76.
Photos by Greg Ross
From the Sydney Morning Herald:Speaking at a Global Foundation conference, yesterday the orchestra's artistic director, Richard Tognetti, called on the Government to reverse last week's decision to cut funding to the Australian National Academy of Music.
The South Melbourne academy was established by prime ministerial order in Paul Keating's 1994 Creative Nation statement. It receives $2.64 million of federal funding each year.
Last Wednesday the academy was told funding would end this year, with federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett saying the academy was no longer the most effective way of training elite musicians.
About 55 students attend advanced performance courses and a further 30 take part in the academy, which has put on 170 public concerts this year.
Tognetti, a lead violinist who has been the artistic director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra for 20 years, said the decision made no sense. "It costs only $2.5 million a year to run and it produces some of the best students in Australia. The ACO has no deliberate connection with this academy but most of the candidates for our orchestra come from the academy."
Tognetti called for a national approach to music education. "We need a comprehensive national music education unencumbered by state differences," he said.
A spokesman for Mr Garrett said talks would continue.
(Bridie Smith reporting)
Bach Sonatas for Violin and Keyboard is available at the ACO Shop individually and as part of an excellent-value 5 CD set of Tognetti's complete Bach for violin. Visit the shop.
Further Listening:
The Art of Fugue Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Piano, Deutsche Grammophon 477 7345
The Art of Fugue (arr. Simpson for string quartet) Delme Quartet, Hyperion CDA67138
Further Reading:
Douglas Hofstadter Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (Basic Books)
A meditation on consciousness, artificial intelligence and language (and a whole lot more), intertwining the life and works of the mathematician, the artist and the musician. Hard to explain in a single sentence but quite simply astonishing. (Amazon.com)
Christoph Wolff Bach: The Learned Musician (WW Norton & Co.)
Life and works. Aimed at the educated layperson but with a fair bit of analysis that could be on the dry side for the casual music-lover.
VIVALDI The Four Seasons
Further Listening:
Classical music recording website Arkivmusic.com lists some 225 versions of The Four Seasons. If you're like us, you probably already have a recording or two. Some favourites include:
Simon Standage, Trevor Pinnock, The English Concert (DG/Arkiv 474616)
Arranged for flute by James Galway with I solisti di Zagreb (RCA Victor Gold Seal 60748)
Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica (with Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) (Nonesuch 79568) The moody Piazzolla seasons contrast nicely with the Vivaldi. Stylish performance.
Isaac Stern, Schlomo Mintz, Pinchas Zuckermann, Itzhak Perlman and the Israel Philharmonic (DG 419214) The lavish cast has a lot of fun playing one each of the concertos.
What's your facvourite recording? Drop us a note and let us know.
Further Reading:
Read the sonnets in the original Italian at Wikipedia, here.
HC Robbins Landon Vivaldi: Voice of the Baroque (University of Chicago Press)
Short but solid life and works.
We haven't read it, but there's a historical novel about Vivaldi's time at the Pieta rather racily entitled Vivaldi's Virgins by Barbara Quick (Harper Paperbacks). Vivaldi is the first-person narrator. If you've read it, share a quick review?
BERG Lyric Suite
Explore expressionism, yearning, decadence and the unconscious with these key works of Viennese (and German) art.
Further Listening:
Alban Berg Alban Berg Collection, Various Artists, DG (Violin Concerto, Songs, Operas etc)
Richard Strauss Elektra and Salome
Further Reading:
Arthur Schnitzler Reigen (AKA La Ronde) (Methuen)
Sigmund Freud The Interpretation of Dreams (Oxford University Press)
Thomas Mann Doctor Faustus and The Magic Mountain (Penguin)
Music and madness in Mann's allegory of a country's slide into Nazi complicity. The Magic Mountain examines pre-World War I Europe throught the microcosm of an alpine sanatorium.
It's a pointer to what a sheltered life I've led. Last night was my first time. At the City Recital Hall, which, acoustically, at least, matches the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall (and then some) and is, I think, more comfortable; it's certainly a more conducively intimate size.
The Australian Chamber Orchestra, during the course of my adult years, seems to have come from nowhere and gone to the stratosphere. For its foundation, we've John Painter to thank. For its continuation and flowering we've many to thank, but, of course, not least among them, longtime Artistic Director, Richard Tognetti.
Tognetti, it seems to me, has quietly, surreptitiously railed against the strictures, often self-imposed, on classical music and musicians. I shouldn't imagine there'd be too many orchestras worldwide in which (male) members have earrings and mohawks. That's bound to signify a more modern, slightly upstart, challenging approach.
The audacious attitude pays off. There is much fine music available to one's ears, but not nearly so much of it delves so deeply into the motivations and spirit of the music. Not nearly so much of it stirs, excites and arouses like ACO renditions. Commitment is physically evident in lead violinist, Tognetti; his second, Helena Rathbone; principal violist, Christopher Moore; principal cellist, Timo-Veikko Valve and, on this occasion, special guest, one of the world's best, cellist Stephen Isserlis. Loving your work would seem such a rare commodity, it's always a pleasure (nay, thrill) to watch and, of course, in this context, we get to hear it, as well.
Last night's programme began with a concerto for cello & an exceptionally well-chosen one, for it allowed plenty of room for Isserlis to show what he's made of: not stern stuff, but a relaxation, comfort and empathy which enables him to take his almost inestimable technical proficiency into another realm; the realm of feeling, so often lost in more serious-minded attempts to reproduce old music. Isserlis, through his humanity and humour, gets inside the music and, I get the sense, the composer's head. This is a musical prize which even surpasses his instrumental gift. Thus, Bach's (but one of the 'lesser' Bachs, in Carl Philipp Emanuel, who died, albeit in Berlin, around the time of first settlement, in Sydney) allegro, largo and final movement of his piece, in A major, were given the kind of airing one expects might have won an ovation from the maestro himself. The piece itself has the unmistakable hallmarks of the many and various Bachs: that pleasing, jaunty, Teutonic symmetry which, had he listened to more of it instead of, say Wagner, might've soothed the savage beast that reared-up in a certain Adolf. It's all about a happy ending; (a characteristic of the form my partner contends to be universally boring, she being more captured by the likes of Bartok, whose demanding work I find, well, demanding work). Essentially, the ACO and, particularly, Isserlis, made a delightful that much more delightful, with an unamplified sound, on sensational instruments, so pure, in its impurity (for we heard every click and moan of bows on strings), so warm and enlivened, it quickened the pulse.
Woldemar Bargiel (did he get teased at school, or was every second kid named Woldermar, in 1830s Berlin?) and his Octet in C minor, were the centrepiece for the evening. Apparently, Bargiel had a bit of a competitive streak and was seeking to rival Mendelssohn, who fashioned the template for octets, at just 16! WB was an elderly 19 when he drafted his and, while it's generally agreed his predecessor takes gold, this is a worthy silver. Also in three movements, but effecting, arguably, a deeper emotional trajectory than the Bach opener, it doesn't perhaps have the maturity or originality which would set it on a winner's podium. Notwithstanding such caveats, it has heart, despite taking itself a little too seriously and introspectively.
A glass of champagne, at interval, was just the thing to settle in for Ravel's brief, but intensely moving and uplifting Hebraic melodies; the first, Kaddish, based on a Jewish prayer and the second, from Yiddish, The Eternal Enigma. The genius of these was in Tognetti's string arrangements, adapted from vocal ones. Both, in their eloquent brevity, proved a simple, but heart bowl of soup can be as satisfying, if not moreso, than an overwrought, elaborate main course.
Bartok, of course, almost requires some kind of warmup and sharpening of the intellect. His rather modern Divertimento for Strings was conceived and written in 1939. My impression is Bartok diverted his attention from impending horrors by losing himself in his music. This seems to be borne out in Bartok's own comments and numerous commentaries. Certainly there is pervasive darkness and foreboding, underscored by BB's trademark rhythmic insistence, carried and communicated powerfully by Australia's national orchestra.
A lusty, vivacious, delicious evening of impassioned playing, from one of the planet's better ensembles.
Lloyd Bradford Syke, Australian Stage Online | 12 Aug 2008
