Künstler
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Künstler
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Robert
Bachmann
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Im
Jahre 1999 ernannte das Russische Nationalorchester den Dirigenten und
Komponisten Robert Bachmann zu seinem Associate Conductor - mithin
einen Künstler, der aufgrund seiner Begabung und seiner Interessen durchaus
mit dem Attribut "universal" versehen werden kann. Das musikalische
Talent des 1944 in der Schweiz geborenen Bachmann trat früh zutage:
Schon als Fünfjähriger erhielt er den ersten Klavierunterricht von dem
Schweizer Komponisten und Volksliedforscher Alfred Leonz Gassmann, der
seinen jungen Schüler zugleich auch in den Grundlagen des Tonsatzes
unterwies. |
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Neben seinen dirigentischen Aktivitäten ist Robert Bachmann vor allem
auch Komponist. Mit seinem transmedialen Werk ULURU hat er neue Horizonte
multidimensionaler Klangstrukturen erschlossen. ULURU, die erste virtuelle
Oper der Welt, gibt es in zwei Aufnahmen mit dem London Philharmonic
und den London Voices bzw. mit den Budapester Symphonikern. Außerdem
ist das Werk nebst einer Fülle weiterer Details unter http://www.uluru.org
oder http://www.uluru.de im Internet
verfügbar.
Mit Veröffentlichungen über herausragende Künstlerpersönlichkeiten und ähnliche Sujets hat sich Robert Bachmann auch als Musikwissenschaftler und Musikschriftsteller einen Namen gemacht. Sein Interesse gilt vor allem der Musik der Eingeborenen; musikethnologische Felduntersuchungen führten ihn unter anderem ins Innere von Afrika, Nord- und Südamerika sowie nach Asien, Australien und Polynesien. Überall hielt er einzigartige Klangbeispiele fest. Die ganz besonderen Eindrücke seiner Nordpol-Expedition sublimierte er in Rotation 90°N für tiefe Streicher. (weitere Informationen) Internationale Aufmerksamkeit erregten die Video- und CD-Produktionen mit den Budapester Philharmonikern, den Budapester Symphonikern, dem Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, dem Philharmonia und dem London Philharmonic.  Bachmanns Interesse beschränkt sich nicht auf den "innern Bezirk" der Musik, sondern geht weit über die Grenzen der Tonkunst hinaus. Vor allem faszinieren ihn die Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten multikultureller, interdisziplinärer Projekte und die Vereinigung verschiedenster Elemente und Einflüsse. Robert Bachmann ist nicht zuletzt auch als Berater verschiedener Musikfestivals und anderer kultureller Institutionen tätig. Das World Ecomonic Forum (Weltwirtschaftsforum WEF) im schweizerischen Davos verlieh ihm den Ehrentitel eines "Forum Fellow". In dieser Eigenschaft leitete er im Jahre 2000 als einer der "Cultural Leaders" das Russische Nationalorchester beim Wohltätigkeitskonzert des WEF. Weitere Informationen über Robert Bachmann unter: http://www.uluru.de oder http://www.uluru.org |
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Bruckners
vervollständigte Neunte in Bremen, London und Moskau
.... Robert Bachmann leitete auch die Weltpremiere der kritischen Neuausgabe der Neunten sowie die russische Erstaufführung des komplettierten Finales. Das Russische National Orchester spielte die Sinfonie am 6. November 2000 im großen Saal des Caikovskij-Konservatoriums in Moskau. Rezensionen lagen bei Redaktionsschluß dieser Ausgabe noch nicht vor. Meinem Eindruck nach versteht es Robert Bachmann jedoch wie kaum ein anderer Dirigent unserer Zeit, das komplizerte Stimmgeflecht der Neunten, ihren durch alle Sätze hindurch gehenden rhythmisch-motivischen Zusammenhang und die von der alten Tactus-auffassung geprägten Tempo-Beziehungen Bruckners herauszuarbeiten. Bachmann widerstand der Versuchung, das notierte Alla Breve oder das in Vierteln gesetzte Adagio in kleinere Schlageinheiten zu zergliedern. Dadurch verlieh er der Sinfonie jenen weiten Atem, den sie braucht, um sich klanglich optimal zu entfalten. Durch die gewählte Orchesteraufstellung mit links und rechts verteilten Violinen und den Violen auf der linken Seite war der Klang stets ausbalanciert und im Detail durchhörbar. Bachmanns Meisterleistung bestand aber darin, die ungeheuren Energien des Werkes so zu kontrollieren, daß die Coda des vierten Satzes zum wirklichen Gipfelpunkt wurde, in dem die Sinfonie sich ganz dem Klang entäußerte und somit auch das aus zweiter Hand vervollständigte Finale bruchlos eingliederte. Mehrere Kollegen und Musiker äußerten sich mir gegenüber nach dem Konzert ganz ähnlich begeistert: Noch nie zuvor habe ich Bruckners Neunte als Ganzes derart spannend gehört- eine ganz große Leistung des Dirigenten und des Russischen Nationalorchesters! |
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Mitteilungsblätter
der Brucknergesellschaft 12/00
Auszug (Benjamin G. Cohrs) |
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...
Bachmann is one of the most capable Bruckner conductors I have ever
heard and the RNO produced a very sensitive sound. The hall was full
and the concert was a tremendous success.
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The
Moscow Times
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BRUCKNERS´S
COMPLETED IXTH & MOZART, PIANO CONCERTO NO. 8
Russian National Orchestra / Robert Bachmann Alexander Ghindin, Piano; Russian National Orchestra / Benjamin G. Cohrs Bolshoi Hall of the Czaikovskij-Conservatory, Moscow, 6 November 2000 On the 6th of November 2000, in front of 1500 people in the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatorium in Moscow, a significant world premiere took place. The Russian National Orchestra under the direction of Robert Bachmann played the Ninth Symphony of Anton Bruckner for the first time in a new edition which has just been published in the Critical Edition (Vienna) by Benjamin Gunnar Cohrs. The concert also marked the Russian premiere of the Performing Version of the symphony's incomplete Finale, by Samale-Phillips-Cohrs-Mazzuca- in other words, the completion which, among all others, has proven to be philologically the most soundly based. Quite rightly, the concert aroused considerable sensation in Moscow. The international music scene took scarcely any notice, ultimately, as doubtless, given the present circumstances in Moscow, appropriate marketing was scarcely possible. This was regrettable, as in fact the Ninth was interpreted here with a vividness seldom experienced in the concert hall. The orchestral layout chosen by Bachmann was a surprise from the start. In opposition to the widespread American placement, the violins sat left and right on the podium, the violas, horns, Wagner tubas and timpani on the left, the woodwind in the middle, the tuba, trombones, trumpets, cellos and double basses on the right. Because of this, many problems of orchestal balance solved themselves. If at times the sound lacked ampleness in depth this may more likely be ascribed to the concert hall, the stage of which has a high, bare-stone ceiling. Moreover it appears in Russia to be unusual to use a tiered podium, as a result of which the sound tends to be thrown against the ceiling rather than into the hall. Considering these circumstances, the result was all the more impressive. The symphony began with a feeling of great peace, out of which, towards the end of the first movement, an ever stronger sense of agitation could develop. As a result, many almost hysterical episodes of this 'near-death' music became that much more vivid. The Scherzo unfolded in an optimal manner in a measured tempo, taking on the weight of a demonic dance of death, to which effect the excellent timpanist made considerable contribution. The Adagio unfolded in a strict, but pleasant, flowing tempo. The relative unfamiliarity of the orchestra with Bruckner proved here (if not before) a hidden asset, many interpretative traditions -such as the unbearably sentimental, dragging opening to the Adagio heard from Western orchestras- being absent here. Bachmann brought out the voiceleading clearly, without allowing the overall sound to be thrown into relief in the process. The tempi were chosen in such a way that the connections between the themes became clearly audible. In this manner, the Finale movement, completed by foreign hand, not only integrated itself indiscernibly into the whole, but became the true climax of the symphony. In brisk tempo, and with a scarcely surpassable sense of the dramatic, the dotted rhythms of the first two themes and broadly flowing triplets of the moving chorale theme fought out the final battle between life and death. With the return of the principal theme of the first movement Bachmann found his way back to its initial feeling of peace. The coda, largely drafted by Bruckner himself, unfolded itself thereby in majestic breadth. In the final, radiant D-major measures, the conductor, summoning up all his forces, succeeded in achieving such a culmination in sound that the symphony appeared to conclude in an act of self-realisation. Robert Bachmann here revealed in an exemplary fashion what really goes to make a first-class Bruckner conductor- the control of the vast sonic and rhythmic energies which these symphonies release. This report would be incomplete were it not to make mention of a further small sensation: Prior to the symphony, the editor of the Ninth, Benjamin Gunnar Cohrs, made his surprise international concert debut as conductor, accompanying the fine young pianist Alexander Ghindin in Mozart's Piano Concerto, K. 246. This interpretation may have surprised the Moscow public, as there one has scarcely been accustomed to hear the strings play almost without vibrato, and with a clear, speech-like phrasing and articulation. In this manner the work took on a sculptural quality, constantly remaining light and graceful. Special acknowledgement is due to Alexander Ghindin who took on the task of playing Mozart's own realisation of the figured bass in the tuttis (presumably for this reason the lid of the piano was removed). Unfortunately, all too few pianists do this today, the romantic notion of the emancipated soloist being still so heavily influential. Here, finally, due consideration allowed for the acoustic circumstances, Mozart's original sound conception was realised in an exemplary manner. How rarely does one get to hear young conductors such as Cohrs, who know their way around performance practice so well and at the same time are capable of such song-like and eloquent musicmaking. |
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Rob van der Hilst, Utrecht (full-length version by the author) [shortened version in: The Bruckner Journal, Vol. V, No. 1, Febraury 2001] |
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BRUCKNER'S NINTH SYMPHONY RUSSIAN NATIONAL ORCHESTRA, ROBERT BACHMANN MOZART: PIANO CONCERTO KV 246 Alexander Ghindin, Russian National Orchestra, Benjamin Gunnar Cohrs MOSCOW CONSERVATORY, November 6th, 2000 Having never visited Moscow before, it was certainly both an intriguing and rewarding experience to find myself resident in the Russian capital for a few days on a drizzly weekend in early November, a stone's throw away from Red Square, the Kremlin and Lenin's tomb. Yet just a slightly further stone's throw away from those very landmarks is another location of significant historico-cultural interest, especially to the music fan- namely, the Moscow Conservatoire, with its auditorium of the Great Hall, replete with the backdrop of an impressive organ and sidewalls adorned with portraits of twelve great composers. Sadly not amongst the 'disciples' selected for representaion is the titanic figure of the great Austrian symphonist Anton Bruckner; and one senses that, even now more than a century after his death, Bruckner still remains something of an unknown quantity in Moscow. All the better a springboard then to present to a large and expectant audience the Russian premiere of a completed Ninth Symphony. To those readers of this piece already familiar with the background and pro- and contra-arguments for a completion of the mighty Ninth, whose final movement the ailing Bruckner left unfinished (and even to those who aren't), this is not the place further to rehearse the debate. Suffice to say that even in writing 'about' the project (let alone the accomplished scholarship and musicianship involved in bringing it to fruition), one of the quartet of the last movement's editors - Benjamin Gunnar Cohrs - has made out a more than eloquent case for the validity of the undertaking, the bare gist of which asserts that Bruckner himself certainly intended his Symphony to possess the customary compliment of four movements; and that, moreover, almost a surfeit of sufficient material has survived to make a creditable performing version possible. And in my view, very laudable too are the results: the almost 30-minute Finale unfolding in dramatic and seamless fashion, its building blocks impressively hewn and set in place, before climaxing in a magnificent and shattering coda. Remember Bruckner dedicated his opus summum to none other than the 'Dear Lord' himself. Surely something very akin to the monumental lines of this impressive completion is how we should consider him departing the world - his life's work well done - as opposed to the fading strains of the Adagio in the performed Symphony's usual three-movement torso, however elegiac such a valediction might seem. Yet mention of those three movements entails another point worth making about this Russian premiere, for even they were in a sense being played anew for the first time in Cohrs's scholarly new version of the Symphony which forms part what will surely become a definitive and 21st century Bruckner edition. So, much musicological novelty in the air in Moscow on the eve of November 6, 2000. Of course another tireless advocate of the music of Bruckner of late has been the eminent Swiss conductor Robert Bachmann, and many British Brucknerians will already be familiar with the conductor's powerful readings of the composer's Fifth and Seventh Symphonies which he has delivered in recent years at London's Barbican Centre with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Yet unquestionably Bachmann also possesses a pioneering streak to go in tandem with his ever-enquiring mindset. In London in March 2000 he enterprisingly gave listeners a very rare opportunity indeed to experience the first (1887) version of Bruckner's Eighth Symphony; and, again with the Royal Philharmonic two months later he splendidly delivered the British Premiere of the completed Ninth. Although I was probably the only audience member present at both London and Moscow Ninths, I will nevertheless not attempt to compare and contrast the RPO with the RNO, so to speak. Of the Moscow performance alone then: in his last symphonic testament, the Symphony No.9 in D Minor, Bruckner's range of expression seems to widen even further, with the visionary quality of his mature style becoming even more intensified. The first 96 bars of the opening movement alone contain no fewer than eight principal ideas. The form of the movement also seems to show a pattern of 'Statement, Counterstatement and Coda' which is totally divorced from sonata form. From the very first tremolo strains, anticipatorily intoned, Bachmann and the Russian National Orchestra seemed up to the task, lusciously easing into the solemn and broad scope of the initial section. The main theme's fortissimo unison was breathtakingly introduced, as was the jolting transition to the next phase, developed over the organ point of D. Motifs and more motifs appeared, all clearly signalled, as the vast movement unfolded, gaining a grandiose and almost superhuman weight. The climax of the working-out section and the beginning of the recapitulation coincided in a climax of magnificent force. In the final summatory Coda too Bachmann's breadth of design was equally evident as he steered trombones and woodwinds through the basic theme and drew the huge design to a consummate close. Bruckner marks his Scherzo Mosso vivace and it consists of a vigorous, almost vehement whirlwind of music. Again Bachmann and his orchestra alighted on the correct ambience immediately: tantalisingly etched was the main theme, so peculiar in its harmonic aspect. The subsidiary theme has something of a dance character though here it took the form of a turbulent 'danse macabre'. Bruckner's contrasting Trio, departing from the customary slower tempo, maintained the accruing momentum spectacularly, almost with a bravura French brilliance, and the even more strongly reiterated Scherzo material brought the movement to a thrilling apotheosis. A massive interposition between sonata and rondo form, the ensuing Adagio is lavishly set out. Again Bachmann set the scene admirably, hauntingly capturing the striking effect of the ascending ninth at the opening, where the violins seemed to soar towards the heavens. The first phrase then appeared splendidly glowing on the horns, with the long melody unfolding gradually against the burnished tones of the Wagner tubas. A sense of ethereal stasis almost takes over, but although such an ambience was evocatively suggested here, neither Bachmann nor his orchestra allowed the ebb and flow of the music ever to become bogged down. The following jaunty string melody was gracefully played, with woodwinds answering in light colours. By the time of the huge recapitulation, the movement had certainly attained its own lavish and exquisitely drawn character. Again, here, several long rests threaten to destroy the cohesion but they were consummately and dramatically negotiated before the Adagio came to a translucent end amongst a glow of flickering violin figures and dark-toned tubas. Bruckner's sketches demonstrate that the mighty Finale was planned on an even more epic scale than that of the Eighth Symphony, or even the Fifth - a gigantic structure consisting of an exposition followed by a development combining a fugue with a recapitulation of the second subject group. Would would an audience of no doubt almost exclusively new ears hear? Once again Bachmann admirably painted the scene with an opening nervous and mysterious, and fascinatingly ambivalent and proto-modern in its harmonies. Later on the more assertive chorale theme was posited on a grand scale, becoming tightly fused with the motif Bruckner takes from his Te Deum. Although the contents of this 'new' movement, as well as its complex argument, constructed from just a handful of simple threads, was of course entirely alien to the Russian National Orchestra, they coped manfully, with playing of great skill and energy, especially after more than an hour on the platform already. Bachmann had memorised and cogitataed over this relatively alien territory with his customary fastidiousness too, as any number of finer points and pointings demonstrated, woven against the meticulous exposition, with its culminatory and argumentative force, of the whole. When the last great coda arrived it did so in a panoply of orchestral colour and force, and Robert Bachmann and his Russian players drove Bruckner's Symphony No.9 home in mesmeric style and in a blaze of glory. A lucid, meticulously prepared and finely executed performance then, commandingly supervised by Robert Bachmann both its in overall shaping and its acute attention to detail. Moreover the dedication, commitment and professionalism of the Russian National Orchestra was a joy to behold from first bar to last. Their ensemble is tight and cogent; and their sound distinctive, sonorous and homogenous. There were magnificent contributions from all sections: silken strings, perky and mellifluous woodwind, resplendent brass; and whilst it would be invidious to single anyone out for special treatment, the quartet of Wagner tubas played as if they knew their rare instruments inside out and the hard-worked timpanist rose to his arduous task with heroic zeal. Even more splendid too when set against the piece with which Bruckner's mighty Symphony was prefaced: the youthful Mozart's Piano Concerto No.8 in C, K246 conducted by none other than the versatile Bruckner scholar and all-round musician Benjamin Gunnar Cohrs, with Alexander Ghindin providing an illuminating and sparkling account of the solo piano part. Employing period performing practice and a reduced body of strings, Cohrs elicited a refined and elegant account. Sprightly and energetic was the tempo of the opening Allegro, with the piano's almost concealed entry into the fray subtly handled. Pianist Ghindin was on top form and launched into a attractive cadenza before altering the mood in the simple but homely slow movement, which was marvellously controlled in both dynamics and emotive content throughout. An appropriately leisurely but buoyant rondo finale brought events to a pleasing close. Especially rewarding throughout was both Cohrs's and soloist Ghindin's incisiveness for there was nothing unnecessarily floral or sentimental about this Classically transparent and forthright reading; instead, a peluccid clarity in both means and methods emerged, showing both pianist and conductor already to be consummate talents worth looking out for in the future. As I left the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, the radiance of Bruckner's final apocalyptic vision still resonating in my ears, I certainly felt I had witnessed not only a major Russian premiere but also been present at at marvellous evening of ground breaking music-making. |
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Duncan
Hadfield, London (full-length internet version)
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Ein erdverbundener Bruckner Am 1. November 2001 spielte das Royal Philharmonic Orchestra unter der Leitung von Robert Bachmann in der Londoner Royal Albert Hall die fünfte Symphonie von Anton Bruckner. Dazu schrieb Rick Jones im Evening Standard:
Die Hörner intonierten einen üppigen Choral, bevor Trompeten, Posaunen und Tuba auf Bachmanns kraftvolle Gesten wie ein Regiment eifriger Artilleristen antworteten. Im Adagio spielte die trügerische Heiterkeit der Oboe die Hauptrolle; dann ließ das Bombardement des Scherzos das Publikum beinahe kapitulieren. Bachmanns
Bruckner ist von kraftvollen, klaren Linien, starken farblichen und
dynamischen Kontrasten und einen unterschwelligen romantischen Heroismus
geprägt. Das Finale faßte auf triumphale Weise alles Vorherige
zusammen und kombinierte es mit einem eigenen Siegesmarsch. |
