Shostakovich, Pletnev, Bernstein - a comment

The post ‘Shostakovich, Pletnev, Bernstein’ relates to key issues discussed in this blog, which is why it was put up as a guest one. http://blogger-ablog.blogspot.com/2008/07/shostakovich-pletnev-bernstein.html
In particular:
1. There is no such thing as the 'spirit' of music as opposed to its 'letter'. All that exists is the notes and what is played. The ‘spirit’ is the arrangement of the notes, their intensity, their articulation, rhythm, dynamics, including the relation between them at different times in the piece etc. The ‘spirit’ is how this is actually carried out - but there exists nothing over and above what is composed and performed.
For that reason, for example, the attempt of Pletnev to alter the sound of Russian orchestras to a more West European style (by reducing the vibrato in the brass, altering bowing etc) alters the music itself. This would not necessarily mean that it is bad, although in this case it is inappropriate, but it does alter the music as does, to one degree or other, every such change. As has already been noted the conductor Celibidache was therefore correct when he stated, for example, that even the acoustics of a hall altered the music. http://blogger-ablog.blogspot.com/2008/06/hegel-and-authentic-instruments.html
This is actually a philosophical principle. There is no separate Kantian realm of ‘noumena’ (‘the thing in itself’) separate from the phenomena. That is the ‘spirit’ of a piece is embodied in what is written and performed and does not exist separately from them.
2. Shostakovich will be a significant subject of this blog – not merely as a great composer but because he raises major theoretical and performance issues. First he is a key example of atheism in music. When most dissidents in the Soviet Union embraced religion Shostakovich refused to do so. This certainly contributed significantly to the death haunted character of his late music – including in the 15th Symphony with its reflections and citations of other composers’ pieces of music.
3. The political interpretation of Shostakovich, on which there is much debate, has now become intertwined with his performance. As ‘Shostakovich, Pletnev, Bernstein’ notes the exaggerated slowing at the end of the 5th Symphony that has become established in many performances is to attempt to indicate that its ‘triumphant’ conclusion is intended ironically or sarcastically. But Shostakovich was, first and foremost, a great musician capable of indicating clearly what he wanted. Performance that violates the musical sense of what he wrote therefore cannot be interpreted as indicating his concept – he was able to express very accurately what he wanted. As there is no tempo indication in the score of the 5th Symphony indicating that an extreme slowing down should take place this alteration in the music, introduced without authorisation by the composer, indicates that something alien is being imposed.
Toscanini once famously remarked to an orchestra when rehearsing Beethoven’s Eroica ‘It is not Napoleon, it is not Hitler, it is allegro con brio.’ This does not mean interpretation does not carry great power but that it was to be carried out by means of the music’s logic. If it is artificially imposed on the music it does not correspond to the composers concept. The violence done to the phrasing in the extreme, unmarked, slowing at the end of some performances of the 5th Symphony indicates this is not Shostakovich’s conception.

NB A note for those not acquainted with philosophical terminology on ‘noumena versus phenomena’/the thing in itself.
Kant held that beyond the realm of what we perceived (phenomena) was ‘the thing in itself’ (noumena) of which we could not have knowledge. The idea that there can be a ‘spirit’ of a piece of music which is not in the notes implies that ‘somewhere else’ is a spirit - which is not contained in the notes and the performance. This is nonsense as all that exists is the notes and the performance. How these are composed and performed, of course, is organised, and that is what is sometimes referred to as the ‘spirit’. But it is in the notes and performance and not somewhere else than in them.

Shostakovich, Pletnev, Bernstein

The following comment has been received about points in the post on Klemperer's intepretation of Tchaikovsky's 'Pathetique'. However because the issues it raises are of more general significance it is posted here separately as a guest contribution.

I absolutely agree with the post about Pletnev and his Russian National Orchestra and the sound they make. http://blogger-ablog.blogspot.com/2008/06/klemperers-pathetique.html I have found their Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky recordings very disappointing. The one exception has been Shostakovich Symphony 15 which I have heard him perform live twice - once with the LSO and once with the Philharmonia - which have been very fine. This piece really intrigues me with all the odd musical references. Also having read the post on Bernstein and Shostakovich there is an issue to do with the 5th Symphony's ending. http://blogger-ablog.blogspot.com/2008/06/bernstein-and-russian-music.html
The current vogue is to take the last "triumphant" pages exageratedly slowly to highlight the fact that Shostakovich was being ironic with his 'response to just criticism'. This is all well and good but seems so anti- the natural flow of the phrasing. One of the things I like about the Bernstein recording is that he plays the finale at the 'proper' tempo. What are other people's opinions?

Schubert's Schwanengesang 'Standchen' - Volker 1928, Hotter 1954

Together with a large number of other people I find Schubert's Standchen, from Schwanengesang, absolutely hypnotic - justifiably described as probably the most famous serenade ever written. After reviewing the various recordings of Volker singing Lohengrin it was therefore inevitable his recording of Standchen should be put on. It happens to be my all time favourite recording of the piece. The purity of Volker's voice production captures something of the character of an adolescent boy almost breathless with excitement and anticipation as he waits for one of his first ever girlfriends. That 'purity' of Volker's voice, the same that fits so well the God annointed character of Lohengrin, gives a 'pre-sexual experience' feel of the adolescent to the music.
But Standchen also has its darker side - this undercurrent helping create the profundity of the piece.
'Well they know the heart's desire,
Well know lovers pains'
Another recording I greatly admire greatly of the piece is therefore Hotter's 1954 recording as part of his complete Schwanengesang - the interpretation of almost every song being of superb quality. Hotter's bass-baritone imparts to Standchen a much darker character than Volker's silvery even tenor. With Volker the emphasis is on the power of sexual love itself, its possibilities, and the relationship that follows from the meeting may well end happily. With Hotter the outcome may end sadly.
Examples of totally different valid interpretations, both at the highest level, of the same piece.

Wagner, Lohengrin 'In fernem Land' - Volker 1936 & 1942

There has been widespread discussion of why the standard of singing of Wagner and Verdi has declined so much compared to a peak that certainly lasted until the 1930s and 1940s - and in some cases continued into the 1950s. This blog certainly does not adopt the 'older is always better' approach - the crackle of a 78 does not necessarily equal greater music making. The standard of performance in many areas of classical music has been maintained or even improved - for example, to take those still alive or who died only very recently, there are a wealth of pianists of the first rank (Richter, Michelangeli, Argerich, Pollini to name only some).
The standard of production of Wagner operas has imeasurably improved. But the general consensus that there are no Wagner tenors of the recent period to match Melchior or Lorenz, for example, is true and the characteristics accounting for this are clearly explicable. The weight of voice and superb diction of Melchior or Lorenz does convey a 'heroic' feel no contemporary tenor matches. As both Siegfried and Tristan, to take the obvious examples, are indeed projected as 'heroic' characters, in a moral even more than a physical, sense the ability, or otherwise, to project this alters the perspective conveyed by the Wagner operas themselves. (Placido Domingo has the character of voice, and it is superb to hear him singing Wagner but, as is widely remarked, his inauthentic German pronouciation him prevent him reaching the absolute peak - a Tristan in utmost delerium, expressing his deepest thoughts, would not choose to sing in what is audibly a foreign language. In Verdi, of course, Domingo does scale the peaks and shows there is not a complete abscence of Verdi singing at the very highest level that exists among Wagner tenors).
Finding the greatest recordings of Wagner singing therefore is an area where some research has to be done. In aiding that, and because he does not receive the same degree of general recognition as Melcihior for example, an absolute must is Franz Volker singing Lohengrin.
Volker performs Lohengrin superlatively, given his very different character of voice to Lorenz or Melchior, because the character himself is very different to Tristan or Siegfried. The latter are heroes because they struggle against, and overcome, great moral and physical challenges. Lohengrin does not have that character. As a knight ordained by God to be victorious he faces no such struggle and the role requires no such heroic voice. Lohengrin is God protected perfection and Volker's extraordinary evennness of voice production, and again his superb diction, render this character with huge effect.
Volker's complete 1942 recording of Lohengrin in Berlin, conducted by Heger, is superb and because it gives the opera in its entirety not to be missed.
To my mind an even greater examples of Wagner singing, however, comes in the 1936 studio recordings of excerpts from Lohengin conducted by Tietjen. This recording of 'In fernem Land' has the added advntage, for a recording rather than a dramatic performance, of including the second half of the aria - the cut was, of course, decided by Wagner himself and works to heighten the drama in opera performance, but the extra music in a recording is a bonus with Volker's superb singing.
The absolute peak, however, is the 1936 performance at Bayreuth conducted by Furtwangler. Not only, as would be expected, is the orchestral interpretation at an extraordinary level but the greatness of the conducting brings from Volker an even greater performance. As the excerpt is from the opera production it does not have the second half of 'In fernem Land' but it is a peak of Wagner interpretation.
The fact of who was the principal guest at the 1936 Bayreuth festival, and who was in power in Berlin in 1942, again confirms that there is no short term justice in the world and, regretably, no one to one relation between music and politics. But the fit of the singer and the role is extraordinary - entirely worthy of its extremely high reputation.

Beethoven's Coriolan Overture - Furtwangler 1943

Beethoven's 'Coriolan' overture occupies a very specific place among his works. It is the only major piece of Beethoven that ends tragically.
It is superfluous to say Beethoven is not superficial - to put it very mildly. He encapsulates intense struggle, hardship, force, energy, effort, but he is determinedly optimistic. Victory comes only as a result of great effort but it comes - this combination being one of the reasons he has been the most popular of all composers. Beethoven was indeed the last classical composer of the first rank to have an unequivocally optimistic view of the world in the last analysis – later Mendelssohn was also optimistic but he is precisely not a composer of the very first rank. It is merely necessary to compare music being composed by Schubert during the last years of Beethoven’s life to see the comparison.
Perhaps for that reason Beethoven’s Coriolan poses particular problems of interpretation that only the greatest conductors are capable of solving. Outstanding recorded successes for me are Carlos Kleiber (on DVD), Konwitschny, and Klemperer. But Furtwangler’s 1943 recording occupies a place among the pantheon of the greatest recordings of anything. The extraordinary force and violence of the interpretation, combined with Furtwangler’s typical sustaining of the full value of notes, gives the impression of someone implacably crushed. Overwhelming.