NY,Meditation on Death and an Exploration of Life

表題のすごいテーマに惹かれて取り上げてみました．　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　主人公はなんと2010～2011年シーズンからMusic Partner of NJP（新日本フィルハーモニー）になった，アルミンクの友人で，2003年から　マーラー室内管弦楽団　初代音楽監督 になって，ベルリン・フィル，ウイーン・フィルなど主要オーケストラを振っている，イギリスの35歳の若手指揮者ダニエル・ハーディングです．

New York Times が取り上げているのは，the venerable Dresden Staatskapelle のNew York 公演です．venerable(立派な）という用語ですが，venerable is the word for this remarkable orchestra, which has been around for 462 years and which is also the house ensemble for Dresden’s Semperoper. と450年以上の歴史を持つこの楽団のためにあるような用語だといっています．

そのDresden Staatskapelle が opened the Great Performers season at Lincoln Center with two concerts at Avery Fisher Hall, とあり，　　
初日が， 
Brahms’s “Deutsches Requiem”　with the Westminster Symphonic Choir　　
2日目が，  
Beethoven: Fourth Piano Concerto with Rudolf Buchbinder. 
Beethoven： concert aria “Ah! perfido,” with Deborah Voigt 
Beethoven: Seven's Symphony   
だったようです．

評論はHarding について冷めた見方から始めています．Though just 35, Mr. Harding can no longer be described as a fast-rising British conductor, since he now seems one of the consequential musicians of his generation. といわば generation の1人に過ぎないと見ています．　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　たしかに今回Vienna Phil と来日した Nelsons は32歳で，既にSimon Rattle がBerlin Phil に迎えられる前のCity of Birmingham Orchestra の音楽監督職を受け継いでいます．他にも30歳前のDudamel は Salonen の後継者に指名されてLos Angels Philharmonic の音楽監督に就いて，人気を集めています．

そこで Meditation on Death and an Exploration of Life ですが，前者は Brahms’s “Deutsches Requiem”から来ています．

In his “Deutsches Requiem” Brahms was very deliberate about the particular kind of spirituality he was exploring. Having scant sympathy for established religion, he wanted his requiem to be a meditation on death, so he avoided the Roman Catholic liturgy and chose biblical passages in German, most of which deal with the grief of mourners and the nature of life.

Mr. Harding seemed intent on conveying the music’s spacious, weighty beauty. Sometimes he went too far, and the performance, though sensitive, seemed grounded.　Over all, though, he drew mellow, rich playing from the orchestra and full-bodied singing from the impressive Westminster Symphonic Choir. The expressive baritone Matthias Goerne and the clear-voiced soprano Christiane Karg were appealing soloists

大曲の終わり近くに，Choir の Soprano part の最前列の1人が合唱団席からオケ・レベルに倒れ落ちるアクシデントがあったそうですが，暫く失神した後，程なく回復したそうです．

2日目は，the soprano Deborah Voigt brought her bright, formidable voice and sure dramatic instincts to Beethoven’s demanding concert aria “Ah! perfido,” the outburst of a generic jilted woman.

the magisterial performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, with the veteran Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder. The work opens with the piano alone, and Mr. Buchbinder played Beethoven’s brief statement of the theme’s first phrase with haunting restraint and mystery, almost as if he were channeling the music from some cosmic beyond. The orchestra under Mr. Harding conveyed the same mood as it picked up the theme and continued the exploration.

talk about spirituality. The second movement came across like a theological discourse, with the orchestra making grave unison forebodings that could have come from a Baroque sacred work, and Mr. Buchbinder answering with poignant, hushed, choralelike phrases, as if to suggest that there might be, after all, a more hopeful way to cope.

Mr. Harding was at his best in the Seventh Symphony, drawing a fresh, lucid and organic performance from the orchestra. He set a fleet tempo in the dancing finale that the players brought off with vigor and command. For me there was something spiritual about this bit of bravado.

微妙な表現が多くて原文のままが多くなりましたが，いかにも大仰なタイトルの音楽評をご自由にご渉猟下さい．

 

Music Review

A Meditation on Death and an Exploration of Life

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI　　　　　　　Published: November 2, 2010

Visits to New York by the venerable Dresden Staatskapelle are always welcome. And venerable is the word for this remarkable orchestra, which has been around for 462 years and which is also the house ensemble for Dresden’s Semperoper.

Jennifer Taylor for The New York Time　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Dresden Staatskapelle played under the British conductor Daniel Harding on Sunday at Avery Fisher Hall.

With Daniel Harding conducting, the Dresden Staatskapelle opened the Great Performers season at Lincoln Center with two concerts at Avery Fisher Hall, performing Brahms’s “Deutsches Requiem” on Sunday afternoon and a Beethoven program on Monday night.

Though just 35, Mr. Harding can no longer be described as a fast-rising British conductor, since he now seems one of the consequential musicians of his generation. Mr. Harding and the Dresden players gave a serene, glowing performance of Brahms’s requiem and effortless, bracing accounts of three Beethoven works, especially an exceptionally lithe and lived-in Seventh Symphony.

The Brahms program, with the Westminster Symphonic Choir, was a major early offering in Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival, a venture conceived by Jane Moss, the center’s vice president for programming. Ms. Moss has spoken of experiencing almost a midlife epiphany about the spiritual dimension of life. Amid a daily deluge of e-mails, cellphones and busyness, Ms. Moss has said, we have never been more in need of music’s power to take us to our inner selves. Though the idea invites a little kidding, Ms. Moss deserves credit for being so out front with her own inner life, and for lining up three weeks of programs that show composers exploring spirituality.

Still, what constitutes this realm? And which musical works take us there? A pianist’s charming performance of a jolly Haydn rondo can be more spiritual than some stiff organist’s account of a somber Bach chorale prelude. The Brahms Requiem was a fitting choice for the White Light Festival. But the Beethoven program could just as easily have made the cut, especially the magisterial performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, with the veteran Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder.

The work opens with the piano alone, and Mr. Buchbinder played Beethoven’s brief statement of the theme’s first phrase with haunting restraint and mystery, almost as if he were channeling the music from some cosmic beyond. The orchestra under Mr. Harding conveyed the same mood as it picked up the theme and continued the exploration.

After the orchestral exposition, when Mr. Buchbinder again took the lead in the discourse, his playing gradually became more pronounced and emphatic. Amid the beautifully fluid and rippling stretches of passagework he would bring out inner voices or insistent bass lines with punchy accents that gave intensity to music that might otherwise have seemed ethereal.

And talk about spirituality. The second movement came across like a theological discourse, with the orchestra making grave unison forebodings that could have come from a Baroque sacred work, and Mr. Buchbinder answering with poignant, hushed, choralelike phrases, as if to suggest that there might be, after all, a more hopeful way to cope. Even during the most playful exchanges of the finale, Mr. Buchbinder and the orchestra captured the wistful, otherworldly element of this deceptively cheerful rondo.

In his “Deutsches Requiem” Brahms was very deliberate about the particular kind of spirituality he was exploring. Having scant sympathy for established religion, he wanted his requiem to be a meditation on death, so he avoided the Roman Catholic liturgy and chose biblical passages in German, most of which deal with the grief of mourners and the nature of life.

During stretches, particularly in the opening section (“Blessed are they that mourn”), Mr. Harding seemed intent on conveying the music’s spacious, weighty beauty. Sometimes he went too far, and the performance, though sensitive, seemed grounded. Whenever he allowed the music to crest and surge, even during the restrained episodes, the playing gained profile and urgency.

Over all, though, he drew mellow, rich playing from the orchestra and full-bodied singing from the impressive Westminster Symphonic Choir. The expressive baritone Matthias Goerne and the clear-voiced soprano Christiane Karg were appealing soloists.

The audience was shaken during the very last moments of the requiem, when a young woman in the first row of the chorus fell from a raised platform into the orchestra. She had briefly fainted and, Ms. Moss reported later in an e-mail, quickly recovered.

On Monday the soprano Deborah Voigt brought her bright, formidable voice and sure dramatic instincts to Beethoven’s demanding concert aria “Ah! perfido,” the outburst of a generic jilted woman.

Mr. Harding was at his best in the Seventh Symphony, drawing a fresh, lucid and organic performance from the orchestra. He set a fleet tempo in the dancing finale that the players brought off with vigor and command. For me there was something spiritual about this bit of bravado.