Putative Authenticity?

Posted by: u5227470736789439 on 28 December 2006

Elgar’s Gerontius Performances In 1927

Dear Friends,

Over the last two days I have listened to the excerpts of Elgar’s Dream Of Gerontius, recording in pioneering live takes from live concerts in the RAH, and Hereford Cathedral in February and September 1927.

It suddenly struck me, listening, that the approach to the rhythm, especially the issue of the Dotted Crochet-> Quaver groupetto, and the “Snap Rhythm” - Quaver-> Dotted Crotchet - has a very close relation in these old performances to what is now considered correct in Baroque performance. “Over-dotting, where the short note looses time-value while the overall rhythm remains resilient and not a rubato. And also a flexible approach to this “over-dotting,” where the degree is related to the importance as a tension builder, or tension releaser.

It is some time since I last played these old recordings over, and it is ever more fascinating how they still have something to teach about what the composer had in mind. An extreme example of this “over-dotting” is the place where the Angel [lady’s alto voice] sings, “ And Now The Threshold, As We Cross It!” In this case the whole issue is actually a “snap” and the subsequent long note not only starts early, but the also finishes early! In fact it amounts to a two note accelerando-rubato! This is not accident as when the trombones put in an accented not immediately afterwards, they are just as pressed forward. this would be considered very bad if a music student did it nowadays!

In other places the actual issue is one of flattening out the dotted rhythm, so that the result is more a question of almost a triplet! The short note becomes “longer” than written! This occurs in more softly spoken moments, and is complete natural to the style of the players and singers. There is no issue of faulty ensemble – the style must have been running round in the bloodstream at the time. It might seem slack by modern standards, but it is fascinating to find Elgar thoroughly following it in his own conducting.

Really what this does show is that there can be no recreation of an authentic style of performance where we have no recording of that style. I don't think anyone would have guessed this is how Elgar performed his music, on the basis of written reports! After all the style was so normal as to pass without comment, even though within ten years it would be superceded by the modern style we still use, introduced with the BBC SO and LPO in London, for two examples, and already coming into use in the great orchestra in the USA in the 1920s...

In this way we are genuinely stumped as to “exactly what was the style of playing for old Bach” for example!

All the best from Fredrik
Posted on: 28 December 2006 by Big Brother
Fredrik

I'll take a stab at this. Since I'm not a musician, it is all but impossible for me to 'auditorize' what you are describing. I do know that when listening to very old recordings there is a curious feeling for rhythm that the performers have, that takes some adjustment to us ' modern ears'.

The rhythm we are used to is much more even and emphatic and regular not to say machine like. Since we live in the era of mechanical things and the steady thumping of Rock, Jazz not to even mention Rap and Hip Hop where a machine and not a human being is producing the sound. So are ears are startled when we hear these old sounds.

If you listen to period instrument performances you can hear the influence of rock beats in their style. How we imagine this is what Bach heard in his time I cannot imagine. If people find this compelling or not is a matter of personal taste, but let no one imagine there is any such thing as 'authentic'.

Yesterday I pulled out and old RCA record of Rachmaninoff's performing various short works and it struck me that he tends to run certain phrases together in the Chopin Waltzes that I am used to hearing separated and evenly performed. I'm sure we've all heard performances of Schnabel mauling the rhythm in some passages of Beethoven. My own feeling is that in the old days, musical values were a highly personal and individualistic thing, and performance standards were less universal ( or bland, depending on your outlook) than they are today.



BB

PS. Never heard any of Elgar's recordings so I could not comment directly on the topic.
Posted on: 28 December 2006 by u5227470736789439
Dear BB,

You really should find some of these old Elgar records! They are a revelation!! That is, of course, if you can enjoy the high romanticism of it all! Only three of the high romantics appeal to me: Sibelius, Elgar and Prokofiev. I don't count Walton, who is my favourite English composer after Purcell, as a rmantic at all. In fact I wonder how romantic are Sibelius and Prokofiev in real terms, but rather perhapsthey are sorts modern classicist! Brahms is my favourite romantic [and Schumann next], but again the classical and baroque roots are rather obvious.

Of course there is much [gramophone recorded] evidence about the correct rendering of all these composers. My reference in the title refers to everyone before the mid-nineteenth century, where there really must be some big doubts about the modern ideas on what is stylish! The machine and regularity have nothing to do with it! The extra-ordinary flexibilty and passion of Annie Fischer in Beethoven seems to me an ideal in Beethoven, but Klemperer's desperately deep and profound Beethoven seems to me as close to the greatest that can be found for the great German in the orchestral works! But I doubt if these readings are very close to what LvB had in mind, though I suspect he might have found them transendental...

Klemperer is fascinating, because, contrary to the impression left by his late recordings, he was one of the few great Beethovenians who could manage a graded accelerando, entirely within the architecture of the music [harmonic and melodic architecture!], whereas others quite often manage more immediate exitement, but ultimately less cogentcy.

As for Bach we shall never know! So I say that I love the readings of Walcha, Wenzinger, Leonhardt, and HM Linde, and find also Adolf Busch's perormances totally compelling, but find much else that attempts to rationalise it less satisfactory, and often plain strange. None of these mentioned musicians had much time for the idea of playing the music in a fashion that was informed by a huge knowledge but failing to take the immediacy of the music into account, though each made a large contribution to the art of HIP. Each would have noted that the players inherent style [or implementation of styele according to the piece, more accurately] was more important than the actual instruments used or the dogma that would come to dominate the issue as the HIP movement progressed...

Kindest regardss from Fredrik
Posted on: 29 December 2006 by Big Brother
Fredrik

Your points are well taken. Schumann, Liszt, Chopin, and Berlioz are the Romantics I turn most to in my Listening, oh, and let's not forget Mahler. You could put a lot of Beethoven's music, however classically structured, in the romantic camp, for he was a romantic in spirit if not always in practice.

Since our musical tastes are somewhat different, it is fitting that we would disagree on some points. BTW, re-. my remarks on the influence of rock and Jazz, my point is that no one lives in a vacuum, we are all influenced by what goes on around us even if we don't take an active interest in it per se.

Incidentally, did you know that Klemperer was a big fan of American Jazz, and was once mugged in Los Angeles in one late night pursuit of same ?



Regards


Big Brother

PS. Oh, and I almost forgot the composer of the topic, Elgar, his music is definitely in the romantic camp, though I listen to it less these days.
Posted on: 29 December 2006 by u5227470736789439
Dear Mike,

Not being entirely familiar with the performances you mention, I wonder if you would be kind enough to furnish me with the catalogue numbers, and the names of the performers and the works' official titles, so I may borrow these from the library shortly to conform the correlation for myself.

All the best from Fredrik
Posted on: 29 December 2006 by Big Brother
Mike

Can you say.. " designated driver"

Be safe.


BB