Pierre Boulez Saal opening concert : Schubert Der Hirt auf dem Felsen

The Opening Concert  of the Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin's new hall for chamber recitals.  Daniel Barenboim  did the honours in the Mozart Piano Quartet KV 493, with his son, Michael, the violinist, beside him.  No way would a concert as significant as this have been  complete without a star like Barenboim.  The invisible star, nonetheless was Pierre Boulez, for whom the hall is named. Fittingly, the concert began and ended with Boulez: Initiale initiating proceedings, with Sur Incises as the grand highlight. Both pieces also demonstrated the acoustic and flexibility of this new hall.  It's more than a recital hall, since it can be adapted for larger ensembles and even, potentially, for chamber opera.  Seating seems generous, so backstage facilities might also be of the same high standard.  Coffin-shaped concert halls are dead.  London, wake up!

Barenboim will also be remembered for posterity because he nurtures young musicians, just as he himself was nurtured when he was a child prodigy. It was good to hear Karim Said, whom Barenboim has mentored since childhood. Please see my article Why we need  to know who Karim Said Is from 2008. Said has matured nicely. He was the soloist in Alban Berg's Kammerkonzert for piano, violin and thirteen winds, with Barenboim as conductor. Later, Said was the lead pianist in Sur Incises.  Jörg Widmann appeared, both as clarinettist and as composer, performing his own Fantasie. The whole concert can be heard on repeat here, a good idea since you can fast forward past the inordinately long breaks between pieces.   You can see who's in the audience, too - Simon Rattle. 

Being a Lieder person,  I was keen to hear Schubert Der Hirt auf dem Felsen D 965 with  Barenboim, Widmann  and the incomparable Anna Prohaska.  Pauline Anna Milder-Hauptmann, the celebrity coloratura of her day, wanted a showpiece that would test her range and artistry. Der Hirt auf dem Felsen is a challenge, even for the finest performers.  The piano part is dense, "rock-like" in its complexity, and the clarinet part equally daunting. But the soprano is the star. The piece runs for twelve minutes, connecting three different poems (Wilhelm Müller and Karl August Vernhagen).  Schubert's setting replicates the imagery in the first poem,  Müller's Der Berghirt, whiuch describes a young shepherd, sitting high on a rock on a mountain, looking down on the valley below, where his beloved lives, far away. Thus the extremes of height and depth,the soprano's voice soaring upwards, while the clarinet's lower register floats seductively around her, sometimes in duet.

In the early part of the 19th century, there was a craze for "Alpine" music connecting the Romantic concepts of Nature, purity and freedom with picturesque mountain scenery and peasant simplicity.   Weber's Der Freischütz premiered in 1821 and Rossini's William Tell in 1829, the year after Schubert wrote this remarkable song. Tragically, it was his last completed work., but it might indicate how Schubert might have progressed had he survived.  Later in the century,"Alpine opera", such as La Wally came into vogue.   Strauss and Mahler wrote music in which mountains appear, figuratively. Indeed,  the whole genre of Bergfilm is an adaptation of the style. Lots on this site about mountains in music and Bergfilme.

Although the soprano in Der Hirt auf dem Felsen certainly does not yodel, the idea of a song designed to carry over long distances applies, and requires good breath control (as do pan pipes and Alpenhorn), Milder-Hauptmann and Schubert no doubt realized the piece would be a tour de force.   Prohaska was wonderful, singing with mellifluous grace.  Her words rang clear and true.

"Je weiter meine Stimme dringt,
Je heller sie mir wieder klingt
Von unten".  

In the last section, Prohaska's voice trilled deliciousl, .duetting with Widmann's clarinet. Tricky phrasing, but joyously agile, like a mountain spirit. 

"Der Frühling will kommen,
Der Frühling, meine Freud',
Nun mach' ich mich fertig
Zum Wandern bereit"

It might seem trivial, but I loved the outfit Prohaska wore: cropped trousers, knee-high boots and a long jacket.  Very elegant, yet also reminiscent of a 19th century traveller, a poet or a wanderer.

Les Indes galantes Munich - dance and intelligence

Rameau's Les Indes galantes is shockingly audacious, defying boundaries of time and place with exuberant high spirits.  William Christie's staging with Les Arts Florissants (Andrei Serban 2004) is so stunning that all other contenders are dazzled by its glory.  But Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's production at the Prinzregententheater Munich, via the Bayerisches Staatsoper and BR Klassik, rose to the challenge, staging it with a different perspective, while also remaining true to the adventurous spirit.  If anything, this new approach confirms Rameau as visionary.  First, be prepared for a surprise.

What are Hébé, L'Amour and Bellone doing in a schoolroom?  But in a classroom, kids learn about the world. And Les Indes galantes is about the world, and universal themes of life and love. Hébé  (Lisette Oropesa) is the "nice" teacher confronted by an apparition in drag. Will Hébé's charges be confused by Bellone, his trumpets and rousing cries of "La Gloire vous appelle" ?  Goran Jurić in travesti isn't exaggerated, though hardly comforting, for he represents opposing systems.  This Prologue, (dramaturges Antonio Cuenca and Miron Hakenbeck)  reaches much deeper than the nudity in the Laura Scozzi production for Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques in 2014, since it deals with the tensions that underlie the plot, or rather non-plot, reminding us that Les Indes galantes is allegory: entertainment to engage the mind as well as the senses.  Rameau's audiences, versed in the classics, weren't stupid.  In idealized allegory, conflicts are resolved by L'Amour (Ana Quintans).

Brilliantly, the idea is followed through in each of the four Entrées and in the ending, unifying the whole, bringing out connections. The world, after all, is "one", whether you're French, Spanish, Greek, Inca, Turk or Native American.  For example Osman  (Tareq Nasmi) appears in a long tunic over trousers. Not non-European attire, but in these xenophobic times, "alien" outfits suggest danger, even more so, perhaps than they did in Rameau's time. Bellone cross-dresses, parodying the usual trouser-role meme, and pretty much the whole Entrée of 'Les Fleurs' predicates on mistaken identity.  The message is clear: don't judge by superficial appearances.

Dance is absolutely integral to Rameau, so this new production is valuable, too, in its emphasis on movement as abstract expression.  In 'Le turc généreux'  singers and dancers move in and out of structures which resemble display cases.  Slave traders? People treating each other as objects of consumption ? Image or reality? The lustful Turk turns out to be the good guy after all, uniting Émilie (Elsa Benoit) and Valère  (Cyril Auvity) so they can go home, where they belong. Despite their differences, Osman and Valère are mates. "Au plus parfait bonheur il a droit de prétendre, Si la vertu peut rendre heureux"
    

In 'Les incas du Pérou', Anna Prohaska is magnificent as Phani, singing with smouldering intensity, conveying with her voice the conflicts  she must feel betraying her heritage for love. So Huascar (François Lis)  is a Catholic Priest and not an Inca High Priest? Again, it's not robes that make a man malevolent.  We don't need Inca kitsch to remind us that priests of all types are fond of invoking divine retribution on those who question.  And symbols like the sun and blood sacrifice occur in many religions.  Think on that when blaming the Alien Other.  Husacar thinks he has an exclusive hotline to God. "Triomphe soliel" was delivered with suitable fire and brimstone. The volcano explodes but even more explosive was the interpretation. This 'Les incas du Pérou' drew its power from the potent, provocative ideas inherent to the plot.  Rameau might not have dared question the Church publicly, but a whiff of revolt rumbled in the background. exploding in the Revolution which came only 50 years after the opera's premiere.

Dance also brought out the deeper levels of 'Les Fleurs', without resorting to prurience or bad taste. The "Flowers" here are the secluded women oif the harem, waiting to be plucked.  Thus the stylized hand and foot gestures, nodding heads and swaying gestures, Middle Eastern dance sublimated.  Tacmas (Cyril Auvity ) loves Zaïre (Ana Quintans) the slave of Ali (Tareq Nasmi ) who is loved by Fatime (Anna Prohaska).  There would have been practical reasons for Rameau to employ the same small group of principals, but interplay of familiar voices also contributes to the sense of disguised identity. The correlation between singing and dancing was particularly lively.   Flowers are fertilized by butterflies, which shift-shape, and whose fragile beauty soon fades. The beautiful "Papillon" aria was exquisite, made even more so when followed by the image, shot from above the stage, where the dancers move in formation, swaying awkwardly like the segments of a caterpillar.  The sub-themes of renewal which connect the apparently disparate parts of  Les Indes galantes are subtly depicted by minor details of cleansing and replenishment which come to blossom fully in 'Les Fleurs'.  Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's choreography is so vivid that it evolves into directoral thinking, much more effectively than some theatrical directing translates into opera.

Perhaps symmetry comes naturally to a dancer, but the staging of the Final Entrée, Les sauvages connected beginning to end with poise and elegance,  We returned to the "classroom", which isn't at all a bad metaphor for the innocence of childhood, and the idealized simplicity of "natives" living in harmony with Nature.  The wonderful "Forêts paisibles".  Ivor Bolton doesn't conduct with the vivacious finesse of William Christie or even with the flair of Christophe Rousset, but his Handelian solidity works well with the down to earth physicality of Cherkaoui's choreography.  The excellent singing and dancing more than compensate. Cherkaoui's interpretation gets to the soul of Les Indes galantes with great intelligence and sensitivity.  We need more of this, especially in these times.

Kerstmatinee 2014 - Mahler, Jansons, Concertgebouw LINK

Live in the Netherlands on Christmas Day - now available on demand, online for a limited period on NP (Netherlands Public Broadcasting) - Mahler Symphony no 4, Mariss Jansons conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Anna Prohaska (perhaps the most ideal soloist for this piece at the moment).  FOLLOW THIS LINK. Kerstmatinees were a grand Dutch tradition for many, many years so it's wonderful to have them revived. Collections of them were issued on recordings, and became collectors' items. This performance is so sparkling and vivid - enjoy !