Berlioz Bicentennial - Essay Example

Musical investigation of the One Of A Kind by Placebo using concepts of music With Currie sounding each drum, mallet, or "metal" to an ever-repeating rhythmic figure, various orchestral soloists and ensemble groups simultaneously define the melody or motif. Torkes expressed goal is to use these devices to get the listener "grooved into a rapturous state". Except for parts of the marimba movement, I was chiseled into an unrelentingly bored state. In this work, Torke commits an unpardonable sin: most of his forces go unheard. Specifically, the full string complement, the full wind complement, and the harp are seen busily sawing, blowing, and plucking away with only occasional audible evidence of their presence. The listener hears only the trumpets and trombones vying for attention with Curries fearsome forward phalanx. The audience did give hearty applause at Raptures conclusion and reportedly bought considerable numbers of its Naxos CD recording during intermission. In my view, however, they were sustaining a collective placebo effect from Torkes pre-performance address to them regarding the "sexual rapture" and related concepts. Like the 12-tone music of nearly a century ago, Rapture needs to be studied not merely heard to be appreciated. Ironically, the real story of this concert centered on conductor Miller, who filled out the program with superlative accounts of Strausss Don Juan and Tchaikovskys Fifth Symphony--the latter the best Ive heard live. Indeed the thunderous ovation following the symphony was altogether ecstatic--perhaps even rapturous. With the Berlioz bicentennial looming, the Los Angeles Philharmonic is celebrating this iconoclastic Frenchmans music in a big way. To close 2002, the Philharmonic presented LEnfance du Christ at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion the afternoon of December 20. As part of the blowout inaugural season in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2004, there will be a multi-part Berlioz festival, including the Requiem--whose spatial aspects seem made to order for the surround layout of the new hall--and a staged multi-media version of Symphonie Fantastique. Curiously, nothing is being done downtown at all in 2003, the actual bicentennial year, but I guess you cant have everything. In any case, it was an enterprising choice to play LEnfance du Christ at Christmas time, when programs are usually loaded down with Messiahs, period-performance baroque and early music, or holiday treacle. Berlioz never wrote anything else quite like this piece, but it is quintessential Berlioz all the same. Like so much of his work, its a strange, genre-bending piece in a category by itself--one that wanders over the line from oratorio to opera and back. Like other Berlioz long-form works, there are uneven stretches where your attention begins to drift, but before long you are startled by something as arresting, original, or moving as, for example, the compassionate, plaintive Shepherds Farewell at the center of the work. Typically, Berlioz wrote the text himself, humanizing the characters, giving some settings an urban feeling to go with the usually cited naivete, often musically illustrating the action quite literally. In the December 23-30, 2002 issue of The New Yorker, Norman Mailer reminisces about his frustration with the "ungainly" prose of the New Testament, deciding that he could do it better. "Why not just tell the story?" he asks. To which Berlioz might have added, "Amen". Basically, thats what Esa-Pekka Salonen did as well, letting the piece flow in a mostly unhurried manner (though the impatient tempo of the Shepherds Farewell made it sound like period-performance Bach), with wide dynamic fluctuations that paid off in the truly ethereal, even ghostly choral sounds from the Los Angeles Master Chorale at the end of each part. Tenor Vinson Cole was the Narrator, intoning sweetly in the opening section and rather touchingly in his final aria. Baritone Gilles Cachemaille doubled as a thoughtful King Herod in Part I, returning in soothing Sarastro-like voice as the generous Ishmaelite Father in Part III. As Mary and Joseph, mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer and baritone Nmon Ford were less alluring, with pronounced, rapid vibratos that were, if anything, well-matched. Overall, a promising prelude to the Berlioz festivities way off in the future, as well as a bridge from one hall to another. For three decades the Verdehr Trio violin, clarinet, piano has been quietly racking up a list of commissions that must set a record of sorts: the number at present stands at no less than 150. The scope and variety of these scores was evident in the five works just the tip of the iceberg that the ensemble played at its 30th anniversary concert at Merkin Concert Hall on November 25. The commissioning dates of the pieces we heard ranged from 1985 (Ned Rorem) to 2002 (Robert Mann), with pieces by Sebastian Currier, James Niblock, and Bright Sheng falling in between (all the composers except Sheng were there to take a bow). Styles spanned from the tame and harmonious to the pleasantly acerbic, though by no means in chronological order. The Trio--Walter Verdehr, Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, Silvia Roederer--played them all with an expansive spirit, complete commitment, and great deal of virtuosic skill. Curriers Verge, taking its departure from Schumanns Kinderscenen, is a set of nine picturesque vignettes by turns wildly scampering or moody, or muscular, or at last attractively radiant, all firmly grounded in conventional tonality. Niblocks Terzina encompassed three movements also of a fairly orthodox cast great momentum in the first, an easy melodic flow in the second, a sonorous, sparkling dance-like quality in the third. Shengs Tibetan Dance composed in 2001, is a wry, beguiling three-part piece that grows unexpectedly pugnacious at the close, as the clarinet emits a series of ear-piercing shrieks and outcries. After intermission came the premiere of Katchi-katchi by Mann, who is obviously not letting grass grow under his feet since retiring from the Juilliard Quartet. The narrative described in his program notes is a detailed Japanese story about a badger who comes to a bad end, highly compressed into a bumptious ten-minute musical race full of sharp turns and headlong scrambles. No shortage of imaginative energy from the 82-year-old composer. The most engaging piece of the evening was Rorems three-movement The End of Summer, with its deft references to Satie and Brahms, quick hints of hymns and waltzes, and a wonderful passage in the Fantasy middle movement that sounds like a shower of stars--all emerging from constantly shifting relationships among the three instruments. The Verdehr Trio, in residence at Michigan State University at East Lansing, gave a fine account of itself at this anniversary concert; future ensembles of the same make-up will owe a big debt of gratitude for the Trios noteworthy expansion of the once-sparse repertoire. Bibliography Bangs, R. (1992) An Application of Amabiles Model of Creativity to Music Instruction: A Comparison of Motivational Strategies. PhD. dissertation, University of Miami, June, 1992. Doig, D. (1942a). Creative music: II. Music composed on a given subject. Journal of Educational Research. 35 344-355. Holliger, Y. (1987). An investigative study on developing divergent thinking responses in children using a cognitive approach in music education. Ed.D., Teachers College, Columbia University. Read More