Steve Reich's Radio Rewrite

Steve Reich

Few contemporary composers draw the kind of crowds that Steve Reich does, and his appearance with the London Sinfonietta yesterday at London’s Royal Festival Hall had been sold-out months ago. Tickets were so scarce that press comps couldn’t eventually be offered to those towards the bottom of the food chain (i.e. me), but the disappointment was quelled by Radio 3’s live broadcast, fronted by a clearly-excited Andrew MacGregor.

It began (as Reich concerts often do) with the composer’s 1972 piece Clapping Music, intended as a demonstration of music without conventional instruments. Reich took one of the two parts for last night’s performance of this early example of his ‘phase’ pieces. Another classic followed, with Mats Bergström dusting off Reich 1987 work Electric Counterpoint, originally written for jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and consisting of overlaid tracks and a final part played live. In performance, I’ve found it an odd spectacle – one live musician playing one of twelve parts, seeming a little karaoke – but it works well on the radio, where the whole blends seamlessly with no visual distractions. It remains one of Reich’s loveliest creations.

A clutch of more recent pieces formed the bulk of the programme. 2x5 (2008) makes use of instruments more often associated with rock music – electric guitars, basses, drum kit – and marks a departure from Reich’s more conventional instrumental palette. It chugs along in typically Reichian fashion, but the twang of the guitars lends an unexpectedly homemade feel that becomes quite endearing. The headline work of the night was the premiere performance of Radio Rewrite, based in part of two songs by Radiohead (“Jigsaw Falling into Place” and “Everything in its Right Place”). The songs are barely recognisable, having been subsumed into Reich’s familiar language, but something of Radiohead’s distinctive harmony has clearly rubbed off, particularly in the slower sections. Finally, his Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet (2007) demonstrated his work for an unusually large combination of instruments, but couldn’t quell the feeling that too much of Reich’s music is cut from the same cloth.

UK readers can hear the concert for one week on BBCiPlayer.

Baltic Nights with Britten Sinfonia

Alina Ibragimova (Photo: Sussie Ahlburg)

 

“Pēteris Vasks’s Violin Concerto “Distant Light” presses the button marked “spiritual angst” quite effectively, but for all its sincerity, feels hamstrung by the chunkiness of its transitions. Alina Ibragimova gave it the very best performance its composer can possibly have wished for (he was present and looked very pleased), directing the ensemble of strings while burrowing deep into its heartfelt expressive core with an unyielding intensity that marks her out as one of the world’s most powerfully persuasive violinists. It brought a large part of the audience to its feet but left me only intermittently touched. Ultimately, I’m unable to shake the feeling that Arvo Pärt does this sort of thing better.”

Read the full review at Classical Source.

Great opera, apparently

Charpentier's opera Medea - given in a new production by David McVicar at English National Opera - has prompted the usual range of reactions from reviewers: largely appreciative of the opportunity to see this baroque opera; more mixed on the virtues of the production. One reaction found in ENO’s review-quote-stuffed post-first-night promotional email, however, caught my eye. A comment, taken from Facebook and appearing alongside reviews from The Times, The Gaurdian and The Arts Desk, says:

'Can't wait to see it next week. 5* reviews for 'Medea' are fantastic.'
 

While I do look forward to further second-hand recommendations, I do worry that they might not be heard above the sound of the scraping of the bottom of the social-media barrel.       

Janine Jansen directs Mozart and Bartok

Janine Jansen

"Marking the conclusion of a tour of 8 European cities, Janine Jansen’s concert with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields dug up some reasonably rare gems while unconventionally coupling Mozart and Bartók. Mozart-the-child-prodigy and Mozart-the-teenage-instrumentalist were here, though it was left to Bartók to provide the perspective of a slightly softened older composer."

Read my full review at Classical Source.

John Adams conducts Harmonielehre

John Adams

John Adams began a mini-residence with the London Symphony Orchestra this week, giving me the opportunity to indulge in a bit of nostalgia:

"One of the seminal musical experiences of my student years came at a John Adams concert, some ten years ago. He was conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in a programme entirely of his own music. His piano concerto, Century Rolls, and the punchy showpiece Lollapalooza made up the first half; a much longer one occupied the second. The title of that concluding piece I knew from browsing CDs in HMV (those were the days), but I wasn’t sure how to pronounce it and I certainly knew nothing of its connection to Arnold Schoenberg. Harmonielehre knocked me for six."

Read my full review of the concert at Classical Source.

Farewell HMV

 

Today’s announcement that high street music chain HMV is going into administration is sad news for anyone who’s spent too many hours browsing their aisles of discs, but it isn’t a surprise. This is the culmination of a process that’s been in motion for the best part of a decade. High street vendors have, as we all know, been unable to compete with online prices or to integrate digital media into their shop floor operations. That problem has claimed the scalps of Tower, Zavvi (formerly Virgin) and now HMV, which remained only because it was the biggest player to begin with.

I personally have mixed feelings about their apparent demise. I began as a wide eyed shopper, astounded at the range I discovered in the basement classical department at their flagship Oxford Circus store. One Christmas, I took a job there, in that same department, and carried on for the best part of a year, growing to dislike the organisation more and more. Even then, in 2006, the company was taking ever more desperate steps to increase sales, but they never extended to protecting their most valuable resource: their knowledgeable staff. Staff turnover was astonishing, with few making it past a year. Compounding this was the lack of communication with those running the operation. As shop floor workers, we could all see areas that failed, but had no way of transmitting that information back to the higher levels.

I’m sure what I describe is no different from many other large organisations are run. HMV was the last giant of its sector, though, and the irony is that if their shops vanish, little will be left other than the independent stores they sought to outdo in the first place.

Great recordings that never were

A young Emil Gilels

Christmas is almost upon us and has set me thinking about what non-existent treasures I might request from the Music Gods, should I have their number. The era of recorded history is full of missed opportunities: great artists who would have been sublime in particular repertoire but who never had the chance to set it down on record. Here are a few things I wish could have been a reality:

Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues played by Emil Gilels

One of the great twentieth century cycles for the piano and a pianist of lofty nobility; alas, it never quite happened. Gilels – arguably one of the two greatest pianists to have emerged from the Soviet Union – was more closely associated with Prokofiev than Shostakovich. He did, however, record 3 of the 24 Preludes and Fugues, including the final one, which appeared on Columbia and EMI. The blistering intensity of the final fugue suggests Gilels could have worked wonders with the rest of the set.

Ysaÿe’s Six Sonatas for solo violin played by David Oistrakh

Oistrakh did a lot to promote the music of Ysaÿe in Russia. He recorded a number of pieces for violin and piano and, with his son Igor, became practically the sole proponent of the poeme Amitié. Yet, for some reason, he never fully tackled the most famous of Ysaÿe’s works, the Six Sonatas for solo violin. We have a recording of the third, the famous Ballade, but no more.

Elgar’s Violin Concerto played by Fritz Kreisler

Although the work was dedicated to him, Fritz Kreisler’s involvement with Elgar’s Violin Concerto wasn’t an entirely happy one. He stripped out the solo part’s more idiosyncratic details and didn’t leave a recording of this grandest of works for violin and orchestra. He was, though, the most loved violinist of his generation and must surely have been quite something in this piece. He isn’t the only great violinist who performed this piece but left no recording, however. Eugene Ysaÿe did much to promote it in the first years after its composition, but by the time the technology existed to capture a work of this scale, he was some way past his best. David Oistrakh made the Concerto known in Russia, but no recording of him playing it has emerged.

These are just a few what-ifs that I wish had been a reality. What do you wish the great musicians of the past had left on record for posterity? What neglected masterpieces are ripe for re-recording? Let us know in the comments below.

Review: Joshua Bell and Sam Haywood at Wigmore Hall

Bell & Haywood

Joshua Bell and Sam Haywood at Wigmore Hall, London

11 December, 2012

Of all the violinists doing the rounds, Joshua Bell seems closest to the model of the mid-twentieth century greats who made their way in America – as comfortable in the serious repertoire as in showpieces and the old-style crossover. His Wigmore Hall programme – given with regular recital partner Sam Haywood – offered the kind of variety that we’re used to from this hugely popular American violinist. It alighted on the territory of some of the last century’s greatest – Heifetz and Oistrakh – and found him standing tall in their company.

Bell began with Schubert’s Rondo in B minor, D895 - a vigorous workout of a piece that tripped up the violinist more than once. Largely, though, his rapid finger-work was precise and his tone wonderfully clear. He was on surer ground in Richard Strauss’s Violin Sonata in E flat, Op.18, which revels in the kind of long singing lines that Bell is so good at carrying. It’s one of those finely crafted but rather anonymous early Strauss pieces that offers only glimpses of the instantly recognisable style familiar from the career that followed. Strauss struck his personal sound very suddenly in 1889, the year after composing the Sonata, with Don Juan; had we known him only from the Violin sonata, we’d remember a fiercely Romantic imagination coupled with forgettable melodies. There are some intriguing things, though, in the slow movement, such as the gently turbulent figures that dog the piano part – so delicately captured by Haywood – and the sudden burst of fire that grips the finale in its closing moments.

Bell suspects the influence of Gershwin (or at any rate, jazz) on Prokofiev’s Second Violin Sonata. I can’t hear it, but he placed Jascha Heifetz’s arrangements of Gershwin’s Three Preludes before the Sonata to make the point. The Preludes, originally for piano, sit a little awkwardly when spread between two instruments, but Bell’s swaggering way with them had an authenticity that I suspect only a New Yorker can muster.

Prokofiev originally composed the Second Violin Sonata for flute, adapting it for violin at the suggestion of David Oistrakh. He then wrote what became known as the First Violin Sonata – a work of such ferocious mechanical anguish that the Second can seem a pale flower beside it. Bell and Haywood, though, made it surging but nostalgic and richly coloured. Bell’s vivid sense of narrative flow carried it in a way I’ve never heard before, enriching it with a fragile turn of phrase that didn't negate power. The audience went wild for what followed – Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen and an arrangement for Chopin’s C sharp minor Nocturne – but it was the Prokofiev that stole the evening.

UK readers can hear the recital on BBC iPlayer until Tuesday December 18th.

Maxim Vengerov - the full interview

Recently, I was lucky enough to be granted a short interview with Maxim Vengerov. Our conversation came shortly before his masterclass at the Royal Academy of Music. Vengerov is Yehudi Menuhin Professor of Music at the RAM and gives regular masterclasses to the students there. Some of Maxim's thoughts on teaching went into a piece I wrote about the masterclass; here is the compelete text of the interview.

Did you have personal experience with Lord Menuhin when you were younger?

The first time I worked with Lord Menuhin I was seventeen. I remember it was just a marvellous experience to work with him. He was so gentle to me. I must have been really nervous. He felt that; he made me really comfortable around him.

It’s quite important that when a young person stands next to you that the “grand maestro” realises what pressure it is for the young one to be with them. It’s the responsibility also: “can I be up to the expectation? Will I be liked by maestro or not?” All these thoughts were coming to my mind. Once I was standing with him he was so incredibly humble. And at the same time I felt that there was a very strong leadership. We played [a] Mozart Concerto. So I felt really really confident as the concert was just wonderful. [I had] very strong memories from the beginning. I came across Lord Menuhin a couple of more times [but] that was the only time we were on stage together - which was quite memorable, I must say.

When you were growing up, was Menuhin’s playing a reference point for you in the Soviet Union? Was it something that you had contact with?  

During Soviet times all we knew was the Russian school – violinists such as David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan. Menuhin came to Moscow in 1960 or something like this, and they produced a recording, or at least that was what we heard. Also, I had since I was a child Menuhin’s recording of Chausson’s Poeme and Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, so I remember it was still this LP which I enjoyed very much. And so Menuhin was on the top of the list, together with Isaac Stern and Jascha Heifetz. His recordings – there were like two or three records available. That was all. So it was quite a rarity, but [one] which we really treasured and studied with my first teacher, Galina Turtschaninova, and that was wonderful. I still have this recording [on] LP. On the cover: Menuhin sitting in shorts. I think he was on the stairs, together with Enescu, with his teacher. So quite a lovely memory for me of my childhood.

When you were able to travel more, did you find all this new information – such as recordings of new violinists – quite bewildering?

Of course. I was struck by the variety of records that were available when I moved to the west. So I was constantly buying different recordings that weren’t available in Soviet Russia at that time.

When you were young, did you take part in masterclasses?

I started taking masterclasses when I moved away from my regular studies. I was at that time sixteen and, for a year, I didn’t really want to take any masterclasses with anyone. It was for me an important time to find out more about myself and what music means to me. The goal was also to find out if music was after all something I wanted to do. It was rather strange because at fifteen I won the Carl Flesch competition, so had a lot of engagements. Nevertheless, I felt the need to find a certain creativity and something of my own. I still was not entirely sure if I wanted to become a musician or not, believe it or not. But after a year of intense study – and that was not only study by myself on the violin – but that was exactly when I was going around buying records, and not necessarily of violin performance music, but also of orchestral symphonies. I was studying the music from the score in depth with the teacher, analysing the form, harmony and then subtleties of the performance, the differences of different conductors. So, for instance, I would buy Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony and I would buy four or five different version so that I could actually see the differences of the interpretations. And so I would shape my own tastes for music. That was important because when I learned a new programme, immediately I would apply the same thing to the repertoire I was playing. After a year of intense study on my own, I decided I had a need to meet musicians – to go to meet the world. I was incredibly lucky because I met fantastic musicians, such as Barenboim and Rostropovich – the two of them became my long term mentors. With Rostropovich, my cooperation with him was about seventeen years, so I consider that some of the best recordings with orchestra I have done were with him, because we had great chemistry on stage. With Barenboim it was a different experience, but no less fruitful from a different angle and different point of view. I met also musicians like Carlo Maria Guilini, who gave me in a very short time – one or two performances – a different comprehension of the musical world and the time. Zubin Mehta; Muti; Maazel: so many that I really profited from. The idea was not only to play with them and ask for their advice, but also to try to follow them in a way, and I told them “maestro, if you feel the tempo should go forward, please do so. Don’t just follow me. I will follow you, I’d like that”. It was interesting for them too! I hope so, at least that’s what I was thinking. In any case, I think that made me a more flexible musician, a more well rounded musician that I was aiming to become.

What do you hope to be able to give to your masterclass students in the forty five minutes or hour that you have with them?

What is easier to do, it’s easier in this such short time to break the confidence of somebody. If you say the wrong words at the wrong time... the student can be quite fragile, especially if he or she trusts you. But what is more difficult it to build something, not to diminish the great qualities that a student has. Everyone has good qualities... Now, you have to say if you were to serve a really good guideline to the student for the next years, then this is a big task and a big responsibility. So I try to be as wise as I possibly can, try to master my form of interacting with them. I try to say as little as possible, but on the other hand I’d like to give them a bit more dense information that I possibly can. Also, we have to guess what the student is able to take during one hour and what he or she is not able, so to say, because sometimes people are just not ready for some things, so you have to already spot immediately what they’re able to perform.

Finally, can you tell us about the performances and recordings that you’ll be working on in the near future?

During this year I have done three recordings. One of them is coming out soon - I think in December. It was done in Wigmore Hall live with [pianist] Itamar Golan, from the recital which was done in April this year. The second recording we have done is with my string ensemble at the Yehudi Menuhin Academy in Gstaad in Switzerland. It’s the works of Mendelssohn – the small violin concerto; pieces by Tchaikovsky and Brahms. I am also a professor of the Menuhin Academy in Gstaad.  Also, the third recording was a rather interesting combination of seventeen original church sonatas for two violins and organ. The last four sonatas are with woodwind, cello and double bass and timpani. So these are original sonatas that are so incredibly exciting. We have done this recording with the principal organ player from Gdansk main cathedral and my Polish student, Maria Włoszczowska. So these are three recordings I have done in the last year.                       

Arabella Steinbacher's Beethoven

Conductor Kurt Sanderling's career was celebrated by the Philharmonia on Thursday, in a concert that included German violinist Arabella Steinbacher performing Beethoven's Violin Concerto:

"German violinist Arabella Steinbacher stripped away some of the deadening portentousness that can dog performances of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and injected lightness of being and teasing charm. Her way with it was contended and sunny and her performance captivated more than her relatively small and occasionally constricted tone suggested it might. Ideally, the long first movement calls for a greater deepening of insight and involvement as it progresses than Steinbacher provided, but her carefree way with the improvisatory solo part of the Larghetto, robust vigour in the concluding Rondo and dazzling command of Kreisler’s cadenzas sealed an effective and very enjoyable interpretation."

You can read my full review at Classical Source.