12:03 a.m. - 2006-01-16
libertie, equalitie, insanitie
Orchestra this past week. Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz. A Poulenc organ concerto. Mother Goose Suite by Ravel (Ravel: Yay!). Yes, Madison Symphony was kickin it Gallic all weekend, right down to the guest conductor, who had sort of an accent that was a little bit, could have been maybe French. But not totally. I think I remember someone telling me he's from Texas, actually. He could be a France/Texas emigre, except that that makes absolutely no sense since no one in history has ever moved from France to Texas, although Melissa from Yid Vicious is from Texas and went to school in France, so who knows?
Wherever he's from, the conductor was good and the people in the dorkestra liked him. He had a tendency, unusual for conductors, to say things to the orchestra that were helpful and would make the music better. Also he was very good technically, expressive but very solid, keeping us together during the tumultuous sections of the music. This proved fortunate, since Symphonie Fantastique has a lot of tumult. It's an incredibly loony piece of music, for the most part. Maybe it had to be, considering Berlioz' chronological spot in music history. Right around the time Berlioz started on his mature orchestral works, Beethoven's career and life were winding down. This was a pivotal point in European art music. There was a sense among the various Schuberts and Mendelssohns of the time that there was nothing left to be done, that Beethoven had already taken music formally and expressively way past what any sane person ever could have imagined.
Berlioz wasn't apparently bound by the constraints of sanity. Or maybe, being French, he didn't feel Beethoven's giant Germanic music shadow looming the way German/Austrian musicians did. Also, he got high a lot. So of course he set his sights on expanding the orchestra in new and outrageous ways, and we're living with the results even today. For instance, he was a big fan of the ophiclide, or serpent. This was a freaky, curvy low wind instrument, sort of a precursor to the tuba. I don't know the whole history of Berlioz' ophiclide usage, but he was enamored of its shrill, reedy yet low sound, which sound becomes prominent in many passages of Symphonie Fantastique, even though the score has no ophiclide parts. There are four bassoons in the score, but only two of every other woodwind, and also two tubas. This sort of imstrumental unbalance leads to much freakiness, especially in the last movement, the one that's supposed to sound like witches.
Also, he liked the timpani, which is why four of us had to play timpani rolls all at the same time. And big, giant chimes. And nasty, explosive trumpet/trombone chords. And lots of somehow lugubrious string pizzicato action. And explosive dynamic contrast, and weird voicings, and crunchy harmony.
Hunter S Thompson once wrote, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." I'm pretty sure this applies to Hector Berlioz, somehow.
Also, the Poulenc piece was cool, and doing Ravel reminded me of how much I like Ravel. Like a LOT. But that's a whole other topic for another day.
