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CSO Rocks the Rite
CSO Rocks the Rite
It’s hard to believe that almost a century has gone by since the riotous premiere of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in 1913. Generations of children have grown up watching Fantasia, and the music has long since been established as a staple of concert programs. Nevertheless, a standout performance has the potential to bring the house down, as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra did with David Robertson this past weekend.
The program started off with Olivier Messiaen’s Les offrandes oubliées (The Forgotten Offerings). Typical of Messiaen, there was an element of mysticism at the opening, as the strings wound their way on a circuitous path over sustained notes in the solo winds. As the piece built in energy, Robertson led the orchestra with razor-sharp conducting through an assortment of constantly shifting time signatures. A craggy atonal unison line that closed the piece occasionally caught a few of the violinists slightly off guard, but generally showcased the unified phrasing and intonation that distinguishes the CSO string section.
Kyoko Takezawa joined the CSO for Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, a potential minefield of atonal passages, serialism, and expressionistic music for both the soloist and the orchestra. Takezawa made it abundantly clear that it’s also an incredibly lyrical piece that provides ample opportunity for the soloist to soar. Her playing was appropriately reserved, but she and Robertson did step up tp the plate to convey enthusiasm when warranted. Aside from some blending and intonation issues in the clarinet quartet’s quotation of a Bach chorale late in the second movement, the CSO was clear and articulate, bringing forth the many shifting tone colors that constantly bubble to the surface in this piece.
Robertson’s exacting precision was an invaluable asset in The Rite of Spring, a piece which threatens to throw all but the most attentive of ensembles off the precipice into a canyon of rhythmic inaccuracy. Plaintive at the beginning with its high-register bassoon solo, savage at its other extreme, the CSO nailed the score to the wall. Indeed, this is the bread and butter of the Chicago Symphony-- a technically challenging work with ample opportunities for individual soloists to shine and ensemble passages that particularly showcase the brass and winds. Standout soloists and sections are too numerous to name, but principal percussionist Cynthia Yeh drew an almost unbelievable amount of sound from the bass drum, and the octet of horn players, at times with their bells up in the air, did their part to bring a blazing ferocity to Stravinsky’s score.
Comments
Review
Wed, 1/27/2010 - 8:19am — Benjamin.FergusonI would like to thank you for always providing great reviews. This one in particular is great. It certainly makes one think and we hope that you will continue to provide your insights and thoughts. casino online
Thanks
Fri, 1/29/2010 - 10:07am — Jesse McQuartersThanks, Benjamin! It's a new venture, but something I'm definitely enjoying so far.
Comments on the Berg concerto & "Le Sacre"
Thu, 1/28/2010 - 9:16pm — RFlessnerAgainst my own expectations I seem to have become the resident contrarian of CCM.
The Berg is a wonderful work. I first made its acquaintance a couple decades ago, and at least in parts, it still challenges my capacity to understand. The expressive range varies between a sad nostalgia and agitation, with the overall impression being one of profound melancholy. Ms. Takezawa, despite her impressive resume and technical command, did not engage with the material. Mr. Robertson's illuminating conducting, and the efficacy of the orchestral playing, were not matched by this soloist. Those upper-register phrases that should soar remained firmly earthbound.
I will reluctantly go one step beyond this. Ordinarily the visual aspect of a concert is not particularly interesting to me, and I would pay little heed to a soloist's apparel. Ms. Takezawa was arrayed in a shiny, tight-fitting strapless dress that made her resemble a mermaid. This was out of place with the gravity of the concerto, more fitting for some frothy showpiece. I am not at all a prude, but her appearance only underlined her inexpressive and seemingly uncomprehending playing.
Moving "Rite" along (sorry), Robertson and the orchestra did a terrific job with the Stravinsky. "Le Sacre" received a more energetic and lively performance than Boulez himself conducted several years ago. However, the CSO's Germanically thick sonority, along with the troubled acoustics of Orchestra Hall, are not ideal for this piece. And, lapses in precision were more frequent than we expect from the CSO.
Given the virtuosity of the orchestra, it has had a curious recording history with "Le Sacre." The Solti recording, which I have not heard for many years, struck me as unidiomatic. Barenboim's milquetoast performance can be interesting as a reference, but lacks vitality. However, Seiji Ozawa's 1968 recording, still available in fine sound on the RCA High Performance series, is outstanding. Ozawa's preference for clear, lean textures, aided by an orchestra that was speaking in a persuasive French accent after the sadly underrated Martinon years, combines with a dynamic, athletic performance to become one of the best "Rites" ever recorded.
I have numerous recordings of this piece, and I can single out Chailly/Cleveland as an example of an exciting performance and excellent sound engineering working hand in hand.
On a textual note, initially I thought it curious that the CSO program did not list which version was being played. A quick check shows that most CDs don't mention it either, though the composer's own 1960 recording mentions the "revised 1947" edition.
A little research turned up a hornet's nest. Apparently only a few fragments of the autograph score survived, and the work was not published until the early 1920s, in an edition that contained many errors. Stravinsky published a revised and corrected version in 1929, and it is essentially this version that is most familiar today. The 1947 version is based on 1929 with more emendations and corrections.
Stravinsky tinkered with the score frequently over the years, yet never published a definitive edition. Robert Craft mentions that Stravinsky essentially recomposed the final Sacrificial Dance in 1943, yet did not include it in any of the subsequently published editions.
Confused? It gets even more complicated. Boosey & Hawkes published two different versions of the 1947 edition, one in 1965 and then in 1967, with some significant differences. I bought the 1967 score when I was in high school in the early 70s, and more recently picked up the Dover score, a reprint of a Russian edition from 1965, for comparison. So far I have not learned much about the Russian edition, but I have found some notable differences between it and B&H '67.
Some of the differences between editions are merely alterations of notation. For example, the composer often changed where bar lines fall, usually to make it easier for performers. E.g., one 7/4 bar becomes a 3/4 and a 4/4 bar. But, many of the revisions are substantive and audible.
Robert Craft has recorded "Le Sacre" at least twice, once with the Orchestra of St. Luke's for Musicmasters, and again with the London Symphony, currently on Naxos. Considering his long association with the composer, it is odd that the program notes do not mention anything about the versions performed. Then again, given the foregoing, simply mentioning an edition by year is uninformative, perhaps explaining why the question is usually avoided.
"Le Sacre" editions--some comparisons
Fri, 1/29/2010 - 12:53am — RFlessnerFor listeners who may be interested in differences between editions of "Le Sacre," I'll give some examples from the 1947/67 B&H score:1. In "Spring Rounds," one bar before #49, in the descending phrase in the piccolo clarinet and bass clarinet, the grace note before the last note was eliminated. The same is true when this phrase recurs, in the alto flute and piccolo clarinet, one bar before #57. Just to make things as confusing as possible, it appears that some condutors like to put the extra grace note back in.2. In "Ritual of the Rival Tribes," the sustained chords in the horns, tuba and bassoons just before #59 are marked sff-p with a crescendo back to ff. Earlier editions indicated no dynamic change.3. In "Glorification of the Chosen One," one bar before #118, the bass drum part was changed so that the strokes fall on the odd rather than even numbered eighth notes, with a "stinger" added to the downbeat of the following bar. This matches the analogous part at the beginning this section, and to my ears, has always made more sense than in the older editions.4. In the next section, "Evocation of the Ancestors," the three-note tympani eruptions were changed from three F-sharps to follow the pitches of the corresponding low strings, F-sharp, E and D-sharp. The strings play a simple descending pattern as before, while the tympani plays F-sharp below the staff, E almost an octave higher, then D-sharp a half step down. Furthermore, the rythm was changed from eighth notes to quarter-note triplets in all instances where this pattern occurs. This change is more subtle than those mentioned previously but is discernible in a clear recording.It suggests that since none of these changes are reflected in the 1960 recording, they probably did not appear until either the 1965 or 1967 B&H edition. The Dover Russian score from 1965 does not include these changes.In an interesting parallel, Antal Dorati (Minneapolis 1959, Detroit 1981) and Michael Tilson Thomas (Boston 1972, San Francisco 1996) have each recorded "Le Sacre" at least twice. In both cases, the later recordings incorporate the changes noted above, except for the grace notes, while the earlier ones do not. The earlier Dorati recording still sounds good after 50 years, and indeed is more transparent if less spectacular than the Detroit remake, which is very good but suffers from some early-digital glare and less urgent tempos. I like both MTT recordings a lot, the SF offering more modern sound and just as energetic a performance as recorded in Boston.All this lunacy is my reward for nearly four decades of enjoying "Le Sacre."
next time
Fri, 1/29/2010 - 10:08am — Jesse McQuartersRF-- The next time the CSO plays the Rite, you've got a free seat next to me and a free beer at intermission, guaranteed. Cheers.
It's a deal
Sun, 1/31/2010 - 2:35pm — RFlessner...as long as we don't spill beer on the B&H score. I seem to have taken it everywhere when I was in high school and it looks like the CSO percussion section has whomped on it for 30 years.
"Sacre" fatigue is starting to set in and I need to move along to other music, but I'll still spin a couple classic recordings, such as Ancerl/Czech Phil, a real standout.