...the Music of Galina Ustvolskaya

Hommage to Galina Ustvolskaya

Galina Ustvolskaya is certainly no longer an insiders' tip. Almost every work by her is available on CD, and the first biography was published this year by Andreas Holzer.

Nevertheless, it is not so easy to encounter her work in concert. The instrumentation is often unusual, and the pieces short in duration, which contradicts the programming in regular concert series'. Therefor, praise is due for the Wiener Festwochen and his Chairman Markus Hinterhäuser for performing her music on four concerts on two consecutive days. 

The concert(s) were debated in a poor review in Die Presse. I guess that the reviewer only attended the concert with the piano sonatas, risked a quick glance at the liner notes and scribbled down his review. The review in the "Tiroler Tageszeitung" is more concise, but far from thorough. Ljubisa Tosic wrote by far the most accurate review for "Der Standard."

The Works

On Saturday, May 31st, and Sunday, June 1st, almost every piece by Ustvolskaya could be heard in the Wiener Konzerthaus, played by some of the world's finest musicians. The first concert started with the Sonata for Violin and Piano, followed by the Duet for Violin and Piano, played by Markus Hinterhäuser and Patricia Kopachinskaya. Both of the them applied an almost romanticist approach to Ustvolskaya's music, which is otherwise often accused of being harsh and violent. Hinterhäuser and Kopachinskaya proved the opposite, and showed that her music is more than a succession of fffff-clusters and allegedly unrelated quarter-notes. On the other hand, their performance of this two pieces already showed the immense emotional potential of this music, which was heart-gripping and overwhelming at the same time. Even Patricia Kopachinskaya seemed to be moved, if not stunned, by it and was able to show a faint smile only after the fourth curtain call. The audience was applauding deeply grateful, and rightly so. 

Markus Hinterhäuser performed also the six piano sonatas on the next day. Once more, his romanticist approach which lots of pedal appeared to be an interesting way of dealing with the ragged and seemingly incoherent structure. This incoherence is a wildly discussed trait of Ustvolskaya's music, but Hinterhäuser showed that this is no necessity. Admittedly, her music is often violent and loud, but Hinterhäuser refrained from showing too much of this performative stance. This was obvious in the notorious sixth piano sonata, which consists almost only of ffff-clusters. He did not "jump" into the piano, like Marino Formenti did in the Symphonies, but played them as carefully as he played mellow passages, which revealed a completely different approach to Ustvolskaya's music. His interpretation has nothing to do with the so-called "Lady with the Hammer." Hinterhäuser showed us the beauty that lies below this mountains of clusters by taking Ustvolskaya's direction "espressivissimo" literally.

World were between Marino Formenti's interpretation of the 12 Préludes later that evening and Hinterhäuser's style. Formenti appeared as a master of the tender and the delicate, in opposition to his almost beserk account in the Symphonies No. 2 and 3. He maybe lost track in the fourth Prélude, but was nevertheless acclaimed frenetically by the audience for a remarkable performance of this early work by Ustvolskaya that showed unknow qualities of her music.

The five Symphonies can be divided in three groups. The first, which was not performed on this occasion, the second and third, the fourth and fifth. The second and third symphony are scored mostly for brass and woodwinds, percussion, and piano. They all have spiritual (religious) names, like "True, eternal bliss" (2nd), "Jesus, Messiah, save us" (3rd), "Prayer" (4th), and "Amen" (5th). They were performed by the phenomenal "Klangforum Wien", directed by Peter Rundel. 

These symphonies are certainly not for the faint-hearted. Ustvolskaya explicitly connects them to a certain, though unnamed, belief, by virtue of the title, and a vocal soloist. The same can be said about the three Compositions, which also bear religious titles like "Dona nobis pacem" (1st), "Dies irae" (2nd), and "Benedictus qui venit" (3rd), but abstain from the use of a singer. The music of the Symphonies and the Compositions is not only perceptible with the ear, but also with the whole body. This is, in part, also true for the sonatas, but because of the different instruments, it is much more effective in the Symphonies as well as in the Compositions. Another difference is that the latter are performed by a ensemble, that is to say, a community. To stay in Ustvolskaya's world of religious faith, the ensemble might be a community of believers who talk to each other, whereas the pianist is a single prayer.

The Occasion

More than twenty Composition were performed in not much more than twenty-four hours. It is a major accomplishment to organize such an event, and even more with such fine performers.
Nevertheless, I have strong doubts that it makes sense to program almost the complete ouevre of a composer in four concerts on two evenings, even more, if it's Ustvolskaya. I was pretty exhausted after the first two concerts on the first evening. The liner notes said, that each concert would last for 70 minutes, which was a ridiculous underestimation, given that the first concert lasted almost two hours and the second 90 minutes. Obviously, the breaks to rearrange chairs and stands were not calculated. The concert could have ended after the first two works for violin and piano, and I would not have been disappointed. In my opinion, the music is too strong for listening to more than one or two works by Ustvolskaya in a row. Even the piano sonatas, though her shortest works in duration, are strenuous, for both the performer and the audience.
 It is highly questionable, if the organizer of the Wiener Festwochen did the performers, the audience, and the composer a favour by this abundance. On the other hand - one can't but admire the audacity (in the best sense) of this very organizer to advocate for this radical, unconventional, and, at least for me, mysterious music.