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Chacun a son goût
In sharp contrast [to a performance of a Vivaldi cello concerto by Alison McGillivray] came recorder player Maurice
Steger in a performance where personal promotion and showmanship took precedence over all. His performance of Telemann’s
Overture in A minor (TWV55: a2) and Sammartini’s similarly scored Concerto in F were played so frenetically fast that
all sense of musical line was lost. This was not helped by his Gatling gun approach – “ta-ta-ta-ta” rather
“ta-ra-la-ra”! Although the audience loved every minute, and some of the reviewers in the dailies gave him gushing
reviews, I’m afraid the whole thing left me cold. Not only was the music completely sidelined, but I also found it the
[sic] what-a-clever-boy-am-I stage antics frankly unsavoury.
Early Music Review on a London performance.
To describe the young Swiss recorder
player Maurice Steger as a shooting star on the European recorder scene is plainly justifiable. His virtuosic playing at breathtaking tempi leaves audiences bowled over, not only in his own home country… His
technical mastery quickly earned him the label of the virtuoso artist, the “Paganini of the recorder” –
a performer who has his audience spellbound through dazzling speed and immaculate technique. A recent concert with the English
Concert under Laurence Cummings made it quite clear that Steger is unquestionably an artist operating to the furthest boundaries
of what is technically and tonally possible on the recorder.
But it is not only the tour-de-force
of exuberant virtuosity that makes his appearances such a riveting experience, but also the approach he takes to interpretation,
overcoming the limits of notation and seeking out interaction. In Steger’s case virtuosity means not simply technical
execution of the musical material at dizzying speed, but tone painting, musical expression and playful effortlessness –
even at extreme tempi.
Steger chose as his central work for this programme Telemann’s Overture
in A minor for recorder, strings and continuo. According to Steger, Telemann’s works are also among the most difficult
to perform since played poorly they very soon come across as tedious. But Steger was able to cancel out this image with his
very first note. The extraordinary fluency with which he rendered highly virtuosic dance movements, his differentiated accentuation
- sometimes beyond the norm - of individual ideas, and the teasing communicative interaction with his instrumental partners
in the English Concert brought out both Telemann’s compositional skill and the work’s musicological significance.
Goldberg Early Music Magazine on the same programme
given in Germany.
- 8 April 2008
Among the many shortcomings of early music reviewing, the intentional or implied criticism of historical
accuracy is surely one of the more insidious. This appears to me a form of inverted snobbery, grounded in an anxiety
to avoid the dreadful label 'purist' and remain safely mainstream. Two examples from the current edition of Gramophone are
striking. In a review of the recent Dunedin Consort and Players St Matthew Passion we read: 'Bach's "novel
in sound" [whatever that may mean] is presented by a small inter-related ensemble without the need for tiresome dogmatic mantras
on historical rectitude'. Leaving aside the question of how a performance can itself convey 'dogmatic mantras on historical
rectitude', one notes here the use of the keywords 'tiresome' and 'dogmatic', which serve the purpose of telling
us the writer has no time for 'historical recitude', a lazy expression in itself, and that he shares common ground
with all you 'ordinary folk' out there. In the same edition we are told that a performance of Domenico Scarlatti's
magnificent stile antico Stabat mater follows current 'purist theory' by performing the work one-voice-per-part.
Why on earth should this be considered 'purist [a word invariably used in a pejorative sense today] theory'? The work
is scored in ten vocal parts (plus continuo), making it almost certain that it was intended for single voices, like so
much of what we have come to think of as 'choral' music. Here again, if only by implication, we find almost certain historical
truth treated as arcane and esoteric, fit only for dry pedants (for which read 'purists'). Yet the perceptive listener comparing
a full choral version of Scarlatti's work with, say, Rinaldo Alessandrini's will surely realise that the work's inherent
madrigalian qualities and beauty of sonority are realised by single voices in a way not possible with larger forces.
-
24 March 2008
Now we are successfully installed in our new home in the south of Burgundy, it is my intention to resume 'normal
service'.
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24 March 2008
My apologies for the lack of activity on the site of late. There are two good reasons: firstly our longer than customary
trip to England over the Christmas period, and secondly our search for a new house following the sale of our present home.
That search has now reached a successful outcome and we will be moving on 29 February, not so far from where we
presently live in Burgundy. Inevitably, I fear, this will lead to further neglect of the site for a while, but the record
review page has (at last) been updated today.
This month (February)
sees the 10th anniversary and 50th issue of Goldberg Early Music Magazine, not bad for a beautifully produced magazine that some predicted could not survive. Having been involved right from the planning
of the first issue, I feel entitled to a little pride, although would never claim that Goldberg has yet reached perfection.
But it is an ornament in the world of early music and as such deserving of the attention of anyone interested enough to be
reading this page. If you do go to look at the website, please don't be put off - the magazine itself is much better.
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6 February 2008
Given that this site has an abiding distaste for political correctness in any shape or form,
you will get no 'happy mid-winter holiday' greeting here. But I would like to wish anyone who happens across this page
during this season a very happy Christmas and a prosperous, healthy and peaceful New Year.
-
17 December 2007
Further thoughts on playing Baroque keyboard music on the modern piano. I've just finished reading
Peter Walls' History, Imagination and the Performance of Music (Boydell, 2003). It includes an exceptionally valuable chapter on transcription, a category into which Walls clearly places the
playing of Bach (or Scarlatti, or Couperin) on the modern piano. More interestingly, the author skirts around the ethics
of such a practice, at least implying that performers have a duty to make it clear that what they are doing is transcribing
the music from one instrument to another - in this case another that was not in existence when the music was composed
- not offering their audience an historically legitimate alternative. I would go further and suggest that a
performer who does not do so is in fact quite deliberately misleading his or her public (deliberately because the
performer is well aware that the music was not composed for the instrument of his choice). The ethical question here,
it seems to me, is little different than that faced by the trader who is legally required to ensure his goods are correctly
labelled. It goes without saying that critics also have a clear responsibility to the less well
informed music lover. It is a responsibility that is all too often ducked or ignored.
- 27 November 2007
The latest issue of Goldberg carries an interview with pianist Angela Hewitt, who is of course extremely popular for her playing of Bach
(and more recently Couperin) on a modern concert grand. As a member of the Advisory Board of Goldberg, I have made it
clear that I do not believe that a player who transcribes Bach's keyboard music to an instrument that was not invented
in Bach's day has any place in a specialist early music magazine like Goldberg, which should devote itself to historically
informed performance (HIP). I have also had an exchange with a colleague at the magazine, who disagrees wirh me. Now,
let me make it quite clear. I have absolutely no problem with Ms. Hewitt transcribing Bach's keyboard works onto the
piano or indeed any other instrument if there is an audience to hear her do so, which there most certainly is. But please
let us not delude ourselves that this is any more a viable alternative to playing the music on the instruments for
which it was intended than would be the case if Gustav Leonhardt took to playing Debussy's Preludes on the harpsichord,
a development that would doubtless be considered ludicrous in the extreme. (In a sense it could be considered
more historically justified, since the harpsichord was at least around in Debussy's day). I'd be interested to hear the views
of visitors to this page on this topic. I'll print the best of them here as part of the debate. But please, no "if Bach had
known the modern piano he would used it".
- 31 October 2007
To my mind one of the eternal mysteries of the early music world is why normally sane and historically
informed conductors seem to lose their senses the moment they enter the opera house. To an already depressingly
long list can be added Lars Ulrik Mortensen, the director of Concerto Copenhagen. As I know from a recent interview with
him, Mortensen is not only a thoroughly engaging man, but one with lively and strong views on HIP. So
how did he come to be involved with the unbelievably trite production of Handel's Giulio Cesare obviously
mounted as a vehicle for Andreas Scholl and recently released on DVD by harmonia mundi? Almost needless to say, the
staging is updated. Thus Scholl's distinctly unheroic Caesar is dressed in battle fatigues, while his Cleopatra moves from
superannuated bimbo in act 1 through Hollywoood siren in the second to bald (yes, really) leatherclad freedom fighter
in the last act. Miraculously, she manages to grow her hair again for the lieto fine. Her brother Ptolemy, a
dangerous psychopath, is played throughout for pantomime laughs. If director Francisco Negrin and designer Anthony Baker
ever read the stage instructions or indeed gave even five minutes thought to the opera, they give no indication of having
done so. Any suggestion of the grandeur, nobility, seductiveness, elegance and wit (in the true tense) that inform one
of Handel's greatest operas will be sought in vain in this tedious, crass film. My advice is avoid it at all cost.
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25 October 2007
I have recently been reading Bruce Haynes' The End of Early Music: A Period Performer's History of Music for the Twenty-First Century. The main part of the title is not as apocalyptic as it might appear, since it concerns terminology rather
than predicating some kind of demise. Indeed, my biggest quarrel with the book would be the title,
since this is a book of major importance that should be read by anyone with even the remotest interest
in 'early music', not just performers. Haynes' brief here is to distinguish between the performing styles of Romaticism,
modernism and what the author terms 'rhetorical' music (i.e. mainly Baroque music). Immensely stimulating, full
of a mixture of sound common sense and controversial views, the book is arguably the most important to have appeared
on the topic for many years. As Clifford Bartlett wrote in Early Music Review (No. 121) having read it 'you will never think about early music as you did before'. I'm not scheduled to review it at present,
but hope (time permitting) to return to a discussion of The End of Early Music in greater detail on
the Viewpoint page of this site.
- 22 October 2007
Avid readers of 'Jottings' may have been struck by the absence of new entries on the page
in recent weeks. I could of course blame the distractions of summer - or what has passed for summer in northern Europe
this year - with visitors and so forth. But truth to tell lack of inspiration has also played its part. But fear
not. Normal service will be resumed. And look out for a major new essay to be posted on the site shortly.
- 3 September 2007.
Catching up recently on some of the CDs sent for Fanfare review – there were always too many
to cover everything submitted – I turned to a disc of music by Antonia Padoani Bembo (c.1640 – c.1720). The Italian-born
Bembo ended up living in near-poverty in Paris, the disc including four of her settings of French paraphrases of the seven Penitential
Psalms. Although Bembo was a one-time pupil of Cavalli, the style betrays few Italian traits, being typical of late 17th-century
French writing. Bembo is revealed as a thoroughly competent composer, but one lacking real musical character. Much the same
might be said of the performances by La Donna Musicale, a US female ensemble that specialises in reviving the music of women composers.
While much scholarly care has obviously gone into the performances, they are commendable rather than owning to any exceptional
musical insight and not able to sustain the listener’s interest in Bembo’s setting of the long paraphrase of Psalm
101 (102). The whole disc in fact raises a pertinent question. Surely we have now surely reached the point in gender studies
to study, perform and record music not because it is by a woman, but because the composer, male or female, is good enough
to warrant our attention? Those interested in the disc should go to www.ladm.org for more details.
- 28 July 2007
This page is rarely in the business of promoting individual recordings, but I'm making an exception
in the case of a truly remarkable CD of Mozart piano music played by the fortepianist Marcia Hadjimarkos. In honesty, I have
to declare a vested interest in the disc, in that I not only count the performer a friend but also wrote the
booklet notes. For that reason I will not of course be reviewing it. The disc, available on Avie AV 2138, includes the
sonatas in C minor, K457; in C, K545; and in B flat, K333, along with the Rondos in F, K494; in D, K485; and A minor,
K511 played on a copy of a Sebastian Lengerer instrument of 1793. The playing thoughout is notable for a poetic insight
and sensitivity rarely encountered, making this a very special recording that should be heard by everyone who loves Mozart.
- 27 July 2007
It comes as little surprise that the previous posting on
this page has aroused a certain amount of, shall we say, comment. Indeed, it has even been suggested that the page be renamed
"Rantings". Well, there's nothing wrong with a little rant every now and then; it can do us all good. And just to prove the
point, here's another. Once upon a time, as many will doubtless recall, BBC Radio 3 used to a air a superb early music
programme called 'Spirit of the Age'. Informed, lively and intelligent, the weekly edition was unmissable for all
real early music enthusiasts. Then, it its infinite wisdom, the BBC decided that it was far too upmarket and replaced it with
something called 'The Early Music Show', which rapidly established itself as a successor that bore about as much relationship
to its forebear as a 1960s slum tenement does to Blenheim Palace. In common with many listeners, I long ago gave up listening
to it, although have to confess to having a very small role in an edition that successfully managed to travesty
my work on catch and glee culture in 18th century England. It therefore hardly came as a revelation to
learn that the edition last weekend managed to throw in a refererence to 'those two cool dudes, the Lawes brothers',
thus reducing two of England's major 17th century composers to the level of a pair of stand-up comics. You have been warned.
Avoid this horrible aberration at all costs! Here endeth today's rant.
- 16 July 2007
Britain, once renowned as a haven of freedom and tolerance,
creeps ever closer to becoming a police state. The most recent assault on civil liberty is the total ban on smoking in public
places, which took effect on 1 July. There was a time when pubs and clubs would have been allowed to make a choice, thus providing
alternative environments for those who wish to smoke and those who object to smoking. No longer. This triumph of the health
fascists is the culmination of many years of campaigning aided and abetted by a mendacious media in general and the BBC in
particular. And let us not think this will be the end of such dictatorship. It has been reported that some local councils
are minded to spread the ban to open spaces, such as parks. It can only be a matter of time before gangs of anti-smoking vigilantes
are roaming the streets searching for illicit smokers lighting up. And how much longer after that will it be before the police
are given powers of entry into the homes of suspected smokers? And all this on the basis of spurious statistics relating to
so-called ‘secondary smoking’, statistics plucked from the air at random without the slightest regard for veracity.
‘The worst enemy of truth and freedom in our society is the compact majority. Yes, the damned, compact, liberal
majority’ – Ibsen.
– 5 July 2007
Everyone connected with the early music world will surely rejoice
in the news that Emma Kirkby has been made a Dame in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, announced today. For those unfamiliar
with British honours, Dame is, with the exception of a peerage, the highest honour that can be granted a woman, the equivalent
of a Knighthood. It is a difficult to think of a more richly deserved accolade. For more years than she (and many among
her admirers) will care to remember, she has enchanted and beguiled with that purity ot tone and near-flawless technique
that justifiably earned her the epithet 'queen of early music'. A reminder that she is still singing as well as ever comes
with her most recent BIS CD (BIS-SACD-1505) "Musique and Sweet Poetrie", a collection of 17th century songs from around Europe,
on which she is accompanied by the outstanding lutenist Jakob Lindberg. Not the least of Emma's charms is a disposition that
is totally lacking any side or diva-ish (or indeed dame-like) behaviour. I had a vivid illustration of this a couple
of years of ago at the Souvigny Festival, an appearance I had in part facilitated. At the second of her two outstanding
concerts, I had rather thoughtlessly stood chatting with her during the interval when she very gently reminded
me that she should be thinking about her voice for the second half of the concert. And what was it she was about to go on
the platform and sing? Nothing less than the Mozart Exsultate Jubilate. Readers may like to know that Emma
now has her own website: www.emmakirkby.com
- 16 June 2007
This week saw the end of my 13-year career as a reviewer for Fanfare, in many ways a sad landmark.
During the course of a warm - in the best sense! - exchange of valedictory e-mails with editor Joel Flegler, he told me how
disappointed he had been with the response he had received when several years ago he actively (and with my full support) attempted
to promote early music in the journal. It was less of a surprise to me. Despite an extraordinary poll undertaken by Early
Music America a couple of years ago suggesting a huge audience for early music in the States, attitudes there remain
highly ambivalent. Some Fanfare reviewers indeed still write of historical performance practice as if it were some
outlandish world inhabited only by freaks, a viewpoint that largely went out of fashion in Europe nearly two decades
ago. With the exception of a few pockets, early music in America seems to struggle as a Cinderella in a way that would
astonish, for example, the French.
- 26 May 2007
As étrangers living in the country, the recent French
elections proved to be of considerable interest to us. Speaking to French friends during the campaign, we found near
unanimous agreement on the predicament in which they found themselves as to deciding how they should cast their
vote. Yet when it came to it, some 85% of electors registered a vote in both rounds, an extraordinary figure that one could
never imagine being repeated in Britain this side of the Day of Judgement. That the final round was contested between
the son of a Hungarian immigrant and a woman is further evidence of the strength of the democracy in France. What
an enigmatic nation this is - at times admirable, at times infuriating.
How it will react to the promised reforms of Nicolas Sarkozy remains to be
seen. Further interesting times lie ahead.
- 10 May 2007
Andrew Parrott's symposium mentioned below proved to be a
highly successful event. Some 75 musicians, scholars and lesser lights (like critics) gathered in an unseasonably hot Oxford
at the historic Holywell Music Room. The event was presided over with great good humour and no little wit by Andrew, who himself
contributed a paper on 'The Rights of Dead Composers'. Notwithstanding the refreshingly informal atmosphere, much of serious
value was contributed to the afternoon, including several fairly controversial talks. Most speakers unsurprisingly managed
to exceed their time limit, creating a fair amount of pressure on Andrew to get through the business before turning to the
pleasure of a drinks reception and a dinner. One of the most remarkable aspects of the whole event was the obvious esteem
and indeed affection with which Andrew Parrott is so obviously held in the music profession. I talked to two members of the
amateur Reading Symphony Orchestra, who could not praise enough the way in which he encourages and inspires amateur performers.
Many happy returns, Andrew. And may there be many more birthdays to celebrate.
- 25 April 2007
No brilliant thoughts or observations for Easter, I'm afraid.
In fact a heavy cold has left me feeling distinctly lacking in any kind of brilliance or intelligence, halting
work on an article on the great madrigal composer Luca Marenzio. All being well, we are headed for the UK later this
week, where I will be participating in a informal symposium Andrew Parrott has convened as part of his 60th birthday celebrations.
One of the pioneers of the early music movement in Britain, Parrott's work has always been informed by a combination
of rigorous scholarship and excellent, un-showy musicianship, qualities not to be gainsaid in the far more anarchic mood
of today. If you haven't already done so, his interview is well worth reading. The symposium promises to be a lively, controversial affair that I'll report back on after we
return.
- 9 April 2007
To a Siberia-like Paris this week, drawn by Handel's Ariodante
at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. On musical grounds, the production conducted by Christophe Rousset
is strong, with particularly fine performances from Angelika Kirchschlager (Ariodante) and Danielle
De Niesse (Ginevra) heading a cast that has no real weakness. Visually things are less happy. The minimalist sets - moveable
plain white walls with just a suggestion of a castle - while not exactly attractive at least have the advantage
of not being distracting. The production by Lukas Hemleb is guilty of many of the clichéd solecisms that it seems no
Baroque opera production (or any opera production, for that matter) can do without today, but again one can be grateful that
Hemleb was at least prepared to let the music make its point undisturbed by superfluous 'business' in most of the major
arias. The choreography (gymnastic display would be a more suitable description) is however a total disaster, performed
by dancers wearing bodystockings, at least one of whom should be banned from going anywhere near such garb. Andrew George's treatment
of the ballets Handel wrote for Marie Sallé and company works in total opposition to the music itself, a sad example
of the lack of understanding (or arrogance) such people bring to the staging of opera. Rousset himself remains something
of an enigma when it comes to opera staging, a man sufficient of a purist to refuse to conduct Gluck because he
was offered a modern instrument orchestra, yet who at the same time has presided over some wretchedly anachronistic modern
productions.
- 24 March 2007
For more than thirteen years I have been privileged to write for
the US reviewing magazine Fanfare. By mutual and amicable agreement this era will come to an end on 1 June this year.
The great achievement of editor and owner Joel Flegler has been a refusal to 'dumb down' in an era that has witnessed
a considerable retraction in the serious treatment of Classical music. His willingness to let his contributors express themselves
without a heavy editorial hand is only to be applauded and over the years he has attracted many fine writers. That standards
are at present not at their highest is a reflection of prevailing trends, not a change in Joel's policy. I wish Fanfare
every success in the future. Meanwhile, watch this space for future personal developments.
- 12 March, 2007
I have to confess to not being much of a fan of the modern novel, although I suppose strictly speaking
Irène Némirovsky's Suite Française does not fit into that category, having been written in 1941/2. Némirovsky was
a Russian Jew, forced to flee with her wealthy banking family by the Russian Revolution. Eventually she settled in Paris,
where during the 1930s she became a highly regarded novelist. Shortly after the outbreak of World War 2, she
moved with her husband and two daughters to the "safety" of a small Burgundian village (not far from where I presently
live). There she started work on Suite Française, originally planned as a four- or five-part novel concerned
with French collaboration. When she was arrested in 1942, Némirovsky had written only the first two parts. She died two
weeks after being sent to Auschwitz. Suite Française lay unknown until discovered by accident among her
mother's papers by one of Némirovsky's daughters. It was subsequently published in France to critical acclaim and later translated.
Full of bitter irony, yet also great compassion, the two completed sections of Suite Française form one
of the most remarkable, and at the same time one of the most beautiful books I have read. I would urgently recommend anyone
who has not read it to place it urgently on his or her reading list. It is now available in paperback. I finished
it a week ago and remain haunted by it.
- 31 January 2007
Anyone seeking even temporary respite from the crass vulgarity of the modern world (see immediately
below) should turn to John Eliot Gardiner and his Monteverdi Choir's CD 'Pilgrimage to Santiago' (Soli Deo Gloria SDG 701).
In 2004, the fortieth anniversary of this marvellous choir, Gardiner and its members made the famous pilgrimage, giving
performances en route at churches in France and Spain. Some of the music they performed was recorded after they arrived back
in London. The result, which includes music by Victoria, Palestrina, Dufay, Lassus, and Morales among others, is one of those
exceedingly rare examples of a CD that in some inexplicable way transcends being simply a recording to
become a thing of spiritual value, a refreshment for the soul
- 22 January 2007.
Nothing, but nothing better illustrates the vacuous, superficial nature of the collective British psyche
than this weeks 'racism' row on Celebrity Big Brother. Who or what Jade Goody is I have no idea, and judging from the clips
of it's exhibition have absolutely no desire to know, but what on earth is an apparently highly-regarded Bollywood
actress even doing appearing on this sordid show? Even worse is the hugely overblown media interest in this dismal
episode, while even politicians have felt the necessity to add their empty contribution for fear of not being
in step with the 'public interest'. And the major winners? Why, cynical Channel 4, of course, who have seen a failing
show suddenly catapulted back to success. Who knows, perhaps they manufactured the whole thing?
- 20 January 2007
More hypocrisy. While the bleeding-heart liberals of the world go about wringing their hands over the
maladroitly-handled execution of a murderous tyrant, Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe quietly goes about the quasi-genocide of his
own people without comment and largely unreported.
- 12 January 2007
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