http://www.musicincincinnati.com/site/reviews/Schoenberg_with_a_Heart.html

Schoenberg with a Heart

Mary Ellyn Hutton
Posted: Apr 6, 2009 - 2:29:25 PM in reviews 

Arnold Schoenberg

The most profound words heard Sunday evening at the Concert:Nova presentation "Demystifying Schoenberg" -- other than his music itself -- were these, uttered by actor Michael Burnham:

   "No one wanted to be, someone had to be, so I let it be me."

   As Burnham explained -- in an astonishing performance as the composer who revolutionized music in the 20th century -- this is how Schoenberg answered an officer in the Austrian army in World War I who asked him if he were "this notorious Schoenberg."

   His reputation as the composer who had "emancipated dissonance" had preceded him.

   The concert, held on the "garden" level ground floor of the Metaphor building on Reading Road in Over-the-Rhine, drew a capacity audience (well over 100 with extra chairs brought in).  This is something of a feat for the still fear-inducing composer, especially on a rainy night with tornado warnings in effect.

   Central to it was Burnham, whose German accent, wire-rimmed glasses poised on the end of his nose, and wry and often impassioned delivery imparted an unforgettable humanity to the composer.  His lines were drawn from Schoenberg's writings and comments, tailored to the music on the concert.  It was a tour de force that simply must become a permanent part of C:N's repertoire.

   So why did somebody have to be the "notorious" Schoenberg?  

   When the Viennese composer (born 1874) came along, traditional harmony --i.e.  key-centered music that sounds "good" to the ears -- had been stretched to the breaking point by composers like Mahler, Richard Strauss, Debussy, Scriabin, etc.

   Now what?  That was the question.  Schoenberg did not shrink from seeking an answer. Free atonality (he preferred to call it "pantonality") was OK as far as it went, but it needed to have some kind of structure to build on.  After much consideration (and vitriol for freeing "dissonance"), he invented one with what he defined as the "method of composing with 12 tones related only with one another."

  So-called "12-tone" or serial music was born and with it, the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg and his pupils Anton Webern and Alban Berg, as successors to Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, or the First Viennese School).

   The music on Sunday's program, performed by members of the chamber ensemble Concert:Nova with soprano Meng-Chun Lin, pianist/Schoenberg scholar Steven Cahn and conductor Kenneth Lam, spanned Schoenberg's stylistic development. 

  There were excerpts from his light-hearted, completely tonal Cabaret Songs (1901) to his Serenade, Op. 24 (1924), where the possibilities of 12-tone composition bloom artistically (not just intellectually).

   In between were selections from his Op, 23 Piano Pieces (1920-21), "Book of the Hanging Gardens" (1910) and expressionistic "Pierrot Lunaire" (1912).  In "Pierrot," now one of his most often performed works, the "reciter" (singer) employs Sprechstimme or "speech-voice," where the voice falls away from sung pitches in speech-like fashion.         

   The concert ended with the 1909 Chamber Symphony No. 1, where Schoenberg's identity as an arch-romantic in the Strauss/Mahler tradition speaks loud and clear.

   Meng-Chun Lin, a splendid soprano currently pursuing her doctor of musical arts degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, inhabited everything she sang, beginning with three of the Cabaret Songs, "Galathea," "Mahnung" ("Warning") and Aria from "The Mirror of Arcadia."  All were delivered in a full, rich voice shaded with expression and enhanced with delightful stage acting. Cahn's accompaniment set the theatrical mood vividly.

   Lin communicated stark seriousness, her gaze fixed forward, in numbers three, four and ten from "Book of the Hanging Gardens," a set of despairing love poetry for voice and piano completed during a marital crisis (Schoenberg's first wife Mathilde eloped briefly with a painter).

   She handled her Sprechstimme to telling effect in three excerpts from "Pierrot" --"Mondestrunken" ("Moondrunk"), "Valse de Chopin" (a horrific waltz) and "O Alter Duft" ("O Ancient Fragrance"), conveying well its sickly mix of madness and calculation.  She was joined here by C:N members Heidi Yenney (violin/viola), Randolph Bowman (flute/piccolo), Ronald Aufmann (clarinet/bass clarinet) and Marcus Kuchle (piano), all keenly in tune with the bizarre melodrama.

   Cahn, professor of theory at CCM who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Schoenberg, exemplified one of the composer's famous remarks in two of the Five Piano Pieces, Op. 23, "Sehr langsam" and "Sehr rasch"  ("Very slowly" and "Very quickly"). These aphoristic works -- the two pieces are about three-minutes' total -- were among his first experiments with 12-tone writing and, as such, posed a challenge for its first listeners, including Berg.  Said Schoenberg in effect: "My music is not bad, just performed badly."  Cahn, who obviously "gets" this music, performed them commitedly and extremely well. 

   Following intermission -- a delicious few moments with complimentary wine and snacks for the crowd -- the concert concluded with two of the composer's works for larger ensemble. 

   Serenade, Op. 24, featured violinist Tatiana Berman, violist Yenney, cellist Christina Coletta,clarinetist Jonathan Gunn, bass clarinetist Aufmann, guitarist Richard Goering and Brian Deyo on mandolin.  Lam conducted.  The Serenade is, as Cahn put it, "one beautiful melody after another," and, though composed using Schoenberg's 12-tone method, it is.  The contrast of instrumental colors contributes to the ear-pleasing effect, with guitar and mandolin against the bowed/plucked strings and woodwind timbres.  Heard were "Lied" (a song without words) and"Tantzscene" ("Dance scene").  Berman's distinctively sweet tone illuminated "Lied," while"Tanzscene" manifested shape, regular rhythms and melody, including a charming clarinet solo with accompaniment.  What more could anyone want?

   If there were any doubts about the emotion in Schoenberg's music -- an object of the program was to dispel that notion, said artistic director/C:N clarinetist Ixi Chen -- they were dispelled with the concluding Chamber Symphony No. 1, led with considerable energy and insight by Lam.

   The ensemble comprised violinists Mauricio Aguiar and Berman, violist Yenney, cellist Coletta, double bassist Owen Lee, flutist Bowman, clarinetists Jonathan Gunn, Chen and Aufmann, oboists Dwight Parry and Lon Bussell, bassoonists Hugh Michie and Jennifer Monroe and French hornists Elizabeth Freimuth and Lisa Conway.  One would have thought an undiscovered work by Richard Strauss had just come to light, so filled with passion (and downright Straussian heroism) the music was.

    The 20-minute work falls into several distinct sections, including a lovely slow "movement" introduced by double bass harmonics.  At one point, there was a clue of the direction the composer was about to take with harmony in an upward succession of fourths.  Tonal harmony is built on triads (thirds).

   Freimuth and Conway soared at the end in a full-bodied conclusion that drew whoops from the crowd.

   Look for C:N, which has performed in many different kinds of venues, including clubs, bars, restaurants and museums, to appear in local jazz clubs in the near future.  Spotted in the crowd Sunday were prominent members of Cincinnati's jazz community. 

Music 

Cincinnati.Com » Music

Last Updated: 7:43 pm | Monday, April 6, 2009

Concert:Nova demystifies Schoenberg

Concert review

By Janelle Gelfand • jgelfand@enquirer.com • April 6, 2009

The mere mention of Arnold Schoenberg, the father of 12-tone music, makes some concertgoers want to flee. But on Sunday, Concert:Nova, a groundbreaking ensemble of musicians, set the music of Schoenberg in a striking new light. 

Concert:Nova’s program, “Demystifying Schoenberg,” mounted in a basement space in Pendleton which the group calls “The Garden,” was an eye-opening fusion of concert and theater. Concert:Nova, consisting mainly of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra players, aims to present a “multi-sensory perspective,” mounting performances in various spaces around the city. This space, with its exposed-brick walls and pipes in the ceiling (which provided ambient water noise) became part of the theatrical experience. 

Actor Michael Burnham, drama professor at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, was superb as the composer, who looked back on his life between musical selections. Speaking in a German accent with a touch of Yiddish, he spoke from an engaging script culled from Schoenberg’s own writings and speeches (by CCM professor Steven Cahn, who also performed on piano). The actor as composer alternately recalled his premieres, raged against critics and spoke philosophically about his life and his work.

It was an ideal way to humanize this oft-maligned composer, and proved to be an evening of discovery for many in the standing-room-only audience. The program included Schoenberg’s lyrical, post-romantic “Kammersymphonie” No. 1, as well as “Pierrot Lunaire,” one of his most haunting works on the road to abandoning tonality. 

The first half featured music with voice. Soprano Meng Chun Lin, a doctoral student at CCM and pianist Cahn, opened with three “Cabaret Songs,” written in 1901 in Berlin. It was a rare lighter side of Schoenberg, and Lin communicated the songs with warmth and humor. 

Three songs from “Book of the Hanging Gardens” suited her voice wonderfully. The last, “The beautiful flowerbed,” was movingly phrased, and the pianist tackled its rich chords with weight. Cahn also found emotional depth in the short Op. 23 Piano Pieces.

Three selections from “Pierrot Lunaire,” expressionist song settings of poems by Albert Giraud, was another highlight. Lin soared through the melodramatic “Sprechstimme,” and projected its sense of drama. The atmosphere of the small ensemble, conducted by Kenneth Lam, was magnificent, and pianist Marcus Kuchle contributed a magical touch in “Drunk with Moonlight.”

After intermission, Lam, who is assistant conductor of the CSO, led larger ensembles in the “Serenade” Op. 24 and Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1 of 1906. It was a treat to hear the Chamber Symphony for 15 instruments, which looks back to romanticism as much as ahead to the composer’s new style. The musicians gave it an impassioned reading, and Lam was a confident leader through its rapid changes of mood and meter.

One caveat: The intimate room was not always ideal for hearing all of Burnham’s lines or seeing players, something the founders may want to address in future programs.

Visit www.concertnova.com for news about future performances. What did you think? Review this concert at Cincinnati.Com/Entertainment.

Was he the Doctor Faustus of 20th century music? The nice old man who lived across the street from Shirley Temple?  Both? You decide when concert:nova presents The Music That Changed Music on April 5, 2009 7PM at the c:n Garden, 538 Reading Road in downtown Cincinnati.

DEMYSTIFYING SCHOENBERG: The Music that Changed Music

featuring

Michael Burnham, as Schoenberg

Meng Chun Lin, Soprano

Steven Cahn, Schoenberg Historian, Piano

Kenneth Lam, Conductor

with concert:nova performing selections from

 Book of the Hanging Gardens

 Cabaret Songs

 Piano Pieces, Op. 23

 Pierrot Lunaire

 Serenade, Op. 24

 Chamber Symphony No. 1

As complex as the century he struggled to influence and reflect, composer Arnold Schoenberg comes alive in a theatrical collaboration between acclaimed actor Michael Burnham and Schoenberg historian Dr. Steven Cahn. Together with c:n, they have scripted a compelling multi-disciplinary work that interweaves the man and his music. With guest artists Meng Chun Lin, soprano and conductor Kenneth Lam, concert:nova musicians will perform selections that trace the arc of Schoenberg’s evolution.

The program illuminates the emotional qualities of both Schoenberg and his music, not just the legendary intellectual force of his thinking or his innovative techniques. This thought-provoking exploration of one of the most unforgettable composers of the 20^th century looks into Schoenberg's musical headspace, provides a sense of his world and his personality, and a side of the music many people miss.

As Schoenberg said, "I'm somewhat sad that people talk so much about technical methods when it comes to my music. All music, all human work, has a skeleton, a circulatory and nervous system. I wish that my music should be considered as an honest and intelligent person who is saying something he feels deeply, and which is of significance to us all."

Tickets are $20, $10 for students and seniors, at the door or click here to purchase tickets in advance. 

The c:n garden is in downtown Cincinnati at 538 Reading Road between Pendleton and Liberty in the Metaphor Building.

 

Park on Reading Road, or in the self-pay lot across the street.

 

Enjoy post concert wine, other light refreshment and conversation with the musicians.

 

About concert:nova. 

 

Founded in 2007, concert:nova is a chamber ensemble that creates a modern, new concert experience. Drawn primarily from members of the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the ensemble demonstrates the importance of combining classical and modern chamber music with dance, theater, photography, film, and the spoken word to create an experience that is vital and relevant to contemporary audiences.

 

concert:nova brings its unique sound and vision to the Cincinnati’s landscape of galleries, coffee houses, museums and found spaces. The ensemble creates the engaging and up-close exchange between musicians and audiences for which chamber music was originally created. For further information, visit www.concertnova.com, call (513) 321-5073 or contact c:n at info@concertnova.com  

February 2, 2008

Polusmiak, Berman-Järvi Share "New Beginnings" at NKU

Mary Ellyn Hutton

Sergei PolusmiakTatiana Berman-Jarvi

What do you get when you put Russian and Ukrainian musicians together onstage?  Energy problems? (Analogy to the clash between the two countries over energy policy shamelessly intended.)

Quite the contrary, there was musical energy to spare Friday evening in Northern Kentucky University’s Greaves Concert Hall.

The occasion was NKU’s “New Beginnings,” a chamber music series featuring distinguished artist-in-residence Sergei Polusmiak and guests.  Polusmiak, a native of Kharkiv, Ukraine, welcomed Russian born violinist Tatiana Berman-Järvi -- neither was fazed by the Arctic weather outside -- for a program aptly described as a “mixture of French beauty and Russian power.”

“French beauty” referred to three Gallic works, Olivier Messiaen’s 1932 Theme and Variations for Violin and Piano, Sonata for Violin and Piano by Debussy and Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano by Cesar Franck. 

 The “Russian power” denoted Rachmaninoff’s muscular Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 36, as well as power of a subtler sort, Tchaikovsky’s lovely “Meditation,” Op. 42, No. 1, for Violin and Piano.

 Polusmiak, “Honored Artist of Ukraine,” who immigrated to the U.S. in 1998, is a cogent example of the great tradition of piano playing exemplified by Vladimir Horowitz and his sister Regina, with whom Polusmiak studied in Ukraine.

   Berman-Järvi has been putting audiences on notice since coming to Cincinnati in 2004 (she is married to Cincinnati Symphony music director Paavo Järvi) that she is an exceptional artist who concedes nothing to today’s top-ranking fiddlers.  A product of the Yehudi Menuhin School in England and London's Royal College of Music, she displays her violinistic pedigree in everything she does. 

   She opened with the Messiaen, a work of mystical embodiment in the manner of his well known “Quartet for the End of Time” (performed by Berman-Järvi and members of the chamber group Concert:Nova at Cincinnati’s Christ Church Cathedral in December).

    Berman-Järvi possesses a distinctive tone – ineffably sweet, with a rapid, precise vibrato that she applies with exquisite musicianship.  Even the most intense moments never veer into excess or self-indulgence, but serve the music. (Three-quarters of a violinist’s tone, is a product of the player, not the instrument --  Berman-Järvi plays on an 1840 violin by British violin maker William E. Hill.)  

   These gifts, allied to technique in spades, served her and the music well in the Messiaen, where she soared above pealing chords by Polusmiak in the final variation, in the Tchaikovsky “Meditation,” which she capped with a silvery, stratospheric, high D, and, indeed, throughout the concert.

   Polusmiak can be a volcanic pianist and he was in the Rachmaninoff Sonata No. 2, a work which lends itself to such playing.  In three movements, the last two played without pause, the music is often turbulent, even angry, with volleys of notes pouring from the keyboard.  At such moments, Polusmiak seemed to have all 88 keys in his hands, helpless to do anything but his bidding, aided by effective, liberal pedaling. 

   The second movement was gentle and quasi-rhapsodic, the final movement tumultuous in the extreme, drawing an instant standing ovation from the crowd.  Obviously immersed in his playing and the excitement of the moment, Polusmiak waved from the wings rather than returning to center stage to acknowledge the applause (perhaps needing to retreat for de-compression).

   The two violin/piano sonatas followed after intermission.  Debussy’s Sonata, composed in the shadow of World War II, had a sometimes wistful, fluid elegance, from the Berman-Järvi's soft, opening statement to the playful second movement and the brisk finale.  

   Franck’s A Major Sonata made a sterling finish to the recital (Franck composed it for Belgian violinist Eugene Ysaye, music director of the CSO from 1918-22).  Collaboration by the two artists was superb here, Berman-Järvi applying her bow expertly and judiciously for a big, lustrous sound which she could plateau easily to match Polusmiak’s.  Twice they shaped the Sonata’s cyclical opening theme to a blossoming climax.

   Beginning with ominous rumblings in the piano, the second movement grew impetuous and wonderfully expressive.  The violin/piano dialogue in the third movement was touching, powerful and evenly matched, setting a serious mood that melted charmingly in the finale.  Here they took off after one another in high good humor (it is structured imitatively), working up to an exuberant ending and earning another standing ovation. 

http://www.musicincincinnati.com/site/reviews/Polusmiak_Berman-J_rvi_Share_New_Beginnings_at_NKU.html

February 3, 2009

Concert::Nova Does It in the Dark

Mary Ellyn Hutton

Concert:Nova

There were no hallucinations at Monday evening’s “Concert in the Dark” at the Contemporary Arts Center.

   For that, the chamber group Concert:Nova may need to perform in Mammoth Cave or nearby Carter Caves in Kentucky.  There it is possible – and routinely done as part of visits to the caves -- to extinguish all light and be in profound darkness.  (It is well recognized that deprivation of one sense, such as sight or hearing, tends to sharpen the others.)

  Still, the performance in the CAC’s “black box” Performance Space gave its listeners an idea of what that experience might be like. Cincinnati neuro-scientist Christopher Brubaker enlightened the audience with a lecture on music and the brain, which he interspersed among the five works on the program.

   They were:  Handel/Halvorsen’s Passacaglia for Violin and Viola; Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4; Charles Koechlin’s Sonata for Two Flutes, Op. 75; “Fratres” for String Quartet by Arvo Pärt; and “Last Round” by Osvaldo Golijov.

   C:N performers included violinist/violist Mauricio Aguiar, violinists Eric Bates, Tatiana Berman-Järvi and Anna Reider, violists Heidi Yenney and Joanne Wojtowicz, cellists Theodore Nelson and Susan Marshall-Petersen, bassist Skip Edwards and flutists Randolph Bowman and Jasmine Choi.

   Logistics were tricky, even in the lower level CAC Performance Space.  The musicians performed behind a black screen and used stand lights with blue gel filters to read their music (performing from memory would have been the impractical alternative).

   There was ambient light in the room and one’s eyes quickly adjusted to it so that there was never a feeling of losing one’s bearings.   One could listen with closed eyes, but this does not fool the brain into thinking it is truly dark.  Some listeners focused their gaze on the floor or otherwise compensated to achieve the feeling of total darkness.

   For this listener, the feeling was of being offstage at a concert.  To demonstrate the true effect of the experience -- dark vs. light, seeing the performers vs. just hearing them -- the screen was taken down after Golijov’s “Last Round,” which was then repeated with the musicians in full view. 

   This is what drove the experiment home.  “Last Round” is an elegy for Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla, who took the tango from the bordello to the concert hall with his many tango-inspired compositions.  It is a kind of simulated bandoneon, the accordion-like instrument closely associated with the tango. There were squeeze-box sounds, much skittering by a double string quartet and tango rhythms galore.  To actually see the players perform this evocative music multiplied its impact many fold, suggesting that visual stimulus plays an important role in the emotional aspect of music.

   It also emphasized what most music-lovers already know: that there is nothing like a live performance, where the eyes as well as the ears can be drawn into the experience, and why having the right venue for a concert is so important. 

   In his remarks, Brubaker explained how the brain perceives music, from its reception in the ear to its transmission to the brain and how it is processed.  Unlike sight, there is no single music center in the brain, he said.  Pitch, timbre (color), melody, harmony and rhythm involve different brain centers, which also differ in location and degree between musicians and non-musicians.

   Music's effect on the emotions is more mysterious, he said, but brain scans of people listening to music that gives them chills clearly show that it activates the same pleasure pathways as drugs, food and sex. 

   He also explained that unfamiliar music can prompt the “fight or flight” response and referred to the famous riot that accompanied the world premiere of Stravinsky’s revolutionary “Rite of Spring” in Paris in 1913.  (After it became "familiar" -- a very short time after the premiere -- it was received with adulation and went on to become one of the century’s most popular works.)

   C:N artistic director Ixi Chen says that with brain science such an important field of research right now, she would like to make  “Concert in the Dark” an annual event.

   Perhaps a run out to Carter Caves is in order?

http://www.musicincincinnati.com/site/reviews/Concert_Nova_Does_It_in_the_Dark.html

The NKU Department of Music proudly presents:

Chamber Music Series "New Beginnings" 

 Sergei Polusmiak - Piano

 Tatiana Berman -Violin

Friday, January 30, 2009, 8 p.m.

Greaves Concert Hall

Northern Kentucky University 

Program 

Messiaen Theme and Variations for violin and piano 

Tchaikovsky Meditation for violin and piano, opus 42 No.1

Rachmaninoff Sonata no. 2 for piano in B flat minor, opus 36 

Debussy Sonata for violin and piano

Frank Sonata for violin and piano in A major

CONCERT:NOVA does it in the dark

with (UN)SEEN, CONCERT IN THE DARK

Monday February 2, 2009 8:00PM

at the CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER

$20 ($10 CAC Members, ETA and Students with ID)

C:N continues its second season with (UN)SEEN, a concert in the dark, a performance that will challenge the listener's experience by turning OFF the lights... How is live music heard differently without visual cues?  What role does sight really play in our perception of live music?  Inspired by the science of hearing, psychoacoustics and neurology, C:N will explore these questions with neuroscientist Chris Brubaker PhD, in an experimental performance that seeks to expand our understanding of music and the workings of the ear and mind.  Part performance, part science experiment, (UN)SEEN is guided listening experience that will turn live music inside out.

Works will include:

HANDEL/HALVORSEN Passacaglia featuring Mauricio Aguiar + Anna Reider

JS BACH Brandenberg Concerto No 4 featuring Tatiana Berman, violin, Randolph Bowman + Jasmine Choi, flutes

KOECHLIN Sonata for Two Flutes

OSWALDO GOLIJOV Last Round for String Nonet

ARVO PART Fratres for String Quartet

Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art

44 E. 6th Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202 - 513.345.8400 

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Founded in 2007 and entering its second season, concert:nova represents a new dynamic force in Cincinnati's musical experience, and is pleased to announce our new project space, the CONCERT:NOVA Garden, sponsored by Urban Sites.  Comprised of a diverse core ensemble featuring Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra musicians, concert:nova seeks to expand the traditional concert experience and provide a unique artistic understanding by building creative and expressive collaborations through the integration of dance, theatre and visual media into each adventurous project, presented in exciting and non-traditional venues.  By performing renegade works in renegade spaces, the group is dedicated to producing content that is provocative, compelling and relevant to Cincinnati audiences in today's world.   

Upcoming performances:

April 2009 Demystifying Arnold Schoenberg. An intimate portrait of the man, musician and philosopher.  Chamber Symphony No 1, selections from the Book of the Hanging Gardens, Pierrot Lunaire, Serenade Op. 24 and Cabaret Songs. 

May 2009 C:N and Beyond Ballet. A dynamic program of music in motion. John Adams, Arvo Part, and Samuel Barber.

________________________________

THANK YOU to our main sponsors:

The Know Theater

John + Farah Palmer

The Otto Budig Family Foundation

Urban Sites

 

Please visit www.concertnova.com or contact the C:N team at info@concertnova.com for more info about this innovative ensemble and upcoming events.