Today, James Oestreich at The Times reports on a single, lonesome “boo” that was sent into the air after the performance of Webern’s “Five Canons After Latin Texts” during a Friday evening Mostly Mozart Festival concert.
I suppose a boo, even a single boo, in our age of concert complacency, is something to report on, especially since, often, at classical concerts, one is not sure if the audience is even dead or alive. So, a boo, at least, is a sign of life and a particular order of vitality.
But Oestreich’s article casually assumes that the boo had a single, identifiable origin: a predjudice against atonal music.
The concert in question (which C.C. did not attend), was a mixed bill of Mozart and Webern. Oestreich’s report claims that the boo came after the first Webern set. Now, I can see how one might assume that since no one booed after the first Mozart set, that, well, someone booing after the first Webern set would mean that of course the booer was aiming his ammunition at the ugly, crass atonal fare.
But there are other reasons people boo in concerts. Like, for instance, if the performer sucks.
I bring this up because Oestreich, in his piece, gives no indication as to the quality of performance during the first Webern set. Not knowing Christianne Oelze, the soprano, I cannot assume anything about her performance. But the review never says she sang the songs well, nor that the clarinetists performed their jobs to perfection. (Oestreich even criticizes some “questionable utterances from the winds” in a later Mozart piece. And, come on, if you’re fucking up Mozart, chances are your Webern isn’t going to be flawless…)
The assumption here is that the boo was really only about musical aesthetics. I’m not saying it wasn’t, since individuals opposed to atonality have rarely been ones to keep it to themselves, but I think Oestreich could have done a better job of ruling out other possibilities, rather than letting the readers assume that Webern’s music is the obvious cause of outrage.
To his credit, Oestreich seems to attempt to be even-minded, even pro-risk when it comes to Louis Langre’s desire to broaden audiences’ tastes by programming atonal fare. But, there is still this rote manner through which he addresses Webern’s presence in the concert; as in the way he describes the boo as being “provoked”, or when he writes that the all-Mozart second half of the program “smoothed over any possible offense.”
Mozart can be just as offensive as Webern, especially if you’re hearing it for the ten billionth time, which is likely.
Or, especially if you’re hearing it because some retarded programing exec believes that’s all you ever want to hear.
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Well, can’t speak for the clarinetists, but if Oelze’s superb recording of Schoenberg’s 2nd String Quartet with the Brindisi Quartet is anything to go by, she probably did a fine job.
For me the most frustrating part of that review was the description of “a smattering of polite applause” following the Webern, with the assumption that those who responded positively were only doing so out of politeness, and not because of actual enthusiasm for the music/performance.
I for one would much rather hear Webern than Mozart…but I suppose that’s why I wouldn’t go to the Mostly Mozart Festival.
UPDATE: Well, I jjust found out that a couple of friends of mine saw the Saturday night show. Not only did no one boo, but apparently, Oelze wasn’t actually all that great. Said friends reported that she had lots of shoulder tension, did strange things with her arms, and over-emoted on the Webern.
Anyone actually attend this thing? I’d love to hear more accounts…
Too bad about Oelze. Her Schoenberg quartet was really quite good.
I was reading Die Reihe 2 (the issue devoted to Webern) and came across this somewhat a propos passage in Stockhausen’s “For the 15th of September, 1955″:
“After the war, one could only with difficulty hear the first concerts in which, here and there, in between marketable pieces, one of his short compositions was tucked away — at some exclusive music-festival or every few months, late at night, on the radio. So far the situation has not basically changed.
“Thus a strange state of affairs has come about: young musicians wish nothing more ardently than to hear Webern’s music — but it is hardly ever played. If one should succeed in asking a programme-organiser or conducter why this is so, the answer is often that ‘the public’ doesn’t want to hear that sort of thing. ‘The public’ is thus an anonymous body, a thought-projection on the part of those who find themselves personally challenged. ”
He might have been overstating the case somewhat in the second graph, but it’s still an interestingly current description — written over 50 years ago.
Also amusingly/bemusingly current was this excerpt from a letter of a former member of the Vienna Worker’s Chorus that Webern conducted:
“The most important thing for us members of the Worker’s Chorus was that this music [Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden] first taught us really to hear; and that was Anton Webern’s great service. Certainly a long and steep path! I do not know where a choral conductor is to be found today who regards it as his duty to progress with art. Perhaps he became a critic, which is of course much easier than to teach and inspire people to take part in art.
“What would be far more important than deciding ‘For or against Schönberg’ is a little more attention for the progressive composers alive today.”
Interesting discussion. I wasn’t at the concert in question either, but I don’t like booing performers. Sometimes they have off nights. They’re only human.
No musician wants to give a lousy performance, so why can’t audiences
be respectful?
I’m not sure about booing individual compositions, though I wouldn’t do this myself.
Some people just don’t like atonal music. I like some works of this kind,
but not others, just as with tonal music. You have to judge each work on its individual merits, but I always try to keep an open mind.
Good points Robert.
Although, part of me is really fascinated to find out what would happen if our concert goers took more active roles as participants in performance. Right now, you either get a huge ovation or a polite ovation; or a stray boo. Maybe those in favor of Webern could have stood up for him when his work got booed, if that is indeed what happened. Why should the booers be the only contingent of the audience who gets to break decorum. Next time I think something is really hot, maybe I’ll just stand up and shout it to the world, “Yes! That was amazing! This is why I love classical music! Keep going!!!”