September - 21st Century Music

The afternoon concert on June 16 did not seem to hold much
promise: one piece only, De Profundis by Roman Berger, a
playback of a recording in the presence of the composer.
Somehow, despite the monumentality of Pawel Sydor's Credo
heard in the evening concert of the same day, Berger's quiet
work, appeared to be the most profoundly "spiritual" of what
was experienced in Kraków. The piece -- scored for bass
voice, piano and cello -- was projected with fascinating, sparse
transformation of sound (reverberation, ring modulation,
echoes) by Edward Kulka. Berger's composition, composed
"because of his internal need" and not in response to any
commissions in 1975 and 1980, uses two somber poems by
Tadeusz Rózewicz, Lament and Ocalony [Saved/Survivor] as
the source of text and ideas. Rózewicz's profound reflections
on the loss of faith and the cruelty of the war find an
appropriately austere setting in Berger's score -- with its
extensive temporal durations and sophisticated use of the
voice and the instruments. After long stretches of darkness --
breathing, wailing voice, at times accompanied by repeated,
pounding chords of the piano -- the brief appearance of cello
cantilena has an almost angelic quality, which is again
overcome by darkness at the end. The poem concludes with its
first line: "I am 24 years old. I survived, while being led to
slaughter." The survivor witnessed unspeakable horrors which
rendered the concepts of human culture meaningless: "these
names are empty and synonymous: / man and animal / love
and hate / enemy and friend / darkness and light." The somber
text and its exquisite musical interpretation by Berger belong
among the most impressive artistic testimonies of the
Holocaust.
Such subtlety and understanding were missing from Sydor's
Credo, a huge, truly "conservative" undertaking (that makes
one miss the "progressiveness" of the greatest 20th-century
composers, such as Messiaen, who remained faithful to their
brands of modernity), but it is too early to severely criticize a
composer born only in 1970, five years before Berger's
composition was conceived. In time, perhaps, this skillful
manipulator of traditional chords will be able to infuse his
creation with some spiritual depth and inspiration -- and this
brings us back to the point of departure, i.e. the spiritual
concept of the festival. Words, even the most exalted ones,
may be meaningless -- perhaps music is at its most spiritual
when it expresses contemplations and reflections of the most
personal kind
The Progressive Rake
ANDREW SHAPIRO
San Francisco Opera presents The Rake's Progress, by Igor
Stravinsky (text by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman). June
29, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, CA.
The San Francisco Opera's presentation of Igor Stravinsky's
The Rake's Progress was adequate for the first two acts and
extraordinary in the third. The impressive stage design by
David Hockney (created for a production in 1975) added an
interesting two dimensionality of enormous and quasi
homogenous muted colored patterns reminiscent of the large
murals of Sol Lewitt; large zones of similar outlined structure
surrounding fabulous atmospheric color schemes.
Raymond Very (tenor), as Tom Rakewell sang effortlessly and
consistently relaxed. Unfortunately, this disappointed because
he didn't seem to have the ability to make one feel anything of
his character's new found wealth and separation from his love
Anne (Rebecca Evans), as a result of his contact with Nick
Shadow (Bryn Terfel), a character representing the devil.
Evans was wonderful. In her aria in the third scene of Act I
she sang entrancingly about missing her love and whether she
should go to London to find Tom. Her voice had the sweet
ability to spring into the upper register of her voice with a
great softness and refinement. Terfel, bass-baritone, proved to
be wonderfully in character throughout; with humorous
mannerisms, he sang strongly as he enacted his plans to lure
Tom to his eventual downfall. The chorus was remarkably
focused and pure, particularly the female voices. At the end of
Act II, Scene II in front of a marvelously lined and colored
backdrop of the facade of Tom's house in London, the
ensemble greets Tom and his new wife, Baba the Turk (Zheng
Cao) with a glowing display of exuberant singing.
Act III began with a stunning stage design (rather resembling
a huge black and white TV) accompanied by the chorus
engaged in an auction in which Tom's possessions are being
sold as a result of his inevitable financial ruin (after all, the
devil is his business advisor). This was a fun ensemble piece
with the occasional splash of color as the auctioneer, Anne and
Baba are all trying to find out how to make the best of the
craziness that seems to have descended into Tom's living
room.
One issue with the performance of the orchestra: The "neo" of
Stravinsky's neo-classicism is strikingly evident in the handful
of occasions when Stravinsky adds an oddly contoured solo
brass line to an orchestral texture of a voice over a light
accompaniment (the orchestra, sans brass, behaving like a
huge lightly strummed guitar) it seemed as though the brass
were too loud and not integrated smoothly enough into the
texture. Barring that, the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, as
would be expected, was precise, balanced and refined under
the baton of conductor Markus Stanz.
Very began to excel as Tom's character became more
developed at the end of Act III, Scene II. Tom and Nick are
engaged in a protracted bargaining session in which Tom
gambles for his life in a game of cards. Over a solo
harpsichord playing a musically demented accompaniment
(the type of material that Andrew Lloyd Webber copies in
Phantom of the Opera), Tom defeats Nick, Nick's last act
before he returns to the underworld is to render Tom insane.
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