A
few years ago, a group of American actors came up with a rollicking
play called "The Complete Works of Wm. Shakespeare, Abridged," which
managed to shoehorn all of the bard's plays into about two hours. A
theatre troupe performed it a few years ago here in Aspen (not part
of the music festival). Although they spent extended time on some of
the plays, for most a line or two was enough. It was all in good fun.
I
couldn't help thinking about that that experience last Sunday afternoon
(July 27) in the Benedict Music Tent as Edo De Waart conducted The
Ring: An Orchestral Adventure, which strings together, in about
an hour, most of the orchestral highlights of Wagner's Ring of the
Nibelungen. De Waart commissioned the arrangement in 1991 by Henk
de Vlieger, a member of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, which De
Waart has conducted since 1989. The chief conductor of the Netherlands
Opera and, until recently, Sydney Symphony, wanted to bring the music
of the Ring to the concert hall in something of a whole piece,
rather than the set-piece excerpts usually heard, such as "The Ride
of the Valkyries" and "Siegfried's Funeral Music."
Unlike
"Wm. Shakespeare, Abridged," the object here is not comedy but to being
into the concert hall a taste of the sweep and power of Wagner's music
for The Ring. To a surprising extent, it works. "I didn't want
it to end," I overheard one awed music student say to another after
the concert. "There's a lot more where that came from," I thought to
myself.
The
"musical adventure" strings together 14 sections of Wagner's 15 or 16
hours (depending on who's conducting) of music. They appear in the same
order as they do in the four operas, some in virtually complete form,
starting with the long prelude to Das Rhinegold that stays
on an E-flat chord for minutes on end. "The Ride of the Valkyries,"
"Siegfried's Death" and "Siegfried's Funeral Music" also come through
intact. We hear extended sections of the Niebelungs hammering on their
anvils from Das Rheingold, the "Magic Fire" music from the end
of Die Walküre, "Forest Murmurs" and "Brünnhilde's
awakening" from Siegfried, the "Rhine Journey" and the closing
pages of Brünnhilde's "Immolation Scene," the final bars of Gotterdämmerung.
De
Waart and the Festival Orchestra handled the music with a great deal
of enthusiasm, emphasizing powerful sweep and massive sound more than
the details. The rich string sound that could bring warmth to the closing
pages didn't quite emerge, and the attacks were distressingly ragged
in the opening chords of "Brünnhilde's awakening". Still,
the power of the music, played by more than 100 professionals and students,
was irresistible.
Topping
a long list of soloists who made standout contributions was John Zirbel,
principal horn of the Montreal Symphony, who brought magnificent aplomb
to Siegfried's horn calls. Clarinetist Joaquin Valdepeñas also
was wonderful with Brünnhilde's love music.
The
same could not be said of pianist Joseph Kalichstein, who opened the
concert by lumbering through Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4
with playing of minimal refinement.
They
should have given the assignment to Christopher Taylor, who brought
tremendous insight to Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 7 in D Major
in a recital in Harris Hall Tuesday. The Colorado-born pianist, who
is also a mathematician, performed with precision and plenty of personal
style, injecting dramatic (if unnecessary) hesitations in the first
movement and finding an upwelling of rhythmic spring in the finale of
the sonata.
He
was even better in Turning, a fascinating theme and variations
written in 1995 by American composer Derek Bermel. Taylor played the
premiere in Paris, and if it was anything like the stunning performance
in Aspen, it must have wowed 'em. Bermel begins with a hymn-like tune,
which picks up strange echoes in the high end of the piano that eventually
develop into a sort of counter-theme of their own, offset just enough
to sound softly dissonant. The variations explore jazz, African and
South American influences, but they never quite became copies of those
forms of music.
Taylor
also conquered Leonard Bernstein's 1981 test piece, Touches,
also a theme-and-variations, before launching into a ravishing performances
of six of the 12 Transcendental Etudes by Liszt. It's hard to
say which he did best, but the ones that had the most profound effect
were Harmonies du Soir in D flat major and Chasse Neige in
B minor, with which he concluded. The encore was "Through the Gates
of Eden," a lovely nod to ragtime by William Bolcom, which Taylor played
so beautifully I found myself wishing he would do a whole evening of
rags.
A
recital Sunday evening in Harris Hall of the International Sejong Soloists,
a conductor-less ensemble of 14 young musicians, brought similarly rich
musical rewards in music from Penderecki to Haydn. The Polish composer's
1991 Sinfonietta for Strings set up wonderful contrasts between
harshly dissonant edgy chords and sweet lyrical playing that overlaps
intriguingly.
More
contrasts followed with delicate performances of Berceuse by
Fauré and Clair de Lune by Debussy, both in recent arrangements
for strings by Michael Luther, and a lively performance of the Haydn
Cello Concerto in C major featuring cellist Ole Akahoshi. The
first cellist in the ensemble, Akahoshi displayed a lovely way with
legato playing, making the slow movement a gorgeous dream, but less
ability to make the rapid-fire fioratura of the outer movements sound
out without scratchiness. The concert ended with a warm performance
of the Serenade in E Major by Dvorak, compromised only by recurring
intonation problems.
Harvey
Steiman
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