Lachenmann Mahler Arditti Nott Bamberg Prom 5

Lachenmann and Mahler at BBC Prom 5, with The Arditti Quartet,and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jaonathan Nott.

"A musical negativa", Hans Werner Henze called Helmut Lachenmann. Henze, though not a Darmstadt devotee or theory hardliner, was innovative in his own way, so his views carry weight. In any case, Lachenmann thrived in the attention Henze generated, rather like Birtwistle thrived on the "Bad Boy" image created by the unsubstantiated story about Britten walking out of Birtwistle. Britten could read scores, and wouldn't have invited Birtwistle to Aldeburgh in the first place if he hadn't thought him worthwhile. You don't have to "like" music to appreciate its worth.

Lachenmann's Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied (1980) was an excellent choice for BBC Prom 5, whose audiences range from new music devotees to generalists who just go the Proms for a rousing night out. Even audiences with no idea who Lachenmann is will recognize the snatches of Bach, Handel, Haydn and the wacky waltzes and jazz riffs. These serve as landmarks, giving direction to a long work. Indeed, I think they're one of Lachenmann's jokes, since there is a lot more to the piece than a merry dance through German music history.

The Arditti Quartet can play even the most difficult works,with myriad virtuoso techniques. Modern music just wouldn't be possible without them. They made possible the modern revival of string quartet repertoire. I remember Irvine Arditti demonstrating the difference bretween pppp and pppppp.

One of the criticisms of Lachenmann is that he has a thing for gymnastic technical displays , sometimes for their own sake, which is why I've always preferred his more condensed chamber music to his larger scale works. Hearing Xenakis's  Pithoprakta, (1955-6) together with Lachernmann's Schreiben (2003) didn't do Lachenmann any favours. Tanzsuite for Deutschandlied works beautifully for me because at its core is a string quartet, the orchestra adding commentary and special effects, like the imaginative piano passages, magnificent percussion rolls, and sudden interjections from the brass.The long, barely audible introduction, the silences, the flurries of different pizzicato and percussive techniques  sudden swoons across the keyboard, a single chord on piano : immensely satisfying as a meditative zen sort of experience.

The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra is very good and enjoys a considerable reputation. The town is gorgeous though small, but the musicians are well served by the local community and university. The orchestra was playing Mahler in the 1960's under Joseph Keilberth. About ten years ago, Jonathan Nott recorded a series of Mahler symphonies with them where each symphony was paired with a modern work, including Henze. I liked Nott's Mahler 5 at the time, but less so on repeat hearings. This Proms performance was good enough and the Bambergers are always worth hearing.  Today I listened to the pre concert talk. Is that the level the BBC expect from their audiences? .

Eclectic Aldeburgh Music Festival 2012

The British don't appreciate Aldeburgh. Indeed, many don't appreciate Benjamin Britten's unique place in British music history. Just as the town faces the North Sea, Britten's horizons were European. The Aldeburgh Festival brought Shostakovich to the west, and the Hesse connection brought German interest. To truly understand Britten's artistic nature, appreciate Aldeburgh for what it is. Britten's vision was English, but eclectic, not insular.

What a pity he missed meeting Béla Bartók, who came to Aldeburgh in 1923, in a concert organized by a teacher in a girls' school. In those days, it wasn't unusual for artists to circulate outside big cities. When I was transcribing Elizabeth Schumann's papers she was organizing pianists and concerts in tiny, out of the way places in England to supplement on her visits to England.  Béla Bartók's visit to Aldeburgh is explored in a talk on 22/6. His music features throughout the festival including three important recitals by the Keller Quartet, who specialize in modern Hungarian composers, and an unmissable recital with Dezső Ránki on 15/6. He's playing late Liszt, Bartók, Hadyn and a premiere by Barnabas Dukay.

Three recitals by Miklós Perényi, a recital and a masterclass with Menachem Pressler, two concerts by Peter Serkin, one with Gabriela Montero and Alfred Brendel, talking about Liszt and illustrating with piano. And of course Pierre-Laurent Aimard himself, on his own and with Matthias Goerne. The Arditti Quartet and Helmut Lachermann, whose music also comes under the spotlight. Lachenmann will be there himself and Ensemble Modern, the great European ensemble who rarely grace our shores. Seriously important figures, attracted to a small seaside town by Aimard and Aldeburgh's reputation.

Oliver Knussen's Aldeburgh connections are impeccable, too. He's a former director of the Festival and still a major presence, and lives up the road! Knussen's Where the Wild Things Are and Higgelty Piggelty Pop! will be this year's opera offerings. They were inspired by the tales of Maurice Sendak, so reflect Knussen's quirky imagination. He read the stories to his daughter, "the Muse of Higgelty Pigglety Pop!". The operas are coming to the Barbican later in the year, semi straged by Netia Jones. Excellent cast, including Claire Booth, Susan Bickley, Rebecca Bottone and others. These are more than "children's operas" (a concept Britten would have loved)  and will remind us how important Knussen has been for music in this country.

Knussen's British but spent his formative years in the US. So it's significant that he's included in his keynote concert Charles Ives' Washington's Birthday as well as a new work of his own.  A rare chance to hear Charles Ives' uncompleted Universe Symphony on 24/6. This is its European premiere, and will be conducted by James Sinclair, Ives scholar, "using every corner of Snape Maltings its airy acoustics and unique idyllic natural surrounds as a single vast performance space".  Interesting to compare the ideas with John Cage Musicircus, the day before, this time with Exaudi.  Every Cage musicircus is different - there's one on March 3 at the ENO, by Cage's intimates.

Perhaps the last thing Britten wanted was to turn Aldeburgh into a theme park for his music, attracting day trippers and English Defence Leaguers after "The Britten/Britain Experience". He'd be rolling in his grave to think of himself and the ethos he loved rebranded in that way. Instead, Aldeburgh honours Britten by reecognizing what he really stood for, which is artitsic integrity and creative growth. Aldeburgh is a Festival for and by musicians.

Real Britten fans know his music well enough to cope with things like Before Life and After, Netia Jones's dramatizations of Britten, Finzi and Tippett with James Gilchrist as soloist. When this was on at Kings Place in 2010, it was excellent, and should be even better at Aldeburgh.  Britten's music doesn't need to overwhelm the Festival, for his ideas pervade the whole Festival, encompassing music, walks, community events, visual arts, early and modern music, film and achitecture. Booking starts this week. Complete brochure here.
Please look at the many things I've written about Aldeburgh in past years, and about the various composers featured. Also tips on food and shopping!

photo: William M Connolley

Helmut Lachenmann Weekend South Bank

The Royal Festival  Hall well filled for Helmut Lachenmann? Maybe it was because most seats went on sale for £10 but so what? It brought in an audience, and by the end, many of them were standing in applause. Perhaps most of them were Indie fans, as my friend observed, but why not? They're more receptive to new ideas, and in many ways, Lachenmann's easier to appreciate without a classical grounding. Ironically, he may bring people into classical through a completely unorthodox route.

It helps, too, that Lachenmann has a fearsome reputation for being "difficult". He enjoys being perceived as "irritating", which adds to his attractions among a certain kind of devotee. Famously he clashed with Hens Werner Henze, who has an undeserved  chip on the shoulder about Stockhausen and Luigi Nono. But Lachenmann's music, inventive as it is, isn't nearly as shocking as it might seem.

I loved the Arditti Quartet's  String Quartets 1 and 3 (Gran Torso and Grido) on Saturday at the chamber music part of the South Bank's Lachenmann Weekend. (Link to review HERE)  Interesting to compare them with the larger orchestral works, Schreiben and Ausklang (1985) on Sunday.

Ausklang (1985) came last as it's a more conventionally impressive piece, a showstopper. Solo piano (Rolf Hind) and orchestra (the London Sinfonietta doubled in size) relate to each other, but it's more tentative probing than theme and development. Midway, Hind drops chords but the orchestra doesn't react, even after several repeats. Then he varies the notes til they're drawn in and all spin off in completely different directions.

It feels like being in a strange jungle, where you think you're lost and alone. A more complicated version of Abrahamsen's Wald, maybe. Yet sounds all round indicate that there are worlds you don't even know about. Hints of things you might connect to things you might recognize, like the long chord that Hind pulls from one end of the keyboard to another in one swoop. Flashy pianists strive for that effect, yet here it's part of the whole. It must look amazing on the score. There's also a "ghost" piano (John Constable) hidden behind the orchestra, to tantalize. My problem was that I kept listening for direction and structure, but perhaps the key to this is not to even try, but take it as it is.

Schreiben, from 2003, is sparser and more abstract, though the orchestra was even larger. Huge range of percussion producing barely audible brushing sounds, like wind perhaps, or sand. Among these sounds is a Japanese shō. (There's quite a lot on ths site about the shō and other unusual instruments). Interesting to me was the way the sounds operated horizontally, in layers, high violins shading to low basses and back: a sense of shifting depths and shadows. Perhaps more dominant were the multiple individual noises in the orchestra. Two pianos. though neither used concertante, more for multi spatial effect. Perhaps Lachenmann is reducing the orchestra to a swarm of individual sounds, constantly whirring in orbits unconnected with each other. A swarm of insects, a cloud of bees.....

On the other hand Xenakis has had much the same concept, and his Pithoprakta, (1955-6), a true masterpiece of sonic invention and energy. Read more about it here.  On a more cheerful level, Kalevi Aho's Symphony No 7 "The Insects". (1988) is much underrated. The stange unearthly brushings brought to mind Elliott Carter and György Ligeti, even Toru Takemitsu. Those indie fans at the concert have lots more to discover. New music isn't frightening.

Helmut Lachenmann Chamber Music South Bank

One of the South Bank's glories is its committment to new music. This Helmut Lachenmann weekend perhaps mattered even more than other such retrospectives.  Here we had the composer himself, playing Ein  Kinderspiel - something never to be forgotten.

Lachenmann's music operates on different levels. On audio recording you hear it in pure abstraction, so you connect to his ideas of inventing new ways of assimilating sound.  In live performance, you see how these sounds are made. It enriches the experience tremendously. Now, listening to the audio you're freed from thinking "how" so you can assimilate the sounds on a deeper level. As Lachenmann told Ivan Hewett, music is the "friction between structure and listener", which I think means sounds become music when the listener is mentally engaged.

Lachenmann's music most certainly isn't attention deficit. Indeed, the audience's concentration during the minimalist String Quartet no 1 (Gran Torso) was so intense it was almost palpable. Just as well. The tiniest sound counted, single notes, less than chords, so delicate that they would be missed if you weren't alert to their presence.  "Opening your ears in another way", said Lachenmann. The object is to consider what music "is" by thinking about what sound does. Many of the techniques the Arditti String Quartet uses probably don't have formal terminology. A violin makes a different sound when tapped at different points on its inner curve. Different individual violins make different sounds. Individual strings are caressed, or brushed and even bowed. The wood itself "sings". Lachenmann opens up new possibilties, new ways of hearing instruments we think we know.

In String Quartet No 2 Grido, Lachenmann is using sounds sculpturally. Shapes defined aurally, constant moving, sounds creating structures out of silence. A wonderfiul "plane" of sound, turning and moving. I thought of Xenakis's drawings for the Philips Pavilion, where physical structure re-defines space. The art is in the concept. Whatever the image doesn't matter as long as the listener responds.  Spirals of sound that move and vibrate. Repetitions that develop almost into fragments of melody, suddenly cut off with a single chord.

Then Lachenmann plays Ein Kinderspiel. Extreme simplicity. "My 7 year old daughter can play the basic theme" he says. Going back to basics, exploring the idea of making sounds, as if discovering a piano for the first time. Simple repetitive acts, one key pressed, one pedal used to create mysterious hum. Again, new possibilties - beating the wood, relating keys to the core of the box, rethinking completely afresh. And it is music, playful and adventurous while making a profound point. The sense of wonder, the naturalness that Lachenmann creates is magical.  Just as Kurtag's Játékok was written to show how much fun music-making can be, so should Kinderspiel be an exercise, not just for the young but for any musician who's become jaded and needs to reconnect to that spirit of creativity. .

Oliver Coates played Pression, for solo cello. Simplicity again, but very deceptive. Extreme precision needed, for pitch and duration keep redefining themselves. Made me marvel at the discipline of the Arditti Quartet, each a soloist but perfectly attuned to each other. As in life, purity in music is harder to achieve than it seems on the surface. Yet from this simplicity. Lachenmann achieves fascinating timbres and vibrancy. Pression is so interesting that by comparison, Toccatina for solo violin is less challenging, even when played by Clio Gould, long term star of the London Sinfonietta, and more besides.

Rethinking what Lachenmann calls "the anatomy of sound" works with abstract music, because music isn't confined to western cultural tradition.  Once I heard two pygmy girls in Africa improvising a wordless tune, incredibly beautiful and pure. Text doesn't need to have meaning but voice anchors sound in a complex way.  Using voice as an instrument does work, it's nothing new. But Lachenmann's Got Lost didn't work for me because the use of voice wasn't skilful.

No discredit to Sarah Leonard whose voice went through a gymnastic work-out. It's probably that Lachenmann isn't naturally a voice person. Voice uses the mouth, but its sound comes from deeper within.  You can't dissect a singer's lungs the way you can dissect a piano. Popping cheeks, blowing noises, growls etc. rather than the use of vocal chords and vibration.  Oddly enough, this isn't so far from the use of voice solely as coloratura display. Which says something about meaning in song. It's amusing as a game (see Cousin Emmy who does the same thing on a more basic level) but Got Lost doesn't do much for voice. The piano part, played by Rolf Hind,  is much more inventive.

|Please see this link to a wonderful article on Lachenmann's String Quartets.
A friend's sent me this link to Rolf Hind, writing about Lachenmann..

Taxpayer funding private gain ?

Tonight I and good friend Boulezian were at Helmut Lachenmann's chamber music at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank, along with dozens of musicians, composers etc. Almost full house, tumultous applause, standing ovation from normally non-demonstrative Julian Anderson.  Part of tomorrrow's London Sinfonietta programme will be broadcast next Saturday.

Scary thing though - The South Bank seems to have made Norman Lebrecht House Presenter. He's interviewing Lachenmann. This is all very well, but the publicity material isn't directed at the subject being interviewed but at promoting Lebrecht and his latest book. Why? Perhaps Lachenmann has something to say about Mahler but the deliberate, explicit link to Lebrecht and his ventures stinks.The South Bank is public funded, which in theory means impartiality. Why is it a vehicle for Lebrecht's personal advertising? Has he paid them or is taxpayer money being used to promote him? Is the South Bank about artistic validity or has it sold out? If the BBC started running ads for as private person, there'd be an outcry. But maybe the crass commercialism of Mahler year has changed ethics. 

While we were out, we missed Michael Jarrell on BBC Radio 3. But it's on repeat for 7 more days. Same too, another chance to hear Steffani's Niobe Regina de Tebe from ROH. This time I'll listen for the beauty of the singing - Véronique Gens was divine, as was Iestyn Davies and Jacek Laszczkowski, celebrated male soprano. Read Sue Loder for an analysis of why the music worked and me for why the staging was so dramatic. Baroque is a gamble at the box office poison so it showed artistic integrity.  One of my best this year.  It's the production from Schwetzingen where they know how to appreciate period music. Hopefully it was filmed though it really needed to be experienced live.