Sarasota Orchestra's Masterworks 6: A muscular harp concerto
By Susan Rife , Herald-Tribune
/ Friday, February 27, 2015
Xavier de Maistre was 9 when he fell in love with his harp teacher.
And because he loved her and wanted to make her happy, he also wanted to practice.
"I think it's important, the relationship you have with your teacher. You have to practice every day. If you have a good relationship with your teacher, you want to please her," said de Maistre, who studied with Vassilia Briano at the Toulon Conservatory in his native city in France before going on to study with Catherine Michel and Jacqueline Borot in Paris.
Harpist Xavier de Maistre
De Maistre will be harp soloist for next weekend's Masterworks concerts with the Sarasota Orchestra, performing Gliere's Harp Concerto under the baton of music director Anu Tali, a longtime friend.
Toulon, de Maistre said in a telephone interview last week from Hamburg, Germany, is "far from the classical music world," which is centered in Germany and Austria. This may explain his fearless approach to an instrument played almost exclusively by women.
"Far removed from the cliches that stem from an oversimplistic link between his instrument and traditional images of angels and other fairylike creatures, Xavier de Maistre has literally redefined out picture of the harp and is now a new star in the world of classical music," said Swiss radio station DRS in 2008.
De Maistre first played Gliere's Harp Concerto when he was about 18, "preparing for a big international competition," he said. Of late, he's been performing it frequently on a long tour of Russia, Germany and Spain.
"The good thing about good music, every time you play it, you are going to discover something new," he said. "Depending on your partners, on the orchestra, the conductor, the acoustic of the hall, you're going to change a little bit. I'm a very interactive player."
The concerto was written in 1938 in collaboration with harpist Ksenia Erdeli, who declined to be named co-composer.
The work will share the program next weekend with Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 (Pathetique) and Sibelius' "The Wood Nymph," Op. 15.
"It was a very well calculated choice," said Tali, who will return from Estonia for the final two Masterworks programs of the season.
"Sibelius and Gliere are of the same generation," she said. "They both lived to see Tchaikovsky die when they were reaching their 20s."
Tchaikovsky "hated to be a teacher," said Tali, "while Gliere was taking upmost pride and enjoying it. You can hear in the musical language that one is much more outgoing."
The Gliere concerto "is one of the few harp concertos...it is very, very difficult, (requires) coodinatiion, very exhausting also. When you see Xavier playing, you will see that it's very athletic."
De Maistre said that while Gliere is "not the most famous composer," his Harp Concerto "is the best, most romantic piece we have for the harp. It's very nice to listen to. It sounds very much like late Tchaikovsky or Brahms. It's very well orchestrated. ... It's very challenging. Each movement has a special difficulty, and with a big orchestra, you need to play very loud, very powerful, and at the same time legato and to sing."
Also on the program are Sibelius' "The Wood Nymph," and Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" Symphony.
The "Pathetique" was written very near the end of Tchaikovsky's life, and premiered in St.Petersburg just nine days before Tchaikovsky's death in 1893 under mysterious circumstances.
"It's one of those pieces that is not only describing life and all about it, but also living it."said Tali "It never, ever leaves you cold."
The score is "totally, stubbornly classical, to surgical exactness," she said. And yet it has a deep emotional core.
"Tchaikovsky writes in his letters that it is so personal, in fact, that while traveling back from Russia, he was often crying when he was composing the piece in his head. When he made it home, it wrote it down very quickly. The first movement was written in four days."
The symphony's first movement is filled with "broken illusions, despair, pain, fear, all things that people are very uncomfortable talking about."
The second movement is one of Tali's favorites, with an unusual time signature, a "limping waltz" in 5/8 time, "like a sick person.
"The two middle movements, the second limping waltz and the third scherzo, they're like intermezzos. The truth in this kind of beautiful, violent melodies is not actually about the melodies, but about the ark colors underneath. You get the answer to what is possible in life and what is not."
The first work on the program is the American premiere of Sibelius' 1895 composition. The work, completed in 1895, is a symphonic poem that was never published and although frequently performed in the early years of the 20th century, it fell out of the repertoire until it was recorded by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in the late 1990s.
The Sarasota Orchestra received permission from the Sibelius family to prepare the score and perform it. It will be narrated in English by Jeffrey Plunkett.
CONCERT PREVIEW
MASTERWORKS 6. Sarasota Orchestra. Anu Tali, conductor; Xavier de Maistre, harp. 8 p.m. March 5, Neel Performing Arts Center, 5840 26th St. W., Bradenton, 8 p.m. March 6-7, 2:30 p.m. March 8, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Tickets $30-$89. 953-3434; www.SarasotaOrchestra.org.
Susan Rife
Susan Rife is the arts and books editor for the Herald-Tribune Media Group. She holds a bachelor of science degree in journalism from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She can be reached by email or call (941) 361-4930. Make sure to "Like" Arts Sarasota on Facebook for news and reviews of the arts.
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