NCO orchestra starts hopeful note with British pianist
NCO orchestra starts hopeful note with British pianist
By Gus Kairupan
JAKARTA (JP): Rachmaninoff. Together with Liszt, this Russian
composer has produced the most fiendishly difficult works for the
piano.
But pianistic fireworks do not music make. Singing does --
and when it comes to that Rachmaninoff belongs in the front rank
of lyricists.
So to give him his proper due you need a pianist who is
possessed of both physical power and a wondrous singing tone.
Someone like Antony Peebles, whose visit in Jakarta included a
performance with the Nusantara Chamber Orchestra (NCO) of
Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto in C-Minor, the best-known
of the master's four compositions in that form.
An easy work it isn't, perhaps not so much for its pianistic
fireworks, but the melodies it contains, melodic lines that
instantly grip those who hear them.
Peebles is a master as regards giving them prominence,
including secondary ones wrapped in outer lines. One doesn't
often hear inner lines brought out with such clarity, especially
within the dense structures of Romantic music.
It shows that polyphony is not the exclusive domain of the
likes of J.S. Bach. Anyone present at Peebles' solo recital at
the Widjojo Centre last Saturday knows what I mean.
His rendition of the Ballade in D, Op. 10 no. 2 by Brahms was
one of the best I've ever heard.
Would that he had played more of this master whose
compositions are so seldom featured in programs here.
The concert on Monday at the Jakarta Hilton's Golden Ballroom,
the home of NCO, featured the world premiere of a composition
entitled Prelude to Malin Kundang, a work based on a well-known
legend from West Sumatra, and a composition by NCO's permanent
conductor, Yazeed Djamin.
According to the program notes, a larger work is to follow in
the form of a symphonic poem. Now here's one work of large
proportions to look forward to.
What was presented on Monday was only a foretaste, so little
can be said about the substance of the work, such as the parts of
the story the composer focuses on.
The Malin Kundang tale shares some similarities with that of
Peer Gynt by Norway's playwright Ibsen and has lots of material
that contain possibilities for musical interpretation.
Incredible
The third work (actually performed first) was Tchaikovsky's
Romeo & Juliet fantasy overture. NCO's playing of this work was
the least satisfactory that evening.
Like the Rachmaninoff concerto, the work also contains an
exceptionally beautiful and well-known melody, instantly
recognized by lovers of classical music.
It seems almost incredible that the orchestra wasn't able to
give these lovely lines their proper due. There are no technical
knots to be unraveled because it is in truth an uncomplicated
melody floating on a gentle figure in seconds.
What, then, does one want here? The answer is what music is
all about: singing, recognizing what the message is based on,
knowing and understanding the immortal story of the immortal bard
about star-crossed lovers.
But quite apart from the weak wind instruments, which, as the
main sections that carry the melodies in both Romeo & Juliet and
the piano concerto, the NCO somehow seems to have problems with
the kind of music that has a strong programmatic content.
One instance that springs to mind is Mendelssohn's overture to
A Midsummer's Night's Dream (the bard again), which also fell
quite short of expectations.
It wouldn't do the conductor and orchestra members any harm if
they expanded their intellectual horizons a bit.
In fact, it is something of a necessity, seeing how so many
composers derived inspiration from literature, painting and other
art forms.
Wind section
Surely the time will arrive when a hearing must be presented
of the works of, say, Hector Berlioz, Richard Strauss, Gustav
Mahler and others.
To get back to the weaknesses in the wind sections, I was told
that an instructor from overseas is expected soon to do some
upgrading work with the members.
This is a good thing, of course, and one hopes that afterwards
the players will remain with NCO for a long time.
The reason I mention this is because the overall turnover of
musicians seems to be rather large.
The constant appearance and disappearance of personnel can't
be good for NCO's future, especially since this country is far
from well-stocked with orchestra musicians.
Certainly the orchestra members may be in need of instruction
in technique, but there is also the matter of musicianship which
involves the development of the music-making individual -- the
player as well as the conductor -- in a group situation.
Technical wizardry is only part of the answer.
All in all, NCO's concert, the first for 1994, was not
entirely unsatisfactory.
There is at least one thing audiences can look forward to: the
completion of the Malin Kundang symphonic poem. It will be one
of the extremely few weighty works on a symphonic scale produced
by an Indonesian composer.
Arrangements of folk songs are all very well and good, but
that is what they are and will always remain: arrangements, not
original works.
Unfortunately, there was one very unmusical irritation
throughout the performance: the crackling noise of what I think
was a loose wire in the sound system and, towards the end, the
high-pitched beep of an over-amplified microphone.
The things should have been unplugged.