Trends and Tendencies in Music and Vision 15 September

Trends and Tendencies

Contemporary music at the Enescu Festival,
discussed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

One feature of the 2013 Enescu Festival in Bucharest is the attention paid to contemporary music, in a section named XXI Century Music encompassing some thirty concerts. Thus, it is a good opportunity to catch new trends and tendencies even if there are two issues: a) the trends and tendencies may be not worldwide but just the outcome of artistic director Ioan Hollender's choice; b) each reviewer can listen to only a limited number of concerts, a sample that may not be representative of the full Festival program itself.

My sample is limited to the concerts of the European Contemporary Orchestra on 7 September and of the Minguet Quartet on 8 September 2013, plus related workshops. A good practice of the Enescu Festival is to organize -- normally in the University -- open discussion between younger and older people in the afternoons after concerts. On 7 September, I also went to hear the Tammuz Quartet playing 'modern' but not 'contemporary' music; the program included three compositions by George Enescu, Robert Fuchs and Gabriel Fauré (thus, the period and the 'school' that Enescu himself belonged to). In short, a very elegant performance but not directly related to the focus of this review.

The Tammuz Quartet at the George Enescu Festival. Photo © 2013 Sorin Lupsa. Click on the image for higher resolution

Especially interesting was the European Contemporary Orchestra (ECO) concert. ECO is a European Commission funded project aimed at promoting young composers and young ensembles as well as inter-European cooperation amongst them. Currently, ECO is made up of two long standing contemporary music groups: Télémaque from Marseilles and Musique Nouvelle from Mons, Belgium, plus a number of young Italian instrumentalists. Two conductors alternated during the concert: Jean-Paul Dessy and Raoul Lay.

Jean-Paul Dessy and the European Contemporary Orchestra performing in Bucharest as part of the George Enescu Festival. Photo © 2013 Sorin Lupsa. Click on the image for higher resolution

World premieres were presented of six composers: Pierre-André Charpy, Liviu Danceanu, François Narboni, Ted Hearne, Martijn Padding and Adrian Iorgulescu. Our readers are likely to be interested in an overall view more than in comments on individual compositions. Incidentally, Charpy and Danceanu's pieces lasted about fifteen minutes each, whereas the others were five to ten minutes long. The compositions of 'senior' contemporary composers -- Gabriel Iranyi, Peter Ruzicka and Wolfgang Rihm -- presented on 8 September, were more extended. The concert took place in a nice and very modern auditorium in the National Museum of Romania, perhaps too big a concert hall in the light of the small audience attracted by contemporary music -- especially on Saturday and Sunday mornings at 11am. Iranyi and Ruzicka's compositions (dated, respectively, 2012 and 2008) lasted some twenty minutes each. Rihm's work (with a duration well over half an hour) was premiered in 2003.

The Minguet Quartet at the George Enescu Festival on 8 September 2013. Click on the image for higher resolution

In general terms, the 'younger' and the 'older' musicians follow similar styles. This raises some interest issues:

1. The twelve note row system (ie the second Vienna school) and structuralism (in Darmstadt) seem to belong to the past as minimalism prevails. Does this mean that in the field of music the twentieth century has been a 'very short' century more than a 'short century' as called by a few political scientists?
2. Electro-acoustics and live electronics have a mere supporting role to the live instrumental and vocal parts (very clear in Charpy's composition, the only one of the nine with a significant electro-acoustic and live electronic element.
3. Major attention to minute, almost calligraphic description (eg the sea waves in Narboni and the urban rush in Iorgulescu).

I intend only to raise the issues. A debate can be opened in Music & Vision.

Copyright © 15 September 2013 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy

To comment on this feature or on any other M&V article, please use our contact form here. If you'd like your comment to be published, please tick the box to instruct the editor to consider your comments for publication.