In the new issue of The Critic magazine I compare the very different forms of self-isolation adopted by two very different composers – Karl Amadeus Hartmann under the Nazi regime and Krzysztof Penderecki under communism.
… Hartmann was the only composer in Germany to stand up against Hitler and he did so by a form of inner exile that we have now come to know as self-isolation. I played some of his music the other day on hearing of the death of Krzysztof Penderecki, a kindred self-distanced soul. Penderecki grew up in Debica (Dembitz), a Polish shtetl with many Jews, 70 per cent of the town. As a boy, he learned Yiddish phrases and songs. Then he saw Jews herded into a ghetto and put on death trains. Penderecki suppressed his Yiddish tunes, along with much else.
Hartmann was the only composer in Germany to stand up against Hitler and he did so by a form of inner exile
His grandmother was Armenian, a fugitive from Turkish genocide who took him to Mass at an Armenian church, in contradistinction to dominant Roman Catholicism. One of his grandfathers was German, another inconvenient legacy….
The traditional orchestra season amounts to a compromise between the music director, the general director and the calendar.
The last of the three dictates the anniversaries.
The first proposes attention-seeking works. The second modifies those plans with box-office bankables.
All that will have to change when the music resumes.
There will be no big set-pieces in the next couple of years while Covid is still around. Health and safety won’t permit them, and all orchestras the world over will need to save money.
So what to play?
This is an immense opportunity.
Given that the public will come rushing back in search of the live concert experience, orchestras can rewrite the repertoire to perform works and composers they never dared to programme before, for fear the audience would not come.
Right now, there are people out there who would play premium prices to hear William Schuman symphonies played backwards.
Instead of the usual 3Bs and 2Ms, orchestras can choose to play Wallingford Rieger or Havergal Brian without denting the finances.
Myself, I want to hear symphonic cycles of Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Bohuslav Martinu and Malcolm Arnold.
Replace Dvorak with Donatoni, Mozart with Milhaud, Strauss with Szymanowski.
Why not?
Orchestras of the world, you have nothing to lose but your fears.
‘People are very careful, you see people with masks everywhere. It’s still a long way to go I think to get normalized. The movie theaters are not opening, the concert halls are not starting, the sports events are certainly not happening in this moment. But stores, restaurants, and people are starting to get back to work I think which is a very good thing, and you see people on the street every day more and more.’
‘I feel so painful because even some of my friends got affected, and to see them suffer it’s a very painful thing.’
‘I know a lot of musicians lost their jobs, and it must be a very difficult time for them. So that’s also another thing that I really try to see whether there’s something, with the foundations or organizations, we can do some fundraiser for the musicians who lost their jobs.’
