"What is beautiful in science is the same thing that is beautiful in Beethoven. There’s a fog of events and suddenly you see a connection. It expresses a complex of human concerns that goes deeply to you, that connects things that were always in you that were never put together before." ~ Victor Weisskopf
"What can you do with Beethoven's 7th Symphony? It’s like a lot of yaks jumping about." ~ Sir Thomas Beecham
"What can you do with Beethoven's 7th Symphony? It’s like a lot of yaks jumping about." ~ Sir Thomas Beecham
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| Yekwon Sunwoo |
Beethoven is the all-time most performed symphonist by American orchestras -- and still is today. He is the most performed symphonist in world history. At some point, one might think that he and his music would become 'passe'. In Tucson Arizona, 249 years after his birth, that is not happening! Super energized by setting their sights on performing the whole Beethoven symphony cycle this season, the sheer rapture of the music and the implacable spirit behind it seemed, last night, to take on a new and deeper meaning.
First, a brief yet most delicious appetizer was set before the arrival of the King: Anton Webern's orchestral setting of Bach's Six-Voice Fugue from 'The Musical Offering', an astounding arrangement wherein even the short opening fugue theme melody is handed off to five different instruments! This is a procedure and technique that came to be known as 'Klangfarbenmelodie' (sound-color melody), and characterizes much of Webern's orchestral arrangements and the orchestration of his own music. In general, in both Webern's 12-tone and non-serial compositions, a very short statement is shaped and sculpted by each player and/or section, giving the impression of many artisans working independently on their own particular area of a much larger sculpture or piece of architecture, and yet these individual activities may or may dramatically coalesce into a whole at any one point. Here, Bach's densely woven fugal tapestry has its own weight, inertia, gravity, and drama. And while up to six voices (linear elements) are happening simultaneously, Webern is working 'Klangfarbenmelodie' on each one! The result is an almost surreal rendition of a supreme contrapuntal masterpiece. Layers of colors breathe, ripple, and drift in and out from one another. The experience, live, with the gorgeous work of TSO's woodwinds, horns, Concertmaster Loren Roth, and subtly controlled string sections, was to be washed over, not just by watery waves, but by a tide pool of little shells, tiny plants and sea creatures -- a veritable feast for the senses! Maestro Gomez' shaping of the fugal entries and diverse episodes was, as always, very clear, and in this case, very smooth. With the triplets introduced after the midpoint, and Bach's thematic culminations, halfway and towards the ending, José pulled 'allargando', as if playing huge organ in a European cathedral -- all Bach, with Webern now tagging along for the ride! The finale to this contrapuntal working through, ends on a grand major chord (the Baroque "Picardy Third"), though no such triumph was necessary to keep a giant smile plastered on my face. A gorgeous concert opening.
Concert pianists vary highly in their specific exceptional talents, individual spiritual natures, personalities, and sometimes over-sized egos. Yekwon Sunwoo, a 30-year-old gold medalist of several prestigious international competitions, appears as egoless and spiritually pious, if not innocent, as any virtuoso I have ever witnessed perform. Some of this, a combination of strong work ethic and artistic / spiritual humility, is a part of a long cultural, and even religious tradition in Korea. It is this kind of art and artist I feel I experienced, hearing and seeing Yekwon Sunwoo perform Beethoven #3, Friday evening. His touch, even when delivering Beethoven's hammer blows, are wrapped in a kind of supple delicacy, as a tarantula might strike its prey with lithe and perfect accuracy. Yekwon's focus, with few exceptions, appears inward; head up, eyes closed, concentrating completely to find the most perfect balances to express the emotional extremes or continuity contained in the music, that he can draw out of this particular piano, at this particular time. The method is very pure, and the results were mesmerizing. Heavily accented off-beats characterize much of this concerto, enough to provide a slightly primitive, "I ain't Mozart" sort of insistence about it. Gomez is always very keenly aware of and responsive to his soloist. And he kept his orchestra well-harnessed and under control, yet let them attack the oft-repeated off-beat 'sforzandi' with enough savage vengeance to keep the raw aspects of the score well in play. Through the 'Allegro con brio' and -- less so in the final 'Rondo - Allegro' finale, Sunwoo slightly pressed and tightened the timing of the most bold and fast of phrases. This noticeable intensifying of energy, was matched well by the orchestra. His articulation is brilliant -- Leschetizky would be proud! -- yet not showy; rhythmically taut, yet not rigid; at times, driving and animated, yet never pounding. Then, when the more delicate solos appeared, the poet at the piano could not be kept down. The featured first movement cadenza, Beethoven's original, is a rather wild, at times quite compositionally counter-intuitive, and somewhat bombastic and even dissonant affair. When it arrives to render the lyrical second theme, however, all that goes out the window. The setting is clear, the arrangement is multi-voiced, and the harmony, rich. This was the height and epitome of Sunwoo's performance. The melodies sang out through the hall, the voicing was like a finely detailed web, the tone and gradations were revealing and sublime, and the closed-eyed look was of passionate piety. At the conclusion of the concerto, which this Friday performance I think surprised and somewhat stunned the audience, it was not Sunwoo's (or Beethoven's) shows of technical note-playing virtuosity that stayed with me, but that clear, surging, singing, passionate poetry that remained in my mind. I had studied some of Yekwon's recordings. This performance was on a higher plane. Superlative!
Sunday afternoon, following a very successful second run with the Beethoven #3 Concerto, during which Yekwon seemed a tad bit more relaxed and physically free to let it fly, he sat for an encore: the little and very simple G Major 'Andante' from the K. 545 Sonata of Mozart, with all of the repeats. Most non-future-piano-virtuosi learn this music in childhood. With no dynamic exaggerations or rubato, eyes closed toward the heavens, the old TCC Music Hall Steinway sung out some of Mozart's most modest, yet perfectly balanced bliss. The sound, the song, and the gentle journey were all that mattered. The poet in tuxedo swept a feather high aloft; knocking us, young and old, back in our seats, and melting off...
The second half of this concert, the 7th Symphony of Beethoven, was the most energetic, crisply articulated, and momentous rendition I have ever heard. The uptempo 2nd movement at first gave me some pause, yet the fiery spirit pounding out from the insistent tuttis overcame all of my doubts. On Friday evening, a fellow listener remarked how haunting the 2nd movement was -- a great insight. And Gomez and TSO delivered this full fury extremely well, giving abundant room in relief for the languid singing interludes.
Since first hearing and seeing Maestro Gomez work, his high amperage, direct current of communication with the orchestra is always the linchpin to everything else that happens. There is never a question as to what José wants from the players, and he expertly sets them up for them to produce just that. With the Beethoven symphonies, the players know this music inside and out. Some have played them hundreds of times. Except for the big music events; cadences, climaxes, sudden dynamic changes, etc., I have never seen such physical understatement on the part of this conductor. My sense is that; one, he implicitly respects the players' knowledge of the music -- Beethoven lives inside all of them (and us); and two, this approach gives each of them permission and encouragement to get after it with all of the gusto and self-disciplined creativity they have inside themselves. At times José stood at the podium with no motion, just leaning on the guard rail, and then a little mini hop in time with the meter. And then picking back up to his usual super communicative ways to guide the timing of the points of emphasis and formal cadences. I LOVED seeing and hearing this action, and guess, without asking, that the players must as well.
We were so happy at the end of this performance. Was it Anton Webern, escorting J.S. Bach? Was it the young master Yekwon Sunwoo? Was it that always-in-revolt Beethoven? Was it Director Gomez, or the TSO and their glorious execution? Yes, it was all of them. There were no low points in this concert. Were they able to address the world's most pressing problems? Did they slow down the fast melting of the glaciers? I am still afraid that the Earth is becoming frayed. Did this performance inspire me to think more clearly and feel more deeply, and to act more resolutely? Yes. Absolutely so. Thank you, Herr Beethoven. Thank you, Mr. Sunwoo. Thank you Tucson Symphony Orchestra and Director Gomez. Thank you.
~ Steven Gendel
HEAR IT - Humanity's Expressive Artists Reveal & Illuminate Truth
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