Cellist Natalie Clein on unsung music

[Alan Howe]

From the Gramophone blog:

The standard repertoire is much loved, but shouldn't concert halls be promoting the performance of less familiar works too?

Natalie Clein
Wed 24th September 2014

'There are so many beautiful, exciting, fierce, shocking, surprising, challenging pieces out there that are very, very rarely performed'

I was trying to work out the other day how many times I've played Elgar's Cello Concerto. I'm not sure, but perhaps 250 times, perhaps 350? I remember that my teacher, Heinrich Schiff, always liked to write the date and venue of each performance of a work he gave on the front of his music. I must ask him how many times he's played the Haydn C major. Maybe 1000 times? 2000? I understand, of course, why a promoter would want to invite him to play Haydn (again). There are relatively few works of real genius written for the cello, in contrast for example to those written for the piano or arguably also to the violin, and if there are only going to be one or two cello concertos per season, let's have the best. We would all agree that the masterpieces of the literature – Dvořák, Elgar, Haydn, Brahms Double, Shostakovich, just to name a few – need to be heard, perhaps for some in the hall, for the first time. They are pieces that many of us have fallen in love with through specific recordings, grown up with and then relived in unforgettable moments in concert. These moments are rare, precious and essential.

But I think the balance has tipped too far in the safe direction here. Concert promoters know that a Dvořák or an Elgar will put 'bums on seats ' (I suppose the cellist's bum is a given) and are weary of experimenting with their precious and sorely needed box-office certainties. But what are we as cellists and, far more importantly, the public, left with? There are so many beautiful, exciting, fierce, shocking, surprising, challenging pieces out there that are very, very rarely performed. I am still waiting for the chance to perform the Bloch Schelomo live in a professional setting and forgive me for blowing my own cello here but this is even after a highly successful recording I released in 2012. My agents happily sent off glowing reviews but too often the reply from the orchestra came back that they enjoyed the recording and would I like to come and play the Elgar concerto next season? I mustn't complain, but...aargh!

I also wonder if the bosses in charge of programming are in danger of patronising their audiences somewhat. Often the audience will welcome a new experience as long as they are given context, either in the form of a pre-concert talk or, even better, a during-concert demonstration as I did when I played the Lutosławski concerto (surely one of the top five cello concertos from the 20th century) with Heinrich Schiff conducting. Before the concerto performance, instead of a five-minute overture, Heinrich spoke about the work and I and the orchestra gave musical illustrations of what he was explaining. The concerto was immediately made clear and understandable and this was all it took for the audience to embrace the piece wholeheartedly.

I have recently started up my own chamber music festival in Purbeck, Dorset, and received the best compliment I could have hoped for this year. The programme (at the famous Bovington Tank Museum, so already not a usual setting) consisted of Sally Beamish, Ligeti, overtone singing, Kodály and Elgar (the Piano Quintet) in one concert. I was told afterwards by one audience member that she trusted us as musicians and so came to the concert despite not knowing exactly what she would be getting.

And I think trust is the fundamental issue here. A healthy musical life of an individual or an organization should, in my opinion, be mixing the old favourites that are so dearly loved for good reason with new and exciting repertoire. Many orchestras and halls do this but not all - so that's not enough! And that's why I feel privileged to be able to record and to mix a known and loved piece – in this case the First Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto with a piece that was new to me, the orchestra and most of the virtual audience (the Second). My wish now is that some listeners will hear No 2 and create new associations which turn to love through familiarity, and that these listeners will jump for joy when they see the piece is being programmed in concert. I know I will!
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/blog/gramophone-guest-blog/the-standard-repertoire-is-much-loved-but-shouldn%E2%80%99t-concert-halls-be?utm_content=&utm_campaign=Gramophone%20Newsletter_29_09_2014&utm_source=Gramophone&utm_medium=adestra_email&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gramophone.co.uk%2Fblog%2Fgramophone-guest-blog%2Fthe-standard-repertoire-is-much-loved-but-shouldn%25E2%2580%2599t-concert-halls-be

[Alan Howe]

Problem is: does Miss Clein actually realise what else is out there, especially from the romantic era? There's the Reinecke CC for starters...

[eschiss1]

Saint-Saëns 2nd concerto doesn't seem much of a leap, but then, considering how little some cellists want to take a leap at all (and some quartets, and, and, etc., etc.- one string quartet's first violinist, iirc, had a remark in an interview in Fanfare about just how -much- stuff* there was in the 19th century once you went beyond the standard rep, as though there weren't infinitely more in the 20th - and I speak as someone interested in much in -both- centuries...)

Truls Mørk is performing both Saint-Saëns concertos on November 13 & 14, I see (in Asturias, Spain.)

(And Bachtrack, which has some "work pages" for individual works, has one for the Dvorak first concerto, which is also getting a performance this December (Dec. 4, Avery Fisher Hall, Alisa Weilerstein, cello, if I understand correctly.)


*from context, not the enthusiast's "yay, how much!" but the intimidated "how much, how would we ever choose?"... ... erm, we'd be glad to help make some suggestions, I'm sure...

[Amphissa]

Hmmmm ... her idea of stretching the standard repertoire is to play Bloch's Schelomo? And Saint-Saëns second? I agree with Alan. And with her happy mention of Lutosławski, I fear her idea of lesser known cello concertos drifts more in the direction of modernism than revival of cello concertos from the 1800s. Because, when current musicians begin mentioning neglected music, they are too frequently thinking of modernists who somehow (sigh) fail to receive enough play.

Pardon my skepticism.

[Ilja]

The point here is that while the 2nd Saint-Saëns might be old hat to us, it isn't to the general concert-going public. We really shouldn't make the mistake of dismissing everyone who isn't going far enough (or in the 'right' direction) when it comes to repertoire innovation. I heartily welcome any such initiative, particularly by A-list performers, because it may in the long run provoke a more fundamental change of attitude.

[JimL]

Paragraph 2, sentence 2, I think she meant "wary" not "weary".  I wish they WERE weary.

[Alan Howe]

Paragraph 2, sentence 2, I think she meant "wary" not "weary".

Probably.

[Amphissa]

Ilya said -- "The point here is that while the 2nd Saint-Saëns might be old hat to us, it isn't to the general concert-going public."

This is rather like saying a pianist is really stretching by playing Beethoven's 2nd piano concerto in concert, because it is rarely played in comparison to his other four. Or playing Dvorak's piano concerto in concert, because it is rarely played in comparison to his other works. Saint-Saëns, Beethoven and Dvorak are names everyone recognizes.

People make associations and assume, if it is by a famous composer that they like, then it must be worth hearing. Whereas, if they see Bortkiewicz Cello Concerto or his Piano Concerto, they do not recognize the name at all. What do they assume? They have not heard the piece, and have never heard of the composer either, so there must be a reason for that.

As for my skepticism, that is just personal and anecdotal. Based upon the classical musicians who I know (which is a reasonably large number, but a small fraction of all classical musicians), when they refer to neglected or under-appreciated composers, most are referring to modern composers, not forgotten composers from the 1800s. Now I don't know Ms Clein, and I may be unnecessarily skeptical, but the fact that she mentions specifically the music of Lutosławski, Ligeti, and Beamish leads me in that direction.

Of course, I am delighted that the Saint-Saëns 2nd has been played in concert. So, for that I commend Ms Clein!

[eschiss1]

She recorded it, by her own account. I don't think she performed it in concert (did she?) (I noticed an upcoming performance by Truls Mørk - who has been no slouch in recording and, perhaps, live-concert-performing any number of unsung works Romantic, "neo-"Romantic, -and- Modern. (Consider, for the first two categories, his recordings of Rubinstein and Myaskovsky, e.g. And of at least one of Saint-Saëns' cello sonatas, which compared to either of his cello concertos really are undersung, near as I can tell, though they've received some good recordings.)

[musiclover]

I think Natalie Clein should be applauded and then gently persuaded to look further than Saint Saens. To be fair to her programming of concerts in an orchestral season is almost entirely undertaken by the so called 'artistic directors' or orchestras. Bums on seats is a major consideration, but audiences are far too often under estimated in their ability to evaluate and enjoy things that they don't know. If one looks at television as an example; they push out a new series. It is going to cost them a considerable amount of money so firstly they get a writer who people trust, a director and then put someone in the lead role that the public just 'has to watch'. In music that doesn't happen in the same way. Put a programme together where Natalie Clein plays for example the Widor Cello Concerto alongside Dvorak New World Symphony. Widor is, although a footnote in history(not a fair assessment of his value I know) his name is know because of the Toccata (everyone knows is as Widor's Toccata from weddings). With proper advertising and general publicity there will be an audience. In the day when British conductors spent lots of the season with their orchestras, Groves, Gibson, Pritchard, Loughran etc... The public got to feel an ownership in both them and their local orchestras and this was a contributing factor in the success of keeping works new to the public in performances. The current fashion of peripatetic maestros with their four to six weeks with their orchestras does not help the cause of the neglected composer. It doesn't help the cause of local people engaging with their orchestras either. In my opinion the whole business of concert programming is wrong. Boring concert after boring concert with the same two dozen symphonies and the same dozen concertos given by conductors who seem to need to prove that they can 'do' Mahler or whatever, supported by the orchestra management who don't bother to delve below the surface for a choice of repertoire. We should send a link to this site at the end of every season to every orchestra artistic director to show them just how much and what unsung and interesting music there is out there and also write to the conductors we can get hold of telling them to be braver and to insist on getting their repertoire list expanded beyond the works they currently do. It is almost entirely left to the record companies such as Hyperion, Dutton and occasionally Chandos (in this country) and conductors such as Brabbins and Yates....and neither of them have a British orchestra....but that's another thing......

[JimL]

Commendations to you, musiclover!  That's what I've been saying on this forum for years!  That is how to promote unsung 19th Century composers - program their works alongside more familiar ones and market them properly and you can build a following.  Another way would be to go to Ms. Clein's blog and post a link to this thread in the comments.  I'm wondering if that is allowed?

[Jonathan]

Agreed - it seems to be the preferred way of introducing the public to modern works so why don't they do it with unsung works?  I'm specifically thinking of the BBC proms here - e.g. Beethoven's 5th Symphony coupled with something modern!

[musiclover]

Well, Jonathan, the Proms is another thing isn't it? It should be the forum for great music, british music and unsung music. It was in days gone by but alas the only slightly out of the ordinary Proms these days are either the CBB's Prom, the awful Doctor Who Prom or the equally syrupy Musicals Prom....as for the Mary Poppins medley...don't get me started!

[eschiss1]

I disagree, the Proms as they are now are still a sight better than the typical US concert season - but I'm biased by my tastes and the fact that I can't quite manage to curse all "modernists" in the same breath, somehow and just for starters.  Though the only Prom concert I've gone to in person was back in 1999 and the most modern works on it were- well, all 3 I guess- Debussy's La Mer, Sibelius' 2nd symphony and 2 Psalms by Lili Boulanger...

[musiclover]

I agree with you echiss about the Proms versus the typical concert season, however the Proms should, in my opinion play a much more diverse example of concert music than they do. Musicals proms do not equal great music however well played and new music that is incomprehensible to most of us also doesn't equal great music. new music by composers such as Jonathan Dove, Judith Weir from the UK and Lowell Lieberman and John Corigliano from the US is completely approachable and enjoyable. My point was that the Proms are simply not as interesting, diverse or as well thought out as they were. We are off topic, I know, but dumbing concerts down to get audiences in, as is the current practise, results in only one thing....empty halls with everyone expecting Classic FM type performances and most of those are based on who looks nice on the cover of their CD.