“C’est l’amour”

John Paval. Please forgive my inexpert photography with a smart phone.

This was the audience’s sing-along line during one of tenor John Paval’s offerings last evening at the music salon “Gabriel Hilda” in Stockholm. Our hostess was Kaija Kaarina Kuronen Suovanen. She graciously seated Eva and me near the piano at one of the “20 intimate seats… fit (with) furnishings suitable to an old Östermalm apartment with dark paneling.” (Gabriel and Hilda are Ms Suovanen’s adult children, both musicians).

John and I have been acquainted for ten years. I have known him as stage actor and producer, but wasn’t aware until a year ago that he is also a professional singer and music historian. So, when I learned he was to perform a concert of French arias and songs at the Musiksalong, I promptly reserved a table for Eva and me. We had been to this charming café a few years ago for a poetry reading.

John’s piano accompanist is Maciej Kluz, who has studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Poland. Mr. Paval cheerfully introduced himself and Mr. Kluz to his audience as “Jack and Mack”.

Maciej Kluz

The evening was advertised as Hyllning till Franske Tonsättare – Bizet till Brel. In translation this is “A Tribute to French Composers – Bizet to Brel.” In addition to the two named composers, we heard pieces from Jules Massenet, Eduard Lalo, Gabriel Fauré, César Franck,  Louis Ganne, and Franz Léhar (admittedly not French, but he wrote in the spirit of the time that the others were part of). Between Mr Paval’s sets Mr. Kluz played piano pieces of Frédéric Chopin: a polonaise, a nocturne, a waltz, and, a favorite of mine, the “Black Key” Etude in G flat major, op. 10, no. 5.

As with my previous experience in hearing Mr. Paval sing, he also gave the history of many of the composers and their pieces before he offered them. He described the times in general (the decades surrounding 1850), and the relationships between these composers. This knowledge of the context provided me even more appreciation for the music.

Mr. Paval chose his program well, offering both the sacred and “profane” (as in a piece of Bizet’s Carmen). I was moved by his rendering of the sacred Pie Jesu, by Gabriel Faure (the link is to the piece sung by soprano Barbara Bonney).

As for the heading to this article, Mr. Paval instructed us on how to join him in the first words of the chorus to C’est l’amour from the comic opera Saltimbanques by Louis Ganne:

C´est l´amour qui flotte dans l´air à la ronde
C´est l´amour qui console le pauvre monde
C´est l´amour qui rend chaque jour la gaîté
C´est l´amour qui nous rendra la liberté!

John was gracious enough after the performance to compliment me on my baritone voice.

Before the ending song from Les Miserables by Claude Michel Schönberg, Mr. Paval soulfully sang Jacques Brel’s, La Chanson des Vieux Amants,  a capella,

It was a delightful musical evening and setting.

Thank you, Stockholm, Kaija Suovanen, and John Paval.

At Berwaldhallen Again — it was Wonderful

I like to say “wonderful”. It is a word that Ernest Hemingway often used in his writings. It seems the only thing to say when one has run out of superlatives.

I attended the concert hall with Vasil again, and what we heard and observed within the acoustical marvel that houses the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra on the evening of 15 February, 2013 was:

The piece for string orchestra by Jörgen Dafgård was an unexpected bonus, even if it was a difficult piece to understand. This is not a negative criticism. I take as a challenge all music I don’t at first understand, so I looked for an explanation. What I thought I heard and observed in the interactions of conductor and musicians was a piece with complex rhythms intertwined within a larger structure that I could not readily discern. I could perceive no melody or motif, but the conductor made me believe there was one. He was totally in charge, moving both arms in ways that indicated the different rhythms and volumes required of each section of the small orchestra. I found it interesting but admit I wished the piece were somewhat shorter.

Here are some expert words on the piece:

This work… is rhythmic in a both playful and wild way… (Source).

The Italian title Volo stands for escape, as in flight and movement or flight bow over the strings. The title also points to the volatility that characterizes the music as an art and as reflected in the stream of tones that are born and die in flight. Volo produces tones often quite short pattern that breaks up and eventually incorporated into the broader patterns or structures. The level of detail is found not least in the ever changing pace species. The metric emphases are often not where you expect them, and it will then search for the lost balance at a more senior level… (These words have been translated, on-line, from the Swedish).

Mr. Dafgård was on hand to receive his accolades from the audience and the orchestra after the piece ended. It felt good to see a real live composer, especially at the beginning of his career.

In that we had not expected to experience a string orchestra during the program, Vasil and I were a bit anxious about not seeing a piano on stage for the advertised Mozart concerto. And, since neither of us has Swedish well enough to understand the rather long introductions by the program announcer before each offering of the evening, we thought there might have been a change in program.

But, we relaxed as stage hands rolled a grand piano from its hiding place in the sidelines to the front of the stage, within a very narrow space between the conductor’s podium and the edge of the stage.

The first violinist prepares the orchestra for the arrival of the conductor and the pianist

I love Mozart’s music, generally, but I prefer some pieces more than others. His 25^th piano concerto is not one I would listen to at home, preferring those that immediately, numerically precede this one.

My opinion seems buttressed by this excerpt from a description of the piece:

Mozart completed this work on December 4, 1786… It is scored for single flute, two each of oboes, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, strings, and solo keyboard, of course. This last of Mozart’s four C major piano concertos is a work of immense structural integrity (rather than cultivated thematic charm), employing alternations between parallel major and minor keys throughout… (the emphasis is mine).

Of the three movements, I enjoyed the third the most, again buttressed by the commentary:

The first theme is tinted with melancholy, serious, almost brooding… full of a languishing grace unexpected in a concerto finale. Major-minor mood swings carry over from the first movement until, in couplet-B, intensity reaches passion… The piano, accompanied by cellos and basses alone, (produces) a sound that occurs nowhere else in Mozart, (leading to) music whose richness of texture, poignancy and passion astonish us… (Source for both quotations).

But, these words are irrelevant in the face of Mr. Anderszewski’s virtuosic playing. What a great pleasure to be present while a master performs his art. What cadenzas! What subtle precision! What faithfulness to the genius of Mozart! It was wonderful.

Piotr Anderszewski was born in Warsaw, Poland. He attended conservatories in Lyon and Strasbourg, the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, and the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles. (He) first came to public attention at the Leeds Piano Competition in 1990, when he walked off stage in the semi-finals because he didn’t feel he was playing well enough…He made his London debut six months later at the Wigmore Hall.

He has given recitals at all the major venues around the world. Orchestras with whom Anderszewski has performed include the London Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Royal Concertgebouw and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In addition, Anderszewski has established a significant reputation for directing from the keyboard and has collaborated with many chamber orchestras including the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. (Source).

Please pardon the poor quality of thee photographs taken by a hand-held iPhone4, but click on the images anyway

The audience applauded enthusiastically after his performance. Mr. Anderszewski was prepared to play a lovely encore which I reckoned was by J.S. Bach, possibly one of his suites for harpsichord.

During the paus (intermission), Vasil and I wondered to each other whether we were going to hear music of the “12-tone technique” which Arnold  Schoenberg is known for. Neither of us is fond of this genre, but there are certain pieces which I will listen to by Anton Webern and other who employ it. I remarked to Vasil that I very much enjoy listening to Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), which seems an early piece still connected to the romantic period that preceded the modern period in which Schoenberg has been finally and  firmly placed.

As we re-entered the hall after the paus, we heard, then saw, many of the woodwind and brass sections practicing before the performance. They were not coordinated, there being no conductor present, and we thought “Uh, oh—12-tone music ahead.” But we were wrong.

But first, about the size and composition of the orchestra that assembled as we took our seats again. I counted the instruments that I could easily see from our limited vantage point:

• Tympanists—5, the instruments including gong, bass drum, two sets of kettle drums, traps, and triangle, etc.
• Trombones—5
• Trumpets—4
• Tuba (or bass horn, I’m not sure)—1
• French horns-8
• Harps—2
• Oboes—5, including an oboe d’amore
• Clarinets—5, including a bass clarinet
• Flutes—3
• Piccolo—1
• Bass viols—8
• And lots and lots of other stringed instruments of the usual kind.

A limited view of this large orchestra

[Pelléas et Mélisande is a Symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck about the forbidden, doomed love of the title characters. It was first performed in 1893.]

As the music proceeded, I felt that Shoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande seemed in the same genre as his Verklärte Nacht, although much more complex and advanced toward the modern genre.

Here is some commentary about the piece:

Only three years separate the first sketches of Arnold Schoenberg’s only symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande, Op. 5 from the string sextet Verklärte Nacht of 1899. While the musical roots of Pelleas are, by and large, the same as those of the sextet, the contrapuntal web that Schoenberg weaves in Pelleas is so dense and of such chromatic complexity that the music is transfigured into something wholly new…

The rich scoring of Pelleas reflects the same late Romantic tendency towards inflation that marks the nearly contemporaneous scoring of (Schoenberg’s) Gurrelieder: 17 woodwind players, 18 brass, more than a half dozen percussionists, and a reinforced contingent of strings and harps are all on call. Pelleas und Melisande is cast as a single large body of music, in which the four traditional symphonic movements are still vaguely discernable, but which puts more stress on the myriad structural and expressive possibilities that result from juxtaposing several levels of motivic detail than on the well-worn shadows of “arbitrary” formal outlines. (Source).

This is a monumental work, demanding the utmost from orchestra and, especially, the conductor. It seemed flawless and complete. I was not bored for one second. I was alert to everything. I was especially alert to the leadership of the conductor, as I was during the first, complex piece by Jörgen Dafgård.

Vasil remarked, before I was about to, that the conductor was outstanding.

Conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Jukka-Pekka Saraste was born 1956 in Heinola, Finland. He studied piano and violin at the Lahti Conservatory. He began his musical career as violinist, playing co-principal second violin and later with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (FRSO).

After graduating from the Conservatory in 1976, Saraste went to Sibelius-Akademy and took classes in conducting with the legendary teacher Jorma Panula. In the same class were also Esa-Pekka Salonen and Osmo Vänskä. In 1981, he won the first prize of the Scandinavian Conducting Competition.

In 1983, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Saraste co-founded the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, which specialises in performances of contemporary music. In 2000, he also founded the Ekenäs Summer Concerts-Festival with the Finnish Chamber Orchestra, and he is currently the Artistic Advisor to both Festival and Orchestra.

In 1987 Saraste was appointed Chief Conductor of the FRSO (a position he held until 2001) and Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Edinburgh (a position he held until 1991).

Jukka-Pekka Saraste became Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1994 which, before Saraste, never had a regular recording contract. He frequently took the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to Carnegie Hall in New York. He also brought it a contract with Finlandia Records. Saraste stepped down from his Toronto post in 2001, and has since returned to Toronto for several guest appearances.

From 2002 to 2005, Saraste served as the Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In August 2006, he became Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, and his contract has since been extended through the 2012-13 season.  The WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln has appointed Saraste as its principal conductor, effective with the 2010-2011 season.

Jukka-Pekka Saraste has conducted as a guest many renowned orchestras and ensembles, establishing himself as a leading conductor of his generation at a remarkably early age. (Source)

Vasil, next to a sculpture in Berwaldhallen

What I particularly liked about Mr. Saraste’s leadership is that he seemed completely attuned to the orchestra, not grandstanding to the audience as other conductors I have seen. He did not dance on his podium; he did not make hand and body movements out of proportion to the nature of the music of the moment. His baton moved sharply while his left hand encouraged each section of the orchestra when it was prominent in the music. It was completely enjoyable to watch a master at work.

There you have Vasil’s and my most “wonderful” evening.

Big Music on a Small Island

Eva and I had just arrived at Sydkoster, an island barely south of the Norwegian border in the Skagerrak and north of Denmark’s Jutland, when we both espied an advertisement for a music festival which was to have its final presentations on the following day.

Without hesitation we decided to walk the English mile or so from our rented fryggebod to the site of the musical offerings, and laid down SEK250 each for the following day’s presentation at 7PM. I could not resist hearing a rendering, in an intimate setting, of Antonín Dvořák’s “Dumky” Trio Op. 90 in E-minor, and Felix Mendelssohn’s Trio in C-minor, Op. 66, both performed by the Dahlkvist Trio, a group of which I had had no previous knowledge (and about which much more, below). I was familiar with the Dvořák piece, but wasn’t sure about the Mendelssohn—but anything by this composer is good to hear.

(Left to Right) Kersti Dahlkvist, Henrik Måwe, Hanna Dahlkvist

It was threatening rain the evening of the outdoor concert at Kosters Trädgårdar, but we had paid our money already and we speculated that if the weather turned too inclement, the concert would move into the adjacent restaurant—and it was so. We garnered seats exactly in front of the Dahlkvist sisters, a mere meter or two from their instruments, violin and cello. The pianist, Henrik Måwe, was situated behind the two women such that we had a clear view of his hands on the keyboard (again, more about him and the others, below).

It was a small but attentive audience, some eating and some, like us, just sitting and waiting for the performers and the stage crew to adjust to the alternate venue. We had a glass of wine while waiting for the concert to begin.

So intimate was the setting, it was natural for me to have a brief, friendly word with the violinist as she adjusted her chair and stand.

Now, about the music…

I realized quickly that my subliminally lowered expectations were influenced by the rustic island setting. I was immediately blown away by these highly skilled professional musicians. Their youth (all seemingly in their mid-20s) was an asset in the vigor required of them for the Dumke Trio, a challenging piece of six movements. It was, from my point of view, perfectly played and passionately executed.

During the break before they played the Mendelssohn piece, I chatted with one of the women (perhaps they will forgive my misremembering which because they are twins) and learned that ordinarily the sisters play together or with their eponymous quartet. This series of concerts was the first occasion playing as a trio with their pianist colleague, Henrik Måwe. I remarked that the three of them seemed completely attuned in their playing.

I wasn’t familiar with the Mendelssohn piece, but in the last two movements I discerned riffs and phrases from other of Mendelssohn’s works, and found interesting the clear sound of a hymn-like passage in the final movement. Again the playing was perfect and thrilling, the other listeners giving loud and long applause to verify my impressions.

The three were prepared for an encore—Cavalleria Rusticana, an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni, transcribed for a trio. The audience was delightfully surprised by two tenors (whom I thought were solely stage hands) performing an exciting duet/aria for one of the many movements of the piece.

What an unexpected pleasure to greet us upon the first full day of our week-long vacation on the island of Sydkoster in the County of Västra Götaland, Sweden.

I don’t know if these musicians will continue as a trio, but the Dahlkvist Quartet will continue to tour Europe. I’ll be sure to attend their Stockholm concert on 13 April 2013. Here is the quartet’s current schedule.

From Sydkoster, Sweden

Now about the musicians…

Hanna Dahlkvist, Cello

Hanna Dahlkvist was born 1986 in Stockholm. She started playing cello as a teenager, studying under Ulrika Edström. In 2004 she began her studies under Torleif Thedéen at Stockholm’s Royal College of Music at Edberg Castle (Edsbergs Musikinstitut/Kungliga Musikhögskolan). In 2009 she completed her formal education by performing an acclaimed diploma concert, together with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, of Witold Lutoslawski’s cello concerto. Hanna currently studies with the French cellist Michel Strauss in Paris where she is working toward a Master of Music at Conservatoire Nationale Supérieure de Musique.

Kersti Dahlkvist, Violin

Kersti Dahlkvist was born 1986 in Stockholm. When just a few years old she started singing, and playing violin and piano. In her teens she studied violin with Sergej Bolkhovets and later with Marika Fältskog at Nordiska Musikgymnasiet. After high school she began graduate studies at Royal College of Music in Stockholm. She graduated the spring 2008 in the class of Henryk Kowalski. Kersti finished master studies the spring 2010 at the chamber music program at Edsberg Castle/Royal College of Music. Her professor was Per Enoksson. Since autumn 2009 Kersti has been is studying with Pavel Vernikov in a post graduate course, at Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, Italy.

Kersti plays on a violin built by Fabio Piagentini 2010 in Lucca, Italy.

Henrik Måwe, Piano

Henrik Måwe was born in Sweden 1981. He studied with Prof. Hui-Ying Liu-Tawaststjerna at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and with Prof. Staffan Scheja at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.

Henrik made his debut recital in Stockholm, in 2008, and in the same year performed as a soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Stockholm. Henrik has performed as a soloist in all the Nordic countries, England, Ireland, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and South Africa. He is also seen and heard frequently on Swedish TV, radio and other media.

Since 2008 Henrik has been a chamber music coach at the “Lilla Akademien” in Stockholm. There he also works as the assistant to Staffan Scheja, professor and head of the piano department at the Royal College of Music.

Henrik has released a CD entitled The 50 Greatest Pieces of Classical Piano, and can be viewed and heard in this video on YouTube

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The Dahlkvist Quartet

The Dahlkvist Quartet on YouTube

Americana at Stockholm’s ‘English Church’

I met John Paval at the English-speaking Rotary Club in Stockholm, shortly after its formation in May, 2003. I was aware he is a professional actor but was unaware, until recently, he is an accomplished musician and a music historian.

We are “friends” in Facebook where I learned he was the artistic director of a week-long musical event in Stockholm at the “English Church”, as it is commonly known, or The Church of St. Peter & St. Sigfrid. The event was Musical Springfest, 21 May—26 May, 2012.

I attended the first concert and was delighted with the offering. I learned that Aaron Copland had made modern arrangements of popular, pre-Civil War American songs, in two books, both presented in this concert (more about this, below).

Equally delightful was the singing and narration offered by Mr. Paval. He is a strong tenor and, with his actor’s voice, narrated clearly and powerfully between the songs about their provenance. Most were Negro slave “minstrel” in origin and accordingly, as John explained, they were originally performed by white singers in “black face”. His soulful words regarding these times before the emancipation of the slaves, were moving, especially in the venue of a church.

Old American Songs are two sets of songs arranged by Aaron Copland in 1950 and 1952 respectively. Originally scored for voice and piano, they were reworked for baritone (or mezzo-soprano) and orchestra. In that John is a tenor, he sang from the original version.

Set 1 was first performed by Peter Pears (tenor) and British composer Benjamin Britten (piano) in 1950 at Aldeburgh, in Suffolk, East Anglia, England. The version of Set 1 for baritone and orchestra was premiered in 1955 by William Warfield and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Alfred Wallenstein. (The links under the following song titles go to recordings on YouTube).

The Boatmen’s Dance (minstrel song from 1843)
The Dodger (political campaign song)
Long Time Ago (ballad)
Simple Gifts (Shaker song)
I Bought Me a Cat (children’s song)

Pianist-accompaniest Maciej Kluz played a Gershwin prelude between the two sets of songs.

Set 2 was first performed in 1958 by William Warfield and Aaron Copland (piano) in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and later, in its orchestral form, by Grace Bumbry (mezzo-soprano) and the Ojai Festival Orchestra, conducted by the composer, in Ojai, California. [Note: I lived in Ojai for three years].

The Little Horses (lullaby)
Zion’s Walls (revivalist song)
The Golden Willow Tree (Anglo-American ballad)
At the River (hymn tune)
Ching-A-Ring Chaw (minstrel song)

—

I also attended the fifth concert, on Friday. Consider the setting: the music offered was ”American gospel” in origin, also known as Negro Spirituals; the venue was, as with all the concerts in this series, Stockholm’s “English Church”; the instrumentalists were Swedes, and the vocalists from America. It was wonderful.

Singers, left to right: Germaine Thomas, Sarah Thomsen. Pontus Andersson on drums, Gustav Rosén on alto saxophone, Mårten Korkman on string bass. Not shown, Toril Briese on piano.

(Apologies for a shaky hand, extending a camera into the aisle, making a wobbly picture)

As with the Monday concert, the program was in two parts: in Part 1 we heard selections from Duke Eliington’s “Sacred Concerts”. Part 2 offered “modern and traditional American spiritual music”.

John Paval was not able to be at this concert, having responsibilities to attend to in Paris. In any event Sarah Thomsen, as the leader of her quintet, was the narrator for this program.

Between 1965 and 1973, Ellington wrote three massive works that combined elements of jazz, classical music, choral music, spirituals, gospel, blues and dance. He called them his “sacred concerts,” and they were performed in churches and cathedrals around the world. He said it was the most important music he’d ever written.

The selections for Part 1 this concert were:

Tell Me it’s the Truth
The Lord’s Prayer
Come Sunday
Almighty God
Heaven

In Part 2 the Sarah Thomsen Quintet, plus Germaine Thomas in the final four, presented American spiritual songs:

Presence of the Lord, by Eric Clapton
Amazing Grace, by John Newton
His Eye is on the Sparrow, by Martin and Gabriel
Take my Hand, Precious Lord, by Dorsey and Allen
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, by Wallis Willis

After the final song, Ms Thomsen invited the audience to sing along to the chorus in a repetition of it. I was happy to do so, knowing most of the words, having sung along to this song and other Negro Spirituals on the radio when I was a child.

The audience demanded an encore, so Sarah Thomsen sang Duke Ellington’s Mood Indigo, accompanied by her instrumentalists. She said it was her favorite Ellington song. It elicited many memories for me and I thought this could not have been a more perfect ending to the concert.