Concertzender Live, Monday 21st March 20:00 CET
Contemporary Russian composers certainly have manic and obsessive tics. The listener should be prepared for a highly personal and dramatic sound ritual touching all emotions. One of the iconic works of modern Russian music is Composition II: ‘Dies Irae’ by Galina Oestvolskaja (1919-2006). This exceptional piece from 1973 is written for piano, eight contrabasses and a sturdy wooden box as percussion. Oestvolskaja is well known here primarily thanks to conductor/pianist Reinbert de Leeuw.
The Japanese-Dutch pianiste Tomoko Mukaiyama has also been an admirer of Oestvolskaja’s music for many years. A few years ago Mukaiyama created a unique programme End and Beginning about the legendary piece Composition II. Oestvolskaja’s piece is rarely performed because of the unusual lineup – try getting eight contrabasses together. Contrabass Quirijn van Regteren Altena’ students immediately took to this project. The Russian composer Aleksandr Raskatov (1953) received a commission to write a new work for this bizarre ensemble. Raskatov came to fame through his opera A Dog’s Heart (2008) at De Nederlandse Opera.
The concertprogramme End and Beginning was in the end only performed four times because of corona, and the last concert in the Tilburg De Link was cancelled at the last minute. Fortunately the Concertzender in collaboration with the De Link and the Tomoko Mukaiyama Foundation managed to arrange a recording of a rehearsal to preserve this performance for posterity.
The hall of the Tilburg Cenakel was strewn with instruments. As well as the piano and the eight contrabasses there was an army of percussion instruments. The accomplished percussionist and multitalent Niels Meliefste was going to be stretched to the limits this afternoon. For Oestvolskaja’s Composition II he took his place behind a large wooden chest which looked like a coffin. On the top of the chest he had scratched his score.
The percussionist plays a key role in Oestvolskaja’s ritual masterpiece. Like a slave driver he pounds feverishly and rhythmically on the chest, using two big hammers. Magnificent over-the-top music drama which only a Russian tone poet could create. Extreme music which works surprisingly healingly. The pianist also goes to extremes, with deep chords. The eight contrabasses respond with quiet, calming passages. Merciless music of unmistakeable beauty. Heavy metal ensemble music but without screaming guitars and grunters. Frightening and at the same time moving music which keeps the listener in a stranglehold. This musical Day of Wrath (Dies Irae) works perfectly in this culture deprived period. Rebellious reaction music to channel all your lockdown rage.
Aleksandr Raskatov’s 30-minute composition Bells (2019) provides a less monomaniacal journey, but continues as a crazy rollercoaster. The complete kaleidoscope of Russian music history passes by. From the expressive craziness of Scriabin, the drama of Shjostakovich and the collage techniques of Schnittke to the minimalist post romanticism of Valentin Silvestrov and Alexandre Rabinovich. Raskatov also honours Oestvolskaja in his work. In his composition compositie Bells Raskatov is inspired by the church bells of the Russian-Orthodox church. In eleven very different and colourful scenes Raskatov plays virtuoso with the eccentric lineup. Eight contrabasses and a piano offer more than enough sound drama, but percussionist Niels Meliefste adds something extra. From sound scales and submerged basins to huge gongs, drums and a Hungarian cimbalom. Raskatov conjures with timbres. The listener is pushed in all directions. One moment his music is full of excitement and increasing dissonances, then comes a simple little tune in which everyone sings along softly. Mukaiyama plays some fairy notes on a toy piano. Extremes clash in Raskatov’s unashamed sound world. Completely uninhibited he swings between deadly seriousness and dreamy kitsch. Fasten your seatbelts for a full hour of genuine Russian sound art. These intense performances of Bells by Aleksandr Raskatov and Oestvolskaja’s Composition II were recorded by Kees van de Wiel and can be heard on Monday 21st March on De Concertzender.
Mark van de Voort
