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Festival |
Dresden, Germany October 1-10, 2002
One noteworthy musical event in Europe was the Dresdener Tage der zeitgenössischen Musik, which took place in Dresden, Germany, from October 1 to October 10, 2002. Organized by the Dresdner Zentrum für zeitgenössische Musik and its director, the famous German composer, Udo Zimmermann, the festival was a melting pot of styles and trends of music, not only contemporary Classical musical trends, but also jazz and various ethnic musical trends. The concerts were held in extremely diverse concert venues and the respective concerts attracted completely different audiences.
The festival opened with a performance of "Les Percussions de Strasbourg", which played a program of mainstream avant-garde compositions for percussion, together with two folk percussionists from India, Djamschid and Keyvan Chemirani, who performed ethnic Indian percussion music on the folk drum called the Zarb, joined with Italian percussionist Carlo Rizzo, who aided them with the Italian tambourine.
Most impressive was "Sommerbericht" by French Composer Henry Fourés, written in 2001 for Les Percussions de Strasbourg and performed by them and by Carlo Rizzo. It contained intricate timbral effects, where the instruments gently phased in and out long notes, creating the impression of electronic or pre-recorded concrete music by their extreme delicacy of performance and as spatial effects. Later, the music gained momentum, having almost a swing-like rhythmic quality.
"Gigue" for four percussionists by Gérard Pesson was a decidedly extroversive piece with more pronounced rhythmic and unstandard timbral effects, resembling saws or scapings on wine glass, while Samuel Sighicelli’s "temps-libre étoilé" continued the extroversive trend, involving theatrical action with the percussionists walking around on stage.
This idea was picked up to an even greater proportion by Italian Gualtiero Dazzi, whose "Gammes/Elans" was subtitled as "Rituelle Musik" and involved the percussionists walking around on stage, combining the solemnity of ritual with the extrovertiveness of theater pieces. The Chemirani Duo and Carlo Rizzo, the performance of which was interspersed in between each piece, provided totally different type of music -- rhythmically regular and timbrally homogenous, appealing to an Eastern aesthetic type of meditative trends, implying achievement of some kind of state of ecstasy. The juxtaposition of Eastern and Western percussion traditions in the same concert provided for some striking variety, yet the inherent wisdom of each of these trends remained respectively autonomous and did not connect with that of its respective counterparts.
Next day, there was a performance of the Greek-born American singer Diamanda Galás, who sang and played the piano in an improvisatory manner in styles resembling a variety of ethic styles as well as an avant-garde style, bordering on popular music. The performance was titled as "Defixiones, Will and Testament (Orders from the Dead)". The performance went on without interruption as one unified entity with a pronouncedly improvisatory air, demonstrating a temperamental character from Diamanda Galás, who oscillated freely between subdued, even solemnly religious musical ideas and moods to violently emotional shouting at the top of her lungs, occasionally playing violently dynamic music on the piano.
Next day, there was a performance of the Greek-born American singer Diamanda Galás, who sang and played the piano in an improvisatory manner in styles resembling a variety of ethic styles as well as an avant-garde style, bordering on popular music. The performance was titled as "Defixiones, Will and Testament (Orders from the Dead)". The performance went on without interruption as one unified entity with a pronouncedly improvisatory air, demonstrating a temperamental character from Diamanda Galás, who oscillated freely between subdued, even solemnly religious musical ideas and moods to violently emotional shouting at the top of her lungs, occasionally playing violently dynamic music on the piano.
One concert was devoted to music by Dresden composer, Eckehard Meyer, who had a very impressive selection of compositions performed. "Kindersommer," for mezzo-soprano, clarinet, string trio and percussion on a text by Friedericke Mayrocker, was a lyrical, Romantically expressive, atonal piece with innovative textures and original sound effects, without any cerebral qualities, which produced a very favorable impression.
"Recital 2 nach Fernando Pessoa," for baritone voice, bass clarinet and string quartet featured several movements, the first being lyrical and subtly dramatic with innovative textures and soft, dramatic, instrumental effects, the second being almost tonal harmonically, with allusions to waltz and jazz (the bass-clarinet imitating a saxophone sound). The baritone sang in a quasi-sprechstimme the entire time. The third movement involved subtle textural effects, like holding long notes with the baritone speaking the text almost throughout and singing a solo line towards the end of the movement. The fourth movement was fast, dynamic, rhythmically pungent yet texturally elaborate, featuring a confrontation between the baritone’s sprechstimme and the instrumental parts; towards the end the music becoming softer and containing repetitive passages and tonal allusions.
"Immer wieder" for solo violin was a rhythmically regular, virtuosic piece with sharp accents on offbeats, perceivably dynamic in mood, with a fair share of rational qualities, though not to an excess. It started and finished with the violinist tapping a regular pulse with his foot and singing a melody, with all the violin playing going on in the middle.
"Unter Mond ist Viel Freude," for mezzo-soprano, baritone, saxophone, piano and percussion was a tonal, Romantic, composition, very jovial in mood, with strong roots in the German popular and folk song tradition of the 19th and early 20th century, including waltz and beer garden songs. There were some allusions to well-known themes, like Schubert’s "Death and the Maiden", but no direct quotations. The only affinity with modernity was the imaginative instrumentation, very close to an avant-garde aesthetics, especially noteworthy in the percussion. According to the composer, the work was a tribute to the German lied tradition, starting with Schubert.
79-year-old American jazz saxophonist, Charlie Mariano, together with eight other musicians from, respectively, India, Argentina, Algeria, Germany and the USA, performed a concert, titled as "Global music celebration," featuring an eclectic combination of jazz music, fused with various Eastern, mostly Indian musical ideas. The concert on the whole was very impressive, most notably Mariano’s own performance, whereas the additions of some of the Indian musicians, though noteworthy by themselves, seemed like somewhat superfluous embellishments in the context of Mariano’s playing.
More ethnic music was heard the following day, namely a concert of Mongolian and Tibetan music, titled as "The Voice of Tibet". "Egschiglen Ensemble" from Mongolia, consisting of six musicians, dressed in traditional exotic costumes, performed an assortment of folk music with their ensemble of bowed and plucked stringed and percussion instruments, occasionally striking the gong for additional dramatic effects. They accompanied their playing with singing, whistling and throat-singing, the latter, a special technique from that part of the world, greatly enhancing the overall sound. The pentatonic harmonies, often accompanied with strings holding perfect fourth or fifth drones, which otherwise would sound very commonplace and stereotyped, were greatly enlivened by the exotic instrumental timbres, which provided great zest and spirit to the performance. One of the numbers had a decisive tonal minor static harmony, resembling Arvo Part’s music. They were able to achieve enlightened Buddhist moods, since, presumably, they came from Buddhist religious traditions.
Following them, Tibetan singer, Yungchen Lhamo presented a recital of Tibetan folk and religious songs, singing them unaccompanied in a lyrical and gentle voice. The plaintive, exotic, monophonic music provided for a moving atmosphere and musical experience. She preceded each number with explanations in English, frequently alluding to Tibetan religious practices, including that of meditation, when describing the music and, several times, asking the audience to sing along an ostinato accompaniment, over which she sang a more varied type of melody.