His Concerto for Orchestra As a Claim to from Boulanger to Stockhausen: Interviews and a ‘Idealized Uncorrupted Authenticity’, She Leaves Memoir
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his Concerto for Orchestra as a claim to From Boulanger to Stockhausen: Interviews and a ‘idealized uncorrupted authenticity’, she leaves Memoir. By Ba¤ lint Andra¤ s Varga. the composer little room for a nuanced view- pp. xi þ 397. Eastman Studies in Music. point on matters of representation (p. 209). (University of Rochester Press, Rochester, Henry Cowell’s appropriation of musical styles NY, and Woodbridge, 2013. »25. ISBN 978- from around the world is characterized as 1-58046-439-0.) ‘almost imperialist’, whereas Barto¤ k’s appropri- ation of styles not associated with his own Ba¤ lint Andra¤ s Varga’s archives are a gift that nationality pass without comment of this kind keeps on giving. As if his lengthy interviews (p. 149). At times, Fauser describes the linkage with Lutoslawski (1976), Berio (1989), Xenakis between music and national identity with (1996), Kurta¤ g (2009), and Ligeti (2009) were pointed terms such as ‘chauvinism’, at others not enough, the well-received Three Questions for more neutrally (p. 136). The astonishing Sixty-Five Composers (2011) sealed his reputation variety of the works Fauser has brought as an interviewer who was able to draw out his together should provide excellent stimulus for subjects without alienating them. Now, we have Downloaded from further consideration of how music is used and a set of thirty-two more interviews and a the ways in which we evaluate those uses. At memoir. Although much material in this new the outset, she makes a distinction between volume can be found in Varga’s earlier pub- ‘blatant propaganda’ and music as a means of lished collections from the 1970s, they appear ‘entertainment, recuperation, and uplift’ (p. here in English for the first time. The picture 3)çbut the evidence presented throughout the Varga paints of himself, as well as the sheer http://ml.oxfordjournals.org/ book offers us many opportunities to reflect on quantity and diversity of material, conjure up the more ambiguous nature of music’s apparent visions of a determined young man with an influence on its audiences. outsized tape recorder and hand-held micro- The final chapter presents many American phone, scurrying around hotels, apartments, works composed for public commemorations of and backstage dressing rooms, ready to snatch war, as well as compositions that attempt to up any spare moment an artist might have. represent directly aspects of wartime experi- Even if the interviews in this new volume are ence. Although some familiar pieces are dis- somewhat inconsistent in quality, it is hard to cussed, this chapter also grants us access to a begrudge Varga’s ethnographic accomplish- at Cornell University Library on November 2, 2014 little-heard repertory of American music. ment. His efforts to preserve these documents Providing a valuable overview of musical pro- (and the commitment that the University of duction during the period as well as insight Rochester Press made to publish this new into the range of styles available to composers book) were well worth the energy. writing for the public, Fauser describes The volume is arranged with the most sizable wartime music composed byçamong othersç interviews first. The opening section is Walter Piston, William Grant Still, George subdivided into material on composers, con- Antheil, Paul Creston, Harl McDonald, Wil- ductors, instrumentalists, singers, a teacher, liam Schuman, Jarom|¤r Weinberger, Morton and music administrators. A series of ‘snippets’ Gould, and Randall Thompson. The music is follows, which transcribes brief encounters with described engagingly. So is the composers’ con- a wide range of artists from Rubinstein to nection to their chosen topics. Fauser leaves us Szigeti to Copland. Although it is sometimes with a synoptic vision of broad and lively par- questionable whether this fragmentary mate- ticipation in America’s musical life, and with a rial should have been included (for example, sense of the excitement that drew so many to the snippet on pianist Ge¤ za Frid contains participate in wartime music-making. When only a brief anecdote told by Varga himself), Andre¤ Kostelanetz toured with Lily Pons for the author’s comments and observations that the USO, he remarked that ‘to see your public precede each piece often prove valuable in in full battle regalia is an amazing sight’ (p. themselves. 49). Indeed, it is also amazing to see the ener- While Varga’s memoir comes as a postlude, getic and widespread efforts of America’s com- it may well be the best place to start, since posers to mediate wartime experience for their it provides a welcome background. He tells of publics. growing up in post-war Hungary and his DANIELLE FOSLER-LUSSIER steady climb upwards on the ladder of the Ohio State University music business, starting with his first job at the doi:10.1093/ml/gcu045 radio, continuing at Editio Musica Budapest, a ß The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University brief stint as a cultural ambassador in a newly Press. All rights reserved. reunified Germany, and finally a lengthy 484 tenure as a publicist at Universal Edition in was allowed to interview her, Varga was Vienna (Varga turned down an offer of artistic obliged to sit through a group lesson where director, feeling he was not qualified). The students sang Bach together. However, Bou- most beautifully written part of the memoir langer interrupted them after almost every includes his reminiscences of the distant past note to criticize someone or to share an and his early work for Hungarian radio. aphorism. Yet, Varga is drawn to her over- Towards the end, Varga occasionally sounds powering energy and her unflinching devotion like he never gave up his job at Universal. He to the class. Later reflecting on her seventy- takes great pride in the firm’s current roster of year-long teaching career, Boulanger muses on composers, and recounts with evident pleasure the mutual attraction she shares with her the remarkable foresight Universal’s directors students. ‘Young people come to me ...why showed in the early twentieth century when then do they interest me so passionately? I taking on risky propositions such as Gustav suffer and do not know why ...if they did not Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg, and Kurt Weill. interest me so much, teaching would be Returningtothebeginningofthebook,Arnold torture’ (p. 190). Abruptly breaking off the Downloaded from Whittall writes in its foreword, ‘to meet this interview, Boulanger nevertheless answered diverse, demanding, and sometimes disturbing Varga’s final questionçabout Barto¤ kçin a castof musical characters, is a rare andenlighten- barely legible handwritten letter. After praising ing pleasure’ (p. x).To my taste, the most disturb- the composer in glowing terms, she writes, ‘I ing personalities include Hans Swarowsky and cannot create order in the past, even though Wolfgang Stresemann. A highly influential for me it never ceases to be the present as well’ http://ml.oxfordjournals.org/ conductor, Swarowsky studied with Richard (p. 196). Strauss, Felix Weingartner, Schoenberg, and Varga’s chat with Stockhausen reveals Webern. His students at the Vienna Music another subject who had an unusual perception Academy included Claudio Abbado and Zubin of himself. Stockhausen is uncharacteristically Mehta. During the war, Swarowsky was the prin- forthcoming in this discussion, which was previ- cipal conductor of the Kraco¤ w Philharmonic ously published in volume 6 of the composer’s Orchestra during the Nazi occupation. Swa- Texte zur Musik (Cologne, 1989) in German. rowsky speaks little of those dark times, but His spatially fragmented self-image resembles at Cornell University Library on November 2, 2014 his remark that it was ‘much simpler to fight something curiously like a modern internet-age against the Nazis from the outside’ (p. 101) may avatar: raise some eyebrows. On the other hand, Stresemann, who was the son of a former Chan- Stockhausen: I possess the rather unusual faculty of cellor of the Weimar Republic, rode out the looking at myself from behind. Can you see yourself war on American soil and only returned to from behind? Germany in 1956ça move that alienated him Varga: No, no. in the eyes of some who stayed. In 1959 he be- Stockhausen: Well, I can. I often see myself also from came the Intendant of the Berlin Philharmonic above. ...I can look at myself from all sides; I can Orchestra, a post he held (with one six-year gap) also walk right behind myself (p. 59). until 1986. Stresemann, whose relationship with After a diatribe on the lack of adequate the Berlin Philharmonic’s principal conductor, rehearsal time, the inability of orchestral Herbert von Karajan, has been characterized as musicians to improvise freely, and their incap- being ‘fed more by respect and natural courtesy acity or unwillingness really to listen to each than by anything resembling real human other, Vargaçin a rare momentçtries to pro- warmth’ (Richard Osborne, Herbert von Karajan: voke Stockhausen: ALifeinMusic(Boston, 1998), 479) tells Varga that Karajan is an undisputed ‘conductor of Varga: I wonder whether as a musician, you feel genius’andcharacterizesthe ensemble as a‘demo- rather lonely once in a while. A Christ figure cratic orchestra-republic that submits itself to the betrayed by his disciples. conductor of its own free will’ (p. 217).While the Stockhausen: That sounds far too dramatic. I admit, haughty tone of political metaphor might have though, that during my life I have lost some friends, been purposely calculated to provoke the humble some beloved friends ...at some point [they] seemed to believe ...that the only way they could get rid of interviewer from the eastern bloc, Varga wisely me was to kick me in the backside. ...Divorce is legit- shrugs it off, changing the subject to questions of imate, it is feasible, and it can be the right thing to repertory.