Thursday May 12, 2011 - It's so easy to forget that we are at war when the wars are far away. Why should we think about warfare when it's far more pleasant to watch American Idol, to follow the marriages and divorces of celebrities, or to listen to idiot politicians and faux religious leaders going off on ridiculous tangents than to think of our young people serving abroad. For some, it's reassuring to shout words like patriotism, freedom and democracy while in the meantime ignoring efforts to decrease funding for veterans. Why bother worrying about homlessness and suicidal depression among our returning servicemen and women when Bristol Palin and Lindsay Lohan are in the headlines?
Tonight's concert at Carnegie Hall by the Oregon Symphony offered a sobering evening of music inspired by or evolving from the illusions of war. Conductor Carlos Kalmar wisely asked the audience to refrain from applause between the numbers on the evening's first half. This made for an overwhelming experience as the audience - as silent as if we were in a church - were spellbound by the works of Ives, Adams and Britten which seemed to become a symphonic lament for mankind and a reflection on our inability to find our common humanity.
Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question is a piece drenched in mystery. The orchestra immediately drew us into the sound-world that the composer has created, uncanny and disturbing in its dark, brooding quietude. Maestro Kalmar and his musicians sustained the atmosphere with delicate control, interrupted now and again by swirls of outspoken woodwinds.
John Adams has set Walt Whitman's poetry from The Wound Dresser as a monolog for solo baritone. As the final notes of the Ives faded into silence, Sanford Sylvan rose to sing the story of young men wounded in battle and of the ministrations of a male nurse who tends their devastating injuries with quiet efficiency whilst under the surface his mind and soul are wrenched by what he sees as he moves thru the wards.
The poetry, so simple and understated in its lack of melodrama, speaks with moving clarity of the real horror of war on an individual human scale:
Sanford Sylvan's voice, so utterly distinctive in its sound which has remained unaltered over a long singing career, filled the words and notes with such solemn beauty and unerring emotional colours. His performance, luminously seconded by concertmaster Jun Iwasaki and the perfect playing of the orchestra, was a high point in my many decades of listening to great singing.
Sanford retured to his seat and remained in a pensive, almost prayerful state as the orchestra took up the Benjamin Britten's lamenting and poignant Sinfonia da Requiem. As Maestro Kalmar and the players sustained the arc of the evening's theme, Britten's music seemed richer and more powerful than ever, making me crave a performance of his WAR REQUIEM.
Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony #4 was described by Sir Adrian Boult, who conducted its premiere, as a "magnificent gesture of disgust" against war and Facism, even though the composer always insisted that this work is simply 'pure music' with no narrative or 'cause' implied. First performed in 1935, the symphony strays far from the composer's usual lyric style with its dissonances and periodic violent outbursts. The Scherzo, so dazzlingly played by the Oregon musicians tonight, is particularly vivid and the span of the work manages to feel both taut and spacious. Brooding and lashing themes were finely conveyed and the individual instrumental voices pricked the ear as the final movement surged forward in its restless inevitability.
The Artists:
Baritone Sanford Sylvan. I met Sanford Sylvan when he was a young voice student at the Manhattan School who moonlighted as an usher at the Metropolitan Opera House. He was on the periphery of my large group of young opera fan-friends who shuttled between the Met and NYC Opera, but he was usually too busy or too tired to join our post-performance revels. He went on to a very successful career, specializing in baroque music, Mozart and contemporary vocal works. Sanford has made several recordings among which are three of my favorites: John Adams' The Wound Dresser (which he sang tonight at Carnegie), a Faure chamber disc and - most especially - his collection of American song cycles entitled Beloved That Pilgrimage.
Conductor Carlos Kalmar, born in Uruguay and raised in Austria, was a violin prodigy before taking up the baton. He has guested with many top orchestras including Boston and Chicago. At this evening's concert an audience contingent from Portland were on hand to savor the maestro's and the orchestra's highly successful Carnegie Hall debut. A full standing ovation hailed the musicians at the end with Kalmar and Sylvan called out repeatedly and not a single audience member leaving the hall during this well-deserved applause.
Above, Concertmaster Jun Iwasaki. This strikingly handsome native of Tokyo played the opening passages of THE WOUND DRESSER with heart-rending clarity of tone. I loved watching him all evening, and most especially during the wilder moments of the Vaughan Williams where his body English and passion mirrored the tempestuous sounds that the composer called forth from the players. I'd love to hear Iwasaki again, especially playing the Barber or Tchaikovsky concerto.