Orchestra of the Chamber Music Society
In a wide ranging interview veteran musician and conductor Lakshman Joseph de Saram expresses his views on Arts, Censorship and Conducting in post-modern context.
(The first part of the interviewed was published on May 2 issue of Montage)

Q: How far do you think a government should go in censoring the arts?

A: My emotional, unconditioned libertarian response is nowhere at all. But as we know, the subject is as thorny as it comes. You may have to get into the rationale of censorship first. The moral, the political, the religious. It comes in all forms; and it’s not always your conservative government. Didn’t Che Guevara, everyone’s favourite revolutionary, propose a ban on jazz and rock and roll? Rightist, leftist, middle-ground, they all have their reasons. The distinction between a government censor and a private one is not immediately obvious in the arts. The big religious institutions are famous for stepping up and protecting their faithful from the possible evils of artistic expression, and they too have their reasons. Plus many private artistic concerns receive governmental support through funding and other means: with such support often comes some degree of state supervision or control. It’s irritating, it’s as old as the hills, it is global and, realistically, it will be around forever; but you develop an awareness of the ever-changing ground-rules and learn to play the banned/censored game to your advantage. There are people in the film business who are masters at it! I suppose a well-thought-out template where children’s sensitivities for example are protected is important, no matter how blurred the line is between pornography and art. Beyond that, any sort of censorship of the arts for adults, barring the universally illegal stuff, brings into play ugly draconian elements. In a working democracy, no adult wants to be told what he or she can or can’t read, look at, or listen to. Lakshman Joseph de Saram

Q: Do you think a government should have a say in the quality and content of arts organizations?
A: Only if the arts organization in question has been given a government mandate to officially represent the country in their respective field, then, yes. The Ministry of Culture/National Arts Council could appoint an overseer on the organization’s board, just to make sure basic benchmarks are met, like on our national sports teams, or any state-endorsed body. If you carry the name of your country, you take on an enormous national responsibility, and therefore are wide open to public scrutiny, criticism and accountability.

Q: How about the film industry and government involvement?
A. It’s more cut and dried. We are talking more about content than management and distribution right? So, if the film in any way represents the country in an official capacity, and is a product of the government film unit, the government has a right to suggest ideas. That’s as far as they should go in the creative process of a nation’s film industry. On the end product, all governments use their censor boards to telling effect. The most recent headline grabbing banning was of the Japanese film Gurotesuku by the British Board of Film Classification, formally known as the British Board of Film Censors. The sale of the DVD even to forewarned adults is illegal in the UK. I’m sure, like all censor boards, they are a collection of rational and righteous public servants who have only the best interests of their citizens at heart. It’s a thankless job.

Q. Moving on to less controversial subjects, you have publicly stated that you have a disdain for conductors. If that is true, why?
A. Not true! In jest, I may have shared an anti-conductor joke or two with an audience at one of the Chamber Music Society’s (conductor-less) pre-concert talks. That’s about it; I have great admiration for conductors who are able to motivate musicians to reach heights that they did not think they were capable of. I have great respect for conductors whose vast knowledge of music, when combined with a certain intuition and depth, can illuminate stunning aspects of a score that you were not privy to before. These conductors are few and far between, but they make being in the game worthwhile. On the lower levels, it is more about basic people management, beating time and waking the triangle player after 200 bars of rest. Uninspiring stuff, for the musicians and even for the audience. Most of these conductors fail to even come close to the tipping point, because they have usually lost the interest of the musicians before the second rehearsal. It’s endemic.

Q. What are the principals of conducting, other than beating time and managing people?
A. Maestro Solti told us that true conductors are born, not made. Even assuming you are one of the natal elect; the guiding principals of top-flight conducting are still manifold. Romanian Conductor Sergiu Celibidache (1912-1996) Austrian Conductor Carlos Kleiber (1930-2004) Russian Conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky (1903-1988) German Conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler (1886-1954) First, it’s all about gaining the respect of the orchestra, from the Concertmaster to the non-union substitute gong player. You may want to start, at the very least, with a complete study of (Hermann) Scherchen’s Handbook of Conducting – because you can be sure most of your Principals will have. Then, there’s a litany of boxes to tick before you can stand before a group of musicians and tell them what to do: beat patterns, the ictus, internal and explicit subdivisions, composite rhythm, memorization of metronome speeds, modulation of tempo, strategies for the successful execution of complex passages and dense textures, balance, articulation, vocalization, intonation, transposition, structure/analysis of the score – these are a few of the basics. This is before you get into the intangible aspects of conducting: “knowing” the score, the aura and allure, the all-important empathy you have with the musicians to make the moment of re-creation meaningful – these indispensables you can’t teach. I remember conductors who after the first rehearsal would take the principal players out for coffee for a debate on the program. They would pitch their interpretation to us; ask us if what they wanted was achievable. Having all your players on the same page is vital.

Q: So, when we see a conductor on stage in front of a group of musicians in a concert, what is he actually doing?
A: What a conductor does in front of a group of musicians is direct them, primarily. Start them, stop them, cue them, make them go faster, slower, softer, louder. But the real value we feel in having a conductor is at the rehearsal phase. It’s all about time management and direction. He maps out the scores in his studio and comes to the rehearsal with a blueprint that he is confident will work. It’s his interpretation, and why is this important? Because all of us in the orchestra have blueprints and interpretations that we think are workable. So in essence, what you are doing is appointing one massive ego to contain the chaos of a 100 regular egos. It’s like the military, where you have a supreme commander planning a battle, who in turn gives the soldiers a set of orders with predetermined objectives; or the head of a team of surgeons planning a Whipple procedure or something. One guy maps out the waypoints and makes the make or break decisions; and in an orchestra, the conductor is that person. He takes the ultimate responsibility. We give him the glory if his plan works, and it’s the proverbial firing squad if it does not. Pretty simple.

Q: If a conductor’s work is mostly needed at the rehearsal phase, is his presence at the concert dispensable?
A: Moot point. Technically, all the top orchestras in the world can perform the most demanding symphonies of Mahler, Bruckner, Shostakovich on auto-pilot; but that would be boring and unfair. After all the diligent effort the conductor has put into the planning and development of a work, he has to be given the controls when it’s time to execute it under the lights. And who knows? He could be inspired mid-flight to do something spontaneous. These concerts are exhilarating.

Q: The Chamber Music Society’s orchestra does not have a conductor, why?

A: We are around 31 musicians, and employ a collaborative leadership approach, loosely modelled on the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. It’s an entirely different dynamic from the traditional method, but it works beautifully for us. We have not ruled out having a conductor; we will if and when it’s appropriate.

Q: How about the managing of egos you spoke about before? Is it chaos at the Chamber Music Society rehearsals?
A: Funny! No, no chaos. As the Artistic Director, I do pull rank sometimes – but delicately! Q: Who are some of the conductors, in your opinion, that have made an impact? A: My personal list of conductors of the past, in no particular order, would include; (Sergiu) Celibidache, (Wilhelm) Furtwangler, Carlos Kleiber, (Yevgeny) Mravinsky, (Hermann) Scherchen, (Carl) Schuricht, (Georg) Solti, (Klaus) Tennstedt – give me more time, I am sure I could come up with other names. But these maestros have truly made an impact on how I listen to music specifically.

Q: How about present-day conductors?
A: I think it is a little unfair to measure or grade present-day conductors. For one thing, I personally know a few of them, so it’s embarrassing. Also most of them are still in the process of building their “legacies”. But you can be assured, all of them have put in a ton of hard work to get where they are now, know the nuts and bolts of the game like the back of their hand, live music night and day, and have a natural gift on top of it all. The path to the conductor’s podium is complex and merciless, and is littered with broken egos and splintered batons. That seems to be the only way, the baptism of fire. Otherwise, we would all be conducting!

 by Ranga CHANDRARATHNE (Sunday Observer, May 2, 2010)

Lakshman Joseph de Saram pix by Kesara Ratnavibhushana

Post- modern music signifies both musical style and musical condition. As a musical style, post-modern music contains characteristic of post-modern art deriving musical motifs across the spectrum of traditions and genres. It tends to blur the traditional boundaries of “high art” and “Kitsch”. As a condition, post-modern music, in simple terms, is a state of music after modernity. It has no particular defining feature but often considered as mode of expression, meant for mass consumption and also indicator of group identity or an identity of a sub-culture.

What follows are the excerpts of an exclusive interview with Lakshman Joseph de Saram, the film composer and Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Colombo, who responded to questions on music, post-modernism and the National Performing Arts Theatre.

Q: There has been discussion recently in the Sinhalese and English intellectual circuits about the post-modernistic influence in our fine arts, and in film music your scores have been cited as a clear example of that influence. Do you agree?

A: What is post-modern music to us anyway? Is it anti-elite, anti-formal, blurring the lines between “high” and “low” music? If that’s what it is, maybe, the stuff I have written to date can carry that label. I don’t get too carried away with labels though.

Q: Is your music anti-elite?

A: What I meant by post-modernism having anti-elitist proclivities was about it going bang against modernism and its exacting academic structures. The whole 2nd Viennese School ending with (Eliot) Carter perhaps. I suppose anyone who writes music these days that incorporates multiple traditions and cultures and injects some form of populist values will be labelled a post-modernist.

Q: You said blurring the lines between “high” and “low” music, is that not in itself an elitist viewpoint?

A: Let’s get off the word “elitist,” my mistake – but in essence, is not post modernism just about that? The blurring of styles? Take Charles Ives’s “Central Park in the Dark,” he embeds in the score bits of ragtime, jazz and even a (John Phillip) Sousa march. Outrageous stuff for early 20th-century serious writing, and this brings the other important aspect of post-modernism: irony. There is a lot of tongue in cheek.

Q: Would you describe your music as ironic?

A: At the risk of sounding facetious, no matter where I go, I feel tethered to this pile of unrepentant irony, I can’t attribute it to anything specific, but I deal with it. Coming back to the music, there are tons of cheeky musical reference points and less obvious tributes, so to speak, to my many collisions with people and incidents, music being the common denominator in all of them. This is possible because I have constantly engaged a mild contempt for the habitually unproven values of let’s say the structural unity and sanctity of “form” and “tradition”. I am blithely able to juxtapose a Kotahena funeral band blowing their guts out, completely drunk, with the sound of a Grancino cello because of this, however ridiculous it may sound.

Q: So, are you out to ridicule?

A: Well, that’s never the intention, however, the music mostly is a response to the visual or, at times, the unseen. So, if I feel the scene requires an ironic or ridiculous sound, to prevent it from looking overly earnest, I’ll write it. There have been several instances. “Mille Soya” and “Machan” have plenty of examples.

Q: In your opinion, who are the most important composers in the post- modernistic era?

A: In Sri Lanka, it would be Premasiri Khemadasa, who began as a traditionalist, went through his Stravinsky/Janacek modernistic phase and ended up a neoconservative post-modernist, beating the label bandwagon to death! His “Beyond Horizons,” the last serious piece he wrote while living in Prague, is a sterling example of his returning to the principles of tradition, where he takes great pains in exorcising his music of “style,” “irony” and “shock.” Re-fitting it with a moral philosophy based on his personal idea of secular humanism with tangible elements of his own brand of spirituality. But he was still post-modern, because his fundamental was the blurring of multiple cultural identities. That’s primarily why he rejected the term “Mystic minimalist.”

Anton Bruckner, post-modern romatic composer

Other important post-modernists are John Adams; Grecki, Steve Reich, Luciano Berio, Steve Martland, Terry Riley. you can go on. What’s also interesting is the other side of the street: the adaptation or reworking of Western classical norms by the populists, Bjrk, the Wu Tang Clan, Piazzolla, the Modern Jazz Quartet the effect is like having your favourite comic book character suddenly slipping into Chaucerian English. Nothing wrong with that.

Q: Do you think that post-modernism is unavoidable in the context of present day Sri Lankan culture?

A: Not at all, but I can only talk about what I am involved in. Let’s take our film industry: it would be difficult to pinpoint full-blown post-modernism in it. We are still very much based in solid narrative structure and characterization; conventional elements still play a big part in suspending the audience’s disbelief. The directors I work with, Prasanna (Vithanage), Boodee (Keerthisena) and Vimukthi (Jayasundara) have experimented successfully with nonlinear storytelling with the use of episodic and circular narratives, but if you ask them, I doubt they’ll see any “Pulp Fiction” – like ode to post-modernism in any of their work. The influence of Parajanov, Robert Bresson, Tarkovsky, Lynch (without the irony), weigh heavy on our top auteurs, plus they are way too serious to be touched by post-modernism. They leave that to the guy who does the score! I know I am going to get called on this.

Q: How about our literature?

A: I don’t read.

Q: Really? Even the scripts of the films you score?

A: I have them read to me, the interesting bits! Really, I am not an avid reader; and I have stopped reading for fun or inspiration. The reasons are complex. Currently, if you must know, I am on two books, re-reading Tartakower’s hyper-modern chess, only because I need to maintain an edge over my 12-year-old daughter. The other, is a mind bending scholarly piece written by a friend of mine on the 4th movement fragment of Bruckner’s 9th. It’s an obligation, and it might as well be in Braille. Not fun.

Q: Bruckner is a composer that you have brought up frequently in previous interviews, why?

A: Well. This is personal, but musically to me, at this point in my life, a late Bruckner symphony represents the culmination of everything I think music can be. A Celibidache or Furtwangler performance of, let’s say the 8th; have done things to me that no other music has been able to. The unnerving contradictory combination of deeply felt spiritualism, hidden in a possible web of mystic code, with the almost demonically inspired apocalyptic eruptions, are some of the obvious elements that make Bruckner’s music overwhelming. To me, the coda of the 8th symphony’s finale is like this metaphorical altar, and in the right hands, at the right moment, it almost demands from the listener some sort of subconscious genuflection. It is a hugely cathartic experience, and I am not alone in saying this. The journey has not been easy though, starting from an early 80’s performance of the 4th conducted by my brother at Carnegie Hall; it took me decades to actually begin to like the music. Celibidache, probably the greatest Brucknerian in our lifetime, to make matters worse, confounding us eager students further, said that you had to approach the score with an alchemist’s intuition. I am no closer to figuring that one out, twenty-odd years in.

 Q: Will we hear the Chamber Music Society perform Bruckner in the near future?

A: We could do his string quintet in F, but we need to find a proper context. I would be very interested in the Chamber Music Society programming a concert, where we present the Bruckner 3rd symphony transcription for two pianos by Gustav Mahler, no less. 2010-2011 being the Mahler centenary, I think it makes a lot of sense. I know the Mahler Gesellschaft in Vienna will be interested in supporting it. Performing the symphonies of both Bruckner and Mahler is beyond us: the resources, and basic entry-point depth of intellect required, are gargantuan. You need a Merlin on the podium who can guide you through those mine-infested labyrinthine scores. Think on the lines of constructing the vast Parakrama Samudra with a couple of pickaxes and a goat. You’ll end up hurting yourself.. It’s futile.

 Q: With the imminent arrival of the gleaming National Performing Arts Theatre, the first ever purpose-built stage for acoustic music, how do you think we should set about using it?

A: Massive question. In my department at the University of Visual and Performing Arts, we will submit a policy paper on how we think we can help define this magnificent building with distinctly Sri Lankan cultural and artistic values, positioning it in a way where it will have the potential for global appeal. That will be our primary objective. Important secondary objectives should be any cultural endeavour that is able to pass a basic benchmark of professionalism. Mediocrity, amateurism, cheesy middlebrow variety “shows” should be encouraged to perform elsewhere. Young Sri Lankans should know that they have to aspire and excel to perform on the main stage.

It should be known to all as the pinnacle of performing excellence, where you are sure the standards and content will always be high. Where you won’t have the elite drummers and musicians of the Temple of the Tooth perform one day, and a school stage its earnest drama the next. The two cannot ever share the same platform. Unacceptable. Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for kids and well-meaning dilettantes expressing their angst and having fun on stage, but this is the National Theatre. It does not happen at the Musikverein in Vienna, and it does not happen at the Esplanade in Singapore. Why should it happen here? The National Theatre should not be prostituted for money. For too long, we have tolerated mediocrity and indiscipline in the arts, we have blurred the distinction between passionate superficiality and basic competency making it difficult for our young performers to know where they actually stand on the global stage. It is up to the professional performers, the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage, to change this.

But you and I know, cynics at heart, that this discernment in content we talk about as a starting point for the resurgence of the performing arts in Sri Lanka is just wishful thinking. I can just see a person walk in with a grin and a five-lakh cheque to claim the main stage, believing for a moment that he is contributing to the ethos of a 2500-year-old civilization by presenting some corny drivel that would make people cringe.

I’m not being subjective here: what we are dealing with is bad art, using any yardstick. We have to look into ways of making the Theatre financially viable without undermining its cultural credibility. It’s up-stream in a river of crap for the classical arts I tell you, and here I am making waves!

But we are not giving up, just starting really. We look at Sri Lankan cricket as an inspiration, where it was pre ‘96, and where it is today. There are many more Lasith Malingas out there, and I don’t just mean in our cricketing world. We have a treasure trove of un-tapped young talent spread out across our country, seeking and nurturing them is paramount.

Having digressed, another important angle and one of my personal btes noires, is the subtle art of marketing culture. The people responsible for selling the arts in this town should maybe take a look at national performing arts complexes around the world, and know that there are certain ground rules in play. Let’s start with the basics here. Strategies that work on a rugby field probably don’t necessarily work in a concert hall. A typical member of an audience for a chamber music concert, is not going to be dazzled by some cheesy ad-campaign plastered and draped all over the auditorium. Discretion and subtlety is what works with that audience.

Legendary maestro Sergiu Celibidache

Now this should not be too difficult to figure out, but we see it happening too often. The same gaudy banners touting deals and discounts at a ‘big’ match are displayed at a concert featuring a requiem for the Buddha. The absence of fundamental refinement, style and sensitivity when it comes to supporting “high culture” is galling. All is not lost though; there are a few behemoth companies and formidable patrons in our midst that understand. Hopefully, they will form the all-important financial vanguard to Sri Lanka’s modern renaissance in the arts.

Q: Do you think your opinionated stance could unfairly alienate some people?

A: You see, Ranga, this is what I am talking about. You are chastised for speaking out against the whole “mediocrity rules” state of affairs. You become unpopular for not toeing the art-as-entertainment/money-making line. I couldn’t care less. The enormous disparity between “light” and “serious”, “amateur” and “professional” is mostly felt in the Western cultural orbit, we are morally obliged to do something about that. Our esteemed colleagues in the Sinhalese and Tamil cultural spheres are way better organised, and the equilibrium between the “corny” and the “sophisticated” is much more defined and regulated.

Ultimately, all great cities are measured by their cultural pedigree, the museums, the concert halls, the libraries, the architecture, the content and possibly the cuisine. In our specialized niche, we will work towards bringing a balance to the Western cultural calendar. Where eventually, for every “musical” staged, you will have for instance, the counter balance of the State opera. For every theatrical farce, you will have a cerebral alternative. For every “variety show,” you will have the antidote of a classical music concert, and hopefully, you will not have to debase these serious productions by having to throw in dinner or short-eats as an incentive for people to attend.

So how are we going to do this? We have to think long-term, high-test performance skills along with audience education to begin with. I belong to a small but potent group of zealous cultural crusaders – you too – whose mandate is unadulterated and focused. To launch this change, top-most on our agenda is to re-connect, in spirit at least, with our glorious past and, more tangibly, to use that consciousness as the bedrock to build on, to further set the stage, to set new artistic benchmarks for our future generations to exceed. The Government has given us, with the help of the Chinese, a tremendous platform, an instant icon; it is up to us to help define it.

Paths less travelled by – Chamber Music Society of Colombo

If Hindemith stück it to us rather less than one might have feared, Vivaldi’s Concerto Grosso in D min opened on a far more aggressive note (a D) than one would ever have expected. This piece – one of 12 ‘harmonic inspirations’ – recalled a bold and adventurous phase in the wild Western musical tradition. Scored for two violins and a cellist, plus continuo, the concerto strained to heights of tension and suspense that are totally beyond metaphor; cellist Dushy Perera played phenomenally in ‘Allegro’; and such was the soloists’ attack and vigour that their deputies fled their desks.

CMSC’s composer-in-residence, Stephen Allen, was also conductor-in-situ for the Colombo premiere of his Forest Paths song cycle. Musically, the work sits somewhere between John Adams’ harmonic-rhythmic motivation and the intense lyricism of Benjamin Britten (who produced his own good stuff about turbulent seas). Kind of a soundtrack for a wistful-Canadian-poet film that will never get funding.

The text for the soaringly operatic vocal part was Allen’s own, ‘loosely depicting the moods and changes within a forest’. Loosely, alas, was about right. From Mary Anne David’s fragile delivery I identified ‘glorious day’ and ‘sunshine’, ‘I love you’ and ‘little else’. There is nothing wrong with David’s pitch, and she has a wonderful sustain; but many of the most beautiful moments in the suite – including some elegiac Ethel-Smyth-style string melodies – occurred while David was not singing.

If the interval was designed to pour oil on troubled waters, Handel’s ‘Overture’ to Alessandro tossed a match onto the resulting millpond. It’s not GF’s greatest work, it must be said, but it was worth it just to watch Othman Hassan Majid at second violin. The man’s action is so smooth you’d think he was miming: the sound seems to just emanate from somewhere nearby.

Haydn’s Symphony No. 39 in G min (‘Il Mare Turbito’ – you sea?) started superbly, but flagged in the slow middle sections. The second movement was particularly untidy, and the violas conspicuously fluffed their few opportunities to shine (every joke about violas is true, by the way). I’m not saying the CMSC were complacent, but they are adrenaline junkies, and they need to regulate the IV. For whatever reasons, though – a feisty ‘Allegro di molto’; a phone ringing in the audience – the team rediscovered their mojo in the closing movement, which was of truly professional standard. Righteous applause, and even a few whistles. The Symphony Orchestra doesn’t get whistles. Not on the good days, anyway. ]]> http://www.colombochambermusic.org/uncategorized/2010/06/paths-less-travelled/feed/ 0 http://www.colombochambermusic.org/reviews-and-media/2010/06/woes-of-the-world-fell-away-as-the-music-began/ http://www.colombochambermusic.org/reviews-and-media/2010/06/woes-of-the-world-fell-away-as-the-music-began/#comments Thu, 17 Jun 2010 04:44:58 +0000 maestro http://www.colombochambermusic.org/?p=190 Woes of the world fell away as the music began

Review of the Chamber Music Society of Sri Lanka performance on February 26 
By Niloufer Pieris (Sunday Times, April 4, 2010)

The world situation is alarming. Earthquakes, floods, drought, climate change and the threat of nuclear war…the list is endless and depressing. ‘Troubled Seas and Forest Paths’ a concert by the Chamber Music Society of Colombo (CMSC) was refreshing, stimulating and exhilarating. I came away feeling all the woes of the world had fallen away. Life without music would be a mistake could certainly describe the concert. Mozart, Paul Hindesmith (nine short pieces), Vivaldi for 2 violins, cello and ensemble were quite delightful and beautifully played. However central to the programme was the song cycle ‘Forest Paths’ specially composed for CMSC with Mary Anne David as soloist. The four songs were impeccably sung by Ms. David who looked and sounded gorgeous. Truly a diva. The contrasts of the songs, particularly the dark tones of winter demonstrated her sensitivity. The breath control in the last song echoed in the spellbound audience and earned singer, composer and ensemble a standing ovation. Composer Steven Allen from the US has lived in Sri Lanka for the past five years. His programme note was touching. He pays a tribute to the country which he has made his home and we are indeed honoured that he lives here. The magic continued on March 13 when the CMSC held its ‘Great Artist’ series introducing French pianist Jean Bernard Pommier. Sonatas by Mozart, Appassionata (Beethoven) were accompanied by an equally dramatic thunderstorm. Sonata in B Minor (Liszt) struck a very personal note. This opulent music was choreographed as a vehicle for Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev ‘Marguerite and Armand’ based on the book ‘La Dame aux Camellias’ (Dumas). It was an evening of excellent music. Sri Lanka is considered a developing country but we have in our midst remarkable artists who somehow keep the arts alive. No easy task. Lakshman Joseph de Saram and the dedicated Ensemble deserve our appreciation and support for giving us such memorable occasions.

 The Chamber Music Society of Colombo (CMSC) with implementing partner, the Sewalanka Foundation will present “Music for Yarl-Paanam”, at the Veerasingam Hall, on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 4:15pm. The public was invited to attend this event, which was absolutely free of charge, with generous sponsorship by the same combination that funded the Galle Music Festival, Riks Konsert Ene and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo.

This could have been the first orchestra playing classical music in the peninsula. The CMSC believes that they are up to the challenge. The Tamil root of “Yarl-Paanam” may be translated as “the Land of the Harp Player”, so it seemed appropriate to introduce classical music by great masters once more to the city. The CMSC intended this concert to be the beginning of a fruitful exchange of ideas between artistes from the north and south, with it acting as a catalyst for other arts organisations to follow suit.

The programme will include Mozart, Handel, Vivaldi, Haydn, Hindemith and Stephen Allen, a programme already played in the historic De Groote Kerk at the 4^th Galle Literary Festival in January, and at the Lionel Wendt Theatre, Colombo in February. Both concerts were greeted with enthusiastic standing ovations. The fourth concert in this series will be announced later.

The Mozart is his middle period overture to the opera entitled “The Shepherd King”. The Vivaldi Concerto Grosso featured three of the CMSC’s principal string players in a solo role, providing exciting and vibrant baroque musical discourse. The Haydn was his barnstorming Symphony no. 39, and the Hindemith brings new sounds that were challenging even for Colombo audiences. The Allen was the contemporary, intimate song cycle “Forest Paths” completed in 2009, once again with Mary Anne David as the soprano soloist.

Jean-Bernard Pommier

The Chamber Music Society of Colombo was proud to present the world famous French concert pianist Jean-Bernard Pommier, who thrilled local audiences with a selection of monumental piano sonatas. The project was sponsored by airline partner SriLankan Airlines, and hotel partner Hilton Colombo Residencies.

The recital was at the Goethe Institute (German Cultural Centre), 39, Gregory’s Road, Colombo 07, on Saturday, 13 March 2010, at 7pm, during a thunderstorm.

The programme for the evening included Beethoven’s Sonata no. 23 in f minor, op. 57 “Appassionata”, flanked by Mozart’s Sonata no. 18 in D major, K. 576 and Liszt’s only, mighty Sonata in b minor, S. 178.

Born in 1944, Mr. Pommier began piano classes at the age of four with the Russian pianist Mina Koslova, and gave his first piano recital at the age of 7. He went on to study piano at the Paris Conservatoire with Yves Nat and Pierre Sancan, as well as conducting with Eugène Bigot. In New York, he worked with Eugene Istomin. He won first prize at Berlin’s Young Musicians’ International Competition in 1960. He became the youngest finalist at the 1962 International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, even winning first honourable mention from the chairman Emil Gilels (the year that it was won by Vladimir Ashkenazy and the late John Ogdon). At the same time, he began recording with EMI. Ten years later, he began a long collaboration with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, in Berlin and at the Salzburg Festival. He has since embarked on a career which has taken him to all of the world’s leading concert halls, to rave reviews by audiences and critics alike.

More recently, his concerto partners have included Pierre Boulez, Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Michel Plasson, Georges Prêtre, Semyon Bychkov, Charles Dutoit, Riccardo Muti, Lawrence Foster and Sir Simon Rattle. His recital and concerto appearances have included major centres such as London (with all 5 major orchestras), Amsterdam (with the Royal Concertgebouw), Tokyo (with the NHK Symphony), Leipzig, Dresden, Chicago, Paris and Moscow; as well as the Philharmonic Orchestras in Los Angeles, Vienna, Berlin and New York.

He also enjoys an active career as a conductor working with major orchestras in Europe and America. He also frequently takes up the dual role of pianist and conductor with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Northern Sinfonia (England), the Sinfonia Varsovia (Poland), the Israel Chamber Orchestra, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (Switzerland), the English Chamber Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

His chamber music partners have included Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Leonard Rose, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Paul Tortelier, Jaime Laredo and the Guarneri and Vermeer Quartets. He has given master-classes in Chicago, London, Lausanne, Durham and Melbourne.

Recent recital highlights include a complete cycle of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas in London in 2008/09.

His native France has bestowed the title of Officer of the Ordre national du Mérite and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.

Friday February 26, 2010. 7:30pm.
Lionel Wendt Theatre, Colombo.

PROGRAM

W.A. Mozart: Overture to “Il Re Pastore” (The Shepherd King), K208
P. Hindemith: “Acht Stücke” (Eight pieces) for augmented String Quintet, op. 44 no. 3
A. Vivaldi: Concerto Grosso in D minor for two violins and cello, RV565

Händel: Overture to “Alessandro”, HWV 21
Stephen Allen: “Forest Paths” song cycle for double string quartet and soprano
                      Mary Anne David, soprano
J. Haydn: Symphony No. 39 in G minor, Hob. I:39 “Il Mare Turbito”

After a riskily majestic ‘Andante maestoso’ preamble, Haydn’s ‘Overture’ to the seragliopera L’incontro improvviso burst loose in the ‘Presto’ (cue little faux-Oriental percussion touches) in a tangible explosion of pent-up energy. The urgent drive towards the cadences was gripping, and the repetitive sections – for such there will always be in Haydn – persistently, insistently fresh.

There was at once a fuller, darker texture to Mendelssohn’s early String Symphony No.3 in E minor (i.e. the cellos actually had a musical line, not just a series of bass notes): if you weren’t already sitting comfortably then this definitely wasn’t your chance. The ten-minute melodic and harmonic work-out had fire not just in its belly, but in its maw as well. The ‘Andante’ second movement was more gentle, a classical Classical theme more vapour trails than entrails. But the closing ‘Allegro’ turned the entrails into extrails, as fingers trilled vigorously and bows jagged across the strings. What with the tutti chordal steps and the embellished counterpoint, it seemed altogether more like a Händel overture…

This was a string-dominated programme, and, to my shame, somewhere amid the excerpts from Händel’s Hercules, I fleetingly wondered if five cellos (and two basses) was/were too many. But Händel bass-lines are where half the fun is at, and it was appropriately Herculean to see seven violinists obliged to do the work of 20 (Hercules may have done all his chores on time, but that doesn’t make him some flute-playing mummy’s boy).

The dainty concertante moments in the ‘Menuetto’ – on cello, violin, viola, flute and oboe – offered a brief variation of palette, before all hell broke loose in the hair-raising ‘Sinfonia’. With its mournful theme strained and splayed almost to breaking point and interspersed with outbursts of frantic rage (courtesy Mrs Hercules), the CMSC’s performance was a masterwork of coordination and inherent musicianship.
Nobody was going to sneak out during this interval. Always leave them wanting more, they say…

And then give them some, say I. The opening chords of the ‘Overture’ to Agrippina were so violent they actually elicited an echo from the Wendt (perhaps surprisingly, the venue really seemed to embrace the sound: it was like a proper C.18th salon gig, but with air-con!). The orchestra, wreaking the kind of emotional havoc that befits Händel’s heroine – sister of Caligula, niece (and wife) of Claudius, mother of Nero – stormed from one extreme to the other, and by the time they reached the oboist’s plaintive Orphean line, the audience was pin-drop silent, my heart was thumping and the violinists were blinking sweat out of their eyes. De Saram mopped his brow amid profound applause.

The nicknames of Haydn symphonies (the ‘Drum Roll’, most famously) are usually pretty tenuous, and often have no recorded authorial veracity, so during Haydn’s Symphony No.82 in C Major (‘L’ours’ or ‘The Bear’) I amused myself considering potential origins for the movements and thinking up headline-friendly puns (though I could bearly come up with any, which gave me paws: I didn’t want to panda to anyone, or end up making a complete urse of myself).

‘The Bear’ itself, though, was suitably boisterous. The ‘Menuet’ gave the impression that he was touring with a miserable provincial circus (the fault is Haydn’s; but did you know they train them to ‘dance’ by setting the cubs on hot coals?); the weighty bass uprisings depicted him, I hoped, sundering his chains and eating the circus master; and in the vivace ‘Finale’ – a summery peasant dance with a Slavic drone and cartoonish cameos from the village band – the horsehair flew (bear fur is illegal) – and what remained attached to the bow waged merry war against the stomach of the cat and the thunder of the cowskin.

I can recall one instance when the cellos rushed slightly, a couple of rudderless moments when the second violins and violas were left to their own, and by the ‘Finale’ the bassoon was sadly out of tune (giving our poor bear chronic indigestion). But, in vindication of the CMSC’s conductor-less policy, there was never a hint of hesitation, and the tenutos and other refined musical ephemera were symptomatic not only of the highest quality leadership – and followership, come to that – but of a rare level of discipline and cohesion.

Demonstration of brilliance in chamber music

 by Ranga CHANDRARATHNE (Sunday Observer, 06 December 2009)

The ensemble of the Chamber Music Society of Colombo, in a performance exclusively sponsored by the German Embassy, presented the Bicentennial Concert 2009. This time, the warm and clear acoustic of the Lionel Wendt Theatre was the chosen venue. The concert was the Society’s second 200/250-year birth and death commemoration of the three great German-speaking composers, namely, Georg Fredrick Handel, Franz Joseph Haydn and Felix Mendelssohn.

It was nothing short of an outstanding success for all involved. The ensemble, led by its passionate artistic Director/Concertmaster, Lakshman Joseph de Saram, began the concert with a controlled bang, the first chord to G. F. Haydn’s overture to his opera ‘incontro improvviso’. The French-style Adagio-meastoso that followed set the stage perfectly. Then quite surprisingly, Haydn launched into a Presto, a wild sounding ‘Turkish’ street band with clanging cymbals and loud drums, very much in the manner of Mozart’s ‘Abduction of the Seraglio’ overture. A charming slow movement with solo violoncello followed before the briefest reprise of the Presto. The playing was mostly committed with few mishaps in intonation in all departments. The overture is scored for pairs of oboe, horns, trumpets, timpani and cymbals, with the usual compliment of strings.

The Society’s Mendelssohn offering was his third string symphony in e minor. A repeat performance from their sold out Goethe Institute ‘Tribute to the Masters’ concert earlier in the year. Joseph de Saram’s artistic direction gave Mendelssohn’s youthfully naive work a very sumptuous and sophisticated air.

Although carefully primed and admirably played, it was interesting to note how the true and less forgiving acoustic of the Lionel Wendt highlighted in the most irritating way, the discrepancies in intonation in the ensemble, discrepancies that were certainly not this apparent in the much smaller but richly reverberant hall of the Goethe Institute.

The first seven of the set of 12 symphonies were all composed in Hamburg in 1821. It is hard to imagine that Mendelssohn was only 12 years old at the time of their composition.

Handel’s incidental music to his music drama ‘Hercules’ was next on the program. The work was composed in 1744 to a libretto by the Rev. Thomas Broughton after Sophocles and Ovid, and premiered at the King’s Theatre in London in 1745. Outstanding and revelatory was the ‘Sinfonia’ to Act III. To quote from the well-written program notes, the music was ‘brooding with outrageous bursts of agitated hysterics’, Joseph de Saram’s condescending musical arrogance at times leads him to a tendency to over interpret, but in this instance, he was inspired, a most illuminating outing where Handel and the audience were the ultimate beneficiaries.

Bookending the intermission, Handel’s overture to his opera ‘Agrippina’ began the second half. Truly visceral playing, breathtaking speed and shocking pauses with slashing strings and melancholic oboe portrayed a vivid Roman empire full of bloodletting, lust and remorse. It was indeed an eye-opener on how potent and electrifying an orchestral string section can actually sound when given the green light and right direction.

The concertmaster’s playing stood out with its searing white heat intensity, it was clear that he was undeniably ‘moved and involved’, both physically and psychologically by the unfolding story line and creative process.

The likes we have not witnessed in the local eastern and western classical music world, which almost always goes to great lengths to be modest and pleasantly sedated, no matter what the musical context is. On the other hand, this performance was a blowtorch to the senses.

We can only imagine with wonder, what the total effect could have been if more of the players contributed as much effort to the score. Closing out the concert was Hayden’s great Symphony number 82 in C major, nicknamed the ‘Bear’. It is scored for flute, pairs of oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets, timpani, and strings. Overall, although very dynamic, we thought the symphony’s forward momentum to be too relentless, no respite even in the more relaxed ‘middle’ movements. The charms of Beecham’s legendary Haydn recordings were obviously not on the artistic directors mind when he approached this symphony this time. The Andante was neatly played, but at a tempo that was much faster and driven than anyone is typically used to. Even faster that the most ‘authentic’ of period performances.

Strings dominated the balance throughout. It was a pity that the brass and woodwind were overly cautious. We would have preferred a brighter more present sound from them. Also, as noted in previous reviews of the ensemble, the double bass section was much more visible than audible. On the plus side, there were bold and defined rolls and strokes from the timpanist in the last movement’s roaring climaxes. A richly deserved encore was called for, and the ensemble repeated the last page of the symphony. A gimmicky but very exciting dramatic ‘pause’ between the last two chords, presumably to show off the obvious discipline and whiplash precision of the ensemble, left the audience laughing and exhilarated. An un-common standing ovation followed from the sold out auditorium.

As expected, the Chamber Music Society of Colombo, with its well defined long range plans and professional international management team and advisors, appears to be gradually formulating a pragmatic strategy, that will eventually lead to the direction that western classical and new ‘serious’ music will take, in the next stage of development in the arts of a unified Sri Lanka. The Society’s professional attitude, progressive agenda and well-buffed end product can only help in improving the overall standards.

Although the Society is primarily aimed at the upper echelon of the intelligentsia, and chamber music, both old and new, by its very nature, the guarded realm of a privileged minority, we are pleased to notice the Society taking a more egalitarian approach in its door policy and availability of tickets. And as the German ambassador stated in his opening remarks before the concert, we are all very happy at the thought that the Society is planning on sharing their art in the very near future with our brothers and sisters in the north and east. A gesture, which will be greatly appreciated in this hour of reconciliation and sensitiveness.

PRESS RELEASE

Rohan De Silva to join CMSC’s Board of Advisors

The Chamber Music Society of Colombo (CMSC) is pleased to announce that Rohan De Silva, luminary of the international concert stage, has joined its Honorary Board of Advisors.  Sri Lankan-born De Silva belongs to a select group of elite musicians managed by the International Music Group, better known as IMG, whose portfolio includes famous artistes such as Itzhak Perlman (violin), Evgeny Kissin (piano) and James Galway (flute).

De Silva said he “would be delighted to join the Board, to help in furthering great music in our badly bruised country.”  He believes the arts community can play a vital role in the healing process, and indicated that he fully supported the progressive mandate of the CMSC. The CMSC’s mission is firstly, to promote music education that would help build discerning classical music audiences in Sri Lanka, and secondly, to encourage new music, by commissioning new works from living composers – especially music written by Sri Lankan composers, or music that embodies Sri Lankan themes. 

The CMSC’s Artistic Director Lakshman Joseph de Saram said the Society was indeed privileged to have De Silva lend his name to the Society, with his formidable influence in the classical music world.

Rohan De Silva’s partnerships with violin virtuosos Itzhak Perlman, Cho-Liang Lin, Midori, Joshua Bell, Benny Kim, Kyoko Takezawa, Vadim Repin, Gil Shaham, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and Julian Rachlin have led to highly acclaimed performances at recital venues all over the world.  With these and other artists he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Philadelphia Academy of Music, Ambassador Theater in Los Angeles, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall in London, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Mozarteum in Salzburg and La Scala in Milan and in Tel-Aviv, Israel.  His festival appearances include the Aspen, Interlochen, Manchester, Ravinia and Schleswig-Holstein festivals, the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, and the Wellington Arts Festival in New Zealand.

De Silva and Perlman performed at the State Dinner for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, hosted by former US President George W. Bush and Mrs. Bush at the White House. 

 The CMSC’s Honorary Board of Advisors that De Silva joins, comprises Richard Bratby – Ensembles Manager, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Dijen de Saram – Co Managing Partner, D.L. & F. De Saram, Malik J. Fernando – Director Operations, MJF Group, Stephen Gaghan -Writer-Filmmaker, Si-Jing Huang – First Violin, Boston Symphony Orchestra (The Mary B. Saltonstall Chair), Daniel Matsukawa – Principal Bassoon, The Philadelphia Orchestra (The Richard M. Klein Chair), Mohan Tissanayagam – Managing Director, ID Lanka Ltd. And Chairman of Premium Brands, Piyasara Shilpadipathi -Master Percussionist and Arunthathy Sri Ranganathan – Carnatic vocalist and musicologist.

Poster for Nov 26 2009

This year, the music world commemorates the anniversaries of three great composers, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847), Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and the revered baroque master Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759). In the second concert celebrating these composers, the Chamber Music Society of Colombo (CMSC) have put together a superb combination of the unfamiliar, accessible, tuneful and musically rewarding. The concert, at the Lionel Wendt Theatre in Colombo will be on Thursday 26 November 2009, commencing 7:30pm sharp. Tickets went on sale on 06 November 2009 at the venue and at Titus Stores Liberty Plaza. The concert is made possible by the German Embassy (Deutsche Botschaft) in Colombo, who supplied the rare editions, and they also serve as the exclusive sponsor.

The program will include:
Haydn: Overture to L’Incontro Improvviso, Hob Ia:6
Mendelssohn: String Symphony no. 3 in E minor (1821)
Händel: Excerpts from “Hercules”, HWV 60: 1. Overtura, 2. Menuetto, 19. March, 31. Sinfonia (Act 3)
Händel: Overture to Agrippina, HWV6
Haydn: Symphony no. 82 in C major, Hob I:82 “The Bear”

The concert begins with the overture to Haydn’s sixth opera, “The Unexpected Encounter”. It is based on a Turkish subject and features a lively Presto middle section. Those who missed the third String Symphony of Mendelssohn in August, would be pleased to hear that this tuneful minor mode masterpiece by a precocious 12 year old, shall be repeated. Every listening should further inspire and make one marvel anew at the creativity and detail of the string writing. We then have four excerpts from a Musical Drama written 3 years after the famous “Messiah”. The excerpts from Händel’s “Hercules” selected, are an overture with a contrapuntal central section, a truly Olympian minuet, a brass-rich March and a Sinfonia that is at turns brooding and bordering on hysterics. Händel’s overture to his sixth opera “Agrippina” is among the very finest of his overtures. Imperial Rome and the dangers of greed and political ambition are characterised in music by the young composer. The pick of the evening would be Haydn’s Symphony no. 82 nicknamed “The Bear”, written in 1786 for a Parisian concert at which French royalty was present. Without a real “slow” movement and with touches of Haydn’s characteristic humour, this symphony will particularly delight audiences by its melodious bagpipe inspired, dancing bear evoking finale.