Teodor Currentzis triumphs with a Wagner for ‘dummies’ | Culture | EUROtoday

“This is not Wagner,” somebody from the viewers appeared to shout on December 5 on the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, throughout a live performance by The ring with out phrases of Wagner carried out by Teodor Currentzis on the head of his musicAeterna orchestra. The unlucky incident – which compelled the live performance to be interrupted to take away the one that was rebuking from the room – was attributed by the weblog Klassikom to the controversy aroused in China by the unconventional readings of the good repertoire by the Greco-Russian director.

In this case, nonetheless, that was not the case. The ring with out phrases It is just not a reinterpretation of Wagner, however a compilation of orchestral passages, midway between pastiche and medley, from the tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung by Richard Wagner. The association was made in 1987 by the director, composer and violinist Lorin Maazel for a recording venture by the Telarc label with the Berlin Philharmonic: compressing the almost fourteen hours of music from the 4 Wagnerian dramas right into a steady orchestral suite with out singers that will match on a single compact disc. Maazel took the outcome to the live performance corridor in 1990, in Pittsburgh, and the work has ended up turning into a sort of Wagner for dummies.

It is feasible that the protest on the Beijing live performance had one other origin. Perhaps that individual was reacting to listening to an orchestra financed by a Kremlin-linked financial institution, carried out by a musician who rigorously avoids talking out concerning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The wonderful musicAeterna ensemble stays financially managed by the European Union-sanctioned Russian financial institution VTB, whose president, Andrei Kostin, is an oligarch intently linked to Vladimir Putin. In addition, lately the orchestra has had the sponsorship of the gasoline firm Gazprom and the nuclear company Rosatom.

To function in nations the place this assist is unacceptable, Currentzis has created a purposeful variant of musicAeterna known as Utopia, with much less politically dedicated companions, such because the Austrian DM Private Foundation for Art and Culture, linked to the late co-founder of Red Bull, Dietrich Mateschitz. In observe, the Greco-Russian director in the present day divides his exercise into two very totally different geographies, relying on the diploma of native tolerance in direction of sponsorships linked to the Kremlin: within the north of Europe (Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium) he acts beneath the umbrella of Utopia – additionally in Greece – whereas within the south (Spain and Italy) his presence is accepted with musicAeterna.

The present tour of The ring with out phrases is an eloquent demonstration of this double ethical accounting. It started on November 3 on the Berlin Philharmonie fronting Utopia, adopted by concert events in Munich, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Athens. At the tip of the month and in December, Currentzis modified orchestras to start a tour with musicAeterna by China and Russia, with performances in Saint Petersburg, Moscow and Perm. Already in February, the work has returned to Western Europe with musicAeterna for a tour of Spain and Italy: it began on February 2 on the Auditori in Barcelona, ​​handed by Zaragoza the following day and can arrive on the fifth on the National Auditorium in Madrid and on the seventh on the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, earlier than persevering with to Brescia, Modena and Florence.

In the notes of the aforementioned album, Maazel hyperlinks the origin of his association The ring with out phrases to his expertise as musical director on the Bayreuth Festival. In 1960, when rehearsing for his debut with Lohengrinheard the composer’s grandson, Wieland Wagner, an inspiring phrase: “Everything is in the orchestra, it is the text behind the text, the universal subconscious that unites Wagner’s characters with each other and with the protoego of the legend.” His expertise directing stage productions of the Ring in 1965, in Berlin, and later in 1968, in Bayreuth, made him delve deeper into the concept of ​​a compressed symphonic model of the tetralogy.

To anticipate criticism, the American grasp however established 4 unavoidable standards: a fluid association, with out altering the order of the work or introducing interruptions; harmonious and justifiable transitions; unique use of unique orchestral music, though with occasional vocal traces on an “imaginable” instrument; and that each one the notes got here strictly from Wagner. The outcome, nonetheless, has at all times been debatable and problematic.

In addition to sacrificing the dramatic growth of the Ringthe association incurs creaky transitions—just like the one which hyperlinks Donner’s hammer blow, on the finish of Rhine goldwith the storm that opens The valkyrie—and omits elementary melodies, comparable to Siegmund’s spring music in The valkyrie or Brünnhilde’s melody of peace in Siegfried (later included within the well-known Idyll of Siegfried). The largest drawback, nonetheless, is the extreme density of the ensemble: orchestral cuts and driving motifs as compressed as they’re juxtaposed, with out room to breathe.

Now, judging by what was heard final February 3 on the Zaragoza Auditorium, the technical calls for and musical superficiality of Teodor Currentzis’s conducting considerably facilitate the digestion of this very problematic association. The Greco-Russian maestro maintains on the head of his musicAeterna ensemble the orchestral excellence that originated this venture with the Berlin Philharmonic. And his approach of conducting measure by measure and passage by passage, utterly unconcerned with the good arc of dramatic tensions of the work, favors the fluidity of the seventy minutes with out pause, which go with out leaving a hint.

At the start of Rhine goldwith that E flat sustained by the double basses for 136 measures, there was by no means the impression of witnessing the beginning of the world or the primordial circulate of the river. Currentzis achieved, nonetheless, millimeter precision of the eight horns and crystalline readability of the string. The most profitable a part of the prologue was the interlude of the descent into Nibelheim, the place well-managed rigidity was added to that precision.

The transition to The valkyrie was resolved from spectacularity: Donner’s hammer blow, adopted by an exaggerated articulation in cellos and double basses of the storm motif, carried the dynamic arc from the fortissimo with wooden to a virtually inaudible pianissimo. Dynamic feats the Greco-Russian conductor greater than the that means of music, as was clear in his approach of crushing Alexey Zhilin’s loving cello solo. The second act handed with none buildup of rigidity, and every thing was geared towards a frenetic journey of the Valkyries. The better of this primary day was, by far, Wotan’s farewell to Brünnhilde, held by a thick and beautiful rope.

Again, the transition to Siegfried turned out to be absurd: Loge’s magic of fireplace that closes The valkyrie linked seamlessly with the forge of the sword. The first act of this second day was consumed shortly once more, however within the forest murmurs of the second act Currentzis supplied a brand new instance of musicAeterna string excellence, accompanied by notable flute, clarinet and oboe solos. After the loss of life of the dragon Fafner, your entire third act is deleted and we go on to the daybreak of The twilight of the gods.

It is revealing that nearly half of the association is concentrated on this final day of the Ringcentered on the 2 most well-known orchestral passages: Siegfried’s journey alongside the Rhine and the Siegfried’s funeral marchwith temporary inserts of Hagen’s name and the hero’s loss of life. In these fragments the highly effective Russian steel stood out, though Siegfried’s sensible calls have been carried out offstage by the Valencian trumpet participant Jairo Gimeno. The funeral march as soon as once more impressed with its precision, rigidity and depth, however fell in need of depth and true drama. The leap to the tip of the tetralogy allowed Currentzis to supply the perfect of your entire night: a closing of nice sound management, topped by a gorgeous motif of Brünnhilde’s redemption for love.

However, though such a live performance could function a primary approximation to Wagner’s sound, the Saxon was rather more than an orchestral composer. This association doesn’t enable entry to the dramatic essence of the Ringwhich begins with Alberich renouncing love for energy and culminates with Brünnhilde renouncing energy in favor of affection, because the dramatic axis shifts from Wotan to Siegfried. It isn’t a surprise, due to this fact, that somebody exclaims “this is not Wagner”, particularly when we’ve got simply heard a very unforgettable Isolde in Barcelona.