Piazza Grande, Montepulciano, Italy. E21.50.
Program
Le fontane di Roma P. 106 (1916) by Ottorino Respighi
(1879-1936).
Concerto per violoncello in mi minore op. 85 (1919) by
Edward Elgar (1857-1934).
Fluss ohne Ufer (Fiume senza argini) (2008) by Detlev
Glanert (b. 1960).
La Mer, trios esquisses symphoniques (1905) by Claude
Debussy (1862-1918).
We are spending the week in Tuscany. This area is characterized by rolling hills,
small towns built around castles, and shops that sell cheese, salami, and
wine. We have visited several of these
towns, and they all seem to have some sort of music festival going on. Montepulciano, in particular, has an
“International Arts Festival” going on from July 19 to 28. We asked about an operatic performance, unfortunately
that was canceled. However, this
symphonic concert, part of the Cantiere 38 series (the name of the festival),
was going to be staged.
The Piazza Grande makes for an interesting concert
venue. Even though it is at a high point
in the city, it is not level. The stage
is in front of the duomo, and (perhaps) 15 rows of chairs of about 50 each
arranged in front of it. In the back
there is a small bleachers section. So
perhaps 1000 people when filled to capacity (there would still be a lot of
standing room around). For tonight I
estimate fewer than 300 were in attendance.
Being an open plaza, sound insulation is a problem,
especially since there are a couple of restaurants that are at the corners of
the square, and people here eat late. So
we could hear the clinking of silverware throughout the concert.
The program notes describes Fluss ohne Ufer in an
interesting way, stating that by the time the piece is done the audience will not
remember any of the orchestral themes.
There is indeed quite a bit of “shimmering” to denote water, but other
than that I didn’t get much out of it.
It was close to 20 minutes in length, at least it felt that long. The composer was in attendance and came out
for a bow. His opera will be performed
this coming Friday, I think we will skip it.
The evening started with a piece by Respighi that many
had no doubt heard about, but not necessarily had heard. Of course being in Italy, things may be a bit
different with an Italian composer. The
composition has four movements that evoke different well-known fountains in
Rome: (1) La fontana di Valle Giulia all’Alba.
Andante mosso. (2) La fontana del Tritone al mattino. Vivo, Un poco meno allegretto, Piu vivo
gaiamente; (3) La fontana di Trevi al meriggio.
Allegro moderato, Allegro vivace, Piu vivace, Largamente, Calmo; and (4)
La fontana di Villa Medici al tramonto.
Andante, Meno mosso, Andante come prima.
Having just visited Rome last week, I somewhat kick myself for not
having visited any of these fountains.
I had heard the Elgar Cello Concerto once before in Hong
Kong, and recall liking it. Tonight’s
soloist is German, in his 40s. The thing
that caught my attention right away was how nice the sound was, whether the
high or the low register. This is a
piece that has both melodic and virtuoso elements to it, and Grimm did both
well. For encore he played Saint Saens
Cygnet, accompanied by two harps.
The last piece was Debussy’s La Mer, which I have heard
on several prior occasions. It is only
today that I found out from the Notes that Debussy was beginning to move away
from the “debussyism” that most music listeners are familiar with. Although I must say in this composition the
deviations, if detectable, are quite small.
Knowing what I know now, I must say the piece seems to be heavier duty
than your typical Debussy. The three
sections of La Mer are (1) De l’aube a midi sur la mer; Tres lent; (2) Le Jeu
des vagues; Allegro; and (3) Le dialogue du vent et de la mer; Anime et
tumultueux.
Overall it is an enjoyable concert. I do wonder how they decide on the
programming. First, it is way too
long. I joked to Anne that by the
intermission we already got our money’s worth and could leave. With a late start and an intermission, we
didn’t get done until about 11:45 pm or so.
This is late even for some Italians, and many left before the end of the
concert, which is a pity and discouraging since there were not that many people
to begin with. While the compositions
are not that esoteric (with the exception of the Glanert piece,) it still would
be nice to throw in a Beethoven or something to make the program more
accessible. With music festivals you
always wonder whether the programmer is trying to be popular or to impress his
colleagues. I have a suspicion much of
the latter drove today’s programming.
The orchestra apparently consists of music students at
this Manchester college. Anne remarked
that there were no Asians in the group, which is a bit odd. The concertmaster, a young lady, had quite a few solo lines to play but was
unfortunately a bit weak. The conductor
did his job with a lot of animation, but I wish he had brought out more
contrast from the musicians.
This area gets quite warm (around 90) during the day, but
night time temperatures are in the 60s.
With a good evening breeze going, we felt quite cold towards the
end. We rushed back to the car at the
conclusion for the short drive back to La Bruciata.
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