Karelia Suite

So. First real post from Oberlin. My plan for keeping this blog up and running while here is as such. Musically speaking, I will have two types of things to write about. The most frequent will be concert reports. There's an amazing amount of new music (and not so new music) going on here every week. My plan is to write about as many of these concerts as possible. The second type of post will be regarding the pieces of music that I am studying outside of my classes. With access to such a wonderful library here, I've made a promise to myself to find time every week to study a piece of music thoroughly, given that I have access to scores and multiple recordings of a large number of pieces that I would be interested in discovering. The two scores I have out at the moment are Michael Finnissy's English Country Tunes and Luigi Nono's A floresta e jovem e cheia de vida. Both of which I hope to write about here within the next month or so. Finnissy's music in particular will be getting a lot of attention from me this year, as I've started reading a fairly comprehensive book about him and his music entitled "Uncommon Ground". Its a fascinating read so far.

Anyway. This past week has been a pretty excellent one generally speaking. The weather has taken a turn for the better (temperatures consistently under 15 degrees celsius) and the apple cider is in good supply. This past week has also marked the start of an onslaught of excellent concerts.

First of all, two concerts on the 26th of September. Two concerts that couldn't be any different from one another. The first of which (started at 8pm, could only hear the first piece played as the second concert started at 9pm) featured the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra. The programme featured Sibelius' Karelia Suite and Symphony No. 7, and Beethoven's Triple Concerto. While I'm really very ambivalent about the Beethoven piece, the two Sibelius' pieces are two of my favourite works by one of my favourite non-modern/experimental/new-music composers. Unfortunately I couldn't afford to stay to hear the 7th Symphony, but I did get to hear the Karelia Suite.

It is a wonderful, brief, 3 movement work that for quite some time, a couple of years ago now, I was absolutely smitten with. The recording I have of this piece, on the Sibelius Edition 5 CD box-set, is stunning. Conducted by Sir John Barbirolli with the Halle Orchestra, it is a beautifully humble and "Finnish" recording of a work that I imagine is easy to get carried away with. The OCO did a fine job with it though. Aside from a few quasi-dodgy horn entrances, the first movement was perfectly delivered at a moderate tempo. The wonderful trumpet melody was articulated well, although with a little less bounce than the Barbirolli recoding. Although their bristling rendition of the third movement made up for this.

The second movement, "ballade", was taken at a surprisingly brisk tempo, especially in relation to the first movement which was, if anything, slightly slower than I'd have expected, but it worked really well and was by far my favourite of the three movements for this performance. The opening melody was less clarinet heavy than the recording I have, the blending of the ensemble providing a more generally woodwind choir texture, perhaps a little less characteristic that way but it worked well all the same. The single oboe notes that float above the second statement of the melody in the strings were absolutely stunning. Reminiscent, in my mind at least, of flashes of morning sunlight reflected in blankets of ice-covered snow drifts.

The faster tempo really came into its own with the delivery of the second main melodic theme that comes in roughly half way through the second movement. It was warm and encapsulating, supple, and had an incredible, uplifting momentum, pushing the ensemble through the subsequent changes in texture very smoothly. The final oboe duet (or with english horn?) had, again I feel due to the faster tempo, a wonderfully transcendent quality to it (the shimmering snow imagery returns) as the movement came to an end. Gives the Barbirolli (of which I am very fond) a good run for its money.

As the audience applauded I made a quick exit from Finney Chapel and made my way over to the more intimate Fairchild Chapel (a stunningly beautiful building that sounds as good as it looks) to see a concert of improvised music from Evan Parker and Ned Rothenburg. More on that soon.