By Melissa Ingells, WKAR News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-944153.mp3
EAST LANSING, MI – The Lansing Symphony Orchestra is playing its next MasterWorks concert Saturday night at Wharton Center. Conductor Timothy Muffitt spoke with WKAR's Melissa Ingells about the concert, which features one of the best-known harp players in the world.
AUDIO:
TIMOTHY MUFFITT: Well, we're really thrilled about having Yolanda Kondonassis with us. She is one of the most sought-after harpists today in the concert circuit, and she's playing two works with us, which is really exciting. The Ginastera is a piece of music that I personally have been attracted to for many, many years and have always fantasized about programming it and sharing it with an audience. It's the kind of piece that well, Ginastera is just a fascinating composer, and his roots, his roots are deeply set in his Latin American heritage. And so his music decidedly reflects that, but he's also incredible with sound. And the harp is an instrument that can do many, many, many, many things besides that sweeping sound when someone's having a dream on a --
MELISSA INGELLS: Right. The "sweet sound of the harp," yes.
MUFFITT: The harp is a remarkably versatile instrument. And it's a remarkably powerful instrument. You know, I'm not sure that people recognize the actual sonic power of a harp. But when you think of it, you have a symphony orchestra of 70-plus people and there's one harp in there, and you can hear the harp over the 70-plus, many of which are brass and percussion players.
INGELLS: That is pretty amazing, actually.
MUFFITT: And the harp comes through. The harp is a remarkably powerful instrument. It's a fascinating instrument to watch be performed, especially with an artist such as Yolanda. And then this piece of music just really explores the gamut of what can be done with this instrument.
INGELLS: How would you describe this particular piece of Ginastera? Is it intense, is it sweet, is it all of the above?
MUFFITT: Well, it's all of the above, actually. It's mystical, it's intense, it's driving rhythms, driving Latin rhythms, especially on the final movement. The first movement goes from music that is just eerie, into a beautiful, sweet, rich melody. So it's quite a journey through different forms of expression. And it's magnificently orchestrated. The final movement is very heavy on percussion. This is where a lot of his, you know, you really feel his Latin-ness come through with the percussive rhythms. And rhythm, rhythm is at the core of a lot of it. And he uses rhythmic motifs to hold the piece together. Very much like Ravel also in his use of color and atmosphere. It's often very atmospheric music, which is something the harp does beautifully as well. He must have had an incredible fascination with the harp, because he takes the harp in many directions. And then after intermission she's going to play the Debussy "Sacred and Profane Dances." Which is, you know, Debussy and the harp go together beautifully. One of Debussy's great works as you probably know is the Trio for Harp, Viola and Flute. And harp figures prominently in nearly all of his orchestral music, and so here he brings the harp out front for a short work. But it really explores the beauty of the instrument.
INGELLS: I think actually the Debussy is probably the first thing I think of when I think of a harp work, just because it is so sweeping. But it also sounds like a great contrast to the Ginestera because it does have that kind of floaty, Debussy thing going on.
MUFFITT: It's a good contrast and it's a good balance to the Ginestera, because the Ginestera is going to explore some of the extremes of the harp, and the Debussy is going to come right to the center of the world of harp.
INGELLS: And then you have Respighi's "Pines of Rome" which are extremely descriptive pieces. That should be quite an adventure. Tell us about that.
MUFFITT: Well, this whole program really is an explosion of color, and Respighi was an Italian Debussy, really. You know, he was an Impressionist composer slightly later than Debussy but certainly very connected in terms of his use of color and harmony. And the "Pines of Rome" just has to be one of the most powerful and dramatic works in the repertoire, period. The final movement depicts the ancient Roman army marching across the horizon in great splendor and triumph, with offstage brass, and like I said, it's just one of the most powerful works in the repertoire, really.
INGELLS: Now is that the one with the nightingale?
MUFFITT: Yes. Yeah.
INGELLS: And where did you hire your nightingale from? Local ranks of the Nightingale's Union?
MUFFITT: Yeah, we went to the Union for the nightingale. No, this is a, you know, it's a small touch, but it's highly significant that Respighi writes for of course, when he wrote it, it was on vinyl, and so when you would rent the music you would get a vinyl recording of it. Now the--
INGELLS: No kidding? They actually would send it with the score?
MUFFITT: Oh yeah.
INGELLS: Oh wow! Okay.
MUFFITT: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was the only way you could get it. And now they do send it on CD. I suppose soon it'll come on MP3.
INGELLS: Which I would feel a little more comfortable about just because sometimes, the CDs that weren't supposed to stick
MUFFITT: Right, right. In Milli Vanilli fashion.
INGELLS: Right. (laughs)
MUFFITT: And hopefully probably the next generation of percussionists will not know how to operate a CD machine and so we'll have to, God only knows what this technology will be. But in all seriousness, the fact that he wrote this in is quite extraordinary for a composer of his era. Composers were not commonly especially, Respighi is such a traditionalist in many ways, even though in the 20th century his music was still rooted in Romanticism
INGELLS: Sure, the "Ancient Airs and Dances" and even further back than that yeah.
MUFFITT: Right. So for him to step out and bring an element of electronic music, which is really what this comes down to, "musique concrete," where composers use recordings of actual sounds and manipulate them to create pieces of music, as opposed to where it's computer generated this is an actual recording of a nightingale that finishes out the end of a movement. And it's perfect.