Michael Blake
It was intriguing to read Paul Boekkooi’s belated comments on the New Music Indaba (“Oh what a messy indaba“, August 8). Intriguing, of course, because we all know he wasn’t actually in Grahamstown (though he did appear at one concert in Johannesburg) and it would appear that, given the paucity of work for a classical music reviewer in South Africa, Boekkooi has now reinvented himself as a gossip columnist.
And gossip it was. Everything in his piece was at least second hand. An experienced gossip writer would have checked his sources, as would any journalist. For example the report on Jurgen Brauninger and Matteo Fargion was by a student reporter for Cue, the festival newspaper, who did not realise that the two Dutch composers (Theo Loevendie and Christina Oorebeek) had appeared the previous evening and that Brauninger is in fact German and Fargion Italian by birth.
With a festival run on a shoestring budget in a challenged environment the number of variables is almost infinite. Apart from the fact that our administrator was only three months into her job, a baptism by fire if ever there was, one half of the Dutch piano duo cancelled just before we opened because her mother was dying, and the pianist could not be replaced for the performances of Stockhausen’s Mantra. Then the soprano due to perform the Bow Project transcriptions took ill and could only be replaced for the Johannesburg dates. And so on.
But it is worth noting that audiences in Grahamstown heard 12 new commissions from young South African composers and innumerable local premieres of 20th (and 21st) century music in nearly 20 concerts in Grahamstown and seven in Johannesburg.
Furthermore, over the course of a week, 10 young composers and writers attended OperaWorks and under the direction of Mary Rörich, Jane Taylor and Theo Loevendie produced about 40 short new pieces, 22 of which were premiered on opening night. And over two weeks, a dozen young composers from across the country attended classes and lectures with a distinguished faculty led by Kevin Volans.
Of course had Boekkooi made the journey he would have witnessed all this first hand and even been able to make a useful contribution to the discourse in the festival newspaper.
I have checked with all the musicians and it turns out that none of the pianists or singers had been required to carry their instruments. Contrary to Boekkooi’s opening remark, all these artists reiterated how thoroughly they had enjoyed themselves and how they had been enriched by the experience of performing in South Africa and working with our young composers.
So in the light of that I’m sorry to hear that the Sontonga Quartet were unhappy. The Sontongas and the indaba have built up a good relationship and it seems a pity that some ill-considered reporting should spoil that. Their residency at the festival this year was a long time in the planning and involved their participation in OperaWorks, the Bow Project, a concert of South African quartets and their own late night events.
I was also able to secure for them a main festival gig with First Physical Theatre playing my First Quartet in five performances of Gary Gordon’s Travellers. They worked hard and were looked after: private accommodation, transport for the instruments, their own rehearsal room, et cetera.
But like any ensemble involved in playing new work, one cannot expect them to sign a contract until they had actually seen all the new pieces written for them. And composers being what they are, the last piece came in literally a week before opening. Happily it was a fabulous piece and the quartet learned it and played it with their characteristic professionalism and musicality.
As to what Volans has described as East European “weapons of mass destruction”, Gorecki’s String Quartet No 2, I tried to discourage the Sontongas from playing it at the indaba simply because I think it’s a bad piece. As it happens they played it on three occasions and I was only disappointed that at the Bassline they privileged it over Volans’s magnificent Quartet No 4 .
As Volans himself has said to young composers on numerous occasions, “Never underestimate your audience, they’re 1 000 times more intelligent than you think.” I doubt the Bassline audience would have had a problem with his piece. I suspect the kids in the front row at the quartet’s first Gorecki outing were intelligent enough to know they were listening to ‘n klomp kak.
Dr Michael Blake is a composer and pianist, president of NewMusicSA (South African Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music) and director of the New Music Indaba
Paul Boekkooi
Michael Blake’s reply to “Oh what a messy indaba” (August 8) is a combination of egg-dance, smokescreen and avoidance. The truth is far worse. The barrage of information I received on what really happened after its publication, paints a far more despicable picture.
Gossip columnist? What follows is (once again) reliably sourced. Blake’s reply on how much was achieved is a given. He’s funded to run a proper music indaba. Here are some pointers:
The Gaudeamus Stichting is considering rechanneling future funding away from NewMusicSA and not to work with Blake, its president. His history with the Dutch embassy is also all but rosy .
His continuous commissioning of his own works is unethical.
After the badly organised Johannesburg-wing of the indaba, Wits has decided not to make its theatres available to NewMusicSA.
Why hasn’t the director of the Music Communication Centre of Southern Africa been paid for his services rendered to NewMusicSA in 2002? Why not Walter Butt this year?
Blake’s tantrums and self- centered behaviour are cause for many complaints. The result? Many composers and musicians don’t want to work with him.
Matteo Fargion refunded out of his own pocket those audience members who attended the interview Blake unilaterally cancelled.
My remarks concerning Sontonga were substantiated. Blake’s remark about the Gorecki speaks volumes about him. He and Volans evidently don’t comprehend certain subtexts in Eastern European music.
Blake’s singing of Volans’s praises is more representative of a publicist than a discerning admirer.