Concert Review: Bach 6 Partitas/ Joseph Fleetwood

This evening, St Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Dundee was the venue for an all Bach recital by Joseph Fleetwood, who had played these Bach Partitas here over three lunchtime programmes along with pieces by Brahms and Schumann almost a decade ago. This however was a different occasion, the playing being on a different level altogether: an atmosphere of near reverential concentration was attained in this spacious auditorium which adequately reflected the cathedral like nature of the composer’s mind.Also, the dimmed lighting was very helpful in creating a listening environment.

This was convincing Bach playing, allowing the music to speak for itself. Busoni claimed Bach as the foundation of piano, Liszt as the summit, the combination of them making Beethoven possible: Mr Fleetwood is well acquainted with these other composers as was evident in the rich but discreetly classical tones he was able to bring from a piano which I’ve sometimes felt a bit lacking in the bass/tenor area and a bit bright in the treble.

After a strong 1st Partita, the compelling C minor of the second suggested this would be a good evening. Indeed, if there was any shortcoming the interval was perhaps a little too long, allowing the atmosphere attained during the first three Partitas to begin to dissipate: the Overture starting the 4th in D major could have been more reminiscent of the festive BWV532 in the same key, or the second half of the Goldbergs. By no 5 everything was well back on track and the final E minor had some of the most powerful playing of the evening: the concluding Gigue has a finality akin to the B minor fugue at the end of Book One of the 48.

At uncertain times like these, foundational figures such as Bach and Shakespeare are a necessity: it’s a shame Dundee couldn’t muster a larger audience to appreciate this offering. Something needs to be done about publicizing events across the various venues in town. Fortunately, this event was a byproduct of a recording project which deserves to reach the ears of many more.

I look forward to hearing the pianist return to these pieces in the 2020s and even beyond.

Mortuos Plango (Jonathan Harvey) at “St Andrews Voices”

I was not familiar with Jonathan Harvey’s Mortuos Plango until I heard it online a couple of days ago. From the opening moments its debt to Stockhausen’s seminal Gesang der Junglinge was clear: however Harvey’s conception is strong enough to give his work (created 25 years after the Stockhausen) an identity of it’s own. Whereas the German piece uses “pure” electronic sounds and the voice of the youthful Simon Stockhausen, Harvey used the voice of his son Dominic and sounds derived from the 8 lower partials of the great tenor bell of Winchester Cathedral- a sound I must have heard often in my own youth…there is something familiar despite the processed nature of the sound- played through 8 speakers. The venue, the St Andrews Preservation Trust Museum was not ideal, despite being a very fine museum staffed by helpful volunteers. It is cramped to the extent that some speakers are only a couple of feet apart- surely far too close: it was not really possible to hear 8 distinct sources of sound- and too low – the audience is expected to sit hunched over a table. Stockhausen would have been livid. Also desirable would have been dimmed light, darkened windows and a curtain over the entrance to the room to diminish the numerous distractions, though even that would not have stopped the significant sound leakage from downstairs. Added to this the (most charming) ticking of grandfather clocks and the synpathetic vibrations  of wooden furniture at crucial moments in the music, not to mention the puzzled and awkward attitudes of tourists in the museum, it was not easy to concentrate on the music: a world away from the excellent performance of “Hymnen” in Edinburgh University 18 months ago. I am puzzled by this eccentric choice of venue in a town with numerous church buildings; indeed the capacious Holy Trinity Church even shares the dedication of Winchester Cathedral (itself the largest, or at least longest cathedral in Europe). The piece was also repeated every few minutes: I a formal programme opening with Gesang, followed by Mortuos and finishing with Stockhausen’s Oktophonie- all in a large venue- might have been the most fitting presentation, if perhaps rather too imaginative for Scotland.

That said, I have got to know this piece better; the two other IRCAM pieces by Harvey known to me were Le Tombeau de Messiaen and Wagner Dream. Mortuos Plango is certainly of comparable interest.

Afterwards, the upright piano at the bus station afforded me the opportunity to play Stockhausen’s LEO melody from “Tierkreis” before I hopped on the bus back to Dundee.

CoMA 2016: A Music World for Michael Finnissy

After the demise of Mars in Aquarius earlier in the year, I felt the need to find a new direction for ensemble playing and group improvisation, so when I saw the CoMA Summer School advertised I was immediately interested; the additional involvement of Michael Finnissy in his 70th anniversary year and the reconvening of Ixion whose performances I used to attend in the Purcell Room in the late 80s/early 90s made it look like the right path to follow. It was a busy week: in addition to the ensemble classes where I mostly played melodica, I took a couple of piano classes with Mary Dullea; a lot to take on and at times I had a degree of mental indigestion, perhaps exacerbated by the warm southern climate of Yorkshire- at least an afternoon off might have helped-but the experience has given me much to think about and certainly the change in perspective needed after the MiA episode. I’d be open to the idea of attending another CoMA event.

The evenings consisted of concerts by the tutors (I even made a brief appearance in a piano duet in the Ixion event!) and the final day comprised performances by the various classes of their week’s work, culminating in a Cagean “Music World” where various folk inspired musics celebrated Finnissy’s anniversary.

Lunchtime Concert at Dundee University : Anniversaries & Commemorations 7/10/2016

I’ve not maintained this blog this year, something I hope to correct soon: there are gaps to fill in. However, I’m starting with recent events: last Friday I played a short lunchtime recital at Dundee University on the Bosendorfer Piano which has moved to the new lunchtime venue, the Ustinov Room in the Bonar Hall which has a very different acoustic to the accustomed chaplaincy centre. My programme consisted of pieces by Kurtag, Judith Weir, Michael Finnissy, Cardew, Dutilleux, Satie and Peter Maxwell Davies. Cardew’s “Red Flag Prelude” from his Piano Album 1973 seemed to go down particularly well.

Concert Review: “Lewis Plays The Emperor”

RSNO/Macelaru     Caird Hall, Dundee 13/10/2016

This is only the second RSNO concert I’ve attended in some years: I grew tired of the apparent tendency of the Dundee events to look like a cynical warm up for the “more important” Central Belt events.

Paul Lewis’ Beethoven was however a genuine and substantial performance. He may not be as original as the likes of John Ogdon, but Lewis is a worthy pupil of Brendel and delivered the goods in a situation where leadership was needed. The situation being the aftermath of the Scottish Premiere of Jorg Widmann’s “Con Brio”, a title which conjures images of smalltown choirs comprised of ladies who lunch- not that the amateur scene is necessarily lacking in seriousness, a quality not much in evidence in Herr Widmann’s piece. No doubt the orchestra struggled to make sense of this work -which started off sounding like a Proms Commission (no offense intended)  and ended up like eviscerated Ives- and the conductor’s cringeing spoken introduction didn’t help, but programming this piece was gormless even by Scottish standards. In this year of numerous musical anniversaries and deaths, something by 90 year old Kurtag or the late Sir Peter Maxwell Davies would have been more fitting than this 2008 period piece which failed to answer the question: what is the point of German composers after Stockhausen?

It was in the second half that the orchestra showed that it could still make something reminiscent of the sounds of the better days of the 80s/90s. Dvorak’s 7th Symphony shares the D minor tonality of Shostakovich’s 12th which I twice heard here conducted by Lazarev. Both works deal with a nation in political adversity: relevant stuff. Indeed, leaving the hall, this music from the healthy, natural 19th century continued to resonate with Dundee’s considerable inheritance of Victorian architecture.