Eötvös: Violin Concerto No.3 “Alhambra”
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring
Isabelle Faust (violin)
Pablo Heras-Casado / Orchestre de Paris (Harmonia Mundi)
(scroll down for English review)
Eötvös寫給Isabelle Faust的《第三小提琴協奏曲》，之前在柏林愛樂的網上轉播看過，由作曲家親自指揮，這是第一個正式錄音，指揮Heras-Casado是作品的委約者。之前聽此曲的印象模糊，今次看着譜聽也不差幾多。西班牙或阿拉伯風情，多數是懶懶洋、或者像暑熱南歐的午睡感覺。
小提琴寫得不算高度炫技（以當代音樂來說），反而用得頗多人工泛音及「近琴馬奏」，更添神秘色彩。對我來說不是有趣的樂曲，但我會視作一首以20或21世紀的作曲技法，去寫德布西或拉威爾印象派音樂的嘗試。
今年是史特拉汶斯基逝世50周年，於是配上《春之祭》也不算突兀。又是老問題，今時今日樂團演奏《春之祭》已沒甚難度可言，還能有甚麼角度可以追求。我覺得這個演奏較為特別是把蠻夷風盡量削去，將史特拉汶斯基帶到近接近德布西的管弦世界。但單純有節奏而無勁度，始終不是很好的《春之祭》。
I’ve watched the performance of this latest Eötvös violin concerto on Berlin Phil’s Digital Concert Hall, with the composer conducting. Now this premiere commercial recording has Heras-Casado, who commissioned the piece, conducting. I felt quite blurry towards the Berlin performance but my impression after this recording was more or less the same, despite an attentive listening with the score. It evoked Spanish or Arabic flavours, or rather like the siesta drowsiness of southern Europe.
The violin writing wasn’t highly virtuosic in contemporary music standards, but an emphasis was made on artificial harmonics and sul ponticello bowings that often gave an eerie feeling. Still it wasn’t an interesting piece to me but I’d say it’s a piece using 20th or 21st century composing techniques to write an Impressionist work.
2021 is Stravinsky year so it justified the Rite of Spring pairing. After all, what could be pursued when our orchestras no longer find the piece monstrously difficult? To me the key objective of this performance was stripping all traces of barbarism and pushing Stravinsky to the Debussy sound world. Yet rhythm without power just wouldn’t be a superb Rite of Spring.