Two works on last Wednesday’s San Francisco Symphony program; two different conductors with the same name. Kurt Masur 1 nicely portrayed the manifold strengths of Sofia Gubaidulina’s composition The Light of the End, which he premiered with the Boston Symphony in 2003. Then Kurt Masur 2 came out after intermission and cruelly exposed all the flaws of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4, yet few of the virtues.
gets between the notes
with Bruckner's horns
Gubaidulina is perhaps the foremost living Russian composer, having gained worldwide recognition since her first violin concerto was performed in Helsinki in 1984. The Light of the End, like that famous concerto, takes an intriguing music concept through a harrowing progression, ending with emotional uplift. In her Offertorium, it was the systematic, note-by-note deconstructive “sacrifice” of the theme for Bach’s Musical Offering that is then rebuilt to a satisfying conclusion. In the 2003 work, it is the tension between “natural” and “tempered” scales that is resolved by string glissandi, chimes, and crotales at the end.
The topic of tempered scales can get quite technical, and has even been the topic of books linking it to battles of great minds for the future of Western civilization. Basically, however, temperament is what has to be done in tuning a piano to make whatever scale you play sound relatively the same, no matter which note you use as a start. Without “tempering” modifications, the same note of one scale would be slightly different in another. Gubaidulina pits standard tempered notes in strings against untempered notes that have a slightly different wave frequency but are generated “naturally” from unvalved fundamental tones based on the tube lengths of horns. When the tempered and untempered tone types clash in the middle of her piece, the dissonance is enough to remove nail polish.
Voyage Into the Heart
Any professor can present a concept, but Gubaidulina’s artistry and genius takes a concept out of the lecture hall and into the heart. The first few minutes of Light features more than a dozen alterations of low string phrases with breathtaking, whirlwindlike sweeps rising from basses to violins. Eventually, the brass and percussion intrude, leading through stormy sections to the beginning of a resolution with statements of root tones, fifths, and octaves in horns.
This reminded me of the opening of Wagner’s Ring cycle in Das Rheingold, which establishes the natural order of things. Finally, the harp becomes more prominent (a heavenly influence?) as the chimes, glissandi, and high cello help close the voyage.
Reception for the 23 minutes of The Light of the End was strong, with prolonged applause requiring more than the usual number of bows. Of the many patrons I interviewed during intermission, almost all were positive about the work, even the woman who remarked “Like fingernails on a chalkboard — but interesting” or the gentleman who characterized its journey with “Life is hard, and then you die.” Many admired how atmospheric, clear, mysterious, and even melodic the music sounded.
The Bruckner after intermission also received a strong reception, though I would attribute this more to the composer than to the conductor. Bruckner tries to build cathedrals with sectional blocks of music, either with no transitions, or with pathetic little solos by woodwinds or other instruments to tie them together.
The biggest mistake that can be made with this edifice-obsessed composer is to rush things. Some conductors are afraid of exposing these deliberate gaps, but the best ones, like Bruno Walter and Zubin Mehta, work in the manner of proud masons, taking the opportunity now and then to stand back and admire their work. And then they go on to the next block and proceed with Austrian gemütlichkeit, not Prussian rigidity.
Unfortunately, I heard more of the latter than the former with Masur’s “blare-boned” approach. Problems in the horn section didn’t help, either, in this work that abounds with difficult and prominent horn parts. The major saving grace, for me, was a fabulous rendition by the violas of their beautiful melody in the Andante movement.