Wigmore depression

[Rob H]

Have just received the latest brochure from the Wigmore Hall - bearing in mind that this would be a 3 hour trip for me I go there for things that really grab my attention. My interest is piano recitals so let's look at that...
1 all Bach, 1 all Chopin, 4 all Schubert, 2 all Liszt (ok, ok Liszt year..), 2 all Mozart, 1 all Debussy, 2 all Ravel and 1 all Brahms. Of course there is more from those august presences along with Rakhmaninov, Haydn, Schumann, Prokofjev, Skriabin and Stravinski (Rite of Spring 4 hands). Rarities? precious few - single items by Field, CPE Bach, Villa-Lobos, Roussel and Dukas, a Handel suite, some Rameau and Couperin (Angela Hewitt not surprisingly) and a sprinkling of moderns - Stockhausen, Rochberg, Knussen, Webern and Schoenberg (ok I'm a confirmed romantic so the last two are still modern to me).

Now fine - I have a wall covered with CDs (and LPs upstairs) full of Chopin, Liszt etc etc that I love listening to but --aarrrgh!!! where is the adventure, where is the "ok this guy/gal didn't forge a burning path through the history of music but wrote some great stuff"??

I travelled 3 hours the other day to hear a German pianist (Henriette Gartner) play Mozart, Wagner/Moszkowski and Leschetizky. She played it all with elegance, style and real virtuoso flair and once again you think why does this stuff get stuffed away in some library? Her CDS and DVDs (which I can well recommend) include some stunning performances of regular repertoire and "hardly-heards" - Tausig and Herz transcriptions, Galuppi and Clara Schumann, Grunfeld, Arenski, Moszkowski etc.
A concert like this appears to be a once-in-a-blue-moon thing unfortunately.

Sorry to rant, preaching to the converted but after three Wigmore brochures with almost identical results I just get so annoyed and depressed that so much music could just disappear unsung.
Rob

[thalbergmad]

I have not been to the Wigmore since my teacher brought the roof down with a couple of Horowitz transcriptions and have no great desire to go back to be bored to death with Brahms.

I join you in being depressed, but I wonder if the lack of adventurous programming could be down to the will it put "bums on seats" question.

The recitals at Schotts in Marlborough Street appear to be more daring, but usually contain plinky plonky 20th century works that would not interest the average romatic.

All rather sad really, but I will be playing De Meyer this evening if anyone wants to come round. Entry fee is 4 cans of Guiness and a packet of Monster Munch.

Thal

[giles.enders]

As the person responsible for the Conway Hall Sunday Concerts of chamber music in London, I have every sympathy with both Wigmore Hall and Rob.  Whenever we put on something less well known our takings drop.  If we are even a little adventurous we get one or two 'well done's but these are usually outweighed by a drop in audience figures.

I have to point out that the chief funding body for the arts in England, The Arts Council, do not give grants for excellence of performance or for subsidising the cost of seats which would make live performance accessable.  Their main criteria are educational and political.

I gave a speech at a recent fundraising Gala and said this and received a thunderous round of applause before I could even finish.

[Rob H]

Yes, and the depressing thing I realise is that my logical brain knows full well that if you advertise a piano recital (which I'm told are never huge drawers, other than the stellar crowd of pianists) with a programme of Leschetizky, Bowen, Zarebski and Liapunov a tiny few of us would go "yeah!!" and the majority would go "?...?."
Looking at the Henriette Gartner DVDs I mentioned I notice that the audiences at these live recitals are not huge, unless they are all huddled off-camera - enthusiastic certainly but not hall-filling.

Maybe a bunch of us will have to club together and start our own "rarities of piano music at (insert historic venue of your choice) festival".

Rob

[eschiss1]

maybe at this place called Husum? oh... (nothing wrong with a second one, though given the currently low audience ...)

[ahinton]

The recitals at Schotts in Marlborough Street appear to be more daring, but usually contain plinky plonky 20th century works that would not interest the average romatic.

It's Great Marlborough Street and it's Romantic, not romatic, but I mention these things only en passant since the principal purpose of my response is to disagree with you about the content of the programmes there; some (though not all) of the recitals are put on by pianist Jonathan Powell (who also performs in them occasionally) and there have been plenty of works in the programmes that by no means fit the description that you mention - a description that would surely be glaringly inappropriate for Medtner, Sorabji, Skryabin or me 'umble self, for starters...

[thalbergmad]

Glaringly inappropriate for Medtner & Scriabin, but not for Sorabji or yourself, unless you have suddenly embraced romanticism.

Anyway, Medner & Scriabin are well known composers to a lot of pianists and listeners and would not exactly constitute the hardly heards to which this wonderful place is dedicated to.

Thal

[ahinton]

Glaringly inappropriate for Medtner & Scriabin, but not for Sorabji or yourself, unless you have suddenly embraced romanticism.

I haven't "suddenly" done anything of the kind! What on earth are you on about? Where's the "linky-plonk" in my work, or in Sorabji's for that matter?...

Anyway, Medner & Scriabin are well known composers to a lot of pianists and listeners and would not exactly constitute the hardly heards to which this wonderful place is dedicated to.

No, indeed (although it's "Medtner", not "Medner") - so why, in the light of such (by no means exclusive or exceptional) examples, would you choose to write about what you nonetheless (for reasons presumably best known only to yourself) deem to be the frequent "plinky-plonk" content of recitals given at Schott's?

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

Where's the "linky-plonk" in my work, or in Sorabji's for that matter?...

You are far better qualified than I to comment on such things.

[eschiss1]

... all relative I suppose, never really thought of Medtner (whose name is a transliteration and sometimes has been spelled Metner, after all, perfectly legitimately, if memory serves) as well-known- though more than he was at a certain time maybe? and of course more than eg Srebdolskii, Rebikov, and some others.

[Delicious Manager]

I wonder if this concert by 'my' string quartet might lift spirits a little? It features the fine Sibelius string quartet - a work which is puzzlingly neglected most of the time. Wigmore Hall, 17 June: http://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/productions/dante-string-quartet-27483

They have also done sterling service to this piece on their just-released CD: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalcdreviews/8495724/Smetana-String-Quartets-Nos1-and-2.html.

[eschiss1]

I wonder if we should start calling it Sibelius string quartet no.4 (or no.3 or something- to exclude juvenilia but include earlier ones that were indeed published )  ("Tchaikovsky wrote 3 symphonies. Nos. 4, 5 and 6. " )
Eric

[jimmattt]

maybe sum folkses needses to gets over themseves, or is it selfs, or selves

[ahinton]

Where's the "plinky-plonk" in my work, or in Sorabji's for that matter?...

You are far better qualified than I to comment on such things.

If so, then please don't comment as you did "on such things". Thanks.

[Rob H]

Thanks, delicious manager - it seems that chamber and vocal music at Wigmore is a little more adventurous.

Re Sorabji - not all "plinky-plonky" in the Noncarrow sense, as what I've heard seems to me just an extension of the kind of complexity that Godowsky was occasionally wont to write (a huge generality, I know before I get any comments) - but still way to modern for my tastes. There is a market for it though and I applaud performers who bring unsung composers of any style to the fore.
Rob