{"id":898,"date":"2017-12-17T22:36:29","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T03:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=898"},"modified":"2017-12-17T22:36:29","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T03:36:29","slug":"schubert-uncorked-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2017\/12\/schubert-uncorked-3.html","title":{"rendered":"Schubert Uncorked"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Every once in a while a master composer creates music so radically new that it seemingly falls wholly outside its time and place. Franz Schubert\u2019s 1828 song cycle Winterreise<\/em> (\u201cWinter\u2019s Journey\u201d), charting an uncanny descent into madness, is such a work. Schubert\u2019s contemporaries didn\u2019t know what to make of it. Its chilly existential numbness is routinely likened in affect to Dostoyevsky. But Winterreise<\/em> is sui generis.<\/p>\n

The timelessness of Winterreise<\/em>, its limitless expressive parameters, tantalize singers to do something more. It has sometimes been staged. In my experience, adding something more to Winterreise<\/em> results in something less. I know of only one exception: the Schubert excursions of the bass trombonist David Taylor, himself sui generis.<\/p>\n

Taylor plays and sings<\/em> Die Nebensonnen and Der Leiermann \u2013 the final two songs of Schubert\u2019s cycle. He also plays two late Schubert songs setting bleakly surreal poems by Heinrich Heine: Die Stadt and Der Doppelganger.<\/p>\n

Der Doppelganger has in fact become a Taylor signature. He first performed it many years ago in Vienna\u2019s Musikverein, as an encore with the Tonkunstler Orchestra. Taylor remembers the \u00a0initial skepticism of the musicians \u2013 and also their subsequent amazement, and that of Vienna\u2019s music critics. He tells this story as part of \u201cSchubert Uncorked,\u201d the latest installment of PostClassical Ensemble<\/a>\u2019s \u201cPostClassical\u201d radio series on the WWFM Network.<\/p>\n

You can hear Taylor tell this story on part two of “Schubert Uncorked.” If you want a mighty dose of Taylor\u2019s Schubert, listen to Die Stadt and Der Doppelganger on part two, beginning at 32:53.<\/p>\n

These unique radio programs are recorded in real time by myself, Angel Gil-Ordonez, and Bill McGlaughlin. We listen and react. Bill is in charge. He brings to this assignment a singular combination of gravitas, humor, and informed sincerity. Hearing Taylor\u2019s Schubert for the first time, he registered incredulous admiration; he called Taylor\u2019s Nebensonnen \u201cnaked in front of the world.\u201d Angel, re-hearing Schubert\/Taylor performances he had conducted half a dozen years ago, called them \u201cmuch more emotional\u201d than the original versions: \u201cThis level of sentiment cannot be achieved with a [singing] voice.\u201d My own reaction, on the air, was to call Taylor\u2019s Doppelganger an inspired \u201cphantasmagoria.\u201d If you think all this is hyperbolic, listen to the broadcast and think again.<\/p>\n

Like all PostClassical broadcasts , \u201cSchubert Uncorked\u201d features performances by Gil-Ordonez conducting PostClassical Ensemble \u2013 in this case, culled from two different concerts. The first of these juxtaposed Taylor\u2019s readings with the songs as Schubert composed them, rendered by the baritone William Sharp (whom I would call today\u2019s supreme American singer of concert songs).<\/p>\n

\u201cSchubert Uncorked\u201d also includes the broadcast premiere of the Schubert\/Taylor Arpeggione<\/em> Concerto, which recasts Schubert\u2019s virtuosic Arpeggione<\/em> Sonata as a wild showcase for bass trombone and strings. You can hear Taylor, in the broadcast, confessing about this premiere performance: \u201cI was afraid, actually.\u201d We all were.<\/p>\n

Taylor also said, of his Doppelganger at 37:45 of part two: \u201cI don\u2019t\u2019 recognize my own playing . . . I never played it like that. That was pretty gargantuan.\u201d And so it is.<\/p>\n

You can also hear Taylor playing Daniel Schnyder\u2019s Bass Trombone Concerto, composed for Taylor in 1999. It\u2019s now played by trombonists all over the world. Schnyder is a master synthesizer of jazz and classical styles. His gift for orchestration and instrumentation sets him completely apart from others who produce pabulum when mixing genres and traditions. The PCE performance is a kaleidoscopic romp \u2013 you won\u2019t find any youtube performances of the Schnyder concerto this vividly realized.<\/p>\n

PostClassical broadcasts are two hours long. We take no prisoners. We trust our listeners. There is plenty of talking, including spats and harangues. My gratitude to David Osenberg of WWFM, who proposed PostClassical and is our producer, is profound.<\/p>\n

P.S.: PostClassical Ensemble is about to commission from Daniel Schnyder a Mahler appropriation: “Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht” for bass trombone (Taylor), baritone (Sharp), and Chamber Orchestra.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a listener\u2019s guide (below) for \u201cSchubert Uncorked.\u201d The full broadcast may be accessed here.<\/a><\/p>\n

PART ONE:<\/span><\/div>\n
9:01: Schubert: Der Doppelganger (William Sharp, baritone; Seth Knopp, piano)<\/span><\/div>\n
*13:01: Schubert\/Taylor: Der Doppelganger (David Taylor, bass trombone; PCE conducted by Angel Gil-Ordonez<\/span><\/div>\n
23:06: Schubert: Nebensonnen (<\/span>William Sharp, baritone; Seth Knopp, piano)<\/span><\/div>\n
*25:56: Schubert\/Taylor: Nebensonnen\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
31:12: Schubert: Der Leiermann\u00a0<\/span>(William Sharp, baritone; Seth Knopp, piano)<\/span><\/div>\n
*34:22: Schubert\/Taylor: Der Leiermann (Taylor; Zoltan Racz, accordian)<\/span><\/div>\n
*44:13: Schubert\/Taylor: Arpeggione Concerto (ending) (Taylor, PCE, Gil-Ordonez)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
PART TWO:<\/span><\/div>\n
*00:00: Schubert\/Taylor: Arpeggione Concerto (mvmt 2) (Taylor, PCE, Gil-Ordonez)<\/span><\/div>\n
14:03: Bruckner: Adagio from String Quintet (arr. for string orchestra) (PCE, Gil-Ordonez)<\/span><\/div>\n
*32:53: Schubert\/Taylor: Die Stadt\u00a0<\/span>(Taylor, PCE, Gil-Ordonez)<\/span><\/div>\n
37:45: Schubert\/Taylor: Der Doppelganger (Taylor, PCE, Gil-Ordonez)\/<\/span><\/div>\n
54:33: Schnyder, Bass Trombone Concerto (mvmt 2) (Taylor PCE, Gil-Ordonez)<\/span><\/div>\n
1:01:00: Schnyder: Bass Trombone Concerto (mvmt 3) (Taylor, PCE, Gil-Ordonez)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
*Broadcast premiere<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every once in a while a master composer creates music so radically new that it seemingly falls wholly outside its time and place. Franz Schubert\u2019s 1828 song cycle Winterreise (\u201cWinter\u2019s Journey\u201d), charting an uncanny descent into madness, is such a work. Schubert\u2019s contemporaries didn\u2019t know what to make of it. Its chilly existential numbness is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-eu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":902,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions\/902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}