"Modern Music"

Yesterday I attended a lecture-recital on the piano music of Haydn given by Andras Schiff at the Wigmore Hall. He played quite a lot of the music (an early Capriccio in C major, F minor Fantasie, the last Sonata (E flat major)) and talked us through the harmonic movement, pointing out what harmonies were a surprise and in what way. It was very gentle and quite amusing for a typical Wigmore audience which is of course very music-loving and intelligent as well as, it has to be admitted, rather conservative.

I was disappointed by one of his comments, which was directed against "modern music". He was expounding the virtues of the wonderful way Haydn returns to the home key after all his excursions and surprise moves in the wrong direction, and said that's the thing that bothers him about contemporary music - that it never arrives home after it has begun. It wasn't a terrible comment, but I wasn't too impressed by it, and certainly not by the way he knew he could say that to this audience and be sure they would go along with him, and even find it amusing.

Do you think one day we will be able to have music in concert halls?

Yes, just music - sounds that mean things. Not "our music not yours" or "of course this music is some of the greatest ever composed (because it has existed for hundreds of years and hasn't hurt anybody since then)".

It's an interesting point that the very conservative repertoire often is some of the greatest music ever composed (it seems to me) but there are certainly plenty of gaps where other great music has been omitted, and where living composers do not have any comfortable place. Or at least the ones with the comfortable place are just lying around in comfort, not writing anything of any note.

England is unusual because it has a very conservative part which, while it inhibits change, succeeds in preserving (conserving) some things that, if we didn't have them, we would be much the poorer for that. So even though I don't like these remarks about "Listen to all the wrong notes! How silly it sounds" and so on, I don't actually mind too much. But one day they will appreciate that you can see in all directions out of the windows of your house, not only the directions you already know about.

There is great music now, and has been since the last officially great music was written (when was that, 1910 or 20? And even a lot of that is sometimes considered a bit modern, such as Ravel). I don't mind at all that we are taking it slow with the new repertoire choices. We could have a fast-moving all-changing society and it might not be long before we lose the good parts.

Yes, at the Wigmore hall you, like Volvic mineral water, must be filtered through volcanic sand for 15 years until you reach the required level of purity. Except it's more than 15 years.

But if we can stand the test of time, then we can wait a few years for the music-lovers.

Don't be scared, audience! It's just that we have some more things you can love.

Today in the news (my news)

When you get the chance to speak to somebody I think you should, rather than avoiding it. It's easy to avoid, for any number of reasons, all of which make sense if you say them, yet the one that doesn't make sense is not talking to people. Because we are all in here together, and how will you learn things if you don't bother sampling things that are different from you - things that you don't already know about?

I spoke to a man today. I didn't have to, since he has only met me a few times and fairly certainly didn't remember me, but I was asking how things are and he says his son has died recently and he was only 35. So I could easily have passed him by. I'm not saying it's necessarily a good idea to talk to me about your problems, maybe it will just make them worse, but still I'm glad I could try to be helpful at least once. Next time, say hello to somebody! You can, you know.

In other news, there is a new winner of the Gaudeamus Interpreters' Competition, called Małgorzata Walentynowicz. As you can see, she is Polish and congratulations to her and good luck for your next success! Here is the video about it.

You see, we aren't the kind of people who have enemies in the same line of business. I don't mind that there's more than one winner of Gaudeamus - of course there will be! Good luck to all of them, they all deserve success if they try hard. Sometimes people get jealous, even of me (which is pretty amazing) but I think that's because they feel they aren't really that good. It means they'd like the people they think are good to fail please. Well that certainly is comprehensible but it doesn't make a lot of real sense, sorry. If people are better than me, wonderful. I seriously hope they are. If I'm the summit of excellence, we're in trouble!

Last of all, Marks and Spencer is the name of a shop in UK. They are mainly known for clothes but they also have a food wing or branch. The food wing or branch sells quite nice food, all of it very expensive and very over-packaged, however it is of quite a good quality at the same time. So sometimes I give it a try. Anyway, they previously had quite a good selection of salads that were well made. But all that has suddenly changed! Now every salad, no matter what it is, no matter what are the ingredients, has potato in it. Everything has potato. Why? Is there some sort of glut? Are the fields awash with potatoes?

Well I can tell you another thing. It's not nice. The one I just ate tasted like something they found in a ditch. The recipe made no sense and I hardly ate any of the potatoes. Well, they should think on that.

Please note: I said the salads were good previously. I have nothing against potatoes or their use in cuisine. It's just a question of mad recipes or sane recipes. Take your choice, Marks and Spencer.

What we learned today is: help people if you can, let them win if they can, and don't allow any more of this potato insanity. The end!

Saint-Saëns/Godowsky: Le cygne (The Swan)

I have to go out in a minute so here is this morning's present for you. An elegant swan!

L'elisir d'amore

I was once again the lucky recipient of a ticket for a General Rehearsal performance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The opera was L'elisir d'amore by Gaetano Donizetti (first performed 1832). Direction was by Laurent Pelly, orchestra directed by Bruno Campanella. Cast included Giuseppe Filianoti (Nemorino), Diana Damrau as a sprightly Adina, Anthony Michaels-Moore (Belcore), Simone Alaimo (Dulcamara), and Eri Nakamura in the role of Gianetta, thanks to the Jette Parker Young Artist Scheme.

Although this was an all-the-way-through performance before an audience, it was technically a rehearsal so some things might go differently when the run proper begins. They always announce "some singers may mark their roles" but I haven't really noticed any of that in the two I have attended. All I can really say along those lines is that I sometimes get the feeling there will be a very small percentage increase in smooth running between the final reh and the official performances. It's hardly noticeable, and the roles are performed as they should be, the result of a lot of study and rehearsing.

Today I would like to draw a little attention to Simone Alaimo who really characterised his part and produced a lot of believable specific moments for the character; moments like these add up to give to the audience an experience you live through rather than one you experience. Of course this is what would be called a "character" part which naturally gets a lot of the attention because there is more "character" to notice, yet for example Anthony Michaels-Moore as Sergeant Belcore was perfectly able to produce everything necessary to that role, the only difference being that, as he did his duty so well, he sought not to overshadow the action and hence there was less to notice. But you may have noticed that I noticed there was less to notice, so, yes, there was a lot going on there too. But this is not really a review of the performance, especially it being a rehearsal. (And anyway I don't like to review performances because I generally have so much to complain about and it's not really fair)

As for Donizetti, I could see a lot of ability and talent. But ultimately the music is simply musical, doing a job and making sound of the right type at the right moments, rather than fulfilling the real purpose of music, which is principally to teach us more about music and hence (perhaps) about everything. You can compare it with the Verdi I saw recently and see the difference. In fact I have almost no comments to make about the composing, mainly because there wasn't much there.

But the man wrote 75 operas in 12 years! This total includes the now not very romantic-sounding Emilia di Liverpool, which I'd be (somewhat) interested to know about.

Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti. The only one not to have gourmet items named after him is Donizetti (Tournedos Rossini, and the Bellini, a cocktail of Champagne (or Prosecco) and peach). Why is this - did he not achieve the same greatness? [actually there is an asteroid named after him: 9912 Donizetti - but I don't believe it is a gourmet asteroid]

I have yet to hear Bellini in performance, just as there are millions of other things I've never heard, mostly by choice but often because I've had a lot of other things to learn about that seemed more important for me. Oh yes, actually I've never heard a Rossini opera performed either! So can I really make a comparison? No, I cannot.

Yes, you're right, of course I can! Rossini is the best, Bellini is the classic, and Donizetti is the "sports model". Is this true? I do not know. But I will eventually find out. I would particularly like to hear how Donizetti sounds on a more serious subject. Not that that is necessarily of greater import, as his genius may have been for comedy, but I'd like to know about it all the same.

What makes comedy funny? A combination of bad things happening in life from time to time and an innate human sense that appreciates absurdity. So, following on from reason (1), it's often a little bit of seriousness in a comedy that gives you the measure of it. In L'elisir that could be anything - although if it was there it was ignored by the production I saw - but it could most obviously be the aria Una furtiva lagrima (you can hear it performed by Caruso here). But this song is not so serious as it appears to people who, like me, have previously heard it on its own and assumed it was something sad. The tear in question comes from the eye of Adina, and it tells Nemorino that actually she does like him! So that's not so bad.

I wished for a little bit more than just light entertainment from this production. One can argue that as a comedy, it must be light. But one can argue (as I am) that the business of comedy is serious, and should be taken seriously! Once you're on stage, there are no great or small roles, just the role you are playing now. The greatest one you will ever play at this moment. And that's why it demands everything you can give.

What role are you playing now? Have you given everything to the part? Have you had gourmet items named after you? Well, that's not really a test of true value. But the point is, now is the time for now. You are on the stage. Who knows the comparative value of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, but in all truth, they are all different. Donizetti did his job and so may you!

75 operas in 12 years, eh?

And the people laughed at this one, you know. He knew they would. It was his job.

I, in a very modest manner, shall walk about with bowed head; I’ll have rave reviews…I can become immortal…My mind is vast, my genius swift...And at composing, a thunderbolt am I.

He wrote that when he was 14. And we're still talking about him.

Bravo.

Donizetti

Donizetti, when asked which of his own operas he thought the best, spontaneously replied, 'How can I say which? A father always has a preference for a crippled child, and I have so many.

I'm going to see L'Elisir d'amore tomorrow, so I'll let you know how it turned out.

Linguistic Statistic

According to what I just read, English has a vocabulary of 500,000-1,000,000 words, whereas French has 100,000. How do they manage? The score even includes words like le weekend!

Perhaps something is holding them back. They must start to create more! We often hear that Shakespeare invented 200 words which are still used today ("instinctively", "champion" as a verb, "torture", "mountaineer", etc.) so someone could give it a try.

Still, there is not a lot of chance of that today now that everything is set (or typeset) and settled and the only neologisms we get are such wondrous sparkling brilliancies as chav, which I barely understand and don't wish to go into any further.

Look up neologism (a neologism coined in 1803) and you will encounter the following:

In psychiatry, the term neologism is used to describe the use of words that only have meaning to the person who uses them, independent of their common meaning. This is considered normal in children, but a symptom of thought disorder...in adults.

Well what do you say to that?

Protboots, say I!