Mission: Unusual

Jeff Dunn on September 23, 2008
Is it like this for you? You go to the market. A Whitney Houston clone is on the Muzak — again. You want to scream. Do you feel the same way when you go to the symphony and discover Brahms' Second, Dvořák's "New World," or Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto on the program? If so, there's hope for you — if you move to north Phoenix. But more about that later. There's no question about it: The "greats" rule the roost in classical music, and they're played over and over again. The League of American Orchestras keeps the U.S. and Canadian stats, which show that, for the 2006-2007 season, 11,501 pieces were performed on 3,710 concerts. In all, 2,209 different works played were composed by 630 composers. That's 3.5 works per composer, and 5.2 repetitions per work, on average, but you can delve further and see that less than 1 percent of the compositions accounted for almost 10 percent of the performances. Brahms' Second Symphony was the winner, with 72 performances. The previous season, Beethoven's Seventh Symphony did even better, with 89 performances. For every composer who receives dozens of performances, there are dozens upon dozens who get one or two performances. Thousands of composers are given none at all. This is not entirely a bad thing, as mediocre to incompetent composers don't deserve equal time. Yet there are other reasons for the discrepancy. Musicians and audiences want to play and hear certain works more than others, pieces that best speak to the sensibilities of the era. And concerts have undergone a cultural change over time that has frozen out new and unusual music as far back as the 1840s (see Alex Ross' fine article on the subject). Sometimes this "rich get richer" state of affairs leads to some worthy works slipping through the cracks, works that, if they were better known, might give Brahms' and Dvořák's and Beethoven's lesser works a run for their money.

The Staleness Specter

Even the best symphonic works, though they yield new joys on repeated listenings, can be overplayed and grow stale in a listener's ears. The antidote could be discovering some unusual and possibly great music on a regular basis. Even if an unusual piece does not stand repeated hearings, it may give pleasure the first few times to many who are tired of warhorses. And occasionally, a find might even work its way into the repertory and provide some variety to the regular concert menu. For such unusual works to get on a concert, almost as many hurdles have to be crossed as for my home movie to become a Blair Witch Project success. I've already written in these pages about the myriad factors affecting programming. It's hard enough to get recently written music on a program, yet at least this kind of music has living composers, publishers, grants, and other means of recommending itself to the programming powers-that-be. The situation for older music is worse. The composer is dead, forgotten. Scores are hidden away in family or institutional archives. Or maybe the best works are performed occasionally in the region of the composer's origin, but fail to cross national boundaries. Unlike the situation with new music, music directors have fewer incentives to program older works, other than the little fame that may accrue from discovering it (and possibly some savings on royalty payments). But how is the music to be found, and who will advocate for it? One neglected source for concert enrichment is the recorded repertoire, where a following can develop for certain composers never or rarely played in concert. A buzz develops on the Internet among collectors and reviewers of CDs, and enthusiasm spreads. Music directors should be tuned in to these trends. Occasionally, such buzzes burst forth into the light, as in the case of Górecki's Third Symphony, which began reaching concert halls in the U.S. after it hit the best-seller charts. Usually, though, the excitement dies out as aficionados follow new enthusiasms. A second source for concert enrichment comes from passionate advocates of unusual music who are in a position to do something about it. The conductor James Conlon presented fascinating concerts of music of Franz Schreker and Alexander Zemlinsky two years ago in San Francisco. While Michael Tilson Thomas and other Bay Area conductors are to be lauded for the relatively high percentage of new music included on their symphony programs, there is little unusual older music to be heard from the region's orchestras. For example, the San Francisco Symphony is presenting just one piece in this category all season (not counting lesser-known pieces by famous composers), namely Franz Schmidt's Symphony No. 4. Perhaps the Szymanowski piano concertante also qualifies, though it was performed just a year ago at the Festival del Sole in Napa Valley. About 15 percent of the pieces this season are newish music by living, or recently deceased, composers.

Man With a Mission

Several American conductors are passionate about new music, such as James Levine on the Modernist side, and Marin Alsop on the populist side. The most passionate of all of them is Warren Cohen, music director of the MusicNova Orchestra, serving the northeastern Phoenix metropolitan area. Of the 12 pieces he is presenting this season in four concerts, 9 are regional premieres, including rarities by such composers as Joachim Raff, Adolf von Henselt, Aldo (not Gerald) Finzi, and William Alwyn. Cohen has been struck by the unusual ever since the day in his childhood that he heard a work by French pianist-composer Charles-Valentin Alkan. As he relates on his orchestra's Web site,
All my life I have felt that my greatest thrill is hearing something that is wonderful, new and unique. I remember as a child hearing Raymond Lewenthal's recording of the Alkan Symphonie for Solo Piano. Here was great music that sounded like nothing I had ever heard before. Since then I have been on a quixotic quest for great neglected music. When I hear something new and wonderful I want to share it with everyone so they can get the same thrill of discovery that I experience.
Cohen spends fully a fifth of his time reviewing scores, seeking out, as he describes it on the site, music that (1) has an immediate impact on him, and presumably the audience, (2) reveals an original voice, not a clone of another, more famous composer, (3) displays "killer instinct," that is, its composer knows how to exploit the material all the way through to the end of the piece, and (4) stands "outside the corridors of power," that is, not already championed by others. Even though he rejects outright 90 percent of what he hears, the remaining 10 percent can easily fill many seasons. In a telephone interview, Cohen explained to me why few music directors follow his approach:
There are several problems here. The deepest problem is the fact that orchestra boards tend to be frightened and very conservative. They are always afraid that people won't like it [the unusual]. As a result, they tend to stick to the tried and true. The orchestral world is most hidebound in that way. [The motivation] is partly a financial element — it costs a lot to put on a concert. A second thing that is also related to money has to do with rehearsal time. With a lot of orchestras, if it's a piece of music they know, you can whip it out with not a lot of rehearsal. You would need more time with the type of stuff that we do. Third, there are a lot of conductors who don't want to venture out. If you are a real careerist as a conductor, you're going to be interested in building your career with the standard repertoire. Also, I can't dismiss the idea of laziness, either, from anybody. It's a lot easier to do stuff that you already know.
The fact that the MusicNova Orchestra has completed five seasons and presented 57 regional premieres says that, at least in the Phoenix area, Cohen's experiment has not fallen on deaf ears. The conductor reported the reaction of one revitalized concertgoer: "Keep up the good work! You've given me a reason to return to going to concerts after 20 years of avoiding them because I couldn't bear to hear another Brahms Four." There are plenty of examples of worthy, overlooked composers that Bay Area orchestras might consider if they became inspired by Cohen's example. Here's one program as a teaser, a standard structure, but consisting solely of neglected works meeting Cohen's criteria — as borne out by the "buzz" associated with their recordings:
  • Juventus Overture, by Victor de Sabata. This work includes one of the all-time great melodies.
  • Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 52, by Johan Kvandal. Has an opening motive as attention grabbing as that of Beethoven's Fifth.
  • Geysir, Op. 51, by Jon Leifs. Leaves hot water on your suit.
  • Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, by Julius Röntgen. I'd place this symphony right up there with those by Brahms and Dvořák.
If I heard any one of these on Muzak as I was shopping, my heart would burst with as much pleasure as a soda can hitting the floor when knocked from a shelf.