One of the most powerful
names in music in the last century, Paul Sacher (1906-1999) became
one of the richest men in the world having married the heiress
of the pharmaceutical company, Hoffmann-La Roche. He used his
wealth to commission over 300 pieces from composers and conduct
many of the premieres - including Bartok’s Music for Strings,
Percussion and Celesta. Sacher’s passion for new music led
him to found an orchestra in his native Basle and transform musical life there so that it became a magnet for leading
musicians and composers. This useful and entertaining issue marks
the 100th year of Sacher’s birth. It has been produced
in association with the Paul Sacher Foundation based in Basle,
who are also responsible for the vast archive of composer autograph
scores which Sacher bought, including the Webern and Stravinsky
archives. The substantial booklet notes cover each work in detail,
including dates of premieres, composer’s notes and Sacher’s association
with each piece down to the number of times he conducted them.
This background, amply illustrated by composers’ sketches and
photographic portraits, is a valuable resource, bringing together
all kinds of quotes and anecdotes from a remarkable variety of
sources. I do not propose going over the historical points in
any significant way here, but rest assured – this is a substantial
document which would be a boost to any library.
Each
CD is given its own title, and the first is ‘Monument to Igor
Stravinsky’. All of the recordings come from one concert,
and were intended by Sacher as a portrait of what he saw as
a ‘man of the century.’ Three late works, one of which, A
Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer being dedicated to Sacher,
make this something of a tough nut to crack even today. The
Monumentum pro Gesualdo are ‘Three madrigals recomposed
for instruments’ intended for Gesualdo’s 400th
anniversary and are a subtle meeting of the old and the new.
They were much admired and frequently programmed by Sacher,
who gets a decent performance despite one or two moments of
itchy tuning in the winds. Abraham and Isaac, Stravinsky’s
‘sacred ballad’ had been given its premiere in 1964 and so
was still very new in 1965. Sung in Hebrew and very much in
a serial idiom, the work has an undoubtedly powerful intensity,
though I have never really been convinced by the presentation
of Biblical dialogue by one singer – all too often it becomes
more of a ‘recitation’ monologue, and while Derrik Olsen is
a strong soloist the dynamic contrasts which are supposed
to provide individual characterizations don’t really come
through.
Another
‘hard’ work, A Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer at
least has the gentler edge of a choir to soften the serial
pill. Like many of these performances, there is a sense of
exploration in the way the work unfolds. No doubt the work
was well rehearsed, but you can’t help sensing a feeling of
tentativeness here and there. The Symphony in Three Movements,
despite being a more established ‘middle period’ work also
shows its technical demands here. Powerful in conception and
execution, you can hear the strings struggling a little here
and there, especially in the last movement, where there is
more than one moment of rhythmic uncertainty. One or two players
seem hell-bent on anticipating disastrously, something which
happens even in the relatively straightforward opening of
the Andante. These live concert recordings are very
good despite the very ‘live’ nature of some aspects of the
performances. As early concert registrations of late Stravinsky
they are invaluable as historic documents.
CD
2 is ‘Classic and Classical modern.’ Haydn’s Symphony No.39
might seem a strange choice, but Sacher was a great fan of
the old master, and this combined with SWR chief Heinrich
Strobel’s predilection for including lesser-known Haydn symphonies
alongside 20th century repertoire provides the
answer. Sacher proves a responsive and elegant advocate of
Haydn, making even some of the repeats sound exciting. Despite
the mono sound, you can hear authentic harpsichord continuo
in the background.
Martinu’s
Memorial for Lidice was written as a musical response
to the Nazi ‘act of reprisal’ upon the village
of Lidice near Prague, in which all of the men were killed and the women and children abducted.
Martinu’s strong association with Sacher was already well
established, having received the commission for the ‘Double
Concerto’ in 1938, the point at which, while staying at Sacher’s
house, Martinu and his wife were obliged to return to France
and thence to the USA by the German invasion of his home country.
The performance here is genuinely impassioned, the elegiac
nature of the composer’s lamentation safe in the hands of
the friend in whose arms he had died only five years before.
Frank
Martin’s Ballad for cello and small orchestra brings
us fully up-to-date as regards recording standards, and Heinrich
Schiff’s cello sounds full-blooded and resonant. Martin’s
own notes ascribe to the piece a ‘lyrical and epic’ character,
and the slow, sustained nature of much of the music reflect
this well. This was to be Sacher’s last Radio concert, and
the Swiss-born conductor was keen to revive the fortunes of
his fellow countryman, interest in whose music had declined
considerably in the years after his death.
Bartok’s
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta was written
at the request of Paul Sacher, and the booklet includes the
composer’s letter to Sacher describing his intentions for
the piece. It is one of the most important of Sacher’s commissions,
and has of course become a classic of the 20th
century repertoire. The conductor is at one with the score,
and it shows. The slow music is moving in its intensity and
drama, although once again it is the strings that are a little
ragged here and there. The rhythmic movements equally assured
and refined, and the poise of the Allegro molto finale
is unbeatable. The two slow movements from the piece were
used at Paul Sacher’s funeral conducted by Pierre Boulez,
and are an entirely appropriate memorial.
CD
3, ‘Jubiläum und Abschied’, covers the 50th anniversary
concert of the Basler Kammerorchester with Berio’s Ritorno
degli Snovidenia (The return of the Dreams), and Sacher’s
farewell concert with the same orchestra with Milhaud’s three
act opera, Les Malheurs d’Orphée (The Misfortunes of
Orpheus). Written for Sacher and Mstislav Rostropovich, the
cello part of Berio’s work is marked ‘sempre parlando’, and
it does indeed seem as if the cello is conversing with the
orchestra, suggesting themes and figures which are taken up,
to be revisited and developed later. Some classic Berio textures
emerge: long, sustained orchestral lines, interspersed with
light, filigree comments from the piano. The textures and
harmonies develop inexorably, climbing and tightening virtually
without respite over two-thirds of the piece, after which
an opening into sparer lines allows the soloist to return
from within the previously overpowering orchestra, which ultimately
climbs all over the solo part like insects.
The
work of Darius Milhaud featured relatively rarely in Sacher’s
programmest, but, having conducted this opera before in the
1950s and 1970s, the conductor paired it with Purcell’s ‘Dido
and Aeneas’ as a parallel story set in antiquity, and carrying
similar tragic themes. Milhaud’s setting of a text by his
philosopher friend Armand Lunel is typically pungent and lively,
shot through with dance rhythms and some appealing melodic
lines. The cast is strong, and the singing affecting where
required, and Milhaud without doubt has the musical character
and personality to provide genuinely tragic scenes. The ‘Chorus
of the animals’ has a suitably funereal feel – reinforced
when they return at the funeral of Eurydice, and the descending
lines associated with Eurydice’s demise make for suitably
‘sad’ theatre. You have to say – Purcell did it better, but
for a modern ‘pocket opera’ Milhaud had great fun with his
theme.
CD
4, titled ‘An der Seite von Paul Sacher: Heinz Holliger’ emphasizes
the relationship between two musicians whose 33 year age gap
seemed to mean nothing. Holliger is soloist in Mozart’s Oboe
Concerto in C major K314/285d, which the composer later
re-used when he was obliged to come up with another reluctant
flute concerto. The 1966 recording is a little grainy, but
the performance is good, and a suitable vehicle for Holliger’s
flawless technique. Wolfgang Fortner’s Aulody, from
the same concert, is defiant in its atonal serialism. To me,
this is a far more interesting example of Holliger’s ability
to play chameleon, with his oboe tracing lines which are shadowed
by vibraphone, strings, percussion, brass – the solo instrument
always clearly defined while absorbing the qualities of the
accompanying orchestra. Fortner and Sacher’s relationship
had its ups and downs, with Sacher’s initial enthusiasm faltering
a little as Fortner turned to 12-tone serialism after 1945.
Fortner succeeded Karl Amadeus Hartmann as artistic director
of the Munich
Musica Viva concert series, and it was one of his first
programming decisions which saw Sacher conducting Stravinsky
in the Hercules Hall, the concert recorded on CD 1 of this
set.
Fortner’s
work is not ‘easy’, but is certainly impressive in its orchestral
colour – the spectrum including harpsichord, harp, tuned percussion
– the solo oboe is sometimes merely the icing on a very rich
cake. Heinz Holliger’s own compositional work is introduced
with Two Liszt Transcriptions, which are most emphatically
not literal transcriptions but works based around ‘Nuages
gris’ and ‘Unstern!’ The first of these becomes a dark, almost
subterranean work, with low winds heaving gently under sustained
but fragmented melodic lines. The themes of the second are
more overtly stated, but become a strange and enigmatic mix,
somewhere between Mahler and Wagner with a touch of H.K. Gruber
thrown in. Turm-Musik derives much of its material
from Holliger’s own ‘Scardanelli Cycle’; a series of pieces
which began in 1975. Turm-Musik is the last in the
series, in which the flautist inhabits the imaginary world
of a central character, Hölderlin, “that ‘mad’ ageing poet
in the asylum tower … who listens to the virtuoso flute playing
of his younger doppelganger …” This world of memory
and association brings up some surrealist moments, in which
apparent musical quotes drift in and out of perspective like
paintings behind a smokescreen. Aurèle Nicolet’s flute playing
is of course marvellously juicy – haunting with the lower
flutes, spectacular on C flute – this is a piece which is
rewarding on many levels.
This
set is one of those fascinating objects which offer more than
a glimpse, but less than the whole view on the career of one
of the most influential figures in 20th century
music. There is more to Paul Sacher, and if you revisit those
boxes of LPs in the attic you will in all probability discover
more for yourself. This segment of his work does however offer
some of the more significant aspects of his musical legacy,
and Musiques Suisses are to be complimented on a well conceived,
produced and thoroughly enjoyable programme. Anyone interested
in the foundations of a major portion of European music from
the last century will find great treasures here, and while
performances and recordings are frequently ‘historic’ this
is entirely their value – they come straight from the horse’s
source, and as such their intrinsic value is irrefutable.
Dominy Clements
AVAILABILITY
MGB Records (Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund)
http://www.musikszene-schweiz.ch
http://www.musiques-suisses.ch/
Paul Sacher (conductor)
