patrikpen: Still Radical i Music & Vision 12 January

mercoledì 13 febbraio 2013

Still Radical i Music & Vision 12 January

Still Radical

Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring',
heard by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

On 5 January 2013 in Rome, the weather was Spring-like with temperatures reaching 20 degrees centigrade at noon time and sliding to 8 degrees at 9pm. It may seem that just to take account of these unusual weather conditions, the National Academy of Saint Cecilia had programmed -- for 5-8 December -- a concert on the theme of Spring. Two rather rare pieces by Debussy (Printemps) and Rachmaninoff (Spring Cantata) in the first part paved the way for Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps after the interval. It is certainly unusual to plan a Spring-themed concert on Epiphany Night, a major popular night of celebration in Rome. The reason, I am told, was the availability of the young, yet highly appreciated and heavily booked, conductor Vasily Petrenko, Chief Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and considered a 'must' for the centenary of Le Sacre.

The Santa Cecilia auditorium (2,800 seats) was nearly full, with many 'under 30s'. This means that one hundred years after its 'scandalous' debut at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Le Sacre is still a major attraction. Even in Rome, where since 1923 the National Academy of Santa Cecilia has performed it, in concert versions, in twenty two seasons (with a dozen conductors), and the Teatro dell'Opera has it in its repertory as a fully staged ballet.

Vasily Petrenko showed that the thirty-five minute composition is even now shocking and subtle, yet still radical. Stravinsky and his choreographer Diaghilev were very crafty impresarios. They intended to shock with a blend of primitive themes coming from old Uralian songs, very violent passages, an intense rhythm as well as a delicate descriptive passage. Le Sacre, especially, is music for the body and the muscles, not music for the mind (as most eighteenth century music). Even now, it has the body effect of a rock concert. Petrenko emphasized these aspects; thus they were quite distant from Lorin Maazel and Daniele Gatti, who have recently conducted Le Sacre in Rome. The audience was enthusiastic.

The first part of the concert was quite intriguing. Debussy's Printemps had not been performed in Rome for nearly twenty years. It is a fifteen minute composition initially thought for piano and chorus by a young 'fellow' of the French Academy in Rome; it was performed in Tony Palmer's edition for grand orchestra and chorus. This is springtime in Rome as seen through Massenet's lenses with some anticipation of what Debussy will become.

Rachmaninoff's Cantata is a late Romantic piece on a subject similar to that of Zemlinsky's A Florentine Tragödie. Never performed before in Rome, it is a short (fifteen minute) monodrama with a happy ending. Alexei Tanovitski was the protagonist: a betrayed husband forgiving his wife (he wanted to stab her to death) due to the Spring atmosphere. Both pieces were well received.