Jordi Savall Bends Time

T. Hume, Musical Humors, J. Savall (Alia Vox, 2004) Marais, Pièces de Viole, J. Savall, T. Koopman, H. Smith (Alia Vox, 2011)

Only rarely does a classical musician cross the line into general celebrity these days. The situation is even less common for a performer of early music, a niche within a niche. Jordi Savall is perhaps the only example, known as a humanitarian and cultural icon as well as for his work as a conductor of early music ensembles. For a rare solo recital at the Phillips Collection on Sunday afternoon, he came only with his Barak Norman viola da gamba, built in London in 1697. With a program of outrageously obscure, mostly Baroque music, he commanded the stage with magnetic charisma.

The program was called “The Spirit of the Viol,” but the implied chronological survey was cast in reverse, beginning with music by the last gamba virtuoso, Karl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787), and going back in time to music from the late Renaissance. Rather than showing historical progress from simple to complex, the ordering revealed a body of music that went from inventive and varied to more homogenized as the instrument got older. By the time of Karl Friedrich Abel, the instrument was a curiosity, still found in German courts, where Johann Sebastian Bach wrote occasionally for it. Then it vanished, and only musicians like Savall, interested in historically informed performance practice, have made it live again.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, Jordi Savall wakes an early-music instrument from a long sleep (Washington Post, March 8) Simon Chin, Jordi Savall’s Magisterial Viola da Gamba Recital at the Phillips Collection (Chin Up, March 7) Joseph Miller, Gambist and Early Music Scholar Jordi Savall in recital, presented by CAMA Masterseries (Santa Barbara Independent, March 7) Alan G. Artner, Jordi Savall presents masterful concert of musical humors (Chicago Tribune, March 5) Tim Sawyier, Jordi Savall channels the English Renaissance at Mandel Hall (Chicago Classical Review, March 5) Sylvie Bonier, Jordi Savall, la philosophie musicale (Le Temps, February 22) Thomas May, Aural tradition: a weekend with early-music legend and gamba virtuoso Jordi Savall (Seattle Times, February 18) Rocco Zacheo, Jordi Savall distille à Genève l’éternelle jeunesse de la musique ancienne (Tribune de Genève, February 18)

Savall’s performance did not generally impress with technical prowess, as there were minor infelicities of tone and intonation here and there. A recital by gambist Paolo Pandolfo, over a decade ago now at Dumbarton Oaks, satisfied much more in that department, for example. Still, this was music that had been deeply pondered by its performer, shown in both his brief spoken introductions and his handling of each piece, like a curio to be examined from every angle.

Played in small groups, the pieces blended into one another, often because Savall improvised on them or otherwise modified them. In his adaptation of a solo cello piece by J. S. Bach for the viol, for example, he played one section of the piece over and over, sort of like a variation set. Sometimes he announced the titles of the pieces, unobtrusively, to help the audience follow the arc of the program. Savall seemed to hit his stride as the music got comfortably into the 17th century and earlier, bringing out the growls of Marin Marais's Les voix humaines, for example, in his instrument's lowest strings.

Marais's Muzettes, with its bagpipe-like drone, introduced the end of the program, focused on adaptations of various kinds of popular music. Selections from Tobias Hume's Musicall Humors included imitations of the soldier's tambour, involving strikes with the wood side of the bow, and other army sounds like trumpets. The title bell of John Playford's La Cloche sounded in a rare example of left-hand pizzicato, and in a brilliant closing set from the Manchester Gamba Book, two middle strings were crossed on the bridge to allow Savall to play an octave drone. These tunes, Savall explained, were likely first played on bag pipes and other folk instruments, but the arrangers had appropriated and refashioned them, not simply playing them without alteration.

One of these tunes, cast like a fast-moving reel, was not more than a step or two away from the feel of American bluegrass. An encore underscored the two-way nature of the road between learned and popular, with an Irish tune from the Ryan Collection, collected from oral traditions at some point in the first half of the 19th century. It fit quite genially with the same crossed-string tuning on Savall's viol.

#morninglistening: Dancing Cows on Roofs in Paris with Tharaud

#morninglistening #paris @WarnerClassics @atharaud #Gershwin #ColePorter et al. #swing… http://t.co/aM4IrGqjcd pic.twitter.com/3aWYIENo0B

— Jens F. Laurson (@ClassicalCritic) March 5, 2015

Read more »

Ionarts-at-Large: Bruckner-Szymanowski with the Munich Philharmonic

It’s always a pleasure, in principle, to listen to the orchestra of my misspent youth, the Munich Philharmonic. Especially so, when the programming—often on the timid and conservative, occasionally even boring side—is exciting and the conductor one whom I have high expectations of. I last heard Thomas Dausgaard, whose excellent recordings with the Swedish Chamber Orchestras I have long cherished, with the Munich Philharmonic in 2012, which then cajoled me to expound on my concert-program (faux) synesthesia.

The Kurtág-Beethoven-Dvořák program back then was a winner, and so was ultimately the Bruckner-Szymanowski program that enveloped Karol Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater in Bruckner’s Ave Maria (his sacred motet for seven unaccompanied voices and first big composition after finishing his  formal studies in Vienna) and Bruckner’s seldom-performed Second Symphony*: An attractive combination that manages to combine audience-safe familiarity with slightly-off-the-beaten-path beauty.

K.Szymanowski, Stabat Mater, Harnasie, E.Gardner / Chandos

The opening of the Ave Maria is an interesting show of the primacy of the chorus (Philharmonic Chorus Munich) over the orchestra, which just sits and listens to the short, three-to-four minute work. The unclean entry right off the bat aside, and granting a rather timid, not very confidence-inspiring sound in everything piano/pianissimo, and given the lazy coughing of the audience (apparently flu-season, not that it’s an excuse) it was a fine performance of a work that deserves more fine (and still better) performances. Hopefully before a more appreciative crowd, too.

From the Ave Maria, the orchestra went right into the Stabat Mater, attacca, a cute move that I like seeing used because it breaks the routine of habitual clapping (which only makes programs unduly long) and because it sometimes puts the work in more direct contrast or correlation. Mostly contrast, in this case, because in this performance the hushed pianissimo sounds of the Stabat Mater were rarer than the fortissimo-bursts that sounded as though orchestra, chorus and singers (especially baritone Adam Palka) were about to break out into a performance of Boris Godunov. Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, long in the planning but ultimately inspired by the untimely death of his niece (Berg’s Violin Concerto was similarly inspired a decade later), is a much more sparse, brittle work than the lush romanticism of the earlier The Love Songs of Hafiz, for example, and (aptly, given Szymanowski’s intent) much more Slavic; much less Viennese-romanticism sounding.

Induced by Palka’s singing and those intimations of Boris Godunov, I started wondering: What exactly makes for this unique, specific Slavic timbre in male voices? Is it just the language (Polish in this case, as the Dausgaard eschewed the ‘international’ Latin version of Szymanowski’s work in favor of his, Szymanowski’s, favored original) or the inflection and typical melodies of the music? Both? Or the training of the singers? Palka was in any case part of a vocal trio that struck me as decent if not particularly pleasing. There was Janina Baechle whose round timbre and slightly slurred notes makes for a lascivious, reedy mezzo… effectively projected to make herself heard even before an orchestra that cherished its fortissimo swells. Simona Šaturová jumped in at short notice to save the show; alas I didn’t particularly enjoy the brittle, hard sound or the way her voice and Baechle’s mixed. If I didn’t find this a particularly moving or even

Read more »

Stenz Leads Excellent 'German Requiem'

Schoenberg, Gurrelieder, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, M. Stenz (Hyperion, 2015)

Charles T. Downey, Chorus on high in Brahms work at Strathmore
Washington Post, March 7

As music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop’s greatest strength is not necessarily a certain swath of music from the classical and romantic core. The ensemble’s new principal guest conductor, Markus Stenz, has built a reputation in those areas. After a concert devoted to Mozart in October, Stenz led a vivid and moving account of the “German Requiem” of Johannes Brahms in the Music Center at Strathmore on Saturday evening.

This piece is driven by the chorus, which sings in all seven movements, and Stenz took advantage of the fine University of Maryland Concert Choir that he had seated above the stage... [Continue reading]

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
University of Maryland Concert Choir
With Markus Stenz, conductor
Music Center at Strathmore

SEE ALSO:
Tim Smith, Markus Stenz leads BSO, UM Concert Choir, stellar soloists in 'German Requiem' (Baltimore Sun, March 8)

WCO Revives 'La Favorite'

La Favorite, Washington Concert Opera, 2016
Washington Concert Opera has devoted this season to lesser-heard bel canto operas. After last fall's performance of Rossini's Semiramide, the company presented Donizetti's grand opera La Favorite on Friday evening at Lisner Auditorium, a first in the review history of Ionarts. Although it is known now in Italian versions, Donizetti premiered the work in Paris in 1840, to a French libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz. Donizetti was forced to change his subject because Léon Pillet, then director of the Académie Royale de Musique, demanded that the new opera have a role for his mistress, mezzo-soprano Rosine Stoltz, who just a few years earlier had married and had a child with the Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels. In a nice touch, Donizetti gave Stoltz the title role of La Favorite, Léonor de Guzman, the mistress (favorite) of the King of Castile, Alfonso XI, who ends up dying, abandoned by both her lovers.

The libretto mixes the historical events of Guzman's life with the plot of Les amans malheureux, ou le Comte de Comminge by François-Thomas-Marie de Baculard d'Arnaud, about a nobleman living as a monk in a Trappist monastery, who falls in love with a woman who visits the monastery. Léonor visits a monastery where Fernand falls in love with her, over the opposition of the powerful abbot, who is the father of Alfonse's queen in the opera. The king, learning of the liaison with his favorite, orders that she be married to Fernand, but the conniving of his court reveals Léonor's sordid past, only after the wedding has taken place. The end of the real Léonor was less tragic, for after Alfonso XI's death, her oldest son with him succeeded his father to the throne.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, The lighter side of ‘La favorite’ (Washington Post, March 6) Philip Kennicott, Mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey returns to Washington Concert Opera (PhilipKennicott.com, March 6)

Mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey, last heard with WCO in 2014, brought a rich, affecting tone to the title role. The bottom of her voice has developed nicely, and she had an especially gorgeous musicality in the role's slow, soft moments, such as the duet with Alphonse ("Ainsi donc on raconte") in Act II and her famous Act III air ("O mon Fernand"). Chilean baritone Javier Arrey had a smooth, powerful tone over his entire range as Alphonse, capitalizing on the promise he showed as a Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist with Washington National Opera three years ago. Only in a few spots, when he tries to compress his sound in softer passages did the intonation sag just slightly flat.

Tenor Randall Bills, seen in a mostly silent role in Santa Fe Opera's Wozzeck in 2011, had a slightly unpleasant grain in his voice but knew how to phrase a line. His top notes registered but were not quite sure, especially the high C in the Act IV cavatine "Ange si pur." John Relyea had just the right sort of bluster for Balthazar, the imperious Superior of the monastery of Santiago de Compostela, while soprano Joélle Harvey was a sweet Inès, a little unstable in tone because of a fluttery vibrato but able to open up with clarity at the top, as in the cadenza that soared to high B-flat in the Act I aria "Rayons dorés." Conductor Antony Walker had to right a small issue in the violins at one point, but he held together a solid performance from his orchestra and chorus, with particularly lovely contributions from harp and horns.

Next season is the 30th anniversary of Washington Concert Opera, an event the company will mark with a concert on September 18, followed by performances of Massenet's Hérodiade (November 30) and Beethoven's Léonore (March 5, 2017).

Perchance to Stream: Nikolaus Harnoncourt 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.

• Marian Rebeka and Juan Diego Flórez star in the production of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, under conductor Marco Armiliato, recorded at the Wiener Staatsoper. [ORF]


• Watch the production of Handel's Alcina from the Grand Théâtre de Genève, starring Nicole Cabell. [ARTE]


• From the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Michael Spyres and Patricia Petibon star in a production of Mozart's Mithridate with Le Concert d'Astrée under conductor Emmanuelle Haim. [ARTE]


• Have a listen to Michael William Balfe's opera The Bohemian Girl, in the 1991 Dublin recording with the Radio Telefis Eireann Philharmonic Choir, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and conductor Richard Bonynge, starring Nova Thomas (Arline), Patrick Power (Thaddeus), Jonathan Summers (Graf Arnheim), and others. [ORF]


• Listen to the performance of Verdi's Luisa Miller from the Sydney Opera House, starring soprano Nicole Car. [ABC Classic]


• Igor Levit and Julia Fischer play all the violin sonatas of Beethoven in three concerts at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. [France Musique]


• Paul Van Nevel and the Huelgas Ensemble perform music by Cipriano de Rore, recorded last November at the Temple de Pentemont. [France Musique]

Read more »

#morninglistening: The Coveting of Multiple Citrus Fruits

#morninglistening to #Prokofiev w/@mariinskyen & @ValeryGergiev on @deccaclassics#Opera … https://t.co/yiCzFqVU3W pic.twitter.com/CRUS6XVN2e

— Jens F. Laurson (@ClassicalCritic) October 26, 2015

Read more »

Pollini Struggles in London

We welcome this review by guest contributor Martin Fraenkel, from the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Chopin, Nocturnes, M. Pollini (DG, 2006)

Maurizio Pollini’s only 2016 London piano recital took place on Wednesday at the Royal Festival Hall. Originally scheduled a week earlier, the concert was postponed due to the performer's ill health. Once, Pollini's commanding stage presence demanded respect and expectation, quite apart from the unrelenting brilliance of his technique. Now appearing older than his 74 years, he rather shuffled onto the stage, slightly stooped, and the impact was not quite the same. The sense that time is catching up with the great postwar generation of European musicians was heightened by Pollini’s unscheduled decision to start the concert with Schoenberg’s Six Little Piano Pieces, op. 19. Written following the death of Schoenberg’s mentor, Mahler, Pollini dedicated them to the memory of the late Pierre Boulez. Stark, essential, and lasting in total five minutes, the effect was profound.

The scheduled Schumann Allegro, op. 8, and Fantasie, op. 17, filled the first half. The impact of this passionate romanticism seemed strangely misplaced after the Schoenberg. Pollini’s well-drawn melodic lines provided some tender moments, especially in the third movement of the Fantasie. The at-times fiendishly difficult fast passages, however, rather revealed the declining powers of Pollini’s finger work. The sense that he was straining to the limit was only emphasized by his rather audible singing which broke out intermittently. One began to fear what might happen in the Fantasie’s second movement, described in Harriet Smith’s program note as a “real graveyard for pianists” and not for the “faint of heart.” In the event, Pollini hung on gamely, if no longer imperiously.

Other Reviews: Andrew Clements, Maurizio Pollini review – glimpses of greatness amid the gloom (The Guardian, March 3) Michael Church, Maurizio Pollini, Royal Festival Hall, classical review: Exquisitely wrought and flawlessly delivered (The Independent, March 3)

The second half was dedicated to Chopin, with whom Pollini has always been closely associated. And indeed, the struggles of the first half gave way to deep exploration of the highest order. A steady rendering of the op. 60 Barcarolle was followed by the evening’s highlight, the op. 55 nocturnes. The link between Schoenberg and Chopin is slender indeed, but Pollini again seemed most at ease seeking out the inner emotion which lurks beneath the outward simplicity of structure. This was followed by an intense Polonaise-Fantasie in A-flat major and an assured performance of the Scherzo No. 3, op. 39.

Two further Chopin encores ensued. With many members of London’s burgeoning expatriate Italian population among them, the audience was by now on its feet. One rather felt that this was a mark of a nation’s pride and gratitude, not so much for the evening but for a great career perhaps nearing its end.