Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.classica
Titolo: Ascolti comparati - Hallelujah Handel

Vi propongo un ascolto comparato, al seguente link:
http://rapidshare.de/files/35473170/Hallelujah-2versioni.zip
Sono due versioni recenti ma diversissime del celebre Hallelujah di Handel.
Lascio a voi indovinare, ed eventuali commenti e giudizi.
Saluti
Giorgio

 Lascio a voi indovinare, ed eventuali commenti e giudizi.
La n.1 potrebbe essere Colin Davis?
La n.2 mi piace meno.........
Comunque ritengo insuperabili quelle di Richter e di Pearlman
L'ho gia' raccontato, forse, ma ricordo ancora con commozione un 
Alleluja di tanti anni fa.......
Niente nomi altisonanti, solo le "corali" che fanno il giro delle chiese.
Una sera a Valleggia (prov. di Savona) oltre alla corale locale erano 
ospiti anche quelle di Camogli e Rapallo.
In piu' c'era l'orchestra formata da studenti del Conservatorio Paganini 
di Genova.
Insomma, una cinquantina in orchestra e almeno 200 nel coro (coro 
riunito, si capisce), in un Alleluja galattico.
Non era granche' filologica, come esecuzione........:-))))))))
Forse nemmeno cantata a regola d'arte...........
Ma la commozione che suscito' nelle centinaia di presenti fu qualcosa di 
unico.
-- 
=========================================
Marco Marcelli - Genova
=========================================
"Tutto cio' che e' umano e' imperfetto. Tranne Mozart" (Zazie)

 Lascio a voi indovinare, ed eventuali commenti e giudizi.
La seconda è quella recente di René Jacobs. La prima non so, una
qualunque delle tantissime versioni "tradizionali" in circolazione.
Io preferisco il secondo modo di affrontare questo coro, meno
"muscolare" e con più attenzione ai dettagli. Poi il coro di Jacobs è
eccellente: l'ho sentito dal vivo qui a Roma e ne sono rimasto
estasiato. Peccato che invece i due contralti solisti non mi abbiano
entusiasmato.
Certo, dipende poi dal coro che un direttore si trova ad avere: se è di
un centinaio di elementi, meglio andare sul muscolare e buonanotte.
Comunque ci sono in giro versioni ancora meno "tradizionali", volendo.
Ora non ce l'ho sottomano, ma mi sembra di ricordare che la vecchia
incisione di Hogwood fosse molto più "estremista" di Jacobs.
Maurizio

 incisione di Hogwood fosse molto più "estremista" di Jacobs.
Beh, sono molto curioso. Cercherò. Ho anche sentito un Hallelujah giapponese 
(su Naxos): troppo preciso, direi. :)
PS. Non so se conosci anche le varie "degenerazioni" rock e gospel
dell'Hallelujah.
Ne conosco tre piuttosto curiose, ma il ritmo soul si coniuga male con la
complessità polifonica di Handel.
G

 dell'Hallelujah.
No, grazie! ;-)
Maurizio

 occasioni.
D'accordo, ma converrai che ben difficilmente l'abbia potuto eseguire in 
modi così diversi. O no?
Avrà avuto un'idea interpretativa di fondo, al di là delle variabili 
contingenti.
G

 modi così diversi. O no?
Non lo so. I cori che usava Handel per il Messiah erano usualmente di
dimensioni contenute (20-30 elementi), quindi non è impossibile
un'esecuzione "alla Jacobs". Non so se le partiture esistenti portano
qualche indicazione precisa, ma siccome le esecuzioni - durante la vita
di Handel - avvenivano sotto la sua direzione, di solito i manoscritti
non abbondano in direttive per gli esecutori.
D'altra parte, già nel 1784 il Messiah fu suonato da un coro di 274
elementi e da un'orchestra di 251: se Handel si fosse trovato a dirigere
una tale massa, difficilmente avrebbe potuto fare un gran lavoro di
cesello.
Quanto a Jacobs, non è certo uno di quelli che cercano di riprodurre in
modo il più preciso possibile una certa esecuzione: ha più volte
dichiarato che su certe cose (strumenti da usare per il continuo,
abbellimenti, ecc.) si ritiene libero di fare le sue scelte, all'interno
ovviamente di quello che era lo stile dell'epoca.
Maurizio

 ovviamente di quello che era lo stile dell'epoca.
Sai se c'č qualche intervista o articolo online con o su Jacobs?
Ciao
G 

 Sai se c'è qualche intervista o articolo online con o su Jacobs?
Ti incollo qui sotto una sua intervista che ho letto di recente su una
mailing list. A proposito: se ami Handel e conosci l'inglese ti
consiglio di sottoscrivere questa ML:
 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/handel-l/
e poi ti potrebbe interessare anche questa sulla musica barocca (in
italiano):
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/MusicaBarocca/
Ecco l'intervista a Jacobs.
-----
René Jacobs: Baroque roots and a 'sense of fantasy' 
By George Loomis International Herald Tribune
Published: August 8, 2006
The early music movement is premised on authenticity, yet one of its 
leading conductors insists on making decisions that raise the 
eyebrows of purists. "I have a right to do Handel the way he did it 
sometimes," is René Jacobs's response to those who accuse him of 
taking musical liberties.
Jacobs, a former countertenor, has risen to the top of his field by 
being as pragmatic as he is doctrinaire, yet inherent in his defense 
is that his choices are rooted in Baroque practice, if less 
obviously. The success that Jacobs has achieved could never have 
happened without the sheer vitality of his music making. His 
performances come alive for the audience, whether in the Baroque 
repertoire with which he has mainly been associated or in Mozart 
operas, where he has won much acclaim lately. On Saturday, he is to 
lead a new production of "Don Giovanni" at the Innsbruck Festival of 
Early Music, where he is artistic director.
"Musicologists say that Handel had no organ" at the Haymarket 
Theatre, where many of his operas were first performed, Jacobs 
said, "but what are they telling me?" The conductor was referring to 
the choice of so-called continuo instruments, primarily the 
harpsichord but also other keyboard or plucked-string instruments, 
which have the responsibility of improvising above a written bass 
line. Jacobs favors a variety of such instruments for contrast. "The 
way you resolve a continuo question depends on availability and your 
sense of fantasy," he said in an interview in Göttingen, Germany, 
before an appearance at the Handel Festival there. "I don't think 
composers imagined a particular sound for the continuo."
Jacobs may sometimes go against the grain of scholarship, but in 
conversation he reveals a thorough grasp of the arguments. "The harp 
was rarely used, but Handel had a famous harp player for 'Saul,' and 
just because it was used in that one piece doesn't mean that you 
can't use it in 'Messiah,'" he said. "Of course, the principal 
creator of any composition is the composer, but 17th- and 18th-
century music leaves possibilities open for the performer to be a co-
creator in areas like continuo playing and ornamentation. It's an 
aspect of this music that I especially like. In the early 19th 
century, they still improvised with ornamentation, but later on there 
was no such opportunity. At some point in 'Don Giovanni' the singers 
must improvise."
In Innsbruck, Jacobs will offer "Don Giovanni" in both the original 
Prague version and in Mozart's later revision for Vienna, with two 
performances of each. The standard performing version today is a 
composite of the two that includes both tenor arias and the aria 
Mozart wrote for the Donna Elvira in Vienna, "Mi tradì." The 
performances offer a rare opportunity to hear the duet for Zerlina 
and Leporello, in which the servant girl threatens Don Giovanni's 
servant with a razor.
"It is sometimes said that the music of this duet is not strong and 
that the piece is out of place dramatically because it is too 
farcical," Jacobs said. "But that's an important aspect of the opera, 
and I think that dramaturgically the duet can fit." Jacobs sees its 
customary omission as a throwback to the 19th century, when the final 
moralizing ensemble was omitted and Giovanni became a kind 
of "Faustian hero."
There is evidence that the final scene may also have been cut in 
Vienna. "The printed libretto omits it, but the performing materials 
have it, with some small cuts indicated," he said. "My guess is that 
Mozart thought about leaving it out but decided against it. And if he 
did leave it out, it would have been for reasons totally different 
from the 19th century's - he might have thought that Giovanni's 
descent to hell could have made for a spectacular ending to impress 
the Viennese public. Or maybe he felt that the Vienna additions made 
the opera too long."
Performing Mozart in Innsbruck is a bit of a departure for a festival 
that normally gives a Baroque opera every year, and a fairly obscure 
one at that. "Last year we did Francesco Conti's 'Don Chisciotte,' a 
fine piece with a strong libretto even though we couldn't find 
another opera house willing to be a co-producer. Now Brussels will do 
it in 2010."
Innsbruck has played a pioneering role in the revival of Baroque 
opera, Jacobs said: "I came there 30 ago, just a few years after it 
was started. A big point in my career was a concert performance 
of 'L'Orontea' by the Innsbruck court composer Antonio Cesti. 
Harmonia Mundi recorded it, and a staged version followed. After 
that, I started to sing less.
"Now Baroque opera is a fixed ingredient in all important opera 
houses and festivals, but they do mainly Handel," he continued. Does 
Handel account for too large a slice of the Baroque opera pie? "I 
hate to say it, but yes." One composer Jacobs sees as unjustly 
neglected is Alessandro Scarlatti, a prolific opera composer and the 
father of Dominico, the composer of keyboard sonatas. "Scarlatti is 
perhaps less easy to listen to than Handel. Handel tends to follow 
expectations, so you can imagine what the next bar will be. With 
Scarlatti you can expect something and then it's totally different."
What about Vivaldi, whose operas have become the rage on CD following 
Cecilia Bartoli's aria album a few years ago? "He is not to my 
taste," Jacobs said. He added that when he did Scarlatti's "Griselda" 
at the Berlin Staatsoper, where his annual Baroque opera production 
is a season highlight, he compared it to Vivaldi's operatic treatment 
of the same story. "Scarlatti's is so much more original and moving," 
he said. "Vivaldi is done just because of his name as the composer of 
the Four Seasons." Jacobs is also a fan of German Baroque operas by 
Georg PhilippTelemann and Reinhard Keiser.
As for the period instrument movement, the conductor said it has 
never been in better shape. "Players are better, they're less 
dogmatic. In the old days when I was a countertenor, we would record 
Handel operas in so many takes. By the time the orchestra played in 
tune my voice was tired. Now mainstream singers want to sing Baroque 
music."
Jacobs's own performing background, however, doesn't translate into a 
partiality for countertenors. "I don't exclude them - some sing their 
roles very well. But very few can sing them in a very dramatic way."
Jacobs sees the fact that many instrumentalists are coming from Latin 
countries as an especially positive development. "Players from Italy, 
Spain and Argentina bring to the music a sense of personal fantasy 
and a love for improvisation that I miss when I work in Northern 
European countries," he said. And you can count on those qualities 
enlivening Jacobs's "Don Giovanni" in Innsbruck as well.
----------
Maurizio

 consiglio di sottoscrivere questa ML:
Grazie. Molto gentile da parte tua
G
