"The sounds of a dying tradition are painful, particularly if the tradition’s value is still so apparent..." So begins the latest eulogy for classical music, this one written by Edward Rothstein in the NYT. I'll spare you a detailed rebuttal but I will offer a counterpoint for consideration:
A story was published in the Washington Post recently about a well-know violinist who played his Strad for 45min in a DC subway and no one noticed or cared. (The story was entitled "Pearls Before Breakfast" as in those things you "cast" before those "you-know-who" in the subway an analysis of which attitude itself might shed some light on the current situation, but some other time.)
For a performer who, as the writer says, has "been accepting over-the-top accolades since puberty," being ignored must surely seem apocalyptic - and this despite his "Donny Osmond-like dose of the cutes."
Frankly, I agree but I think it may speak more about the state of the art than the state of audience.
Is it possible that this sort of playing has become all too familiar? Maybe we've reached the point where these mechanical marvels are a dime-a-dozen. Maybe they are ignored because, if you take away the hype and the marketing glitz and allow the playing to speak for itself, there is not much there. We've heard it all before - over and over again.
To me, this is the real crisis of classical music. Not that the world has become more philistine and we no longer gather around the piano after supper and sing Schubert, but that, when all is said and done, airbrushing glam photos of a middle-aged Frau in an evening gown for a CD cover is not going to entice a music lover to pay money for it if she's got nothing more to say than she did twenty years ago when she recorded the very same pieces.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Kavakos Plays Stravinsky and Bach
I found a wonderful CD of Stravinsky and Bach performed by Leonidas Kavakos
accompanied by pianist Peter Nagy. The two composers complement each other nicely - rhythmically and harmonically lean, sometimes austere, these pieces engage the listener through their iso-rhythmic and contrapuntal energy more than their emotional exuberance.
Kavakos himself is breath of fresh air. The playing is precise yet expressive. Unlike the robotic performances in vogue on large stages today, he understands this music, has definite ideas about how it should be played, and he communicates those ideas.
The two Stravinsky works, Duo Concertante and the Suite Italienne, were unfamiliar to me except through the Pulcinella Suite on which the Italienne is based. While elegantly performed, the Suite Italienne does little for me simply because I've never understood or cared for Pulcinella.
The Duo on the other hand is a delightful work. Neo-classical like the Suite but a richer meal. It affords a nice showcase for Kovakos' broad timbrel and and stylistic range. He especially shines in the Eglogue II movement, a sweet nostalgic interlude among the perpetuum mobile of the surrounding movements. Here is a performer unafraid, for example, to use his vibrato in a variety of ways (or not at all) as a response to musical demands rather than an absent-minded and mechanical gloss.
The first Partita and first Sonata for Solo violin are delights for listeners for the same reason they are challenges for interpretors. Minimalist works that make each note play double-duty, they require the interpretor to make innumerable decisions. Is a note the ending of the prior phrase or the beginning of the next? Is a note part of the melody or the harmony? or is it an inner voice? Should the dance-like character be emphasized such that the small gestures and steps are articulated or should smaller phrases be subservient to the larger harmonic periods of the movements? Ultimately Kavakos appears to do both and with a flawless execution of intonation and articulation. In the slower movements, a fine-grained lilt is obtained such as in the Sarabande of the Partita while the faster movements, the Presto Double or the Presto of the Sonata for example, a driving, swinging propulsion carries you from double bar to double bar.
Overall this is superlative CD. Kavakos and Nagy are world-class musicians performing a program well-suited to their artistic temperaments and thoughtfully put together such that the whole illuminates the individual parts. Hopefully we'll should be hearing more from them.
accompanied by pianist Peter Nagy. The two composers complement each other nicely - rhythmically and harmonically lean, sometimes austere, these pieces engage the listener through their iso-rhythmic and contrapuntal energy more than their emotional exuberance.
Kavakos himself is breath of fresh air. The playing is precise yet expressive. Unlike the robotic performances in vogue on large stages today, he understands this music, has definite ideas about how it should be played, and he communicates those ideas.
The two Stravinsky works, Duo Concertante and the Suite Italienne, were unfamiliar to me except through the Pulcinella Suite on which the Italienne is based. While elegantly performed, the Suite Italienne does little for me simply because I've never understood or cared for Pulcinella.
The Duo on the other hand is a delightful work. Neo-classical like the Suite but a richer meal. It affords a nice showcase for Kovakos' broad timbrel and and stylistic range. He especially shines in the Eglogue II movement, a sweet nostalgic interlude among the perpetuum mobile of the surrounding movements. Here is a performer unafraid, for example, to use his vibrato in a variety of ways (or not at all) as a response to musical demands rather than an absent-minded and mechanical gloss.
The first Partita and first Sonata for Solo violin are delights for listeners for the same reason they are challenges for interpretors. Minimalist works that make each note play double-duty, they require the interpretor to make innumerable decisions. Is a note the ending of the prior phrase or the beginning of the next? Is a note part of the melody or the harmony? or is it an inner voice? Should the dance-like character be emphasized such that the small gestures and steps are articulated or should smaller phrases be subservient to the larger harmonic periods of the movements? Ultimately Kavakos appears to do both and with a flawless execution of intonation and articulation. In the slower movements, a fine-grained lilt is obtained such as in the Sarabande of the Partita while the faster movements, the Presto Double or the Presto of the Sonata for example, a driving, swinging propulsion carries you from double bar to double bar.
Overall this is superlative CD. Kavakos and Nagy are world-class musicians performing a program well-suited to their artistic temperaments and thoughtfully put together such that the whole illuminates the individual parts. Hopefully we'll should be hearing more from them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)