"The versatile Italian musician Bruno Maderna was one of the leading advocates in post-war Europe of successive modernist trends: the serial technique of Schoenberg and his pupils, and its more rigorous later manifestations; composition on electronic tape; and the introduction of open forms involving elements of choice and chance. This advocacy he carried on not only as a composer, but also as a teacher, notably at the Darmstadt summer school, as joint founder (with Luciano Berio) of the influential RAI electronic studio in Milan, and in the course of a conducting career which was still gathering momentum when he died at the age of 53.
"Maderna's conducting activities had an important influence on his compositions: in particular on the way he offered performers the opportunity to make a creative contribution to many of his works. Indeed, the amount of interpretative freedom allowed not only to the soloist, but also to individual orchestral players and to the co-ordinating conductor, is a striking feature of all three of Maderna's oboe concertos. But, while their scores contain many sections which seem to require a high degree of intuition (and perhaps also a knowledge of how Maderna organised them in performances which he directed himself), they also include many other passages of extremely precise and detailed notation. And the overall shape of each single-movement work remains firmly under the composer's control.
"The three concertos are all products of the final period of Maderna's life, in which the oboe clearly became an instrument of particular importance to him — it also plays a leading role in several of his other orchestral and chamber works. The solo parts make remarkable demands on the player's technique, in their rapid, irregular flurries of activity, in some passages requiring unconventional tone production (for example multiphonics, or chords, and glissandi — not to mention playing on the reed alone), and above all in their sustained use of the extreme high register.
"The 'Concerto No. 1' was originally written in 1962 as a 'composition for oboe, chamber ensemble and tape'; but after one performance in Darmstadt that year Maderna revised the score, expanding it considerably but omitting the tape part. The new version was first performed at the Venice Biennale in April 1963. The conductor was Maderna himself; the soloist (as at the premieres of most of Maderna's works for oboe) was Lothar Faber — indeed the score is dedicated 'to Lothar Faber and his oboes.' 'Oboes' is in the plural because the solo part calls not only for the standard instrument, but also for the oboe d'amore and the cor anglais, pitched respectively a minor third and a fifth lower. The soloist is accompanied by an ensemble of six woodwind, three brass, celesta, two harps, two pianos, four percussionists and five solo strings.
"After a rarefied introduction for oboe d'amore and strings (joined by harp, pianos, played directly on the strings, and celesta), the concerto proceeds by alternation between ensemble sections and sections labelled by Maderna as cadenzas. These cadenzas are the principal carriers of the solo line, which is frequently disjointed but always expressive in character: there are six of them, the first for oboe d'amore, the next four for oboe, and the last for cor anglais. The soloist is sometimes unaccompanied, but more often is joined by various instruments or groups of instruments from within the ensemble. In these passages, individual instrumentalists play mostly in free time, with loose co-ordination, and frequently from graphic notation — that is, with symbols designed to indicate the kind of sounds required rather than precise notes. The cadenzas are separated by episodes of, mostly, fully notated music: some of these are for the full ensemble (joined at one point by the solo oboe), and are teeming with activity: others are for smaller groupings, and are varied in character. As the work proceeds, the cadenzas increasingly predominate; some of the punctuating tuttis are very slight indeed. At the end, the reflective cor anglais is supported for a while by a sustained string chord, and finally by a quiet (graphically notated) continuum of percussion.
"Maderna's 'Oboe Concerto No. 2' was composed in 1967, to a commission from WDR, West German Radio. It is again dedicated to Lothar Faber, who was the soloist in the first performance, conducted by the composer, in Cologne in November 1967. In this concerto, the soloist plays oboe, oboe d'amore and musette, a piccolo oboe (of folk origins) pitched a fifth higher than the standard instrument. The accompanying orchestra is larger than that of the 'First Concerto', but unusual in its composition: complete wind 'families' made up of two oboes and cor anglais, three clarinets and bass clarinet, and four horns; guitar and electric bass guitar, two harps and celesta; again a large percussion section; and a string group of six violins, three violas, three cellos and three double-basses.
"Unlike the 'First Concerto', the Second contains substantial 'mobile' sections, in which different groups of instruments play different blocks of material in free time, at the conductor's direction. The work starts with the first of these; as it continues, the percussion enter, following the conductor's beat, but playing from graphic notation. The soloist initially plays the musette; first in tempo with celesta and harps; then in a cadenza (like those of the 'First Concerto'), supported by plucked strings of various kinds; then, after a short, subdued passage principally for the strings, finding common cause with the orchestral oboe section; and eventually emerging from a mobile of violins and percussion into another solo passage. After a notated episode for woodwind and strings, combining scurrying activity with a sustained chordal background, the soloist re-enters on the oboe, at first in an extrovert cadenza, then adding fragments in free time to a densely notated string passage. Finally, the soloist changes to oboe d'amore for a sustained, elegiac melody, supported by a mobile involving guitars, harps and double-basses (all extremely quiet) and graphically notated percussion, but bringing the concerto to a gentle close on its own.
"The 'Oboe Concerto No. 3' was Maderna's last completed work. It was commissioned by Netherlands Radio, and first performed at the 1973 Holland Festival: Maderna conducted once more, but the soloist this time was Han de Vries. This concerto, unlike the previous two, entrusts the solo part throughout to the standard oboe. However, the orchestra is large and richly coloured, consisting of triple and quadruple woodwind, a brass section of 14, a percussion section entirely of pitched instruments (glockenspiel, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone), celesta, two harps and a string section of 39 players, divided into three equal groups.
"The concerto begins with the soloist completely in-dependent from the orchestra: in fact, his opening free cadenza is not even shown in the conductor's score. Against it, after a while, various orchestral sections peel off from a unison E in different directions, with the three string groups gradually coming to the fore. The oboist is then brought under the conductor's direction in dialogue with different sections. A strident unison A-flat on the brass introduces a passage of pointillist staccatos. Over this, the soloist resumes his opening cadenza, now loosely co-ordinated with an extended sequence of orchestral mobiles of greatly varied character. Towards the end, the orchestral cor anglais emerges from this activity as a kind of melancholy alter ego to the soloist. Maderna's instruction on the last page of the score is so characteristic of his open, collaborative approach to composition and performance that it is worth quoting in full:
"The oboe soloist should interpolate the boxed frag-ments at will, and repeat them many times. By agree-ment with the conductor, the soloist's interventions should occur during pauses (the conductor stopping the orchestra, gently or abruptly), or during the de-velopment of the material entrusted to the various instrumental groups. The cor anglais should inter-vene only on the conductor's cue: the part is ad libitum, and may even be omitted. In the repetitions, the solo oboist should try to vary the character of each individual fragment as much as possible, making use of phrasings, tempos, dynamics and ac-cents completely different from those indicated. Manifold expressive relationships should be estab-lished between orchestra and soloist: contrasts, pro-tests, acquiescences, agreements, integrations, af-fection. In this atmosphere, the composer intends and hopes that the soloist and conductor will 'find' a successful way to bring the piece to an end." (Anthony Burton. From the liner notes.)
Performers: WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Gary Bertini, Heinz Holliger
1. Oboe Concerto No. 3
2. Oboe Concerto No. 1
3. Oboe Concerto No. 2
No comments:
Post a Comment