Ina archives to be posted on Youtube

As stated earlier, the French Institut National de l'audiovisuel have great archives.

A new partnership has been signed between them and Youtube under which more than 50 000 documents will be made available.

Plenty to look fowards to.

Le Crabe-Tambour

This has nothing to do with music but French movie director Pierre Schoendorffer has passed away.

le Monde has a tribute. His movie "Le Crabe-Tambour" based on the nickname given to a French soldier during the war is a matserpiece which opposes two views of what honor is, one person (Jean Rochefort) being obeying and the other one following one's convictions (Jacques Perrin). The movie has density and a lot is felt but not said and not expressed in words.

http://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2012/03/14/pierre-schoendoerffer-un-survivant-de-l-histoire_1667727_3476.html

Kleiber experiences

This is a follow-up to a post about Charles Barber about Carlos Kleiber.

1) Tom Service of the Guardian has a review of Mr Barber's book. Hidden in it is a YouTube interrview of Kleiber himself which I did not knew.



My limited German enabled me to understand the interview. Kleiber does not speak too fast and has a certain foreign accent I cannot totally place. The interviewer was certainly unaware that he was asking too many questions about his father.

2) The Scala pefrormance of Bohème reviewed here in French in its DVD format is available in full on YouTube.

If you have not heard it, this is an absolute must:



Enjoy

3) Finally, as I refered earlier, I thought I would quickly write about the all too rare performances I heard Kleiber. All were at the Opera, twice in Munich, twice in London, once in New York and twice in Vienna.

• I first heard him in the Summer of 1981 in Der Rosenkavalier. Cast was G Jones, B Fassbeander, L Popp, K Moll. At this time, I did not knew the work as I now do but vividly remember Kleiber starting the act 1 introduction without waiting for applaudes to stop, the dancing rubato at the end of act 2 (I had a standing seat and the entire row was following Kleiber's beat), the floating woodwinds in act 3 and the singers.
• I heard the same production in the Summer of 1984, again at the Munich Festival. Jones and Popp were replaced by J Beckmann and B Booney doing what should have been her first Sophie with Kleiber. Her stage presence and quality of voice was stunning. I knew the work much more and could appreciate the subleties of tempis as well as the wonderful texture Kleiber got from his orchestra). 
• In 1987, Kleiber conducted Otello with Domingo - Ricciareli - Diaz in London at Covent Garden. My first ticket application was rejected. I send them a letter saying that I was going anyway to be in London for my work, that I had been a junior friend of Covent Garden while studying at Imperial College and that I would appreciate to be on a waiting list. I also added that I was aware of the massive demand and of the efforts they were doing to accomodate as many as possible. They send me a ticket at the edge of the orchestra pit which got freed when the staging was modified. I was at one meter of Domingo when he entered with his Exultate but more importantly was seeing 3/4 of Kleiber. I cannot find interest on the stage, I was mesmerised by Kleiber who just knew when to step in and when to let the music go. At this day, this remains one of my top 5 performances at the Opera. I wrote a letter to thank Covent Garden.
• This performance was revived in January 1990. An announcement was done that Domingo was not in the best health and I was not seated in front of Kleiber but remember being really moved by the evening and enjoying the stage.
• I spend two years in the US back to studies at the Harvard Business School from 1990 to 1992. During my first week-end, I remember opening the New York Times and seeing that Kleiber was conducting Rosenkavalier. I called the box-office, asked wether the C Kleiber mentioned in the newspaper was a Carlos. I then asked if they had a ticket and there were indeed a few outstanding. I then asked if this was really Kleiber as normally there would be a sold-out house, the lady at the phone laughed and confirmed this was the case ... I went there. Cast had now F Lott, AS Von Otter, B Booney and A Haugland. Great singers although I started missing my first Rosenkavalier cast, maybe my memory made it better and better, ..., and was impressed by Haugland. Kleiber conducting was still magestrial but had an Automnal feeling as if the center of gravity of the work had moved from say Sophie to the Marschallin.
• I went to Vienna in 1994 for two performances of the Rosenkavalier. These are the ones that are available on the DG DVD. The Automnal feeling was more pronounced this time. The orchestra played just amazingly. This was special and I have to add that in between the two performances, I met my wife. We had our second date at the second performance. Videos of this have been available including some with both stage and conductor:

I have been after to a few Rosenkavaliers in the theater. I have the various DVDs and some pirate recordings.  It is a masterpiece but I just cannot hear it again after these amazing live performances. I consider myself unbelievably lucky for these rare events.

Post-Scriptum: I have ommited one thing. In the early days of Internet, Toru Hirasawa compiled tons of information on Kleiber, son and father. We exchanged some mails and gave hime some informations on the casting of the Rosenkavalier I had heard in Munich. He very kindly put my name on a list of people who helped. The point here is that I would recommend any Kleiber fans to rush to his web site which is a gold mine of great information.

Mason Bates Interview

... can be found here.

Do take the time to hear him. I have alreay mentioned my impressions on his works, Mason Bates is probably the most significant american composer of his generation.

What is striking is how he explains why and how his work is the modern continuity of former creations. John Adams's autobiography makes a very similar point in his evolution.

This is a remarquable interview of a real personality of today. I wish now that we will soon be able to hear his works in Europe very soon.

A Meistersinger by Masters

I was in Zurich where I attended a presentation by futur intendant of the Zurich Opera A Homoki as well as a superb Meistersinger which once again puts Bayreuth productions in perspective and shame.

A full review is here.

Lesson from the past from France's wonderful Video Archive Ina

YouTune is not the only place where it is possible to find some treasures from the past. I recommend French-speaking readers to go to the wonderful archive site of France's Insitut National de L'audiovisuel.

I will come back with more documents as I explore what they have but have already found an excerpt of the Cosi Fan Tutte done in 1983 with Daniel Barenboim conducting his Orchestre de Paris. Staging was done by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. Cast included (by memory) Julia Varady, J Rodgers, D Rendall and the Don Alfonso of Carlos Feller was a mastery of casting.



This was for many and for me a revelatory performance at a time where the Opera de Paris was going from scandal to scandal. (Have a look at the paragraph "Les éphémères" in the Opera de Paris Wikipedia page). This performance reminded or taught many in France of what homogeneous Opera performance where all contribute and participate to a single unified concept can be. And it took the leadership of Hugues Gall who brought his professionalism from Geneva Grand Théatre to the "Grande Boutique".

There is another treasure which is an interview of Patrice Chéreau commenting on the sacking of Daniel Barenboim by Pierre Bergé.




I already spoke about this which was a shocking event when I was younger and lived in Paris in an earlier post called: La mémoire courte or Short memory. Chéreau has a great point which is to say that there should be no reason for every new incoming political group to systematically reverse every decision done by their predecessor. He then refers to the two ministers of culture of the time, François Léotard and Jack Lang. You cannot run either a country or a company an Opera House or ... if you switch courses systematically.

What Chéreau is saying echoes what my old country is going through right now with the upcoming presidential elections. The purpose of this blog is not to take a position the two candidates but to highlight that it is a political tradition to take the systematic counter position that the opposition is taking. May it be in economy or in arts, there is no need to describe the disastrous impact of such dogmatism. And do I need to add that I am sorry for my old country bad habits ...

I have bought Ives's Violin Sonatas

So, summary of last episode ... I could not download via the DG, Amazon, Itunes site the tracks of Ives' Violin Sonatas by H Hahn and Valentina Lisita.

I gave it another try a couple of days via my Ipad through Itunes ... and in a bizarre twist of the cyber world, got my order accepted.

Thanks to iCloud, the content got synchronized  to my Ipod and my PC and I am listening to Ives's works as we speak.

I had send a mail at the customer care mail of Universal and got the following response from the support team:

_____________________________________________________

Hello Antoine.

Thanks for your e-mail regarding your attempt to download Charles Ives' 'Violin Sonatas.'

On occasion, and due to licensing laws, some records are not available in certain territories as is the case with the record you are attempting to download.

I hope this provides the clarification you were looking for.

Thanks.

Name Withheld

Universal Music Direct Support تم

_____________________________________________________


I have to add that the timeliness of the response was spotless. I have one concern though, the subject of the mail was: RE: . Universal Music Issue Resolved: (UMDS-70447) Product enquiry which means that the Support group decided themselves that the Issue was resolved. Given my experience, I thought I had been able to buy the tracks thanks to them ... so was surprised by the content.

_____________________________________________________


My response:

Dear ...

Thanks for your reply.

I am a classical music reviewer at concertonet but have also a blog. I wrote on it  about my experience at http://beckmessersrants.blogspot.com/2012/01/i-want-to-buy-ives-violin-sonatas.html. I included how I tried with no success to get the tracks first with you and then on Amazon and Itunes.

Also, I did a last try yesterday to buy the tracks with my Ipad with exactly the same credentials as on my PC on the same country and ... my purchase could go through via Itunes. The tracks are now synchronized thanks to iCloud on Itunes on my PC and my Ipod as well. Enclosed is a screen shot:

If this is OK with you, I will narrate this unusual story on my blog as a follow-up of the earlier story.

Best
Antoine Leboyer

_____________________________________________________

I will let you know if an answer comes. But I am so surprised why there would be such restrictions ? Any ideas anyone ?