Till Fellner Comes Full Circle

Read my review published today in the Style section of the Washington Post:

Charles T. Downey, Pianist Till Fellner ends Beethoven sonata cycle with restrained refinement
Washington Post, October 19, 2010

Pianist Till Fellner (photo by Francesco Carrozzini) Fellner Beethoven Cycle: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

On Sunday afternoon, with Till Fellner's performance of Beethoven's final three piano sonatas at the Austrian Embassy, an epic journey came to its end. The Austrian pianist set out to perform the complete Beethoven sonata cycle, planned to span seven concerts, almost two years ago. The fifth recital was one of several cultural victims of February's historic snowstorms, but the sense of achievement was no less great.

Fellner did not program the concert series in chronological order, but it is difficult not to see Beethoven's last three piano sonatas as the cycle's obvious conclusion. As music scholar Charles Rosen has observed, Beethoven intended these sonatas as "exemplars of great spiritual experience," but it is dangerousto assume that we understand what that experience might be. As with some other composers' late works, there is also a sense of whimsy here -- as well as formal experimentation, complication and compression.

In line with his previous performances, Fellner emphasized an ultra-refined, even restrained approach to many of the movements, keeping the jaunty theme of Op. 109's first movement airy and rhapsodic and the energy of the second movement often bubbling below the surface. [Continue reading]

Till Fellner, piano
Beethoven Piano Sonata Cycle, Part 7
Op. 109 | Op. 110 | Op. 111
Embassy Series
Embassy of Austria

Ran Dank

Read my review published today in the Style section of the Washington Post:

Charles T. Downey, Nordic Voices group showcases Norwegian composers at National Gallery of Art
Washington Post, October 18, 2010

Israeli-born, Juilliard-trained pianist Ran Dank made a splashy Washington debut on Saturday afternoon, presented by Washington Performing Arts Society in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. The originally announced program was almost identical to what he played when he won the Young Concert Artists auditions in New York last year. Instead, Dank returned to some of his choices for the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition, where he finished as a semifinalist, one of several jury decisions to be criticized that year.

Dank played with impeccable technical surety, a point made by a boisterous performance of Liszt's "Réminiscences de Norma" transcription, a piece hardly worth the trouble of busting one's chops to play it. Miles of gauzy scales, dizzying double octaves, and fluttering repeated-note chords -- Dank conquered them all, rendering some of Bellini's vocal flourishes with a bravura more pianistic than bel canto. [Continue reading]

Ran Dank, piano
Washington Performing Arts Society
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

Although I did not mention the encores in the review for lack of space, Dank played the opening piece of Schumann's Kinderszenen and, far more impressively, Nikolai Kapustin's jazzy Concert Etude No. 8. See the score and the composer's performance of the piece in the video embedded below.


Nikolai Kapustin, Concert Etude No. 8 (played by the composer)

Ionarts-at-Large: Chailly's Bold Mahler with the BRSO

Spheres of Gustav Mahler, traced in the future—well after his death—rather than in or before Mahler’s time: that’s the style of several of the great Mahler-conductors of our time, conductors that (audibly) approach the composer as the seed of all or at least much of the music that came after him. They hear the dense chords in Mahler’s Ninth and Tenth Symphonies as the organic development of what Schoenberg & Co. would soon after construct as 12-tone music. Riccardo Chailly is among these conductors, as are Michael Gielen, Simon Rattle, or even Claudio Abbado. On CD you can usually tell by the conductor’s coupling of a modern work with their Mahler. Chailly’s and Gielen’s Mahler cycles on individual discs (but sadly not in their respective, paired down boxes) are made so much more interesting by inclusion of works like Berg’s Sonata Op.1 (orchestrated) or Seven Early Songs, Schoenberg’s Jakob’s Ladder, Webern’s Six Pieces with Schubert, or Zemlinsky’s Maeterlinck-Lieder.

G.Mahler / A.Berg, Symphony No.1 / Sonata op.1 (orch.), Chailly / RCO Decca

L.Berio, Formazioni, Folk Songs, Sinfonia, Chailly / RCO Decca

L.Berio, Sinfonia, Eindrücke, Boulez / O.Natl.d.France Erato - Apex

The same is true for the concert-experience. You can, of course, stuff a Mahler program with Verdi, or Mozart, but with Riccardo Chailly—in this case at the Herkulessaal with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on Thursday, October 14^th—you get Luciano Berio, instead. Sinfonia, to be precise, which is the logical choice in that it treats Berio not just as part of the non-linear extension of Mahler’s soundworld, but because Berio explicitly references Mahler in this 1968/69 work. It has Mahler at heart with its central movement being a collage of the Second Symphony’s “St. Anthony’s Sermon to the Fish”. It sounds like a full stomach of Mahler on a roller coaster: clarinet melodies and rhythm being the most striking reminder of Gustav, above which the fragmented rest is being given a liberal make-over with generous splashes of Strauss, Schoenberg, Bach, Debussy, and the incantations of the vocal ensemble’s chatter, cackle, and exclamations. The part was originally written for the Swingle Singers; the Vokalensemble Nova took good, robust care of it here—allowing, or encouraging, or at least (and certainly) surviving a much more aggressive, bold interpretation compared to the more effeminate performance I know from the Swingle-Singers recording(s).

Mahler’s First Symphony, in such short succession to the performance across town, afforded inevitable, direct comparison to Zubin Mehta and the Munich Philharmonic. It is an interesting comparison, too, because where Mehta seems to get interpretatively mellower with age, Chailly gets more audacious and harder—at least in Mahler. Where Mehta’s pseudo-Titan, despite several endearing qualities, was just ‘nice’, Chailly wielded a surprising iron fist.

The opening—the famous Rheingoldian, and Beethoven Ninth-ish Ur­-sound (“A” throughout the entire register of the orchestra)—was held in the must hushed tones, forever clinging to pianissimo with fascinating, compelling tenacity. Even the second theme remained moored in the domain of chamber music-like delicacy. With the ever present prospect of a rip-roaring explosion looming (and without ever calling on it), he made for one of those lapel-grabbing stretches of time where will-power seems to manifest itself in music. He steered the orchestra through the first movement like walking a dog on a rubber band, rubato-wise.

Briefly switching metaphors: So far, Chailly had let the whole thing roll downhill in neutral, not stepping on the accelerator yet, much less putting the pedal to the metal. Only at the single true climax of the first movement—and then only briefly—did he unleash the forces available to him. What followed that tense, clenched understatement, was a ballsy opening of the second movement, see-sawing with a brawny string sound and giving an immediately perceptible different balance to the symphony. The second movement took on equal weight to what preceded it as the underlying pulse went—literally—through Chailly’s body.

The Frère Jacques double bass solo was ridiculously perfect, to the point of undermining the effect of playing at the very limits of a double bass' capability. (I would love to see a performance where the conductor doesn’t pick the soloist for that phrase until two bars before he or she has to play it; that should take do the trick of instilling the necessary dread). The violins continued with real verve in a third movement far more deliberate than I normally hear it performed. Deliberation and wonderful detail in the strings came forth again in the fourth movement, too, where Chailly harked back to the soft pianissimo of the first movement, forcing that attentiveness that compels listening. This forceful and determined presentation of the might have been too humorless for some, but whether one liked the goals of the interpretation or not, there was no denying that it was superbly done. Incidentally it was one of the very rare cases with the BRSO where the interpretation outclassed the performance—a fact that can largely be blamed on the brass section (horns especially), which had a miserable day. If they got their act together on the following night for the broadcast of the performance, the BR Klassik label might have a winner of a Mahler First in the can, well deserving of a release in the near future.

In Brief: Mid-October Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to good things in Blogville and Beyond.

• The gorgeous Abbey of Solesmes, the center of the modern Gregorian chant revival, was founded one thousand years ago. [Zenit]


• Alain Vircondelet, the author of a biography of visionary artist Séraphine de Senlis, has alleged that large sections of the film version of the artist's life are lifted directly from his work. [Agence France-Presse]


• Marc-André Dalbavie's new opera, Gesualdo, sounds good. [Financial Times]


• Is the spiraling expense of a college education pushing students away from studying the humanities? Will the university no longer be centered on its historical core disciplines but be an advanced training institute instead? [Inside Higher Ed]


• Thank God, classical music is not the only art form that is dying. Ballet is, too. [The New Republic]


• Well, we always knew that dancers could be dangerous. Cardinal Zubeir Wako, the Archbishop of Khartoum, was almost assassinated during a Mass celebrated last Sunday. His attacker posed as a liturgical dancer, approached the altar, and drew a dagger before being apprehended. [Independent Catholic News]

Eschenbach's Report Card

See my review of the National Symphony Orchestra's Mozart and Mahler program published at DCist today:

DCist Goes to the Symphony: NSO's Bright Future (DCist, October 16):

After three programs to open the season, the Christoph Eschenbach era at the National Symphony Orchestra is off to an excellent start. Like last week's concert and, to a lesser degree the first week before that, in this weekend's concert, heard last night, the NSO players sounded unified, energized, well rehearsed and brimming with confidence. Eschenbach's choice of music was also, once again, engaging, as was the interpretative expertise behind it, showing the advantage of a veteran pair of hands. Eschenbach will not return to the podium of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall until January 22 (he will spend part of the fall in Paris, conducting a production of Hindemith's opera Mathis der Maler), so tonight's final performance of this concert of Mozart and Mahler is your last chance to hear Eschenbach at work this year.

The cancellation of remarkable mezzo-soprano Nathalie Stutzmann robbed us of a much anticipated all-Mahler program. Eschenbach chose to replace her set of Mahler songs with a Mozart symphony, but not one of the expected ones: like the Bruckner sixth symphony heard last week, the NSO last played Mozart's Symphony No. 34 (C major, K. 338) in the 1980s. It is a bubbly work, especially in the light-hearted outer movements, and Eschenbach left it mostly unaltered by rubato but with a clear and dancing beat. The ensemble was fairly large for Mozart -- one supposes because the players were already contracted for Mahler, cancellation or no -- but larger orchestras were certainly known in Mozart's time. Even with that many musicians on the stage, the pianissimo passages were deliciously soft and contained, especially in the mostly-strings slow movement. Although this was not really a historically-informed performance approach, the influence of that movement was felt in the crisp articulation and fleet tempi, especially in the rather madcap final movement. [Continue reading]

National Symphony Orchestra
Mozart, Symphony No. 34 | Mahler, Symphony No. 5
With Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

Other Articles:

• Anne Midgette, Eschenbach, Mozart, Mahler and the NSO -- getting along famously (Washington Post, October 15)
  

English Concert and Harry Bicket

Mr. Corelli in London English Concert Vivaldi, Violin Concertos, op. 4 Rachel Podger

After throwing us for a loop with an excellent recital by the Arcanto Quartet on Wednesday night, the Library of Congress followed up with a knockout punch, a stop by The English Concert on their U.S. tour. The program was a Baroque smorgasbord, a little English lute song, some Vivaldi concertos, and solo complaints by wronged women as the main courses. The ensemble hardly needs any introduction to early music lovers: their discography includes a vast number of classic recordings, some of the best early attempts to perform historical music on period instruments, under former leader Trevor Pinnock, as well as many recordings added to the list in recent years, under Andrew Manze and other directors.

Only a large handful of the musicians are on the tour, but with Harry Bicket at the keyboard and directing, it was a taut and unified performance. Violinist Rachel Podger served with panache as leader of the ensemble, playing with the bravura technique and clean tone missed at times in the solos of Chiara Banchini with Ensemble 415 last week. With a sweet sound that was laser-precise, Podger sliced her way through Vivaldi's trio sonata on the repeating bass pattern known as La Follia (op. 1/12, RV 63), which easily outclassed Ensemble 415's performance of the same piece. William Carter provided a Spanish-flavored improvisation on Baroque guitar as an introduction, setting up a performance that preserved the occasionally manic energy of "La Follia." Podger gave an even greater display of virtuosity in Vivaldi's D major violin sonata known as "Il Grosso Mogul." She treated the final solo episode of both outer movements with the freedom of a cadenza, playing with blinding speed and dazzling technical polish, while giving the enigmatic slow movement ("Recitativo: Grave") an exotic, expressive turn, responding to the tremolos and Turkish-flavored folk ensemble sound of the whole group. Cellist Jonathan Manson also had a pleasing turn in Vivaldi's C minor cello concerto, RV 401, a rather somber piece that breaks with most of the stereotypes of what to expect from a Vivaldi concerto (indeed, he did not write the same concerto 500 times).

Other Reviews: Alex Baker, English Concert at the Library of Congress (Wellsung, October 14) Andrew Lindemann Malone, Do It, England: The English Concert at the Library of Congress (DMV Classical, October 16) Joe Banno, Starry English Concert rivets with Vivaldi, Monteverdi, Handel (Washington Post, October 18)

The other guest star of this tour is the English mezzo-soprano Alice Coote, who presented much the same face for the three suffering heroines: the trope of the abandoned woman's lament, in the style of Ovid's Epistulae Heroidum, was an important one in the Baroque period. Coote's voice is a powerhouse that tended to be a little too rounded and puissant for an intimate venue and with exaggerated diction that also sounded like overkill -- both to her advantage in a place like the Metropolitan Opera, for example. The final selection, Handel's dynamic solo cantata La Lucrezia, was best suited to these qualities: the dramatic plunge to a volcanic lower range, the ornate embellishments on da capo repeats, the cleanly articulated agility of melismas, the rafter-splitting high note at the end. Coote's dramatic side served her well in Monteverdi's Lamento d'Arianna, although as essentially a long recitative, some ornamentation would have been welcome. In a set of Dowland lute songs, her voice simply seemed two or three sizes too large, and again a simpler tone (her tendency to scoop instead of hitting the pitch in the center seemed to be used as a sort of expressive device) and embellishments on the strophic repeats would have been preferred. William Carter's richly ornamented performance of Dowland's Lachrimae Pavan was the highlight of that set.

The next concert at the Library of Congress is in the same excellent vein, featuring the Talich Quartet (October 21, 8 pm) in quartets by Beethoven, Janáček, and Dvořák. Alice Coote returns to Washington next month for a recital sponsored by Vocal Arts D.C. (November 4, 7:30 pm), in a program of more recent British songs at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Arcanto Quartet Enchanting

Ravel / Debussy / Dutilleux Bartók, String Quartets 5/6 Online scores: Mozart, String Quartet in d, K. 421 Ravel, String Quartet in F Major

As previewed last week, the Arcanto Quartet played a magnificent concert last night at the Library of Congress, to a well-filled auditorium. The group's sound was honeyed, lustrous, refined, with the players happily never feeling they had to force in the intimate space of the library's Coolidge Auditorium. Fortes were never electrified by overexertion, and the degree of differentiation among soft dynamics was impressive. As noted of their recent recording, there is an evenness in the virtuosity of the players, four equals thinking as one, creating a unified sense of ensemble playing and collaboration, as well as scrupulous intonation and phrasing.

The heart of the program was a glowing, vibrant rendition of Ravel's gorgeous F major quartet, featuring some of the best viola playing, from Tabea Zimmermann, heard at the Library of Congress from any group. The first movement alternated between whitewater turbulence and the quasi-orgasmic cry of the piece's pervasive main theme. The pizzicati of the second movement were deliberate, giving the full center of each plucked note, and the soft slow section and third movement were even quieter and more expressive than on the recording. With the audience lulled to drowsy quiescence after the third movement, wry smiles from the players forecast the particularly savage attack they gave to the opening of the fourth movement, featuring seamless and natural shifts between contrasting meters.

The opening Mozart quartet was no less beautiful, K. 421, a rare quartet by this composer in a minor key. Why did this piece, dismissed for various unexciting qualities by Norman Middleton in the program notes, make it onto the Arcanto Quartet's wish list (described by cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras in a recent interview)? The answer is that it is a gorgeous piece, and its beauty was revealed so well by this performance, from the opening sigh motif of the first movement, the shadow of an interior thought, later passed around the four instruments in the development. The second movement's stillness had a pulse of vitality running through it, and little embellishments added on the repeats of the fourth movement's variations provided further diversion.

Other Reviews: Stephen Brookes, The Arcanto Quartet, sharp as nails in U.S. debut (Washington Post, October 15)

For Bartók, the Takács Quartet remains my favored interpretation, but the way the Arcanto Quartet played the Hungarian composer's fifth string quartet had considerable appeal. The Library of Congress commissioned this piece, and it was premiered here in 1935 by the Kolisch String Quartet: an original program, signed by the four players, was shown in a display case at the auditorium's entrance, next to Bartók's manuscript score and his correspondence with the Library of Congress. This performance had a violent opening but even at its most aggressive moments, like the brutal, shrieked conclusion of the first movement, did not cross the line into an ugliness of tone. The character of playing shifted with the chameleon-like variation of the score, from the melancholy avian calls and night murmurs of the second movement to the bouncy cross-rhythms of folksy fiddle motifs over insect buzzings in the third. The eclectic effects in the fourth movement -- glissandi, spiccato bow repetitions -- were appropriately weird but did not draw attention to themselves (the same for the little faux-Haydn serenade near the end of the last movement), and the fifth movement was outrageously fast, giving the visceral thrill of speed but retaining dynamic shape.

This evening the Library of Congress is one of the stops on the U.S. tour of The English Concert (October 14, 8 pm), with violinist Rachel Podger and mezzo-soprano Alice Coote.

DCist: 'Salome'

See my review of Washington National Opera's production of Salome published at DCist today:

'Salome' Still Shocking (DCist, October 13):

Washington National Opera's new production of Salome shows that Richard Strauss's 1905 shocker can still pack a wallop. The Biblical story is probably familiar to most readers: John the Baptist is thrown in prison for preaching against Herod's licentious lifestyle. Salome dances for her lecherous stepfather, and in return, he gives her the prophet's head on a silver platter. What is likely much less familiar is the modern, psychologically astute form of the story in Strauss's German libretto, adapted from Oscar Wilde's scandalous play, which is centered on frustrated sexual desire as the primary motive for Salome's murderous obsession. On one hand, she is a spoiled girl used to getting her way; on the other, she entices Herod sexually and then kisses the severed head of the prophet who both fascinates and repulses her.

Deborah Voigt's company debut should have been a sensation, knowing her accomplishments in the role, including in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra in 2007. But while certainly good, her performance was not particularly incendiary or provocative, at least vocally. Much of the acting, as directed by Francesca Zambello, seemed random and aimless, with Salome moving around a mostly empty stage, lying down or running here or there for no apparent reason. The exception was the final scene with the head of John the Baptist, which was played sincerely as a passionate love scene, to chilling effect and quite befitting the carnal excesses of the score. She did perform the infamous Dance of the Seven Veils herself, stripping down to a body suit at the end, the possible embarrassment of this long scene mitigated by the presence of four attractive dancers accompanying her. [Continue reading]

Other Articles:

• Olga Haldey, Salome at the Washington National Opera (Opera Today, October 13)
  
• Anne Midgette, Washington National Opera unveils a lively 'Salome' (Washington Post, October 9)
  
• Terry Ponick, Washington National Opera's edgy new 'Salome' (Washington Times, October 9)
  
• Barbara Mackay, ‘Salome’ is masterfully done (Washington Examiner, October 8)
  
• Andrew Beaujon, Washington National Opera's 'Salome': Director Francesca Zambello on the characters (TBD.com, October 7)