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John Tavener's Kaleidoscopes
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
6 November 2006
That
marvellous oboist Nicholas Daniel appeared in the same [Queen Elizabeth]
hall a few days later, not just as a soloist with Britten Sinfonia, but
as its conductor. Again, Mozart and Tchaikovsky were played: a witty,
joyous rendering of the former’s Serenata notturna, for which Daniel was
happy to be more clown than maestro, and a lovely, profound account of
Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings... detail shone forth, never needing
to be strained for. Again, there was a rapturous waltz.
...we
had John Tavener, whose new, half-hour Kaleidoscopes, for oboe, strings
and percussion, commissioned by Britten Sinfonia (they like to dispense
with the “the” for PR purposes), is customised for Daniel the oboist-conductor.
He directed proceedings on a rostrum encircled by four string quartets,
all spotlit in a darkened hall (the foyer was brighter on this occasion).
To the side were two double basses and a percussionist using Tibetan temple
bowls and a tam-tam. Like many Tavener works, this one is a ritual alternation
of meditative, modal, pastoral-sounding sections and explosions of intensely
articulated, vigorous music, and the effect is as though the Vaughan Williams
oboe concerto (which Daniel plays so beautifully) were being interrupted
by avant-garde improvisers in the wings. The ritual is sustained with
Messiaen-like fervour until the end.
Nothing
surprising in that: Tavener is always a literalist of the imagination.
But the work marks a departure in that it is made, as the subtitle “A
Tribute to Mozart” reveals, from the music of another composer. Although
in his early, pre-Russian Orthodox pieces he was something of a collagist,
the later Tavener wrote with an austerity forbidding any such allusiveness.
Here it runs riot. Every bar, he says, has a source in Mozart, and melodic
fragments from across Mozart’s oeuvre keep bobbing up, almost drolly.
For Tavener, he is “the most sacred and also the most inexplicable of
all composers”, but this kaleidoscope of Mozartiana is positively secular,
even modernist (the platform grouping evokes Boulez’s clarinet vehicle
Domaines), in comparison with “middle period” Tavener. There are striking
features — high oboe cantilenas (Daniel was magnificent), hectic, 17-part
pizzicato canons.
Sunday
Times
A
birthday gift from Sir John Tavener to Mozart in his anniversary year
was never going to consist of something commonplace, or short. So, no
disappointments then in the 43 curious, quick-changing minutes of Kaleidoscopes,
premiered on Monday by the performers for whom it was written, Britten
Sinfonia and their conductor/oboist Nicholas Daniel.
Even
pictorially, the spectacle was unusual. Imagine a solar system. Slap in
the centre on a podium stood Daniel and his oboe. Circling around them,
like attendant planets, sat four string quartets, though they oddly avoided
all spatial interplay as they beavered or soared, or conjured the sounds
of haloes. From the stage’s left-hand corner emerged two double basses,
often droning on a single note, and the massaging percussion of temple
bells.
What
solar system was this? I’m not sure, but it was clearly one created by
Mozart — “the most sacred and also the most inexplicable of all composers”,
according to Tavener’s programme note. Mozart quotations and echoes filled
the score, mused upon in chains of short sequences, each rotating round
their own cluster of keys.
Daniel’s
oboe was a steady wonder: whether jabbing or caressing, soaring or jumping,
tone and breathing was always subtle and beautifully controlled.
Plenty of musicianship to enjoy
in the first half, too. Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings surged forward
with attractive vigour and romantic passion; the Sinfonia doesn’t do overmanicured
prettiness. Their gutsy approach also brought benefits in the Mozart Serenata
notturna, where much electricity came from the dancing violin of Matthew
Denton.
The Times
John
Tavener describes Mozart as "the most sacred and also the most inexplicable
of all composers". Kaleidoscopes, Tavener's anniversary homage to
his predecessor, commissioned by Nicholas Daniel and the Britten Sinfonia,
is an attempt to "pluck Mozart's music out of the harmony of the
spheres and to meditate on it". It is a 40-minute work for a solo
oboist who is surrounded by four string quartets, together with a couple
of double basses to prevent the harmony becoming too stratospheric, and
some percussion to add a gentle aura of tintinnabulation.
The performance seemed hugely
assured and Britten Sinfonia had already shown what a superbly integrated
string band it can muster in the trim classicism of Mozart's Serenata
Notturna, and a superbly rich-toned account of Tchaikovsky's Serenade
for Strings. Both were conducted with great relish by Daniel, who must
have been relieved to be able to concentrate on just one of his musical
skills at a time.
The Guardian
The opening feels like a stairway
to heaven, as the oboe climbs stepwise over violins repeating transparent
harmonies in an ever-higher register; gently-touched bells give the edifice
an even brighter sheen. It's as though a camera is panning round a sculpture;
then we cut to cacophonous aural chaos. Then back to serenity, with the
oboe embarking on a melodic line which seems to have no ending; then chaos
again.
Clearly much ingenuity has gone into
the tonal construction of this work, and the four quartets saw away with
intricate precision. I was drawn into the musical drama. Mozart made frequent
appearances through echoes from his concertos, always gracefully skewed;
as my ears attuned to the chaos, I realised that too was finely calibrated.
Tavener has found the ideal vehicle for his mystic polarities.
For those who don't buy into
his religious vision, 'Kaleidoscopes' is only a game of smoke and mirrors,
but what a game it is with the oboist finally walking off into the darkness,
leaving the audience in a stunned silence: as Daniel and the Sinfonia
resplendently showed, it demands virtuosity from all concerned.
The Independent
John
Tavener’s Kaleidoscopes is a tour de force for its soloist,
the oboist Nicholas Daniel. Tavener places him at the centre of an Orthodox
Cross, which is formed by four string quartets (two double basses and
a percussionist lurk in a corner) and the work hangs from his captivating,
unearthly sound. He played almost continuously throughout the piece’s
40-minute duration, often in Tavener’s trademark, glacially sustained
melodies, which wound slowly to the very top of the instrument’s compass.
Tavener composed Kaleidoscopes as a homage to Mozart – the instrumentation
is a hall-of-mirrors version of the Oboe Quartet (K470) – but imposes
his own detached mysticism over Mozart’s engaged Enlightenment humanism.
As the name suggests, Kaleidoscopes is a sequence of fragments which are
continually reordered and recast; Tavener arranges them in four different
‘tonal zones’, punctuated by a ritualistic refrain. Mozartean quotations
and gestures appear throughout as though preserved in amber; periodically,
an elongated cadence or deep-frozen trill rises to the surface. Other
recurring fragments include a melody of Britten-like sprightliness, and
an eruption of violent atonal gestures in the strings.
To open the concert Britten Sinfonia under Daniel played Mozart’s Serenata
notturna with great style. The serenade echoes the Baroque concerto grosso
form by embedding a string quartet within a string orchestra, and it is
a curious mixture of the intimate and the public; it is a lovely moment
when the second movement passes from extrovert minuet into chamber-music
trio. The programme was completed by Tchaikovsky’s familiar Serenade,
which benefited from the Sinfonia’s spirited approach.
Classical
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