A perfect American pops concert in Vienna

2019 Sommernachts Konzert: music by Bernstein, Johann Strauss II, Gershwin, Max Steiner, Sousa, Barber, Ziehrer, Dvorak, Copland

Gustavo Dudamel has chosen a great program for an American-themed Sommernachts Konzert with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Like every great pops concert, this has something for everyone. The Candide Overture of Leonard Bernstein is a great opener; it still sounds fresh after hearing it so many times during last year's Centennial. And it sounds absolutely fabulous as played by this great orchestra. That, by the way, goes for the entire 70 minutes of this CD. Other highlights for me include the 8-minute suite from Casablanca, prepared, I believe by the composer Max Steiner. The suite begins with the great Warner Brothers Fanfare, which is probably Steiner's greatest work. Steiner's own, relatively modest, atmospheric music for the film is soon forgotten every time the two great non-Steiner songs appear: La Marseillaise and Herman Hupfeld's As Time Goes By. Umberto Eco's summary of Casablanca applies very much to this musical pastiche:

It is a hodgepodge of sensational scenes strung together implausibly; its characters are psychologically incredible, its actors act in a manneristic way. Nevertheless, it is a great example of cinematic discourse, a palimpsest for the future students of twentieth-century religiosity, a paramount laboratory for semiotic research in textual strategies.

If I were choosing an American-themed pops concert, I would have kept going with this movie theme; Dudamel has done such a great job over the years presenting the music of John Williams, Bernard Herrmann, and other great film composers. But there are fine pieces from the concert repertoire as well: Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings sounds predictably sumptuous when played by the Vienna string players, and it provides a serious centre of gravitas in the middle of the program. An American work with a central European flavour is a natural for this venue: Antonin Dvorak's New World Symphony. And if there's not enough star power with just The Dude, how about Yuja Wang playing a vivid, sparkling Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue?

Of course, you can't have a Sommernachts Konzert without some waltzes. Dudamel leads the orchestra (or do they lead him?) in two fetching works by Johann Strauss II and Carl Michael Ziehrer. A final encore of Aaron Copland's Hoe-Down from Rodeo ties things up with a red-white-and-blue ribbon. This was fun! Bravo to these fine musicians.



This disc will be released on August 16, 2019

Except in his own town

Rued Langgaard: Symphonies no. 2 & 6; Jacob Gade: Tango Jalousie

Here's a common problem among artists and Messiahs:

Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.' - Mark 6:4

Rued Langgaard had not inconsiderable success in Germany and Austria, but his music never caught on at home in Denmark. So it's good to have this very fine disc from Europe's musical heartland, with Sakari Oramo conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, though I hasten to point out that the recording is published by DaCapo, "the Danish national label". So in that sense, Rued, you can go home again.

These are beautifully crafted symphonies, full of appealing melodies and interesting side-trips away from the main themes. "Digression is the sunshine of narrative," says Lawrence Stern, and further, Adam Phillips calls it "secular revelation." While you can hear some strains of the Great Dane Carl Nielsen in this music, and somewhat more Sibelius, it's Richard Strauss who comes most to mind, especially in the very fine 2nd Symphony, written in 1912-14. All three of those composers were born in the 1860s, while Langgaard is 30 years younger. It's no surprise that this relatively conservative but very appealing music, more or less untouched by modernism, was such a hit in central Europe before the Great War.

A lot of things were different after that conflict, of course, but Rued Langgaard's music kept to a certain path, and his somewhat prickly and difficult temperament kept him on the outs with the musical establishment at home. He set himself up in opposition to Carl Nielsen, but unlike in the great Jack Benny-Fred Allen feud to come, there seemed to be no benefit to either composer. This is really a marketing issue, though, since you can hear Langgaard's 6th Symphony from 1920 as a kind of response to Nielsen's 4th Symphony, written in 1916. The serious nature of this symphony speaks more to Langgaard's musical evolution, though, rather than any polemical agenda, as much as he aggressively promoted one or another for most of his life.

Both of these symphonies have moments of transfiguration, in the Richard Strauss tradition, but they're relatively short on light, and nearly devoid of real joy. This is serious music from a dour man, and I can't help comparing Rued Langgaard with a near contemporary prophet who also had problems at home, Heitor Villa-Lobos. In spite of many personal and artistic trials, Villa-Lobos was a true optimist whose music nearly always expresses the same joyful spirit of music itself, which he felt was embodied in, and expressed most perfectly through, Johann Sebastian Bach.

Perhaps in response to this dour hour, Sakari Oramo adds a delightful coda: the Tango Jalousie of another Danish composer, Jacob Gade. With their own light music always right at their finger-tips, the Viennese musicians provide us with an up-beat finale to a thoughtful but severe concert.

Send in the clowns

From October 15, 2015:

We tend to make allowances for everything but the singing and the orchestral playing in opera. A slightly wooden tenor or over-the-top histrionic soprano is good enough if the singing is superlative, though we’d complain about similar acting in a play or film. This is relevant especially with comedy. So often some smirks and a bit of stage business put together at the last minute will have to do, even in the great comedy-dramas of Mozart. That’s why this production of Cosi fan Tutte is such a surprise, and a delight. The six principles are all gifted farceurs: Malin Hartelius and Luca Pisaroni as the sisters, Luca Pisaroni and Martin Mitterrutzner as their suitors, Marie-Claude Chappuis as the amoral maid, and the great Gerald Finley as the puppet master Don Alfonso. This isn’t just good comedy for an opera, it’s great comedy that wouldn’t be out of place in a West End production of a Wilde or Ayckbourn play. Better than that, the timing of the singers and the laugh-choreography of Director Sven-Eric Bechtolf is as good as a classic sitcom. We’re talking Seinfeld or Frasier here! As well, there’s more than just farce on display, as the betrayal and heartbreak hidden beneath the cynical high spirits are beautifully conveyed by the four lovers.

Cosi fan Tutte is a great comedy-drama, the Mozart-da Ponte opera where drama wells up unexpectedly from a comic situation. The work is immensely enhanced by Mozart’s contribution, with the stage drollery punctuated by clever asides from the orchestra, and the underlying serious nature of love conveyed by his gorgeous vocal lines and complex accompaniments. Conductor Christophe Eschenbach keeps the musical side of the production at the highest level. While I opened with extravagant praise for the acting skills of the soloists, that’s not to say their singing is anything other than superb. One could with great pleasure listen to the very fine Dolby 5.0 audio by itself. But it’s nice to not have to close one’s eyes, as one sometimes does in the opera house or in front of the flat screen at home, to focus on the singing and playing while trying to blot out what’s happening on stage.

Here is the production's trailer: