Accentus
keeps breaking new ground for choral music. They bring the exacting
standards of chamber music to what they sing. The choir becomes
much more than massed sound, but a collaboration of voices,
bringing music alive with exquisite textures and colours. Moreover,
they shake up established repertoire by introducing new music
and specialised transcriptions. Their work is exciting, and
different.
Here
they focus on Schoenberg as choral composer. Schoenberg could
write extravaganzas where massed voices are part of the elaborate
effect, such as in the Gurrelieder. The shorter pieces
on this recording were chosen, however, as Vincent Manac'h's
notes say, because they represent Schoenberg's search for a
personal faith that might merge with the faith of a community.
A single voice meshing with others to form a whole; what a good
way to describe Accentus's own approach to performance.
Friede
auf Erden expresses
a faith which does not doubt that “Etwas wie Gerehtigkeit
webt und wirkt in Mord und Grauen” (a semblance of justice is
at work amid the murder and horror). Schoenberg wrote the
original a capella version at a time of optimism. He was later
to say he revised it for voices and orchestra because he had
learned that peace was only possible by attention to harmony.
“In other words, not without accompaniment”. More cogently,
the first version was at the time considered unperformable because
of its uncomfortable discords in the musical line. The version
with orchestra thus mediates the balance and produces greater
harmony. First we hear the 1911 version, then later the 1907
original. Perhaps choral singing a hundred years ago was different,
for Accentus manage the piece with aplomb. The precise balance
between voices keeps lines apart yet blends them harmoniously,
like the tracery of vaulted ceilings in medieval churches.
Opus
9, the Kammersymphonie makes a surprise appearance among
the vocal pieces, perhaps because, being a chamber symphony,
it highlights solo instruments much in the way that Accentus
uses solo voices. I'm not altogether sure that it achieves the
purpose, for it sounds out of place. It is well played, as one
would expect from Ensemble Intercontemporain, and Nott keeps
the balance well. However, after the delicacy of the voices,
violins can sound much more shrill than they would normally.
Perhaps it's only my ears, but this piece sounded strangely
dissonant in the context of the recording as a whole. It was
recorded three years after the other tracks. Often this makes
little difference, but in this case there isn't enough to bridge
the very different aural effects.
A nicer surprise was the one wholly modern transcription,
an arrangement of Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra
by Franck Krawczyk, made in 2002. Transcriptions are an Accentus
speciality, partly because they expand the repertoire, but also
because they highlight new aspects of well known works. In his
Society for Private Performance, Schoenberg made transcriptions
mandatory, so that the musicians and composers who participated
could analyse what made a particular piece of music work. Krawczyck's
transcription for a capella choir is much freer. Instead of
a large orchestra complete with percussion, it is scored for
what sounds like a smallish choir. Concentrating the music into
a more restricted palette makes the monochrome shades seem even more subtle. Every
microtone counts here, endlessly extended and varied. Each abstract
sound mutates in timbre, blending into seamless pure sound.
Even the boundary between singing and breathing is breached,
brilliantly. Schoenberg wrote the last of the Five Pieces after
returning from Mahler's funeral and inscribed at the end that
it should be played “wie ein hauch” (like an exhaled
breath). Thus different types of exhaled breath are written
into Krawczyk's score, weaving in and out of the extended choral
lines like a pulse. The effect is extraordinarily intimate,
as if the listener were within the choir itself, feeling the
frailty of physical experience. It is a piece that repays detailed
listening.
If
his Opus 50 compositions are any measure, Schoenberg regained
a sense of faith towards the end of his life. In Dreimal
tausend Jahre, he uses simple SATB balance made graceful
by gentle harmonic blending. It is as if he returned to the
purity of Friede auf Erden, but with greater assurance
and technical sophistication. He had returned full circle to
the faith of his birth. De Profundis uses the text of
Psalm 130, in Hebrew. The words, “O Israel, trust in the
Lord” were poignantly trenchant following the establishment
of the new country. Individual voices have much more prominence
here, leaping out from the texture. It is the voice of the individual,
at ease with being part of the group. The individual voices
of Accentus performers are surprisingly familiar, since we've
been hearing them in ensemble all along.
Anne Ozorio
