How to kill Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann Szenen aus Goethes Faust  conducted by Daniel Barenboim,  marking the re-opening of theStaatsoper Berlin on the Unter den Linden, Berlin, after years of  renovation. Last time I was there, Hans Werner Henze was in the audience - how time flies ! This time, though, the performance was livestreamed on the Staatsoper Berlin website.   (Please see here about the Open air Beethoven 9 concert)  Schumann's Szenen aus Goethes Faust isn't an opera in the conventional sense, so choosing it to start an opera season was a brave choice indeed. Would the Staatsoper Berlin pull it off ?

Schumann';s works for music theatre don't get the respect they deserve because Schumann died young, eclipsed by Wagner and Verdi and by French Grand Opéra.   But if we approach Schumann on his own terms, and from the perspective of Mendelssohn, Weber and the Singspiele tradition, his work for the stage comes into its own.  What a great opportunity this would have been to present Schumann as man of the theatre in a distinctively German tradition.   Musically this was good - Barenboim, René Pape and Roman Trekel all in good form, with good support. But the production was a joke, and not a funny one. A Cataclysm of Corny Clichés !

Schuman pointedly made it clear that he was setting scenes from Goethe's Faust as opposed to writing a piece which unfolds as dramatic narrative.  The son of a Leipzig bookseller assumed quite rightly that his audiences knew the story, just as Mendelssohn's audiences knew the Bible.  So  Schumann's Faust isn't like Boito's Mefistofeles or Gounod's Faust but a strange hybrid that owes much to oratorio.  Even Berlioz The Damnation of Faust holds together better as semi-opera.    Jürgen Flimm's production with designs by Markus Lüpertz is overkill.  It will appeal to those who think that opera exists to be looked at, without musical and emotional connection.  The Frock Coat and Crinoline crowd !  Barrie Kosky fans who are fooled by superficial appearances, and don't think beyond.

The stage is dominated by two tall figurs whose purpose is to add verticals to the generally flat horizontals.  Perhaps the figures represent Faust and Mephistofeles, or Good and Evil, but they don't contribute much.  At times, a hollow box appears on stage. These stage within a stage boxes are a good idea, which is why they pop up so often in the theatre. They focus attention on what's important, distancing the action from what is happening elsewhere. Here, though the biox is just a box, a toy theatre at best, which at least is a nod to early 19th century performance practice, which is valid enough.   But we've long outgrown painted flats but wooden acting was what we got here. No disrespect to the singers but to the direction. Stylized gestures and poses can be used effectively but here there didn't seem much purpose.   Gretchen (Elsa Dreisig) and Marthe (Katharina Kammerloher) are cliché maidens, the sprites and demons comic book caricature, the choirs nuns in cartoon wimples.

Goethe populates the Second Part with allegory : Doctor Marianus and Pater Profundis, for example, and the tale becomes metaphysical fantasy.  Thus it's perfectly natural for the singers to sing two "parts" but the parts aren't continuations of the drama that went on before.  The logic behind some of this staging might seem to grow from this duality, which Schumann  (and later Mahler) respected enough not to tamper with.  Translating it into visuals is tricky.  Pape and Trekel are shadowed by non-singing actors, again a stage device which can work fine sometimes, but here was confusing.  Pape and Trekel spend a lot of time changing costumes, which is OK, but not particularly necessary. Though the presence of choirs and multiple solo voices fills up the stage, too much busy-ness also distracts.  Stefan Herheim can get away with great detail, but his details are thought through and co-ordinated to meaning. Here we just had a lot of a lot.  Schumann's Szenen aus Goethes Faust is fascinating, even though London critics don't get it.  But I reckon this staging won't help much. Pity, since the singing was good and Barenboim conducted with great style.  I loved the dialogue - so important to full realization, especially Gretchen am Spinnrade, recited, as Goethe wrote it, delivered with poetic feeling.

Berlin glows: Barenboim Beethoven Staatsoper livestream

Berlin, gleaming gold in the autumn evening sunshine - Daniel Barenboim Beethoven Symphony no 9 in the open air, on the Unter Den Linden, part of the Staatsoper für Alle festival,  a gala marking the re-opening of the Staatsoper building after seven years’ renovation and improvements. Thousands of people (close to 10,000?) packed in the length of the boulevard and perhaps in the squares beyond, all paying rapt attention to a superb performance.  Barenboim conducted the Staatsoper Orchestra with René Pape, Burkhard Fritz, Diana Damrau and  Okka von der Damerau.  Barenboim conducted stylishly, the orchestra, looking relaxed, responding with verve.   As always, excellence sells itself !  A happy crowd, kids and old folk, there for the music, looking slightly embarrassed when the cameras panned on them.  This is what "music education" should be - no silly gimmicks.  Sadly, I don't think this could be done in the UK.

How astonished Beethoven would have been. "Alle Menschen werden Bruder,Wo den sanfter Flugel weilt".  Hundreds of thousands listening in, all over the world, wonderful music, presented without hype.This was modern technology used to maximum advantage without overkill.  Even the filming was good - the cameras picked up on tiny details like the elderly couple resting against each other, and the handshake between two of the singers at the very end.

And of course, Berlin itself. Once a provincial backwater, transformed in the Age of Enlightenment by Frederick the Great and his ancestors and successors, who are laid to rest in the  Cathedral crypt in elegant but simple tombs : "the Prussian spirit" with its values of integrity, piety and dedication.   At the other end of the Unter den Linden, the Brandenburger Tor, with its grand columns and Quadriga above. The great grandson of the architect, a relative of Henning von Treskow who was executed by the Nazis, observed wryly that the horses in the statue were placed so their metaphorical droppings would land on the heads of rulers who lost touch with reality.  And so the Quadriga has witnessed the comings and goings of despots of all kinds.  Not far away, either, the university named after Alexander von Humboldt who pioneered modern geography and natural science, and the Museuminsel with its amazing collections: relics from Egypt and Assyria through to paintings of the Romantic era, all part of an audacious vision of a cosmopolitan world.   Had Victoria not married Albert, where would London be? The livestream  will be rebroadcast soon on arte.tv for 30 days. 

Harrison Birtwistle Deep Time : Barenboim Prom 4

The UK premiere of Sir Harrison Birtwistle's Deep Time, at the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall,  with Daniel Barenboim who conducted the world premiere at the Philharmonie, Berlin, in May.this year.  Just as Barenboim's Elgar pedigree goes back a long way, so does his relationship with Birtwistle.  They've known each other since the 60's. Barenboim also gave the premieres of  Birtwistle's Exody in 1998 and of The Last Supper in 2000.

In an interview for his publishers Boosey & Hawkes, Birtwistle explained the term "Deep Time".  "...coined by John McPhee in a 1981 book Basin and Range, which refers to the idea of measuring things on a vast temporal scale beyond human comprehension such as the age of rocks. The concept of Deep Time follows on from the work of the 18th century Scottish geologist James Hutton who proposed that the processes of rock erosion, sedimentation and formation have ‘no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end’, a state of perpetual change...."   It's an idea which fits in well with the concepts that seem to lie beneath so much of Birtwistle's work: stratas and layers,  levels of time parallel and co-existence, puzzles, mysteries and patterns, often evolving as if generated by abstract but organic life forces.  Earth Dances, of course, and The Triumph of Time but also mysteries like The Minotaur and Silbury Air. 

Deep Time seems to evolve out of nothingness. Bars are marked in silence until sound emerges almost imperceptibly. Slow, circular figures dragging forward contarst with sparkling figures comprising short, quick-paced cells.   Rhythms build up quickly to an exuberant angular dance, which then morph into flying figures which float above the steady pulse.   Crashing metallic percussion, the growl of dark, low brass and woodwinds. Base, middle and top notes like a complex but earthy scent.  Large, dense structures and fleeting whips of high-pitched sound, propelling forward thrust.  A soprano saxophone calls, marking intervals: wooden blocks are beaten in typically wayward Birtwistle zig-zag patterns.  Planes of sound from strings and winds, suggesting boundless vistas.  Towards the conclusion, trickling, tiny fragments, quirky changes of direction, and a return to long, slow, rumbles. As the music passes onwards,  cymbals clash and long planes stretch until at last the music dissipates into nothingness once more. Not before the brass and metallic percussion assert themselves once more, in quirky farewell.  I didn't think so much of inexorably slow forces but of a multiplicity of actions on different levels.  Birtwistle is never boring!  He turned 83 this weekend, but creatively he's lithe and agile. 

Pierre Boulez Saal opening concert : Schubert Der Hirt auf dem Felsen

The Opening Concert  of the Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin's new hall for chamber recitals.  Daniel Barenboim  did the honours in the Mozart Piano Quartet KV 493, with his son, Michael, the violinist, beside him.  No way would a concert as significant as this have been  complete without a star like Barenboim.  The invisible star, nonetheless was Pierre Boulez, for whom the hall is named. Fittingly, the concert began and ended with Boulez: Initiale initiating proceedings, with Sur Incises as the grand highlight. Both pieces also demonstrated the acoustic and flexibility of this new hall.  It's more than a recital hall, since it can be adapted for larger ensembles and even, potentially, for chamber opera.  Seating seems generous, so backstage facilities might also be of the same high standard.  Coffin-shaped concert halls are dead.  London, wake up!

Barenboim will also be remembered for posterity because he nurtures young musicians, just as he himself was nurtured when he was a child prodigy. It was good to hear Karim Said, whom Barenboim has mentored since childhood. Please see my article Why we need  to know who Karim Said Is from 2008. Said has matured nicely. He was the soloist in Alban Berg's Kammerkonzert for piano, violin and thirteen winds, with Barenboim as conductor. Later, Said was the lead pianist in Sur Incises.  Jörg Widmann appeared, both as clarinettist and as composer, performing his own Fantasie. The whole concert can be heard on repeat here, a good idea since you can fast forward past the inordinately long breaks between pieces.   You can see who's in the audience, too - Simon Rattle. 

Being a Lieder person,  I was keen to hear Schubert Der Hirt auf dem Felsen D 965 with  Barenboim, Widmann  and the incomparable Anna Prohaska.  Pauline Anna Milder-Hauptmann, the celebrity coloratura of her day, wanted a showpiece that would test her range and artistry. Der Hirt auf dem Felsen is a challenge, even for the finest performers.  The piano part is dense, "rock-like" in its complexity, and the clarinet part equally daunting. But the soprano is the star. The piece runs for twelve minutes, connecting three different poems (Wilhelm Müller and Karl August Vernhagen).  Schubert's setting replicates the imagery in the first poem,  Müller's Der Berghirt, whiuch describes a young shepherd, sitting high on a rock on a mountain, looking down on the valley below, where his beloved lives, far away. Thus the extremes of height and depth,the soprano's voice soaring upwards, while the clarinet's lower register floats seductively around her, sometimes in duet.

In the early part of the 19th century, there was a craze for "Alpine" music connecting the Romantic concepts of Nature, purity and freedom with picturesque mountain scenery and peasant simplicity.   Weber's Der Freischütz premiered in 1821 and Rossini's William Tell in 1829, the year after Schubert wrote this remarkable song. Tragically, it was his last completed work., but it might indicate how Schubert might have progressed had he survived.  Later in the century,"Alpine opera", such as La Wally came into vogue.   Strauss and Mahler wrote music in which mountains appear, figuratively. Indeed,  the whole genre of Bergfilm is an adaptation of the style. Lots on this site about mountains in music and Bergfilme.

Although the soprano in Der Hirt auf dem Felsen certainly does not yodel, the idea of a song designed to carry over long distances applies, and requires good breath control (as do pan pipes and Alpenhorn), Milder-Hauptmann and Schubert no doubt realized the piece would be a tour de force.   Prohaska was wonderful, singing with mellifluous grace.  Her words rang clear and true.

"Je weiter meine Stimme dringt,
Je heller sie mir wieder klingt
Von unten".  

In the last section, Prohaska's voice trilled deliciousl, .duetting with Widmann's clarinet. Tricky phrasing, but joyously agile, like a mountain spirit. 

"Der Frühling will kommen,
Der Frühling, meine Freud',
Nun mach' ich mich fertig
Zum Wandern bereit"

It might seem trivial, but I loved the outfit Prohaska wore: cropped trousers, knee-high boots and a long jacket.  Very elegant, yet also reminiscent of a 19th century traveller, a poet or a wanderer.

The Tsar's Bride - Barenboim, Milan broadcast

What have things come to, when Ivan The Terrible should now be known as "one of the same characters that inspired Eisenstein", according to the blurb on BBC Radio 3. Ivan the Terrible, supposedly a demonic despot who cast a shadow over all Tsars to come, and the father of the Russian Empire, reduced to a bit part in history?  Eisenstein's 1942 film is a classic, about which I've written  before, but there's a whole lot more to Ivan than the movies. Maybe modern "research" these days depends on what's on page 1 of Google, and look no deeper. 

No trivializing when it comes to Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride, where the Tsar's forceful persona dominates all around him. No trivializing, either, in Barenboim's account for Teatro alla Scala, recorded late last year.  Glorious playing, the riches in the orchestration suggesting the splendour of the Tsar's court . Yet poison seeps from below the surface. Wealth and power mean nothing, when you're paranoid, surrounded by enemies, real or imagined.  Listen HERE to the full broadcast. Fabulous, orchestral playing matched by fabulous singing too. This is what The Tsar's Bride should sound like. The Royal Opera House production a few years ago got attacked because it was  set in the modern world of the new oligarchy. Why not? since human nature doesn't change.  Is it so hard to imagine what it must be like around Vladimir Putin? 

The problem with the ROH production was that it was unidiomatically conducted (Mark Elder), polite watercolour, rather than pulsating blood. If Barenboim and his cast had done that production, the opera would not have been met with the incomprehension it received in London.   Incidentally, there's a film based on Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride. The filming is stunning, though musically it's pretty average.

Andreas Schager - shining new Parsifal, Berlin, Barenboim

Andreas Schager made his role debut as Parsifal with Daniel Barenboim in a new production for the Berlin Staatsoper. From all accounts, Schager's the bright new hope in the Wagner tenor world. He sang an outstanding Siegfried in Barenboim's BBC Proms Götterdämmerung,  

At the time, I wrote"The sensation of the evening was Andreas Schager. True Heldentenors are rare and a singer like this is rarer still. Schager's voice is full of natural colour and beauty, which he uses well, creating myriad nuances and shadings. His phrasing is intelligent, bringing out character and meaning.  In Wagner, it's not enough, ever, to sing words without meaning. Each time Schager sang, I felt that I was learning more about Siegfried than I'd fathomed before. Every  passage was individual, purposefully and beautifully expressed. Schager's voice is flexible, so he can do subtle changes of inflection without sacrificing line. He also has stamina. Though the part isn't a killer like that in Siegfried, it shouldn't pose problems. Schager has strong lungs but also strong technique. 

He can also act. He inhabits the part so intuitively that his body becomes an extension of his singing. His movements are instinctive and expressive.  Schager could not have had much coaching for the part since he only stepped into the Berlin production at short notice, and from what I've read, it was one devoid of Personenregie. When Schager moves, we remember that Siegfried grew up with animals in the forest, a true child of nature. Even when he dons a suit, Schager's agility suggests that the real Siegfried still lives within. The sheer joy and energy in Schager's singing makes us realize that, for Siegfried, everything is new and exciting."

Although Siegfried in Götterdämmerung, isn't quite as much of a tour de force as in Siegfried,  Parsifal in Parsifal is definitely a leap to the top, an anointment of sorts, promising a good future. 
Austrian born, Berlin resident Andreas Schager has quietly been building up a career in the smaller but more esoteric German houses, gaining the sort of experience that comes with hard work and total immersion in repertoire. He sings a lot of Wagner and did the title role in Rienzi twice, including this January in Hamburg. He's not a Met-style publicity creation and puts the hype about the Met Siegfried into perspective.  I was wracking my brain trying to remember where I'd heard Schager before and remembered the superb Mozart Magic Flute from Berlin in April 2013, where  Schager sings the first Armoured Man. It's not a huge part, but he's singing it with the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Fidelio La Scala Barenboim reviewed

Beethoven Fidelio at the Teatro alla Scala Milan, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Musically superb: after hearing the BR Klassik broadcast live online, I was stunned. Now, having seen a copy of the video broadcast on RAI 5, I'm still stunned by the quality of the playing and singing but very disappointed by the staging.

Fidelio is an opera of ideas, theatre of the intellect, rather than simple entertainment. Like it or not, Fidelio is a political opera. and needs passionate commitment.  In Barenboim, Fidelio gets an interpreter who truly understands Beethoven's passionate convictions. He's conducted Fidelio many times, in many different forms. This is an opera that can't be fixed in concrete, for its ideas live on, absolutely pertinent today. In 2009, Barenboim did Fidelio with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, whose members know more about political strife at first hand than most opera audiences. For that performance, Barenboim incorporated spoken narration, using texts by the late, great Edward Said, co-founder of the orchestra and the theorist behind its lofty ideals.

For the gala opening night at La Scala Milan. usually a  focus for political  demonstrations, Barenboim chose a different approach, though equally intelligent and strong-minded.  This time, his focus highlighted the opera in terms of the values and music of 1814. Beethoven had admired Napoléon as liberator and modernizer, but turned against him as tyrant.  Napoléon obviously wasn't the first or last autocrat who throw dissidents into dungeons. The Austrian regime in Beethoven's time almost certainly did so, too. Thus the libretto, set in 18th century Seville,  provides a disguise for its radicalism,  much in the way that Leonore's manly costume and wifely virtues provide a cloak for her intentions.

By choosing the 1814 version of the Overture, Barenboim firmly places Fidelio in context, and shows how radical Beethoven was as musician as well as thinker. Leonore II, less elaborate than Leonore III, brings out the aesthetic of the First Act, linking it to the music theatre and even Singspiele traditions of the time. Hence the importance of the spoken dialogue and the somewhat stylized series of set pieces where various combinations of singers participate. Some people don't like Fidelio, much in the way some don't like Zauberflõte,. but Barenboim shows how the First Act operates.  Each sequence is neatly defined, building up to a unified whole, as strong in its own way as the action-packed second act. Think Mozart or Haydn, rather than Verdi or Wagner. The drama lies in the dynamics of the delivery, spoken and sung.  The characters are at cross-purposes, but the singing is so precise and vibrant that their misapprehensions about each other come to life vividly.

With Kwangchul Youn as Rocco and Falk Struckmann as Don Pizarro, and later Peter Mattei as Don Fernando, we have a cast of of truly Wagnerian performers, each of whom brings exceptional authority to their parts.  Youn's Rocco is so strongly defined that the role becomes central.  Rocco is "king" in his prison, not a weak man but one with the potential to choose between good and evil. The tension between Youn's Rocco and Struckmann's Don Pizarro is so powerful that it adds depth and dimension. Florian Hoffmann and Mojca Erdmann turn Jacquino and Marzelline into strong figures, too, particularly when singing with Youn. The chorus sings in remarkable unison, perfectly drilled. That, too, has dramatic meaning. When the proletariat sticks together, there's hope.

Anja Kampe's Leonore is wonderfully wild and athletic, ideal for the part. Kampe's Leonore is a heroine who defies convention, yet is a real woman not a goddess, nor an ideological reconstruct of a man. Have there been many like her in the arts since Greek times? Klaus Florian Vogt is perfect - nice, warm-sounding and "human", which is so important to the meaning of the work. After the pounding, malevolent introduction to Act Two, his voice enters "How dark it is in here".  Simple words, but Vogt's voice expresses wonder and horror so great that you can feel the physical presence of the darkness and the magnitude of Florestan's imprisonment. Then, when he sings "Angel, Leonore, my angel"  you can visualize the apparition rising before him: a miracle has happened.  Vogt's Florestan is understated, so the character comes over as warmly personal and human. Again, this has dramatic meaning, reminding us that political prisoners are normal, vulnerable people, neither superhuman monsters nor deities. They suffer.

And what playing Barenboim gets from the Teatro alla Scala orchestra!  Tension, intensity and ecstatic release racheted up so high that I had to hold my breath or burst, emotionally. The audience must have felt the same way, exploding with bravi! as if their hearts could hold out no more.

Unfortunately the insights and inspiration in the musical performance are badly let down by  insipid staging. Deborah Warner's forte is glossy glamour, but that's hardly relevant to Fidelio.  This is fashion shoot grunge, and dramatically inert.  It's not enough to dress the principals down. Designs have to contribute to meaning.  The prisoners are shown in various types of "normal" dress, which in principle might be valid, but the overall effect is to show them as street mob, rather than as oppressed, regimented prisoners.  This contradicts the disciplined power of the singing and dispels the idea that the prisoners, for all their diversity, have something to strive for. The "Sonnenlicht" chorus glows vocally, but the staging is a blurry mess.The "Freheit" chorus is sung with savage delirium - as it should be - but what's the point when the poor singers are wearing red hard hats and warm football crowd gear?  In an age when governments still practice torture and prisoners are still held in Guantanomo Bay and by ISIS, it's almost obscene to trivialize polticial persecution.  Audiences were enraged by Calixto Bieito's Fidelio with its harsh grid-form, multi-dimensional "prison" but that was a far more astute reading of the situation. (read more here). If we're not enraged by tyranny,  there's something very wrong.

Barenboim : Spaces of Dialogue

Daniel Barenboim speaks frankly to David Frost, touching on subjects he's rarely dealt with in public. Frost asks him about  his relationship with his present wife, which started when Jacqueline du Pré was alive. "That must have torn you apart". Long pause from Barenboim. "I never thought I would sit in such a public forum and talk about this", he says "You make me feel like I'm at a psychoanalyst".

"There was no way I would have abandoned her," he says of Jackie. Their "real" time together lasted barely two years, but Elena, who bore him two sons, enabled him to carry on as a musician. Jackie  " wasn't - how should I say - very well musically educated but she has this incredible feeling for line and phrasing that just flowed out of her".

Much more controversially, he speaks about the Middle East. "The Israelis themselves are making a ghetto out of Israel". He talks about his political awakening in the aftermath of the Black September massacre in 1970. Watch the full interview here  Particularly interesting are the interviews with members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, most revealing of all.|"The American government has double standards" Perhaps some would say that the interview is prejudiced because it was aired on Al-jazeera,. But even that is signifigant. In many Muslim states, Barenboim and his orchestra are persona non grata because they represent "normalization".

Wagner Siegfried Prom Barenboim

The Proms Wagner Ring continued with Siegfried, Prom 18. Tonight, Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin were as one, united. Much has been written about the confrontation at Die Walküre Prom 15. Although I was sitting concert master side near the podium I didn't witness it because I was dashing out to beat the queue at the bar, desperate for ice and tonic. In any case, so what? Performers are intense. They put so much of themselves into what they do that they overreact. They're human. We shouldn't be judgemental. Perhaps the altercation concentrated everyone's minds. This was a vivid, muscular performance, vindicating orchestra and conductor.

The rumbling mumurs that begin the opera gave way to purposeful forward thrust. Suggestions of Fafner's slithering form coloured the lower winds and brasses.  Barenboim's Ring with the Staatskapelle Berlin is atmospheric, creating the twisted undergrowth that informs the whole saga. It's not "glamorous" like the Met Ring, but sinewy and intelligent. The Staatskapelle play with natural grace and sensuality, carrying off Barenboim's fast paced tempi with complete assurance. Exquisitely beautiful details and solo playing. Götterdämmerung will give this orchestra even more to show their style.

Peter Bronder's Mime crackled with manic energy. The role is far more difficult to sing than many realize. Mime's mind twists, constantly plotting, manipulating and slithering out of traps. Thus Wagner compresses many complex nuances into short, spiky outbursts, which a singer must negotiate with slippery finesse. Fafner slithers because he's a reptile, but he doesn't have Mime's malevolence. Bronder's voice negotiates the tricky, slippery turns and spits sharp siblilants the way a snake might flash its forked tongue. High notes suggest hysteria, low notes drip with poison. Absolute precision is essential. As Mime knows, there's no margin for error. Bronder is at his best when challenged by Alberich and the Wanderer. Until the very end, Siegfried is no match for his wiles. Bronder's clear bright tone suggests unnatural light, the opposite of the healthy sunshine which will wake Brünnhilde. Although born in Hertfordshire, Bronder is a native German speaker and has spent most of his career in German-speaking countries. True character tenors are in short supply. We need more Bronder in this country.

Lance Ryan sang Siegfried with the Staatskapelle earlier this year. His is a serviceable voice that lends itself to a wide repertoire. It's not distinctive but thankfully isn't saccharine, Met style, thank goodness.  Ryan creates vibrato by extending vowels, suggesting effort rather than natural control. His top is pinched and there's not much colour.  But a voice doesn't need to be beautiful to work well in drama. Witness Simon O'Neill's perceptive Siegmund, exuding character and personality. But who is Ryan's Siegfried? Siegfried is an emotional blank canvas  because he hasn't learned fear, or much else about life, for that matter. His first experiments with the horn are tentative and distorted, as he's still learning. But it's strange to hear the horn player growing ever more fluent and expressive while the singer doesn't keep pace. Ryan is straightforward, but there's more to Siegfried than being reliable. 

In this Ring, Barenboim uses different singers for each incarnation of Wotan. Terje Stensvold's Wanderer is Wotan in old age. aware that the future is no longer in his hands. Stensvold paces the part to suggest that the Wanderer is slowing, running to ground. It doesn't matter that his vowels shade towards Norwegian. Wotan isn't German, but an offshoot from Nordic tradition. It's enough that Stensvold has presence and gravitas. Erda is older than Time itself, the only figure who can treat Wotan like a child. Anna Larsson's Erda was gloriously resonant: she sounds youthful and full of life. Erda may be ancient, but Larsson shows she will be more enduring than Wotan because she connects to the pure source of moral values he has polluted.

Johannes Martin Kränzle sang a convincing Alberich, well characterized and detailed, a fitting counter to Broder's Mime. Eric Halfvarson a suitably eloquent Fafner. Rinnat Moriah sang the Wood Bird. But everyone was waiting for Nina Stemme. The softness in her delivery was impressive, for she portrayed Brünnhilde as vulnerable and feminine. She's about to become mortal. Later she will find her Valkyrie soul again, but for the moment, Stemme showed her as woman. The tessitura lies very high for her fach,  but Stemme approaches it with dream-like lyricism. "Heil dir, Sonne!" she sang, "Heil dir, Licht", as if she were drinking in the life-giving, healing properties of Nature. Stemme is fairly new to Brünnhilde, though Ryan has done Siegfried many times. Yet this  Brünnhilde left Siegfried far behind.  I thought about the message of renewal in this opera, and of the dawning of a new era, where the values oif Valhalla  will be swept away. Brünnhilde is the true hero of the whole Ring. I can hardly wait for Sunday, Götterdämmerung, Prom 20..
But see HERE = Bayreuth Siegfried Lance Ryan redeemed two days later !
My review of the Proms Die Walküre  is HERE  You might also enjoy Fritz (Metropolis) Lang's Ring of the Nibelungs (1924 film) HERE, with video !

Die Walküre Barenboim Wagner Prom 15

Wagner Die Walküre wasn't just another Prom, it was An Occasion. Bryn Terfel, Nina Stemme and Daniel Barenboim, three of the great Wagner interpreters of our time.  No other Proms, including the other Wagner operas, is likely to come even close. When the BBC does things well it does it well with style. 

Danierl Barenboim is a perennial Prom darling, and for good reason. He cares about doing things with conviction. His Beethoven series last year was disappointing, like warmed-over, recycled  Furtwängler. But the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is a shining ideal rather than a full-time professional orchestra. This year, Barenboim is back on form with the Staatskapelle Berlin.  Barenboim's Ring for Bayreuth years ago is a landmark. But this Die Walküre and Das Rheingold the previous evening were different. Barenboim can afford to take risks and be original. Perhaps he's forging a new Ring: sharper, edgier, and tighter.  There were many rough edges in this performance, but it  didn't at all matter. Barenboim was going for the spirit of the drama, rather than for luscious sounds. This  Die Walküre felt as close to a chamber opera as may be possible.

Wagner without ideas isn't Wagner. Barenboim's originality was challenging and provocative, the true measure, I think, of a true Wagner conductor. I was incredibly lucky to be seated where I could see his hands and face clearly and follow his every gesture. In the Vorspeil, he waved the orchestra forwards, then ceased moving entirely. The orchestra completed the circular forms in the music powered by their own momentum. Siegmund has been roaming the woods, "in circles" so to speak. The whole Ring reflects the idea that what goes out, comes round. Barenboim seemed preoccupied with quiet moments in the music.. His hands (which are very small, for a pianist) described restraint, pulling the players back to the core of the drama after wild, emotive surges. The Lenz leitmotiv keeps appearing, sometimes subtly disguised, but it is all the more beautiful because it is fragile. Barenboim's delicate touch made it feel poignant, much more powerful than the warhorse showpieces like the Ride of the Valkyries (rather ropy in this performance). The Ring shows how materialism corrupts. Barenboim reminds us of the ideal of pristine nature.

When Bryn Terfel strode on stage, he surveyed the packed-out Royal Albert Hall. When he faced the orchestra, most of the audience couldn't see the smile flash across his face, but I did. It was perfectly in character. Wotan is a cocky thug who thinks he can charm his way out of anything. In the early exchanges with Brünnhilde (Nina Stimme) and Fricka (Ekatarina Gubanova), Terfel seemed to coast, knowing that his best moments were yet to come. But Terfel is such a phenomenon that he's more compelling than anyone else, even at their best. It's a given that he can sing the big moments, but he's even more impressive in subtle sotto voce. When he sings "Nimm, nimm dein Eid"  he expresses suppressed violence so bitter that you can imagine the eons of corrosive conflict between himself and Fricka. His infidelities aren't the larks of a larrikin so much as desperate attempts to break the ring that binds him. From that point, Terfel ignited, pouring himself wholly into the role, with incredible insight.

Terfel's Wotan also gave good support to Nina Stemme's Brünnhilde, his voice holding her like an invisble embrace. When Terfel sang the part at the Met with a null for a Brünnhilde (Deborah Voigt), he carried the whole opera on his own. Stemme was infinitely better. Like Terfel she is superb even when she's not perfect. I was close enough to see how hot she was in that tight, heavy gown. The dynamic between Terfel and Stemme was intense, as it should be given that these roles are central to the whole saga. Stemme rose to her true heights when she sang Brünnhilde's defiance. She's a good daughter but her rebellion springs from deep principles that her father has yet to learn. Stemme's glow. When the fires rise, Terfel's voice expresses such complex emotion that one wonders if this is the point at which he begins to understand. 

Simon O'Neill's Siegmund was a revelation. His voice is difficult to cast because it has unique qualities that don't lend themselves to all roles. Siegmund, however, is his trademark. He's done it so many times that he, too, brings real insight to the part. Siegmund is ravaged, cursed since childhood, doomed to living rough. Yet he still has the capacity to love, and more moral courage than his father had.  He's so inured to being hurt that anguish pervades his personality. When O'Neill sings resounding  "Wälse! Wälse! Wo ist dein Schwert? " his voice rang out defiantly. But we know, and Siegmund knows, that he's so inured to suffering that no sword can heal his psychic scars. O'Neill creates Siegmund as a whole person, who commands more attention than the role usually gets. Siemund has the selflessness Brünnhilde admires, but none of the foolishness that will destroy Siegfried.  
 
 Barenboim is particularly good at evoking in the orchestra the sterility of Hunding's house and Sieglinde's (Anja Kampe) quiet desperation.  Kampe's characteristic energy makes her a Sieglinde, who, like Siegmund, grasps at hope, aware it might never come again.  When O'Neill and Kampe sing their famous dialogue, we hear two tortured, damaged souls grasping for escape. But the green shoots of this Spring will be killed by a winter storm. Barenboim's bleak interpretation intensifies their vulnerability and their human tragedy,

Kaufmann Lohengrin La Scala Barenboim

Gala nights at Teatro alla Scala Milan are big occasions. There's often a political dimension becaue Italians take opera seriously. In 2010, there were demonstrations and Daniel Bareboim made a passionate speech from the podium .This year the fact that Wagner was chosen instead of Verdi was an issue, and some politicians didn't attend. This year, the performance wasn't screened live in cinemas outside Italy. Perhaps they wanted to preserve the exclusive cachet.  But seat sales aren't the way the market works anymore. Thwarted of the usual cinemas screenings, audiences outside Italy watched the broadcast via arte.tv.

The cast list was stellar: Jonas Kaufmann as Lohengrin, René Pape, Annette Dasch, Evelyn Herlitzius, Tómas Tómasson. Even the Heerfufer (Herald) was tops :Zeljko Lucic. Since Barenboim has been associated with Wagner most of his adult life, the performance was never in any danger of being a disappointment. Surprisingly, though, some of the singing wasn't quite as good as might have been expected. Tómasson's Telramund suffered vocal roughness, particularly in the first act, though he picked up later. Even Kaufmann wasn't quite his usual, luminous, lyrical self.  But it was plenty good enough, we can't expect extreme perfection all the time.

Annette Dasch pretty much stole the show. She sang Elsa at Bayreuth in the Hans Neuenfels production (more here). She was so good that I for one wasn't heartbroken when Anja Harteros pulled out at the last moment. Dasch doesn't fit the cliché of Elsa as passive victim waiting for a handsome prince : she's too strong a personality, and too vivid. A voice with that luscious richness couldn't sound wan. Besides, Elsa is a Wagner heroine. Like Brünnhilde, Isolde and Senta, she finds solutions. Brabant is in chaos because Elsa's brother Gottfried, the rightful heir, has disappeared. Telramund accuses Elsa. If she's eliminated, Ortrud can rule and restore her ancient gods. This isn't merely a struggle for succession but a struggle between cosmic forces

If Ortrud can use magic, Elsa can call on supernatural forces. The libretto refers to her as in ruhiger Verklärung vor sich hinblickend (quietly transfixed, staring ahead of her, as if unaware of the crowds around her). Elsa may not even know it, but she can call on some deep subconscious force to help her survive. The Grail community isn't real, and indeed, goes against Christian theology. Is Lohengrin a kind of instinctive wish fulfillment?

Claus Guth's staging addresses Lohengrin on a psychological level. This Brabant isn't historic. When the real Heinrich der Vogler lived, Ortrud's gods had long been replaced by Christianity. In Wagner's time, though, Germany existed as a collection of small states. If Guth sets this Brabant firmly in the mid 19th century, he's closer to the deeper spirit of the opera than the kitsch pageantry of Moshinksy, where decor replaces drama. The darkness in Guth's production throws focus on the characters.  Telramund and Elsa are buttoned-up power figures. Gottfried is seen with a "young" version of Elsa, reminding us how strongly Elsa and Gottfried were bonded.

In the libretto, Wagner makes a point of referring to Lohengrin's horn, a detail often overlooked by stagings which emphasize the mein lieber Schwan image.  Guth shows that this detail is no accident. What other Wagner hero carries a horn? Siegfried, who saves Brünnhilde from her prison.  Later, when Kaufmann's Lohengrin contemplates the dilemma Elsa puts him in, he cradles it like a child seeks help from a comfort object. In the First Act, there's a piano on stage as Ortrud and Teltramund accuse Elsa. At the end, when Lohengrin departs, the piano appears again among the reeds by the lake. Is it Elsa's equivalent of a horn? Music has the power to lift us out of dilemmas. Imagination is a positive form of magic, with which Ortrud's repressive spells cannot compete.

Heinrich and Telramund are officers, but the Brabanters are decamisados. Lohengrin doesn't need a shining swan suit: he's a Romantic hero, in an open collar shirt, like a poet. When  Kaufmann first materializes, he's curled in a foetal position, twitching like a bird breaking out of its shell.  Later, as he's about to return to Monsalvat, he's barefoot again, splashing in the water around him.  Elsa remains in her finery, albeit dishevelled. She and Lohengrin inhabit different worlds. Essentially, he's a creature of Nature, and she the type he needs to frame him with a name. Lohengrin teeters on a narrow pier above the lake, torn dangerously between earth and water. Later, when Gottfried reappears, he stands on the pier. Elsa reaches out but falls.

Musically, this La Scala Lohengrin is satisying though not quite as great as it could be. Guth's staging may not please the glam and glitter crowd but it's a whole lot more perceptive.

Barenboim Birthday Beethoven

Happy Birthday, Daniel Barenboim 70 today!  To celebrate I could cheat and post a slew of youtube clips without personal commentary,  but instead, a link to a performance that meant a great deal to him, personally. HERE again is a chance to watch him conduct the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra  in Beethoven Symphony No 9 at the BBC Proms last year. Anyone can play, anyone can conduct but what Barenboim has done with his life and for others, that's unique.

Barenboim wins Gold, Beethoven, Olympics

Daniel Barenboim wins gold! Magnificent Beethoven 9th at BBC Prom 18. Beethoven's monument to tolerance, with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and what they stand for : who could fail to be moved?  This was an act of faith. Whether or not music can change the world, we don't know, but if we don't believe in hope, we might as well give up.

Of course much of the appeal was  emotional. Who could not fail to be moved by the symbolism?  The finest moments came when the choruses broke into song. It was better that they were carried away with enthusiasm: much better this heartfelt freedom than polished perfection. The chorus on this occasion represented the world, voices of all kinds united for a shared ideal. Everything else fades into insignificance. This was a Prom that will live forever in history.

Perhaps the unconsionable Zil lanes served a purpose, for this time they were ferrying Barenboim, a genuine hero, to the Olympic stadium, rather than corporate freeloaders. Opening ceremonies of the Olympics are supposed to be grandiose to the point of crass, so there's no point in analysing this comic book rebranding of British history. Extravaganzas like this aren't even about taste. Like junk food, they're a great treat as long as you don't dedicate your life around them. Simon Rattle and the LSO (odd combination) let their hair down. Gosh, doesn't "real" music sound good in comparison.  But it was poignant that the NHS workers had  given so much of their time gratis, when their jobs are threatened because of cuts. No matter, everyone else volunteers, and the sponsors make profits. 

The real Olympics started when the athletes marched in. Marching behind flags always bugs me, even when the ostensible goal is co-operation. But look at the faces of these athletes. They are young, mostly non-intellectual and non-political. For them it's the biggest moment in their lives because they feel they are part oif something greater than themselves. Those who come from poor countries, without the huge machinery of state support, I admire most because they have a dream. The IOC uses them to justify its existence, though it would do lots more for sport if it used its resources in ground level support in developing nations than in a mega-advertisng beanfeast.

Nobody seemed to notice why the Ghanaians were wearing  black and red (Ghanaian colours of mourning) instead of kente finery. Their president has just died, a man almost universally admired for his decency, honour and high ideals.  He was proof that genuinely good people can rise above the shabby scams that characterize politics the world over. His death is a loss to all of us, not just to Ghana. So when the cameras turned to Daniel Barenboim, it felt like valediction. The Olympic ideal has been horribly, disgracefuly corrupted, but moments like these remind us of what could be. The Opening Ceremony was huge fun, but doesn't change the fact that there's a lot wrong with the IOC mentality. Peddling McDonald's and Coca-Cola doies nothing for health and fitness, and contradicts the idea that all nations are equal.

Why the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra? Barenboim Beethoven Prom 12

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra's Beethoven and Boulez series at the BBC Proms is a landmark. Never has the orchestra received such a high profile. This orchestra is unique, and owes its very existence to something even greater than music.

Edward Said was a profoundly sensitive writer who wrote perceptively on culture, politics and music. He also believed in the concept that people can do something to change the world we live in. Said turned to Goethe, also a writer and thinker but also a practical man of government, who created in Weimar a haven for enlightened discourse. Muslims and Christians have been at odds for 1500 years. But Goethe, instead of following "party lines, imagines himself through the mind of a Medieval Islamic scholar. Said would have known better than most that Goethe's orientalism was European fantasy, but the point was that Goethe respected Hafiz and the culture he stood for, and his own art flourished as a result. So it's highly symbolic that Said and Barenboim chose Weimar for their summertime gathering of musicans from all over the Middle East. In music, we listen. And so we should in all aspects of life, even to those we don't agree with. Music can connect people on "neutral" grounds free of rhetoric. The orchestra is a symbol of faith in art and in humanity.

This is what makes the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra unique. It's one of the few bridges on which young people on all sides of the divide can meet and help one another. And the German connection goes beyong Goethe, for it's a direct challenge to that sector of the German/European past that embraced Hitler. That Germany could shelter the orchestra was a means of reparation. So I'm increasingly worried about the term "WEDO" to describe the orchestra. In German it would, in any case be "WODO". Since English is the world language perhaps it can't be helped, but Anglophone dominance is a slow form of cultural genocide. The Goethe/Hafiz/Weimar connection is so fundamental that it shouldn't be forgotten. Best, perhaps to refer to the orchestra as "Divan", its ancient meaning. For that is what an orchestra is, a meeting between individuals saerving a higher cause. [A friend and reader has just mailed me, confirming that "divan" in Persian means anthology, collection and poetry. So here is a painting of Hafiz's divan, It's not a sofa!]

The world is changing, not for the better, and the West-Eastern Divan Orchetra may have to change too. It's less easy now for young people to escape state control, and members have to be recruited from outside the region. The danger is that it could change into just another youth orchestra. But change is the lifeblood of any healthy institution. Members will go onto other things, and new members (some as young as 13) will join. May this orchestra never "grow up". Ultimately, its purpose is not to create perfect performance but to be part of a process by which its members - and ourselves - keep learning to listen.

That's why I've avoided writing too much about the performance other than that wonderful Jussef Eisa Boulez Dialogue de l'ombre double.  All these Proms have been thoroughly enjoyable because it's wonderful to be part of this emotional experience.  Although Barenboim can be a brilliant conductor (Wagner), he's also rather safe (Mahler).  He can challenge his players but there's only so much anyone can do with a temporary orchestra with players at so many different levels. No need for a gold standard : the process more valuable than the goal.

As Andrew Clements said of the first Prom in this series, "Barenboim's Beethoven conducting remains unreconstructed; it's thoroughly traditional, and the results are very like the performances he must have heard as a child more than half a century ago".  A friend emailed me "Tired Furtwängler". Nothing wrong with that at all. Beeethoven's symphonies are so good that they rarely disappoint, and the Fifth and Sixth above all. Besides, at the Proms, there's always an extra-musical charge, and in the case of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, that emotional bonus is absolutely paramount.. But if the orchestra is rebranded as the next Dudamel phenomemn, it will be a pity. It's hard not be brainwashed when tweeting twits roar, but that kind of adulation is a straitjacket, especially for the young. Besides, in the case of the Divan, there are too many nutcases in this world drawn to big events for the sake of their being high profile. This orchestra is too special for that. The photo shows young Daniel Barenboim with the President of the Federal Republic and the Chief Rabbi of Germany (Bundesarchiv)

Barenboim Beethoven 1 & 2 Boulez Prom 9

(for my review of the second Prom Boulez Dialogues de l'ombre double Jusef Eisa see here). Never has one man conducted an entire Beethoven series at the BBC Proms, but that says as much about the industry as it does about Daniel Barenboim, whose traverse of the complete Beethoven series began tonight  with the First and Second Symphonies. Barenboim is a good conductor, and we'll be well served. But part of the significance is that Barenboim is conducting the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which he and Edward Said created to briung together young musicans from all sides of the Middle East. Youth orchestras often feature at the Proms, but the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is unique. It's a statement of faith in music, and in its potential to affect hearts and minds.

Far too often performances are judged by impossible standards, but perfection in the real world is exception rather than rule.  Beckmesser in his rush to prove himself, missed what Hans Sachs. understood : that any performance is part of a continuum, where we all, performers and listeners, continue to develop and discover new things. Performance isn't an end but a process. Hearing the members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra made me feel just how much we owe Said and Barenboim. Some members of this orchestra go on to great things, but each one has already been on a journey simply by having taken part.  In the early years, the orchestra had to operate from Spain and Germany. Players weren't completely safe, and faced endless hurdles.  If anything the world since then has become even more politically polarized, but still the orchestra survives as a symbol of hope. We need hope in these times, when the world economy is falling apart and extremism runs rife.

So I listened to Barenboim's Beethoven Symphony no 1, and thought of hope. Beethoven was young, but confident. This symphony is like a calling card with which the composer announces his arrival.. Haydn and Mozart are in the background, but Beethoven's embarking on something new and original. Symphonies will never be quite the same. The verve which these musicians threw into their playing was life affirming. No matter what might happen in the future, for this moment they were filled with creative energy. Even though they're not a permanent orchestra, they are technically very strong. What gives them the edge over most of their peers is the sheer committment they put into what they do. Barenboim's more than a conductor, he's an inspirational leader.

It's significant that Barennboim followed Beethoven with Boulez. Boulez gets a lousy deal from the media because he doesn't play safe or conform. Dérive 2 is a gloriously piece, sparkling with life and invention, growing organically from itself  so much so that Boulez kept finding new things in it.  To dismiss it because it's modern is irrelevant. Audiences have always been shaken by the new. Even Beethoven. This performance wasn't as scintillating as it might have been with Ensemble Intercontemporain but that's irrelevant too. For me, it was uplifting to see these players engaging with the piece. These players have generally had more mainstream interests, but Barenboim is nudging them in the direction of the future, and their own futures. 

A well paced Beethoven Second followed. Watch Barenboim smile on the TV broadcast. He's proud of his people. Wait til they move onto the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th. Incidentally, be cautious about the interval programme. Parts of it are interesting like the historic footage of young Boulez cheerfully conducting at the Roundhouse 50 years ago, surrounded by men in fashions they'd rather forget they fancied then. Their grandchildren will cackle. But the curse of inanity strikes as usual. "Is it true that Boulez heckled Stravinsky?" asks the presenter, quite reasonably. But no response. William Glock wrote about the Boulez/Stravinsky relationship. Stravinsky was exploring serial rows, and Boulez knew Stravinsky's music well. When they finally met, they sat together, rapt with attention. Boulez might have made a greater mark in America, but there were many who didn't want that to happen for reasons of their own.  Hence the unfair reputation, which keeps being repeated. What we think we know is shaped by who shapes the media, and English language media dominates. But that's another story. Read Paul Griffiths on 20th century music, not Alex Ross and lesser sources.

BBC Proms 2012 announced - July

Like it or not, the BBC Proms 2012 will clash with the London Olympics.Nearly every city that's hosted the Olympics goes heavily into debt, but what do commissioning governments care? They last only a few years but taxpayers are saddled with costs, traffic chaos, security alerts, general hype etc etc long after the initial contracts are placed. Even the 300-year-old Three Choirs Festival has had to reschedule this year to avoid the Olympics. Everyone else just has to muddle through.

The BBC Proms 2012 are scheduling a series  by Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which is absolutely and totally admirable, for the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra stands for the ideals of peace and goodwill.  They're doing a Beethoven symphony cycle, which is also highly relevant. If there is any decency in this world, they should be listened to properly.. However it's a moot point whether there is decency and fair play in this world. The protests against the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra backfired. No-one benefitted except those few who wanted to milk publicity for their own reasons. Not the subjects of the protest. So this year, security will be a nightmare. Will it overshadow the music? Or the understanding the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is about? It's almost impossible to block protest at a place like the Royal Albert Hall, and morally dubious to do so in a democracy. Let's hope sanity prevails this year.

This year's First Night oif the Proms will be an all-English affair whch will be good for the tourists and international audience. Elgar, Delius, Tippett and Turnage. After My Fair Lady, Debussy Pélleas et Mélisande with John Eliot Gardiner. Excellent cast - Laurent Nouri, Phillip Addis, Karen Vour'ch. Alice Coote sings French Song and Karita Matila sings Strauss. This will be hot, and on TV. Handel Judas Maccabeus on 19th July with the best cast British Handelians can muster (Ainsley, Mead, Purves, Rice, Joshua), Laurence Cummings  conducting.

The Royal Opera House Berlioz Les Troyens comes to the Proms on 22nd July. Kaufmann, Brindley Sherrat and good support. Red Letter Day. A further chance to hear idiomatic Smetana and Dvořák on 25/7 with Jiří Bělohlávek who deserves serious resapect. He's one of the best in the world for this repertoire. Pierre Boulez is scheduled to conduct the West-Eastern Divan Orchetsra on 26/7 (Le marteau sans Maitre). It's a late night concert, and hopefully he'll be well again by then. The Barenboim West-Eastern Divan Orchestra Beethoiven cycle culminates in what should be an amazing Beethoven 9 - Rene Pape, Waltraud Meier, Peter Seiffert, Anna Samuil. Even though they don't get to sing until well into the symphony, Beethoven writes the theme into the music almost from the start "Alle Menschen werden Bruder". Let's hope people pay attention this year and pay respect. Some things are more important than publicity.

For more on the BBC Proms 2012 August and September, see HERE. . Always analytical here on this site, please keep coming back. Full details on the BBC Proms site HERE.

photo : Yuichi from Morioka

Furtwängler - the "lost" documentary

Might the fabled "lost" documentary about Wilhelm Furtwängler made by his son Florian be about to surface again? Jointly commissioned by Bayerischen Rundfunk and the BBC in 1970, it has circulated in an inferior copy, now withdrawn. Florian (d 1992) was a professional film maker so the film is very well made. In full, in German, it runs over 100 minutes. Although it was made over 40 years ago, it includes unique testimonies from musicians who knew Furtwängler well. Jascha Horenstein, Hans Keller, and Szymon Goldberg, leader of the Berliner Philharmoniker until 1933.

The film firmly places Furtwängler in the context of artistic circles in late 19th century Munich. Furtwängler's father was an eminent archaelogist, his mother a painter. He was home schooled, but absorbed cultural experiences closed to most boys. On a trip to an Italian chapel, in 1902, Furtwängler disaappeared, to be found inside a Michelangelo crypt, inspired to write music that was to become his Te Deum. It's hugely ambitious, with massed choirs : the film shows its first performance, in 1967. (drawing above is by Emil Orlik, 1927)

Furtwängler's first love was composition but his career progressed so rapidly that he became a conductor almost by default.  His style was idiosyncrasic. Theres a description of him, complete with action sketches, flailing his arms and legs, expressing the music with his whole being. Fundamental to his style, however, was his conception of what interpretation involved. "The stronger the structure of a piece, and the greater the comnposer's mastery of form", he said "the more clearly defined is the interpreter's task. It is only when he has studied and mastered all the details  that his real task begins, which is the weaving of all the particular parts into an organic whole."

Furtwängler's style was controversial. Hans Keller describes Furtwängler at a Toscanini Beethoven 9. After a few bars, Furtwängler stood up, shouting "Bloody time keeper!" and stormed out. Definitely not a troll, but a man who knew his music so well that it hurt him to hear it mangled. Keller then describes the passages from recordings. Toscanini takes the opening sextuplets so carefully that you can hear each note unfold.  But Furtwängler smudges the beat so you don't hear the component notes but the "tense, vague beginning before the beginning", as Keller says, expressing their meaning within the context of the passage. There's an ominous rumble, yet nimble and alert, intensifying the outburst when it comes.

Nowadays it's fashionable to judge a performance by tempi alone, but as Keller says, "Tempo in itself is nothing. It is a function of structure", He listens to a recording of Furtwängler conducting Mozart Symphony no 40. In theory, it's so fast that it seems almost impossible to maintain. "I did not believe it possible until I heard it" adds Keller. "You cannot decide tempi unless you experience the structure and understand the phrasing of the interpreter".  As for  formulaic tempi, Furtwängler himself said simply, "there is no such thing".

In the Berliner Philharmoniker archive, there's a good documentary about what happened to orchestra members when the Nazis came to power. Szymon Goldberg figures in it, though he was forced to emigrate almost immediately. Furtwängler protected those he could, though of course he couldn't protect everyone. He played Mendelssohn in public as late as 1935, and refused to accept pensions and estates from the regime.  His high profile defence of Paul Hindemith took courage. Jascha Horenstein says, stiffening up to stress his words, "I would like to say emphatically that Furtwängler was not a Nazi". Furtwängler was on an inevitable collision course with Goebbels so he withdrew from public life, only to return to the podium because he realized that music was a means of standing up to tyranny. The photo above, from the Bundesarkiv shows Furtwängler conducting for factory workers in 1942. Some of them may have been Nazis, but not all and in any case, all were human. The film includes the famous clip of Furtwängler playing Beethoven 9 to the Nazi bigwigs. They're too stupid to know what Beethoven was getting at. Goebbels, who knew his Schiller, must have squirmed in suppressed rage.

By February 1945, Furtwängler heard that he was about to be arrested. He fled to Switzerland and turned again to composition, supported financially by Swiss music lovers. The film emphasizes how much Furtwängler's own music meant to him. A few years ago there were a number of recordings, which I wrote about at the time. The juveniila was surprisingly interesting and the incomplete Symphony no 3 (1954), heard here, is impressive. One day, perhaps, Furtwängler's music will be heard more often.

Aged 12, Daniel Barenboim worked with Furtwängler. It was mutual admiration. "There was always an element of improvisation and surprise in his work", says Barenboim. A member of the Philharmonia who worked with Furtwängler tells how he communicated with the players.  He didn't tell them what to do. If he didn't like something, he'd be thinking why, and the orchestra would do so too. "I don't like the word working "under" a conductor. It wasn't like that with Furtwängler". Not mentioned in this film is the anecdote of how Furtwängler walked into a rehearsal and the orchestra lifted their game even though he wasn't conducting.

What made Furtwängler so good? "He risked a lot, as every great artist must", Keller sums up. "It is the easiest thing in the world to always play well. Composers, too. Mozart excepting, their greatness is in direct proportion to their ability to take risks". Furtwängler admired Arnold Schoenberg and sensed in him something exceptional, though he didn't relate to 12 tone theory. But he played Schoenberg, who admired him in return. "Better than all those Toscaninis". One of my conductor friends was given one of Furtwängler's batons as a gesture of respect. Furtwängler had given it to someone he admired, who then passed it on. 

Daniel Barenboim Nobel Peace Prize?

Daniel Barenboim has been nominated by the Argentine Government for a Nobel Peace Prize. This should be controversial, as the problems in the Middle East are pretty much intractable. No-one's going to solve anything for a long time. But Barenboim and his friend, the late Edward Said, a Palestinian Christian, had ideals. If people's hearts and minds can be changed, maybe there's a smidgen of hope. Goethe was their inspiration. Thus the choice of Weimar as neutral ground, bringing young people together from all over the Middle East to work together on music, which is non-political and non-partisan. These musicians, though young, are chosen for ability, and work with experienced mentors and musicians. So intense are the pressures on these young players that publicity can put them in danger. In any case, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is about the experience of being together. Sometimes, you'd think, when people can't get food, medicines or safety, why invest in music?  But for some of these players, committment to music is as necessary as life. Given the extreme conditions under which some of them live, their very involvement involves an element of courage. And Barenboim himself, too, who doesn't need to prove anything artistically.  He's achieved so much already, he doesn't need money or image, but I think he's acutely aware that idealism is more important.  His books are a turgid read, but his heart is in the right place. (Said was a better writer, it was his job.) Barenboim doesn't run from controversy because he has integrity.  If Barenboim does win the Nobel Prize, he'll come under pressure, but that's all the more reason to respect him.

Barenboim Boulez, Wagner Liszt Staatskapelle Berlin South Bank

At first I thought, I can't write about this, I can't do it justice. But then I thought, that never stopped anyone else. So I stayed up late in the hope that Mark Berry at Boulezian would be writing and sure enough, he popped up. Worth waiting for! Why can't more music writing be as thoughtful as this? Here's another good link, to Edward Seckerson.  Less technical but perceptive and sincere. I read reviews to learn how people relate to what they hear, not simply to see who was where when.

Liszt is a composer I associate, rightly or wrongly, with flamboyant virtuosi who scream "Look at me!" when they play. So the prospect of Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez doing Liszt was hard to resist. Barenboim's playing was dignified with classical restraint, but not dull, emphasizing the solid structure beneath the flash. For a non-Lisztian like me, it was fascinating to hear how Boulez integrated the piano part with the orchestra. Giving the soloist more space made for greater classical balance, further complementing Barenboim's music-focussed approach. Different, but stimulating.

For Barenboim and Boulez, it's the music that counts, not celebrity. They challenge you musically. Thus Wagner's A Faust Overture. A cheeky choice, since Liszt's Faust Symphony is by far more sophisticated, Liszt wins hands down, there. In the hands of lesser conductors, Wagner's Faust makes little impact. Boulez, brings out the structure so at least we can hear how Wagner might have been thinking in terms of in his youth.

Boulez's Ring for Bayreuth was a revolution.While Patrice Chéreau's direction was striking at the time, Boulez's conducting still sounds so fresh that it still sounds innovative. You feel you're hearing Wagner come alive from the score, undimmed by performance traditions. In the opera, you have to connect to Siegfried, but in stand alone concert performance, you hear it "as music" on its own terms. Siegfried the character, though a hero, is also an immature prat, which is why Wagner offs him. Boulez is anything but stupid. This Siegfried Idyll was extraordinarily personal, and expressive. Perhaps it's because the orchestra knows Boulez so well, that the playing seemed much more intimate than it does normally.

An intimate, personal Siegrfried Idyll? But Boulez made it feel that way. It flowed, mightily, like the Rhine itself, with an inexorable sense of direction. This is what the river symbolizes and why it's such a powerful metaphor for the undercurrents in the Ring. Exquisitely defined details along the way,so beautiful that it's almost heartbreaking to know that they must inevitably pass away.

All of us go on a Rhine Journey of our own through life. Listening to Boulez and the Staatskapelle Berlin made me think what the music might "really" mean, as symphonic statement. Don't swallow the superficial clichés in the media, but go to source, like he does with music. This performance was overwhelming because it was so deep and intense. Only an automaton could fail to be moved. Boulez has had a remarkable life : perhaps he's thinking on where he's headed. But from the passion he puts into the coda, it feels spiritually affirmative and uplifting. Like his Mahler. Mass standing ovation, from an audience who'd most likely come for Barenboim, not Boulez.

NEW La Scala Milan Die Walküre Barenboim

NEW IMPROVED and formal review of Wagner Die Walküre at La Scala  Milan, with photos. Interesting because it's mega high profile (at least in Italy), Barenboim made a big speech and the cast is as starry as possible in theory. Stemme, Meier and Gubanova were so outstanding that if I were a director, I'd build the whole production around them and the insights they bring. Young and sassy! Please read more:

.......Waltraud Meier is one of the greatest Wagnerians of all time. Any opportunity to hear her cannot be missed, for she has created all the roles and understands their place in the grand scheme. Although she’s no longer in the first bloom of youth, her artistry is such that she can create a Sieglinde so ravishing that she seems transfigured. Sieglinde’s past has been too traumatic for her to be an ingenue. so Meier’s interpretation emphasizes the way Seiglinde blossoms as love awakens her, like a parched plant unfurling after a long drought. When Meier sings “Du bist der Lenz”, her voice warms and opens outwards. It’s so expressive that she creates the idea of the world ash tree bursting into leaf despite the barren surroundings."

".....Wonderful as Meier is, even she is outclassed by Nina Stemme’s Brünnhilde. Stemme is so lively and vivacious that she completely dispels any memories of historic, matronly Brünnhildes, with metal breastplates, horned helmets and spears. Instead, she’s dressed in what could pass as a modern if quirky evening dress, a blend of lace and bombazine with hints of Goth and punk. The costume (Tim van Steenbergen) fixes Brünnhilde at once in Wagner’s world of political rebellion and in present day ideas of generation conflict."

".....Stemme’s youthful energy and spark highlight her idealism and high principles. She’s not intimidated by Wotan, however much she loves him. Here, already in germination, is the Brünnhilde of Götterdämmerung who will defy death itself to right the wrongs that have gone before. Stemme’s voice pulsates with intensity, and softens with tenderness, her control firm and measured. Stemme’s vigour might have been even more impressive against a more dominant Wotan, but Vitalij Kowaljow was adequate rather than brooding. Nonetheless, of the male singers in this performance, he held up best.

.....Ekaterina Gubanova’s Fricka was superb, elevating the role from a minor part to something far more profound. Usually the role is unsympathetic as our feelings about Hunding are negative, and it’s Fricka who demands that he be revenged, even though he married Sieglinde by force. Gubanova looks and sings with youthful radiance, connected more to the idea of growth and refreshment than to barrenness and drought. After all she stands for moral principles, just as Brünnhilde does. Wotan defiles marriage by scattering offspring everywhere, destroying many lives. Fricka stands for good, even if she’s stern, as Gubanova’s interesting portrayal suggests.

Please read the full review in  Opera Today