The Microclimate of Music

From Google

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Ann Arbor is undergoing another round of hideous heat. I woke up in the middle of a rainstorm, disturbed by the intense reverberation of raindrop on my window. Fortunately with good efforts I discovered a conductor that had been unknown to me — Teodor Currentzis. I mean, I did sorta know him but didn’t really know the details. I remember circulating his Rameau recording once upon a time. Beyond that, I don’t think I have heard any of his recordings.

I simply wasn’t aware of the figure behind those dramatic, sensitive, and extremely intimate music. This annoying, sleepless night (the perpetual setting, as always) opened up a doorway for me to see the conductor behind the music — o my, what a genius. I was going to say “talent,” but I don’t think that is the sort of quirk that everyone gets once in a while.

Genius is extremely easy to recognize. I am almost immediately enticed by Currentzis within the first 1 min of the opening theme in Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3. Genius as a quality is extremely difficult to explain. It is impossible to identify the exact reasons behind “why is he, not me.” Whereas genius as a phenomenon is very salient — at least to me as a listener. Genius needless to say constitutes inimitability. A thing that is ultimately unique and personal to the individual. Genius, on the other hand, constitutes “freshness,” which is highly akin to experiencing an alternative reality — we would feel literally uplifted, floating in a realm with a heightened sense of concentration. Genius would be an expressway to escape from whatever we want to escape.

For a concerto like Prokofiev 3, it takes three to weave a miracle. Yulianna Adeeva the soloist and Currentzis are super acute to the musical visions of each other. That’s two. The third is the piece itself — Prokofievian dramatization, fast switches between contrasting musical passages with little notice ahead, and suspenseful quietness. Currentzis certainly understands those musical qualities and the philosophical imaginations it takes to deliver them into the audience’ ears.

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Currentzis’ earring is what caught my eyes first. And his sleeveless black top. And his Voldemort outlook paired with an entire black outfit — he is either going to funeral or something like that. Some critics adore him and rank his music at the top of the Gramophone list, while some hate him and his punky appearance. Between the two I stand with the former. I have never seen anyone so eccentrically stylish and talented.

27-min of Prokofiev sorta already exhausts me. I then opened up a short clip for Verdi’s Requiem. O wow, again. I struggled to capture my astonishment with human vocabulary. I failed. Fortunately, one netizen in the comment section did me a favor. That dude said it was like “exorcism.” That is exactly the word to describe Currentzis’ unconventionally amazing style.

Meanwhile it’s been confirmed that John Eliot Gardiner slapped a bass in the green room. The excuse is that the French weather is too hot. I simply like every spectrum of the music world, even the shallow rumors. Love them.

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At the very start, I got the impression that Currentzis must be a singer as a side. My guesswork evaporated after I realized the baritone in Schubert’s Winterreise to be someone else. I was slightly disappointed that Currentzis wasn’t the singer of this masterwork. Anyway Currentzis is the conductor for the orchestral transcription. The singer is good, too, who caricatures the lonely wanderer with a modern speaker which, I suppose, caricatures wanderer’s only friend — the nature.

Later my guess was affirmed after I looked up an interview of Currentzis. Genius characters like him are always good at more than one thing. Currentzis is not only an accomplished conductor, but a singer. He started music as a violinist. He sings really well but he said he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life singing Italian operas. And then and then and then he decided to become a composer. During a couple of mandatory conducting classes in St. Pete, he realized he was really good at conducting.

“He is looking for an orchestral microclimate with its own air and sense of gravity,” the journalist wrote. In Chinese, we typically call it qichang 气场 or cichang 磁场. The English for this mysterious word could be “ambience.”

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The last clip about Currentzis I watched tonight was an open rehearsal of the Adagio of Prokofiev Symphony 5. Among Currentzis’ philosophy, “dream” is one of the cores. We could also see him mimicking music into real-life human dialogue: he instantiates the abstract staff to states of emotions, theatricality, and philosophy.

I shall then sleep tight with the Adagio. Outside the rain befell again, closing the circle of a day.