Author Archives: Arcana

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About Arcana

My name is Ben Hogwood, editor of the Arcana music site (arcana.fm)

Online Concert – April Fredrick, Stacey Rishoi, Brennen Guillory, Gustav Andreasson, Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra / Kenneth Woods: Mahler’s Liederabend

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Mahler’s Liederabend: A Recreation of Mahler’s Concert in Vienna on 29th January 1905

Mahler
Des Knaben Wunderhorn – selection (1892-1901)
Kindertotenlieder (1901-4)
Vier Rückert-Lieder (1901)

April Fredrick (soprano), Stacey Rishoi (mezzo-soprano), Brennen Guillory (tenor), Gustav Andreasson (bass), Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra / Kenneth Woods

Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant Street, Boulder CO (Links to concert sections embedded below)
Saturday 20th May 2023

by Richard Whitehouse

In an event as inclusive as Colorado’s MahlerFest, it was happily inevitable the Liederaband Mahler gave in Vienna on 29th January 1905 be recreated and, while the decision to distribute these songs between four singers was not strictly ‘authentic’, it yet emphasized their variety of thought and expression more readily than had one vocalist been present throughout. What remained consistent was the creative zeal of Mahler at a crucial juncture in his composing, as he left behind the fantastic realm of his earlier music for greater realism and even abstraction.

The first half was of seven songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, which collection dominated Mahler’s thinking the previous quarter-century. Two of them are ostensibly dialogues, but the absence of a second singer mattered little when April Fredrick rendered that interaction of the yearning woman with her condemned lover in Lied des Verfolgten im Turm so graphically; as too the more wistful imaginings of separated lovers in Der Schildwache Nachtlied. She also underlined the glancing irony of Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt and the playful whimsy of Rheinlegendchen with understated assurance. Brennen Guillory pointed up the deadpan humour of Trost im Unglück and if Der Tamboursg’sell felt a little too earnest, the stridency that increasingly borders on aggression of Revelge was bracingly delivered.

Here, as elsewhere, adherence to Mahler’s scoring, with its emphasis on woodwind and brass, brought out its evocative quality which outweighed any passing thinness of tone in the strings. This was even less of an issue during the sparser textures of Kindertotenlieder, whose songs find universal truths in Friedrich Rückert’s intimate ruminations. Gustav Andreasson seemed a little raw of timbre in Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n, though the yearning fatalism of Nun seh’ ich wohl, warun so dunkel Flammen was tangibly conveyed, as too was the aching poignancy of Wenn dein Mütterlein. The bittersweet elegance of Oft denk’ ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen felt slightly undersold, but not those contrasts of In diesem Wetter as this final heads from fraught anguish toward a repose from which all dread has been wholly eradicated.

Kenneth Woods directed the Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra with that unforced rightness evident from his earlier Mahler performances. Never more so than the four Rückert-Lieder which ended this programme – albeit in a discreet but effective reordering from that of 118 years before. Thus, the capricious whimsy of Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder! preceded the deft enchantment of Ich atmet einen Linden duft; Stacey Rishoi proving as responsive to these as to Um Mitternacht, with its crepuscular winds and majestic climax with swirling arpeggios on harp and piano. Fittingly, the sequence closed with Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen – the finest of Mahler’s orchestral songs in its rapt serenity, Rishoi’s conveying of Rückert’s otherworldly sentiments more than abetted by Lisa Read’s eloquent cor anglais. If recreating the Liederabend meant no place for Liebst du um Schönheit (now available in a far more idiomatic orchestration by David Matthews), which might have made a pertinent encore), its absence did not lessen the attractions of this enterprising and successful concert.

Click on the name for more information on Colorado MahlerFest 2024, and on the artist names for more on Kenneth Woods, April Fredrick, Stacey Rishoi, Brennen Guillory and Gustav Andreasson

Playlist – Josef Suk (born 4 January 1874)

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by Ben Hogwood

Today marks 150 years since the birth of Czech composer Josef Suk in Křečovice, south of Prague, on 4 January 1874.

Over the last 25 years or so, Suk, has enjoyed a mini-musical renaissance, thanks in part to the advocacy of conductors such as Libor Pešek and Sir Simon Rattle. Yet he remains a composer whose music still doesn’t get out that much.

Closer inspection reveals an innovative musical mind, proud of his Czech ancestry but taking in influences from the likes of Brahms as well as Dvořák, who, as well as being Suk’s teacher, became his father-in-law when he married daughter Otilie.

Suk wrote evocatively about nature and the seasons, but a good deal of his music was inspired by family connections, such as the piano suite About Mother, or Czech / Bohemian heritage and history, as in the large orchestral work Praga.

Hopefully 2024 will see more performances of Suk’s music, so that attached Tidal playlist will help set the scene. It introduces the orchestral works for which he is best known, but also some fine chamber and piano compositions. Get a flavour for the music for Suk below:

https://embed.tidal.com/playlists/a43b1560-a91d-48ed-8dd4-e0bb1393ba7e?layout=gridify

Happy New Year – the year ahead on Arcana

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by Ben Hogwood, editor

As this is our first post of the year, let me take the opportunity to wish all readers of Arcana a very Happy New Year! Thanks for taking the time to visit the site, I hope you will find much of interest.

In a musical sense, 2024 promises much – and offers a great opportunity to celebrate the music of some classical composers whose anniversaries fall this year. Keep visiting for more on Gustav Holst (above, his statue in Cheltenham), Gabriel Fauré, Darius Milhaud and Nick Drake – as well as the continuation of our Beethoven 200 series, which will pick up the composer’s work where we left off, with the opera Lenore. There will also be the usual reviews of concerts and new music, playlists and interviews. The aim is to add a post each day, so if you come back to the site on a daily basis you should find something new to read – and something new to listen to.

We aim to do what Manfred Mann’s Earth Band did to Holst – and bring some joy to our readers. Wishing you a wonderful 2024!

In concert – Janine Jansen and friends play Brahms @ Wigmore Hall

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Janine Jansen (violin), Timothy Ridout (viola), Daniel Blendulf (cello), Denis Kozhukhin (piano)

Brahms
Violin Sonata no.2 in A major Op.100 (1886)
Viola Sonata no.2 in E flat major Op.120/2 (1894)
Piano Quartet no.3 in C minor Op.60 (1855-75)

Wigmore Hall, London
Thursday 21 December 2023

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood. Photos of Janine Jansen & Timothy Ridout (c) Marco Borggreve

After the unfortunate cancellation of a concert in her series the previous week, violinist Janine Jansen and friends returned to health and to a Christmassy Wigmore Hall for another all-Brahms programme.

Jansen (above) and pianist Denis Kozhukhin (below) began with the Violin Sonata no.2, a late substitution for the first sonata but a breath of fresh air on a winter evening. One of Brahms’s best-loved chamber piece, its charming first theme has enough to weaken the hardest heart. So it was here, with Jansen’s affectionate playing. Her creamy tone was complemented by the incisive piano playing of Kozhukhin, who was deceptively relaxed in his body language but very much in tune with Brahms’s intricate rhythms and phrasing. The two excelled in the central section of the second movement, which tripped along with admirable definition of those rhythms, and in the finale, where the two enjoyed a more assertive musical dialogue.

Brahms’s last completed chamber work followed, Kozhukhin joined by violist Timothy Ridout (below) for a performance of the Viola Sonata no.2, arranged by Brahms from the clarinet original. This account exhibited elegance, poise and no little power. Ridout’s burnished tone was ideal for the music, capturing the shadowy outlines of music from a composer in his twilight years, but putting down suitably firm markers in the second movement. Ridout’s high register playing was a treat throughout, his tuning exemplary, and as the two players navigated the theme and five variations of the finale there was an ideal give and take between the part-writing. Particularly memorable was the plaintive stillness of the fourth variation, its mystery dispelled by the affirmative ending.

After the interval we heard the Piano Quartet no.3, competed in 1875 when Brahms was working on the completion of his first symphony. The two works have a good deal in common, beyond sharing the same tonality, for Brahms brings an orchestral dimension to his writing for the four instruments. This grouping needed no invitation to take up the mantle, powering through the first movement with relish, their dramatic account notable for strength of tone and unity of ensemble playing. Jansen and Ridout in particular stood out, their unisons absolutely as one, yet the real hero of the performance was Kozhukhin, elevating the heroic elements of a score closely associated with Goethe’s Werther while keeping the nervousness emanating from Brahms’s syncopated rhythms.

Lest he be forgotten, cellist Daniel Blendulf (above) delivered an understated solo of considerable beauty to begin the Andante, providing respite from the high voltage drama elsewhere but getting to the heart of Brahms’s soulful writing for the instrument. The quartet regrouped for the finale, another show of breathtaking power but with room for reverence in the chorale themes and their development. For all the bravura the air of uneasiness remained as an undercurrent, Brahms never quite at rest even when the quartet reached its emphatic conclusion. This was a truly memorable performance, capping an outstanding evening of music making for which all involved should be immensely proud.

Published post no.2,047 – Friday 22 December 2023

On Record: Bruce Brubaker – Eno Piano (InFiné)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

To read the full story behind Eno Piano, you can read Arcana’s recently published interview with Bruce Brubaker. In it he sets out his quest to recreate Brian Eno’s ambient masterpiece Music For Airports, made through tape loops and studio techniques, for a living and breathing musician to play on the piano.

To get the necessary sustain Brubaker has employed a number of intriguing techniques, not least the use of electro-magnetic bows over the piano, enabled by Florent Colautti.

While Music For Airports is the main act, Brubaker places it in the context of shorter works by Eno that have a more descriptive edge – The Chill Air, a collaboration with the late Harold Budd, By This River, co-written with Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Rodelius, and Emerald and Stone, where his collaborators are Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams, with whom he still works a great deal.

What’s the music like?

Incredibly restful – which of course is a description you could level at the original Music For Airports. Job done, you would think, but the reproduction of this music in human hands does reveal a slight and unexpected intensity, the performer having to maintain a very high degree of concentration and control to get close to honouring Eno’s original music.

Brubaker certainly does that, and the electro-magnetic bows help the sustain very subtly at the start of Music For Airports 2/1. The whole thing is so carefully thought through that each note feels researched but also instinctive, especially in 2/2 where the angular lines create an extraordinary sense of space.

While Music For Airports is indoors, the other three pieces are very much outside, and have a refreshing clarity. The Chill Air and By This River are bracing, wintry piano music.

Does it all work?

It does. When Bang On A Can released their chamber ensemble version of Music For Airports in 1998 it gave a new dimension to Brian Eno’s thinking. This piano work will have a similar effect, and is even more intimate in its confines.

Is it recommended?

Yes. Any Eno fan will want to hear this, and Bruce Brubaker shows just how imaginatively and thoughtfully he can attend to the music of others. This is a quiet revelation.

Listen & Buy

Published post no.2,046 – Thursday 21 December 2023