Before leaving for Norway this week, we went to Peter Dijkstra's rehearsal with RK on Tuesday morning. I'm more and and more impressed with Peter—he's great to watch work: interesting ideas about the music, great ears, and an efficient rehearsal. He's also a nice guy. A great combination.
Wednesday was errand day to get ready for our trip to Kristiansand and visit with Heidi (Kath's youngest sister) Traedal, her husband Trygve and two children, Elisabeth and Christoffer. Thursday was a day long train trip, first to Oslo, then a half hour's layover before catching the train to Kristiansand, which is at the southern tip of Norway. Beautiful scenery on the ride and quite a bit of sunshine between the cloudy portions. We arrived around 7:30 PM and were picked up by Heidi and Elisabeth.
Our visit has been wonderful as always: lots of conversation and catching up, walks into town (not too far away and the weather was nice on Friday), a visit to Trygve's studio at the conservatory (he's a pianist), great food, a trip to a favorite Indian restaurant (Christoffer always asks for the maximum "heat"), and a nice concert Friday evening by the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra (Heidi works for them in administration).
The orchestra concert was conducted by Rolf Gupta, the orchestra's Music Director, whom we met last year for dinner at the Traedal's. The program took place in the Cathedral, the only place in town with a large enough audience capacity for this program (around 1200—a new concert hall has begun construction, but won't be finished until 2010 or 2011). Acoustics were pretty reasonable. The Cathedral is lovely, a wood ceiling, balconies, and organ loft, with acoustics that aren't too live for this music. The orchestra was augmented by musicians from Tromsø in the far north of Norway—there are 50 musicians in Kristiansand's core. The program opened with Debussy's Prelude a l'après midi d'un faune. It was given a nice performance and brought back memories of a great performance I saw in San Francisco years ago with the Joffrey Ballet in residence at SF Ballet. That program was a recreation of choreography, sets and costumes of the originals for the Debussy (in Ninjinsky's choreography, sets and dance based on early Greek art with a two-dimensional portrayal), Satie's Parade (with sets and costumes by Picasso), and Stravinsky's Rite of Sping (wonderful to see with the original choreography).
The KSO program continued with Ravel's Tzigane with violinist Sara Chen. Chen is just 18 and grew up and trained in Norway--as Trygve said, she's one of a group now of outstanding young Norwegian violinists on the rise. She gave a terrific performance. After the pause, the second half of the program was Berlioz Symphonie fantastique. It was a very good performance, even if not as strong as the one I heard at CCM a year ago last fall conducted by Hugh Wolff (that one was amazing, with the Philharmonia Orchestra—the top student orchestra--playing with great virtuosity). The concert was really enjoyable and I enjoyed watching Rolf work—he's a very fine conductor.
We're relaxing today (Sunday), just having had a beautiful brunch, and can hardly believe it's almost time to get back to Stockholm (we leave around 8:30 in the morning on Monday).
Showing posts with label Peter Dijkstra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peter Dijkstra. Show all posts
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Beginning rehearsals with RK again
Today I began rehearsing with RK again. They'd had the week after Easter off after a fairly exhausting and busy time. After I left they had their performances of Rachmaninov The Bells (in combination with the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir) with Jukka-Pekka Sarasate, first in Stockholm with the Radio Orchestra, but then in Oslo and Helsinki, with their respective orchestras. They also did the All-Night Vigil, in Stockholm with Risto Joost, then in the other cities with Tõnu Kaljuste.
Prior to Easter they combined with the Latvian Radio Choir under Kaspars Putnins, singing the Pendereki Stabat Mater and Agnus Dei, Pärt The Beatitudes, and the Pizzetti Requiem (all pieces that I prepared). Then, on Good Friday and Easter Saturday they did the Bach Matthew Passion with Daniel Harding and the Radio Orchestra. That was, I heard, a mixed success, as Harding put the two choirs/orchestras at the front and back of a very large church, which made for difficult coordination problems. I hope to hear tapes of the broadcasts of all these concerts. At any rate, a very busy time for the choir!
I have three rehearsals this week on the Verdi Quattro Pezzi Sacri, which they'll be doing in May (notice again how schedule often forces them to prepare works far in advance of the performances) with Peter Dijkstra and the Nederlands Kamerkoor in Holland. They'll also do the Pizzetti on that tour, but on their own, so I'm also reviewing it with them. Even though they've just done it, there are about 5 or 6 of the choir that didn't sing that production and I also have Peter's markings. Yes, markings! It's a pleasure to be able to work with Peter's meticulously marked scores--if you read my previous post on this topic (or have dealt with this yourself), you'll know that it can be frustrating to prepare a choir for someone with no idea of what they want. At any rate, I'm enjoying this.
On Friday (my fourth rehearsal) I'll work with them on a really beautiful piece by Sven-David Sandström, April och Tystnad, and Lars Johan Werle's trees (an ee cummings text), one of my favorite Swedish works. This is to give a little head start to their work with Peter next week on a program that they'll do on a short domestic tour.
Sunday was a getting-over-jet-lag day, then Monday I met with Gary Graden for lunch, followed by meeting with Eva Wedin at the Radio library for some planning. It should be a busy week!
Prior to Easter they combined with the Latvian Radio Choir under Kaspars Putnins, singing the Pendereki Stabat Mater and Agnus Dei, Pärt The Beatitudes, and the Pizzetti Requiem (all pieces that I prepared). Then, on Good Friday and Easter Saturday they did the Bach Matthew Passion with Daniel Harding and the Radio Orchestra. That was, I heard, a mixed success, as Harding put the two choirs/orchestras at the front and back of a very large church, which made for difficult coordination problems. I hope to hear tapes of the broadcasts of all these concerts. At any rate, a very busy time for the choir!
I have three rehearsals this week on the Verdi Quattro Pezzi Sacri, which they'll be doing in May (notice again how schedule often forces them to prepare works far in advance of the performances) with Peter Dijkstra and the Nederlands Kamerkoor in Holland. They'll also do the Pizzetti on that tour, but on their own, so I'm also reviewing it with them. Even though they've just done it, there are about 5 or 6 of the choir that didn't sing that production and I also have Peter's markings. Yes, markings! It's a pleasure to be able to work with Peter's meticulously marked scores--if you read my previous post on this topic (or have dealt with this yourself), you'll know that it can be frustrating to prepare a choir for someone with no idea of what they want. At any rate, I'm enjoying this.
On Friday (my fourth rehearsal) I'll work with them on a really beautiful piece by Sven-David Sandström, April och Tystnad, and Lars Johan Werle's trees (an ee cummings text), one of my favorite Swedish works. This is to give a little head start to their work with Peter next week on a program that they'll do on a short domestic tour.
Sunday was a getting-over-jet-lag day, then Monday I met with Gary Graden for lunch, followed by meeting with Eva Wedin at the Radio library for some planning. It should be a busy week!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Sweden – January 18/19
Friday
I had lunch with Per Korsfeldt, out near the offices of the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir (EEKK). Per has sung with EEKK since 1989 and is manager for the choir for quite a number of years now, too.
If you’ve read posts from last year’s trip to Sweden, you know that one of my concerns has been what will happen to the Chamber Choir post-Eric. I think the picture has become clearer and more positive. For the first time, EEKK has gotten some continuing support from the government. This is extraordinarily important, since it makes it possible to plan ahead. Previously, application for funding had to be made every year—followed by the wait to see if it is approved—and, given deadlines, it made it tough to do any long-range planning. This isn’t a large sum of money, but enough to provide a foundation for the administration of the choir and some other things.
As a side note about the name of the choir, if you’re old enough (like me!), you may remember the choir on recordings being referred to as the “Stockholm Chamber Choir.” In Sweden the choir was simply known as the “Chamber Choir,” or later, the “Chamber Choir at the Radio,” but when they toured or recorded, they always used the name, “Stockholm Chamber Choir.” Unfortunately, they’d never registered that name and another enterprising conductor named his choir (and registered it as) “The Stockholm Chamber Choir.” Eric was, understandably, NOT happy, but there was nothing to do about it. So, unlike the Robert Shaw Chorale, Roger Wagner Chorale, or other eponymously named choirs, Eric Ericsons Kammarkör got that name purely through circumstance.
From attending just one rehearsal of EEKK last week, it seemed to me that artistically, the choir is in very good shape. Per confirmed this, saying that he’s very happy with the singers they’re able to draw. A core singer in the choir can earn about a 1/3 salary with the choir and they’d like to see that move to about 50%, but not higher. The problem with moving higher is that some of the fine free-lance singers (who also have solo careers) wouldn’t be willing to give up their solo life, so the level of singers available would actually go down.
The contract with Konserthuset (where EEKK provides the chorus for major choral/orchestral works with the Stockholm Philharmonic and also does one program each year sponsored by the house) means the choir has done projects with as few as 12 singers (one of their domestic tours) to as many as 80. In a way, this means they get to hear and “try out” lots of singers, which is very positive in keeping contact with and developing fresh and new singers. There are also singers (more operatic voices) who will frequently get hired for bigger oratorio projects, but perhaps not for the a cappella programs. It’s a process that seems to work well. A continuing question is the base size of the choir. Eric has most often used 33 (one extra soprano) as his base for both the Radio Choir and Chamber Choir. This allows for two voices on a part in the 16-part divisi that became almost a standard after Ligeti’s Lux aeterna and in so many Swedish works by Lidholm, Sandström and others. And for doing the big works of Reger or Strauss, for example, it allows for the sonority necessary for those pieces. Given financing, the core may have to become 24 singers, but that’s a decision that won’t be made yet and no matter what the core number, as now, the group will expand or contract depending on repertoire demands.
You can find the choir on the web here. The site is only in Swedish, but just click on “kalendarium” and you can see the schedule and repertoire for the choir.
It’s nice to know that Eric’s legacy (or this part of it—and the original, since he established the Chamber Choir in 1945!) will most likely survive, and hopefully, thrive.
Saturday
Kathryn and I met members of the choir (and orchestra, since quite a few of the Västerås players live in Stockholm) at the City Terminal to catch the bus to Västerås for the concert there. Everyone was in a very good mood and it’s fun to see the choir in this sort of “tour” mode. Several singers were bringing the beer for the trip back—Arne Lundmark says this is a tradition that goes back very far with Eric’s tours). It’s about an hour and 15 minutes to Västerås, with pleasant scenery (at least for Kathryn and me, who’ve been in the city the entire time). It’s a city of 120,000 or so in central Sweden, about 100 km west of Stockholm on the shore of Lake Mälaren.
After unloading and dumping stuff in the concert hall backstage, there was about an hour before rehearsal, so Arne and his wife Birgit took Peter, Kathryn and me to an Italian restaurant which Peter (who’d had rehearsals here Monday and Tuesday) said was the best in town. We did, in fact, have a lovely meal, pasta with chicken and a very nice polenta with ox filet. Conversation turned to food—Kathryn, ever the foodie, asked about favorite dishes from home—and Arne rhapsodized about a dish from northern Sweden, near Piteå, where he’s from, and Peter of a favorite cassarole from Friesland in the north of the Netherlands, where his family originates.
Peter and Arne had to rush through their meal, since it came a bit late, in order to get back for rehearsal at two. We took a little more time and, when we returned, got a tour of the facility by Rikard Gateau, the manager of the Västerås Sinfonietta. The facility is really wonderful (not one you’d see in a town that size in North America), connected to one of the largest conference facilities in Sweden, and the concert hall (seating around 900) has very good acoustics. Practice and ensemble rooms abound and a choir was rehearsing in the small hall when we toured through. In the concert hall lobby itself is a full restaurant, bar, gift shop, and a fantastic coffee, tea, and chocolaterie (which of course we had to visit later: we tried marvelous truffles flavored with Earl Grey tea, calvados, and malt whisky). Rikard is extraordinarily energetic and the orchestra has great support, with a Thursday subscription series that is nearly sold out for 10 concerts each year (they could sell out completely, but want to reserve at least 300 seats for guests and new audience members) and a shorter Friday series that’s also well attended. He has the ambition to take the orchestra from 50% work to full-time, and I’d guess he’d be successful.
After our tour, we met Tamara, Ragnar Bohlin's wife, who' s a cellist in the opera orchestra, but also freelances regularly--here she was subbing as principal cellist for this concert. We chatted a bit about divided family life, since Ragnar is, of course, in San Francisco while Tamara and their two sons (10 and 8) are in Stockholm. The usual tough decisions of two-career families: Tamara is originally from Russia and has now been in the Opera orchestra for 10 years and the children are both well ensconced in school and lessons (one's a cellist and the other studies piano). Tamara can take a leave of absence for a year, so they may well spend the next academic year in San Francisco, seeing if she can get good employment as a cellist and if they can find a good situation for the boys. I don't envy the dilemma!
The concert itself was very well attended, the downstairs almost full (I couldn’t see the balcony) with an enthusiastic crowd. Rikard introduced the concert and asked for a show of hands from the audience of how many were choral singers—at least a quarter, if not a third, raised their hands. This was a full program, so Peter opened with a Schubert Italian overture in D, followed by the Mozart. The first half closed with Knut Nystedt’s Immortal Bach, which begins with a pure statement of the chorale, Komm, süßer Tod, followed by phrases of the chorale sung with different groups of singers holding the notes varying lengths, with resulting dissonances eventually melting into the final chord of the phrase, For this, Peter had the groups spread out around the hall, which was very effective. The performance of Immortal Bach was dedicated to Bror Samuelsson, who died last fall. Samuelsson was an original member of Eric’s chamber choir in 1945, but soon after moved to Västerås and was instrumental in educating many generations of choral singers—and an enormous influence in Sweden. He was also a composer—I recorded the Ave maris stella (one of his Tre latinska hymner) with Choral Arts on our Scandinavian Christmas CD (available very reasonably now at CD Universe), a lovely CD, if I do say so myself!
The second half was the Haydn, of course, which even more energetic and joyful, with soloists doing a particularly beautiful job tonight.
After that, a short gathering with wine and beer in the orchestra’s room at the concert hall, then nice trip home (more beer available then, too, of course!). Special goodbyes at the end for Peter, who heads home briefly before going with his family to Holland for two weeks for a production of Bach and Bach relatives (and some Mendelssohn, too). Do check out Peter’s website for information on his conducting activities and repertoire.
The choir also bid goodbye for awhile to Anna Zander, one of the altos, who is due in about 5 weeks, she looks very pregnant!—and was one of the soloists in the Mozart—she has a beautiful voice and sings very musically. She’ll be on maternity leave from the choir for about a year.
For me, time to say goodbye to Peter, who’s not only a talented musician, but also a truly nice guy, very warm and open. Nice to meet him and watch him work.
I now begin two weeks of my own work with the choir: next week four rehearsals on Pizzetti’s Requiem (which I discovered, to my surprise, the choir’s never done), Penderecki’s Stabat mater and Agnus Dei, and Arvo Pärt’s The Beatitudes. Should be fun!
I had lunch with Per Korsfeldt, out near the offices of the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir (EEKK). Per has sung with EEKK since 1989 and is manager for the choir for quite a number of years now, too.
If you’ve read posts from last year’s trip to Sweden, you know that one of my concerns has been what will happen to the Chamber Choir post-Eric. I think the picture has become clearer and more positive. For the first time, EEKK has gotten some continuing support from the government. This is extraordinarily important, since it makes it possible to plan ahead. Previously, application for funding had to be made every year—followed by the wait to see if it is approved—and, given deadlines, it made it tough to do any long-range planning. This isn’t a large sum of money, but enough to provide a foundation for the administration of the choir and some other things.
As a side note about the name of the choir, if you’re old enough (like me!), you may remember the choir on recordings being referred to as the “Stockholm Chamber Choir.” In Sweden the choir was simply known as the “Chamber Choir,” or later, the “Chamber Choir at the Radio,” but when they toured or recorded, they always used the name, “Stockholm Chamber Choir.” Unfortunately, they’d never registered that name and another enterprising conductor named his choir (and registered it as) “The Stockholm Chamber Choir.” Eric was, understandably, NOT happy, but there was nothing to do about it. So, unlike the Robert Shaw Chorale, Roger Wagner Chorale, or other eponymously named choirs, Eric Ericsons Kammarkör got that name purely through circumstance.
From attending just one rehearsal of EEKK last week, it seemed to me that artistically, the choir is in very good shape. Per confirmed this, saying that he’s very happy with the singers they’re able to draw. A core singer in the choir can earn about a 1/3 salary with the choir and they’d like to see that move to about 50%, but not higher. The problem with moving higher is that some of the fine free-lance singers (who also have solo careers) wouldn’t be willing to give up their solo life, so the level of singers available would actually go down.
The contract with Konserthuset (where EEKK provides the chorus for major choral/orchestral works with the Stockholm Philharmonic and also does one program each year sponsored by the house) means the choir has done projects with as few as 12 singers (one of their domestic tours) to as many as 80. In a way, this means they get to hear and “try out” lots of singers, which is very positive in keeping contact with and developing fresh and new singers. There are also singers (more operatic voices) who will frequently get hired for bigger oratorio projects, but perhaps not for the a cappella programs. It’s a process that seems to work well. A continuing question is the base size of the choir. Eric has most often used 33 (one extra soprano) as his base for both the Radio Choir and Chamber Choir. This allows for two voices on a part in the 16-part divisi that became almost a standard after Ligeti’s Lux aeterna and in so many Swedish works by Lidholm, Sandström and others. And for doing the big works of Reger or Strauss, for example, it allows for the sonority necessary for those pieces. Given financing, the core may have to become 24 singers, but that’s a decision that won’t be made yet and no matter what the core number, as now, the group will expand or contract depending on repertoire demands.
You can find the choir on the web here. The site is only in Swedish, but just click on “kalendarium” and you can see the schedule and repertoire for the choir.
It’s nice to know that Eric’s legacy (or this part of it—and the original, since he established the Chamber Choir in 1945!) will most likely survive, and hopefully, thrive.
Saturday
Kathryn and I met members of the choir (and orchestra, since quite a few of the Västerås players live in Stockholm) at the City Terminal to catch the bus to Västerås for the concert there. Everyone was in a very good mood and it’s fun to see the choir in this sort of “tour” mode. Several singers were bringing the beer for the trip back—Arne Lundmark says this is a tradition that goes back very far with Eric’s tours). It’s about an hour and 15 minutes to Västerås, with pleasant scenery (at least for Kathryn and me, who’ve been in the city the entire time). It’s a city of 120,000 or so in central Sweden, about 100 km west of Stockholm on the shore of Lake Mälaren.
After unloading and dumping stuff in the concert hall backstage, there was about an hour before rehearsal, so Arne and his wife Birgit took Peter, Kathryn and me to an Italian restaurant which Peter (who’d had rehearsals here Monday and Tuesday) said was the best in town. We did, in fact, have a lovely meal, pasta with chicken and a very nice polenta with ox filet. Conversation turned to food—Kathryn, ever the foodie, asked about favorite dishes from home—and Arne rhapsodized about a dish from northern Sweden, near Piteå, where he’s from, and Peter of a favorite cassarole from Friesland in the north of the Netherlands, where his family originates.
Peter and Arne had to rush through their meal, since it came a bit late, in order to get back for rehearsal at two. We took a little more time and, when we returned, got a tour of the facility by Rikard Gateau, the manager of the Västerås Sinfonietta. The facility is really wonderful (not one you’d see in a town that size in North America), connected to one of the largest conference facilities in Sweden, and the concert hall (seating around 900) has very good acoustics. Practice and ensemble rooms abound and a choir was rehearsing in the small hall when we toured through. In the concert hall lobby itself is a full restaurant, bar, gift shop, and a fantastic coffee, tea, and chocolaterie (which of course we had to visit later: we tried marvelous truffles flavored with Earl Grey tea, calvados, and malt whisky). Rikard is extraordinarily energetic and the orchestra has great support, with a Thursday subscription series that is nearly sold out for 10 concerts each year (they could sell out completely, but want to reserve at least 300 seats for guests and new audience members) and a shorter Friday series that’s also well attended. He has the ambition to take the orchestra from 50% work to full-time, and I’d guess he’d be successful.
After our tour, we met Tamara, Ragnar Bohlin's wife, who' s a cellist in the opera orchestra, but also freelances regularly--here she was subbing as principal cellist for this concert. We chatted a bit about divided family life, since Ragnar is, of course, in San Francisco while Tamara and their two sons (10 and 8) are in Stockholm. The usual tough decisions of two-career families: Tamara is originally from Russia and has now been in the Opera orchestra for 10 years and the children are both well ensconced in school and lessons (one's a cellist and the other studies piano). Tamara can take a leave of absence for a year, so they may well spend the next academic year in San Francisco, seeing if she can get good employment as a cellist and if they can find a good situation for the boys. I don't envy the dilemma!
The concert itself was very well attended, the downstairs almost full (I couldn’t see the balcony) with an enthusiastic crowd. Rikard introduced the concert and asked for a show of hands from the audience of how many were choral singers—at least a quarter, if not a third, raised their hands. This was a full program, so Peter opened with a Schubert Italian overture in D, followed by the Mozart. The first half closed with Knut Nystedt’s Immortal Bach, which begins with a pure statement of the chorale, Komm, süßer Tod, followed by phrases of the chorale sung with different groups of singers holding the notes varying lengths, with resulting dissonances eventually melting into the final chord of the phrase, For this, Peter had the groups spread out around the hall, which was very effective. The performance of Immortal Bach was dedicated to Bror Samuelsson, who died last fall. Samuelsson was an original member of Eric’s chamber choir in 1945, but soon after moved to Västerås and was instrumental in educating many generations of choral singers—and an enormous influence in Sweden. He was also a composer—I recorded the Ave maris stella (one of his Tre latinska hymner) with Choral Arts on our Scandinavian Christmas CD (available very reasonably now at CD Universe), a lovely CD, if I do say so myself!
The second half was the Haydn, of course, which even more energetic and joyful, with soloists doing a particularly beautiful job tonight.
After that, a short gathering with wine and beer in the orchestra’s room at the concert hall, then nice trip home (more beer available then, too, of course!). Special goodbyes at the end for Peter, who heads home briefly before going with his family to Holland for two weeks for a production of Bach and Bach relatives (and some Mendelssohn, too). Do check out Peter’s website for information on his conducting activities and repertoire.
The choir also bid goodbye for awhile to Anna Zander, one of the altos, who is due in about 5 weeks, she looks very pregnant!—and was one of the soloists in the Mozart—she has a beautiful voice and sings very musically. She’ll be on maternity leave from the choir for about a year.
For me, time to say goodbye to Peter, who’s not only a talented musician, but also a truly nice guy, very warm and open. Nice to meet him and watch him work.
I now begin two weeks of my own work with the choir: next week four rehearsals on Pizzetti’s Requiem (which I discovered, to my surprise, the choir’s never done), Penderecki’s Stabat mater and Agnus Dei, and Arvo Pärt’s The Beatitudes. Should be fun!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Sweden - Jan. 15/16/17
Tuesday
I went to the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir (EEKK) rehearsal tonight, led by Lone Larsen, who’s preparing them for a program that will be conducted by Laurence Equilbey in February called, “Transcriptions.”
You may well know Laurence’s group, Accentus, which is an Ericson-inspired 32-voice chamber choir in France (she studied with Eric and has kept in close contact, and Eric’s recorded several CDs with them: North and Suomi/Finland). She’s done two CDs of transcriptions: the first, Transcriptions, includes Barber’s own transcription of his Adagio for Strings (Agnus Dei), several of Clytus Gottwald’s wonderful transcriptions originally written for his own 16-voice ensemble, Schola Cantorum Stuttgart (Mahler, Ravel, Debussy, and Wolf), and one especially arranged for Accentus by Gerard Pesson. She recently released a second CD, Transcriptions 2, which is just as interesting.
If you don’t know these transcriptions, particularly the ones by Gottwald which inspired many of the others, they’re quite amazing re-creations of these orchestral works, virtuosic and orchestral in sound. Gerard Pesson recently finished a new transcription of Wagner’s Sigfried Idyll, which was premiered by Accentus this fall. It’ll receive its second performance by EEKK on the upcoming program.
It’s truly extraordinary, even for these transcriptions, using a slightly larger choir (for this the EEKK is expanded to 39 voices), several soloists, and even whistling. The music is set to a text put together by Martin Kaltenecker from fragments of the libretto to Siegfried and the journals of Cosima Wagner. I think few choirs will be attempting this: it’s virtuosic, requires big voices capable of creating a huge sound (yet singing fantastically well in tune), and the low basses have to dwell at the bottom of the staff down to low Cs with enough volume to be the foundation of this orchestral sonority.
This was the choir’s first rehearsal on the program, and Lone read through quite a bit of the program, but spent most of the time on the Wagner. Her rehearsal technique is clear and well organized, spending time on those sections and those parts that have particular difficulties, then integrating them into the whole. I’m just sorry I’m not around for the performance.
Lone is Danish, but came to the Royal College of Music to study in the “diplom” program (their advanced degree) with Anders Eby and has stayed in Sweden—although she also spent two years in NY studying orchestral conducting at Juilliard and doing workshops around the US. Her own group, Voces Nordicae (Nordic Voices) is a 16-voice professional ensemble, which was just named the Swedish “Choir of the Year.” I hope to get to hear them rehearse or perform on my second visit this year, later in the spring.
Wednesday
The Radio Choir’s dress rehearsal was today with the Västerås Chamber Orchestra. Peter had two rehearsals with the orchestra on Monday and Tuesday in Västerås, so they were well prepared, and they’re quite a good orchestra. The choir was standing in a large semi-circle around the orchestra in a single row. As with all such rehearsals, there were adjustments to be made, since everyone hears each other differently (new hall, orchestra present): the choir sings too loudly at first, the choir needs more diction, phrase shapes get lost by both choir and orchestra, and the orchestra finds where they are too loud or need to adjust articulations. But everyone adjusted quickly and I think the performance will be a good one. This is the first collaboration between these two ensembles, but it’s hoped it will become a continuing relationship.
Thursday
Kathryn and I met for a late lunch with Ragnar Bohlin at a beautiful 17th century palace near his church in Södermalm (where I recently heard his performance of the Bach Christmas Oratorio). He’s enjoying an extended break at home since the San Francisco Symphony Chorus has an unusual break—it’s extended from Christmas through February 12, when he returns to start work there. We had a lovely and wide-ranging conversation on the choral differences between the US & Sweden (and Europe), what kinds of things we’re both working on, and life in general. We also found out we’d see him later at the Radio Choir’s concert and that his wife (who’s a cellist with the Opera Orchestra) would be playing as an extra with the Västerås Chamber Orchestra for the concert.
We then went to hear the final rehearsal (just an hour—the Radio Choir typically has an hour’s rehearsal the day of the rehearsal, then an hour’s break) for the concert, then went to the concert. There was a great audience and the concert went really well—a lively, energetic performance, particularly of the Haydn. Orchestra, chorus and soloists all did well. We’ll also travel with the choir to Västerås on Saturday for the performance there.
We also saw Eric and Monica at the concert, as well as Bo Johansson (Bosse), there in part since his son, Lasse, who sings in the Radio Choir, was doing the bass solo in the Haydn. Good to see Bosse, who’s off to Frankfurt tomorrow with his Adolf Fredriks Girlchoir for a series of concerts.
All in all, a terrific day.
I went to the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir (EEKK) rehearsal tonight, led by Lone Larsen, who’s preparing them for a program that will be conducted by Laurence Equilbey in February called, “Transcriptions.”
You may well know Laurence’s group, Accentus, which is an Ericson-inspired 32-voice chamber choir in France (she studied with Eric and has kept in close contact, and Eric’s recorded several CDs with them: North and Suomi/Finland). She’s done two CDs of transcriptions: the first, Transcriptions, includes Barber’s own transcription of his Adagio for Strings (Agnus Dei), several of Clytus Gottwald’s wonderful transcriptions originally written for his own 16-voice ensemble, Schola Cantorum Stuttgart (Mahler, Ravel, Debussy, and Wolf), and one especially arranged for Accentus by Gerard Pesson. She recently released a second CD, Transcriptions 2, which is just as interesting.
If you don’t know these transcriptions, particularly the ones by Gottwald which inspired many of the others, they’re quite amazing re-creations of these orchestral works, virtuosic and orchestral in sound. Gerard Pesson recently finished a new transcription of Wagner’s Sigfried Idyll, which was premiered by Accentus this fall. It’ll receive its second performance by EEKK on the upcoming program.
It’s truly extraordinary, even for these transcriptions, using a slightly larger choir (for this the EEKK is expanded to 39 voices), several soloists, and even whistling. The music is set to a text put together by Martin Kaltenecker from fragments of the libretto to Siegfried and the journals of Cosima Wagner. I think few choirs will be attempting this: it’s virtuosic, requires big voices capable of creating a huge sound (yet singing fantastically well in tune), and the low basses have to dwell at the bottom of the staff down to low Cs with enough volume to be the foundation of this orchestral sonority.
This was the choir’s first rehearsal on the program, and Lone read through quite a bit of the program, but spent most of the time on the Wagner. Her rehearsal technique is clear and well organized, spending time on those sections and those parts that have particular difficulties, then integrating them into the whole. I’m just sorry I’m not around for the performance.
Lone is Danish, but came to the Royal College of Music to study in the “diplom” program (their advanced degree) with Anders Eby and has stayed in Sweden—although she also spent two years in NY studying orchestral conducting at Juilliard and doing workshops around the US. Her own group, Voces Nordicae (Nordic Voices) is a 16-voice professional ensemble, which was just named the Swedish “Choir of the Year.” I hope to get to hear them rehearse or perform on my second visit this year, later in the spring.
Wednesday
The Radio Choir’s dress rehearsal was today with the Västerås Chamber Orchestra. Peter had two rehearsals with the orchestra on Monday and Tuesday in Västerås, so they were well prepared, and they’re quite a good orchestra. The choir was standing in a large semi-circle around the orchestra in a single row. As with all such rehearsals, there were adjustments to be made, since everyone hears each other differently (new hall, orchestra present): the choir sings too loudly at first, the choir needs more diction, phrase shapes get lost by both choir and orchestra, and the orchestra finds where they are too loud or need to adjust articulations. But everyone adjusted quickly and I think the performance will be a good one. This is the first collaboration between these two ensembles, but it’s hoped it will become a continuing relationship.
Thursday
Kathryn and I met for a late lunch with Ragnar Bohlin at a beautiful 17th century palace near his church in Södermalm (where I recently heard his performance of the Bach Christmas Oratorio). He’s enjoying an extended break at home since the San Francisco Symphony Chorus has an unusual break—it’s extended from Christmas through February 12, when he returns to start work there. We had a lovely and wide-ranging conversation on the choral differences between the US & Sweden (and Europe), what kinds of things we’re both working on, and life in general. We also found out we’d see him later at the Radio Choir’s concert and that his wife (who’s a cellist with the Opera Orchestra) would be playing as an extra with the Västerås Chamber Orchestra for the concert.
We then went to hear the final rehearsal (just an hour—the Radio Choir typically has an hour’s rehearsal the day of the rehearsal, then an hour’s break) for the concert, then went to the concert. There was a great audience and the concert went really well—a lively, energetic performance, particularly of the Haydn. Orchestra, chorus and soloists all did well. We’ll also travel with the choir to Västerås on Saturday for the performance there.
We also saw Eric and Monica at the concert, as well as Bo Johansson (Bosse), there in part since his son, Lasse, who sings in the Radio Choir, was doing the bass solo in the Haydn. Good to see Bosse, who’s off to Frankfurt tomorrow with his Adolf Fredriks Girlchoir for a series of concerts.
All in all, a terrific day.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Sweden – 9/10/11 January 2008
Wednesday
I came into the Radio to have lunch with Eva Wedin, delightful as always, and then went to the first rehearsal of the Haydn and Mozart. Peter’s approach here was to work almost immediately on details of phrasing: lots of variety of phrase shapes, almost always working with word stress. This is at the forefront for me, too, and I believe strongly that you have to start with shaping music right away or you run the risk of the ensemble learning to sing/play unmusically (also, it's just more interesting!). Since Pro Coro has had a grant from the Wirth Institute for Central European Studies to do all the late-Haydn masses (and have done all but the Harmoniemesse), it was also fun to see how Peter was shaping the music and how it compared with my approach.
Again, Peter shows absolute ease before the choir, runs a tight, effective rehearsal with no tension or sense of rushing, and with a nice sense of humor, too.
While walking home after rehearsal, Peter caught up with me, since his hotel is on the way back to the apartment, and we had a nice chat.
Thursday
More detail work from Peter today in rehearsal—continued refinement of phrasing and dynamics.
After grabbing a quick bite to eat I came back to the Berwaldhallen (the Radio’s concert hall) for a performance by the orchestra. Conductor was Lionel Bringuier, another part of the amazing youth movement going on in the orchestral world. You probably know about Gustavo Dudamel, the astounding Venezuelan conductor who at 26 has been tabbed to take over the LA Philharmonic in 2009. This is by no means an isolated case—Daniel Harding, Music Director for the Swedish Radio Orchestra (who I’ll watch in rehearsal and concert in the next couple weeks) is at the comparably advanced age of 32. Could be an interesting topic sometime.
Back to Bringuier, who’s just 21 and has been assistant conductor to Esa-Pekka Salonen at the LA Phil. The program opened with Kingdom of Silence by Russian composer Victoria Borissova-Ollas. I have to say, I didn’t find the piece compelling. Occasionally interesting sounds (lots of tuned percussion—gongs, etc.), but the whole failed to capture my attention.
Next on the program was Prokofiev’s 2nd piano concerto. Subbing for Yefim Bronfman was Yuja Wang, a Chinese pianist who’s been studying with Gary Graffman at Curtis. Just 20 years old, she’s already appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony and San Francisco Symphony. She’s tiny (I don’t know anything about women’s clothing sizes, but know there’s a size zero—she can’t be more than that) and if you saw her on the street in regular clothes would probably take her for 16. Well, she played the heck out of the concerto—just a stunning performance. She’s certainly a musician to watch out for and hear.
After the intermission was Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, certainly one of my favorite pieces. The performance was a good one, but not spectacular. And following the Prokofiev, it would have to be a spectacular performance not to be a bit anti-climactic.
Friday
The final rehearsal before working with the orchestra next week, so Peter continued with detail work and running enough sections for a sense of continuity. He’s worked separately with the soloists (from the choir), so they sang today on the Haydn, but he skipped any long sections with them. After letting the choir go for the last half hour of rehearsal, he worked with the soloists in the Mozart (a different set of four singers). Again, his work on phrasing and dynamics was exacting and intensely musical. I look forward to hearing it next week, when I’ll hear the performance at Berwaldhallen and in Västerås.
This evening and tomorrow I’ll be doing some work for Pro Coro on a grant application. Then Sunday my wife, Kathryn, arrives (yay!), so no more Swedish posts until next week, but perhaps the next installment in the programming series.
I came into the Radio to have lunch with Eva Wedin, delightful as always, and then went to the first rehearsal of the Haydn and Mozart. Peter’s approach here was to work almost immediately on details of phrasing: lots of variety of phrase shapes, almost always working with word stress. This is at the forefront for me, too, and I believe strongly that you have to start with shaping music right away or you run the risk of the ensemble learning to sing/play unmusically (also, it's just more interesting!). Since Pro Coro has had a grant from the Wirth Institute for Central European Studies to do all the late-Haydn masses (and have done all but the Harmoniemesse), it was also fun to see how Peter was shaping the music and how it compared with my approach.
Again, Peter shows absolute ease before the choir, runs a tight, effective rehearsal with no tension or sense of rushing, and with a nice sense of humor, too.
While walking home after rehearsal, Peter caught up with me, since his hotel is on the way back to the apartment, and we had a nice chat.
Thursday
More detail work from Peter today in rehearsal—continued refinement of phrasing and dynamics.
After grabbing a quick bite to eat I came back to the Berwaldhallen (the Radio’s concert hall) for a performance by the orchestra. Conductor was Lionel Bringuier, another part of the amazing youth movement going on in the orchestral world. You probably know about Gustavo Dudamel, the astounding Venezuelan conductor who at 26 has been tabbed to take over the LA Philharmonic in 2009. This is by no means an isolated case—Daniel Harding, Music Director for the Swedish Radio Orchestra (who I’ll watch in rehearsal and concert in the next couple weeks) is at the comparably advanced age of 32. Could be an interesting topic sometime.
Back to Bringuier, who’s just 21 and has been assistant conductor to Esa-Pekka Salonen at the LA Phil. The program opened with Kingdom of Silence by Russian composer Victoria Borissova-Ollas. I have to say, I didn’t find the piece compelling. Occasionally interesting sounds (lots of tuned percussion—gongs, etc.), but the whole failed to capture my attention.
Next on the program was Prokofiev’s 2nd piano concerto. Subbing for Yefim Bronfman was Yuja Wang, a Chinese pianist who’s been studying with Gary Graffman at Curtis. Just 20 years old, she’s already appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony and San Francisco Symphony. She’s tiny (I don’t know anything about women’s clothing sizes, but know there’s a size zero—she can’t be more than that) and if you saw her on the street in regular clothes would probably take her for 16. Well, she played the heck out of the concerto—just a stunning performance. She’s certainly a musician to watch out for and hear.
After the intermission was Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, certainly one of my favorite pieces. The performance was a good one, but not spectacular. And following the Prokofiev, it would have to be a spectacular performance not to be a bit anti-climactic.
Friday
The final rehearsal before working with the orchestra next week, so Peter continued with detail work and running enough sections for a sense of continuity. He’s worked separately with the soloists (from the choir), so they sang today on the Haydn, but he skipped any long sections with them. After letting the choir go for the last half hour of rehearsal, he worked with the soloists in the Mozart (a different set of four singers). Again, his work on phrasing and dynamics was exacting and intensely musical. I look forward to hearing it next week, when I’ll hear the performance at Berwaldhallen and in Västerås.
This evening and tomorrow I’ll be doing some work for Pro Coro on a grant application. Then Sunday my wife, Kathryn, arrives (yay!), so no more Swedish posts until next week, but perhaps the next installment in the programming series.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Sweden – Tuesday, 8 January 2008
The morning began with a walk to the Radio to watch RK rehearse with Peter Dijkstra. I also got welcomed back by the choir, which was very nice, and I look forward to working with them in a couple weeks.
While Peter will just turn 30 this year, he’s very clearly in charge, but with a warm, relaxed approach. I already knew the Radio Choir likes working with him very much, and it soon became clear why.
Since his upcoming program is not so difficult technically (Haydn Harmoniemesse and a Mozart Litany with chamber orchestra), today became an “ensemble” day—a time to work on vocal sound, blend and intonation, much of it with separate sections of the choir, to let the choir know exactly what he wants and is working towards. While the rest of the choir left for sectional rehearsals elsewhere, he began with the basses singing Bach’s arioso, “Am Abend, da es kühle war” from the St. Matthew Passion. Playing the accompaniment (he’s an excellent pianist), he had placed the bass section alternating basses and baritones and worked for a unified sound, not too heavy from the basses, and not too bright from the baritones. He also took care with equalizing high and low notes. Peter’s a baritone or bass-baritone himself with a superb voice and technique (wide range and easy head voice), so was able to easily demonstrate what he wanted with “a nice balance between chiaro and oscuro.” As an exercise he also had them do a section all piano and then mf/forte. This was terrific detailed work and he then put them back in bass/baritone sections to work on keeping the same sense of color and blend. Finally, he arranged them in a circle to work on the beginning of the chant, Pange lingua. Again, work towards better blend, good intonation and here, working without conductor and listening and breathing together for better ensemble.
After a half an hour tenors came in to work on the Benedictus from the Mass in B Minor and the same chant. Similar work, but also stressing the need to match dynamics—the one singing louder and sticking out isn’t always at fault, but perhaps the others who hold back.
The full choir then joined for the Bach chorale, “Wenn Ich einmal soll scheiden,” also from the Matthew Passion. Here he began with them singing on “nü,” which he said he likes for the mix of forward and round vowels, then “nu”, then “na,” and finally with text. Again, attention on blend and quality of sound, but much more here on intonation, too. He was also detailed about German pronunciation. Following this the choir worked on the 3rd movement of Poulenc’s Figure Humaine, almost entirely on intonation, and all on neutral syllables (not text).
After break, the same process was repeated with altos (who sang “In deine Hände” from Cantata 106) and sopranos (with “Quia respexit” from the Magnificat). They worked on the chant as well, of course.
I’ve taken a little more time than normal to describe this rehearsal, because I think it’s interesting (well, for conductors, anyway!) to see this approach, but also because it outlines how necessary it is to continue to work on fundamentals, no matter what the level of choir. It’s not something you can ever just “forget about” because you’ve got very well trained singers with terrific musicianship and wonderful ensemble experience. It was also interesting to see the choir’s response—in so many ways, they’re hungry for this kind of work, since it gives such direct feedback about what the conductor is after. One can also forget as a conductor, that as a singer inside the section or ensemble, you can’t always hear clearly how it’s blending, or whether your color is matching another singer four people down the line. And this work causes the singers to listen so much more intensely, which will no doubt pay benefits in the next few rehearsals as well.
It’s also necessary to repeat work on fundamentals because they are fundamentals—they are “fundamental,” or the ground, or basis of everything else. My great friend and dear departed colleague, Jim Holloway, used to talk about two ways to look at education: one held that as you learned things, you simply stacked them up on top of one another as your knowledge became more sophisticated (which obscured the things on the bottom of the stack, the higher you got); the other looked at education as climbing a circular staircase, so you could regularly pause and look over the railing and look back at the fundamentals everything was based on.
This is why this kind of rehearsal is important: for me, at least, it reminds me not to take too much for granted, but to remind myself and my singers of the important fundamentals that make music work. It’s easy to get caught up in getting done what needs getting done especially with few rehearsals. Certainly that’s true for me (and most of us!), where there is rarely the luxury of “too much” rehearsal time—but it’s something to think about whether it’s possible to plan for when budgeting.
I think the rehearsal also shows why RK likes working with Peter so much. He is a terrific musician himself with total command of the music and what he wants; working with such good singers, he can vocally demonstrate what he wants from them; and this kind of work shows how much he’s concerned with raising their level (and thinking long-term, beyond just any given concert). Having been without a chief conductor for some time, it’s absolutely what RK needs: someone who they trust and is dedicated to developing the choir to reach its highest potential. One simply can’t do that with a series of guests.
After rehearsal, I walked over to Eric and Monica’s, where I had a lovely lunch and coffee with them. They are both such dear people and have always made time for me whenever I visit—and fairly regularly, when Eric was traveling much more, I’d get a postcard from him from Paris or Prague or wherever he was conducting or leading a masterclass, just to say hello. I think both are doing very well: as I’ve said, Eric has slowed down physically, but is still so interested in what’s happening musically. He was excited today, since he’d just gotten an award from the Swedish government yesterday for his efforts to take Swedish music all over the world—and that he’s certainly done! He was also looking forward to some guest conducting in the spring in Poland and Spain. There are already big plans being made for his 90th birthday celebration next fall. It certainly ought to be an amazing celebration!
While Peter will just turn 30 this year, he’s very clearly in charge, but with a warm, relaxed approach. I already knew the Radio Choir likes working with him very much, and it soon became clear why.
Since his upcoming program is not so difficult technically (Haydn Harmoniemesse and a Mozart Litany with chamber orchestra), today became an “ensemble” day—a time to work on vocal sound, blend and intonation, much of it with separate sections of the choir, to let the choir know exactly what he wants and is working towards. While the rest of the choir left for sectional rehearsals elsewhere, he began with the basses singing Bach’s arioso, “Am Abend, da es kühle war” from the St. Matthew Passion. Playing the accompaniment (he’s an excellent pianist), he had placed the bass section alternating basses and baritones and worked for a unified sound, not too heavy from the basses, and not too bright from the baritones. He also took care with equalizing high and low notes. Peter’s a baritone or bass-baritone himself with a superb voice and technique (wide range and easy head voice), so was able to easily demonstrate what he wanted with “a nice balance between chiaro and oscuro.” As an exercise he also had them do a section all piano and then mf/forte. This was terrific detailed work and he then put them back in bass/baritone sections to work on keeping the same sense of color and blend. Finally, he arranged them in a circle to work on the beginning of the chant, Pange lingua. Again, work towards better blend, good intonation and here, working without conductor and listening and breathing together for better ensemble.
After a half an hour tenors came in to work on the Benedictus from the Mass in B Minor and the same chant. Similar work, but also stressing the need to match dynamics—the one singing louder and sticking out isn’t always at fault, but perhaps the others who hold back.
The full choir then joined for the Bach chorale, “Wenn Ich einmal soll scheiden,” also from the Matthew Passion. Here he began with them singing on “nü,” which he said he likes for the mix of forward and round vowels, then “nu”, then “na,” and finally with text. Again, attention on blend and quality of sound, but much more here on intonation, too. He was also detailed about German pronunciation. Following this the choir worked on the 3rd movement of Poulenc’s Figure Humaine, almost entirely on intonation, and all on neutral syllables (not text).
After break, the same process was repeated with altos (who sang “In deine Hände” from Cantata 106) and sopranos (with “Quia respexit” from the Magnificat). They worked on the chant as well, of course.
I’ve taken a little more time than normal to describe this rehearsal, because I think it’s interesting (well, for conductors, anyway!) to see this approach, but also because it outlines how necessary it is to continue to work on fundamentals, no matter what the level of choir. It’s not something you can ever just “forget about” because you’ve got very well trained singers with terrific musicianship and wonderful ensemble experience. It was also interesting to see the choir’s response—in so many ways, they’re hungry for this kind of work, since it gives such direct feedback about what the conductor is after. One can also forget as a conductor, that as a singer inside the section or ensemble, you can’t always hear clearly how it’s blending, or whether your color is matching another singer four people down the line. And this work causes the singers to listen so much more intensely, which will no doubt pay benefits in the next few rehearsals as well.
It’s also necessary to repeat work on fundamentals because they are fundamentals—they are “fundamental,” or the ground, or basis of everything else. My great friend and dear departed colleague, Jim Holloway, used to talk about two ways to look at education: one held that as you learned things, you simply stacked them up on top of one another as your knowledge became more sophisticated (which obscured the things on the bottom of the stack, the higher you got); the other looked at education as climbing a circular staircase, so you could regularly pause and look over the railing and look back at the fundamentals everything was based on.
This is why this kind of rehearsal is important: for me, at least, it reminds me not to take too much for granted, but to remind myself and my singers of the important fundamentals that make music work. It’s easy to get caught up in getting done what needs getting done especially with few rehearsals. Certainly that’s true for me (and most of us!), where there is rarely the luxury of “too much” rehearsal time—but it’s something to think about whether it’s possible to plan for when budgeting.
I think the rehearsal also shows why RK likes working with Peter so much. He is a terrific musician himself with total command of the music and what he wants; working with such good singers, he can vocally demonstrate what he wants from them; and this kind of work shows how much he’s concerned with raising their level (and thinking long-term, beyond just any given concert). Having been without a chief conductor for some time, it’s absolutely what RK needs: someone who they trust and is dedicated to developing the choir to reach its highest potential. One simply can’t do that with a series of guests.
After rehearsal, I walked over to Eric and Monica’s, where I had a lovely lunch and coffee with them. They are both such dear people and have always made time for me whenever I visit—and fairly regularly, when Eric was traveling much more, I’d get a postcard from him from Paris or Prague or wherever he was conducting or leading a masterclass, just to say hello. I think both are doing very well: as I’ve said, Eric has slowed down physically, but is still so interested in what’s happening musically. He was excited today, since he’d just gotten an award from the Swedish government yesterday for his efforts to take Swedish music all over the world—and that he’s certainly done! He was also looking forward to some guest conducting in the spring in Poland and Spain. There are already big plans being made for his 90th birthday celebration next fall. It certainly ought to be an amazing celebration!
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