Building Your Library: Stravinsky Violin Concerto in D

Stravinsky had two self-doubts that delayed the creation of his violin concerto. The first was his wariness of virtuosos in general; he was never sure whether their intentions were to genuinely become a champion of his music, or if they just wanted to use his name as a vehicle to propel their careers. The second was his uncertainty that he can compose something for the violin that is both brilliant and practical, having never played or understood the fundamental limitations of the instrument. However, Stravinsky should have known the latter would be a non-issue, for countless non-violinist composers (Brahms, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, etc.) have composed concertos that are the cornerstones of the solo violin repertoire. Famous violist Paul Hindemith even advised Stravinsky that he was better off approaching the instrument as a foreigner so that Stravinsky would not fall victim to hackneyed, clichéd figurations that violinistic composers use. Stravinsky was persuaded eventually and met Samuel Dushkin, the virtuoso violinist who Stravinsky would collaborate with to compose his violin concerto. From this meeting, a beautiful friendship was formed and Stravsinky would end up composing for Dushkin the Duo Concertante, Divertimento, and Suite Italienne.

Describing his collaboration with Stravinsky, Dushkin wrote that his "function was to advise Stravinsky how his ideas could be best be adapted to the exigencies of the violin as a concert display instrument." [1] Dushkin further recalled that during lunch one day in Paris, Stravinsky "took out a piece of paper and wrote down [a] chord and asked me if it could be played. I have never seen a chord with such an enormous stretch...and I said "No." Stravinsky said sadly, "Quel dommage." After I got home, I tried it, and, to my astonishment, I found that in that register, the [chord] was relatively easy to play, and the sound fascinated me. I telephoned Stravinsky at one to tell him that it could be done. When the concerto was finished, more than six months later, I understood his disappointment when I first said "No." This chord, in a different dress, begins each of the four movements. Stravsinky himself calls it his "passport" to the concerto." [2]

And that chord is this eye-popping looking thing.

It's no surprise why Dushkin's knee-jerk reaction was to tell Stravinsky it's impossible; with an eleventh stacked on a ninth, that chord is intimidating just to look at.

The solo violinist is more of a duet partner to the orchestra for most of the concerto. Even though the number of forces in the orchestral is large, the accompaniment sounds more like a large chamber orchestra. Furthermore, as much as the solo violin part relies on Dushkin's suggestions, the orchestral music is undeniably Stravinsky. The passport chord opens the piece in the march-like Toccata. The two inner movements, creatively titled Aria I and Aria II, serves as an intermezzo and slow movement of the concerto. Aria II, reminiscent of one of Bach's slow movements from his violin concertos, is particularly affecting and tenderly beautiful. The last movement, Capriccio, is full of wit and humor. He isolates members of the orchestras to duet with the soloist head on, including the bassoonist and trombonist. In a funnier episode, the concertmaster challenges the soloist to a match of dexterity and agility. The two end abruptly in unison, as if to say "Well played sir", and the soloist continues to finish the concerto.

In terms of recordings, you can't go wrong with Dushkin and Stravinsky's recording. What could be better than the composer and violinist whom the piece was composed for immortalize their interpretation for posterity? While the recording quality is quite poor, it is still fascinating to hear how Dushkin and Stravinsky conceived the overall architecture of the piece. Another recording with Stravinsky on the podium was one with Isaac Stern soloing. In both these recordings, the music sounds new; the orchestra seems to be struggling to play the off-metered rhythms correctly, which detracts a little from the musicality. Nonetheless, if you are learning this concerto, both recordings are indispensable.

While I'm usually not a fan of Anne-Sophie Mutter's playing, her reading here is extremely stylish. Her effusive vibrato, for once, is well-served in the giant chords, giving them character and rounding out the sound. Another recording I was surprised to find myself enjoying is that of Maxim Vengerov's. While his tempo choices are slower than most of his contemporaries, his tone is massive and his attacks carry incredible bite.

JEFF RECOMMENDS

Hilary Hahn's style of playing is perfectly suited for this neoclassical composition. Out of her generation of violinists, she is probably the one who plays with the most reserve, rarely willing to sacrifice a decrease in technique or cleanliness for emotional abandon. She is an absolute machine when the music becomes fast (e.g. 2nd movement of Shostakovich Violin Concerto, 3rd movement of Barber Violin Concerto) and her technique serves her well here. The lines are clean and the harmonic structure comes through the music easily. The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, under the direction of Sir Neville Marriner, provide Hahn with incredible support; the trickier rhythms are pedestrian in their hands and the soloists in the orchestra are infectiously fun to listen to in the work's final movement. The acoustic quality is lively and robust, adding sparkle to the already effervescent work. Usually, I don't agree with who wins the Grammy's for classical music, but I wholeheartedly and enthusiastically agree with this album's Grammy win.

----------

[1][2] Samuel Dushkin, Working With Stravinsky, in Igor Stravinsky, ed. Edwin Corle (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1949).

Artist Portrait: Yuja Wang

Is it just me, or does it seem as if Yuja Wang (王羽佳) came out of nowhere to take the world by storm? I cannot think of another classical music artist who has had a similar meteoric rise to fame. Her accomplishments within these past two years can be read as those of a seasoned artist: she received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant this year, which has been awarded in the past to renown artists such as violinist Gil Shaham, cellist Peter Wiley, and clarinetist Richard Stoltzman; barely a year since the release of her debut recording, she has already scored a Grammy Award nomination in the category Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (Without Orchestra); she is now playing more than 100 concerts a year and is booked until the end 2013; and amongst her fans are luminaries of the classical music world, such as legendary pianist Martha Argerich, who was quoted saying "I normally stay away piano concerts because the majority play everything as if every note should have the same level of intensity [but] Yuja is very different: her shaded dynamic readings are wonderful."

From her website, we learn this 23 year-old Beijing native started playing at the age of six and studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She moved to Canada in 2001 to further her studies at the Mount Royal College Conservatory. In 2002, she won the Aspen Music Festival's concerto competition and moved to the United States to study with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Arguably, her biggest break came in March of 2007 when she replaced the ailing Martha Argerich in a subscription series, performing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 with Charles Dutoit conducting the Boston SO with ecstatic reviews.

I have never been a huge fan of the other two well-known Chinese pianists. Lang Lang's artistry, which has its moments, are oftentimes detracted by his garish acts of showmanship onstage. Yundi Li (rebranded Yundi) is almost the antithesis of Lang Lang, oftentimes too reserved and lacking fire in his playing. Yuja Wang is seemingly the perfect balance of the two, Goldilocks' "just right" choice. It is no surprise then that her style of playing is highly reminiscent of both Argerich and Vladimir Horowitz. Her readings always carry a heightened sense of emotional volatility and her finger technique is dexterous and flawless to the point of being impossibly so. Watch this video of her playing Horowitz's Concert Paraphrase on Mozart's Rondo alla Turca for fun backstage.

By no means does this mean she is only a technical workhorse. Some reviewers have criticized that her concert programming and playing focus too heavily to showcase her technical ability instead of her musical ability. However, similar critiques have been erroneously levied upon the great violinist Jascha Heifetz. Just close your eyes when you listen to Wang's performance and you will experience a tornado of musicality and emotions. Take a look at her performance at the Verbier Festival. The transcriptions of Schubert lieder to start shows how strongly she feels about is able to maintain the melodic line, creating long phrases as if the piano is a bowed instrument in her hands. On her newest album, titled Transformation, she presents a thoughtfully prepared program ranging from Scarlatti to Ravel. Of the performances, her reading of Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrouchka, is simply the best I have ever heard. Like Argerich said, Wang's playing is full of shading, from the silly and playful opening to the macabre ending. Having already been awarded Deutsche Gramophone's Recording of the Month, I wouldn't be surprised if this album will be nominated for another Grammy.

Much to my disappointment, I missed Yuja's much heralded San Francisco performances at Davies and Herbst Hall this past season but I will be eagerly awaiting her return. In the meantime, recordings and live video recordings will suffice.

CD Review: Simón Bolívar YO, Gustavo Dudamel Stravinsky The Rite of Spring Revueltas La Noche de los Mayas Suite

Like most people, I was first introduced and swept up by the phenomenon that is Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar YO back in August of 2007. I remember everyone suddenly started talking about them and videos of their performance at the BBC Proms (specifically, their performance of Shosti 10, Second Movement and Bernstein's Mambo)  spreading like wildfire on my Facebook Newsfeed. It wasn't hard to see why the orchestra became so popular so quickly. Resembling an army of young musicians (at least 150 strong), they played with a combination of precision, raw emotions, and ebullient enthusiasm. So imagine my excitement then when I heard their new album includes Stravinsky's Rite of Spring; with the primal nature of the music and its infamously difficult rhythms, this piece should fit SBYO's like a glove.

After listening through the whole recording, including the Revueltas, it felt as if I listened to two different orchestras perform. For the Stravinsky, I was disappointed. Dudamel said that "rhythm is in [their] blood", and there is no argument about that. The orchestra handles the rhythms in the three trickiest sections of the piece (Danse de la Terre, Glorification de l'Élue, and Danse Sacrale) with incredibly tight ensemble; it is as if they are all mentally connected with one another and knew exactly when and how to attack the music. However, as the cliché goes, their greatest strength is also their great weakness. The majority of this piece is characterized by rhythmic tension and vulgarity, representing the primal contortions and snapping of the limbs and neck during dance. The SBYO are too clean and loses the rhythmic stresses and releases that defines the piece. While the rhythms should not be difficult for the musician to play, it should sound difficult.  Even during one of the slowest and simpler moments of the piece, such as in the Rondes Printanières, there is still a driving, rhythmic force in the music.

In this moment in the recording, their playing becomes vertical at the sacrifice of the horizontal. The orchestra seems to place so much attention on starting the notes together that they come in on the back end of the beats, which causes the music loses all sense of forward motion.

The other aspect of The Rite of Spring that appeals to today's audiences is the score's evocative imagery and colors, which Stravinsky achieves through individual solos and orchestrally. By having certain instruments to play solos beyond their intended range, a unique and exotic color is attained. The soloists of SBYO hold their own very well in this respect, especially the bassoonist in the opening L'Adoration de la Terre and the violas in La Sacrifice. It is as a collective whole that Dudamel's direction falls short. A picture of a gorgeous natural landscape is only good if the photographer knows how to capture the magic through the lens. The opening of La Sacrifice should be mysterious and the trumpet chorale should be holy during the Action Rituelle des Ancêtres. The orchestra's playing here is technically perfect, but the music is missing something meaningful behind the perfection. This adherence to perfection is especially disadvantageous during moments when the orchestra should be striving for the guttural effect. An example is in this moment in the brasses during the Rondes Printanières. 

This collective groan in the brasses and woodwinds on the fifth beat should be overwhelming, like a century-old tree being felled. Ideally, the instruments would achieve this by sliding down from the top note. While this is not physically possible for some of the instruments, this was Stravinsky's intention, as noted by the glissando in the trombones. Instead, the SBYO at this moment opts to play these two eighth notes more or less straight, with the glissando barely heard.

The SBYO sounds completely different for the companion piece on this album. The Revueltas is far more successful; their joy for this music, with its alluring Latin rhythms and colors, completely shines through in this reading. The music feels much freer than the Stravinsky, as if they were not worried about being exactly correct all the time. I enjoyed the Noche de Yucatan in particular, its voluptuous nature well handled in the hands of SBYO's impassioned string section. Noche de Jaranas sparkles with its instrumentation and scoring, the rhythms inviting you to dance.

For the Stravinsky, I would recommend the recording made by Valery Gergiev with the Kirov Theater Orchestra. It is still the best recording I've heard of the Rite of Spring. Gergiev is daring and not afraid to push the boundaries of the score. This devotion obviously rubbed off on the orchestra too, who were willing to turn the music into noise. The sound engineering is great in this recording, with the range from the low bass drum to the high piccolo crystal clear and very well balanced.

Also, if you wish to learn the history and analysis of the music in layman's terms, San Francisco Symphony's Keeping Score: The Rite of Spring with Michael Tilson Thomas is a resource you cannot do without. I wish I had watched this before I performed The Rite of Spring with the UC Berkeley Symphony because the way MTT deconstructs and highlight interesting moments in the music is insightful and made me appreciate the music much more. The musicians of the symphony also provide their thoughts to the piece and demonstrate passages to reinforce the central ideas of what was being said.




I would like to end with a SBYO clip I love. It is similar to their BBC Proms performance of the Mambo, but better. Ridiculously fun, incredibly infectious.