Verbier Festival Broadcasts

[Despina41]

WHAT did I just listen to???



That was the strangest Chopin op. 11 Concerto I have heard in a long time... possibly ever.
It had elements of Lang Lang, of mediocre piano students, of pianists of bygone days who embellish the naked score with glissandi and the like.... HIGHLY entertaining!


And you know by now when I say a concert was "entertaining," you should be muttering "oh no, not again" under your breath.

Khatia Buniatishvili joined the Moscow Soloists under the direction of Yuri Bashmet after the group trudged through a Mozart Divertimento.


I wondered if the smaller ensemble might produced a more intimate, chamberlike approach to this piece, but no, it just sounded like a few tired string players making a half-hearted attempt to keep up with a fiery pianist intent on playing whatever she felt like at whatever moment she felt like it.


I wish I could say that Buniatishvili makes entertaining facial expressions, but she seems to limit herself to a kind of generic "I-feel-the-music-and-it's-sad" face.



Her Chopin interpretation, however, is FAR from generic. I can't quite explain her strange sense of timing. (This is beyond the fact that they somehow arrived at an absurdly fast tempo in the first movement.) All those little flourishes and uneven rhythmic twists and turns that can make Chopin so Romantic and flowing... she didn't have the right kind of elasticity; it felt more like someone rolling one of those weighted stretching balls instead of a solid, naturally rolling basketball.
You know, you roll the ball and it takes off, then it kind of comes to a sudden halt because of the weight in the bottom?







("speaking of stretching...")



Yeah, it was just Off, worse than my analogy. The phrases were shaped... kind of. Could have been more. The colors... well, they should have been there. Then there were the wrong notes. Oh, the wrong notes. They were all over the place, especially the last movement - and NOT limited to the pianist.

The third movement was a great farce, the likes of which I have never heard before; she set the tone nicely, whipping out the opening theme like it belonged in a cheap, 19th-century western saloon, "and now a little POLKA, boys!" The true excitement came from the pianist's continual threat to take off at any moment, leaving the ensemble behind in --- uh, the tumbleweed, I suppose, if we are going to keep up the ridiculous imagery?? At one point, Bashmet just had to pause the ensemble to wait to get back on with her. At another point, it sounded like early, expressionist Webern. Who knew the richness of Chopin, eh?



Or how about this: it was like Chopin-paint-by-the-number? Everyone tried to fill in their part and.... it.. yeah.





How is this even possible? I thought these were all "famous" musicians?? huh??? Did I miss this was "light entertainment evening" at Verbier? I feel like there is some kind of missing information here that would explain what I just listened to.


Oh well. It was certainly entertaining! The encore wasn't --- it was just run-of-the-mill Liebestraum --- but the concerto... that was special. I hope medici.tv puts that up for replay.

[Tarantella]

"Tumbleweed" and "cheap saloon" metaphors! I luv 'em - keep it up please - all that's missing is 'the Dude'. You've got a pistol packin' way with language! Calamity Jane? Is that the pianist's new moniker?

This review was very amusing and it's 'unglaublisch' how these musicians can seem like runaway trains. (BTW, have you ever seen the Marx Bros. "Go West" where they cut up the train to keep the engine going? That image comes to mind in your 'review'!!!)

What's your main 'beef' (oh dear) with Lang Lang? Give it to us 'from the hoof'. Straight from the horse's mouth.

I think this is one of my favourite 'performances':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmYky...eature=related

[Despina41]

First of all, I love that Victor Borge too. My favorite is the seatbelt, though.. I think some pianists could really use that.

Originally Posted by Tarantella

"Tumbleweed" and "cheap saloon" metaphors! I luv 'em - keep it up please - all that's missing is 'the Dude'. You've got a pistol packin' way with language! Calamity Jane? Is that the pianist's new moniker?
This review was very amusing and it's 'unglaublisch' how these musicians can seem like runaway trains.

Yeah, I mean, I don't enjoy seeming like a crotchety old critic from the 1870s here, but I expect a kind of basic musicianship from these "high-level" people playing at Verbier and making rounds on the touring circuit. If you are a DG recording artist, I'm sorry, you should be able to make Pictures at an Exhibition interesting!
It's really sad and not funny, and we have discussed numerous times before on this forum the sorry state of classical music marketing, etc. When DG releases a new album, it not only puts up a promotional video on youtube, it puts up a bloody The Making of the Promotional Video Video up as well!


As if I care whether Jan Lisiecki likes the applying-makeup process of filming a promotional video!

What's your main 'beef' (oh dear) with Lang Lang? Give it to us 'from the hoof'. Straight from the horse's mouth.

My main beef with Lang Lang is the way he plays the piano: lack of beautiful tone quality, the lack of color, lack of long line -- i.e., the outrageous accents he'll throw in for effect, the overdone rubato, the playing things as fast as possible for the sake of playing things as fast as possible. (And don't anyone start with the "Hofmann, Paderewski, the old generation all did that--" No, they all also had basic musicianship, not to mention a completely different musical upbringing; objection overruled.)

On that last point -- of playing fast for the sake of it -- check out this Tchaik concerto excerpt; cut to around 4:50, the grand climactic build up to the famous double octave passage. Lang Lang is putting on a nice show before he even touches the piano, checking his nails "nonchalantly." (He thinks he IS Victor Borge -- or is it Liberace?) Then he plays the octaves as fast as he can, a nasty tone out of that Steinway, no shaping, no phrasing, just a series of octaves. It makes no sense musically in the context of the movement. It's a joke, which I think he must have intended. Even HE knows better than this:


(4:50)

But, you know, I'll play Devil's Advocate and say, "but the point of that passage IS to play double octaves quickly. Tchaik sets up the epic climactic build just for tension leading to the soloist's big moment. We want to be wowed!" So why NOT show off the technique and play as quickly as possible?

Heh, maybe the better Devil's Advocate approach is, "And it's a summer festival and it's light entertainment and WHY NOT make a joke out of Tchaikovsky?"

Ok, so it's a poor example then, if I allow that he intended to be silly here. If I am in the right mood for a laugh, then I ENJOY listening to Lang Lang, because I am never quite sure what he's going to do, and it's especially funny when he's not trying to be funny.

This past spring he was touring around with a serious program of the Bach B-flat Partita, the Schubert B-flat Sonata 960, and the Chopin op. 25 etudes (???).

Now this is a smorgasbord of hilarity. Where to begin? I'll do the Chopin etudes, since I just heard them yesterday, courtesy of Trifonov. (I mean, we know I don't like when pianists play Bach anyway, and the Schubert -- no one is going to beat Richter in that. But Chopin Etudes, everyone plays those, right?)

Ok, basic problem of playing the piano: you are trying to create a cantabile line on a percussion instrument. You have to create the aural "illusion" that a series of discretely hit notes is a connected, melodic line. This is something pianists start learning from the beginning when they play a legato scale. The tricky part is incorporating this into a piece of music when you've got to think about phrasing and inflecting that legato line -- and when you've got TWO melodic lines, god help you, and CHORDS around them to prove more harmonic backdrop and atmosphere... well, this is apparently beyond Lang Lang's control --- I was rather shocked, I'll admit, at how amateurish the cello etude sounded here:

(cut to 13:46)
Notes sticking out dynamically like little bumps in a road in both LH and RH lines. You know, LH line has an interesting dissonance, and on that note, the RH line dips way down in its volume level, but on the next note is suddenly back at the previous level, thus disturbing the line.. not to mention the inexpert chord voicing. This is BASIC pianism. This etude is just Not. That. Good. in a kind of "I can't believe you are not better at this" way! I should be enjoying the beauty of this piece and instead I am distracted by "wait, where did the melody just go -- OUCH, beat me over the head with the next note??! -- WHAT DO WE PAY YOU PEOPLE FOR!? You are even playing on a beautifully maintained, high quality instrument, and this is the best you can do with it?" That should not be my reaction.

And maybe if you have never studied the instrument and/or witnessed a piano masterclass, your ears are not attuned to this level. But this is the reason some of us have no use for Lang Lang, other than to marvel at what buffoonery will happen next. How about the last etude ("Ocean")? It's really hard to make this sound like anything other than a series of arpeggios up and down, with some loud bass notes anchoring them at the start of each iteration.

Lang Lang doesnt even attempt to make this sound like anything other than that; in fact, it's as if he's unaware that the tenor can be connected to form a melodic line. He is more interested in the fundamental bass, the C, which he bangs out (in the exact same manner) like a death knell Every Time:


(cut to 30:10)
I also enjoy his accenting of the top notes of each arpeggio (in the exact same manner Every Time), so you get a nice, rhythmic rocking effect: BOOM ... PING... BOOM ... PING! glorious, and it's probably Chopin's fault for putting accents in the score on those notes, but way to interpret them very literally, man. I could drop the needle in either the A or the return of the A section here and have no idea where in the piece I was. There's no change in the way he plays it because he's been banging it out from the getgo.



For the love of music, do yourself a favor: go onto medici.tv here, sign in if you must (it's free), and listen to how Trifonov plays this same etude. (Look, I am not even appealing to some decorated dead person for comparison, but a pianist nearly a decade younger than Lang Lang.)
Cut to 1:10:00.
Same tempo! but the control of voicing, tone color, and the dramatic structure, the not beating-me-over-the-head-with-every-downbeat.... For starters, the tenor line makes a voiced, shaped line. For the turn to A-flat major, he drops back and changes color, so that the transition back to C minor has somewhere to build from. He doesn't bring out the top arpeggio accents in the beginning because at that return of the A section he can really create a sense that something has changed when he does highlight them. You know, in the way that Tchaikovsky will decorate a returning theme with some flute filligree or whatnot; that's why I called it a rather "symphonic conception" of the etude yesterday.


COME ON, it's music, people!


And that is what I don't like about Lang Lang; he just isn't that good at playing the music. All his other work -- UNICEF, the Wildlife Charities, getting the kids involved -- that is fantastic; it's as if he recognizes that he's not going to be the next Richter and is putting his entertainment skills to use in a way that will be beneficial to future generations.

So, ultimately, I cannot really complain that much about Lang Lang. Will I be paying to hear him play, in concert or on a CD? NO. But let him found music schools, etc; those kids will grow up and some of them will grow some ears too, despite whatever they hear him doing at the keyboard.

[Tarantella]

That's as good an explication of the issues as I've ever read! I have none of his recordings and have long been fascinated by the "hype", but I guess you could say that - at least - he brings audiences to serious music? I noticed some clapping between the pieces, so perhaps these audiences aren't the cognoscenti anyway? (That does sound snobbish, and it isn't meant to be. Rather, I think it 'explains' why he gets away with so much.)

I find Argerich similarly speedy in the Tchaik. #1 (and others) and for this reason alone I don't like her playing. Perhaps she was better much earlier in her career and I think we've discussed this once before.

We have David Helfgott (courtesy of "Shine") here in Australia and I noticed, when leaving Vienna, that he was going to play there. This was an act of cruelty from his 'minders' - purely and simply. Those audiences are very demanding. The one saving grace is that most of these people would have stayed away anyway - and if you remember Geoffrey Rush in the film you'll understand why the whole notion of Helfgott performing is such a troublesome one. I'm trying to say the 'fake' Helfgott was infinitely more interesting than the real one!! When I taught the film to Year 11 students (16y/o) they were amazingly understanding and accepting, as they were with "The Birdcage" (different class this time: ultra "macho" boys). "Miss!! this film is about p**fs!!" When I finally stopped laughing and the film finally ended they all chanted, "Play it again miss; it was funny!"

What I'm trying to say is that it's important to get an idea (music, film, literature) to audience and as long as that happens I guess we shouldn't be too troubled by what happens in the 'margins'.

[Despina41]

Originally Posted by Tarantella

What I'm trying to say is that it's important to get an idea (music, film, literature) to audience and as long as that happens I guess we shouldn't be too troubled by what happens in the 'margins'.

Yea, it's just that that's what most of classical music seems to be about these days. All these youngsters are always going on about getting music to a new audience, etc. "I'll dress like a [fill in blank] if it gets some extra people at my concert!"

I am not talking about Yuja Wang:



I suppose those of us who like classical music for classical music's sake are just to be thrown to the wayside. We loyal audiences. We cognoscenti. We'll always be there in the background sneering, appealing, hands raised, to our Hofmanns, our Lipattis, our Richters...

[Tarantella]

I quite agree about the Richters et al. There will always be those who understand and appreciate great art on its own terms. My research has shown me that dilettantism was widespread even in the Austro-Hungarian empire and that Beethoven fought against this. The Biedermeier 'salons' were the breeding ground for all sorts of cultural shenanigans and, except for a very few, largely devoid of really high musical values. It's very insightful!! Many people used music as a means of showing 'refinement' and for social acceptance. Today the same thing is probably true and I would eschew those values most strongly. In the past I've been invited by friends to concerts with "popular" classical music artists and I've always found an excuse not to go. They will retort, "Oh, but we thought you LIKED classical music!" It is precisely for this reason that I wouldn't go (but I'd never tell them so).

[Despina41]

More music is happening at Verbier, but I had to rest after the amazing, pistol-twirling action of the Chopin 1 concerto. Why don't they bring Buniatishvili and the Moscow Soloists back for the second concerto today -- no, instead we have to sit through Trifonov and the Verbier Orchestra.


I caught the Joshboy (ahem, Joshua Bell) performance of the Barber Concerto, although I have heard this on record, so I wasn't surprised about anything. Friend of mine loves his interpretation, precisely because of the "whiny, Romantic, snot-on-the-E-string" sound of it. I prefer Shaham's warmer, woodier, and more intellectual sound, but I will allow that if you are going to pull a whiny, Romantic, snot-on-the-E-string sound, the Barber is an appropriate place for it. Perhaps more interestingly, I hear different colors in the two approaches. Bell's is bleaker and edgier, but I prefer my golden sounding Romanticism.


Whatever, it is what it is.


I liked the Martha Argerich-Mischa Maisky Shchedrin performance. Another friend of mine was confused, "is she learning new pieces?" "I don't know!" I haven't bothered to look up when the piece was written; sounds like Shchedrin to me!


In piano news, Jan Lisiecki, the 17-year-old kiddie, played his solo concert this morning. I am still rather confused as to why Deutsche Grammophon has a 17 year old on its roster of recording artists. If I sit here, listening, and say, "Well, it sounded like a very good student performance," you might respond,
"Well the kid is 17, what do you expect???"
"I am not sure what I should expect from Deutsche Grammophon these days, between the Ott recital and this...Why am I listening to a 17 year old? Am I supposed to be impressed with technical dexterity as I would with a younger prodigy? Am I supposed to be impressed with the depth of interpretation, the emotional maturity?? (for a teenager)??? Because I am sitting here wondering why I am listening to a 17 year old rather than enjoying the music, and I am blaming that on the fact that he is 17."

I am just confused, DG.


I must say, however, this recital was more interesting than Ott's. First of all, he offered us a rather odd program: some Messiaen preludes, a one Canadian (?) composer Marjan Mozetich, some Paderewski show pieces, some fluffy Chopin... So, an appropriate sort of program for a 17-year old prodigy; blessedly lacking the late Beethoven and late Brahms.
The Messiaen wasn't terrible. I got a sense that he was aware that he should be trying to be colorful and atmosphereic and was making an honest effort to do so! I mean those early Messiaen preludes are like Debussy 2.0, I should be seeing lots of colors, blues, oranges, etc.... Am I supposed to sit here and say "well, Hewitt is bett--" -- I can't HELP but compare, and whether it's actually Hewitt's performance in my ears or a friend's from piano studio years ago or some sort of prototypical "Messiaen Prelude" sound/interpretation, I just... I'm sorry, this didn't blow me away in any way. It didn't sound quite enough like "early Messiaen" overall. But it was a nice effort????


The other pieces were fine. Kind of straight-forward approach to phrasing, drama, etc -- a word even came to me, "pedantic" -- is it possible for a 17 year old to be pedantic? Maybe "literal" is the word I want. Fine, whatever, points for not playing this way in standard rep. But this just the kind of performance that makes me think, "Why do we need people to continue producing recordings of....?"

[Despina41]

Originally Posted by Despina41

More music is happening at Verbier, but I had to rest after the amazing, pistol-twirling action of the Chopin 1 concerto. Why don't they bring Buniatishvili and the Moscow Soloists back for the second concerto today -- no, instead we have to sit through Trifonov and the Verbier Orchestra.

I was hardly kidding, folks! After today's concert, I really do think the pistol-twirling action should have taken place in the second concerto; that is, they should have switched which concertos the kids played. Anyway, Trif's Chopin 2 was OK.... meh --- first mvt seemed off, larghetto some nice moments, but he tried to be tasteful in a third movement that's patently ridiculous. Buniatishvili's unorthodox, Calamity-Jane antics would have been more entertaining AND appropriate!

(Nonetheless, the audience demanded encores --- as an American experiencing an economic recession, I am starting to wonder if all the encore-begging is some kind of "get-more-for-my-money" business that has nothing to do with the actual quality of performance. snark, snark. Did Ott have to play encores? How many? ... hold on... What, only ONE?! Just another Liszt La Camp? zzzz.. Just watch, Yuja Wang will spend another hour playing encores.)


The Bach orchestral suite was a nice effort on part of the Verbier Festival Orchestra. It's clear that many of them don't play baroque music for a living, so I suppose Suzuki did what he could with them in a short amount of time. Yes, that was condescending. Should I expect musicians to know anything about period performance practice? is it too much to ask? I don't know, apparently learning how to play post 1750 repertoire is a challenge enough.
NB: I felt sorry for the bassoonist in the overture: "you're the bassline, man, it's all up to you!!!"


I DID enjoy the Mendelssohn, surprisingly, which is evidenced by the fact that I sat there and listened to it. Didn't think that was going to happen... Nice job, kids! Guess they felt more at home there.

[ilovebaroque]

Originally Posted by Despina41

Yea, it's just that that's what most of classical music seems to be about these days. All these youngsters are always going on about getting music to a new audience, etc. "I'll dress like a [fill in blank] if it gets some extra people at my concert!"

I think you mean, " I'll REMOVE all my clothes if it gets..." DRESS??? Who gets dressed to perform anymore? Saves a lot of dry cleaning, I guess !

[Despina41]

I think I found the best performance out of Verbier - certainly the best of what I have heard so far.

No flashy piano virtuosos with barefeet or projectile sweat. No grand orchestral fanfares or hullaboo. Nope, just two apparently unremarkable old guys performing some art song.


http://www.medici.tv/#!/christoph-pr...-festival-2012

Yeah, Christoph Prégardien and Menahem Pressler, fantasic Winterreise. IN AUGUST, no less -- you know it has to be awesome if I am drawn into the bleak world of Winterreise when it's sunny and 33C outside.

Funny, I wasn't going to listen at all because "I am not in the mood for Winterreise," but medici.tv's youtube account had posted a clip of song 1 that I heard upon a friend's recommendation, and I had to go right then and there, in the intermission of the Kavakos-Lugansky concert (3/5 stars zzzz), and listen to the whole thing. You don't excerpt Winterreise..

So good, guys! Pressler: beautiful consistent tone, but such a variety of characters to match the story telling, amazing Schubert play to create such a world within a world... just one random example: "Auf dem Fluße" --- chilling in its opening simplicity, then building with consistent tension into something quite dramatic. And the whole set was powerful like that; great collaboration throughout.


The audience knew it too and sat in reverent silence for a good minute afterwards - unlike the terrible Berlin audience I saw a few years ago that coughed and attempted to clap in between each song, oi.


Garsh, I'm sure glad they still let mature musicians on stage these days! This whole Toddlers-in-Tiaras thing is only entertaining for so long...