Bach without Fear 2
Tobias“Baroque-niks.” Today’s string players use a subtler vibrato for Bach or
Mozart than they might for Elgar. (I was astonished a few years ago to have
to ask the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to use more vibrato in a
Beethoven Symphony; apparently their then-music director, Sir Simon Rattle,
preferred to have his Viennese classics virtually vibrato-free.) Modern
orchestras are also beginning to experiment with historical seating
arrangements, and are finding that a classical symphony takes on a whole new flavor when the first and second violins sit in stereo. Such
period-instrument effects as bow-vibrato are no longer routinely erased and
replaced with something more “convenient.” Not all these experiments are
equally successful with all orchestras, but it is a fine thing to re-think
constantly how one performs, and not to be smugly satisfied with routine.
Unfortunately, there are still a few unrepentant purists around who would
seem to prefer that music not be performed at all, unless on the original
instruments—just the right number of them, mind you, at exactly the original
pitch in use in that region at that time, etc., etc. To me this is like
searching for the end of the rainbow. Can we really only do justice to a
Handel opera by having it sung by castrati? Are any of the Puritans willing
to volunteer themselves or their children to be made into “authentic”
instruments for the purpose?
On the other side, there are a few curmudgeons who think that the
period-instrument movement has contributed nothing to musical performance,
except of course to make them foam at the mouth. These neo-Luddites, unlike
the purists starving in their garrets, are sometimes internationally famous
in the profession and therefore have greater opportunities to make
themselves heard. Here it is important to distinguish between reasoned
argument and plain distaste. To me, calling period performance “disgusting”
and “complete rubbish”, as Pinchas Zukerman did in an interview in Toronto’s
Globe and Mail, falls into the latter category. We are only human, and we
are perhaps bound to dislike certain things: Personally, I detest the songs
of Bob Dylan, and klezmer music makes me dive for the radio’s “off” switch
almost as fast as the immortal songs of ABBA. However, I would not try to
ennoble my prejudice by calling it an argument. Lets leave that to the
televangelists!
On a totally different plane are the doubts and serious questions about
period performance raised by the ever-inspiring Charles Rosen in a chapter
of his book, Critical Entertainments.* While too lengthy to summarize here,
his ruminations seem to enhance and elevate the whole nature of the debate.
to be continued
by Nicolas McGegan
Homepage: Nicolas McGegan
* Rosen, Charles, “The Benefits of Authenticity,” in Critical
Entertainments, published by Harvard University Press, April 2000
appeared in the September/October 2000 issue of SYMPHONY, the magazine of the American Symphony Orchestra League. Thanks to Yolanda Carden of FSB Associates.