Mahleriana

Peter Davis in the NYT has an article on Mahler's time in New York.Universal edition is as usual a gold mine of fascinating information.

But for us in Geneva, Valery Gergiev and the LSO celebrated May 18 by playing the adagio of the 10th Symphony (as a substitution for a Mozart oboe concerto with an indisposed soloist) and gave a truly moving performance.

For another type of Mahler performance, Arte has put on the web another outstanding performance of the same work by the Berlin Phil and Abbado along with Das Lied with AS Von Otter and J Kaufmann. Gergiev led a more dramatic reading of the work (and the Berlin strings have slightly better intonation than the LSO if I may). A good example being at 36 mn where Abbado's last pizzicato is gentle whereas it was more menacing with Gergiev but rather than putting one versus the other, it emphasizes how much Mahler music can accommodate different approaches and how this has become part of all everyone respective musical worlds universally.

Lucerne ...

FYI, I was at the Boulez - Lucerne Festival Academy concert in Lucerne.Review is here.

The road after Evian was blocked:








So we had to drive an extra 90 minutes to cross the border via the Vallée d'Abondance:

Which had us miss the first half of Boulez's own Figures-Double-Prismes.

As you can guess, we were quite mad.

A few days in Vienna

Back from an extended week-end in Vienna. No Concert or Opera performances to report but music is everywhere and we do recommend the Gustav Mahler und Wien exhibition at the Österreichisches theater museum.

We probably know a lot about Mahler and shedding new light can be difficult. Mahler's Czech influence was well represented and it was a pleasure to see that Hans Rott's picture was visible in the room devoted to Mahler's formative year (Who knows works by Rudolf Kryzyaznowski ?)

The Mahler exhibition was close to one devoted to Thomas Bernhard. Both suffered or fought Austria's conservatism  and were also revered by some circles. In art like in business or politics, it is good to have a clear designated enemy. If these were looking for one today, they should look no further than the mercantilisation of music in Vienna. At every monument, you find cheap concert peddlers dressed in 18th century clothes, trying to get you in some Wiener-Residence Orchestra or Wiener-Mozart-Ensemble. There are everywhere which  probably means that there is a public for this sort of thing and that they must be either tolerated or officially approved.

How did they said: Kleider machen Leute ?

Vienna has also a few museums - centers of interest which arehouses of famous people. Sissi's appartements are enjoyable as they give a good impression of who she was and what her life looked like. Best even is Freud house. A not to be missed visit which shows his encyclopedic knowledge and endless curiosity. One may have doubts as to his enduring legacy but not on his ability to probe.

These are at the opposite of Mozart's house which is not only really empty but hardly tries to make any statement on the composer. Walls are white, there is hardly any content and a video clip of Amadeus nor a few tunes from Magic Flute of Figaro are enough to give a sense of his status and position in Vienna.

While Gérard Mortier was the director of the Paris Opera, he did several lectures on Mozart which were brillant; He portrayed a Mozart at the opposite of either the devilish genius of Amadeus (a brillant movie nonetheless) or the boy genius. In other words, he fought the "Images d'Epinal" of Mozart and would have felt similarly cheated visiting this batiment.

Enclosed here is a picture taken at the first floor of Mozart's house. Was this as clean on his time ?

A few posts on Hans Rott

Hans Rott has been the object of some news and some contreversy:

• It seems that Pavo Jaarvi is preparing a recording of the Symphony with his Frankurt Orchestra
• His comments, somewhat provocative, can be found here
• Additional comments on Kenneth Woods's blog are there

This morning at 8 h 59 ...

• Rushing to the Scala web site
• 9 h sharp, booking page overloaded
• Hitting reload key a few times, managed to get in
• Where are they. OK, I understand I need to go to page 2 forAbbado concerts
• High hopes: 53 seats for the Friday one; this is 53 more than I expected
• Selecting 2
• Proceeding
• The site does not recognize my home town which is a small Swiss village, I need to change and use my work adress in Geneva which should be ok
•  
• Too late, 53 seats are gone before you have the time to say Resurrection
• A look at my watch, ..., it is 9 h 02 !!

(Abbado has a long history with Mahler's 2nd Symphony. I first heard him conduct it with the LSO in 1979 ... and he has recorded it several times with I think the Chicago and the Vienna. This being said, the DVD has managed to bring, even at the levels achieved, something more ...

So for us, mere mortals, this is an outstanding Document to have ...)

I urge you to discover Hans Rott's Symphony

Henry-Louis de la Grange's fascinating biography tells the story of Mahler along with 2 room-mates being kicked out of their rented attics in Vienna for singing too loudly the act 1 of Walküre. The 2 others were Hugo Wolf and Hans Rott.

Rott died early. His mental health it seemed was poor and he suffered from paranoia believing that Brahms wanted to kill him.His musical legacy is small (see details at the site of the Rott society here) His symphony has recently ben played in concert by Järvi father and son (Paavo since they are several active) and radio broadcast could be found on some yahoo groups.

This is an absolute masterpiece wich Mahler called the founder of the new Symphony.

Do try to hear it (and if you want access to these yahoo postings, let me know). I need in the future to resume back tho this work but let me say that the orchestration reflects the influence of Bruckner although I wish that Bruckner had gone the Rott way and that from a spirit point of view, this seems like going towards Mahler First Symphony. A revelation.

This is a work of the highest order. His Symphony should be mandatory to all major orchestras worldwide.

Ghosts of the tempi past ...

How would composers react if they could hear their music performed today ? In music and in arts as a whole, progress exist and style evolve.

Examples are countless. Historical recordings at the beginning of the 20th century reveal that violonists abused of glissando, as much as singers of portamenti. Even more unusual for our 2010 ears, tempi fluctuate madly.

There exists some piano rolls made by Mahler of his music. They the first movement of the 5th Symphony with some natural tempi changes but the most surprising piece tempi-wise is the very fast 4th movement of the 4th Symphony. Comparison with the famous Mengelberg recording done in 1939 show the Dutch conductor radically slower than the composer. Maybe Sir Simon Rattle unusual treatment of the first bars (very slow then  huge sudden acceleration in the middle of the bar) would be considered as normal by the composer. Maybe he would find Pierre Boulez's objective treatment too clinical.


Two recent posts from prominent Classical Music writers seem to be inspired by mathematical considerations.On the blogophere, pianist Jeremy Denk, whom I heard in Paris as a superb partner to Joshua Bell's violin has a witty and sharp blog, "Thinking Denk" which included some not very serious maths on the evolving tempi of Brahms's second Piano Concerto.

The second comes curtousy of Alex Ross, authour of "the rest is noise" who referred in a recent entry on his blog to the work done by Eric Grunin on his site on the Eroica. I would recommend to spend some time on Eric's site which includes some fascinating comparison of tempi extremes in this work. May I remind that Beethoven's tempi are usually on the very fast side and are therefore rarely followed although there exists some famous die-hards litteralists.

As we speak, I am listening to the live performance of the Eroica with the Vienna Philharmonic under Thielemann. The performance is definitely a fascinating one which does justice to the scope and ambition of the work. Phrasing and orchestral colors are splendid but be warned: tempi fluctuation are here aplenty. While Beethoven may have approved them, they sound very self-conscious to my ears of today.

Back to Mahler 3's closing pages

During my last trip in the US, I discussed Mahler 3 with Frederic Kirshnit, one of NY Concertonet's correspondant. He was unhappy with Boulez's reading of this work and also commented that for this concert, Boulez had adhered to tradition and made a big crescendo to the closing pages.

Back in 2003, I had raved on Boulez's recording in this work in Concertonet (Sorry in French ...) where the biggest surprise came in the treatment of the last pages of the work. Whereas all conductors have accustomed us to a huge crescendo to go to a rousing fff along the slowing down of tempo, the text is telling us a different story.

It is one of these rare cases where Mahler just asks for a steady forte with the indication: "Nicht Abreisen".

Here is the trumpet part

and the Timpani's one:

Notice both indications of a simple Forte. The other movements have clear FF and FFF  indications but not this one.

 

To the best of my knowledge, only Boulez in his recording with the Vienna Philharmonic respects this straight forte. The effect is very different from the Tchaikowsky-esque Crescendo which never fails to bring the house down. It becomes thus a confident ending where the composer expressing a serenity in Nature. It would have been thus a strong transition to Mahler's original plan to complete the already huge work with what is the 4th mouvement of the 4th Symphony.

A friend of mine has given me access to the Radio broadcast which Boulez and the VPO did before the recording and surprise, as said by Fred, Boulez indeed does the Crescendo and play a stong ff in the live performance.

There are a few lessons from this:

1. It pays to get Mahler's scores and go thhrough them while listening to the works and analyze them like a paragraph from the Talmud ...
2. In the right works and the right hands, a record can still be a distinctive more risky artistic venture than a concert. As a consumate professional, Boulez would not chance losing the impact of the last pages of this work in the concert hall, he can take a different approach in the studio.
3. Finally, it reminds us that feelings and expression in music are derived from technical choices, tempis, balances, phrasing, ..., not the other way round.

Post-Scriptum: Just found on YouTube the rehearsal by Boulez of the end of the Symphony which F Kirshnit hear. Most conductors start the crescendo around the passage at 7:20. It is here more played FF than F but is more steady than the VPO Concert ...