Sibelius – A poor mans Mahler?

As I was walking the dog this frosty morning, I decided just how good the LPO sounded with Vanska the other week. The string intensity was incredible – the beginning of the 4^th Symphony was searing. You can see why the Vienna Phil gave up with it after initial rehearsals! But it got me thinking.

Sibelius 5 (1915) - based on the interval of the 5^th, swans flying etc. and then Bruckner 4 (1874) and Bruckner 3 (1873) both obsessed with intervallic dominance in its thematic material…

It’s a comparison I had never thought of before – probably due to my ignorance. I then thought about the string writing, use of the horns and I got this feeling that maybe I was thinking about Bruckner in the wrong way.

I have recently started to ‘get’ Bruckner, or so I thought. I have to admit that I use to always think of him as a poor man’s Mahler, like Nielsen a poor man’s Sibelius. I am now convinced that’s totally wrong. There are obviously similarities but it’s like saying Mahler is a poor man’s Strauss. Bruckner recently, I have been thinking is so academic (in a good way), but so rustic – thinking of the 2^nd subject in Bruckner 4 1^st movement – sing ‘on a walk in the country, on a walk in the country’ to the second subject and you will see what I mean. There is this amazing freedom, created out of an almost obsessive approach to construction. I suppose it is slightly how I feel about Dvorak 6 Symphony – possibly one of the most neglected masterworks of the symphonic repertoire.

I was so surprised when I first heard Bruckner’s slow movement from his 3^rd Symphony, it sounded like a premonition of Elgar. The string writing was clear of tremolo and there was this rounded nature and serious intensity. This tremolo business - it plagues string players in Bruckner, how to do it, how to survive it! I like David Halen’s (leader of St Louis Symphony approach) – many different speeds of tremolo create a powerful fuzziness! It reminded me of Sibelius’s approach in his symphonies (although not quite such an obsessive approach) and also the opening of his orchestral song Luonnotar.

What do all these random musings mean? No, Sibelius is by no means a poor man’s Mahler. However, it has made me think more romantically about Bruckner, less about the ‘tunes’ in Sibelius and more the orchestral atmosphere he is trying to create and thirdly that Mahler is so different to Bruckner.

Nielsen is still…yawn!

Rattle's Brahms, Prokofiev and Katherine Jenkins - a merry mix

THIS WAS WRITTEN ON THE 30th OF DECEMBER 2010

I have found this blog title and thought it a good one to start the penultimate blog of 2009. At the moment people are busy shopping in the sales - have I been - no. Christmas is over, and yes I did remember to put the baby in the nativity on christmas day - must be a first. If I see another top ten list of 2009 or another ultimate review of the decade....that was the first decade of the 2000's don't you know, then yes I might just burn the Daily Mail.

I have had an amazing autumn, working with ETO and NMECU and planning in all the hours God sends. I have also been fortunate enough to realise just how good the Halle and CBSO are, and how lucky we are to have had the wisdom of Mark Elder and now the enthusiasm of Andris Nelsons. The Midlands are the new London for the next decade, you heard it first, or maybe I read it in Metro...

Rattle's Brahms - his first is the worst, second not the best but actually I prefer it to the Karajan and Berlin Phil or Barenboim and Chicago. It seems to shed a dead weight. That doesn't mean he takes things at rip-roaring speed. I think Rattle is seeing Brahms not as this heavy bearded, anti-Wagner staunch luddite, but someone searching for innovation. Brahms is a genius. He redefines the use of upbeats and meter and purifies and enhances what has been before. He was right when he said no one can better Beethoven but they can certainly join him. I think the 2010's are going to years of better Brahms, so there.

As for what else happens in the 2010's: Katherine Jenkins should sing her first opera. Yes I know she isn't a proper opera singer, but what is proper anyway, and she has made the mistake of going for lessons with Domingo, who himself has only just realised that he has been "cross-dressing" all his life and he is actually a baritone, not a tenor. However, I have faith.

F

P.S Yes my Christmas presents were nice, no you cant have any, and no I haven't written my thank you letters.

ETO HANDELfest – Part the first:

OK - so - two weeks in I have photocopied a mass of music equal to the weight of a small village, rubbed out many markings, put in lots of bowings and met loads of fantastic singers. Handel holds a special place for me, not only as I studied it in detail at Cambridge, but also because the first opera I conducted was Handel’s Serse (Xerxes). He wastes nothing, everything is so clean and clear its almost a meditative experience (almost!!). Lucky that it is, as running back and forth from 3 Mills studios in Bromley by Bow (ETO rehearsal venue) to Clerkenwell (ETO offices) normally with music etc. is not! The offices are a small but perfectly formed powerhouse of activity. All the shows look and sound great. I think revivals are exceedingly difficult to pull off convincingly but with different singers in many cases and different conductors and directors, a real freshness is starting to be obtained. I really admire the conductors taking on tempi alien to their feelings and thoughts, I am not sure I would be able to do it with such discretion – but they certainly are creating a convincing product. The arrival of first orchestral rehearsals last week brought real excitement to the rehearsals and we launched ourselves into a headlong debate about what temperament to use: Young or Velotti!! We settled on Young as it was something different but brings a vitality to flat keys, although we have now decided that Velotti is a better path to go down as it is much more familiar and the G and D sharps were starting to cause a few winces among all concerned…

F

Zinman and Aspen reflection...

Having now been back from Aspen for a month, the three months I spent there are starting to merge into a slightly more amorphous collection of memories, ideas and thoughts. One thing is for certain Aspen is a very special place. It certainly developed how I think about music and conducting and I might even go as far as saying that to a certain extent it changed how I think about music. While I have been in the NYO and read about orchestras such as Barenboim’s West Eastern Divan orchestra, I had never truly felt that the music experience could be truly unifying. I had hoped, but not felt, and this is not to say that I didn’t wholeheartedly believe that music is the greatest form of worldwide communication (not that I am biased at all of course). Partly as a sceptic of most things and also as someone who must ‘see’ to believe, in most cases, I had not experienced music bringing so many people together. I am not being specifically clear in what I am saying, maybe because I am still not completely sure what I experienced. It wasn’t just the musicians on stage, or the 700 musicians at the festival - it was also the conductors, managers, technicians, librarians and most importantly the audience and the local community. From the bus drivers to the shop owners, to the local residents and waiters, I felt not only that everyone was immensely proud of what a small (albeit exceptionally rich!) town was available to achieve, but also that it brought everyone closer together and all seemed to benefit from it. I am rambling but never mind. It was powerful and good.

Hearing Zinman at the proms when I came back with his own group, the Zurich Tonhalle, was really special. You don’t go to a Zinman concert to for bravado and swashbuckling fireworks. What is produced is perfection of a different kind, something that I think is rare in the musical world. Balance is perfect, and the sound is embracing. It does not make your heart beat heavily against the wall of your rib cage, but it really does make it race. You come away from the concert not high on adrenaline, but as if you have been given a great big hug. It is satisfying in a very different manner.

I think it is this type of satisfaction that needs to be thought about more in today’s age. As a musician, it is fantastic to see the likes of Dudamel and Petrenko firing up our orchestras. But while quick fix exhilaration may stay with you for a week or two, somehow I find the satisfaction that the Zinman prom, while not immediately as satisfying and enlivening stays with you for longer. There is definitely room for both and more, but it is a satisfaction that is not valued maybe as much as is it should be. Maybe I have this perspective as I find the fire easier to conjure than the wisdom!

F

Aspen over - now for 5 Handel Operas

So its been just over a month since I last updated things on here. Well once again I am sitting in Denver airport waiting for a flight, this time to LHR - Denver hub B must be one of the longest uninterrupted corridors anywhere, it really goes on for ever. I would get some exercise and walk the entire thing if it wasn't for the fact that I am having to lug around both my violin in its tank like (but fantastic) Gorge case and my laptop bag which at the moment has the complete Tchaik and Beethoven 8 and Schubert 8 symphonies in it! Maybe something with wheels should be my next purchase.

The second half of Aspen was as amazing as the first, but slightly more tiring. I did a Handel opera scenes master class on Semele with the fantastic Nicholas Kraemer, conducted Elgar's Pomp 5 and much more. It amazed me to learn that in America they use Pomp and Circumstance March 1 for their Graduations. Oh how I would wish to be there and burst into Land of Hope and glory in the trio section. Not many knew that there were words to half of it and they were a little disheartened to find out that they were about the "Mother of the free"!

I am not sure if I will really realise just how much I have learnt from the whole experience until well into next year. However, already, the past two months have re-instilled in me the fact that one can do so much and yet appear to show so little. Both Zinman and Boulez are very different to the conductor I am trying and aspire to be, yet they are both masters of what they do. What is clear in both of their 'on podium' actions is that they have a real grounding, rhythm and control in everything they do, yet do it in the most concise and refined manner conceivable.

Zinman is very concerned with letting the orchestra play and creating an environment in which they can achieve this. The two months also made me realise that however good a musician one is if your beat is not clear then so much less is achieved while up there in front of the orchestra. It's an obvious statement to make but it's something that far too many conductors forget. When I think about the conductors who I have worked under and those who I place in the top rank (for me it only numbers a few...) what tends to separate the great from the truly masterful is whether or not you have to try to understand what they are doing. With Zinman one simply feels so safe in 'his hands', so to speak, that you really want to play and also feel that you can concentrate on making a great sound and he will sort everything else out.

Being at Aspen really made think hard about the state of modern music in programming and the role it plays in the USA. I heard a great Symphony by Harbison and an incredible arrangement of Schubert songs by Golijov (look out for them at the proms this Saturday). But I also heard a truly awful double violin concerto by Tsontakis, I think made much worse by those who were playing it (I must actually look into his music more), and a suite from Lieberson's Ashok's Dream which was such a sad advertisement for new music - nothing happened for 30 minutes. Maybe with words the music comes alive, or so I am told. But enough of the dour section of my post.

I find airports both fascinating and deadly boring. It's interesting to sit here opposite the phone-booth (where the power outlets are) wondering who people are phoning and where the various people on the travellator are heading. I am sitting next to a man who seems to work for Nasa - very impressive - and every one around here seems to own a BlackBerry, the first iphone free zone I have seen since I have been in the States, maybe its a sign I am coming home!

I now have 2 weeks off and then head into 5 weeks of rehearsals of 5 Handel Operas as the music associate for English Touring Opera's HandelFest. I am off to Zinman's Prom with the Tonhalle on Saturday which will be very exciting and interesting.

F

Earshot Readings with the Colorado Symphony

I am waiting here in Denver international airport for my pick up back to Aspen. The last few days have really flown past in a whirlwind of excitement and incredible experiences.

The Earshot Readings, give four young composers the chance to work with a major symphony orchestra, conductor and mentor composers on a piece of theirs that has not received a public performance. In conjunction with American Composers Orchestra, the chosen symphony and other organisations, these composers receive a fantastic experience, something which really needs to happen in England. The Colorado Symphony could not have been better, the amount of effort they put into playing, feedback, and just making us welcome was inspiring. This all sounds very gushy but it was one of my best experiences with new music and the orchestral world. Many questions were raised, some problems were solved and great friends were made. I was lucky enough to be conducting one of the works, a piece by Tim Sullivan, and Delta David Gier conducted the other three (Yotam Haber, Angel Lam, Jeremy Podgursky). It is always interesting to see how composers react to suggestions but in this situation not only was the piece dissected by the orchestral musicians, but also three mentor composers, Rober, Derek Bermel, and Roberto Sierra, and the Vice President of the Colorado Symphony, Alberto Gutierrez as well as David and myself. I learnt a considerable amount, not only about the compositional process but about what the orchestra wants, needs and expects from new music. Hopefully this is a project that will continue to grow and develop over the coming years. It provides a real opportunity for major orchestras to converse with one another about up and coming composers and the needs of new American music in a really positive light.

One quick note about Colorado Symphony's Hall - Boettcher Concert Hall, part of the second largest arts complex in the US. Although the acoustics vary for seat to seat and there are problems with balance between orchestral sections, it is an amazingly intimate space where you feel so close to the stage and the musicians. It is one of the few large concert halls I have been in where modern music really works and where the space contributes to the experience.

Anyway I must catch my ride back to Aspen, and prepare Greensleeves. I'll say more about Aspen soon - I've got an opera scenes masterclass on Handel with Nicholas Kraemer coming up, so lots to look forward to.

F

Aspen Music Festival - Part the first

Before I head off to Denver for Earshot readings (I leave tomorrow at 6.30 am...) with the Colorado Symphony, I thought I would say a little about the last month.

On Christmas Eve I got a phone call saying that I had been accepted as a fellow for the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen. This is part of the Aspen Music Festival and School, and is close to conducting heaven.

So far I have been coached by, worked with and met: David Zinman, Murray Sidlin, Nicholas Mcgegan, Christopher Seaman, Larry Foster, Andrey Boryeko as well as working with three fantastic concertmasters; David Halen, Andrew Wan and Gary Levinson. I have conducted works by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Dvorak and Berlioz. Not only do we get to work with an amazing orchestra who are some of the very best musicians at the festival but we get free tickets to all the concerts, bar one or two special events. Yesterday, having had a day off, I had a video review session with Murray Sidlin and on my way back popped into a rehearsal for a concert of Brandenburgs with Nicholas Mcgegan. There are great support staff as well who ensure the program functions like complete clock work.

It is slightly surreal to say the least, but the amount I have learnt over the past month is staggering. I am not quite sure how long it will take for me to digest it all. Now I am off to conduct Berlioz's Corsaire Overture in concert and then learning a new piece by the young American composer Tim Sullivan for the Earshot readings before a very early start tomorrow! Then I am back for another month of heaven, before heading back to the real world and the rainy UK.

I'll say more from Denver,

F