In a wide-ranging interview with Bruce Duffie, the choral conductor (who died last week, aged 95) was at once polite and forthright about historically informed practice.
‘Where composers have specified clearly what they want, one ought not to depart from that. Most modern composers do specify very clearly, first of all, the tempo. They give a broad indication, through metronome marks and that sort thing, as to what they want. Clearly one has to adapt to a certain extent, because if you’re performing in a church with a very reverberant acoustic — perhaps an echo period of five seconds — you must perform at a more steady pace than you would if you were in a very dry acoustic. So I always look at what the composer asked for and then think to what extent one should adapt according to the circumstances. Where composers specify certain instruments, you ought to think twice before changing those instruments. You certainly oughtn’t to add notes willfully, although some composers of the Baroque and Classical periods did leave a lot for the composer. They wanted ornamentation. They wanted a certain degree of improvisation. So to that extent, I would depart from the printed score.
BD: But were they not confident that the style would always be the same that had been handed down for at least the last couple of generations?
Sir David: I think they were, and I think they’d be horrified sometimes to have heard what successive generations have made of it. But we are making a genuine effort now to understand what musicians of that period probably would have done. Now to answer your question more fully over the other things, I would hope that with modern composers one does keep as far as possible to the score as they’ve presented it, although music must be recreated and there must be a subjective element in the performance of music. Nobody wants to exist for all time on a recording made by a particular person, even if it’s the composer himself. I think music would become sterile if it weren’t constantly being reinterpreted by others.’
We are saddened to learn of the death, from cancer, of Adrian Morris, bass trombone of the Hallé Orchestra for the past 18 years.
Previously with the Ulster Orchestra, Adrian – known as Benny – also played with brass bands and jazz orchestras.
Our sympathies to his family and colleagues.
Slipped Disc editorial
Today’s announcement that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical is to occupy the home of English National Opera for 43 performances over five weeks in April arouses the same kind of emotions as the sight of that railway carriage in the forest of Compiègne. It is a complete and unconditional surrender.
True, the costs of the production are being borne by independent producers, GradeLinnit. True, too, it will keep the orchestra and chorus of ENO in work for five weeks.
True, again, that ENO cannot afford to fill a season all by itself, given its burden of debt and shrinking Arts Council subsidy.
But a Lloyd Webber musical? A genre that takes the luscious red cherries of grand opera and turns them into glacé cake-toppers? That’s not a sensible strategy for a struggling opera house.
You may argue that La Scala once staged Phantom and other opera houses have gone deeper into the Lloyd Webber oeuvre in the hope of attracting new audiences. The thing is, they failed. There is no crossover between the pure and unmediated act of opera singing and the amplified, under-orchestrated act of Sunset Boulevard. No new faces at Lohengrin, no benefit at all to ENO, except that it pays five weeks’ rent.
This is a sad call by ENO’s new makeshift regime, a bad call, and one which sounds horribly like the scratching of pens in the middle of a French forest.
Historical footnote: A while back I suggested that Andrew Lloyd Webber should be approached to be chairman of ENO’s weak board. The response I got from those who know him well was ‘Andrew’s only interested in pushing his own stuff’. Whether or not that’s the case, what we have here is failing ENO serving mighty ALW’s empire.
After the political storm, the plaque has finally been affixed to the composer’s former home.
Photos (c) Marion Kalter/Lebrecht Music&Arts
Two months ago we were approached by musicians of the Symphony Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) with lurid tales of the breakdown of their relationship with chief conductor Emil Tabakov. Since much of the material was highly subjective and the orchestra of limited international interest, we declined to publish it.
Since then, much has happened.
According to the musicians, Tabakov, 68, was suspended by the director of BNR’s music department for ‘systematic violations of his labour profile and endless conflicts with the orchestra.’ Tabakov called in political allies – he is a former Bulgarian Minister of Culture – and hit back, forcing the director’s suspension and returning to his podium.
‘Our indignation,’ say the musicians, ‘is enormous’.
Not much we can do from the outside, except to point out that all is not well in the musical state of Bulgaria.
The Munich Chamber Orchestra have chosen Clemens Schuldt, 32, to be their chief conductor from next season. He succeeds Alexander Liebreich.
Schuldt, a former orchestral violinist, won the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London back in 2010. he’s managed by KD Schmid in Hannover.
photo (c) Chris Christodoulou/Lebrecht Music&Arts
In a section of his Tass interview that appeared only in Russian, Valery Gergiev denies ever having signed a letter of support for Putin’s intervention in Crimea.
In March 2014, Gergiev says, he received a call from culture minister Vladimir Medinsky asking him where he stood on events in Crimea. Gergiev replied: People need to be rescued. Medinsky: Then you will sign a letter to Putin (seeking Russian intervention). Gergiev: I need to see the text first. He was never show the text but his name appeared at the head of the cultural signatories.
Russian text below.
Да вот так! В марте 2014-го позвонил Владимир Мединский: “Валерий Абисалович, как вы относитесь к событиям в Крыму?” Отвечаю: “Людей надо спасать”. Министр спросил: “Подпишете письмо к Путину?” Говорю: “Пришлите текст, должен прочесть”. И все, точка. Ничего мне не прислали, а через несколько часов узнаю из прессы, будто я едва ли не первый подписант…
The German music market has grown six percent so far this year.
Even more remarkable is that much of this growth is attributed to German popular artists – as distinct from American – who now command 73 percent of the German market, the highest on record.
A similar pattern has evolved in classical music, with David Garrett and Anne-Sophie Mutter (in that order) outselling all other violinists by miles in the German market.
John Berry was snapped last night at the Metropolitan Opera, escorting Bette Midler to her seat.
photo (c) Slipped Disc
Much more fun than filling in Arts Council forms.
Rather than languishing in camps, Syrians in Bremen have found enough musicians in their midst to form an orchestra. The organiser is double bass player, Raed Jazbeh.
The Syrian Expat Phiharmonic Orchestra (Sepo) gives its first concert tonight, opening with Mendelssohn’s music from Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde, the homecoming from abroad.
