Our guest writer for this week is the Romanian born composer Liviu Marinescu, currently the coordinator of music composition and theory at California State University Northridge. We asked him to write a review of the International New Music Week Bucharest , May 2012 and he kindly accepted. Enjoy!
Postcards from a Romanian Nine-Day Week
From its very inception in 1991, the International New Music
Week in Bucharest has firmly established itself as one of the most significant
festivals focused on contemporary art music in Romania. A small but dedicated
group of inquisitive composers and music lovers has been gathering each May in
concert halls and open-air spaces, in order to experiment, discover, share and
occasionally even argue about the state of the musical avant-garde.
My presence in Romania this past May was connected not only
with the festival (May 19-27), but also with National University of Music and
the Radio Chamber Orchestra, where I was involved in a number of projects with students, fellow composers, performers and conductors. Therefore,
during this rather intense and busy visit, I had the opportunity to speak with
a wide range of musicians, and learn more about the overall cultural context
and the avant-garde music scene in Bucharest. I have also had a substantial
amount of time to reflect upon what I discovered.
Among the many composers and works featured in the festival
this year, I have particularly enjoyed George Balint’s Maiism, a powerful and seductive chamber opera in concert,
performed in the intimate recital hall of the Cantacuzino Palace. Equally
impressive were the works and musicians of the Ah Celan event, presented by ensemble devotioModerna under the expert leadership of Carmen Carneci.
Irinel Anghel and Sorin Romanescu’s Kaoss
Birds in NowHere’sville brought a refreshing departure from the standard
new music concert ritual, through a wide range of stimulating sounds and images
depicting an imaginary bird paradise. At the Studio Hall of the National Opera,
Dan Dediu’s first performance of Momai si
Mumii in front of a full audience reminded us of the power of humor and
sarcasm in music, through characters and texts from Caragiale that have yet to
lose their relevance. Among so many other events, I would like to note the
excellent Archaeus Ensemble concert, Doina Rotaru’s marvelous Concerto for Flute and Orchestra No. 5 –
wonderfully performed by Mario Caroli , a stimulating music and photography
event featuring Sabina Ulubeanu, as well as the SerpenS show, presented by the Seducant Group, with superb music by
Diana Rotaru.
As with any festival dedicated to new music, some concerts
did not always impress, despite my great anticipation to reconnect with
composers and artists I have come to respect over the past decade. Corneliu Dan
Georgescu’s multimedia event titled De
Sublimi Finis had a strong underlying concept, but suffered from a rather
poor choice of imagery and amateurish video editing. Finally, Catalin Cretu’s Lux in Tenebris show at National
University had a few episodes of religious fundamentalism that ultimately prevented
the music to speak effectively.
The quality of performances ranged from professionally
produced concerts involving some of the best musicians in Bucharest to the
occasional under-rehearsed and un-involved concerts involving musicians who
seemed to be tired or depressed. The multiple selection venues and concert
halls, from the good old National University and Radio halls, to the Old
Princely Court, the Peasant’s Museum Club or the National Theatre, reflected
the two directors’ desire to reach out to a wider community of music lovers and
artists, not just the usual academics. All in all, Irinel Anghel and Mihaela
Vosganian’s surreal concept provided a common sense of purpose for all the
events presented during this… nine-day week.
As my understanding of Romanian politics and the arts scene
have gradually diminished over the past 20 years, I have become quite hesitant
about making observations about concerts and new directions in music. One
cannot truly understand the subtleties and intricacies of a cultural panorama
or the management of a festival, without a grasp of the context. On the other
hand, I have occasionally found myself daydreaming about what musical Bucharest
might look like one day, reason for which there could be no better time to
share these thoughts.
On this recent visit, I was asked quite a few times by
various young composers to discuss the differences and similarities between the
new music landscapes of Bucharest and Los Angeles. Instinctively, I attempted
to glance back at the first editions of this festival, where I could see myself
during the early 90s, attending every new music concert I could, following my
mentors, trying to understand where I come from but also dreaming of conquering
far-away territories. I would have probably asked the same questions.
I imagine that for a young Romanian composer, one of the
troubles with the new music scene is the absence of successful role models. Why
would a recent high-school graduate dream of pursuing the art of music
composition? In all honesty, I don’t believe one could get rich from writing
chamber and symphonic music in Romania these days, and the prospects of finding
a job in the academia are as dim as elsewhere. If one would set out on a quest
to buy new music recordings and scores in Bucharest, the task would be almost
impossible to fulfill. Moreover, at these festivals, the concert halls are
mostly empty. Quite often, performers don’t seem to put a lot of effort into
understanding the scores, and as a result, some performances of new music
appear to be sight-readings. Despite great talent and a few astonishing sparks
of imagination, a calm sense of hopelessness seems to have infused some of the
young composers I met in masterclasses and concert halls. To a certain extent,
I rediscovered my own state of mind during the early 90s, when all I wanted to
do was to leave.
Looking back more closely, I cannot understate the role
played by this festival in my development. As early as 1991, I remember meeting
the first foreign composers in my life, hearing works by Giacinto Scelsi,
Olivier Messiaen, Yannis Xenakis, Tristan Murail, and many other luminary
figures of the 20th century. Those concerts seemed
to bring more people together, and the public appeared to be
warmer and more supportive. Maybe I was just younger and more curious, so all
those new ideas and people around me seemed bigger and more illustrious.
The beauty of this festival is that it can reinvent itself
every year. Perhaps a concert dedicated exclusively to electro-acoustic music
could become a yearly tradition, as well as the performance of a late 20th
century “classic” in every concert. I also hope funding will allow the presence
of at least one foreign ensemble and a few guest composers from abroad. At the
end of the day, the lack of a clear and steady yearly budget for this festival
may just be the source of all problems. Regardless of location, as the sources
and nature of music sponsorship have changed for all of us over the past
decade, new models will need to be invented.
Leaving out the specifics of the Romanian arts scene, one
word should be said about some of the general trends permeating contemporary
society across borders and continents. The shifting of financial resources and
media power to the individuals and institutions involved with consumer products
has hurt the traditional arts world at a very deep level. Across the Atlantic,
the collapse of many established music stores and bookstores can be clearly
linked to the emergence of new digital media carried by more and more portable
devices. The conventional publishing and music recording industries have been
greatly shaken over the past decade, with more recent changes affecting the
academic and traditional concert environments as well. On the other hand, those
who thrive on accusing America for the current state of affairs have a rather
superficial understanding of these facts and trends. What Americans do with
their culture, education and mass media is what the Europeans will also do one
day. It’s not that the Europeans don’t fall into the same traps, it’s just that
they can never move so fast to set these traps for themselves first.
As far as the future of the arts and new music scene in
Bucharest, the verdict is still out. Perhaps a new generation of composers will
continue building upon two decades of festivals and concerts, ultimately
raising the bar, energizing the lethargic performers, and taking their music to
new audiences. As always, the power and beauty of progress stem from the
tremendous amount of positive energy these new generations can bring to us.
Finally, for this energy to become a meaningful catalyst, new role models need
to be established from within, as opposed to simply importing whatever works
(an not always!) in the West. If the youngest and most laborious composers can
manage to carve solid new paths for their works and ideas, the future of
contemporary Romanian music looks rather impressive.
Liviu Marinescu
Los Angeles, November 2012
