Donaueschingen can always be justified
because it provides a vital forum for living composers, and even a few
dead ones. It can also be justified as having presented a remarkable
number of outstanding premieres since its inception in 1950. The 12-49sc
survey of the first 40 years of Donaueschingen is an essential document
for anyone interested in post-war European music, yet the number of
fine scores omitted from the collection would fill several further discs.
Likewise, the discs documenting
the main events at each Donaueschingen over the past decade provide
a reliable guide to the most significant pieces. Three discs were required
to do full justice to Donaueschingen 2000. Only two discs were needed
the following year, though some worthwhile pieces were not included.
Donaueschingen 2002 is also likely to be covered by two discs, but in
this instance, there will be some rather weak scores that would not
have made it in a more successful year.
In essence, 2002 was not a good
year for Donaueschingen. The opening concert was disappointing, and
all the smaller scale events were poor. Even normally reliable composers
failed to make any impact. Thus George Lopez' attempt to suggest a new
relationship between performers and audience, in Schatten
Vergessener Ahnen - Shadows of
Forgotten Forebears – failed to provoke, largely because the orchestral
material lacked originality. Similarly, pieces by Helmut Oehhing, Julio
Estrada, and others, revealed little of their personalities.
It was therefore left to lesser-known
composers to make an impact. Karen Rehnquist's Teile Dich Nacht,
for choir, plus female folk singer, using the Swedish style known as
kullning, was the most arresting item in the opening concert, though
Franck Christoph Yeznikian's La Ligne, La Primombra, La Perte,
for chamber orchestra made sufficient impression to suggest a significant
composer for the future. Among works for smaller ensembles, Alan Hilario's
Phonautograph, and Michal Nejtek's Thorn into the Flesh
should be mentioned.
Thus, it was only with the final
concert, given by the Symphony Orchestra of SWR, Badenbaden and Freiburg,
conducted by Sylvain Cambreling, together with the Experimentalstudio,
Freiburg, that Donaueschingen's reputation was preserved. Two of the
three works would hold their own in any company, and it happens that
both were written partly in response to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Each questioned whether the creative impulse could adequately reflect
such events, but they also demonstrated the necessity of confronting
the various issues in artistic terms.
Notwithstanding her recent excursion
into music-theatre, Chaya Czernowin's Maim Zarim Maim Gnuvim,
- Strange Water, Stolen Water - for solo instrumental quintet, orchestra
and 'live' electronics is probably her finest achievement to date. It
is the first part of a triptych, and is essentially experimental in
character, including a hybrid instrument called a Tubax, played by the
saxophonist, Rico Gubler, but it is also the product of a remarkable
sonic imagination. The solo instrumental quintet and 'live' electronics
create a delicate tapestry of sound, but equally, the orchestra is deployed
with considerable power when necessary.
Klaus Huber originally conceived
Die Seele Muss vom Reittier Steigen as a cello concerto, but
the decision to set a text by the Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwisch,
written during the Israeli occupation of much of Palestine, meant that
it evolved into a combination of concerto and song-cycle. At the same
time, Huber added a solo baryton - another hybrid instrument, best known
for its use by Haydn in a series of trios. The presence of the counter-tenor,
Kai Wessel, might suggest a link with Huber's recent opera, Schwarzerde,
yet there is no direct connection, though the new work has a certain
affinity in terms of underlying atmosphere.
Huber's recent output has retained
the rigour of his earlier scores, while acquiring a more mystical character
than hitherto. His preoccupation, during the past decade, with the theory
of Arabic classical music, together with the philosophical ideas of
medieval Arabic scholars, has enabled him to capture the essence of
Darwisch's poetry, and the result is a work which transcends the familiar
criteria by which contemporary music is judged. Die Seele Muss vom
Reittier Steigen should be added to the outstanding achievements
which have emanated from Donaueschingen over the past fifty years.
John Warnaby
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