Contact: A Journal for Contemporary Music (1971-1988) http://contactjournal.gold.ac.uk
Citation
Blake, Michael. 1988. ‘Kagel at the Almeida’. Contact, 33. pp. 30-33. ISSN 0308-5066.
31 include a work such as Kantrimiusik, as this is not only ensemble. This is in many ways a straightforward a very fine musical score, but a wonderful piece of setting of a text: Igor's aria from Act 2 of Borodin's music theatre - if sensitively and tastefully done. Prince Igor. Kagel's wonderful use of instrumental I'm afraid that this wasn't the case in Vocem's staged colour is manifest in his deployment of the very small performances of Ensemble and Hallelujah, given on the but characteristic ensemble, particularly the presence first day. Kagel is a very sensitive and subtle composer, of the tuba (almost obligatory in his music from and these same qualities, together with absolute Kantrimiusik onwards) and the unusual diversity of the precision, are crucial to the performance of his music. percussion. This is a homage to Stravinsky, through a Firmer direction was definitely needed here. Hallelujah setting of a text whose ambiguity reminded the (1967-68) allows the performers considerable freedom composer of Stravinsky. As he says, 'Many of these as regards both musical material and theatrical words could have been spoken by Stravinsky', for presentation. The work can last from 15 to 45 minutes, example, 'Now I often see corpses in the dark night I be performed by 16-32 voices or only three solo voices, They accuse me! You sacrificed us! I My fame and and done in a conventional concert arrangement or in a honour are disgraced, I The distant "homeland" curses mixed concert and music theatre format. Kagel me. Woe!'. This mood is expressed in the instrumenta- suggests that the actions may be derived from the field tion too: bass voice, low instruments with dark colours of ritual and liturgy. Vocem's performance lasted for (cor anglais, french horn, tuba, viola) and percussion just over half an hour, and was given by seven singers instruments symbolising death, imprisonment, etc. dressed in white habits, one of whom took on the role (anvil, fron chains, wood pieces, heavy wooden block, of leader/conductor. Some of Kagel's suggestions metal pail with heavy stones - all played by an unseen regarding staging were followed: five of the singers percussionist) and instruments with a liturgical emerged from different parts of the auditorium and association (the deep bell producing a 'plaintive and departed the same way; but the piece began with two mysterious sound: the semanterion - a resonant of the singers on stage, one seated at a dummy organ board struck with a wooden mallet, used by the Greek- console performing wildly in mime. Throughout the orthodox church as a primitive bell). Fiirst Igor, piece one had the feeling that Ken Russell had been Strawinsky was exquisitely sung by the American bass directing this rather tasteless performance of Nicholas Isherwood. Hallelujah, which was quite simply way over the top. Another recent piece Mitternachtsstiik (1980-81, Ensemble (1967-9), one of the sections of the nine-part 85-86) for chorus and instruments, represents a third work Staatstheater is scored for sixteen voices, but in approach to text-setting. The text is taken from Robert this eight-voice version each singer took more than one Schumann's Diaries of 1827-1836 (published in Leipzig part. Each singer represents a well-known character only in 1971). The contents of these diaries sound from the operatic literature, and Kagel suggests that absolutely fascinating (what a pity they are not they be costumed accordingly. In Vocem's version they available in an English translation!): Schumann's were not, so one could not identify characters easily, thoughts on music, poetry, economics, politics, social and the chosen setting was the dressing room of an life, etc. So Kagel's piece is about the writer Schumann, opera house with the singers warming up before a rather than the composer. The choir acts as narrator, performance, with the addition of a stage hand 'who sympathises with, but retains a distance from the sweeping, his broom eventually taken into service as a characters' - Selene, Gustav/Skeleton, the Prince, and prop by one of the singers. The composer's idea in two unnamed characters - sung by five soloists. What Ensemble was to 'illuminate what is frequently the void caused confusion was the constant reference in Kagel's between the intentional expression of the music and programme note to three movements, which were the gestures chosen to convey it'. The singers should followed in this performance by a fourth, the latter have been confined to chairs, as the score suggests, to almost as long as the first three put together. This limit their dramatic movement. But for all this, the presumably is the movement written in 1985-86, while performance was not without its humorous moments. the others date from several years earlier. As it happens Anagrama, the programme given by the New London the last movement also turned out to be the most Chamber Choir and Ensemble under James Wood beautiful, accompanied by a fantastic combination of demonstrated rather neatly three of Kagel's violin and harmonium, which both enhanced the approaches to text-setting which the composer had cathedral setting of this scene (entitled Altarblatt (Altar also talked about in a pre-concert interview. The first of Sheet/Piece)) and the wordsetting of the text itself. these was also the earliest of Kagel's works to be Lines such as 'chords, like tears from gentle performed in the festival, Anagrama (1957-8) for four wistfulness; hovering and gliding they floated by like solo voices, speaking chorus and ensemble. The exact gentle rays of light' or 'Now new sounds joined in ... function of the four (seated) soloists was not really now it was as if a single broken note was speaking clear, as most of the text was declaimed and sung by the slumberously' are beautifully painted in musical 'speaking' chorus, with occasional contributions from terms, and even the more obvious depiction of lines the soloists. This was pure fifties serialism, something such as 'Silence - then a single deep note hardly Kagel moved away from fairly quickly, but nevertheless audible ... fills the nave' or 'one more dissonant chord an enjoyable piece, (which is more than can be said and then no more' seem fresh in the context of Kagel's about so many compositions from this period). The setting. The writing for violin and harmonium is text consists of the vowels and consonants of a particularly well displayed in a purely instrumental palindrome: 'in girum irnus nocte et consumirnur igni' prelude and an interlude. The work as a whole, (we are circling in the night and are devoured by fire), however, felt somewhat overlong, as did a number of from the Divine Comedy, translated into four languages. pieces in other concerts; but the setting of the texts, the Kagel points out that 'here language and music are deployment of the chorus, the exploration of unusual combined in a vocabulary that displays their vocal effects, the use of the soloists, and the choice of correlations and reciprocal aspects'. instrumentation - a different combination for each The second approach to text-setting came in the form movement - was always fascinating and often of Fiirst Igor, Strawinsky (1982) for bass voice and produced breathtaking effects. 32
The concert had opened with Kagel's instrumental sense not unlike the Charles Ives Piano Trio (the realisation of two ballades by Guilllaume de Machaut. soundworld of the Ives is sometimes not all that far Although Kagel does not indicate tempi, the pieces away either, just as in Klangwolfe). The first movement, were taken at a deadly pace, and not even Kagel's the shortest of the three, is essentially a slow sensitive orchestration could save these from movement, consisting of a sequence of four numbers sounding like the very worst excesses of early music plus a short coda - using an E minor triad - which performance in the bad old days. Also on the subject of recurs later. The second movement is the 'scherzo', performance, while one acknowledges the New with a slower, quieter 'trid, and an extended 'scherzd London Chamber Choir's commitment to new music, repeat. The final movement, essentially quick, but their more amateur approach to performance was very with a slow introduction (underlaid with theE minor apparent when contrasted with Nicholas Isherwood's triad passage), is characterised by its central waltz moving account of Fiirst Igor, Strawinsky. leading to a strong climax, and followed by a final Two other works involved the setting of texts: Tango distillation in the same coda material as the first Aleman, performed at the final concert, and Oral movement. But I suppose what really made this finale Treason, a 75-minute music epic about the Devil, given to the retrospective so convincing was the its UK premiere at the QEH. This choice of venue made performance. Three great musicians (the violinist one wish that the whole Almeida Festival could be Saschko Gawriloff, the cellist Siegfried Palm and the moved there: comfortable seating, air conditioning pianist Bruno Canino) playing as if they'd lived with and uncramped restaurant facilities. The one thing the work for years (not just two!). And this was that remained unchanged was the late starting time of undoubtedly the best Kagel performance of the each event. Oral Treason (1981-83) turned out to be a festival. It prompts speculation as to the performances fascinating sequence of texts interwoven to form the we would get if other great artists took Kagel's works epic, and accompanied by what is often a very good into their repertoires - the Vermeer Quartet, the musical score consisting of 36 numbers. The text, in an Alban Berg Quartet, the Beaux Arts Trio, et al. English translation by Christopher Logue, was spoken The other works were performed with the same care by three actors - the marvellous Eleanor Bron, and the and precision: Klangwolfe (1978) for violin and piano, rather less marvellous Geoffrey Chater and Karl An tasten (1978) for piano, Siegfriedlp for solo cello {1972) Johnson. The design for this somewhat tacky and the humorous and charming Tango Aleman (1978) production, directed by Pierre Audi, consisted of three for voice, violin, piano and bandoneon. Kagel was suspended corpses which seemed to have little himself the speaker of the made-up language in this significance, dwarfed as they were by the size of the piece - meant to sound like German to the QEH stage. Eleanor Bron shone, moving through an Argentinians, and like Argentinian to the Germans. incredible range of moods and characters in this Kagel's intention was to recreate the 'essence' of the considerable tour de force. The ensemble playing of the tango by using typical melodic and rhythmic Almeida Ensemble (which like the New London structures, but presented in a somewhat fragmented Ensemble the following night, is an ad hoc band, and form. The singer narrates a 'sentimental' tale - Kagel consists of anyone who is free in June), despite the reminds us that the singer is, as is customary, a bard presence of a conductor (Rupert Bawden) was often singing of shattered hopes, remembering great ragged but the tuba player (Joseph Hassan), cimbalom longings, always anticipating tragic love. player (Gregory Knowles) and percussionists (Terence The other three instrumental works are small-scale Emery and Keith Bartlett) were outstanding. Once pieces: Klangwolfe, with its references to Bart6k, Ives, again Kagel's wonderful sense of colour and sympathy Berg and Ravel is quite beautiful in places when played for the instruments was in evidence. His use of the without the wretched Tonwolf mute required by the cimbalom was particularly striking, and the violin composer (I know from having rehearsed it in that way often recalled the same instrument (and the Devil!) in myself). Saschko Gawriloff, nevertheless, delivered Stravinsky's Histoire du Soldat. In many ways the BBC the piece with breathtaking poise, and Bruno Canino television presentation a week later was much was ultra-sensitive in balancing the Steinway concert stronger: the individual speakers were focussed, the grand with the practice-muted violin. Caninds solo, ensemble were always headless and the cutting was An tasten (which actually received its UK premiere quite imaginative. But the problem of the work's about ten years ago, and not at this concert!) is not an length, which I had felt at the first performance, etude in the traditional sense. What we have for the remained. most part is a 17-minute sequence of Alberti-basses, Three nights later, in the programme entitled Finale, but played by both hands, so that melody and we heard what might be called Reminiscences de Oral accompaniment have, as Kagel puts it, become Treason, or rather the Piano Trio (1984-85). This inseparable. As in Klangwolfe there are references to important 25-minute contribution to the fairly scanty music of the past, in this case piano music, both twentieth-century piano trio rerertoire made one of specific (the Moonlight Sonata, the opening motif of the deepest impressions o the entire Kagel Schoenberg's op.ll) and general (Debussy, and Bart6k retrospective. again). Originally written for the remarkable Aloys Cast in three movements, and using material from Oral Kontarsky (like most of Kagel's piano works until a few Treason (mainly the best bits), Kagel seems to have years ago), Bruno Canino made this piece very much achieved what he did not often achieve elsewhere: by his own, poised over the piano like a bird of prey, compressing the material into three succinct playing cleanly and incisively - something which I movements and scoring it for a familiar and intimate valued in his playing of all the works in the medium, the work never loses pace - indeed, it is programme, and something that I missed as an action-packed! And it is superbly conceived for the essential elsewhere in the Kagel concerts. Siegfried medium. Looking at it a little more closely, it becomes Palm, meanwhile, almost stole the show with his apparent that Kagel has arranged the numbers of Oral tailor-made solo, Siefriedlp. The difficulties of playing Treason into three movements in such a way as to give this work (and singing and grunting - inspired by the impression of a conventional piano trio, in a broad Palm's vocalising when he plays) can perhaps only be 33 appreciated by cellists, in particular the table of traditional, melodic sound in the strings with solitary fingering the five pitches (taken from Palm's name) as dog sounds heard over loudspeakers. Perhaps this will harmonics, in 75 different ways - which Kagel calls his become the standard (or at least optional) soundtrack contribution to an anti-spectacular virtuoso style. The for this film now. His lOO-minute film tribute to results are pretty spectacular nevertheless. Beethoven, Ludwig Van is rather showing signs of its I have left until last what was probably the least age, and seeing Kagel's recent films one is aware how interesting concert as a whole - that by the Arditti much he has developed as a filmmaker. Following Quartet. This was not so much their fault, rather the Ludwig Van, a cameraman, around the city of Bonn fact that Kagel has not produced a particularly strong and joining a group of tourists who are taking the corpus of music for string quartet. The First/Second Beethoven tour to the Beethoven House, is a String Quartet of 1965-7, two movements which can be fascinating experience. Less so is the very serious performed in any order and can be separated, turned round table discussion by a panel of musicologists and out to be rather silly 'squeaky gate' stuff from the Kagel himself. However, the realisation of the musical sixties. However, the music-theatre element did rescue score, from the works of Beethoven, remains a me from total boredom. The players gave a reasonably landmark in the area of collage pieces. unembarassing presentation of the theatrical dimen- Looking over the Almeida Festival as a whole, my sion (I understand that the composer had worked with strongest feeling is that had it not been for the Kagel them for a good many hours on the piece), but one retrospective (entitled Ode to Cologne, one of those couldn't help feeling that this work would have been dreadful titles that only the Almeida could come up better left out of the festival, particularly as there are with) the entire festival might have passed unnoticed better Kagel works than this from the sixties. The range this year. I still feel that more imaginatively planned, it of special effects yielded some unusual sounds, which could have given a far greater overview of Kagel's best created an element of anticipation for the listener - work. There have been several far more interesting sellotape on the strings, knitting needles, and a bit of festivals in past years, even given the Almeida wood replacing the bow were among the best, management's tendency towards overkill and often although the leader's donning of a leather glove on his less than ideal artistic standards. Unfortunately what left hand was the highlight here. According to the will probably happen now is that the music of Kagel composer these effects are all used 'to realise a will not retain its current high profile, and we will see a prefabricated prepared poetry'. return to the days of the occasional performances that The two movements were separated by a trifle for we had before. It seems that most of this country's piccolo and string quartet dating from 1985 and called ensembles do not play Kagel as a rule. Imagine the Pan. Based on the ascending five-note figure from The wide currency that groups like the London Sinfonietta Magic Flute, this four-minute piece made no impress- or the Nash Ensemble could give to pieces like ion, despite an extensive programme note by the Kantrimiusik, Mare Nostrum, Fiirst Igor, Strawinsky, composer extolling the 'magic' of Mozart's opera. The Mitternachtsstiik and the Piano Trio, while giving most recent work of Kagel's to be heard in the festival - middle-of-the-road British music a wee rest. Imagine it had only been premiered the week before - was the Staatstheater at the Coliseum! Third String Quartet (1986/87), and this was also one of the great disappointments. Kagel took on the challenge of writing for that most challenging of media, and he took it on with a vengeance too, producing a 45-rninute work. Fairly arbitrarily cast in four movements, for he seemed to have composed short musical'numbers' here (as in Oral Treason, and other recent large-scale pieces), he uses many of the cliches of string quartet writing in his investigati