Brilliant programme by Benzecry´s Juvenil San Martín

     

 

            Not long ago I waxed enthusiastic about an all-Ginastera programme by the Sinfónica Juvenil Nacional José de San Martín led by Mario Benzecry. Now I welcome a splendid combination of two scores by these forces at the Blue Whale: that surprising cantata by Mendelssohn, "The First Night of Walpurgis"; and one of the greatest symphonic challenges, Gustav Holst´s magisterial "The Planets".

            The cantata has been heard in recent years and I´m glad that it no longer is a rarity, for I find it the most dynamic and dramatic work of choir and orchestra from  this fundamental Romantic composer, only comparable to some bits of the great oratorio "Elijah" though very different. Although I´ve written before about this "Walpurgis" (on Goethe´s text) it´s worth remembering the main facts (unfortunately those that went to the concert got no help at all: neither comments nor texts).

            It starts with a long and tumultuous Overture called "Das schlechte Wetter" ("Bad weather"). And then, the cantata recounting a reunion of pagans and druids to celebrate the feast of the first Night of Walpurgis; they disguise themselves as demons to rout intruding Christians. A tenor recitative with chorus celebrates the coming of Spring; an old woman warns about the chastisements they might suffer if discovered by Christians. A Druid Priest wants to prepare a sacrifice; a choir of Druid Guards tells that they will protect the attenders; a Druid Guard calls for disguise. A rhythmic, ominous Choir "Come with points and pitchforks" gets more and more intense, until the final words, "owls and ravens, howl with us, and scare the cravens".

            Now the Druid Priest leads the celebration, and shortly after the Christians think they see Demons and run away. The final music is majestic: "Unclouded now, the flame is bright!".

            This half hour of  fantasmagory is a masterpìece, and it had a `performance to remember. Benzecry gave to each number the exact weight and dramatic sense, the orchestra played beautifully, and the Coro Lagun  Onak, 50-strong, led by Rubén Pesce, was in very good form. Of the soloists I was particularly impressed by Alejandro Meerapfel whose powerful voice and command of style were ideal. Tenor Ricardo González Dorrego and mezzosoprano Victoria Correa Dupuy are very experienced artists who gave their best.

            In Great Britain Holst´s "The Planets" was always considered an amazing feat of imagination and orchestration, but it was only in the Long Play era that the score came into its own with dozens of recordings by British and foreign conductors. It was Eduardo Mata that revealed the work to our concert audiences; I believe it was in 1974. Since then it has been done several times, but not quite enough: perhaps because Holst incorporates a small treble choir in the final three minutes (that may also be the reason that foreign orchestras have never played it here).

            The suite is in seven contrasting parts each with its character. "Mars, the bringr of War" has tremendous impact. "Venus, the bringer of Peace" is serene. "Mercury, the Winged Messager" is, well, mercurial..."Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity", is a splendid concatenation of melodies in different speeds. "Saturn, the bringer of Old Age", is appropriately mournful. "Uranus, the Magician", after its forceful beginning, a scherzo full of surprises. And "Neptune, the Mystic" is slow and metaphysic, ending with just the voices.

            Benzecry showed the confidence he has in his young charges, for only quality orchestras can do justice to such a creation. But the conductor seems to be going through an Indian Summer, for at 79, spry and communicative, he didn´t put a foot wrong: everything was played according to Holst´s indications. And the orchestra responded with admirable solidity, with never a moment of hesitation, and with high technical ability.

            On this showing, the Juvenil San Martín is clearly our best Youth Orchestra and can play as well as the B.A.Phil or the National Symphony. The feminine  sector of the Coro Polifónico Nacional de  Ciegos (Osvaldo Manzanelli)  sang nicely.

            A final phrase: how incredibly modern is this 1916 score coming from what was musically a very conservative country. So, we commemorate its centenary.

For Buenos Aires Herald

Barenboim/Kaufmann, an anticlimax closing the Festival

This is a sad review, for after calling the preceding concert (Barenboim/Argerich/WEDO) the event of the year, readers may expect a rather enthusiastic response to the last session of the Festival. But I went to the Colón in morose mood, for three facts were inexorable: the programme was too short; it presented the famous tenor in baritone repertoire; and it´s simply and irrevocably unethical to repeat a major score in the same subscription series.

            What drove me mad was the fact that the season programme, distributed in March, says: "we will present the dashing debut of German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, who will delight our public with the music of Richard Wagner, avid to know one the maximal lyric expressions of our time". And this is what we got: the Prelude to the Third Act of Wagner´s "The Mastersingers"; Gustav Mahler´s "Songs of a Wayfarer"; and Mozart´s Symphony Nº41, "Jupiter".

            I can accept the first item (it was the encore of Concert Nº5; the encore, not one of the announced fragments). But baritone Mahler? And the repetition of Mozart´s "Jupiter" (played in the initial concert along with Nos. 39 and 40)? Sorry, there´s a limit to arbitrariness, even coming from world figures like Kaufmann and Barenboim.

            About Mahler: was it the tenor´s wish? Or did he propose something else and Barenboim vetoed it? I don´t know, but I give you a piece of news: Kaufmann will sing in Santiago de Chile a programme of operatic arias from Italian and French composers: "Tosca", "Aida", "Carmen", "Cavalleria Rusticana", "Le Cid", "Andrea Chenier" and "Turandot". Mouth-watering indeed, although it has no Wagner.

            Two ways to have done a decent programme: a) change the Wagner symphonic pieces in the concert with Argerich with, say, Brahms´ Fourth Symphony, and play the same symphonic fragments around Kaufmann, singing arias from "Lohengrin", "Die Walküre" and "The Mastersingers" (he has just sung the complete "Mastersingers" in Munich). b) Do the same programme as in Santiago, adding symphonic opera music to round it off.  

            I have perused the CD R.E.R. catalogue of 2000 in the entry: Mahler: "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen" ("Songs of a wayfarer"). The character of the songs is clearly manly, but several ladies of great career haven´t resisted the temptation and have recorded the lovely music. But not one tenor risked recording it and for good reason: hear the young Fischer-Dieskau with Furtwängler and then recollect what you heard at the Colón with Kaufmann, and what a falling off! Is it an experiment and he decided to try it here? For I read that he has an even stranger idea: to sing both the tenor and the baritone parts in Mahler´s masterpiece "Das Lied von der Erde" (Song of the Earth"); and that lasts an hour!

            The voice sounded veiled and out of register, but the man is an artist and of course he phrased with expression and taste, splendidly accompanied by Barenboim and his WEDO (West-Eastern Divan Orchestra). Then came the very partial saving grace, after just 18 minutes of singing: the lovely "Winsterstürme", Siegmund´s aria from "Die Walküre". There his real voice appeared. And then, helpers moved the piano and Barenboim accompanied him in the Tristanesque "Träume", last of the Five Wesendonk Lieder: beautifully done, though he was poaching in soprano repertoire. At least in this case Kaufmann has two antecedents: Melchior and Kollo, but both with orchestrations not done by Wagner. 

            Readers may remember that two years ago I wrote enthusiastically about his Alvaro ("La Forza del Destino") in Munich: even in a horrid staging there was no doubt about his exalted category. So he owes us a second visit singing opera and has shown bad judgment in his debut. I do hold great hopes for his forthcoming Lieder recital.

            It transpired that both Argerich and Barenboim were affected by the flu, markedly so when they repeated the fifth programme, in which there were no encores; and that Barenboim wasn´t cured on the concert with Kaufmann.  There was no encore after the "Jupiter", to my mind played with less rhythmic bite than on the first concert (of course everyone was fresher then).

            I do hope that next year Barenboim will be more careful and ethical: he owes it not just to the public, but to himself. This is a very expensive series, and two concerts in it were clearly below par; a third one is a controversial decision, that of Arabic music. Let´s have a real Festival where everything is topnotch.

            A personal desire: he has expressed his enthusiasm with Elgar: wouldn´t it be a great contribution to bring the powerful Second Symphony?

For Buenos Aires Herald

 

             

 

Verdi´s “Ernani” makes a welcome comeback at the Avenida

            Buenos Aires Lírica presented Verdi´s "Ernani" in 2006 and it was an excellent idea, for it is one of the best of Verdi´s First Period operas, and the Colón incredibly presented it only in 1965. Ten years later the Colón seems  uninterested to program it, so it is quite justified to bring it back.

            The 2006 occasion had been  convincing in two key roles: Gustavo López Manzitti as a stalwart Ernani and Omar Carrión as a noble Carlo. Svetlana Volosenko was a good Elvira and Homero Pérez-Miranda a dramatic though rather woolly Silva. The sure hands of Carlos Vieu led the orchestra and Mario Perusso did an acceptable staging.

            This time the strongest link in what may be called a Mercosur cast was the powerful Brazilian bass Sávio Sperandio and the weakest the Platense Lisandro Guinis as Carlo: he lacks presence and a fluid vocal line.  Elvira was interpreted by the Paraguayan soprano Monserrat Maldonado with a sense of drama though little refinement and Ernani by the Uruguayan Nazareth Aufe, expressive and correct; however, he needs more metal in the timbre.

             Juan Casasbellas was the very musical conductor, and the American Crystal Manich did the traditional staging, blessedly not changed to the present century but according to the libretto, placed in 1519-20. The stage designs of Noelia González Svoboda were good in the initial two acts but the chapel is poor, and the last act isn´t "a terrace"; the use of the same woody drop of the First Tableau was a mistake. Good costumes by María Emilia Tambutti and adequate lighting (Rubén Conde).

            In my early teens I read in French Victor Hugo´s "Hernani" along with its famous Prologue, and I understood why it provoked a scandal at the time of its première in 1830. As Claudio Ratier writes in his excellent comments (I wish the Colón were as thorough as he is) it is "the banner of French Romanticism, a proclamation in defense of freedom".

            Hugo´s theatre has long been considered old hat, but his intense belief in values that are now forgotten  appealed to me, and they still do. And they persist in the libretto of Francesco Maria Piave for Verdi, although for some reason Hugo didn´t like it.

            Later in my teens I had two experiences that convinced me of the quality of Verdi´s opera. One was the  Cetra recording, with the magisterial Carlo of Giuseppe Taddei. The other was the viewing of "Ernani" at the beautiful old Met ("The Golden Horseshoe") in New York, with a fantastic masculine cast: Leonard Warren, Mario Del Monaco, Cesare Siepi; only Zinka Milanov was in decline by then. The 1965 Colón performances also had admirable singers: Cornell MacNeil´s magnificent Carlo, and the very good Ernani of Flaviano Labò and Silva of Jerome Hines;  Margherita Roberti was a step below but still good; and Previtali was a convinced Verdian.

             The French have always been interested in Spain and you may remember Corneille´s "Le Cid" as a basic reference. I read an article about "Ernani"  that calls Silva the villain: he isn´t, Carlo is until the Third Act. Carlo is no less than Charles I of Spain, crowned Charles V of the Sacred  Roman Germanic Empire precisely in the Third Act, at Charlemagne´s Chapel at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen now), in 1520.

            Remember: Spain in 1519 (first two acts) is a country of extremes: in 1492 Columbus discovers America but both the Moors and the Jews are chased out of Spain; Torquemada is the terrible chief of the Inquisition. A unified Spain from then on, but one with frequent abuses. Charles was born in Ghent; crowned Charles I in 1516 when he was only 16, he knew almost no Spanish. Son of Juana la Loca, grandson of the Catholic Kings (Ferdinand and Isabel), he had to mature fast, but it was only after 1522 and a bloody purge of the revolt of the "comuneros" that Spain began to accept him. Before then, however, he took lands of noblemen. And that´s when Hugo´s Ernani comes in, for he is of noble family, but Carlo runs him into exile by a "bando"(edict); he becomes a "bandit" (that´s the real sense of the word).

            Three men love Elvira but she only loves Ernani; Silva (her uncle) and the young King are the other pretenders. When Ernani disguised as a pilgrim is accepted in Silva´s castle by the laws of hospìtality he learns that Silva will marry Elvira (she thinks Ernani is dead); Ernani reveals himself and both are about to duel when the King´s arrival is announced;  Silva shows an hidalgo´s loyalty and he hides Ernani. Carlo claims the bandit but Silva has given his word to save him. Honor is above all, "the Silvas don´t lie". The King takes Elvira as hostage; the others plan revenge.

            But the conspirators lose in the Third Act, and the new Emperor, invoking Charlemagne, pardons them. In the Fourth Act Silva accomplishes his revenge: he has warned Ernani that if he hears three horn calls he must commit suicide; Ernani fools himself into believing that Silva would pardon him, but the old man is inexorable and Ernani obeys (he had given his word: values again).

            All this with music that boasts several splendid arias, duets, trios and concertantes, plus a chorus, "Si ridesti il Leon di Castiglia",  that Italians took as a call to independence.

For Buenos Aires Herald

             

           

            

Argerich/Barenboim/WEDO: the event of the year

            The Colón concert of Thursday, August 4^th, was truly memorable. It was the fifth of the Abono Azul (Blue Subscription Series) and was repeated the following day (Función Extraordinaria, non-subscription). The artists were Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim leading the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (WEDO).

            This time the programme was long and satisfying, and all concerned were at their best. One general conclusion: Argerich and Barenboim are at the top of their profession and in their early seventies they show no decline. And the WEDO has improved greatly: it is astonishing that young people on a seasonal (not permanent) orchestra should show such maturity, both in the command of their instruments and in the integration of a common concept. There´s real talent in all of them, though of course they have the privilege of a great conductor that gives them style and unity.

            The concert began with a première: "Con brio" by Jörg Widmann. Barenboim had already promoted him in two chamber concerts with different programming of the Mozarteum Argentino (in the second he also played clarinet). This score for full orchestra lasts 11 minutes and although it isn´t divided into two parts it changes sharply after the first minutes, characterised by violent attacks followed by deep silences and by the mixture of musical sounds with noise as defined by Britannica: sound that interferes with other sounds that are being listened to. I wasn´t attracted  so far, but later we hear recognisable melodies as well as fanfares and the mix becomes intriguing. My wife´s imaginative phrase accords with my reaction: "noises, echoes and resonances of bellicose actions in an inhospitable jungle".

            Barenboim led the piece with strong impact and the WEDO responded with exemplary discipline. The author made his bow and was warmly applauded.

            Franz Liszt´s Piano Concerto Nº1 is the most innovative and personal of Romantic concerti. In it (as in the Sonata) rhetorics are never vain; the ideas are substantial, moving and coherent. It is terribly difficult to play: Liszt did for piano technique  what Paganini had done for the violin: an extraordinary expansion of the possibilities of each instrument. And his orchestration gives lovely solos for diverse players dialoguing with the piano.

            You need a true virtuoso that is also a great artist, and a very attentive and collaborative conductor: Sviatoslav Richter and Kyrill Kondrashin are a good reference, and so is Argerich on record with Abbado;  live with Barenboim on this occasion will long be in the memories of those who were at this concert. I heard Argerich  with Dutoit and the National Symphony in this concerto back in 1969; she was young and an amazing powerhouse. Forty-seven years later her incredible technique and stamina remain untouched (if I except her rushed and not altogether clean first entrance). The final minutes were as exciting as they were musical, always abetted by the best collaboration from the WEDO and Barenboim.

            There was a wonderful surprise: her encore wasn´t a short and easy piece from Schumann´s "Scenes from  childhood" as she generally does, but an ideal performance of the best of Ravel: "Ondine", first number of "Gaspard de la Nuit". The fluidity of the playing in this devilishly intricate piece and the subtlety of her touch were an object lesson of Impressionism (as is her recording of 1974).

            The second part was simply the best Wagner playing heard here in a very long time. Maybe as far back as Leitner and Leinsdorf in the Sixties. Barenboim conducted at the Bayreuth Festival from 1981 to 1999, and he did the unparelleled feat of doing the ten great operas in a period of a few weeks in Berlin. Wagner is perfect for him: music of enormous technical accomplishment in which the system of Leitmotiven proves to be an astonishingly flexible array of moods and emotions. Wagner´s continuity imbricates easily with Barenboim´s rich intellect. The chosen 45 minutes are among the greatest orchestral music of the Nineteenth Century and had glorious performances: the interpretations were simply beyond reproach and the playing proved that the WEDO is strong in all departments, very minor smudges apart: the mellowness and musicality of the brass, the fine woodwind solos, the mahogany-hued strings always disciplined and intense, all made for a constant state of direct communication with the music.

            The "Tannhäuser" Overture (Dresden version) went swimmingly both in the solemn pilgrim melodies and in the bacchanical frenzy of the Venusberg. The most dramatically complex music came from "The Twilight of the Gods": the Dawn after the Norns´ scene is joined in the concert adaptation with the final pages of the Siegfried-Brünnhilde duet and goes straight on to the jubilant "Siegfried´s Rhine Journey". But Barenboim cunningly omitted the brilliant coda and went on as in the opera, where the atmosphere becomes gloomy as the hero approaches the Gibichung Palace, for in it looms Hagen, who will kill him in the Third Act; and this version even adds a transformed fragment from the end of the Second Act, that terrible conspiratorial Trio.

            It would have been better to go on without applause to "Siegfried´s Funeral Music" but that was not to be; anyway, that magnificent evokation was spine-tingling in this version.  And the best possible conclusion for the programme, the Overture to "The Mastersingers of Nuremberg", to my mind the greatest  ever written. The encore was complementary: the serene and sad Prelude to the Third Act of the same opera.

For Buenos Aires Herald

​Arabian music at the Barenboim festival

          

            On August 8, 2015, the Herald published an article of mine about various concerts, containing one that was given at the Colón in the Barenboim Festival. I quote myself: "There was a completely unexpected inclusion: a chamber concert of Iranian and Arabic music". Then I raised several points; two bear repeating: "if you believe (as I do) that the Colón is for classical music, this concert is as out of place as Argentine folk music or bossa nova... If I accept the idea, what I want is true music of those origins, no fusion. And this didn´t happen".

            But I neglected to add a major matter:  the whole purpose of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is to obtain a musical camaraderie between Israelis and Palestines; wouldn´t it have been much more in accord with this philosophy to offer a concert in two parts, one with Arabic music and the other with Jewish? For outside their respective communities, the authentic sound of those cultures is little-known to the public at large, and such a concert would have not only a factor of entertainment but also an attempt to tell didactically what their music is about.

            In one sense, this year´s concert is an improvement, for the presentation of the Al Diwan Ensemble was closer to the mark as regards authenticity; but it was only Arabic music. Furthermore, the presentation in the hand programe is a disaster: a) not one word of explanation, when no other concert of the Festival needed it so much. b)  if you have any change of programme, put it in writing; in the Second Part one of the players announced confusedly and in low voice that there would be changes (more on it further in this review). c) Arab titles without translation are surely unhelpful and there were none except in three numbers.

            I have to mention a further question: the sounds of enthusiasm in the audience were very youthful, and indeed there were many young people; as the tickets were very expensive, they probably were invited, maybe with some intervention from Arabian embassies. That´s alright, but worth mentioning, for the habitual Colón goers know little about this music.

            Now let´s make a distinction: our Argentine folklore is consumed in four different ways: the pure thing as recopilated by Vega, Aretz or Valladares; what is called folkloric projection, going from the traditional Ábalos to artists with more modern conceptions such as Juárez; fusion with other cultures but still popular music; and the stylisations made by classical composers such as Ginastera. I surmise without being sure that something similar may occur in Arabic music, for no less than seven pieces have authors: all dead except one, but all Twentieth Century.

            I confess my ignorance about Arabic composers creating music for symphony orchestras but in Arabic style, such as Bloch has done for the Jewish heritage in "Schelomo". Anyway, the Al-Diwan Ensemble was, according to the programme, "formed specially for this concert with members of Arabic origin of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra to interpret with various autochtonous instruments the best instrumental music of the Arabic world". I beg to differ in two matters: surely three violins, one viola, one cello and one bass are not Arabic but normal instruments of an Occidental orchestra; and there were also vocal pieces.

            But some instruments are autochthonous: the oud (transformed in the Occident, for it´s the lute); the qanun, a zither (there are similar but not exactly alike instruments in Europe); and among the percussion, the darabukka (a small drum of particular shape). And of course they were  the ones that gave more character to the music.

            It serves no practical purpose for readers to mention the names of the composers and the titles of the pieces (sample: Salim el Helou: Sama´Isuthdel). Three titles are also in English: "My memories", "Music immortal river" and "The beauty".

            Characteristics: melody either soloistic or in unanimous group accompanied by rhythm; no counterpoint; and no vertical harmony (chords) although the music has a tacit harmony. My reaction as a critic raised on the Occidental tradition: I liked the music and found it had its own coherence. Solo string playing is sinuous and sliding, with little vibrato. Changes of speed within the same piece; feeling of rhythmic pulse in two or three beats. Impressed by the virtuosity of the kanun player (Gilbert Yammine).

            Now to the vocal pieces: they were sung by Ilona Danho, an attractive girl with agreeable timbre and a knack for communication. Ilona sounds Hungarian to me, but she seemed completely at home in the repertoire she did. There was a major change and I regret it: she was supposed to sing Aramaeic and Syrian music of the Fifth Century, as sung in the Mesopotamia (intriguing for two facts: they are not geographically or historically of the Mesopotamia; and what kind of notation did they have in the Fifth Century? Occident had no notation until the Eleventh Century). She sang instead music billed as being Assyrian of the Tenth Century;  it did sound older than the rest, but only a specialised musicologist could tell me the truth. Other pieces were described as Traditional from Aleppo (Syrian), Syria and Irak.

            The concert ended with the deliriously fast and rhythmical "The beauty", which sounded to me much too modern for the dates of the author Sayed Darwish (1892-1923).

​For Buenos Aires Herald

Mozarteum presents uneven Barenboim chamber concert

 

            The Mozarteum Argentino has a long and recurrent relationship with Daniel Barenboim. He returned to our city in 1980 after decades abroad, conducting the Orchestre de Paris, and from then on  came frequently, both as pianist and conductor. It´s a curious thing that his biography in the Mozarteum hand programme doesn´t include references to that musical trajectory in our main concert institution, but it is quite explicit in the programme of the Barenboim Festival: no less than ten times, playing Bach or Beethoven, conducting the Berlin Staatskapelle and the Chicago Symphony, and in 2005 the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (WEDO).

            The festival is now in its third year, and each time in parallel there have been two concerts for the Mozarteum ( two cycles). When he conducts the WEDO there are inevitable duplications with the festival, a bad thing because the audience often attends both. So a chamber concert with members of the orchestra avoids that problem.

            The dense agenda of this musical week forced a decision on this reviewer: although part of the programme was changed for the second cycle and was more attractive than the first, I had to go on Monday, for on Wednesday there is a major event: the National Symphony revives the complete "Roméo et Juliette" by Berlioz, 43 years after its première.

            In both nights the composer Jörg Widmann is featured with premières, but on Monday the pieces are for violin and cello; on Wednesday they are for clarinet and piano and we have another facet of his art, for he plays that instrument. But the second concert is also longer, for added to Widmann´s  Fantasy for clarinet Barenboim will play with him Schumann´s Three fantasy pieces Op.73 and Berg´s Four pieces Op.5. There was a change: the cellist was Kian Soltani, WEDO´s first desk, instead of the formerly announced Adi Tal.

            All was well in the first item, perfectly coherent with the start of the Festival with the three final Mozart symphonies, for his Trio in C, K.548, along with another, K.542, were written in the same period. It is beautiful music, though not innovative as the symphonies; the expansion of the Piano Trio genre will come with Beethoven and Schubert, and with stronger pianos. The playing of Daniel was light, refined and harmonious, and he was abetted by his son Michael (violin) and Sultani.

            Then came a selection of Widmann´s 24 Duos for violin and cello; born in 1973, he wrote them on 2008. Michael and Sultani played five of them, all very short, just seven minutes; except for a sarcastic Bavarian Waltz, I wasn´t impressed. Apparently they were played competently.

            And now we come to the problematic choice: Tchaikovsky´s enormous Trio, Op.50, 1882, to the memory of Nikolai Rubinstein. An Elegiac Piece in several speeds, and a Theme with eleven contrasted variations plus a final one and a lugubrious coda. It is played more often nowadays, but it remains a tough nut to crack, for although the elegiac side suits the composer, there´s a lot of virtuosic flimflam for the piano, so much so that it is as difficult as the ultrafamous First Piano Concerto but with less substance.

            Even the greatest artists have more affinity with certain styles, and frankly I was intrigued by this choice, for Barenboim is the man for music of deep import, not for empty display. He has an impressive technique, but not of this kind, and there were  mistakes that aren´t usual in his generally impeccable playing. Also, speeds weren´t right from the very start, and his sound was too chunky in the frequent block chords.

            A further problem was that the piano part is very heavy; to complement it you need strings with a big rich sound: Sultani has it but not Michael, so the general balance was affected. And the charm of certain bits (the Waltz, the Mazurka), was lost.

            The encores atoned for this unsatisfactory Tchaikovsky: the second (slow and singing) and the third (a scintillating Scherzo) movements of Mendelssohn´s First Trio are Barenboim territory, and the interpretations were delectable.

Saariaho´s Shakespeare, Henze´s Cervantes: intriguing mixtures

 

            The Colón´s Chamber Opera had a brilliant first lease of life in the Sixties, when Valenti Ferro programmed beautiful pieces such as Mozart´s "La Finta Giardiniera", recorded and for a while the only available one in the world.  Later this fine project was destroyed, until it was revived with a group led by Marcelo Lombardero; it too was scrapped, in this case by García Caffi. Lopérfido has revived it, again with Lombardero.

            The initial offering has just been premièred at the chamber hall of the Usina del Arte and it makes a double homage in the fifth centenary of their deaths: Shakespeare as seen by Kaija Saariaho in "The Tempest Songbook", and Cervantes, by Hans Werner Henze´s "El teatro de los milagros" ("Das Wundertheater", an adaptation of "El Retablo de las Maravillas"). A brief but substantial evening, well worth attending.

            Saariaho was born in 1952 in Helsinki and now lives in Paris with her husband Jean-Baptiste Barrière. In recent years an intimate opera, "L´amour de loin", has had several stagings (it will shortly be given by the Met). She studied at Paris´ IRCAM and was influenced by the spectralists, who explore the harmonic potential of the overtone series.

            I have heard her opera, and now these songs on "The Tempest" confirm that she is a sensitive composer who believes in modern melody, timbric variety and psychologic insight. She creates poetic ambiences that connect with the characters. These are songs and can be done without a staging, it´s not an opera; but it gains in suggestion with Lombardero´s visuals.

            "The Tempest" is one of the richest Shakespeare plays. Saariaho took her sweet time to write these songs and after imagining them from 1992 to 2002, she finally joined them as a songbook in 2004. Each one is about a different character, and the instrumental accompaniment varies from piece to piece; only seven players but in various combinations.

            In "Ariel´s Hail" this airy spirit (soprano) sings expressive phrases behind a transparent white curtain (the instrumental group is also stationed there, on the left); cunning lighting by Horacio Efron helps a lot. Then, "Caliban´s Dream" (baritone) stresses the pathetic side of the brutish creature that possessed the island; the producer wisely avoids deforming makeup. "Miranda´s lament" (soprano) is intense without melodrama; she steps out of the curtain. "Ferdinand´s comfort"  is sung by baritone and soprano. Finally, "Prospero´s vision" (baritone) gives us the most powerful character of the play in meaningful musical phrases.

            Graciela Oddone was in splendid voice and showed strong dramatic sense. Sebastián Angulegui sang firmly and gave relief to his three impersonations. The players, led clearly by Martín Sotelo, were a good group capable of subtlety.

            And now to Henze, the most important German opera composer after WWII. He lived between 1926 and 2012 and his variegated production included many operas. Shamefully the Colón has never staged any of them in the big hall, though the CETC presented "El Cimarrón", a short chamber opera about a Cuban slave in the XIXth century, sung by Lombardero when he was a character baritone. But at least three Henze operas must be premièred: the brilliant satire "Der Junge Lord", the stark Greek tragedy "Die Bassariden" and the sensitive "Elegie für junge Liebende" ("Elegy for young lovers").  (Even worse, the Colón has ignored Hindemith: "Cardillac" and "Mathis der Maler" are musts).

            "Das Wundertheater" is Henze´s first opera, written when he was 25. It was premièred at Heidelberg in 1949, but that initial version wasn´t really an opera for it was meant for actors; he revised it in 1965 as a real opera, premièred in Frankfurt under Wolfgang Rennert. There´s a recording by the Osnabrück Opera, 2005, Ars label. And it was staged at the Vienna Volksoper in 2012.

            "El retablo de las maravillas" is one of the eight "entremeses" ("intermezzos") written by Cervantes to be intercalated between acts of dramas and thus provide comic relief (in opera the idea led to Pergolesi´s "La serva padrona"). It is an adaptation of the same oriental tale transformed by Andersen into "The Emperor´s New Suit". There the emperor is naked but nobody dares to say so; in Cervantes a charlatan tells a group that they will see wonders only if they are true Christians and are not bastards: all say that they see them though they are nonexistent, until a soldier comes and tells the truth; he is rewarded by being attacked by the whole group... The political and social connotations were valid then and still are.

            The orchestra still behind the curtain was bigger: 17 players. The composer follows old forms: prelude, ballade, rondo, etc. But his music sounds quite modern, alert and to the point. The adapted German text was retranslated into Spanish by Cecilia Bassano retaining many of Cervantes´ words.

            The production by Lombardero was convincing, colorful and agile, with costumes by Luciana Gutman. A very professional group of singers functioned as a team and both sang and acted admirably. Santiago Bürgi and Graciela Oddone led the game. The fun is even in their surnames: the Repollos (Angulegui, María Victoria Gaeta), the Castrados (Mariano Fernández Bustinza, Cecilia Pastawski). Then there was the Governor (Juan Pablo Labourdette), Pedro Capacho (Pablo Pollitzer), the Musician (Pablo Scaiola) and the Furrier (Officer), with Lombardero himself. The Orchestra under Sotelo was quite effective.

            Bad blot: the information in the hand programme was almost nil.

For Buenos Aires Herald

Argerich and Barenboim in wonderful form

             Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim together again, as they have since the inception of these Festivals of Music and Reflexion two years ago. An old friedship revitalised, the fusing of very different personalities in a common purpose: to give the best of themselves serving the music they love. They have been before the public for about 65 years and are still going strong. 

            They are at the very top of their profession worldwide but of course these Argentines of immense talent strike a very personal and deep chord in our city. For even among those of us that aren´t Nationalistic they represent shining examples of what our melting pot society can produce. There´s a lot of wrong pride in this paradoxical Argentina pregnant with bad news, but there´s also good pride and it applies to what these artists provoke in our feelings.

             In the presumably elitist field of classical music very few are mediatic but Martha and Daniel are: people that never (or almost never) go to the Colón want to be there, along with those that are longtime habitués. If the experience will induce them to frequent our great theatre in the future is a moot point, but if an afternoon like the one I´m reviewing doesn´t convince them, nothing will. 

            One regret (not a complaint): early announcements programmed something fascinating (at least for ample-minded music lovers): the Webern arrangement for two pianos of Schönberg´s seminal Five Pieces for Orchestra. Although Barenboim played them with his wife Elena Bashkirova in 2010, I was intrigued by the results of an interpretation by Martha and Daniel. But for some reason it was  substituted by standard repertoire.

            They started with one of Mozart´s Sonatas for four-hand piano; there are four mature ones plus another of his childhood. K.497 dates from

1786, a period of full maturity. It´s a myth that four-hand piano music is easy; some are, but many others need a clean and full technique, even in Mozart´s time, and this score is demanding. In this combination, Primo means the upper part of the keyboard, Secondo the lower, and as in previous years, Daniel played Primo, the lion´s part for it has most of the melodic  music.

            The music is splendid though undramatic, a fine example of what was called "style galant". Barenboim was subtle in the ornaments and in soft passages but too sturdy in the assertive moments; a modern piano can take it but that of Mozart´s time couldn´t. The slow music was really slow, and the fast, quite fast; a modern trend in Mozart interpretation. Martha followed him at all times, and it was particularly apparent when she exchanged similar figurations with Daniel, both artists hand-in-glove.

            The rest of the programme (including the encores) was for two pianos, a very different texture in which complete unanimity is much harder to achieve (four-hand is much more intimate, communication is easier). You can have two extraordinary virtuosi and they won´t miss a note, but only if they play together for a long time they will be able to be absolutely exact in block chords, for in those a split second matters.  The distance across two grand pianos is considerable, and although Barenboim was careful to make Argerich´s music stand lower and at key moments added head gestures, some chords weren´t quite together.  But otherwise, the execution and interpretation of Daniel and Martha was simply great almost all the time.

            Brahms´ "Variations on a theme by Haydn" are originally orchestral; the transcription for two pianos was done by the composer and it works very well. By the way, it doesn´t matter that the theme, called the "St Anthoni Chorale", is included in a wind partita probably by Pleyel, not Haydn: it is an excellent melody very apt for variations, and Brahms was a master of the genre. Barenboim built them as the great conductor he is, and Argerich, who has a more visceral approach in her personality, followed his views admirably.

            Franz Liszt wrote music of transcendental difficulty in his prolific piano music; for two pianos he was just as demanding. The two scores we heard in the Second Part are seldom played simply because it is a tour de force to do so: the twenty-minute "Pathetic Concerto" (called so although there´s no orchestra) is vaguely dated "before

1856"

and the transcription from the original piano version of his "Reminiscences of Don Juan" (on Mozart´s "Don Giovanni") is later than 1841 (exact date not known).

            The Concerto is indeed "Pathetic" in its exuberant Romanticism, with two fast parts divided by a melodic slow fragment; although there´s plenty of rhetorical display, it holds together when played with such amazing command and beauty (the mercurial delicacy of certain passages from both artists is the privilege of only the greatest players). And the "Don Giovanni" fantasy (for it is such), after the ominous music of the Knight Commander, gives us extremely imaginative transformations of "Là ci darem la mano" (Giovanni-Zerlina) and the Don´s bubbling Champagne aria; great fun in the assiduously recorded original or in the rarely done two-piano version. Fantastic playing such as this veteran has rarely heard.

            The encores brought us back to Mozart: lovely performances of the Second 8slow) and Third (fast) movements of his only Sonata for two pianos, K.448 (they had played the Sonata in the first Festival). What an evening!

For Buenos Aires Herald

Barenboim´s brief homage to Ginastera and Salgán

            When I wrote about the first programme of the Barenboim Festival (Mozart symphonies) I mentioned the very high prices. But at least that was for a long (90 minutes) programme of masterpieces beautifully interpreted. The second concert was a very different story: the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra  (WEDO) under Daniel Barenboim played for 46 minutes including the encore! In other words, we had half a concert for the same high price and for less important music.

            Alberto Ginastera and Horacio Salgán were born in the same year, 1916; Ginastera died in 1983 but Salgán is still alive. Although nowadays Piazzolla is more often played in  concerts, he was basically a crossover composer blending tango and classical; Ginastera is recognised as the most important Argentine creator on the latter field.  And Salgán is, along with Piazzolla, a great tango personality. They both merit a homage, but a better-designed one.

            Mind you, although Barenboim is unquestionably a world-class conductor and pianist of the classical repertoire, he has been vividly interested in the tango for decades, and I remember his tango recitals at the Gran Rex (he was recorded). He wasn´t an innovator like Gerardo Gandini in his fascinating improvisations: Barenboim´s playing was traditional though impeccable. (His incursion into Brazilian popular music was less convincing).

            Horacio Salgán´s enormous career has never fallen to banality; his work both as composer and as pianist was always marked by a profound knowledge of the genre and a decided rejection of showy effects. In a tango instrumental world often given to exaggerated rhythm and clichés, his voice was distinctive: he obtained subtlety in melody and harmony and gave rhythm its due witout overstressing.

            He kept active until his early nineties as pianist of the admirable Quinteto Real (guitar, bandoneon, violin, bass), an outfit that boasted  the special magic of Antonio Agri, violinist nonpareil, and  the intimate empathy of Salgán with Ubaldo De Lío in guitar (Salgán sometimes played just in duo with De Lío).

            A moot point: Barenboim chose Ginastera´s Violin Concerto (1963). ¿Did anyone tell him that it has already been played at the Colón this year by the Buenos Aires Philharmonic under Enrique Arturo Diemecke with his brother Paul as soloist?  It was the revival of the score after its faroff première in 1965. I quote myself: it is a "Neo-Expressionist, twelve-tone composition. A tough, difficult, harsh score. The form of the Concerto is sui generis: the bruising five-minute cadenza comes at the very beginning"; then a group of six Etudes with a coda.

            "The Adagio for 22 soloists is one of the few lyric fragments" (though interrupted by angry outbursts). "Then, something very typical of Ginastera´s aural imagination: a Scherzo pianissimo, ´always flighty, mysterious and on the verge of silence´. And a short virtuosic ´Perpetuum mobile´".  In what is for me only the second time I heard the Concerto,  in this other family tandem interpretation, Daniel with his son Michael, plus the WEDO´s youthful talents, I was more aware of the refined timbric work of the composer.

            Michael played with accomplished technique though his tone is never big, and his father gave yet another lesson of magisterial conducting, obtaining from the WEDO a high degree of precision and affinity with the music´s character.

            Salgán: Barenboim addressed the audience after the interval telling them that the doctor had decided that the centenary maestro should stay at home. Then, he announced a "surprise": the new Quinteto Real would play first; if Wikipedia is right, César Salgán (piano), Julio Peressini (violin), Esteban Falabella (guitar), Carlos Corrales (bandoneon) and Juan Pablo Navarro (bass). Barenboim gave the titles of two pieces: "Recuerdo" and "Canaro en París"; they also played an encore I couldn´t place.  They play well but in my memory they don´t compete with what I heard many years ago. However, considering that the WEDO played only three Salgán tangos for about 13 minutes, the extra minutes offered by the Quinteto made partial amends.

            Another moot point: no credit was given for the symphonic arrangements; I believe they are by José Carli though I´m not quite sure; anyway, it´s unacceptable that he (or someone else) wasn´t credited. But the music is beautiful and was very well played in the proper style: "Don Agustín Bardi", "Aquellos tangos camperos" and the famous "A fuego lento".

            The encore was by Mariano Mores: "El firulete" (arranged by Carli for winds), quite nicely played. It´s worth remembering that Barenboim conducted it with the Berlin Philharmonic at the gigantic outdoor Waldbühne.

            I close with an announcement by Darío Lopérfido: the Barenboim Festival will include in 2018 the complete staged Wagner opera "Tristan und Isolde", with Peter Seiffert and Anja Kampe if the Colón´s Director´s wishes come to fruition. And in Harry Kupfer´s production. It would be the result of the agreement with Barenboim´s Berlin Staatsoper. Why then the maimed concert version of last year? (Prelude, Second Act, Liebestod).  It should be a pretty good "Tristan", but again "Die Meistersinger" will have to wait as it has since 1980.

For Buenos Aires Herald

“Roméo et Juliette”: the Berlioz masterpiece finally returns

         1973, a  terrible year: four presidents, turmoil. And the Colón reprograms after the well-founded resignation of Enzo Valenti Ferro (the Mayor had closed down arbitrarily the German season). Antonio Pini was the new Artistic Director, and I his assistant. Along with the conductor of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Pedro Calderón, we programmed a rich season with eminent conductors and valid premières. In August Pini was summarily fired and the successors played havoc on the Phil´s programming. But in June and July we had Serge Baudo and Vaclav Smetácek.

            You may wonder, why this bit of history? Because it is relevant to the purpose of this article. Years before I was bowled over by the revelation of "Roméo et Juliette" by Hector Berlioz in the splendid interpretation on record by Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony. I knew that Baudo was a specialist on this composer (he ran the Lyons Berlioz festival), so I telexed him asking if he wanted to première the complete "Roméo" (only symphonic fragments had been played here); he accepted enthusiastically, and the première became the highlight of the symphonic year. I keep as a treasure my Eulenburg score : "En toute amitié" ("With all friedship"), Serge Baudo, 28.5.73.

            A particular homage to Jorge Fontenla, now in his eighties: always a noble server of music as pianist, composer and conductor, some months before the Baudo event Fontenla premièred "Roméo" in Argentina with the Cuyo University Symphony; and he had the bonhomie of lending the orchestral parts to the Phil for the Baudo preformances.

            We had to wait 43 years before an artist and a programmer decided that it was high time to let this generation hear live one of the great works of Romanticism. Facundo Agustín, an Argentine working in Switzerland, showed his mettle last year in Britten´s "War Requiem", so we knew that he was technically capable of the arduous commitment, for "Roméo" is very difficult; and Ciro Ciliberto, the National  Symphony´s programmer, has proved his knowledge of the repertoire many times. A big thanks to both.

            "Roméo et Juliette" was called by the composer "dramatic symphony"; with words by Émile Deschamps derived from the Shakespeare tragedy, Berlioz conducted it at the Paris Conservatory November 24, 1839. The dedication is to Nicolò Paganini. It is, in words of its creator, "neither an opera in concert form nor a cantata, but a symphony with chorus" (and soloists). "The symphony has a general plan of four movements with a Prologue as a vocal introduction to the first" (John Burk).

            Berlioz, the quintessential Romantic, mixed life with creation  and nowhere was it more evident than in "Roméo et Juliette", for he fell in love with actress Harriet Smithson playing Juliet and  married her!  A Shakespeare fan, he also wrote the overture "King Lear" and his opera "Béatrice et Bénédict" based on "Much Ado About Nothing".

            "Roméo et Juliette" is his Op.17 and lasts about 95 minutes. There´s nothing like it in the repertoire: Berlioz was a true visionary, with no antecedent and no followers. Many believe that giantism in symphonic music is a thing of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, but they forget Berlioz: he asks for 250 performers, including three choirs, and his orchestration is ample and innovative. His aural imagination is limitless and the intensity of his expression has no rivals in French music.

            Each piece has titles that explain their content; thus, the Introduction at the very beginning depicts in fugato form the combats of Capulets and Montagus, the ensuing tumult and the intervention of the Prince. The soloists are a contralto that sings of the vows of the lovers, a scintillating Scherzetto for the tenor (Mercutio´s Queen Mab speech), and especially Friar Lawrence with his strong plea in the Finale for reconciliation. The choirs can be recitatives, light revelry in the distance, or powerful vocal battles.

             The jewels are purely symphonic: the Introduction, "Romeo alone- Sadness- the Capulets´ Ball", the "Love scene" (the composer´s favorite), the marvelous Queen Mab Scherzo with uncanny orchestral effects, and the huge contrasts of "Romeo at the Tomb of the Capulets".  French orchestral music won´t produce scores of this quality until the arrival of Debussy and Ravel.

            Fortunately the work was presented twice at the Blue Whale, July 27 and 29; I went to the first date; it was a success with the packed audience. Agudín got a notable performannce out of a concentrated National Symphony, with close respect for every indication in the score; his temperament is contained and I missed the whitehot intensity of Munch, but it was clean and precise. Not only some soloists were fine (the oboist Andrés Spiller) but, e.g., it was a pleasure to hear the first violins  play with such unanimity in perfect tune.

            The Coro Polifónico Nacional was this time prepared by an Argentine who lives in France, Ariel Alonso; he distributed the choirs at the back of the orchestra and at the laterals, and a small group was with the orchestra on the right side. The results were uneven but the best moments were satisfactory.

            Hernán Iturralde was a first-rate Friar Lawrence, sung with magisterial command and fine French. Alejandra Malvino did her "Strophes" musically and Ricardo González Dorrego negotiated his tricky Scherzetto with skill.

            A serious blot: no comments on the score in tha hand programme, and no supertitles!

For Buenos Aires Herald

Barenboim´s Festival starts with Mozart´s last symphonies

            Sunday 24, 5 pm: the "Barenboim Festival of Music and Reflexion" starts its third edition at the Colón, and again becomes the highest point of the season, for it will also have the presence of Martha Argerich and for the first time, of tenor Jonas Kaufmann. In fact it is essentially music; reflexion will take place when Barenboim will dialogue for the third year with Felipe González, this time about "The Conflict of the Middle East, a global crisis?" (July 31, 8 pm).

            And of course, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (WEDO) will be at the center of the activity. The hand programme gives details of the whole programme, biographies and comments by Barenboim and Pablo Gianera. Some of Barenboim´s programming decisions are controversial, as they were in preceding Festivals, but I have no doubt that the final result will leave lasting memories.

            It´s worth recalling that the WEDO was founded by Barenboim and Edward Said in 1999 as a workshop for youthful musicians from Israel, Palestine and other Arabic countries, first at Weimar, then at Chicago, and finally at Seville (2003) under the sponsorship of the Junta de Andalucía. Then and now the purpose is to further understanding and intercultural dialogue between people that come from countries that are often at war. An orchestra unites them at least for a while. Currently there are also some Spanish musicians, and religions are mixed: Jews, Muslims, Christians, Protestants and orthodox. And the workshop also includes lectures and debates.

            The denomination of the WEDO is a reference to Goethe´s homonymous poems; they are his own, but he tried in them to develop the concept of global culture. Mind you, this orchestra doesn´t exist year-long: each Summer a new group is formed, although some come from earlier seasons, and under Barenboim they prepare programmes that will be played in different tours, although since 2014 they include Buenos Aires.

            I admire the project in itself, even if Barenboim knows that politically things haven´t changed. But now I have to mention a touchy issue: the WEDO doesn´t list its personnel, as other orchestras do; I was told last year that this was for security reasons, but the members of the Al-Diwan Ensemble who play Arabic music ARE listed, and other two are identified in the Mozarteum concerts. What, some are protected and others aren´t?

            There´s another question: the concerts are abysmally expensive here but not in Seville. The stalls at the Colón  rows 1 to 14: $ 3.635. At Seville´s Teatro de  la Maestranza: 45 E = $ 739.   True, now we have streaming and the same programme I´m reviewing can be seen on Tuesday 26, 8 pm, for free; but to hear it live is very different.

            If you go to any of them, do read the curricula and particularly the  detailed one about Barenboim: I believe that no other artist in the world has such a fantastic trajectory except Plácido Domingo. To be brief: main conducting posts in Paris, Chicago, Bayreuth Festival, Milan´s Scala and Berlin, plus a dazzling career as a pianist since he was eight. And at 73 he has lost none of his incredible stamina and quality.

            Now to the Mozart dream programme. Of course music lovers have those last three symphonies in CDs  and probably have heard all three in the same evening (I did so) but to hear them in wonderful acoustics by a great conductor and his orchestra was the sort of deep artistic pleasure that seldom comes around. For although all three are quite different, they are masterpieces and they were created in the same period: Nº 39, in  E flat, K.543; Nº 40, in G minor, K.550; and Nº 41, "Jupiter", in C, K.551.

            They were written in the space of six weeks, from late June to August 10, 1788, at a time of dire pecuniary need, and they were never played during his life! And yet (I know it´s idle speculation), had he lived to be 55, the history of the symphony would have changed profoundly, for these symphonies look forward in harmony, rhythm and dramatic impact. A Mozart  writing in 1798 would have left deep marks on Beethoven.

            Barenboim isn´t a historicist, and the WEDO was bigger than orchestras in Mozart´s time. But all the marks of great interpretation were there: the unerring sense of form, the careful contrast of dynamics, the exact though expressive phrasing. And the WEDO is not only technically very good: the players are intense and unanimous; they vividly enjoy the music.

            Nº 39 is the least played of the three, perhaps because it innovates less; but it is throughout gorgeous music. Nº 40´s first movement is urgent, dramatic and famous; and the Finale has a sweeping forwardness that was ideally expressed by the artists. As to the "Jupiter", the amazing contrapuntal "tour de force" of the Finale has no paragon in Mozart and reveals that his Bach studies changed his style whilst losing nothing of his vision of the future.

            If I have to nitpìck, I prefer the Minuets slighly slower: they are marked Allegretto, not Allegro. And just before the coda of the "Jupiter" Finale, for once Barenboim did a big "rallentando"; it isn´t specified and I feel it inhibits the continuity.

            A small but important detail: the podium lacked a step and Barenboim almost fell at the start of the concert; after the interval it was fixed.

​For Buenos Aires Herald​

Tremendous power of Klais organ at the Blue Whale

            Readers may remember that last November I wrote an article about the formal presentation at the Blue Whale of the great Klais organ, biggest in Latin America. Those concerts came after a first cleaning of the tubes by German specialists, and they were possible because for a while pending works were postponed in the area. But as I informed in a more recent article, the new government completed the most important remaining restorations and transformations, and the CCK  was reinaugurated in May.

            However, although there were concerts at the Whale, the Germans came back and during May cleaned the tubes again, because the Summer works had dirtied them again. And so, two concerts were programmed in July to let the audiences hear the results: one with Mario Videla, which I couldn´t hear, and the other with Diego Innocenzi, the interpreter on this review.

            The Klais organ "Opus 192"   has (I quote myself) "3.633 pipes and two consoles: fixed and mechanic, attached to the pipes wall; and mobile electronic, on the stage. There are four keyboards". And of course a pedalier plus two pedals which open up boxes mixing registers.

            The programme chosen by Innocenzi was ideal for a great symphonic organ such as the Klais. The Belgian César Franck lived all his adult life in Paris, where he was the organist of Sainte Clotilde. Born in 1822, he matured slowly, producing his most characteristic works late in life: the Symphony, the Violin Sonata, the Quartet and Quintet; his three significative organ scores are the Six Pieces (1860-62), the Three Pieces (1878) and the Three Chorales (1890).

            Innocenzi played the Three Pieces: "Fantaisie", "Cantabile" and "Pièce héroïque". A paragraph on the artist: an Argentine born in 1971, after early studies here he played the Cavaillé-Coll at San Isidro Cathedral. Then  he went to the Geneva Conservatory where he obtained in 1999 the First Virtuosity Prize in the class of the eminent Lionel Rogg. He also studied with the great Marie-Claire Alain. And at Geneva Michel Corboz was his teacher in Choral Direction. Since then he has created such projects as the Vandoeuvres Autumn Festival and the Chamonix Organ Festival and he is at Geneva organist of the Victoria Hall and two temples. He has recorded little-known French organ music.

            As you see, an impressive curriculum. The recital confirmed an earlier impression I had of him, when some years ago he played in a church, although this time he had a vastly greater instrument. To coordinate five different sources of sound (the four keyboards and the pedalier) plus the vast timbric resources provided by 55 registers reveals the skill and taste of a player. From extreme pianissimo to overwhelming fortissimo with clean articulation and positive phrasing proved both the quality of the artist and of the Klais. As the acoustics have been bettered since November (the panels in the roof) and the organ is placed high, it was quite an experience.

            1878 was a year in which Paris had recovered from the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune (a mini civil war crushed by Thiers) and the Republic gradually settled down; it  was also the year of a monumental International Exhibition and of the first Trocadéro.

            Charles Marie Widor (1845-1937) was at the time organist of Saint Sulpice; the instrument was a behemoth: 5 keyboards, 118 registers, 6500 tubes, 20 combination pedals! He was the man to create a new genre: the Symphony for organ. He wrote ten, as well as a Symphony for organ and orchestra. They are extremely difficult; as Harvey Grace wrote in Grove´s dictionary, "they are among the most important of the organ repertory, both in scope and in the influence they have had on organ technique, idiom and registration".

            Symphony Nº 5 is dated 1880, very close to Franck´s pieces. It has five movements (in fact the symphonies might be called suites as well); unfortunately Innocenzi played only three: the initial Allegro vivace; Nº 4, Cantabile; and that famous tour de force, the final Toccata (recorded at least 50 times! Plus 15 for the whole Nº5). He omitted Nº2, Allegro cantabile; and Nº 3, Andantino quasi allegretto. Even adding the encore, Théodore Dubois´ "Religious cantilena", we had 51 minutes of music, very short measure.

            However, the playing was exciting and powerful; this may not be profound music, but it is splendidly written for the capabilities of symphonic organs, and Innocenzi has the means to give us the true aural picture. But it also convinced me that the Baroque shouldn´t be played on it: that style requires no gigantism. Instead, clarity in counterpoint, poise at all times and reasonable forte are required. There are instruments of that kind in our city.

            Cavaillé-Coll was the great firm of symphonic organs in France, and we have a few in Argentina. Klais Orgelbau, Berlin, has been designing them since

1924. A few of the cities where concert halls have Klais organs: Bonn, Düsseldorf, Köln, Athens, Birmingham, Kyoto, Krakow, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Aarhus, Muscat, Auckland... Their conception is valid: such great organs must be part of the general plan of the architect and the acoustician. And it has been so in BA. Innocenzi has been an adviser throughout to the Argentine team and they have been in close touch with Germany. It is a success and should be a permanent part of the Whale´s programming. 

For Buenos Aires Herald

Our youth orchestras justify state support

                       Sixty years ago Radio del Estado had a youth orchestra conducted by the notable composer Luis Gianneo and it did yeoman service, but later it was discontinued. Many seasons went by until Mario Benzecry brought to our city what he had learnt in Venezuela about Abreu´s system, that incredible pyramid of youth orchestras capped by the Simón Bolívar that visited us under Gustavo Dudamel. Here there was no pyramid;  Benzecry had to start from scratch and with no state support.

            With admirable perseverance he managed to keep alive his project. The UBA´s Facultad de Derecho´s Main Hall had been the home of a great idea that brought first-class conductors to our city: the Symphony Orchestra of Radio del Estado. It too was scrapped after many years of important work. Then and now, the acoustics were and are bad, very resonant, but the Facultad allowed its free use and the place is big; Benzecry presented a plan to reuse it as a concert hall in Saturday afternoons and it was accepted.

            That was in 1994 and the Orquesta Juvenil Nacional José de San Martín (the current name, Nacional being added in 2013 when it began to have the auspices of the Ministry of Culture) is still playing there on the first Saturday of each month of the musical season. And as the years went by, the Facultad filled up every Saturday with other orchestras, mainly from Greater Buenos Aires but also with another example of perseverance, the Orquesta Estudiantil led by Guillermo Zalcman, the conductor to which we owe an incredible number of premières.

             Then last year came the Blue Whale and  the concerts of the Facultad of the Juvenil San Martín were repeated there; even with the stridency of the new hall it was acoustically a betterment: the mushy became clear though too incisive.

            A needed parenthesis: Benzecry´s example began to have followers, and gradually youth (and children) orchestras sprouted; now there are many, both in our city and elsewhere. I single out the most developed, the Orquesta-escuela of Chascomús under Valeria Atela.  And I have to mention with anger that the net of youth and children orchestras of our capital is in dire peril since last year, when its creator Claudio Espector was unaccountably thrown out of his post and the financing was stopped. The new Culture Minister must put things right as soon as possible.

            On the other hand, during recent years Andrea Merenzon has been organizing huge international concerts here and at Iguazú, bringing over chidren from diverse countries to fraternize with ours and play either separately or all together.

            Back to Benzecry: on July 17 there was a valuable concert at the CCK, maybe one of the best homages to Ginastera in his centenary year. It was supposed to be done at the Blue Whale, but it was played instead at the Sala Argentina, for the Whale was used for a children show.

            It turned out to be a blessing, at least for me: the Sala Argentina (often used by President Macri for political acts) is splendid: a rectangular graded wooden hall with a stage that can hold a symphony orchestra, it has warm acoustics (far better than the Blue Whale) in its 600-people capacity, with perfect sightlines. I didn´t know it and although it is considered a chamber hall I found it excellent for orchestras.

            The programme centered on Ginastera´s first manner, still close to our folklore although with Bartókian influence except in a student work whithout opus number, the short "Impresiones de

la Puna

", written at 18 and already accomplished. The flute part was nicely played by Sofía Guerrero. "Ollantay" is a ballet of Inca ambience written in 1951 and the three movements are intense and powerful, in transition to his second manner, with colorful indigenous percussion.

             There was a very special and in a way incredible fact: we heard for the first time in concert the complete ballet "Estancia", whose suite is enormously popular, particularly the final Malambo. Some years ago it was recorded by a British orchestra; I have that CD and was very interested at the time, but music always sounds different in live performance and it was fascinating to hear it.

            Curiously for a ballet it includes a gaucho talking and singing (the veteran baritone Luis Gaeta in superb form). The suite only has four fragments: there are twelve, one of them a difficult fugue, and several dreamy and beautiful, but also the Ginasterian blend of strong rhythmic impulse and modern harmony.

            Benzecry, who gave us useful comments, is spry and energetic at 79: he proved the perfect conductor for this music and got notable quality from an attentive and talented orchestra (ages 14 to 27): and I was glad to be able to appreciate it in really good acoustics.  The orchestra is big: 98 players! Part of their notable improvement also comes from a 12-member professor corps of first rank.

            Just a week before I heard them at the Facultad under invited conductor Francisco Varela, with solid preparation both here and in Pennsylvania. The pleasant "Danzón Nº2" by Arturo Márquez was very well played. Then came a minor Weber piece, "Andante e Rondo ungarese", with a correct viola soloist, Priscila Rodríguez. And an accurate version of Beethoven´s Third Symphony ("Heroic"), conducted firmly though a bit rigidly. Flexibility will come with time.

For Buenos Aires Herald