Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2013

Happy Holidays!

Opinion

This guest post is an essay by my husband, Marc Villéger on Michael Morreale's CBC Music post entitled "Lang Lang on why the world still needs classical music"

“Why the world STILL needs classical music?”

Under this simple question, and in view of the resounding silence that greeted the news of Galina Vishnevskaya’s passing in most Anglophone Canadian media, an entire conception of “classical music” is at stake.

Let me first answer the obvious quickly: if under classical music one understands the supremely refined expression of the human soul through an ever evolving, complex language which evolution witnessed the rise of the occidental civilization, then, only when humans disappear will the need of it vanish. Just as for any art form, anywhere. So the answer is yes, of course, just as we need air in our lungs, next?

However, this question cannot be taken out of its context that is, the cheesy interview of a superstar, on a network that, not unlike the protagonists, has proven privileging form over substance. In fact “classical music” these days is unduly stretched between two seemingly mutually exclusive definitions by the servants of officialdom: an expansive one and a fossilized one, the later enabling the former through a supposed legitimate need for democratization. 

Indeed, what is it these days that classical music should become such a wide umbrella to accommodate everything and anything remotely connected, such as lush violins scoring, or vague symphonic paraphrasing? You’d never hear Schnittke’s Requiem claiming to be Rock & Roll because it incorporates an electric guitar in its orchestration! But infuse any pleasing melodic line in the middle of some Hollywood flick and legions will gleefully rush into labeling it “classical”, giving the tune an aura of respectability.

Yet suggesting the broadcast of Shostakovich or Britten, a 50 year old art music to a wide audience as an illustration of the importance and the relevance of Vishnevskaya’s life in our post World War 2 culture is suddenly met with veiled accusations of elitism, the usual sin, star system enforcers accuse the cognoscenti of, in order to mask their own self serving cliquey behavior.     

Is this a coincidence, that the over-engaging host’s program is introduced as “… Canada's classical companion that shares beautiful music and engaging stories that inspire, inform and uplift. It takes listeners into the heart of the classical music repertoire”?

Beautiful, heart of the classical repertoire are sweet euphemisms for the virtual obfuscation of the post 1950 repertoire, only to be replaced by a crossover between New Age greenery and ad hoc social engineering, surfing on the social media superficiality, untouchable ideological icons. “Easy listening” curiously rules in our complex world, a difficult and unpredictable world, which was anticipated by many second half of 20^th century classical composers, who often paid a personal price for speaking the truth.

Enabling the “Big Easy”, is the fossilization of the genre (nothing posterior to 1950, the big Bs etc…) encouraged by media and presenters, frightened to lose their grey hair public and eager to attract young blood, often stereotyped as indiscriminate. Fossilization went hand in hand with the “ghettoization” of classical music, which is the fragmentation of its performing delivery along period lines, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern eras. This way, any hint of evolution is forever lost to audiences as if the medium had already died, back then, as if “Rite of Spring” or Rachmaninov’s piano concerti sounded its obituary.

Meanwhile, in a seemingly paradoxical twist, but in fact, a supremely pedantic move destined to show the masses that they are the arbiter of musical taste, the musicological and broadcasting elite has been praising unreservedly the fringe of experimental avant-garde music of the past 50 years, designated as THE sole exponent of contemporary classical music.  As if our demagogues needed an exception to confirm their rule, as if they needed to chose musical creation’s most intellectualist attempts to uproot any chance by a large audience to connect with today’s classical music while forging an artificial respect not dissimilar to that of speaking Latin during Mass among the non enlightened plebe.

But even this dismemberment is not enough or is it that the strategy is finally bearing fruits, boring even its staunchest supporters? Not satisfied with eliminating among others, Schnittke (whose symphonies have reflected on the history of western classical music), Dutilleux, Gubaidulina, Ligeti, Vasks, Silvestrov, the sensitive Nicolas Bacri or Bruno Mantovani, whose orchestral magic is worthy of a 21st century Ravel, it is now time to purge the classical moribund. So instead of focusing on meaning and relevance, and feature this banished repertoire played by specially perceptive artists, interpreters –not necessarily the superstars-, the business and its cheerleaders clung to their old turf. While the clique figured that branding anything commercially successful “classical” should resuscitate the patient in one hand, on the other, they also brought “critical” questions to the forefront in a bid to analyze the illness they inoculated him with. Hence all these made up controversies about the attire of musicians, of the public, the need for wide screens, the clapping or not issue. Anything but fundamentals! Reality is the enemy.

Finally now, after this musical journey, we can better appreciate the insidious modulation introduced by the word “still” in the formulation of the question. “Why the world still needs classical music?” asks the journalist. “Still” suggests not the air we breathe, the Art that feeds and reflects the human soul…  No! “Still” frames the question in an unambiguous way: do we still require Art or do we simply accept its entertaining caricature that makes the mob happier, the radio soprano smoother and the superstar richer? The art of substitution! The question reveals in fact a disguised ultimatum: accept our definition of “classical music”, this dismantled, chopped off remnant of western civilization in its new easy uniform or face relegation to the fringe, behind a renewed wall of radio silence, and stage oblivion.

Although, our opinion appears to be sought, they look forward to a plebiscite in favor of their crime.

So does the world still need classical music?

My answer is no.

Dr. Marc Villéger

Illustration: Portrait of Alfred Schnittke, by Marc Villéger (1999)

P.S. June 04, 2013: French composer Henri Dutilleux passed away on Wednesday May 22, 2013. CBC Radio 2 Katherine Duncan quickly put out a blog post on May 23, linking to the New York Times obituary and some YouTube interview involving New York Philharmonic's music director Alan Gilbert.

Yet according to CBC broadcast logs, almost two weeks after the news, neither her program "In Tune" nor the two main classical programs "Tempo" and "In Concert" could manage to find the time to play ANY piece by Dutilleux on the Radio 2 waves! Nothing, despite even having DG release a premiere recording of Dutilleux's 2003 "Correspondances" featuring a Canadian Soprano, Barbara Hannigan.

QED.

P.S. 2 16 April 2019: As I predicted, Canadian audiences who had been starved of late 20th century music both in the concert hall and on the radio were going to be peddled at one point in time "new" but most importantly, for the promoters, Canadian compositions while praising the creativity of the new works...

It seems this time has come. Take this  "Baroque melting" (2017) by no less than Juno award-winning Edmonton born Vivian Fung...

Fortunately for some of us, Maestro Mario Bernardi when he served as Music Director of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra did introduce Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No.3 (1985) to his audience in the early 90s. 

Now I am asking: who will know in today's audience the uncanny kinship between the 2017 composition and the 1985 one? Especially, since the Canadian composer did not care to reference Schnittke's polystylistic major body of works in general and that concerto grosso in particular...

Are we to now expect that plundering Schnittke's music will provide many other Canadian premieres? How can we then trust a composer, his or her unique voice? Can we hope the across the board policies of musico-cide will be reversed anytime soon? When will a full history of late 20th century classical music be finally getting exposure and shared by our public broadcaster and our symphony orchestras so lineage of works and ideas is understood?

Reunited

Galina Vichnevskaya (1926-2012)
in homage

Thank you Bob

Russian composer & pianist Anton Rubinstein (1828-1894) once said that "pedal is the soul of the piano"...

Piano technician extraordinaire Bob Bjerke at work

and the result

Thank you Bob

No more excuse for sloppy Bach playing!

Indeed, no more excuse for not knowing basic rules of articulation in Bach's clavier music, a knowledge that allows ALL to decipher Bach's urtexts and play his music in style!

S. Gordeevtseva's essay:  "Touching a Mystery, A New reading of Clavier Works by J.S. Bach Pedagogical Application to Children's Music School Repertoire", is now available as free PDF downloads in English and in Russian, as well as selected scores!

Thank you, Bowen!

On the day Sir Paul and the "Boss" were performing in Vancouver, and UK pianist Stephen Hough was being re-discovered at the Chan Center, the Bowen Island Arts Council took a big risk for its season opener!

Fortunately, more seats were added and the recital enjoyed full house. Thanks to Mariana Holbrook's hospitality, we received a warm island welcome and gauging from the audience reaction, it was returned through the music making.

Since the program was about Russian music, I have chosen two rarely heard pieces as video highlights: Schnittke "Five Aphorisms" and an Encore by Mikael Tariverdiev "Two in a Café" from the classic Russian film "Seventeen Moments of Spring".

The recital was advertised in the local press, here in Bowen Island and far away in Omsk, Siberia! A world wide coverage!

One year anniversary

On November 22 we'll celebrate the pluralism of CBC Radio 2 and its flagship classical program "Tempo".
A year ago, after 3 years of radio silence, and after an official complaint to CBC executive Mark Steinmetz, its producer played an extract of my first CD. They chose "Gnomus" from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Since then, nothing.
As we guessed when the New 2 was introduced, independent classical musicians in Canada are the first casualty of the classical music schedule shrinkage and between gate keeping and friendlies peddling, the rest of us will not be heard on the very radio our taxes sustain.
2 minutes 54 seconds of air time in 4 years and 3 CDs later! Ah, isn't that wonderful to feel the support of the public broadcaster to develop your career?
Thank you CBC Radio 2!

The Horowitz Steinway is back!

Today I got reacquainted with an old friend who was visiting Vancouver, courtesy of Tom Lee Music: number 314503 or simply 503, a.k.a. the Horowitz Steinway.
In 2005, I enjoyed the ease, fluidity, singing tone and power of this instrument and it was a pleasure to spend another hour with it as I am preparing the Bowen recital less than a week away.
I also have been working on Bach's D Minor Concerto BWV 1052 for an upcoming concert next year, so it was interesting to test the "work in progress" on this Steinway.
So for fun, here is a short video of the encounter.



P.S.: This year though, the touch felt different, not as effortless. I blamed my memory at first but then I just learned that someone tampered with the action and altered the instrument before it reached Vancouver. This is truly unfortunate and hopefully, Steinway's top technician will be able to bring it back to its former glory. 

Naxos, Laxos...

Recently interviewed by CBC Paolo Pietropaolo, host of the program In Concert on Radio 2, the founder of Naxos Records, Klaus Heymann was quizzed about the future of classical music.

What we have to do now is get those young people into concerts and into opera houses — and orchestras have to do more to make concerts attractive to young people. Why do the musicians have to wear tuxedos and all this formal attire? Why can’t they play for young people in jeans and T-shirts? If I just want to listen passively to music, I can do it at home. I can watch the Berlin Philharmonic digital concert hall in high definition surround sound in my home. Why go to a concert hall unless something is happening there?

As if what happened in a concert hall depended on the musicians' attire... Has the live experience of classical music become so dull and predictable, that the only way to save it depends on garments? What else? The brand of snacks sold at intermission?

There are the boards, which very often consist of elderly people who want the traditional overtures, concertos and symphonies with no clapping between movements and no clapping during the music. There are the musician unions who don’t want any change, and don’t want to go outside the concert hall to teach underprivileged children in schools. And then there are the reformers, who realize things have to change if orchestras are to survive.

No clapping DURING the music is a problem now? Really, is making noise during the performance considered LISTENING "actively" as opposed to "passively" when quiet? This line of advocacy must consider the act of listening in itself, without external demonstration, as an equivalent to sleeping to imagine that noises improve listening! Why not then record the music and the noises while at it, like audience laughter's in sitcoms, and see who'll buy that Naxos Beethoven comedy sonatas?

As for going to schools, my husband recalls vividly his experience in 1968, in France, in the public school of a communist run Paris suburb, when an orchestra visited the school and played an educational program about... Richard Wagner! It was fantastic so Heymann's reformers have not invented anything.

What's dying is a certain idea of the classical music business and it is those who drove it to the ground who are now trying to find scapegoats in order to mask their own lack of creativity in programming (where are Schnittke's symphonies?), their marketed flashy outfits, suggestive curves and name peddling, and forget about the only thing that will bring people to tears: content.

Immortality...

As the Horowitz Steinway is about to visit Vancouver again, I wonder if this very official certificate would help my fortunes at getting my CDs played on CBC Radio 2?

P.S.: Nope... Tempo has again programmed Gould's Bach French Suite No.5 today Nov. 2, 2012... ;-)

P.S.2: Nope... Tempo played again the Wang/Abbado not so "live" Rachmaninov No. 2 on Nov. 15, 2012... ;-)

Pavel Kolesnikov 2012 Honens Prize Laureate

Congratulations Pavel! More performances from the Novosibirsk native on his YouTube channel here.

Bach & Rainbows

While the recital world appeared stuck with colors to find meaning in the Well Tempered Clavier, we should be reminded research exists that has explored "the symbolism of motives (characteristic repeated melodic cells) that exist in all Bach's works and that keep their fixed meaning. The role of motives-symbols varies in different genres but they always help to understand a deeper meaning of the piece."

"The analysis of preludes and fugues from Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" illustrates the method of motives-symbols of Boleslav Yavorsky (1877-1942), Russian musicologist, pianist and pedagogue and his concept of Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" can be read as a summary of images and events from the Holy Scriptures" says Vera Nosina, professor at the Gnesins Academy of Music in Moscow.

Here is the Prelude & Fugue in A Minor BWV 889, Book II to illustrate this research. One can compare the intensity of the Fugue derived from the associative image of "Christ assault" as opposed to the cute same pair BWV 889 played under a rainbow...

Recently, a comment about articulation and symbolism in Bach's clavier music we left on John Terauds' blog Musical Toronto caught the former Toronto Star music critic's interest and became a full post.

He wrote: "Vancouver-based pianist Svetlana Ponomarëva replied to one of my earlier posts with a link to an instructional video she has created as a companion to a Bach teaching manual. In her approach, she suggests the keyboard player should follow the articulation of a Baroque violinist to make the music sound right.
Hearing Ponomarëva explain it, this suggestion makes an awful lot of sense. The results she gets at the piano are at once clean, crisp and very musical."

Thank you indeed!

Back in 2008 I gave a recital/presentation about articulation in Bach's clavier music at Showcase Piano in Vancouver. Malcolm Parry from the Vancouver Sun wrote an informative article "The well-informed clavier" about the short book on Bach's articulation by Svetlana Gordeevtseva we translated into English and published, "Touching A Mystery" .

As a result, in March 2009, I was invited by the BCRMTA Vancouver chapter to give the same presentation at Hycroft Manor. The reception was warm despite the snowy morning... And when told about part two on symbolism, their interest was such that they wanted to book another event featuring both Articulation & Symbolism presentations in the Fall. However when time to set it up arrived, no one replied and I never heard from them since! We probably touched on another mystery...

The presentation was ultimately held in November 2009 at Tom Lee Music Hall and generated an enthusiastic response while it was dutifully ignored by the power to be in town. I have since then played Bach a few times to appreciative audiences. So when a renowned critic from Toronto finds my playing "clean, crisp and very musical", I can only feel like... under a rainbow!

Welcome!

To make music and be heard as an independent voice in classical music is challenging and yet rewarding. This blog shall chronicle some of our adventures!

We were in fact laughing recently about how to get a free ride of national and likely international publicity, had we got a piano delivered in front of a national broadcaster building, written a banner with slogans supporting some punk group and played a few Rachmaninov Preludes… Imagine the coverage! A call from Madonna, Sir Paul’s limousine… who knows?
But when a bus driver is in tears after a recital in a small venue, because he was touched by Bach played in style, it won’t make even the local news; however, this is the reward.

Let's start with some new tracks that likely won't be played on CBC Radio 2... Here is Debussy l'Isle Joyeuse from my CD Musique de France!
And also I added to my YouTube roster two Rachmaninov pieces freshly recorded:
- Four songs arranged for piano 2 hands by A. Alexandrov
- Etude-tableaux in E flat minor op.39 No. 5