Kinda cool!

I recently saw that there was a DVD of Gergiev conducting the Brahms Requiem with the Rotterdamm Philharmonic. Noting the date, I thought, that's probably the performance I prepared, so ordered a copy. It was very cool to see the recording listed a certain person as choirmaster for the Swedish Radio Choir!

Sweden – 14-15 May 2008

So, the last full day finally arrives. We met with Gary Graden for lunch—he’d just gotten back from Berlin, where he’d prepared the Radio Choir (Simon Halsey is their regular conductor) for a performance with Michael Gielen and the Berlin Philharmonic. He’d had a great time and said the choir is singing very well. It was good to see him one more time before leaving. A great friend.

At 3:30 I had my last rehearsal with RK, who were leaving the next day (same day as us) for the Netherlands and their concerts with Peter and the Nederlands Kamerkoor. This was to refresh the Pizzetti Requiem and Verdi Quattro Pezzi Sacri for them before they began rehearsals with NK (they are only doing the Verdi jointly—the Pizzetti they will do on their own, although with NK in the audience!). I think they’re well prepared, but of course, Peter has done the preparation of NK, so I hope the Verdi melds easily for them. All such great music!

We bid goodbye to singers, to Arne, Marita from the RKs administration (who was always so helpful), and to Mikael. A little sad to leave after working with the choir so much since January, but I have much to do and great projects to look forward to next year. Eva Wedin will visit us this summer in Tacoma, and it’ll be great fun to show her some of the Pacific Northwest.

Arne, me, and Mikael:



Me and Eva:



The evening was spent packing and the next morning washing linens and cleaning before the taxi arrived to take us to Arlanda airport.

And that ends this year’s Swedish adventure.

We can’t thank enough all of our friends here who make us feel so welcome, the great singers of RK, and most of all, Gunilla. What a spectacular time!

Sweden – 9 May 2008

Friday and the Vårkonsert finally arrived.

We met my folks for lunch at a favorite restaurant in Gamla Stan, then I headed back to the apartment for a bit more preparation and rest. Kath wandered for a bit with my folks before returning as well, since she wanted to go to the rehearsal to take some pictures.

We got to Berwaldhallen around a quarter to five to see the setup and confirm last minute things with Mikael, Johan, and Nils. Rehearsal was at 5:30—this is a typical schedule for RK, a one hour final rehearsal on the day, then one hour break (sandwiches and fruit provided), then the concert.

The concert was almost sold out, so there was a great crowd. The concert went by quickly for me, but was certainly great fun and went well. Wonderful people there as well: Maria Södersten sat with Kathryn and my parents, Birgit Hemberg and the Dimanders were sitting in the front row (they also gave a beautiful bouquet that was presented at the end of the concert), Christina Björk and her partner Erling (Christina is one of Gunilla’s best friends—we had brunch at their place last year), Ingrid Johansson (Bosse had a rehearsal), and of course, Eric Ericson and Monica.

At any rate, great fun and you can listen yourselves (at least for awhile—I don’t know how long these are kept online) here.

With Johan and Mikael:



Nils and Johan at rehearsal:



A couple shots with RK at rehearsal:

Sweden – 6, 7, 8 May 2008

Tuesday morning the 6th was a resumption of rehearsals for the Vårkonsert with RK. It was a good rehearsal on this repertoire, although unfortunately our friend Eva Wedin had caught a cold and lost her voice. Meanwhile, Kathryn and my parents went to Uppsala and saw the town, Cathedral, some of the university, and the house and garden of the famous Swedish botanist, Linneus. After they returned, we had dinner together.

A picture from the Linné garden:



Wednesday afternoon was the rehearsal with RK and Chapter Two. Earlier in the day, Kath and my parents wandered around downtown, then came to Berwaldhallen for the rehearsal. I met with Johan Norberg, Nils Landgren (Chapter Two—see my earlier post here) and Mikael Engström before rehearsal around 3 PM to go over how the collaborative pieces would work. Mikael, who is the frequent accompanist for RK (and a marvel at it) was acting as producer for the concert (in charge of what was happening on stage and in the booth).

Me with Mikael:



Boel Adler was also there, as she’ll be the announcer for the concert (which will be broadcast live). Boel used to sing regularly with RK, now works on air, but still sings as an extra now and then (I’d met her before and she also sang with the choir for the Brahms Requiem I’ll tell you about shortly).

Johan and Nils are truly amazing musicians. I’ve always had enormous respect for jazz players and their ability to improvise, but these two are incredible in every way. Johan is one of the most active studio musicians in Stockholm and Nils lives and teaches in Germany, but is on the road up to 250 days a year, playing and recording. He’s appeared on more than 500 recordings and can play amazingly high, soft, fast, or whatever (and is also a very good jazz singer).

The rehearsal went well as we adjusted to the acoustics (well, that was just me—I don’t have experience in Berwaldhallen as the others do—not the easiest acoustic to work in), figured out levels for amplification of the guitar and trombone, placed the choir members, the recording engineers sorted out levels for the broadcast, and we rehearsed all repertoire, but worked particularly on the pieces we were doing with Chapter Two (Morley, Stanford, Rutter, and "All Through the Night"—we never got the arrangement Arne wanted, so used another). This was the last full rehearsal on this repertoire (we’ll have an hour in the hall on Friday between 5:30 and 6:30 PM). Nice for my folks to be able to be there and see me work with this choir (they were impressed and said, “We know why you like working with this choir!”).

Thursday we all went to Stadshuset (City Hall) and took the tour. Even though we see the tower from Gunilla’s apartment and had walked around the courtyard, Kath and I’d never taken the tour, which was excellent. The Nobel Prize banquet takes place there and the various public rooms (the city government does work here, too) are gorgeous.

Sitting outside Stadshuset:



Afterwards we went for lunch on Gamla Stan, and then took the bus out to Skansen, which is a park on Djurgården with buildings from different historical periods. I didn’t go, since I had a rehearsal at 3:30, so took a short walk, and then went to the Radio. Kath and my folks had a great time there, the weather beginning to warm up.

My rehearsal today was for the Brahms Requiem, which RK will do (along with extra singers, 48 in total) later this month with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev. This is the only chorus rehearsal before meeting with the orchestra, not too unusual for such a standard work. There were probably 8 or 9 singers working for the first time with RK and there was a fair amount of over-singing in the first half of the rehearsal. The second half I primarily worked to get them to sing softer (we did a lot of a cappella work), although one never knows what the eventual conductor will do—it’s a large orchestra, not a lot of singers, so they could have to sing out the whole time. Hopefully they won’t—the Brahms doesn’t need it and can be quite subtly sung—as I told the choir, it’s not hard just to sing loud all the time! They’ll do a beautiful job. I also chatted at break with one of the extra tenors, who sings in a barbershop quartet and loves it—his quartet just won the Swedish championship and will go to the finals of the international competition in Nashville.

After the rehearsal I took a cab back to the apartment, picked up Kath and my folks, and we went out to Arne and Birgit Lundmark’s apartment. We went to a local restaurant and had a drink while waiting for Birgit—she was at a meeting with the Swedish equivalent of their condo board. We then had a nice dinner together, followed by dessert and coffee back at their apartment. As I’ve noted before on the blog, Arne and Birgit are just great people, and everyone had a wonderful time talking, eating, and talking. We got back around 11:30 PM after a great day.

Arne & Birgit:

Sweden - quick link to Radio Choir performance

Much more to report and haven't had time. However, the Spring concert can be found on-line on this page:

I don't know how long these are kept in the archive and how easy it will be to play, although I got it to play right away on my Mac.

Much more soon!

Sweden – 23-25 April

This week was busy with three rehearsals with RK, Wednesday/Thursday/Friday, for the Vårkonsert (Spring Concert), which I’ll conduct May 9. RK has only one rehearsal next week (not with me), so there’s a gap before concert week, when I’ll have one rehearsal on Tuesday with choir alone, Wednesday with our collaborators, the jazz ensemble Chapter 2 (in Berwaldhallen, where the concert takes place), then Friday from 5:30-6:30 PM before the concert at 7:30. In between, on Thursday, I rehearse RK on Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem (quite a change of pace!), which they’ll do during their tour of the Netherlands with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev.

The Vårkonsert is typically a lighter program and the concept and much of the program was set before I was tapped to conduct it. This isn’t too unusual, since the Radio has to plan long in advance and the choir has a program committee that works together with Arne Lundmark. The concert is advertised as: A strong fragrance of spring and affection with English madrigals and “feel good.” I think, however, of the original program proposed, we only kept Morley’s “Now is the Month of Maying” and Stanford’s “The Blue Bird.” However, also planned later by Arne and the committee was a group of traditional Swedish spring songs, David Wikander’s “Förvårskväll” (which I didn’t know and is truly gorgeous) and “Kung Liljekonvalje” as opening and closing, and two men’s chorus favorites in between: “O hur härligt majsol ler” and final piece in August Söderman’s “Ett Bondbröllop” (A Peasant Wedding). These last two are certainly in the repertoire of any men’s chorus in Sweden.

I added Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Just as the tide was flowing” and two pieces by John Rutter from his Birthday Madrigals (a set written for jazz great George Shearing's 75th birthday): “Draw on, Sweet Night” (a beautiful setting of the text from the well-known Wilbye madrigal) and “It was a Lover and His Lass” (a jazzy setting of the Shakespeare text, originally written in 1976 for The Scholars, a group of ex-Cambridge singers founded around the time of the King’s Singers).

This program is also in collaboration with the jazz ensemble, Chapter 2, made up of Johan Norberg (guitar) and Nils Landgren (trombone). Both are well-known artists in and out of Sweden and it should be really exciting to work with them. Originally, we were primarily alternating our sets of pieces, but I was able to meet with Johan and Arne earlier in the week and discuss how we might work together more during the concert. Some of the details of this won’t happen until we meet (Nils is in Germany), but will take the following form:

Opening with the Morley (we’ll sort out how this works when we meet—Nils is also a skilled singer, so we may involve him as scat singer as well!). Then RK alone with the RVW.

After this, “The Blue Bird” with an intro by Chapter 2, then we sing and Nils will add some things, à la Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble on their album, Officium.

Then Chapter 2 does a set, followed by our set of traditional Swedish spring songs.

Then another set by Chapter 2, followed by Rutter’s “Draw on, Sweet Night” and then “It was a Lover and His Lass” with Chapter 2 joining us (when Rutter added it to his Birthday Madrigals, he added piano and bass—we’ll do our own version of rhythm section). Finally, we’ll close with Roberton’s setting of the Welsh song, “All Through the Night,” assuming the music gets here in time (Arne had heard it on a CD and thought it would end the concert nicely, which it will!).

So, rehearsals went well this week—it’s not too difficult a program for RK, of course—and the music is well in hand. For those who haven’t heard RK live (and particularly, up close), it’s always astounding to hear both the power of the voices, but their ability (when asked) to sing amazingly softly as well. The pieces in English took the most time of course, since even though the members of RK all speak English very well, it’s still a challenge to sing idiomatically in another language. And of course, interesting for me to do the Swedish pieces with RK! There are some of the same issues in pronunciation we all deal with, of course, with disagreements between members of the tenors and basses over the pronunciation of a particular word in the Söderman. I came down on one side of the argument, but will check with Robert Sund when I see him Monday, since he knows the male repertoire and traditions as well as anyone!

However, it’s a great privilege to be able to work with this choir on any repertoire, so I’m enjoying the opportunity.

Sweden – April 14-16

Monday was a long trip back from Kristiansand, Norway to Stockholm on the train. While long, the weather and scenery were beautiful and it was a relaxing time.

Tuesday morning we went to the morning rehearsal of RK—their final rehearsal before their short tour to Visby (on the island of Gotland), Kristianstad, Hässleholm, and Halmstad. It’s a nice program: Mantyjärvi Pseudojojk, Sandström April o tystnad, some of Nystroem’s Havsvisioner, Lidholm . . . a riveder le stelle (one of the great 20th century a cappella masterpieces, I think), Werle trees, Jan Sandström Biegga Luothe, Stenhammar 3 Körvisor, and some Swedish traditional favorites (like Hogo Alfvén’s Aftonen). Major soloists in the Lidholm (Helena Ströberg), Werle (Johan Pejler) and Jan Sandström (Mathias Brorson) all are doing beautifully on these challenging solos.

Tuesday evening we went to Konserthuset for a program with the London Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Harding conducting. This is a little unusual, since Daniel is Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Orchestra—here he was appearing at the “rival” concert hall (home of the Stockholm Philharmonic) with his “other” orchestra, as he’s Principal Guest Conductor of the LSO. We saw a number of RK’s members there, the concertmaster of the Stockholm Philharmonic, and I’m sure there were many members of both the Radio Orchestra and Stockholm Philharmonic!

The program was interesting: Boulez Mémoriale for flute and eight instruments, Prokofiev 2nd violin concerto with Viktoria Mullova as soloist, and Brahms 2nd Symphony.

The Boulez was well-played by the six string players, 2 horns and principal flute. The principal horn at the end has a long diminuendo, which was extraordinary, truly a niente (to nothing).

We were once again in the choir loft at the back of the orchestra, so we couldn’t hear Mullova as well as I might have liked (especially when she was accompanied by fairly big tuttis), but she gave a wonderful performance. The orchestra was good, but not as tight as I might have expected.

The Brahms, long one of my favorite symphonies, was given a very good performance, Daniel very much in charge.

Harding does make noise while conducting (with outgoing breath especially at intense moments), perhaps not audible from the other part of the house, but very clear from where we were! This is an interesting problem for conductors, who don’t (or shouldn’t!) make noise when conducting—only the ensemble should! Of course, many musicians (Glenn Gould, Oscar Peterson) do make noise when playing. When I worked with the Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz was also known for his vocal noises (not singing) during conducting. In recording sessions (where I was usually back with the producer and recording engineer), the producer could communicate to the whole ensemble in between takes with a speaker (“winds out of tune at G,” “we need better ensemble from the low strings at B,” etc.), but also with a phone with which he could talk to Jerry. Sometimes this was because of something more sensitive (dealing with a particular player, or a tempo that wasn’t matching up to previous takes), but also occasionally, “Jerry, you’re making noise again.” This is a difficult habit to break, since musical intensity and expressivity becomes closely associated with the noises—take away the noise and one doesn’t feel the same intensity.

In a roundabout way, this leads to my feeling that conductors need to learn a clear, pattern-based technique early on. Abe Kaplan told me once that when he watched Robert Shaw doing an a cappella work, where he used an unconventional conducting technique, his conducting was free and extraordinarily expressive. In the same way, in front of an orchestra, using a technique he’d learned much later in life, his technique didn’t have the same expressive intensity. Abe felt that Shaw’s expressive conducting (not pattern based) was simply so strongly learned that when he switched to a pattern-based technique, he couldn’t incorporate his expressive gestures into it. Perhaps those readers who worked with Shaw over a long period of time can say if they think this is correct or not.

As I mentioned in a previous post, one of my early experiences was with a conductor who was quite uncomfortable in front of orchestras, so I decided I wanted to have a technique that would allow me to do both equally well. For me, having worked hard on developing a clear technique, early on it was my struggle to be expressive as a conductor (that has to do with personality, too, of course). Later, with more and more experience, I gradually learned to be more and more expressive but still within traditional patterns (when necessary).

It’s not necessary, of course, to always work within a pattern. One of the most expressive conductors I remember watching was Sergiu Commissiona at Aspen in 1977 or so (he was best known for his work with the Baltimore Symphony). In a master class he told of how he began with a very strict technique and then, over the course of years, learned “what the orchestra didn’t need.” I feel if conductors absorb a clear and clean technique (able to handle all technical requirements) at the beginning, they can then learn to be expressive without losing the basis of their technique. More about this at another time, perhaps.

Another thing notable about Harding’s conducting technique (which is excellent and expressive) is that he does very little subdividing in slow tempos. That was something I learned from Gerard Schwarz as well. While I didn’t like Jerry’s conducting technique in general (his fast tempi had a quick rebound and almost a double ictus with elbow and baton), he rarely subdivided in slow tempi. This forced the orchestra to really listen and feel the underlying pulse. It was a great thing to learn—that sometimes not being “clear” can get the best musical results.

At any rate, fun concert!

Today was a fairly relaxed day, with Gunilla coming over during the afternoon for dinner and a visit (she brought some beautiful salmon and strawberries and we supplied the rest). We had a lovely time, as we always do when Gunilla is around. You may ask, “aren’t you staying at Gunilla’s apartment??” Well, yes, we are. Gunilla’s here this week to visit a few friends and is, of course, an invitee to Orphei Drängar’s big program this weekend. So, she’s staying with a girlfriend this week. She’ll come back on Friday and we’ll take the train together to Uppsala. It’s wonderful to have the time to catch up!

Sweden - April 8-13

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). 

Sweden - April 2-7

Last week was mostly taken up with rehearsals with RK. As outlined earlier, Tu-Wed-Thurs were working on Verdi Quattro Pezzi Sacri (what gorgeous pieces and RK can make a wonderful sound on them) and the Pizzetti Requiem (another gorgeous piece--mostly review and help for those 4 or 5 singers who didn't do the Pizzetti on their recent production with the Latvian Radio Choir, plus giving them Peter's markings).

Rehearsals went generally well, although for whatever reason the men struggled with the opening of the Te Deum, particularly singing it in tune. Since on Wednesday I let the men go early so I could work for the last half hour on Laudi alla Vergine, I let the women go early on Thursday to work with the men on the opening. Better, but not yet where it should be. I'll have one more rehearsal on May 14 (a long way off) on this repertoire before they head for Holland to do it with Nederlands Kamerkoor and Peter Dijkstra.

Friday was rehearsal on Werle's trees and Sandström's April och Tystnad. The Sandström is gorgeous, slow (except for one short section), and was great fun to do, since I hadn't conducted it before. If you don't know the Werle, do get to know it! You can find Eric Ericson's recording here. It's a setting of 4 ee cummings' texts for choir, octet, and baritone solo, virtuosic and great fun. Werle worked for a period as a dance-band pianist and his knowledge of this "American" style is integrated wonderfully into the piece. It's difficult, though, and we spent a lot of time repeating some sections to get pitches and ensemble down. There are still a few places needing work, but hopefully we got a lot done for this program, which Peter will begin rehearsing this week.

Also on Friday evening, I went to the airport to meet Kathryn, who was scheduled to get in at 9:30 PM, but was delayed until around 10 PM. Given the fact that she was on British Air going through the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow, which had a disastrous opening the week before, we were both happy that she came that close to being on time and with all her luggage! She'd slept for about 6 hours on the Seattle to London leg, so was surprisingly rested.

Saturday (after a fairly lazy morning) we went to another Sjung Med! (Sing With!) concert at St. Jacobs with Gary Graden. This was an expansion into new repertoire of the same group that has been doing the Folkjul concerts I wrote of earlier. Again, it was organist Gunnar Idenstam, violinist Lisa Rydberg, with Gary conducting an octet from the Chamber Choir. Most of the music was Bach (some organ music, the Bourée from the violin partita in E major, "Zion hört die Wachter singen" from Cantata 140, several chorales from Johannespassion, a couple of minuets, etc.), some familar hymns with the audience singing, and a great improvisation by Idenstam at the end. Gary leads the singing with infectious joy and the audience (the church probably 2/3ds full) was really responsive.

Lisa is a wonderful player (as I'd mentioned before, besides her specialities in folk music, she also plays baroque violin with various groups around Sweden) and her takes on Bach offer the kind of HIPP (Historically informed performance practice) one might expect (although on a modern fiddle and bow), but with the addition of folk influences and ornamentation. She has a website, but it's fairly out of date. Gunnar Idenstam is a wonderful player and, as you'll see from his website, very busy!

At any rate, a wonderful hour or so of music.

Sunday was another relatively slow day, but then Gary picked us up around 5 to go out to their home for a walk and dinner. The four of us took a great walk around the neighborhood (which is close by an arm of the Baltic Sea) then came back in time to go pick up their youngest son, Philip, who had a football game and practice that day. Their older son, Johan, was busy at home editing some electronica music that he'll be doing at a club in Oslo with two other friends. Maria made a fantastic soup, which we all had with crayfish to spread on top, a salad and wonderful bread. It was followed with a dense, gooey, chocolate torte, fruit and ice cream. Decadent doesn't begin to describe it! At any rate, we had a marvelous evening with good friends, conversation and food.

Monday was another slow day, with some score study and a few errands. One of the errands was to go to the train station to buy tickets for our visit to Kathryn's youngest sister, Heidi, husband Trygve, and children Elisabeth and Christoffer, in Kristiansand, Norway. We leave Thursday and come back Monday--not a long enough visit, but the time we could afford, given other commitments. It'll be a great time.

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!

Sweden – February 7/8, 2008

Thursday
We went by the first hour of RK rehearsal (along with EEKK) for Rachmaninoff Bells, led by Risto Joost. I have to say, I’m even more impressed with Risto’s work. Of course, it helps that he’s fluent in Russian, but also understands the style/sound elements in this music. One wouldn’t guess that he’s so young: his rehearsal is relaxed, yet demands a lot of detail work, and he’s clearly in command. Very enjoyable, and I think the combined choirs will sound quite spectacular (and quite Russian) for these performances (in Stockholm, Oslo, and Helsinki).

We only spent an hour at the rehearsal, since we had to catch the train to Uppsala for that evening’s performance of the Cherubini Requiem with Orphei Drängar and the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra. The hall, part of a conference center that just opened, is interestingly set up: conference facilities below and two LONG escalator rides to the concert hall, which is on top of the building. Uppsala doesn’t have tall buildings and it’s relatively flat, so I imagine the view (the “lobby” goes all around the hall with lots of windows) is spectacular. Of course, since we were there after dark, it was a little difficult to tell! Hopefully we’ll see it this spring in the daylight. The hall itself isn’t that beautiful. Other than red seats, everything is grey. However, the sound is pretty good—clear, but without much extra resonance to give a bloom to the sound.

The program opened with Berwald’s Symphony Serieuse in g minor. Berwald’s an important Swedish composer (remember, the Radio’s hall is Berwaldhallen), but I wasn’t particularly struck by this work.

The second half was Cherubini’s Requiem in d minor for male choir and orchestra. This isn’t a work that’s often done—it’s fairly challenging for the choir, and there just aren’t that many good, big male choirs. OD, of course, is a good, big male choir and they performed really well. Folke Alin did the choral preparation and his work, as I’ve said before, is excellent.

Paul Mäggi, the Estonian conductor of the chamber orchestra, is also very good. His gestures are understated, but clear and expressive. The orchestra (strings 6-5-4-4-3, double winds, 2 trpts, 3 trombones and timpani) also play very well.

I’d listened to the work long ago (long enough that I remember it was on an LP!) and don’t remember being that impressed, but after this performance, I’d put it on my list of works to do someday—should the performing circumstances be right!

Friday
Today was prep day to leave—doing laundry, cleaning up and other mundane tasks—but we also looked forward to hearing the Göteborg (Gothenburg) Symphony Orchestra under their chief conductor, the (barely) 27 year old wunderkind, Gustavo Dudamel, who will also become Music Director of the LA Philharmonic in 2009. Check out this YouTube video of him leading his Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra in Bernstein’s Mambo—and this interview during the London Proms.

All I can say, based on watching this concert (and I say “watching” advisedly—we were seated in the front row of the choir stalls directly behind the orchestra, so we had a dead-on view of Dudamel the entire time), is that the hype ain’t hype—he is that good.

It was an interesting program, opening with a premiere (they’d just done the world premiere in Gothenburg before coming to Stockholm)—Paula af Malmberg Ward’s Operatic. She came out to introduce the material—essentially a set of variations, with Dudamel and the orchestra then playing examples. The piece itself is strong, lots of interesting musical ideas and a wonderful orchestration. It also included the orchestra members speaking a text by Ward, which she’d had translated into Spanish.

Next on the program was the Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante for cello and orchestra, with the great Norwegian cellist, Truls Mørk. A fantastic piece I didn’t know, it was premiered by the 20 year old Rostopovich in 1952. Mørk and the orchestra gave a wonderful performance—just stunning. After many times being demanded back to the stage, Mørk played a simple Grieg melody (I recognized the tune, but couldn’t place it--I think it was one of his songs), softly, slowly and incredibly beautifully. A gorgeous way to go off after the virtuosic Prokofiev.

After intermission, Dudamel turned to the Nielsen Fifth Symphony. Another work I was unfamiliar with, and another spectacular performance. Having not heard it before, I can’t compare with other performances, but it’s no cool, Nordic work, at least not in Dudamel’s hands.

Dudamel is fascinating to watch: intensely musical, his gestures dramatic, varied, and always to the emotional point of the music. See him if you can!

This was a great way to end the winter part of my Swedish adventures this year. It’s late and I have to get up at 5 AM to catch my plane to London and on to Edmonton, so goodnight!

Sweden – January 29/30/31 February 1

Tuesday
Today was a shifting of gears for RK, from Pizzetti, Pärt & Penderecki last week to Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. As I noted last week, given their schedule, this is a regular occurrence for them. Still, there was some adjusting from the big sound required for Pizzetti and Penderecki, at least, to a “slimmer” sound for the Bach, which took awhile to accomplish.

As usual, I have to guess what an orchestral conductor might want, with no instruction or marked score. Daniel Harding is conducting, so having heard his Schumann Das Paradies und die Peri last year (where he took extraordinary care with text and phrasing—often asking the orchestra to listen to the choir for guidance—and asked the strings to play with little vibrato) and his recent Rameau Suite (strings without vibrato and a very dramatic approach to the double-dotted sections), and his general musical approach, which is dramatic and exciting, I’ve guessed that he’ll want a similar sound from the choir, particularly with less vibrato, but with great attention to text. I would say that one general weakness of Swedish choirs is diction—quality of sound and intonation always takes first place—so that’s one area to concentrate on.

I also decided to run short scenes with the recitatives connecting them, so pacing and connections are clear. Perhaps not necessary, since most have sung the work, but I knew that RK hadn’t done the work in a long time and the singers (usually singing for the Radio during Holy Week) may not have done as many outside performances either. Conny Thimander did an admirable job of singing the Evangelist recits—particularly since it was unexpected and 9:30 in the morning at A=440!

Not knowing specifics from the conductor, I can only give my ideas for drama in the turba (crowd) choruses, and hope that the shape, dynamics, pacing and diction are in the right direction. Certainly it’s better to have some musical shape than to hand off a bland preparation without any musicality at all! Otherwise, the conductor has to work very hard to get anywhere—if the choir is prepared with a musical conception, even the wrong one, it’s easier and faster to change. On the big choruses, I did the same. The chorales are the most difficult area to guess what Harding will do—there are so many different ways to approach fermatas, pacing, and dynamics. I worked alternating different ways of dealing with the fermatas and dynamics (just through gesture—RK is very responsive and there was no point talking about it or putting dynamics in their score), and worked on diction in some specific places, particularly with emotional words, but most will have to be left to the rehearsals with Harding.

As a side note, this isn’t unusual, and I’d guess that my experience is typical of what most of us face when preparing a chorus for an orchestral conductor. Of course, the final result would be so much better if the chorus was properly prepared before the first piano rehearsal with conductor with dynamics, articulations, breaths, tempi, and rhythmic values at the end of phrases (is it a quarter note, or an eighth note?). NO orchestral conductor would go into their first rehearsal of an orchestra without bowings for strings, and many travel with their own set of parts, with additional markings for articulations, dynamics, tempo changes, etc. Why not with the choir? My guess is: they don’t know enough about some of those choices (diction, where to put final consonants) and would rather leave it to the choral director. Or they’re satisfied enough with what they get from the preparation. We all know, of course, that it could be much better!

There are exceptions to the above, of course. I prepared the Brahms Requiem for John Nelson in 1994, and he sent his own full score so I could copy all his markings (which were thorough—of course, John was originally trained as a choral conductor, so he knows all the “tricks of the trade”) and also a recommendation for a particular recording as a guideline to his approach to phrasing. That makes our job so much easier (and the final result better)!

Wednesday
In the morning we went to Michael Tilson Thomas’s 2nd rehearsal of Mahler 6 with the Stockholm Philharmonic. This was thanks to Ragnar Bohlin, who also got us tickets for the performance on Thursday. Ragnar and his wife Tamara were there, along with Michael’s partner, Josh. A very interesting rehearsal, one long run-through of a movement they’d done the day before, then lots of detail work. During the break we went back with Ragnar and Tamara to meet Michael in his dressing room for coffee. He was incredibly gracious. While he and Josh had been in Stockholm briefly a few years ago, this was his first time conducting here. The Philharmonic does long rehearsals—in this case 10-12:30 (we left at the lunch break), an hour’s lunch break, then another 2 1/2 hours. Great fun to watch his rehearsal.

In the afternoon, back to RK and more St. Matthew. This time I didn’t work at all on chorales and did only short lead-ins for the turba choruses. I split the rehearsal, Choir I for the first 50 minutes, full choir for the middle of the rehearsal, then Choir II for the last 50 minutes. If you know the Matthew Passion, you know there are a number of choruses for just choir I or II. So this served several purposes: to work on those choruses without the other half of the choir having to just sit there; to focus on smaller details of phrasing; and with only 16 singers present, to get further towards the chamber sound necessary for the work.

Thursday
I met with Gary Graden briefly in the morning to take care of some business and set up some things for later. I also met Lisa Rydberg, the violinist on the Folkjul CD, who was there to discuss repertoire for an upcoming trip to Hungary with the St. Jacobs Chamber Choir.

Now to new repertoire with RK and another shift of gears, to Rachmaninoff’s great Klokorna (The Bells) and two of his three folksongs, op. 41. A big shift of gears! We’d unfortunately just gotten (Tuesday) the scores with transliteration—I think I mentioned earlier the only score I had was with Cyrillic—but very fortunately, Maria Goundorina was present to be expert help with the Russian text. Maria is Russian, finishing up in the diplom program at the Royal Conservatory, working with Anders Eby. I saw her work last year when I attended one of Anders’ classes—she’s very good (and had led the rehearsal with EEKK on Tuesday). So I began with the two toughest movements of Klokorna and we alternated working on music and text. Tiring work, and some of the choir members (we had rented scores) had scores with stuff scribbled throughout, so spent more time erasing than marking. I also paced too fast—when I have a lot of work to do in a short period of time, I sometimes push pacing beyond where I should, or where it helps—but we still got a lot done. I let the sopranos and tenors go with about 35 minutes left so we could begin work on op. 41, number 3, which has just altos and basses. Good work, but I pushed too fast and sensed the choir was a bit frustrated.

Immediately afterward we walked to Konserthuset and met Tamara, who had the tickets for the Mahler performance. Ragnar was staying with the kids tonight and preparing for a lecture the next day—he’ll hear the concert on Saturday. Tamara was glad to have the evening off from the opera to attend—and noted lots of her colleagues in the audience.

The format was a 30-minute lecture from MTT on the Mahler, then a full intermission, followed by the performance, without interruption. MTT is a very good lecturer, demonstrating examples at the piano, and with a hilarious account of his meeting Alma Mahler when he was about 10 years old at his godfather’s antiquarian bookshop in Los Angeles. She had come in to see about the value of some manuscripts she owned (oh, just a few trifles like the scores to Mahler 9 and Berg’s Wozzeck). MTT described her still amazing personal charm (at 87), when introduced to him she flirted a bit, talking backwards over one shoulder or the other. This is impossible to describe in words, but hilarious in effect—and apropos, since Alma’s ‘theme’ in the sixth symphony is almost always performed more slowly than Mahler asks—Michael said her way of flirting and talking led him to always strive to perform it at the asked-for, faster tempo.

The performance was fantastic. MTT got a great sense of style from the orchestra, which of course changes rapidly in Mahler’s usual mix of both high and low culture. Individual sections and soloists were also wonderful, especially the first horn, who was simply amazing tonight. All-in-all, a great performance—we were lucky to be there. We went back afterwards to say thank you to MTT, who was as gracious as ever, although I’m sure looking forward to getting somewhere for something to eat and drink! Many thanks, too, to both Ragnar and Tamara.

Friday
My last rehearsal with RK on this trip today. One of the choir members confirmed what I’d thought about last rehearsal, and asked for things to move a bit more slowly, so I tried to do that. We worked on the other two movements of Klokorna before break, then concentrated on the most difficult afterwards. I left time at the end to finish working on op. 41, number 3, then let altos go so basses could work on number 1, which is for just them. It’s been an intense couple of weeks of rehearsal! Next week, Risto Joost takes over for his own performance of the Rachmaninoff All-Night Vigil and more rehearsals on Klokorna. It’ll be interesting to watch him work.

Sweden – January 24/25

Thursday
Today’s rehearsal was perhaps the most tiring—for me and the choir. I ran the Pizzetti without break, only doing a bit of rehearsal—it’s so important for the singers to get a sense of the whole and how it fits together. The bigger challenges came with lots of time, more detailed work and many repetitions of parts of both Penderecki’s Agnus Dei and Stabat Mater. I think we got lots of good work done, but have to say I wasn’t entirely satisfied with what I accomplished. These are by no means the most difficult pieces, but there are places that simply take lots of repetition to get right (or did today, at any rate). And it has places where I have to hear exactly what’s going wrong (and why) and I simply didn’t feel I did this as well today. The choir’s focus wasn’t as good today either—whether that came from me or from them, I’m not sure, but we’ll hope for a better day tomorrow. It’s important to remember that we’re all human (certainly I am!) and we all have to deal with the great days and the not so great ones.

Almost immediately after the rehearsal, we headed next door to Berwaldhallen to hear the Radio Orchestra and their 33-year old Music Director, Daniel Harding, do a concert just before they head off to their tour to the Canary Islands. The program began with a Rameau Suite from Hippolyte et Aricie. Obviously, the orchestra plays modern instruments, but they worked at elements of period style. For me (and even more for Kathryn), though, Harding’s approach was too aggressive and the sound of the strings, in particular, harsh. It didn’t engage either of us. The second piece on the program was Berlioz’ La mort de Cléopâtre, which I didn’t know, with mezzo Malena Ernman. This was much better and Ernman was really wonderful (although covered occasionally by the orchestra). Physically, she’s imposing, very tall and athletic looking, with a big voice which she uses well. She must have an amazing stylistic range, as she’s done contemporary opera (Sandström’s Staden), Mozart roles, and the lead in Cabaret. Nice to get to hear her.

The second half was Beethoven 5, and here Harding’s sense of drama, overall structure and pacing, and dynamic approach was fantastic. It was a wonderful performance.

Friday
Friday morning’s rehearsal with RK was much better. I opened with the Pärt again, concentrating entirely on intonation—as most of you know, the magic of Pärt‘s music is often in the silences and of the mood that is created over a span of time (or perhaps better put, creating a sense of timelessness). But that will be created with Kaspars when both choirs are together with him and the organist, so I worked on another area of importance in performing Pärt: really pure, clean intonation. With Pizzetti, we still needed to simply sing it more (again, only about 3 of the singers have done it before), but also to concentrate on intonation—there are some tricky places in this work. After break, the Stabat Mater came first. Here I worked “backwards,” something I do sometimes, beginning with the last section, then once it’s secure, doing the next section back until secure then connecting to the last (singing to the end), etc. This process continues until you’re fairly early in the piece. (Another way of explaining it: If there were five sections—ABCDE—I’d work E until secure, then D until secure, then sing D through E; then work C until secure, followed by running C-D-E, and so on). Since it’s our natural tendency to start work at the beginning of works, the last sections are sometimes slighted. This procedure means the final sections of the work get the most repetition. For this piece, I thought it was particularly helpful. The opening section of the Stabat Mater also needed work on intonation: the basses (in three choirs) sing a low A with each taking a syllable of the text and then sustaining it (I: Sta, II: -bat, III Ma, IV: -ter, I: Do, etc.). Since each part is sustaining a different vowel, and each vowel has its own structure of partials (sorry, non-musicians—you can just skip over this!), it’s tough for the singers to match each other’s pitch while singing different vowels. Just an acoustic phenomenon! At any rate, we closed with the Agnus Dei, first working on a few sections that were problematic, then running it. Good focus from the choir (which probably means I did a better job) and a good rehearsal to end this part of the project. It’ll be a slightly different choir next week (or probably two of them) for Matthew Passion Tuesday and Wednesday and Rachmaninoff The Bells and two folksongs on Thursday and Friday.

A word about RKs schedule: this isn’t always typical for them, but sometimes the way concerts are scheduled (particularly when they’re with the orchestra, or when there are tours), rehearsals for particular programs are scheduled all over the place. Here’s what they’re doing now through the spring:

Week 4 – the work we just did (Pizzetti, Penderecki, & Pärt)
Week 5 – Matthew Passion (2 days), Rachmaninoff Bells (2 days)
Week 6 – two more rehearsals on The Bells (with EEKK) and two on Rach Vigil (AKA Vespers)
Week 7 – one rehearsal on Vigil, last rehearsals on Bells and two concerts
Week 8 – off
Week 9 - one rehearsal on Vigil, then tour to Helsinki for both programs of Rach
Week 10 – this time they take both programs to Oslo
Week 11 – Kaspars arrives and they have rehearsals with him and the concert of the “three P’s” – also one rehearsal for Matthew Passion
Week 12 – final rehearsals for Matthew Passion and two performances
Week 13 - (week after Easter) off
Week 14 – I’m back again, for three rehearsals on Verdi Quattro Pezzi Sacri (which Peter will do on their Netherlands tour with the Netherlands Chamber Choir) and some time with the Pizzetti again (which they’ll do with the Netherlands Chamber Choir, but also on their own); and one rehearsal on Sandström April och Tystnad and Werle trees (for a domestic tour)
Week 15 – Peter arrives for work on the domestic tour program (all 4 rehearsals)
Week 16 – one rehearsal for tour, then 4 concerts in Sweden
Week 17 – me again, three rehearsals for my spring concert with them
Week 18 – mostly free, but one rehearsal for Larsson’s Förklädd Gud (God in Disguise)
Week 19 – 2 rehearsals on spring concert, one that I’m doing on the Brahms Requiem (for a tour later with Valeri Gergiev and the Rotterdam Philharmonic), and the spring concert on May 9
Week 20 – I do one more rehearsal with them on Verdi Quattro Pezzi and Pizzetti before they go to Holland and meet Peter for their tour for this week and the next. Then in Week 22, they return from the tour and do the Larsson they rehearsed back in Week 18

It’s a small glimpse into the scheduling world of RK.

Sweden – January 21/22/23

Monday
Today was mostly a prep day for the beginnings of rehearsals tomorrow—except for a wonderful middag meal (lunch, dinner, supper, whatever you call it) with Gary Graden at his favorite fish restaurant, which was indeed marvelous. Gary and Kath had an appetizer of sill (herring) and main course of halibut with potatoes and Dijon hollandaise sauce—wonderful, they said! I had a pike/perch filet (similar to walleye) served over spinach with a béarnaise sauce and rice, also marvelous. A lovely house white wine accompanied the meal and a small dessert of chocolate mousse with mint (and a strawberry as well) and coffee or tea finished it off. Tremendous food and great conversation, as always. Gary has two interesting concerts the first week in February with his friend, Estonian astronomer/musician/composer Urmas Sisask. I’ll report about it then.

Tuesday
This morning was my first rehearsal with Radiokören (hence RK as the abbreviation—in Swedish the article is usually attached at the end of the word—in this case the “en” at the end Radiokören serves to mean “The Radio Choir”). Even though I know them and they know me, there’re always a few nerves leading to the first rehearsal (but no real worries). There were a number of subs for this concert (7 or 8 out of 32—although most have sung with RK before—perhaps many times before), which always means you have to think of bringing the choir into ensemble again. While there are wonderful things about RK being part-time (considered 50%), it means that not all singers can sing every concert.

I found out from Eva Wedin that RK hadn’t sung the Pizzetti (ever!) and in fact, when I asked at the beginning of rehearsal, only 3 singers had sung it before—surprising to me. If you don’t know the Requiem, it’s a gorgeous piece, written in 1922-23, inspired by Pizzetti’s studies of early music, but with his own musical language.

In a situation like this I can’t really plan a detailed rehearsal—there’s just too much that’s unknown about how it will go. So I knew I’d start with Pizzetti, see how far we could get, and plan to do the Sanctus (which is for triple choir) before break so they just had to change formation once. After break I’d do the Penderecki Agnus Dei, then finish with as much of the Stabat Mater (which is also three choirs) as I could do.

As it turned out, we were able to do all of those pieces, although there’s still work to do, of course. The choir’s very quick and are good readers, so we didn’t have to spend much time on notes, although both Penderecki pieces, especially the Stabat Mater, have distinct pitch challenges.

I think for young/inexperienced conductors this part of rehearsal technique is difficult. Score study and hearing what’s going on (especially with as many parts as in this repertoire) is a big challenge—and then to respond to what you hear with a good diagnosis of what is wrong (where intonation falters and why, which pitches are incorrect, where rhythmic difficulties are, etc.) and how to fix the problem. While a guest professor at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music last year, even for some of my grad students this was difficult: being good students, they’d plan a detailed rehearsal (what would go wrong and how to fix it) but too often follow the plan even if not all elements of the plan were necessary. If they’d simply sung through the music first, heard what was happening (comparing it to their inner conception of how it should sound), they could then formulate what to do. As it was, they wasted time “fixing” things that didn’t really need to be fixed. Of course, I understand that this is a necessary stage—thinking through possible problems and how to fix them is a good thing! But they still have to remain open to really hearing what’s happening and responding to it—a skill that builds slowly. The more experience one has, the more efficient one’s rehearsal technique can be—although of course rehearsal technique is part craft and part art: there are many ways to get from here to there! Mathematicians will tell you that there are a number of possible solutions to a given problem, but some are more “elegant” than others. It’s the same with rehearsal technique, I believe. Enough already, this belongs in a separate blog, not in a Swedish report!

At any rate, it was a good first rehearsal on this repertoire. Remember that I have four three-hour rehearsals (actually, Friday’s will be cut short because about half the choir is singing for the funeral of a former head of the music section of the Radio) to get this music and Pärt’s The Beatitudes ready for Kaspars Putnins and the Latvian Radio Choir, who have two rehearsals before their concert together on March 16 (plenty of time to forget things, too!). So lots to do to make sure they’re as secure as possible.

With the experience of today’s rehearsal, tomorrow’s can be planned in more detail.

Wednesday
I went over early to the Radio to do a little checking for other possible pieces for the spring concert, which still isn’t finalized (but will be soon). Also to check a particular notation in the Penderecki Stabat Mater, which is a part of his St. Luke Passion—I looked at the full score and the notation meant what I thought (quasi spoken), but that isn’t really much help. I'll just prepare the choir well with the actual pitches and Kaspars can easily change to as much “speech” and little pitch as he wishes.

Since I knew better where problems are, the rehearsal could be more thoroughly planned. It was a tougher rehearsal than yesterday’s, though, because of much more starting and stopping for details (always more frustrating for the singers). There’s still work to do on the Stabat Mater, and the Pärt (which we essentially just sang through) will need work tomorrow to make intonation better—if you’ve sung/conducted any Pärt, you know it’s deceptively simple: the intervallic leaps and exchanges between parts (crossing voices) is never as easy as it seems, even for such a good choir. Beautiful music, though.

Tomorrow will be some more detail work, but starting to put big sections together as well. Hopefully Friday can then be mostly running pieces and movements to get as much sense of flow as possible. Each day I also try to vary tempi and rubato so singers are prepared for whatever Kaspars wants.

Tomorrow evening after rehearsal we’re going to the Radio Orchestra’s concert, Daniel Harding conducting a big Rameau suite, and Beethoven 5—all before they head off on a tour to the Canary Islands. On Friday evening, thanks to Ragnar Bohlin’s wife Tamara, we have comp tickets to Gluck’s Orfée at the Royal Opera (Ragnar said Tamara got the last two tickets). We also stopped by Konserthuset before rehearsal to get tickets for Gustavo Dudamel’s concert with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra the night before I leave. We ended up getting seats in the choir loft, not the best place to hear the orchestra, but terrific for a dead-on view of Dudamel—it should be fascinating to watch this young phenomenon conduct a Prokokfiev cello concerto with Truls Mørk (the fantastic Norwegian cellist) and Nielsen Fifth Symphony.

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!

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.

Off to Sweden again!

I'll be back in Sweden again (leaving January 1), my trip this time split in two this year, the first from early January to mid-February (when I head to Edmonton to prepare my February concert, and then the Good Friday concert), then back again for my second stint from late March through mid-May.

I was invited by the Radio Choir to prepare works again for other conductors, but also to conduct their Spring Concert, which is a lighter program, shared with a well-known Swedish jazz duo (Chapter 2 - trombone and guitar). We're still working out repertoire for that, but the choir will sing about 35 minutes of music. The preps, however, are substantial, so I have a lot of work to do learning scores!

Peter Dijkstra, new Chief Conductor of Radiokören, will have a concert January 17, so I'll be able to watch all his rehearsals for this program, with a chamber orchestra and repertoire of Mozart Litanae Lauretanae and Haydn Harmoniemesse. It'll be great to be able to meet him and particularly to watch him work. If you don't know about him, check out his website--his career is going spectacularly well and the repertoire he's conducting is amazing! (http://www.peterdijkstra.nl/)

During the week of January 21st, I prepare RK for a program that they will doing jointly with the Latvian Radio Choir and their conductor, Kaspars Putnins (the concert doesn't take place until March 16). Pro Coro members know from the festival in Toronto just how good the Latvian group is--and Kaspars is terrific. For this I'll be preparing Pizzetti's Requiem (a great piece), Penderecki's Stabat Mater and Agnus Dei, and Arvo Pärt's The Beatitudes.

The following week begins with two rehearsals on Bach's Matthew Passion, which the choir will do March 20 and 21 with Daniel Harding (note that they're doing this just four days after the concert with the Latvians!). Harding is the principal conductor of the Radio Orchestra (you can read my description of his performance of the Schumann Paradies und die Peri elsewhere on the blog--he's amazing). RK has only 3 rehearsals before meeting with Harding, so my 2 will have to take them through the whole work.

The 3rd and 4th rehearsals that week will be Rachmaninov's The Bells and numbers 1 & 3 of his Three Russian Songs (op. 41), to be done the 16th of February with Jukka-Pekka Sarasate (who did the unbelievably good performance of Sibelius' Kullervo last time with Orphei Drängar and the Stockholm Philharmonic). This is just 2 days after they will have done the Rachmaninov Vigil with Risto Joost from Estonia. The score they sent for The Bells has only Cyrillic, so in all ways I have my work cut out for me! The performance with Jukka-Pekka will also have the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, but I'll only be rehearsing RK in January.

Unfortunately I'll be gone before all of the performances. Too bad not to hear the fruits of my labors directly, but I have other work with Pro Coro that I'm looking forward to as well!

I should also be able to observe a few of Joost's rehearsals on Rachmaninov before leaving for Edmonton.

I'll get back to Stockholm and begin work during the first week in April on the Verdi Four Sacred Pieces, which they're doing with Peter Dijkstra along with the Netherlands Chamber Choir and Rezidentie Orchestra at The Hague in May. I'll also do more work on the Pizzetti Requiem, which Peter's doing with them (on their own), also at The Hague. In addition, I rehearse them on music for their domestic tour, which will include Lars Johan Werle's trees (which Choral Arts members will remember), Sven-David Sandström's April och Tystnad and Bo Holten's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (30-minute set for 12-part choir--some Choral Arts members will remember Holten's Regn och Rusk och Rosenbusk). Somewhere in there I also introduce the music for the Spring concert!

I have a little break until the week of April 21 when rehearsals begin in earnest for the Spring concert (and Kathryn and I will visit her sister and family in Kristiansand, Norway during that time). Nothing the next week (the choir is doing Larsson's Förklädd Gud), then two more rehearsals the following week before the concert on May 9 (in between the last two rehearsals I do a rehearsal on Brahms Requiem for a later tour with Valeri Gergiev and the Rotterdam Philharmonic--expanded RK of about 48 voices). The week after the Spring concert I do one more rehearsal on Verdi Quattro Pezzi and the Pizzetti Requiem before they head to Holland with Peter.

All in all, an interesting January-mid May!

I'll be blogging about what I see and hear.

Stockholm 2007 - Week 7

The last week! Hard to imagine, as this seven-week period has gone very quickly. However, if my sense of deep tiredness is any indication, it's been an unusually busy and intense time for Kathryn and me--much more so than our usual lives, although this year for me has been (and remains, for a while longer) crazy, even by my normal standards.

The week began on Monday with my first rehearsal with the Radio Choir. Today was actually two RK, since the rehearsal began with the choir singing for Parsifal (not all regular members of RK are doing that program, so there are a number of subs). Even it began with just the men, since Act III of Parsifal has almost no singing for the sopranos and altos.

Arne worked with the women on some other repertoire at the beginnning of the rehearsal. After working a little less than an hour on the scene with the Knights, the women joined us again to rehearse the last section, which is truly glorious music. There was no point to do detailed work, since the choir will work in combination with the Opera Chorus and I had no instructions from Gergiev about markings. So we took a slightly longer break than usual since the other members of RK were joining us at 11 AM.

We then rehearsed the Gloria and Sanctus from the Beethoven Mass in C, followed by the Choral Fantasy, and then I had time for a run-through of the movements from the Mass before the end of rehearsal. The voices are amazing, of course, so it's great fun to stand in front of the choir and hear the sound pouring over you (and, of course, they can sing very softly, too). They're also excellent musicians, so things rarely need to be said more than once and, even with a few of them never having sung the Beethoven before, one slow run-through of the fugues is usually enough to put notes right. Again, with no guidance from the ultimate conductor, I simply made my own decisions about breaths and note values at the end of phrases, articulations, added dynamics, etc., and gave options where there could easily be two choices.



I'll say more about what it's like to conduct a choir such as RK later. Certainly, I can say it's great fun.

The rest of the day was relatively relaxed, going to the nearby hotel with our laptop so I could access the internet and send last week's report to you, taking a walk in the beautiful weather (the sun came out by afternoon), and calling both sets of parents and Kathryn's sister in Norway.

Tuesday was a day off, so we took full advantage of it. We both are tired, as I said earlier, Kath still with her nagging cough and both of us from intense social and rehearsal and concert-going schedules. The weather was gorgeous today and much warmer (spring-like), so I even took the liner out of my coat. We enjoyed several walks and down time in the apartment, with a bit of rehearsal prep for me. It'll be fun to work on the Brahms Requiem tomorrow with 48 or so singers of RK and extras--it's a work that's close to my heart: the first time I conducted it was for the Anchorage Music Festival in 1993 at summer solstice time (no real darkness in Anchorage--amazing to come out of rehearsal at 10 PM and have it still completely light), subbing for Robert Shaw, who'd had a mild stroke and had to pare back his schedule.

Tuesday evening we took Eric and Monica out to dinner as partial thanks for all their help and friendship. Had a wonderful time talking about what we're both doing, the different people I've been seeing, etc. I feel lucky to have had so much contact with Eric.



I first saw him (although didn't meet him personally) in Nashville in '83 when the Radio Choir sang at ACDA. I'd just auditioned for grad school at Cincinnati and went down to Nashville afterwards with a group of those students. John Leman was organizing a choir for a masterclass with Eric, so I ended up singing in it.The next summer, after I started teaching at PLU, Eric was taking his MH Chamber Choir to an ISME conference in Eugene, OR and was looking for some other venues. Bruce Browne, who knew Eric, put me in touch with him, so I arranged for the PLU summer choral workshop to be built around that: the choir was in San Francisco before coming to Tacoma, so Eric flew up a day earlier for workshops and the choir came up by bus a day later and spent at least two days there, being the group for some conductors to work with and giving their own concert.

There were many contacts after that, including IFCM in Vienna in '87, another MH Chamber Choir visit to PLU in 1988 (they did an around the world tour that summer), April of '89 (my first visit to Sweden) when I was looking for a dissertation topic, and the entire summer of 1990 when I did the initial research.

During '89 I sublet the apartment of one of Monica's sons and in '90 the apartment of another one of her sons. Eric was also guest conductor at the birth of Choral Arts in 1993. I'd been thinking of such a choir and heard from him that he would be working with Pro Coro in Edmonton and he wanted some other work, since he didn't like to travel so far for just one concert. So I put together a choir for him in January of that year which then became Choral Arts.

When I came back to Sweden in '96 to update research (just after Kathryn and I got married) I sublet the apartment across from Eric and Monica's. And of course, Eric's name and introductions have opened all doors to me in Sweden, and the research I've done and the many visits since have made for many close friends. While I would never dare to say I was a student of Eric's (and never studied with him formally), I've learned and gained so much from him, watching him, and talking with him and all our other Swedish friends. It's been a great privilege.

Wednesday brought a bit of serendipity to our trip: I've kept in touch with a former student from PLU, Mark Hjelmervik, but for some reason didn't have his email address, so he hadn't been getting these reports. He sent an update about his life (he just finished seminary in Chicago) and so I sent back my reports. His quick reply was, "Are you still in Sweden?!" It turned out that Mark was in Stockholm for a few days since his chosen church is the Covenant Church, which had its roots in the Swedish Mission Church, and his graduating class was in Sweden for classes to see about the roots of the American church. So we managed to get together for lunch--and this after I hadn't been able to see him the last time he was in Tacoma because I was too busy. Amazing the way things work out sometimes.

That afternoon was the rehearsal of the Brahms with RK and the extra singers, about 5 or 6 of whom were singing with RK for the first time (some others were former RK members and a few members of Eric's Chamber Choir). Quite simply, it was a joy. Almost all the singers have sung the Requiem before, some many times, so it was possible to communicate much via gesture from the very first run-through of each movement. Other than that, it was simply a matter of rehearsing what we all do: better ensemble, sound, blend, intonation, pronunciation of text, musicality, etc.--except beginning at a much higher level. Pure pleasure. I'm only sorry I don't get to conduct the performance.

Following rehearsal we went with Eva Wedin and the choir's regular accompanist, Michael Engström (who is fantastic) to the apartment of Arne Lundmark and his wife Birgit for dinner. Arne, as I mentioned earlier, is the choir's producer (he also teaches voice at MH and was for many years a member of Eric's Chamber Choir) and Birgit also works in the administration of the Radio. Dinner was a Lebanese feast and accompanied by lots of talk about choral music, experiences with Eric (it turns out Michael was also with the MH Chamber Choir on their '88 visit to PLU--and earlier I found out it was the same for one of the RK basses for the '84 tour), and more about Swedish choral life. Another wonderful evening.

Thursday's rehearsal was hard work--after beginning with two of Otto Olsson's Psalm settings to warm up--quite beautiful, by the way--I began work on Thomas Jennefelt's O Domine. This is a very good piece with two radically contrasting sections: the first dramatic, with rapid changes of tempi and lots of dissonance; the last section minimalistic, calm, with mostly gentle dissonances. Both sections needed work and there are possibly a couple sections that we'll repeat tomorrow. After break, the rest of the rehearsal was spent on Sven-David's Singet dem Herrn, which as I noted last time, is extremely virtuosic. The first section is quick, syncopated, has extreme ranges and dynamics. Much of the time was spent in drill: first choir, second choir; men, women; slower tempi, then back towards marked tempi. The next section didn't need as much time, but perhaps a little work on sound and intonation--the middle movement is truly gorgeous and calls for a beautiful legato, phrasing and sound. The last section is, if anything, trickier than the first (you really have to look at the score to see what I mean). Again, the choir worked hard through many repetitions of different sections. Another thing noticeable is the endurance and ability of these singers to sing repetitions at top dynamic and tessitura again and again--and all full out. That's extraordinary, too. Again, these are very fine singers, well-trained, and they do this with real regularity. While not as much fun as the Brahms rehearsal, I earned my pay in doing this necessary work to bring this music up to the level it deserves.

Tomorrow will bring more of the same with some of the other repertoire as well as more practice on Singet.



Eric also came to the first half of the rehearsal--very sweet of him to do that and we had a nice goodbye chat during the break.

Friday: my last day with RK and seeing so many friends. A morning rehearsal this time, so I began with the final two Olsson Psalms as warmup (RK certainly doesn't do "warm-ups," but just jump to work) and a few spots in the 2nd one that needed good transitions between the baritone solo (chant--no flats or sharps) and choir (E Major). Then the Jan Sandström Gloria, not a difficult piece, but one which calls for clean tuning and ensemble. Then Sven-David's take on Purcell's Hear my Prayer, O Lord, which quotes it exactly, at the end melding into S-D's own anguished plea, but ending with a calm C Major. Finally before break: Hillborg's mouyuoum, which is a fascinating minimalistic exercise. Like many such pieces, it's not easy to rehearse, partly since at 13 minutes long, it's tiring to sing, and you can't do too much repetition. So we didn't work on too many sections--they also know it well.

After break it was time for Singet dem Herrn again. Hard work (for me, too), but necessary work to give the best chance of success in Saarbrücken. Again, much repetition, drill with one choir or the other, at slower speeds, etc., all taken in good spirit by RK's members.

If I know something as a rehearsal technician, it's how to keep a fairly quick pace of rehearsal, which is especially necessary with such work. Three singers are substitutes who did not sing the September concerts and therefore were sightreading Singet--for them a huge challenge, but at least now they have a good idea of how the piece works and can practice before Saarbrücken.

At the end of the rehearsal thanks from both sides (me to them and them to me) and I think we all hope I get a chance to work with RK again in the not-too-distant future. We'll keep in touch . . .

RK is really a wonderful choir to work with. They have such a good understanding of what it takes to be an ensemble singer that you begin work at an already high level. As I've mentioned, the choir is also made up of very good voices, many of solo quality.

These are not small voices either, which is why they can successfully do major works with orchestra with 48 or so singers. They also (at least for me in the two different times I've worked with them) have a good attitude. One can worry that professionals (choirs or orchestras) can begin to think of their work as just a job, but I don't sense that here (and haven't with most of the professional orchestras I've worked with, from members of the Seattle Symphony earlier to my recent work with Edmonton Symphony members): most of all they want to make good music. Consequently, if they sense you know what you want and have musical ideas, they're very willing to work hard for you. As with most professionals, however, they don't want their time wasted, so a good and efficient rehearsal technique is a must. And, of course, you have to know the scores well and what to do with the music. Beyond that, the work is the same as with any choir, just at a higher level: work on ensemble, intonation, sound, expression, phrasing, etc. You have, also, to have your ears "calibrated" at a finer level--with a choir this good, it has to be very fine tolerances of intonation, ensemble, etc. I hope, too, this is good for me in my work with my other choirs. I can learn to be more demanding of what is possible musically. Certainly as I said before, it's great fun to work with them and I wouldn't miss the opportunity to work with RK again.


Afterwards we had a short chat with Eva, our good friend, whom we'll miss. She's delightful and has been amazingly helpful before and during our stay. Then off to lunch with Bo Johansson and his wife Ingrid. Yesterday one of the new basses (to me) introduced himself as Lasse. Today he said, "I hear you're going to lunch with my father after rehearsal." I hadn't realized Lasse is Bo and Ingrid's son! He is a regular with RK from this year, but has been on paternity leave, so came to these two rehearsals since he will go off leave in April and be with the choir for this program. After rehearsal, he was to return home and take over for his mother, who'd been baby-sitting. Bo is another good friend from my summer of research in 1990 and conductor of the world-famous Adolf Fredrik Girlchoir (we also worked together at a "Singing Week" in Veszprém, Hungary in 1996). Adolf Fredrik is a special music school (up until HS years) and students get musical instruction in addition to their regular classes. It's amazing how many of the singers in Sweden's fine choirs have attended Adolf Fredrik. Bo is known to all as "Bosse" (I won't attempt to phonetically write the pronunciation, but the Bo is pronounced "oo") and is one of the happiest people I know, a fantastic teacher and musician. He'll be involved with some masterclasses at IFCM in Copenhagen next summer (2008), so you could get a chance to watch him work there. Again, a delightful time and then back home, where frankly, I'm exhausted! We were supposed to go to the Radio Orchestra concert tonight (Edo de Waart and Mahler 5), but I'm writing this as the concert would be about to begin--I was just too tired to go out again tonight. The trip's not over yet, though. More to come Saturday and Sunday.

Our next-to-last day had a concert at Jacobs again. This one with the "WÅG" trio (Mattias Wager, organ & piano; Anders Åstrand, percussion; and Gary Graden, singer). An improvisational concert, this continues experiments at St. Jacob for new ways to attract people to the church. The improvisations ranged from fairly traditional to reminders of '60s/70s "happenings," using all combinations of singer, percussion (marimba and all manner of drums), piano, the small organ at the front of the church and the big one in the gallery in the back. Gary sang gregorian chant with different backgrounds by Mattias and Anders, Mattias played a fantastic Bach-style improv on the piano to accompany a hymn (yes, the audience was asked to sing again, too), and they finished with Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day, beginning with Gary and the small organ at the front, then Gary and percussion (while Mattias went back to the big organ), then Gary worked his way back for a big ending with all three in the gallery at full volume. Really a terrific and interesting time. Gary is one of the most creative and interesting musicians I know. It was another good and enthusiastic audience.

I sat next to a woman who clearly had some mental problems and was possibly homeless, incredibly thin, in worn, dirty clothes, talking to herself softly. But she was clearly moved by the music, moving to it, giggling with joy sometimes, and near the end when Gary sang a spiritual talking about the flowing river, she moved her hands along with Gary, smiling all the while. It was a terrific example of the power of music to speak directly to someone--someone who, if we saw them on the street, we might shy away from, or at least look the other way. It also reminded me of the possibility (and hope) of the church providing a place that can be joy and solace to anyone who may walk through the doors. At least it's something I'd hope that the church could truly be.

Kathryn didn't go to the concert, since she was home preparing a feast (and it was a feast, since Kathryn is an excellent cook)
for a dinner with Gary and Maria and Birgit Hemberg. I walked with Birgit back from the church (the weather's turned colder again and apparently a storm is on the way--certainly the wind was blowing hard against us), and we spent an hour and a half or so visiting.

Gary and Maria, after going home and sorting out things with their boys, joined us around six and we had a delightful dinner. Again,terrific conversation and reminders about what wonderful friends we have here. Hard to believe we have only one more day.

Sunday dawned gray and rainy, although the sun came out in the afternoon and we had some beautiful views of Stockholm for our last day. Apparently the storm comes in tonight, so we hope no problems getting out of Arlanda Airport. A fair amount of time was spent cleaning, organizing and packing for the journey home, but we got to end our trip with a performance of the Mass in B Minor with Mikaeli Kammerkör, led by its founder and leader for many years, Anders Eby. The concert took place at Adolf Fredriks, where Anders Öhrwall did so many performances years ago (Anders was there and I got to say a brief hello) and where we heard Eric's Chamber Choir near the beginning of the trip

We also saw (surprise, surprise) Mark Lawlor, whom we met when I interviewed at ASU a number of years ago.Mark was here for a week's study tour. We also saw Bosse and Ingrid again, plus well-known Swedish baritone Håkan Hagegård.

The performance of the Bach was certainly a good one, so a perfect end to our trip. The choir and soloists were very good (especially countertenor Mikael Bellini), and the orchestra, too. Having worked on and off with period instrument ensembles, it makes certain kinds of balances much easier and more natural to achieve. They were working with Stockholms Barockorkester, which is a free-lance ensemble that plays with many choirs in town. The orchestra (with the exception of cellos and basses, of course) stood for the performance--fun to watch the concertmistress (who was great) and principal bassoon, both of whom moved with great freedom and joy. The trumpets were particularly good and the first trumpet amazing. They all played cleanly and accurately and with a fantastic tone quality that was extremely well-matched. Anders's tempos were quick, which occasionally led to a little muddiness in the church acoustic, but generally worked very well. The Bach is one of my favorite pieces--I sang it with Rilling in 1972 at the Oregon Bach Festival when it was only in its 3rd year (concerts in First Lutheran Church--no Hult Center), conducted it for the first time in 1975, which really cemented Seattle Pro Musica's existence, and just did it last season with Pro Coro for Good Friday. Again, I can't think of a nicer way to have ended our trip.

I can't say how fortunate we feel to have been able to spend this much time in Sweden, visit family in Norway, see so many good friends here in Stockholm and Uppsala, and hear so many rehearsals and performances, not to speak of working again with the Radio Choir

We particularly have to thank our most beautiful friend, Gunilla Luboff, who made it possible by lending us her lovely apartment in Stockholm. Many thanks, Gunilla!

Hope you've enjoyed the vicarious visit to the Swedish choral world as seen through our eyes and ears.