Leonard Link

More Angulo, More Easily Acquired

Recently, I wrote enthusiastically about a new discovery - music for flute and strings by Eduardo Angulo, a Mexican composer born in 1954.  That recording was on a rather obscure Mexican label, but I've discovered another recording of Angulo's music on a somewhat more available label, Thorofon, a German label that has somewhat better international distribution.  This recording, dated 2001, gives us two guitar concertos and a chamber work for guitar and string quartet.  The guitar soloist is Michael Troester, who has made many recordings on the Thorofon label and is a performer of the highest quality.  Troester collaborates with the Saxon String Quartet in the chamber piece, and works with Arthur Fagen and the West German Radio Orchestra of Cologne.

Both concertos are delightful to hear, full of rich orchestration, big lyrical moments, rhythmic excitement.  What they don't have is much harmonic challenge, as Angulo adheres closely to a style that would not have been out of place a century ago.  I think that in the long run, music is not judged by whether it was considered adventurous by the standards of its time, but rather by whether it communicates feels, emotions, excitement, nostalgia --- in other words, communicates something -- to listeners in a way that draws them in and will bring them back.  I think Angulo's music does this.  It is not quite so simple as to be labeled "crossover" or "easy listening," but it is very listener-friendly in that he strives for beauty and ease of communication rather than complication.

So, I think Thorofon CTH 2418 is worth searching out if you are interested in a contemporary composer who wants to communicate rather than challenge your ears with difficult harmonies or abstruse abstraction.  No, he's not Carter, but there is plenty of substance here, music worth being acquainted with.

The Spectacular Marcin Dylla

I am a big fan of the Naxos classical CD label, mainly because they energetically pump out loads of new recordings every month, many exploring a wide range of previously unknown repertory that is worth exploring, and at budget prices.  (They also had a terrific historical reissue series, based on mastering historical recordings that are out of copyright, but that's been withdrawn in the US because EMI sued them in New York State and got an absurd ruling out of the NY Court of Appeals that there is a perpetual New York common law copyright subsisting in all sound recordings.  One can, however, order Naxos historical CDs from overseas websites with relative impunity, you just can't buy them in US retail stores or from US-based websites.)

One of the most valuable series on Naxos is the Laureate Series of guitar music, presided over by series producer Norbert Kraft, a brilliant classical guitarist who inaugurated the series with some of his own recordings, but who has been busily producing debut international recital releases for the talented young folks who win guitar competitions (thus the title Laureate Series).  One of the things he does is to encourage them to include in their recital debut discs works that are not previously recorded or, at least, that are rare items, not part of the standard repertory one would encounter at almost any classical guitar recital.

He's really found a winner with Marcin Dylla, a 32 year old Polish guitarist who, according to the brief biographical sketch in the booklet, has taken first prize in 19 international guitar competitions between 1996 and 2007.  I can believe that after hearing this extraordinary recording.  And talk about unusual repertory: Joaquin Rodrigo - Junto al Generalife; Alexandre Tansman: Variations on a Theme of Scriabin; Nicholas Maw: Music of Memory; Manuel Ponce: Sonata romantica 'Hommage a Fr. Schubert'.  The only one of those pieces I already had in my collection was the Ponce.  I had never heard of any guitar music by Maw!  An entire disc of discoveries, beautifully played, with great sound engineering and informative notes by Graham Wade.  Anybody with an interest in the classical guitar is undoubtedly already systematically collecting each new issue on the Laureate Series as they hit the market, but this is too good to keep hidden among the guitar specialists.  Anybody with an interest in 20th century music should check out this recording.  (Indeed, with the exception of the Ponce, written to commemorate the centennial of Schubert's death in 1928, all the other pieces were written during the second half of the 20th century, but all are tonal, listener-friendly, and absorbing.)

And, check out the musician's website: http://www.marcindylla.com.  There are other recordings predating this first international recital release, and there are free sound samples so you can hear this extraordinary artist for yourself before deciding to invest in his recordings.

Naxos's Ives Song Series Revisited

Several months ago I had rather dismissive things to say about the first volume of a new venture by Naxos to present recordings of the complete songs of Charles Ives.  I've been an Ives song enthusiast since childhood, having collected just about every commercial recording that's been available from the early 1970s onward, and found that this first release in the series was non-competitive with what was out there, especially the only prior complete recording.  My biggest objection was to the idea of recording the songs in alphabetical order by title, which produced a sequence of no other rhyme or reason -- either in terms of subject matter, key relationship, or vocal range -- a hodge-podge, which by the coincidence of song names in that first volume, produced a dulling effect of insufficient contrast.

Well, an Ives song fanatic such as I could not resist continuing to collect the series, just on the chance that things might improve, and having now heard the second and third releases, I have to say that both of them impressed me more than first.  I don't think it's a case of the group of singers and pianists getting better at it as they went along, because I don't think they actually recorded the songs in alphabetical order.  It seems that the entire project was undertaken in one fell swoop in the late spring of 2005, and given the large number of participants, each singer/pianist pairing likely recorded their songs at one go, with the whole thing being alphabetically sorted out at the editing stage.  So I think it may just be that the particular mix of singers and songs produced by an alphabetical sequence resulted in more interesting results in the second, and especially the third, disc. 

Another factor may be the mix of vocal types.  In general, the men have been doing better than the women as this series has unfolded, and by the quirk of alphabetical order, the third release is heavy with male singers and light on female singers.  All the pianists seem to be up to the challenges, as far as I can tell.  So, for those who love Ives's songs, I guess this series becomes a "mandatory" acquisition, despite the occasional disappointing performance or odd sequence.  But first recommendation would still go to the Albany records series issued in the early 1990s - even though the Naxos series will have some additional songs that were not available back then, as the Ives Archives at Yale have continued to yield up their treasures from the unpublished manuscripts.

Another Clueless School Board Loses a GSA Battle

One would think that by now no school board in the country would be under the delusion that they can get away with refusing to recognizing a high school gay-straight alliance, and yet the cases continue to come.  On August 29, a panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a decision by District Judge Joan N. Ericksen (D. Minn) to make permanent the preliminary injunction she had issued, the issuance of which the circuit had previously affirmed.  Despite a prior circuit ruling that the GSA would be successful in a hearing on the merits if they proved out their factual allegations, the school board decided to appeal Judge Ericksen's decision on remand to make the injunction permanent.

Perhaps this is the consequence of having elected school boards in this country, full of people who feel that their political posturing is more important than obeying the law.  For the law is clear.  Under the Equal Access Act, a GSA is entitled to the same recognition and privileges as any other non-curricular student club, and attempts through strained argument to make a purely social student organization into a "curricular club" will be unavailing.

In this case, Straights and Gays for Equality v. Osseo Area Schools - District No. 279, No. 07-3576, the District's candidates for "curricular club" status included the cheerleading club, the synchronized swimming club, and the Spirit Council, a student organization that arranged social events.  Each of these organizations was given superior treatment to SAGE (acronym for Straights and Gays for Equality), the school arguing that each of them had some relationship to the curriculum.  In its prior decision upholding Judge Ericksen's grant of a preliminary injunction pending trial, the court had found that "cheerleading and synchronized swimming, like SAGE, are noncurriculum related groups," and concluded SAGE was likely to prevail."

This time around, wrote Judge Smith for the panel, "The appellants challenge our previous findings regarding the classification of the cheerleading and synchronized swimming groups, asserting novel arguments that were not raised previously.  We decline to address those new arguments and need not address the appellants' arguments regarding the Black Achievers student group.  Rather, we conclude that the district court correctly found that the Spirit Council was a noncurriculum related student group mislabeled as a curriculum related group.  The appellants thus violated the EAA by providing the Spirit Council with greater access to communication avenues than it provided to SAGE."

The history of litigation over this issue is clear.  The only way a school board can refuse to provide access or tamp down the rights and privileges of a gay-straight alliance is to abolish extra-curricular activities entirely, and attempting to call groups that are universally considered extra-curricular as "curriculum-related" in order to evade the Act just won't fly.  So far, as far as I can tell, there has been only one outlier decision on this, and that involved a student group that recklessly established a website with links to other websites that themselves had links to pornographic material, thus giving a hostile southern court an excuse to say that the school district had a sound basis for refusing recognition to the group.  (A simple matter, one would think, of revising or abandoning the original website, and establishing one more restrained.)

In the past, I've assumed that fault lay with school board legal counsel misleading or misadvising the school board members about their legal duties.  But, given the elective status of school boards and the controversy attendant on recognition of GSAs in more conservative communities, I suspect that in some cases what we have are elected school board members, some bringing right-wing ideological agendas to their positions, insistent on making every last appeal, no matter how frivolous, to try to forestall the day of a final decision against them.  Early in the history of this issue, a school board in Salt Lake City actually took the drastic step of abolishing all extra-curricular activities, but that didn't work because they couldn't discipline themselves to keep from trying to sneak some extra-curriculars in through the back door of mislabeled groups and the strategy collapsed.

Maybe this provides a partial clue to what ails public education in this country.  Too many of its local leaders -- building principals, superintendents, school board members -- are incapable of learning from the past and complying with the law.  If the leaders of the schools are incapable of learning, how can they oversee competent instruction of the students?

Italian Airline Sued in NYC for Sexual Orientation Discrimination

In a July 31 ruling reported in the New York Law Journal on August 29, New York State Supreme Court Justice Milton A. Tingling refused to dismiss a sexual orientation discrimination complaint against Alitalia, the Italian national airline, brought by a former sales representative in the defendant's New York office.  Although Tingling did grant a motion to dismiss an age discrimination charge that was part of the same complaint, he also refused to dismiss claims of retaliation, hostile work environment, aiding and abetting discrimination (against certain named employees of the company), interference with protected rights, and negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress.  [At the plaintiff's request, the original version of this posting has been revised to refer to him by his initials.]

According to the complaint filed by G.M., he was employed by Alitalia from 1990 until he was constructively discharged in 2006.  He claims that Alitalia maintained a policy against hiring older workers, and that he was directed to discharge another employee because of her age, which he refused to do.  He claims that beginning in 2003 he was subjected to repeated inappropriate comments concerning his sexual orientation, and that when supervisors became annoyed at him for refusing to fire the older employee, they passed him over for a promotion, assigning a less qualified person to the position in question, and then promoted him to a different position where he was "set up" to fail by failing to give him necessary staff to achieve the mission of that position and by transferring some of the functions necessary to meet those goals away from him.  G.M. claims that he left the job in October 2006 due to the company's misconduct towards him.

Justice Tingling found that the plaintiff had failed to allege facts supporting a claim that he had been discriminated against because of his age, but that all of his other claims were potentially viable and presented questions of fact to be determined at trial.  In particular, he recounted allegations on the hostile environment claim asserting that the bosses called him "faggot" and, in Italian, "frocio," at work, and that two named defendants "allegedly referred to another employee as "frocio" and asked G.M. if he knew whether this employee 'was a "top" or a "bottom.'"  The plaintiff supported these allegations with an affidavit from a former high officer of the company, who confirmed having witnessed the superivsory and managerial persons in question referring to G.M. as "fag" and a "little lady."

Justice Tingling even refused to dismiss the emotional distress claim, a claim that is extreme difficult to win on the merits in New York under prevailing Court of Appeals precedents.   "While the burden on the plaintiff is not an easy one because it must be shown that the conduct was 'so outrageous in character, so atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community,' it would be premature for the Court to decide at this time whether that burden has been met," wrote Tingling.  "Plaintiff must have the benefit of further discovery and other judicial proceedings in order to establish his case and prove his burden."

Justice Tingling set a conference with all parties for September 16.  One suspects that Alitalia may offer a settlement to G.M. rather than undergo the embarrassment of having a public trial where its executives may have to testify publicly about the language they use in the office.  And one suspects further that a major international airline that seeks to attract gay vacationers would rather avoid the bad publicity incident on such a trial and potential jury verdict.

Justice Tingling, by the way, is one of three candidates seeking the Democrat nomination for an upcoming vacancy in the Surrogate Court, NY County, and was recently endorsed by the Gay & Lesbian Independent Democratic Club.  However, the judicial screening panel of the LGBT Law Association of Greater New York rated his two opponents, Nora Anderson and John Reddy, as "highly approved," but Justice Tingling as "not approved" for failing to appear for an interview with the panel.  [Postscript: Justice Tingling came in third place in the primary voting in September.] 

Siimone Dinnerstein: No Sophomore Jinx!

Simone Dinnerstein's first recording, a self-produced journey through the Aria & 30 Variations by J.S. Bach named after the composer's pupil as the "Goldberg Variations," was a sensational debut on Telarc.  Could she follow up with something as good or would the second recording be an inevitable letdown?  Now that it is out and available, I will argue that it is, if anything, even better than the debut, if only because it is taken from a live recital sequence in Berlin that exposes the pianist in a variety of composers, providing even more space for her interpretive insight to shine.

The program begins with more Bach, the 5th French Suite, BWV 816, continues with Twelve Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach "Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott," by Juilliard composition professor Philip Lasser, formally concludes with Beethoven's Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111, and actually finishes with an encore, the 13th variation from Bach's Goldberg set.  The entire program is enthralling and, for a concert recording, beautifully balanced.  The audience is inaudible except for applause between numbers.

The Bach and Beethoven will be familiar to most music-lovers, but will feel fresh and new in Dinnerstein's inspired performances.  Lasser is a new name to me, and a welcome acquaintance, as his variations provide an ideal bridge between the Bach and the Beethoven on this recital, giving the pianist a challenging technical workout and exposing the listener to an ingenious use of the Bach chorale tune as a springboard for engrossing invention.

What is distinctive about Dinnerstein's playing on this recording is the very individual approach she brings to each piece without distorting the musical line anywhere.  One can tell that she really cares about this music, has lived with it and loved it, and is eager to communicate it to her audience.  This is real music-making, not just music-playing.  Dinnerstein joins the small group of musicians whose new recordings I will eagerly await and purchase regardless of repertory because I can expect to find a musically gratifying experience from her work.  Kudos to her on a "sophomore" success, and to Telarc for having the insight to recognize her artistry when presented with that original "Goldberg" tape and to have signed her up.  I hope she sticks with Telarc and does not give in to the siren call of a so-called "major international label," which might end up imposing repertory constraints and demands for her to spend time on "cross-over" projects for commercial purposes rather than expanding her artistry with challenging repertory.

DG Archiv's alfresco edition - Great Performances and Stupid Packaging

Just a brief word about one of the most idiotic packaging decisions I've ever seen by a classical label.  Deutsche Grammophone's Archiv Produktion label has been releasing a budget-prices series of older recordings (mainly early digitals from the 1980s and 1990s) that are truly terrific performances.  Although I already have many of them in their original releases from a few decades ago, I have filled in my collection with a few that I had not originally acquired.  The performance and sound on this series are up to the best DG standard.

But what to say about the packaging?  A three-fold cardboard container with plastic innards, minimal program notes made up entirely of hype, and minimalist documentation of what's on the CD.  I just finished listening to the Mozart Piano Quartets, performed by an ensemble using 18th-century-appropriate instruments with Malcolm Bilson at the keyboard.  These are excellent performances.  But on the back of the package, we don't even have separate listings with timings for the 6 tracks, 3 on each piece.  Instead, on the inside, there is reference to a website, where one can go to get the individual track listings.  This strikes me as dumb.  I can understand that the releases in this series featuring vocal music will require you to go to the website to get texts.  Printing up texts and translations would undoubtedly add to the cost of production and put pressure on the low retail price.  But to eschew track listings?  This is madness.

Feds Violated Privacy Act in Investigation of HIV+ Pilot, But Immunity Bars Emotional Distress Damages

U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker has granted summary judgment to the government on a federal Privacy Act claim brought by a pilot who suffered suspension of his license after the Federal Aviation Administration learned that he had received Social Security disability benefits in the past due to HIV-related complications.  Although Judge Walker found that both agencies had violated the Privacy Act with their information-sharing investigation, he concluded that the defendant agencies enjoyed immunity from liability under the Privacy Act because of ambiguity in the law about whether “emotional injury” qualifies as “actual damages.”  The Supreme Court has strictly construed the Act in the past as not waiving the sovereign immunity of the United States except for cases in which an individual whose privacy was violated can show “actual damages.”

According to Walker’s opinion, pilot Stan Cooper obtained his first FAA license in 1964.  In 1981, because he feared that he might have been exposed to AIDS, Cooper allowed his pilot’s license to lapse.  HIV, the virus associated with AIDS, was not identified until a few years later, and in 1985, when screening tests for HIV became available, Cooper took the test and learned he was HIV+.  Within ten years, he had developed symptoms of enough severity to qualify him for Social Security disability benefits, for which he applied in January 1996.  But by lucky coincidence that was the period when the new protease inhibitor drugs were becoming available, and within several months Cooper’s condition improved under treatment and he terminated the disability benefits.

In 1998, Cooper applied to the FAA for a new airman medical certificate, a prerequisite to getting his pilot’s license reinstated.  He did not disclose his HIV status or the medications he was receiving on that application form, and succeeded in getting his license back.  He got the license renewed in 2000, 2002, and 2004, each time submitting applications that did not disclose requested information relevant to his HIV status and medications.

Then Cooper got caught in the new program that the Department of Transportation (DOT) Inspector General launched in collaboration with the Social Security Administration.  The investigation was launched after it was discovered that a pilot had used different doctors to get disability benefits and to get his medical fitness certified for his pilot license.  It occurred to DOT that a comparison of records between the two agencies might turn up other pilots who had failed to disclosed required medical information.  Since both agencies used social security numbers to identify individuals, a numbers match could turn up pilots who had applied for disability benefits. 

The program was launched as a regional investigation in Northern California.  The question whether sharing this information violated the Privacy Act was considered by the agents involved from the two agencies, but they decided among themselves that there was no problem, believing that this use of the records came within the statutory exceptions for “routine uses” consistent with the purpose for which the data was collected and law enforcement investigations.  DOT sent SSA a list of 45,000 Northern California pilots and their social security numbers and other identifying information, which SSA compared against its records, returning spreadsheets listing active pilots who had received disability benefits.  Cooper’s name was on the matching list, agents from DOT confronted him at a Starbucks, and he confessed, leading to a suspension of his license and prosecution for submitting false information on his FAA forms.  The government publicized the results of the investigation, including making public that Cooper had failed to disclose his HIV+ status, thus “outing him” as HIV+ to the general public.  Cooper eventually pled to a misdemeanor and was fined and sentenced to a two-year probation, after which his pilot’s license was restored.

Cooper claims to have suffered significant emotional distress as a result of the disclosure of his HIV status, and decided to file suit against the two agencies under the Privacy Act.  In an intricately reasoned opinion, Judge Walker concluded that this information sharing program did not fall within the “routine uses” authorized by statute.  In addition, Walker concluded that the exception for criminal investigations applied in situations where somebody was already a target of such an investigation and a request was made to SSA for information relevant to the investigation.  The kind of fishing expedition that the agencies had launched in this case did not qualify for that exception, either.

However, Walker noted, in construing the Privacy Act’s provision governing individual lawsuits against the government, the Supreme Court has ruled that the government’s liability is limited to cases where plaintiffs can show  “actual damages,” a term used but not defined in the statute.  Thus far, the Supreme Court has not ruled on whether emotional injury – the only injury alleged by Cooper in his complaint – would qualify, and neither has the 9th Circuit, whose precedents would be binding on Judge Walker in San Francisco. 

Two other circuits considered the issue many years ago, and reached contrary results.  This leaves  an ambiguity in the law, which proved fatal to Cooper’s claim, because he is suing the government, and under the concept of sovereign immunity the government can only be held liable where all the elements of the claim are clearly met under governing legal precedents.  If there is any ambiguity, Judge Walker concluded, then the claim has not been made out, and summary judgment must be granted to the government.

Walker’s opinion is couched in terms assuming that Cooper will appeal this ruling, and his pro bono attorneys at Reed Smith LLP have announced that they will file an appeal on his behalf, expressing outrage that the court could find a clear statutory violation but no remedy.

Phelps Challenge to Ohio Funeral Picketing Law Fails

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit, based in Cincinnati, ruled on August 22 in Phelps-Roper v. Strickland, No. 07-3600, that Ohio Rev. Code Ann. Sec. 3767.30, a statute banning demonstrations within 300 feet of a funeral service or burial ceremony, from one hour before the ceremony to one hour afterwards, does not violate the First Amendment free speech rights of the members of Rev. Fred Phelps’s Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, who wish to conduct demonstrations during funerals of U.S. service members killed in Iraq.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, a member of the church who is a relative of Rev. Phelps (as are, apparently, virtually all the church’s members), alleged in her complaint seeking invalidation of the Ohio law that the members of the congregation "believe that homosexuality is a sin and abomination. They further believe that God is punishing America for the sin of homosexuality by killing Americans, including soldiers. Because God is omnipotent to cause or prevent tragedy, they believe that when tragedy strikes it is indicative of God’s wrath."

In order to communicate their beliefs, they have picketed military funerals displaying signs with slogans such as "Thank God for IEDs," "God Hates Fags," "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," and "Thank God for 9/11." They claim that they can only effectively communicate their message through picketing at actual military funerals and burials, and that their right to hold such demonstrations in Ohio has been chilled by fear of prosecution under the statute.

Ohio has had a law banning picketing of funerals since 1957, but it did not define the geographical area within which picketing was prohibited and was thus vulnerable to challenge as being overly broad. In 2006, reacting to recent litigation by the Phelps family challenging such statutes in other states, Ohio amended its statute to create an exact 300 foot buffer zone within which picketing could not take place at funerals, burials, and along the route of funeral processions.

The trial judge decided that creating a moving buffer zone around funeral processions went too far, and quickly granted a motion to invalidate that part of the statute, but granted the state’s motion for summary judgment as to the balance of the statute covering funeral services and burials.

The court of appeals, in an opinion by Judge Richard Fred Suhrheinrich, agreed with the trial court. The court found that the picketing ban was content-neutral, because it banned all picketing or demonstrations, regardless of their point of view. Under established First Amendment precedents, the state may impose "time, place and manner" restrictions on speech if the restrictions are content-neutral, and such restrictions are evaluated for their reasonableness. Such restrictions are upheld if they serve a significant governmental interest, are narrowly tailored to avoid going beyond what is necessary to serve that interest, and leave open "ample channels of communication" for the speaker’s message.

In this case, the court found that the government has a significant interest in protecting funeral attendants from being subjected to unwanted political speech during an emotionally trying time. The court found that by adopting a reasonably specific buffer zone and keeping it in effect only from an hour before to an hour after a funeral, the state had met the narrow tailoring requirement. Because the Phelpses could picket from beyond 300 feet during a funeral, with no statutory restriction on the use of sound equipment, and because they did not have to observe any buffer zones outside of the specified time period, the court found that they had ample opportunity to disseminate their message, taking into account as well that they maintain a website with their message that receives many hits.

The court’s decision upholding the Ohio statute opens up a disagreement with another federal appeals court, the 8^th Circuit based in St. Louis, which last year refused in Phelps-Roper v. Nixon, 509 F.3d 480 (8^th Cir. 2007), to grant summary judgment to the state of Missouri in a similar case brought by Ms Phelps-Roper to challenge that state’s funeral picketing law. The Missouri law is similar to the way the Ohio law was before it was amended in 2006 to adopt a more precise buffer zone. The Missouri law merely specifies "in front of or about any location at which a funeral is held," leaving ambiguity about how far away the pickets have to be to avoid violating the law, and thus arguably failing the "narrow tailoring" requirement.

More importantly, however, the 8^th Circuit panel opined that the state’s interest in protecting funeral attendants was probably outweighed by the free speech interests of the Phelpses. The Supreme Court has yet to address this issue in the context of funeral picketing, but it has ruled in past cases that a state could ban picketing in residential areas to protect people from disturbance in their homes, and the 6^th Circuit built upon these rulings to find a government interest outside the home at other locations where individuals might have a particular privacy right, such as at a funeral service. The 8^th Circuit, by contrast, refused to expand on the Supreme Court’s rulings, pointing out that the Court has not ruled that people have a right outside the home to be shielded from political speech that they might find disturbing or with which they might disagree.

The 8^th Circuit disagreed with the contention that the Phelps would still have ample channels to communicate their message, crediting the Phelps’s argument that their message needed to be delivered in the proximity of a funeral service in order to preserve its impact.

These differences of opinion open the possibility that the Supreme Court might grant review in a funeral picketing challenge in order to resolve the question, especially in light of the rash of funeral picketing statutes that have been passed around the country in response to the energetic picketing activities of the Phelpses.

Mostly Mozart Festival 2008 Finale - The Great Unfinished Mass

The final program of the 2008 edition of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival was dedicated to Mozart's great unfinished Mass in C Minor (K. 427), with Richard Strauss's Metamorphosen for 23 Solo Strings (1945) as the pre-intermission prelude.  Festival Music Director Louis Langree was on the podium, with vocal soloists Sally Matthews (soprano), Kate Lindsey (mezzo-soprano), William Ferguson (tenor), and Jason Grant (bass-baritone), with the Concert Chorale of New York, prepared by their director James Bagwell.

Langree, who recently recorded this Mass with other forces (Virgin Records), is thoroughly familiar with the work and gave an exciting performance.  It may sound contradictory to describe a mass as "exciting," but this unfinished composition of the young Mozart is hardly an ordinary mass.  Mozart was working on this piece while planning to bring his new bride, Constanza Weber, back to his hometown of Salzburg to meet his family.  The plan was to present the new mass in Salzburg with "Stanzi," a talented soprano, as one of the soloists.  There are no contemporary press accounts of the performance, although some evidence that a performance took place, but it is not known exactly what was performed.  Assuming a liturgical context - an actual church service - the movements would be separated and played in their appropriate places in the mass, rather than as a continuous concert piece, so the fact that much of the Credo is not set, and that there is no music for Agnus Dei, no concluding Dona Nobis Pacem, might not have been a big deal, since it was normal to mix and match mass movements by various composers in those days.  Perhaps Mozart only wrote the movements that survive.  Even some of what survives requires editorial work, because some of the orchestration is missing. 

So what we have is an opening Kyrie for chorus, with the Christe a soprano solo, then a complete Gloria that includes solo work for the soprano, mezzo and tenor, then the first two parts of the Credo, with a heartbreaking aria on Et incarnutus est, skip to the Sanctus and Benedictus.  And that's it.  The poor baritone has to sit through 45 minutes until he gets to sing a few lines in the Benedictus and then it's all over.  The entire operation takes almost 50 minutes.  Had Mozart finished setting the rest of the ordinary of the Mass, the piece would be on a scale to rival J.S. Bach's Mass in B Minor, one of the longest of all settings of the ordinary of the Mass.  Mozart was in his mid-20's when he wrote this, and it is full of youthful high spirits.  Much of the music shares the quality of his comic operas of the time -- the piece is roughly contemporary with "The Abduction from the Seraglio" -- and there are moments that show the influence of Handel (Mozart loved "Messiah" and undertook a rearrangement for "modern" instruments that puts clarinets where you least expect them) and foreshadowing of the later Mozart of Don Giovanni and Magic Flute.

It is one of the great frustrations of the Mozart fan that so much is missing -- and to think that perhaps he set more of it but the music just did not survive...  At any rate, what is here is treasurable, and Langree and his forces really threw themselves into it.  The orchestra covered itself with glory, and the chorus was right on, particularly good in the contrapuntal sections.  The soloists were a bit of a weaker link.  Although both soprano and mezzo sang their solos well, with full realization of the operative potential of the music, both tended to sound a bit hard-edged - almost to the point of shouting - in their loud, long-held high notes.  Tenor Ferguson, who made his first entry in the trio Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, toward the end of the Gloria, suffered the fate of those who must sit and wait and have no opportunity to warm up in reasonable proximity to their singing -- that is, he was unable to penetrate the texture at first, and almost could not be heard until well into the movement.  By contrast, baritone Grant managed his even longer wait without difficulty, coming in strong on his brief solo passages in the Benedictus.  Overall, I would rate this performance a real success.  The soloists, apart from the arias for soprano and mezzo, are less important to the overall success than the conductor, chorus and orchestra, all of whom were superb.

The Strauss...  After many years of trying, I still have trouble maintaining my attention throughout this piece.  It is at once lush and restrained, the garrulous work of an elderly nostalgist that goes on almost fifteen minutes longer than it should, in my opinion.  I know there must be those who absolutely adore this piece, but I find it a trial to sit through, despite its many beautiful moments.  The MMF orchestra strings did a fine job with it, and Langree adopted a relatively brisk tempo, but I still found it overstayed its welcome.  I can understand programming a string-only piece for the first half of this concert, as the Mass lacks some of the usual winds and it would be wasteful to bring in a full orchestral compliment to play only the first half.  But I would either have found a piece that can be played with the particular complement of winds on hand, or would have substituted some Mozart, perhaps Eine Kleine Nachtmusik! 

The Saturday performance I attended was the last of the season for Mostly Mozart.  I hope they are back in full force next summer.