]


• Thomas Hengelbrock leads the NDR Sinfonieorchester in Mahler's first symphony, plus Sofia Gubaidulina's violin concerto Offertorium, with Patricia Kopatchinskaja as soloist, recorded last month in Vienna. [ORF]


• Music of Beethoven and Stravinsky with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Soloists Choir, and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. [RTBF]


• Peter Dijkstra leads a performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion with the Bavarian Radio Chorus, the Regensburger Domspatzen, and Concerto Köln. [BR-Klassik]


• The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra performs music of Handel, recorded at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall in Melbourne. [ABC Classic]


• Thomas Soltani leads the Ensemble Stravaganza in François Couperin's Quatre concerts royaux, recorded last January at the Wiener Konzerthaus. [ORF]


• A recital by pianist Philippe Bianconi, with music by Chopin and Debussy. [RTBF]


• Eivind Gullberg Jensen conducts the Orchestre de chambre de Lausanne in music by Mozart, Rosetti, and Beethoven. [France Musique]


• From the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Ensemble Nevermind performs music by Bach, Louis-Gabriel Guillemain, and Telemann, plus an improvisation by the group's harpischordist, Jean Rondeau. [France Musique]


• The BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales performs a concert for International Women's Day, with music by Boulanger, Holmès, Chaminade, Tailleferre, and Bonis, recorded in Cardiff with conductor Jessica Cottis. [BBC3]


• Dirk Kaftan leads the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra and the Graz Opera Chorus in music by Enescu, plus Strauss Lieder with soprano Gal James, in a concert recorded last year at the Graz Opera. [ORF]


• The Altenberg Trio Wien, the Minetti Quartett, and other musicians perform chamber music by Haydn, Poulenc, Ravel, and Chausson, recorded in 2014 at the Schloss Weinzierl. [ORF]


• The Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, with violist Christophe Desjardin, perform at the Présences Festival. [France Musique]


• Listen to a recording of Karl Goldmark's opera Die Königin von Saba, starring Klara Takacs, recorded at the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, with Adam Fischer at the podium. [ORF]

More Bookstores Disappearing Even in Paris

The fates may have spared the Delamain bookstore last year, but official data suggest that bookstores in Paris are undergoing a mass extinction. The city government of Paris requested the Atelier Parisien d'Urbanisme to present its findings on how businesses changed in the city between 2011 and 2014, and the decrease in bookstores not only continued but accelerated. Cassandre Dupuis reports (Paris a perdu 83 librairies depuis 2011, March 13) for Le Figaro (my translation):

The census took account of more than 62,000 businesses in the capital, a spectacular density by comparison to London and other large cities in the provinces. At the heart of this increase, though, the evolution is full of contrasts. One notes a certain stagnation of leisure businesses. According to the report, the decrease in bookstores, newspaper stands, and photography businesses is even higher than the preceding period of 2007 to 2011. In effect, the number of bookstores has fallen by ten percent, with the closing of 83 stores.

This large decrease is explained in part by the impact of online sales, the report explains, even if it is difficult to evaluate the real influence of the Internet. The location of these bookstores is also an important factor, and all Parisian arrondissements are not affected in the same way. The 5th and 6th arrondissements still benefit from a special protection.

The map printed with the article shows 675 bookstores that remained in business, 81 newly created, and 164 gone out of business. Happily, a bright cluster of bookstores still shines in the Latin Quarter.

More of Suzuki's Mozart

Charles T. Downey, No signs of dissent in BSO at Strathmore
Washington Post, March 14

Just as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was preparing to announce its 100th- anniversary season earlier this week, its musicians were publicly complaining about morale. Whatever the problems behind the scenes, however, they were not apparent in the orchestra’s exceptionally beautiful all-Mozart concert this week at the Music Center at Strathmore.

Guest conductor Masaaki Suzuki recently finished a complete Bach cantata recording with Bach Collegium Japan... [Continue reading]

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and University of Maryland Concert Choir
With Masaaki Suzuki (conductor) and Augustin Hadelich (violin)
Music by Mozart
Music Center at Strathmore

SEE ALSO:
Tim Smith, BSO offers exquisite all-Mozart program with elegant guest artists (Baltimore Sun, March 13)

Charles T. Downey, Briefly Noted: Suzuki's Requiem (Ionarts, January 22)

Augustin Hadelich, Cadenzas for Mozart, K. 219 (.PDF file)

Dutchman Redux

Wagner, Der fliegende Holländer, A. Silja, New Philharmonia Orchestra, O. Klemperer (EMI)

Charles T. Downey, ‘Flying Dutchman’ features one-night casting change (Washington Post, March 13)

Washington National Opera’s production of Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman” is mid-run at the Kennedy Center Opera House. For the third performance, heard on Wednesday evening, the company gave its two leads a rest, with a one-night casting change featuring a company favorite and a rising young singer.

American bass-baritone Alan Held first sang the title role of this opera the last time that WNO mounted “Dutchman,” in 2008. He sounded much more comfortable in the role this time around... [Continue reading]

Wagner, The Flying Dutchman
B cast
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

PREVIOUSLY:
2015 production (A cast)
2008 production

On Forbes: Munich Philharmonic Responds To Concert Hall Controversy

Munich Philharmonic Responds To Concert Hall Controversy

The concert hall debate in Munich has created waves in the classical music world: It was so important to Anne-Sophie Mutter that she took out her cell-phone during rehearsals for her Carnegie Hall performance of the Sibelius Concerto to comment on the issue. Even London, courtesy of Sir Simon Rattle—just this week appointed the new music director of the London Symphony Orchestra, has started a debate on its own, finding itself in a surprisingly similar position as Munich. In fact, in an interview with the BBC last month he said London and Munich were the two great cities in the world which did not have proper concert halls.

The decision to renege on promises to build a new hall—primarily to benefit the truly needy Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra)—in favor of revamping the hall of the somewhat needy Munich Philharmonic—but at a considerable cost for the musical life of Munich—has indeed created strong responses: All but a few solidly condemn the move–ever so slightly back-tracked upon since–by the Bavarian Prime Minister and Mayor of Munich. As Mutter stated, with a dash of hyperbole: “This city is about to ruin its international reputation in the world of music.” In a press conference Mariss Jansons added that he thinks “we were taken for a fool” and that “Bavaria has much to lose.”...

The extant concert hall, the Philharmonic Hall of the Gasteig, is now at the center of the musico-cultural attention of the city of Munich. This creates the opportunity to turn the Philharmonic Hall into an extraordinary space for classical music in Munich, and most especially one fit for decades to come.

Translated: Let’s... completely shift focus from the Needs of one orchestra to the Wants of this orchestra, painting it as something that would benefit Munich, rather than us—at the cost of most everyone else...

Continue reading here, at Forbes.com