America's great orchestras; Europe's great music (part 2)

The Rudolfinum, Prague

Yesterday's post focused on the repertoire that the world's orchestras (including our own) annually bring to America's musical palace, Carnegie Hall.  I noted that the Germans usually bring German programs and the Viennese offer Austrian concerts, while American orchestras almost ashamedly perform stalwarts of the "safe" European giants: a smattering of Brahms, Debussy, Beethoven, and lots of Richard Strauss.  I surmised (without adequate evidence) that the Czech's probably tour with their music.  A recent investigation into the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra's (CPO) performance at the 2010 BBC Proms (under John Eliot Gardiner, a Brit, no less) revealed that they played a program devoted almost entirely to Czech music:

• Dvorak:  Symphony No. 8 and Carnival Overture
• Grieg:  Piano Concerto
• Martinu:  Symphony No. 6
• Janacek:  The Ballad of Blahnik

I have heard this orchestra perform twice: once at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and again at their own home, the magnificent Rudolfinum in Prague.  The CPO unabashedly performed at least one work of Dvorak both times.  In fact, the Prague concert was an all-Dvorak program consisting of the three concert overtures, In Nature's Realm, Carnival and Othello--as they are intended to be performed!  The entire cycle makes such musical sense that it is now difficult for me to imagine excerpting one from the group (although I will admit that I have conducted Carnival alone).  The second half of the program was the Seventh Symphony, a work that I had heard in Chicago.  As I have said many times, this was a performance that they could have easily phoned in, but they didn't, because of the immense national pride in the ensemble and the composer.

Stavovske divadlo, where Mozart conducted

The same is true of Prague performances of Mozart's Don Giovanni, written for them after that city's embrace of The Marriage of Figaro with an outpouring of affection and adulation for this, arguably one of the greatest of all operas.  While I have heard otherwise unconvincing performances of other works, particularly at the city's two main opera houses, the Statni Opera and the Narodni Divadlo, I have never heard a substandard performance of Czech music in the Czech Republic.  How I long to visit that country during its beloved Prague Spring Festival (another item for my bucket list).

One might surmise that perhaps American orchestras fare better in offering truly American music when traveling abroad.  Unfortunately the facts speak for themselves:

Lenny's orchestra plays no Lenny, nor Mahler either...

New York Philharmonic:  November 2010 concert in Hamburg.  Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun; Sibelius: Violin Concerto; Richard Strauss: Don Juan; Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes from Weber's Euryanthe.

Maestro comments:  safe, Safe, SAFE!!!  There is nothing here to challenge the listener's ear and nothing by an American!  Did Claude Debussy write anything else but Faun and La Mer?  And why Strauss?  I have heard it rumored (I read it somewhere once, probably long ago) that Americans play Strauss's music much more than the Europeans do.  Possibly that's because most of it is overblown, highly post-Romantic....just plain over the top.  Why no Ives from this orchestra that championed his music under Leonard Bernstein?  Or better yet, why no John Corigliano?  I think he's related to some hack who used to play with the band....

Hindemith Symphony?  You're kidding, right?

Chicago Symphony: upcoming fall tour in Salzburg, Lucerne, Luxembourg, Paris, Dresden and Vienna.  Bernard Rands*: Danza Petrificada; R. Strauss: Death and Transfiguration and Aus Italien; Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Hindemith: Symphony in E-flat; Prokofiev: Suite from Romeo and Juliet.

*While Bernard Rands (b. 1934) is an American citizen, it must be noted that he is British-born and received much of his early training in Wales, as well as a residency in Italy that brought him under the influence of Berio and Dallapiccola.  He also studied with Boulez in Darmstadt from 1961-1964.  One would think that his musical voice was already established when he moved to the U.S. in 1975.

Furthermore, Chicago Classical Review says of the work, "Danza Petrificada is that rare work that manages to be both intelligent and individual, while also serving its functional purpose as a lively, audience-friendly, nine-minute curtain-raiser—even with the abrupt coda."  To me that reads safe.

Maestro says: snore......Two Strausses?  Please!?!?!?!  And for that matter, didn't Shostakovich write more than his Fifth Symphony.  Granted it's a fabulous and moving work but enough already.  Give us some Russian music we don't know:  the underplayed Borodin Second or how about some Myaskovsky?  My God, the guy wrote 27 symphonies; there has to be a good one in the bunch.  Have you heard of Gliere, Mr. Muti?  Or possibly the under-appreciated Kallinikov?

Let's ban any performance of Bolero w/o dancing girls!

Cleveland Orchestra: upcoming fall tour to Vienna, Madrid, Paris, Luxembourg, Valencia, Cologne, Linz.  Mozart: C-minor Mass; Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 "Scottish"; Stravinsky: Agon; Ravel: Bolero; Weber: Overture to Euryanthe; Adams: Doctor Atomic Symphony; Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4; Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1; Strauss: Metamorphosen.

Maestro says:  Taking a Mozart mass to Vienna seems to me to be the height of hubris.  Several of Cleveland's concerts end with Bolero.....Blech!  While the orchestra has to be given credit for offering a work by John Adams, could they not also find a "mainstream" American symphony?  I'll name a few later.

Philadelphia Orchestra: 2010 tour to Korea, Japan and China.  Berlioz: Roman Carnival, Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1; Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances; Ravel: La Valse; Stravinsky: The Firebird (complete) and The Rite of Spring (always performed consecutively); Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2; Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto.

It should be noted that the orchestra did perform at the Shanghai World Expo during that tour.  The repertoire presented included the usual cast of characters:  Bernstein: Overture to Candide and "Mambo" from West Side Story; Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue and Porgy and Bess, A Symphonic Picture; and Copland: "Hoe-Down" from Rodeo.

Maestro says: the stuff on the "classical" list is all old hat; nothing, absolutely nothing new here.  Two Stravinsky ballets back-to-back?  And that proves exactly what?  Here's what Igor wrote in 1910 and here's how he had progressed by 1913.  I'd much rather hear a Tchaikovsky ballet score followed by the Rite.  At least then one could make a point for a remarkable progression of music for the stage.

I'll take this fiddler any day!

And what's this "American" program?  It's, again, just about as vanilla and safe as one can get.  Bernstein, Copland, and Gershwin and all "cross-over" hits at best (regardless of my love for Candide).  The Germans bring them Brahms and Beethoven (I would assume) and we throw in a fiddle tune.  If we're really going in that direction, let O'Connor, Ma and Meyer hit the stage.  At least one of those guys has fiddle tunes in his blood.

It is more than blatantly obvious that, for whatever reason, American orchestras refuse to perform American music when on tour throughout the world.  Why?  Because our art music history is limited to the mid-nineteenth century forward (and yes, there were Americans composing during the Romantic era)?  Are there no great American symphonists?  Is Aaron Copland our only composer of significant ballet music?  Is there a truly great American opera that is a part of the international repertory?  And those questions are just enough to whet the appetite...

- TO BE CONTINUED (again?) -