CLASSICAL MUSIC: Coenraad Visser
AUDIENCES in Gauteng have been treated to a feast of=20 new music — a world premiere and two first South=20 African performances.
For the third time Carlo Franci conducted the Transvaal=20 Philharmonic Orchestra in a first performance of one of=20 his works. But enough is enough.
This year’s creation, Time of May, consists of free=20 transcriptions and arrangements of medieval songs and=20 dances. It is scored for four singers, brass, two=20 violas, percussion and prerecorded tape. On tape one=20 hears mainly electronic sound blocks and a choir to=20 which cathedral acoustic effects have been added.
The fusion of electronic and medieval music works best=20 when the electronic aspect complements the medieval .=20 But in the Stabat Mater, for example, the massive sound=20 blocks merely fragment the music, without clear=20 purpose. The problem is a recurring one with Franci’s=20 music — a failure to unite a motley assortment of=20 musical styles into a visionary whole.
Unfortunately, Time of May also shows that Franci has=20 some way to go before he catches up with leading=20 exponents of the electronic music genre. Unlike other=20 European composers in this field, Franci still does not=20 address the debilitating sameness of the electronic=20 timbre, and has not realized that what may impress in=20 the confines of the recording studio may sound rather=20 feeble in a big hall.
By contrast, with the National Symphony Orchestra=20 Cuban-American conductor Tania Leon showcased two=20 remarkable 20th century works — Joan Tower’s Fanfare=20 for an Uncommon Woman and Silvestre Revueltas’ Homenaje=20 a Garcia Lorca.
The Tower piece is scored for the same forces as=20 Copland’s Fanfare, but is far more angular and=20 striking. Leon made the most of the Revueltas’ many=20 moods and rhythmic felicities.
Add to this Leon’s overwhelming reading of Panufnik’s=20 third symphony, Sinfonia Sacra, and the Tower fanfare=20 may have been written in Leon’s honour. After all, it=20 is dedicated to women who are adventurous and take=20