Emphemeral continued

Today we are at Cleveland Film Festival watching a French film >>un baiser, si vous plait?<< And together with the talk of Nokolaj and the Carpathian concert this week, I strongly felt the power of one word again: Ephemeral.

I have written in the previous entry that musical moments are ephemeral, and so are the wonderful moments in life. In this film, in the end, a good kiss is ephemeral although it is one of the best moments, however, if we make it last longer, there'll be other complications that make it less wonderful and soon reveal the hard side of life. Even if it worked, how do we know the good kiss is not going to be "ephemeral" eventually? There are many good moments in life and of most of them we simply cannot make an effort to let them last longer and have to let them go. While this appears to be such a shame and pain, it might be the best thing to do in the long run. Human beings are so fickle and yet are incapable of grabing the moments to make it forever. And considering how life is indeed so wonderful and yet ephemeral in the universe. This is the deepest paradox beyond the deepest sorrow of human being.

Nikolaj Znaider-"Music is Ephemeral"

Recently I had such rare opportunity to meet one of the most widely performed successful violinists in the world today, Nikolaj Znaider, thanks to our wonderful music critic Andrew Druckenbrod.

Nikolaj is very down-to-earth. He stays calm and logic all the time, and observe, think and speak. I like his character. It's not like he wants to show off all the time.

Meanwhile, he does have precious perspectives on music. One thing that he mentioned about music touched me : he always says that music is ephemeral. Music is abstract and does not exist in matter. More importantly, he said music starts from nothing and ends in nothing--silence. If a musician is going to play a piece, he is going to play it differently every time and once he is done with a particular performance, this music will never exist in the same way any more.

Saying music is ephemeral really captures my heart because i always feel that these good times in life are ephemeral. Everything has an end. And even the whole world came into existence and vanishes, it wouldn't matter or even noticeable in the universe in time and space. This is the deepest sorrow of human being that I ever experienced.

CD Review; Alsop conducts Brahms with London Symphony Orchestra

by Shuo Zhang

Featuring Brahms Symphony No.1, this is one of the first CDs of Marin Alsop conducting more "mainstream" canonical classical works released by Naxos. As one of the few female conductors who successfully secured tenure in the top orchestras in the world today, Alsop has been very well received for her Naxos CDs with the interpretation on American symphonic works as well as other lesser well known compositions. Marching into the realm of Brahms, Alsop proved once again her interpretational power with a variety of repertoires.

In one of her interviews upon the release of the CD, Alsop expressed her affinity to the music of Brahms, one of the composers she feels close to her heart.

The Symphony no.1 has a special place in Brahms' works. It is well known that he worked for over ten years before he finally completed it and premiered. (The audience must have given up on hearing his symphony ever, so imagine what they were like when they hear the introduction of the first movement!--taken from Alsop interview) In any case, it is also known as a work looking up to the Beethoven's symphonies, which Brahms admired so much, and to prove wrong the statement of Richard Wagner that no pure instrumental symphonies could possibly be any valuable after Beethoven's ninth.

The overall impression of Alsop's interpretation of Brahms no.1 is her balance and pace--which she indeed intended to deliver (she called at "balance and proportion") and did a good job. The symphony is big and grand--a huge structure, but Alsop's conducting does not feel like it is excessively heavy, and the pace was perfect in forming a natural flow in the unfolding of the structure.

The opening of the first movement is handled with considerable sensitivity on top of the darker color, manifesting the chromatic theme which reappears once and once again throughout the entire four movements. The struggle between the fierce and the calming themes is full of contrast.

Comparing to the long first and last movement, the brief second and third movement were casted a lighter yet sorrow mood. This is in contrast to some other conductors who assign more gravity and dramatic dynamic change to these two movements. It also prepares well for the coming of the fourth movement--an overall design of balance.

The fourth movement hears the triumph of the brighter themes upon various repeat use of the alphorn melody that Brahms originally sent to Clara Schmann on her birthday. The contrast use of this melody is distinctively heard in brass, immediately followed by the flute (and also by the flute later), which signifies a shift to a more triumphant ending of the symphony.

Ms.Alsop is looking at possibly another cycle of standard repertoire with Naxos while continuing her journey with the American composers and less known works in the near future.

DVD Review; Salzburger Festspiele 2002 Turandot

The debate of whether music should take precedence in an opera has been around for centuries: as the German musicologist Hanslick wrote in the 19th century, that if Mozart wrote an opera, it would be a good opera even if the libretto is really dull. Well, many modern stage directors proved, at least, that opera is not all about music. The newly released DVD of Puccini's Turandot, recorded at the Grosses Festpielhaus in Salzburg in 2002, directed by David Pountney, once again remind us the truth in this statement.

Turandot--an ancient Chinese story appeared in the well known Persian fairy tale collection "One thousand and one night" (a.k.a "The Arabian Nights"), tells the story of a prince who fell in love with the princess Turandot but had to solve her three riddles in order to survive and marry her. Set in the remote past, it reflects the kind of prototype Chinese story as it is imagined by the Westerners--which certainly loans itself to much different interpretations.

Pountney's direction highlights the queer and nightmarish atmosphere of the world where the story took place--an imagined world filled with ghost-like masks and giant robots in the form of a Chinese man controlled by the solders. Almost every one on stage is armed with terrible murder weapons, and the arms of the three ministers Ping, Pong and Pang are replaced by the instruments of torture. Turandot--the princess--always appears behind a giant mask and is standing in a height that is closer to heaven than to the earth.

The concept of this design, turns out, comes from an artistic perspective of the "fear of civilization" that Puccini took up in the 20s and 30s, namely, the fear that the fatal combination of rapid technological progress, which is gradually spinning out of control, and inhuman political systems pose a fundamental threat to all human values. In this context, the freedom and the existence of the individual appear to be constantly threatened by a soulless, robot-like administration. This conflict, in this particular production, however, is seen to be resolved in the last Act with a happy ending, when everyone returns to the normal human form.

In general, although the story is set in this kind of imagined world, Pountney did make reference to the Chineseness of the opera by occasionally setting stage backdrops in a Chinese painting and excessively using the color of red, which symbolizes the presence of China.

The music of this production by Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Valery Gergiev is effective. While what happened on stage does need a little attention to comprehend, the music did not fade out as unimportant--rather, the two actually blended really well in a somehow bizarre way.

CD REVIEW;TWO INTERPRETATIONS OF HANDEL MESSIAH ON NAXOS AND DHM

CD REVIEW; TWO INTERPRETATIONS OF HANDEL MESSIAH ON NAXOS AND DHM

by Shuo Zhang

Although originally composed within 24 days, Handel's Messiah has enjoyed its popularity in performance in the past few hundred years and also in recordings in the past few decades. Recently, when the two new recordings of Messiah, released by Naxos and DHM came out, the inevitable question appeared to be, "what is special about them and do we need two more recordings of the Messiah?"

As I immersed myself in the two CDs for the whole evening, it becomes clear that the two interpretations adopt radically different approaches to the work, each gives it something new in the contemporary context, while both root themselves on a historically informed performance.

In contrast to Bach, who was considered old school and remained largely unknown in his time, Handel enjoyed a flourishing "international" career with his new musical styles. Messiah, a rather atypical work of Handel--as it is almost exclusively concerned with prophecy and meditation-- on the other hand, among all of his works, received much opposition in its early days due to many people's disapproval of biblical words being sung in a common theatre, where most of Handel's oratorios were performed.

The fact that Handel did continue to revise his manuscript for the Messiah after the first 24 days to suit different occasions and performers results in the many surviving versions of the work, also giving rise to the different possible interpretations heard today.

In this respect, the DHM recording of Messiah, featuring Nikolaus Harnoncourt as the Music Director, includes in the program notes a "comments on this performance" by Harnoncourt, in which he traced the many renditions of the current recording to the result of the a careful study of the Handel's manuscripts while taking into account the difference in versions.

The Naxos recording, on the other hand, gives a strong reason why we should listen to this CD--as it claims to provide the only modern account of Handel's unique London performances in April and May 1751, when he used treble voices for choruses and arias.

Why is this important, that we want to hear this 1751 version? Well, turns out, that the configuration of different voice settings do make a big difference in these two recordings, and one may have a unforgettable experience listening to the loft voices of the all-male singing in the 1751 version, as reproduced by the Academy of Ancient Music and Choir of New College Oxford under the direction of Edward Higginbottom in this recording.

As all other "regular" arrangements, the Harnoncourt Messiah features all voices, with the all-star soloists Schafer as soprano, Larsson as alto, Schade as tenor, and Finley as bass. Despite the early instruments, the use of a larger instrumental ensemble, with its acoustics similar to modern day symphony orchestra, coupled with the four soloists, gives the work a fuller sound that I find more relatable as of today.

The Higginbottom version of the 1751 manuscript, on the other hand, gives a distinctively "early music" sound with its all-male choir (many of which are boys), male countertenor and tenor and bass, as well as three boys on the treble voice, and the use of lighter instrumental ensemble of Renaissance and Baroque style. It reminds one of the different aesthetics of musical sounds projected by a early music ensemble and a modern day symphony orchestra.

In general, the treble voices produced by young boys are comparable to the voice range of that of a soprano, while the countertenor, an adult male with a incredibly high voice range than average, often act as the counterpart of a female alto. Different than one may assumed, however, in this case, Handel did not simply substitute the two female voices with the two male ones, instead he made radically different arrangements for many arias with the countertenor and the treble voices in place of all sorts of voice settings in other manuscripts, such as tenor, giving the entire work a new design in terms of voice.

The tone color delivered by the two versions are also different, with the 1751 version distinctively having a more unified and clean tone, as comparing to the more diverse blend of the SATB in the Harnoncourt version. This is also reflected in the instrumental music heard in the two CDs: while the former has a more clean, unified color, the latter, a bigger orchestra, seemed to be more sensitive to deliver the change of color in the different mood of the music.

One other unexpected character of the 1751 version in the Naxos CD turned out to be the clear diction of the words by the treble voice boys, whereas the soprano in the DHM CD singing the same passage is harder to understand. On the boys part, whether this is intended or not is hard to say, but I have indeed met church choir directors who emphasize the significance of diction over music for the religious purposes---music must not cover the words as delivered in the Bible.

All being said, it is interesting to note that Handel's Messiah is not, in the accepted sense, a sacred work, despite of its subject and text. Once being called a "fine entertainment", which Handel himself was not exactly happy about, Messiah is indeed a probably too beautiful a musical work that even it is played in church, it tends to diverge people away from the worship aspect and inclined to just enjoy the music, especially when they encounter fresh interpretations such as these.

Music Review; Pianist Osorio Interprets Brahms Piano Concerto with Honeck in Heinz Hall

Music Review; Pianist Osorio Interprets Brahms Piano Concerto with Honeck in Heinz Hall

by Shuo Zhang

If you would like to attend a concert once in a while just to hear the less well known classical music and find them equally charming from the beginning to the end, this is the one for you. Last Friday, pianist Osorio joins Manfred Honeck with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in a concert that features Brahms' Piano Concerto No.1 and Dvorak's Symphony No.8.

Brahms published his first Symphony at the age of 43 after years of revising the work. The piano concerto No.1, on the other hand, is one of his earlier works, and also one of those works to be rearranged and revised for different instrumentation from time to time, just like his Piano Quintet No.34, a forceful work with strange charm, which has a history of also being a string quintet and a piano duo. In the case of Concerto No.1, it was originally composed as a piano duo, and has been called by some as the "symphony with piano".

It is indeed a piano concerto that is big in every sense, and under Honeck's interpretation, the somehow unsettling first theme of the first movement reminds one of the strength heard in the famous Violin Concerto in D major, a most commonly performed piece of Brahms.

Mr.Orsorio, on the other hand, contrasts the massiveness of parts of the music with his delicate playing in some other passages, giving the music a fuller range of color. Known for his recordings of Brhams, Osorio is indeed one of those less well known but equally charming and masterful pianist.

A strong Bohemian flavor and the rural fresh air hit the audience in Heinz Hall in the second half of the concert with the coming of Dvorak's Symphony No.8, another equally charming work after the celebrated No.9. This symphony, often labeled as "Pastoral" following Beethoven's No.6, is also considered as having a hint of improvisational style that resembles a symphony poem.

The symphony captured the flow and contrast of the symphony, and depicts a vivid scene of bird singing and possibly some kind of rural religious ceremony in the third movement. The last movement was marked by the distinctive sound of the brass section, casting a remarkable liveliness to the finale.

The concert repeats on Saturday at 8:00pm.