Kurt Schwertsik ("Proms composer", Record Review 6.8.16)

[Nick Armstrong]

I find myself very taken with the music of Kurt Schwertsik (just catching up with past Record Reviews, having missed several due to holiday commitments).

Some of the extracts really appealed to me, and I've acquired the third of the discs listed below - it's had a few plays over the last couple of days. I think it's a cracker.

I really respond to Schertskik's 'determination to remain fundamentally tonal' and his 'playful subversion of the symphonic form' and his use of triadic tonality.

"From the vantage point of the entire musical context, I just didn’t want to do without these sounds, I was bored with the taboo on octaves and triads, this was also just another cliché as far as I was concerned"


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Discs featured:


SCHWERTSIK: Baumgesange Op. 65 (Songs of Trees); Herr K. entdeckt Amerika Op. 101; Nachtmusiken Op. 104

BBC Philharmonic, HK Gruber

CHANDOS CHAN10687



Kurt Schwertsik: Für Christa

SCHWERTSIK: Für Christa

Christa Schwertsik (singer), Kurt Schwertsik (piano), Christopher van Kampen (cello), Nicola Meecham (piano)

LARGO 5125



Schwertsik: House & Court Music

SCHWERTSIK: Wiener Chronik, Op. 28: Suite No. 1; Dracula Haus & Hofmusik, Op. 18; Symphonie im MOB-Stil, Op. 19

Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, HK Gruber

LARGO 5137



SCHWERTSIK: Sinfonia-Sinfonietta; Violin Concerto No. 2; Schrumpf-Symphony; Roald Dahl's 'Goldilocks'

Christian Altenburger (violin), Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dennis Russell Davies (conductor), Kurt Schwertsik

OEHMS OC342



Horn Concertos

FREISITZER, R: Music for horn and 11 musicians

HEINISCH, T: Chimare

STERK, N: … und leuchteten das Dunkel aus

SCHWERTSIK: Alphorn Concerto, Op. 27

PINTOS, R: Horn concerto

Nury Guarnaschelli (horn), Ensemble Die Reihe, Gottfried Rabl



Irdische Klange (Earthly Sounds)

SCHWERTSIK: Irdische Klänge (Earthly Sounds) - Symphony in Two Movements Op. 37; Irdischen Klänge 2 Teil (Earthly Sounds - Part 2) - Five Nature Pieces Op. 45; Das ende der Irdischen Klänge (The End of Earthly Sounds); Inmitten der Irdischen Klänge (In the midst of Earthly Sounds) - Uluru Op. 64; Baumgesänge (Tree Songs) Op. 65

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, David Porcelijn

ABC CLASSICS 476 227-3

[Serial_Apologist]

I really respond to Schertskik's 'determination to remain fundamentally tonal' and his 'playful subversion of the symphonic form' and his use of triadic tonality.

Whereas I'm afraid I don't - to me Schwertzig's espousal of triadic fundamentalism is akin to a form of Flat Earthism.

[Nick Armstrong]

Schwertzig's espousal of triadic fundamentalism is akin to a form of Flat Earthism.

Discuss.

(My take is that it's a misconceived analogy, since that particular creative approach has nothing whatever in common with an irrational, slavish belief in something that's palpably false.)

[Serial_Apologist]

Discuss.

(My take is that it's a misconceived analogy, since that particular creative approach has nothing whatever in common with an irrational, slavish belief in something that's palpably false.)

Yes yes - bad analogy on my part. I was thinking more in terms of undiscovering something whose discovery imv added a dimension to musical expression the way discovering the earth to be round (more-or-less) added to our understanding about life.

[edashtav]

Yes yes - bad analogy on my part. I was thinking more in terms of undiscovering something whose discovery imv added a dimension to musical expression the way discovering the earth to be round (more-or-less) added to our understanding about life.

But, Kurt's use of triadic harmonic tools is complex-he has his tongue deep in his cheek. Just like an astronomer suspending belief in the round earth for a moment, to discover anew and to explore the power that the flat earth theory formerly exerted. Kurt flatters the traditionalists only to deceive them. Watch out, Caliban, Kurt' may spirit you over the hills and far away.

[Nick Armstrong]

Yes yes - bad analogy on my part. I was thinking more in terms of undiscovering something whose discovery imv added a dimension to musical expression the way discovering the earth to be round (more-or-less) added to our understanding about life.

Point taken, S_A - but there is nothing 'wrong' or 'false' or 'misguided' about tonality &c. Why jettison it? Why not retain it as part of - maybe as a basic part of - the range of options available... including later 'discoveries' ?

[Serial_Apologist]

Point taken, S_A - but there is nothing 'wrong' or 'false' or 'misguided' about tonality &c. Why jettison it? Why not retain it as part of - maybe as a basic part of - the range of options available... including later 'discoveries' ?

Indeed, there is always a place for it if we extend its definition broadly enough to include pre- and extra-Eurocentric modalities such as those in Indian traditional and Japanese classical musics. But tonality as an organising and expressive principle in music from the 17th to the start of the 20th century in the Euroclassical tradition is thereby devalued into just one option among a supermarket range, as Richard Barrett has nicely put it elsewhere. It's not the exclusion of tonality I'm going on about here, rather that of atonality as a legitimate bearer of expanded musical expression and new organising principles including serialism, though not exclusively. We rightly deplored it (didn't we??) when Zhdanov & co ordered composers to write tonal music in the late 1940s, saying this was Communism suppressing the expressive possibilities of music and composer freedom of thought. Does the same dictat become acceptable when issuing from todays defender's of musical saleability? Constantly going back and referencing past practices, like countries depending on their Heritage industry, must carry diminishing returns, surely. However, Edashtav has an interesting take on this, coming at it kurtesy a different vantage point, and I tend to trust his judgement, while not quite, er, understanding his point in #5.