Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus champion the “new” once again. In concerts May 19-23, they tackle a monumental, relatively obscure choral work by Stravinsky, while introducing the brilliant talents of EXAUDI, guest vocal soloists from the U.K.
Stravinsky being, of course, one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century, his music rightfully occupies a huge place in the orchestral canon. His early ballets, such as The Firebird, The Rite of Spring, and Petrushka, regularly appear on concert series, as do the neoclassical Symphony of Psalms, Dumbarton Oaks Concerto, and other orchestral and choral works. Late in his life, in the early 1950s, Stravinsky began using the 12-tone, or serial techniques, of Arnold Schoenberg. Threni, Lamentations of Jeremiah (1958) is his first and possibly only entirely serialist music — and his longest liturgical work. Like others from that time, it remains virtually unheard, and until now has never been performed by the S.F. Symphony. [Update: this piece has just been replaced by Bernstein's Chichester Psalms.]
I have to wonder whether it’s the musical challenges of this piece for the musicians, conductor, and vocalists, or for the listening audience, that have rendered it mostly absent from the concert hall today. A significant obstacle lies in the sheer vocal expertise required to pull this off, from both the chorus and the six vocal soloists. Perhaps the growing quality of Symphony choristers under the baton of Chorus Director Ragnar Bohlin is one inspiration for Tilson Thomas to dare running this 12-tone gauntlet.
Surely inspiring is the participation of Britain’s young group EXAUDI, hailed by Gramophone magazine as “one of the most sensationally gifted vocal groups” in the U.K. Run by its founders, James Weeks and Juliet Fraser, who met while students at Cambridge, EXAUDI is a consort of England’s brightest youthful vocal talent, with repertoire consisting of early music and contemporary music. The group has five CDs out on the British label NMS, including new works by composers Elisabeth Lutyens, Howard Skempton, Christopher Fox, and Michael Finnissy. The group performs frequently at such major festivals as Festival d’Automne (the last time with Ensemble InterContemporain), the MAfestival Bruges, and the Italian festival MiTo Settembre.
This concert provides a fantastic chance for Bay Area audiences to hear the American debut of a group that is rising on the international horizon.
No doubt Threni is austere, being a 30-minute atonal epic set to Latin texts drawn from three separate chapters of the “Lamentations of Jeremiah,” which are traditionally recited in Roman Catholic churches on either Holy Thursday or Good Friday. Its sound might not be “fun” in the traditional sense, yet it promises to be fascinating and powerful, in part due to the strong but focused tone of EXAUDI, ideal for the performance of harmonically intricate contemporary music. And it also offers a rare opportunity to experience a work that Stravinsky intended to be the pinnacle of his liturgical music. The concert concludes with Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé, balm for any chaffed ears.
Plaudits to MTT for presenting the not-so-comfortable repertoire that makes his orchestra interesting and relevant to our time, and to the entire cast for (I trust) having the musical dexterity to make Threni work.