Reconnecting with Dallapiccola

by Barry O'Neal ©2006

Luigi Dallapiccolla: Piccola musica notturna; Goethe-Lieder; Due Studi; Sicut umbra...; Sonatina Canonica, Rencesvals; Concerto per la notte di Natale dell'anno. Continuum, Cheryl Seltzer and Joel Sachs, directors; Miller Theatre, Columbia U. , NY. February 23, 2006.

The service Continuum has provided over the years with its retrospectives devoted to the music of one composer or built around important compositional trends and styles, has been exemplary. Thus one looked forward to the retrospective devoted to the music of Luigi Dallapiccola eagerly.

In the event, the concert proved somewhat uneven, though one hastens to add that this was not so much the fault of the composer, but of some of the choices and performances.

Luigi Dallapiccola's music is too little heard in New York, and the fairly large audience seemed grateful to reconnect with him in live concert vis-a-vis recordings. This wonderful composer worked so successfully to reconcile his innately lyrical impulses with the twelve-tone method of composition.

The concert began with a well-played performance of that most radiant and gentle of nocturnes, Piccola musica notturna , in the chamber version of the 1954 chamber orchestra piece, rescored by the composer in 1961 for eight instrumentalists. The Goethe-Lieder from 1935 followed in a precise and communicative performance by Lucy Shelton and three fine players handling the three different clarinets involved (Moran Katz, Eb; David Gresham Bb; Benjamin Fingland, Bass). The economical instrumental writing remains a marvel of less-is-more and Ms. Shelton's way with the tricky, but expressive twelve-tone settings of the German texts could not have been better.

A good performance of Due Studi (1946-47) by the clear-toned Ari Yoshioka, violin and Cheryl Seltzer, piano, reminded one of how sketchy the work seems by comparison with its later, grander orchestral incarnation as Due Pezzi . Still it was given an insightful and thoughtful reading by the two fine musicians. The highlight of the concert was a performance of the late (1970) Sicut umbra... , one of the last of the extraordinary pieces Dallapiccola wrote for voice and chamber ensemble, with which the first half of the program ended. These pieces contain some of his most personal music and this little-known gem particularly benefited from the superb singing of mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and the refined playing of the large (twelve strong) instrumental ensemble under the direction of Joel Sachs. The delicacy of the scoring, with its emphasis on high winds (flutes and clarinets), harp, celesta and vibraphone, perfectly matches the prismatic quality of the Spanish texts (from Piedra y Cielo by Juan Ramón Jimenez).

Unfortunately, the remainder of the program did not come up to the caliber of what had transpired before the intermission. Partly this was the result of some of the music chosen, but more often the performances lacked the cogency and polish of the first half. Cheryl Seltzer's playing of the Sonatina Canonica (on Caprices of Niccolo Paganini ) from 1942/43 was faultless, but this neo-classical pastiche is not from the composer's top drawer. One wishes she had chosen to play the Quaderno musicale di Annalibera, the piano source of the great Variations for Orchestra (1954). Ms. Seltzer was then joined by baritone James Martin for Rencesvals (Three Fragments from “The Song of Roland”).

This 1946 work shows Dallapiccola wrestling successfully with the twelve tone approach, giving the music an Italianate, Bergian quality, which is very attractive. Unfortunately, Mr. Martin, though possessed of a warm, well-focused voice, had difficulty with the high tessitura of the songs, seeming breathless at times, and he even cracked once or twice. His inability to finish sustained notes elegantly was also a considerable drawback in setting forth the Old French of these texts.

The program ended with a very shaky performance of one of Dallapiccola's most masterful chamber ensemble pieces, Concerto per la notte di Natale dell'anno (1956) (texts drawn from Jacopone da Todi ), a work that is very difficult to perform, but perfectly reflects the combined joy and anxiety of the Christmas season it commemorates. The usually reliable Joel Sachs, conducting, seemed somewhat ill at ease and the performance broke down after about a minute. Wisely, he began again and though the ensemble got through it, the mostly young musicians clearly did not have this item “under their belts.” Camille Zamora sang the two Hymns (“Audito e un canto” and “Amor, amore grida ”) very beautifully, but the ensemble was often out of sync with her.

It was a shame that the second half of this concert failed to live up to the promise of the first half, but we must nonetheless thank Continuum for reminding us of how fantastic Dallapiccola's music is. When will some one of our great musical institutions undertake a U.S. performance of his great last
opera, Ulisse?