A Winter’s Journey V: “Picturing Winterreise”

A picture so famous it’s become a postage stamp. In the words of Schubert scholar Janet Wasserman, “Perhaps the single-most striking exemplar in nineteenth century European art of the lone figure in nature is the painting by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer (The Wanderer Above the Mists) ca.1817/1818. The painting of the wanderer with his back turned to the viewer and facing the misty crags below him has been reproduced numerous times in our contemporary era, to the point of cliché, as emblematic of modern man’s alienation. Often used as the theme of man in his private existential agony living in nature and yet pitted against it, Friedrich’s wanderer has found even greater resonance in Franz Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise……

The entire article is here.    But I wish you could see some of the pictures she’s referencing!

A Winter’s Journey IV: Schubert and Beckett

After exploring the Chopin connection in the previous post, time to revisit a wonderful piece by Alex Ross in the New Yorker from a few winters ago about One Evening: “The British director Katie Mitchell, in collaboration with the tenor Mark Padmore, the actor Stephen Dillane, and the pianist Andrew West, had the excellent idea of creating a theatre piece around Samuel Beckett’s intense relationship with Winterreise, weaving his poetry and prose into a live performance of the cycle.”

A Winter’s Journey III: The Schubert – Chopin Connection

Revisiting a startling discovery from the Radio Chopin series…

Take a listen to Chopin’s A Stranger Here Himself…

“A stranger I came, A stranger I depart…” These opening lines of “Good Night”, the first song in Franz Schubert’s cycle, Winterreise, or Winter Journey resonated with Chopin. So much so that they spilled over into the manuscript for his Sonata for Cello and Piano.

A dead ringer, so to speak! In Schubert’s song cycle the anti-hero is a dying poet. Themes of banishment, lost love and icy despair pervade. Just as they did in Chopin’s life at the time he composed his Cello Sonata. It was winter. His health was in rapid decline. He was twice exiled: he’d left his native Poland for good, and George Sand had just evicted him from their nest with the publication of an exposé thinly-veiled as a work of fiction.

Which brings us back to the first movement of Chopin’s Cello Sonata. It’s problematic. It puzzled even his closest allies. Was it too intimate? Wasting in his deathbed, Chopin asked to hear it, only to find he could bear no more than the first few measures. He omitted the movement from the sonata’s 1848 premiere. Clearly, it had profound personal significance. Most likely because he turned to—and quoted—Schubert’s song at the time of his separation from George Sand, which she had publicly portrayed as entirely his fault. Was it regret? Or, as in the final stanzas in Schubert’s song, did the ailing Chopin recognize his fate was sealed?

These are the last words spoken
Soon I’ll be out of sight
A simple farewell message
Goodnight, my love, good night.

– Jennifer Foster

A Winter’s Journey II: Eschenbach and Wakao play “Das Wirsthaus”

So it’s the middle of January. Inspired by the ATC tale in yesterday’s post, a few more “Winterreise” entries this week. This time, it’s pianist and conductor Christoph Eschenbach in our WGBH Fraser Performance Studio, recalling his difficult childhood in war-torn Europe, and launches into a performance with Boston Symphony Orchestra Associate Principal oboist of a transcription of “Das Wirtshaus” (The Inn) from Schubert’s song-cycle “Winterreise.” Cathy Fuller is the WCRB Classical New England host.

A Winter’s Journey I: Bill T. Jones on Schubert

Yes, a repeat, but brand-new for these ears:  a stunning interview today on NPR’s All Things Considered between host Melissa Block and choreographer Bill T. Jones about Schubert’s “Winterreise.”   Talk about a driveway moment….or, more appropriately, a lonely-organ-grinder-moment….

Bill T. Jones on Schubert’s Winterreise

Happy New Year!

Soprano Courtney Huffman and baritone Andrew Garland in Bach’s wonderful “Coffee Cantata.”

A grand time had by all with Boston Baroque and conductor Martin Pearlman, ushering in 2014 with a live all-Bach concert at Sanders Theatre we’re sharing live with the nation via PRI.  Hard to believe that it’s my last radio production for the foreseeable future, so had to snap some “stage-side” shows to mark the occasion.    The audio for the entire program may be found here, thanks to the wizardry of online producer (and broadcast co-host) Brian McCreath, engineer Antonio Oliart Ros, and producer Alan McLellan.  Thanks, friends….let’s hope this great tradition continues!

Violinist Christina Day Martinson and recorder players Christopher Krueger and Aldo Abreu are the soloists in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 with Martin Pearlman leading Boston Baroque

 

Post-Brandenburg bows for conductor and soloists …

WCRB’s Cathy Fuller chats live with Martin Pearlman

J.S. & The Oscars: That Old Bach Magic

Unlike last year, I won’t be in front of the boobtube tonight for Oscar night; instead I’ll be doing one of my Concert Previews at a Washington Performing Arts Society – sponsored “house concert” featuring a terrific young Chinese cellist named Jian Wang, who’s in town to play various of the six solo cello suites by J.S. Bach. The Bach suites are both one of the absolute monuments for anybody who’s ever tried to pull a bow across a cello (or doublebass, or viola, or trombone, or, or, or…) but for my money they’re one of the Great. Alltime Works. By Anybody. Ever.

Howcum? Well, here I’m going to tip my hat to the shade of the late, great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who in his own words decided to “pluck up the courage” to record the six solo suites rather [shockingly] late in his career:

“Bach has no shallow or transitory emotions, no momentary anger, no bad words or fleeting embraces – his emotions are as vast a scale as Shakespeare’s, yet common to all people on earth, from the most northerly to the most southerly races. We all weep when we suffer, we all know tears of joy. It is these fundamental emotions that Bach transmits in his suites.”

In fact, I think there is something kind of miraculous about this music — music written almost 300 years ago that at times is the essence of simplicity, particularly the broken-chord arpeggios that lead off the First Suite – as simple, Rostropovich said, as breathing: “The phrase generates energy (inhales) untill it reaches a certain point when it is released (exhales).” If that sounds too technical, it doesn’t when you hear it.

And out of this solo music Bach spins music more compelling than a symphony of a thousand, or a full-blown band with the volume turned up to 11.So all that got me to thinking about the juxtaposition of Bach and the movies, which after all are all about playing with our transitory emotions, fleeting embraces, and so on to create some usually mawkish, but very occasionally something profound and deeply moving.

Which then got me to thinking about one of my all-time favorite movies, Truly Madly Deeply, made in 1990, and starring a very un-Severus Snapeish Alan Rickman and the terrific English actress Juliet Stevenson, and directed by Anthony (”English Patient”) Minghella. The Ghost-like plot (also from the same year!) revolved around the relationship among dead-cellist Rickman, his wife-in-another-life Stevenson, and her new beau….and the music of Bach is so powerful it’s almost another character in the film.Bach’s soundtrack abilities have not been lost on other directors, it seems.

Turns that T,M,D is but one of 207 feature films that have been documented to use Bach’s music, with a surprisingly large percentage of them devoted to none other than the solo cello suites. And it seems that if you put a Bach solo-cello piece into your film, your chances of being nominated – or winning! some Oscar hardware go up exponentially. For certain film directors (hello Ingmar Bergman!), you might even call it “that old Bach magic.” On the other hand, a few directors have some explaining to do….Here’s

The Official List of Bach Cello Suites Used in Movie Soundtracks:

Another Woman – Gena Rowlands, Mia Farrow, Dir. Woody Allen, 1988

Cello Suite No. 6

Antonia’s Line – Dir. Marleen Gorris (Netherlands) – 1996 1 Oscar: (Best Foreign Film)

Cello Suite No. 1

Autumn Sonata – Dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1978. 2 Oscar nominations (Best Actress – Ingrid Bergman; Original Screenplay: Ingmar Bergman)

Cello Suite No. 4 [Sarabande]

The Company – Neve Campbell, dir. Robert Altman, 2003

Cello Suite No.1 [Minuet]

Cries and Whispers –Dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1972. 5 Oscar nominations, (Best Picture, Best Director, Adapted Screenplay, Costume Design), 1 win (Best Cinematography – Sven Nykivst)

Cello Suite No. 5

Hilary & Jackie – Emily Watson, Rachel Griffiths, 1998. 2 Oscar nominations (Best Actress – Emily Watson; Supporting Actress – Rachel Griffiths)

Cello Suite No. 1 [Prélude & Gigue]

Cello Suite No. 3 [Prélude]

Cello Suite No. 6 [Gavotte]

The Hunger – Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon 1983

Cello Suite No.1 [Prélude]

J´Embrasse Pas – Emmanuelle Béart, 1991 (France)

Cello Suite No.1 [Prélude]

Grey Knight, a/k/a The Killing Box – Corbin Bernsen, Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Sheen (1993)

Cello Suite No.1

Lost and Found – David Spade, 1999

Cello Suite No.1 [Prélude]

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World – Russell Crowe, dir. Peter Weir, 2003. 10 Oscar nominations (Best Picture, Director, Art Direction, Costume Design, Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects, Makeup); 2 wins (Cinematography & Sound Editing)

Cello Suite No.1 [Prélude]

Music of the Heart – Meryl Streep, West Craven (!), dir. 1999. 2 Oscar nominations: Best Actress (Streep); Original Song

Cello Suite No.1

The Pianist – Adrian Brody, dir. Roman Polanski, 2002. 7 Oscar nominations (Best Picture, Cinematography, Editing, Costume Design); 3 wins (Best Director, Actor, Adapted Screenplay)

Cello Suite No. 1

The Prince and Me – Julia Stiles, dir. Martha Coolidge, 2004.

Cello Suite No.1 [Prélude]

A Simple Twist of Fate – Steve Martin, Gabriel Byrne, 1999.

Cello Suite No.1 [Prélude]

The Sleepy Time Gal – Jacqueline Bisset, 2001

Cello Suite No. 5

Small Time Crooks – Woody Allen, actor/dir, 2000

Cello Suite No. 2 [Sarabande]

Through a Glass Darkly – Ingmar Bergman, 1961. 2 Oscar Nominations (Original Screenplay); 1 win (Best Foreign Film)

Cello Suite No. 2 [Sarabande]

You Can Count on Me – Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick, Kenneth Lonergran, writer/director, 2000. 2 Oscar nominations (Best Actress-Laura Linney; Best Writer – Kenneth Lonergan)

Cello Suite No. 1

Honorable Mention:

Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach – Atom Egoyan, five others (1997) – 2 Emmy AwardsNot a movie per se (although it was screened in other countries and at film festivals) about a decade ago Yo-Yo Ma made a series of six short films devoted to exploring the Bach solo cello suites from a different artist perspective, including, film, dance, and architecture. The best known (and probably most successful) of the six is Suite No. 4, Sarabande, directed by Atom Egoyan, which “tells the story of a failed relationship that culminates in the couple attending a Yo-Yo Ma performance of the piece at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto.”

Fanny and Alexander – Ingmar Bergman, 1982. 6 Oscar nominations, including Best Director & Screenplay; 4 wins (Foreign Film, Cinematogrpahy, Art Direction, Costume Design)

Vast amounts of ink have been spilled about Bergman’s masterful use of music in the movies, particularly of Bach and Mozart. But in this film you won’t hear any of Bach cello suites; instead, Bergman makes the unorthodox choice of using the three solo cello suites written by English composer Benjamin Britten! (In fact, that’s Britten’s music you hear at the very opening of the film.)

Which brings us back to the beginning of this post, for Britten was also “inspired by Bach,” as it were….he wrote and dedicated the pieces to his close friend Mstislav Rostropovich after hearing the cellist play……..you guessed it, one of Bach’s solo suites.

By the way, a tip o’ the hat to Naxos, both for their work in promoting and recording soundtracks by dedicated film composers, as well as for putting together a nice new database of classical music at the movies.

There’s also a nice site called Classics of the Silver Screen.

Finally, if I ever get asked to choose a piece of Bach’s cello music for the silver screen, I think I’d pick this.

The Klassical Komeback, Pt III: Surge or Free Fall?

A couple of mainstream media outlets have picked up on the Great Classical (crossover) Comeback of 2006 lately: My old employer NPR had a story on All Things Considered The hook in the Tuesday (Mar 20) New York Times story was the just announced Classical Blowout Store from Amazon.com – a response, in the dot-com’s words, to “the disappearance of prominent brick and mortar music stores and the fact that most music retailers are scaling back their selection of classical music.” with led to the Time’s observation that “Amazon’s initiative comes at a time when classical music sales are either advancing nicely or in a free fall, depending on whom you believe and what you consider classical music.“

And that’s the problem, innit? Who do you believe? The initial trigger for all of this reporting was the Nielsen SoundScan report of classical sales being up 22.5 per cent – something I wrote about last month. And, hmm….as part of their rationale for the new service Amazon notes that their 2006 sales of classical music were up – get this – 22 per cent! Same accounting methods? Does Amazon consider Josh Groban to be as classical at Louis Moreau Gottschalk? They don’t say.

Similarly, after noting that “independent [classical] labels like Koch and Naxos report that their sales are also up”the above-referenced NPR story ends with the throwaway line, “the total number of classical albums purchased online more than doubled last year.” That’s great…but, again, what’s the definition of “classical?”

And, for that matter, what, exactly, constitutes a downloaded “album,” anyway? More on that in a future post. A more sobering assessment of the health of classical-music comes from the market-research firm NPD group, quoted in the Times article: “NPD Group’s consumer survey data, which does not include albums like these in its classical music category, shows that classical sales dropped last year by 28 percent, and have dropped by 54 percent in five years.”

Ouch! Whether the numbers are truly up or down, there does seem to be a renewed energy in retailing classical music. After all, classical music fans, traditionally older and wealthier, “actually buy, rather than steal, their music,” to quote the Times. I noticed, too, doing some focus groups in Philadelphia last year that a lot of men of, ahem, a certain age, LOVE those much-maligned “bricks and mortar” stores – us hunter-gatherer music freaks intoxicated by the ambience, being surrounded by fellow members of our tribe, poring through bins, stumbling upon old favorites or making new discoveries. Same reasons why we vinyl junkies can’t let go. For classical music fans, multiply everything I just said by two. Or five. Or ten. Mark Berry’s Naxos Blog has some interesting comments about what retailers in Philadelphia and elsewhere are doing to fill the classical void. Sample grab:

“At the same time, retailers seem to be expending more energy on classical, perhaps due to the SoundScan rise but also to fill the hole left in major market areas by the demise of Tower Records. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported earlier this month that national chain FYE has made classical music a priority in its new store in the space previously occupied by Tower, moving its 11,000 CD and DVD titles to the main floor and committing to growing the section. Of course, a part of this collection is crossover material but, as writer Peter Dobrin points out, there is still plenty for the core classical “afficianado” and fan of local classical artists.”

Snarky aside: If you didn’t know that Koch had a significant classical catalog you’d never know it by their website. Their classical listings are “below the fold” on their home page, category 13 out of 13 music categories, coming on the heels of “Dance, Electronica & New Age,” “Jazz,” “Gospel,” “Country,” “Kinks Reissues,” and “Broadway Productions and Show Recordings.”

Living Beethovens

The consistently interesting conductor Marin Alsop‘s debut season as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s new Music Director promises to be one of the most interesting seasons in Bawlmur in years. Tim Smith in today’s Baltimore Sun has all the details. Sample grab:
“With cheap seats, conversations with high-profile composers and programming that includes a CSI-style forensics exploration of Beethoven next season, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will challenge two of the most common complaints about classical music – that it’s too expensive and too old-fashioned. As part of a strategy unveiled yesterday to bolster attendance, the BSO will reduce the average subscription cost to classical and pops programs by 40 percent. New and current subscribers to the BSO’s 2007-2008 season, the inaugural season of music director Marin Alsop, will pay only $25 per concert for seats anywhere in Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, including the usually pricey box seats.”

CSI business aside (which may be a little gimmicky), what caught my eye was Alsop’s “Living Beethovens” initiative – putting some of today’s most accomplished contemporary composers on programs cheek-by-jowl with ol’ Ludwig himself – and even inviting the composers to conduct! So, for 25 bucks a pop, you’ll be able to see John Adams conduct both his own works, as well as Beethoven’s 7th Symphony – a terrific idea. 17 contemporary compositions in all, by the likes of Adams, Tan Dun, and Aaron Jay Kernis. I like what Marin said to the Sun:

For Alsop, the aim of mixing “standard repertoire with something new is to hear the old in a different light. It’s like seeing a Rembrandt next to a Jackson Pollock.”

Up off the Canvas, PT II: The Classical Comeback?

il Divo: the future of classical music?

From Slate comes an article about the surprising sales of Classical Music recordings in the last year. The lede is attention-getting:

“Is classical music—a genre that has spent a seeming eternity on the commercial skids—staging a comeback? That’s the buzz on Nielsen SoundScan’s 2006 report card, which listed classical as the year’s fastest-growing musical genre. In an otherwise dreary year, sales of classical albums—a figure that includes CDs, LPs, and downloaded albums—increased by 22.5 percent, or 3.57 million units. That put the genre way ahead of such laggards as jazz (down 8.3 percent), alternative (down 9.2 percent), and rap (down 20.7 percent).”

Holy Cow – up 22-plus-percent? What’s going on here? Are those Christopher O’Riley-plays-Radiohead CDs and New York Philharmonic iTunes downloads making that much of a difference?

Well, yes, they are…a little bit. Classical musicians and organizations have gotten a lot savvier about the Net. But the vast amount of that growth is coming from a change in what the industry counts as “classical.” For years Billboard has maintained two charts: “Classical” and “Classical Crossover” (often as related as “jazz” is to “smooth jazz”) – and in 2006 Nielsen SoundScan (the back-end data collector of Billboard and a whole bunch of other folks) simply rolled ’em together. So: Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, and Pierre Boulez are in the same category as Andrea Bocelli, Il Divo, and Josh Groban. And the latter three, who all released albums in 2006, combined for more than 4.6 million units of sales last year – just about the same margin of overall growth in the genre. Hmmm…

But there a couple of nuggets worth paying attention to: Bocelli, Groban et al appeal most especially to women 36-50 years old – and most classical programmers aren’t realing paying attention to them as a demographic group. Two that are are Classic FM in the UK (who just happen to be the most popular classical radio station in the world), and WBKK in Albany, NY – a fascinating attempt at programming a classical public radio station a little differently. Worth a listen. (Full disclosure: WBKK PD Christopher Wienk is a colleague and RoeDeo‘s webmaster – doesn’t change the fact that it’s a fascinating experiment.)

Nugget No. 2 is the Songs from the Labryinth album by Sting
…his hyper-produced interpretations of 17th-century lute master John Dowland.
Turns out that was the biggest-selling “true” classical recording of 2006 – and tonight you can watch him do his Dowland thing on PBS. Bully for him – and if he does any Dowland during the upcoming Police reunion tour, double bully. But will that actually help fortysomethings (like that aforementioned Il Divo Demo) really discover Dowland? If only the album were better – and Sting sang “Flow My Tears” with the same conviction as he sings “King of Pain.” Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, the Guardian, the L.A. Times, etc. all loved it. I’m more in tune with Timothy Jarrett at Blogcritics.com:

Seriously, there are vocal lines that sound as though they’re sung through dentures. Worse, there’s no variation to the vocal lines: the performances are note-note-note, with little or no vocal inflection and no phrasing. Then there’s the overdubbing. Awkward as the solo lines are, they sound like sheer genius compared to the same voice in two part harmony.