SILENCIO

今回改めて、Gidon Kremer / Kremerata Baltica のアルバム SILENCIO を、夜を徹し繰り返し何度も何度も聴く機会があったので、感想などの情緒的な部分を記しておくことにした。
　
■第1曲はアルヴォ・ペルト (Arvo Pärt)のタブラ・ラサ (Tablura Rasa - for two violins, string orchestra and prepared piano)
I. Ludus - Con moto (16:21) ：冒頭から強烈なヴァイオリンのフラジオレットが鳴り響き、中耳と三半規管から視床下部までを貫通する。何やら鋭利な刃物で体の方々を斬りつけられるやうな感覚さへ有る。プリペアドピアノとストリングスの無限エコーのやうな音の堆積と減衰が繰り返され、遠くから、近くから、そして時間軸の過去からと未来からと、さまざまなベクトルが1点で交錯し、そしてまたヴァイオリンが儚く消えゆくやうなソロを導くと、弦楽が呼応する。上昇と下降、降り積もる音群。緊張と弛緩。老ひと若さ。全ては此処での邂逅を運命付けられた因子であるが如く、重低音ピアノが世界の終焉を告げる鐘の音であるが如く渚に響き渡り、そして激しいアルペジオが津波の如く押し寄せて、強烈なトゥッティとともに全てを流し去って終はる。
II. Silentium - Senza moto (18:24) ：濃い靄の中に浮き沈みする弦楽器の短いパッセージ。時折たゆたひゆらぎまどろむ時間を覚醒させるやうに、ピアノが長い通奏低音を保ちつつ上昇するアルペジオを響かせる。此処では時間の経過に意味はなく、空間の隙間を充填する脆弱な紐状の音の心細い絡み合ひだけが進む方向を示唆してゐるやうだ。もはや音はエーテルの構成要素であることさへ止めて仕舞ひ、冬の日の弱々しい木漏れ日の如く地表を漂ふばかりである。最後の30秒間に音は無い。
　
■第2曲はフィリップ・グラス (Philip Glass)のカンパニー (Company - for string orchestra)
Movement I (2:34) ：悲壮な決意を背負った兵士が峻険な山地を目指して行軍するやうな情景。
Movement II (1:40) ：闘ひの前哨戦。通奏低音に支へられた重厚な弦楽のアルペジオとユニゾンが集められる。
Movement III (1:51) ：疲弊と休息。しかし其処に安らぎの瞬間は無い。
Movement IV (1:56) ：不規則な呼吸と心臓の鼓動。そして唐突な最後。
　
■第3曲は此のアルバムの白眉、ヴラディミール・マルティノフ (Vladimir Martynov)“カム・イン！” ("Come In!" - for two violins and string orchestra)
Movement I (3:32) ：美しい黄昏に奏でられる叙情的な小夜曲。謙虚なノック音が響き、力強いヴァイオリンソロの上昇と共に消え、次章へと繋がれて行く。
Movement II (4:20) ：弦楽の内声部が豊かに謳ひ、辺りは穏やかな闇に優しく包まれる。力強さを増したノック音が鳴り響くと、其れを待ってゐたやうにソロヴァイオリンが朗々と歌い始めるが、敬虔さと謙虚さは保たれたてゐる。
Movement III (5:03) ：恰も混声合唱を聴くやうな、穏やかで息の長いコラールが奏でられ、ノック音の後は主旋律のオブリガードのやうな細かな動きに変化したソロヴァイオリンを暖かく迎へ入れる。上昇と下降は此処で一体化する。
Movement IV (5:04) ：辺りはすっかり闇に包まれ、暖炉の火が心地良い。夜に対する敬意を表はすやうに、ヴァイオリンはあくまでも謙虚に、奏でられる旋律は夜の静かさに溶融していく。
Movement V (5:59) ： 人生を回顧するやうに、青春を懐かしむやうに、弦楽が情緒豊かにソロヴァイオリンを導くと、今まで抑制してゐた感情を発露させ、恰も堰を切ったやうに雄弁に語り、そして優しく上昇音の彼方にフラジオレットの欠片を煌めかせ乍ら、霧散する。
Movement VI (2:53) ：今まで奏でられた音の全てを懐古するやうに、ソロヴァイオリンは弦楽とともに演奏を開始し、眠りを誘ふノック音とともに夢の世界に消えて行く。
　
ウラジーミル・マルティノフ - Wikipedia
　　
■第4曲はアルヴォ・ペルト (Arvo Pärt)のダルフ・イッヒ… (Darf Ich... - for violin solo, bell and strings)
Darf Ich... (4:15) とは「私に出来るか」の意味？　真意は不明だが、どことなく懐疑的なソロのパッセージが弦楽を導き出すものの、直ぐに弱々しく内省的な態度に変化する。しかし、其の曖昧な態度に反し、心の叫びは強烈で、過去の忌まわしい記憶までもが呼び覚まされて仕舞ふ。行く先の不安を抱へたまま、疲労感に包まれて、藁床に眠る。
　

Silencio

　　　
兎に角、ギドン・クレーメルのヴァイオリンが圧倒的に美しい。
此の変人偏屈神経質の演奏スタイルは、見た目の風貌通り。しかし、恐ろしく洗練された技術が作品の奥深くに眠っていた魂をも呼び覚ます時、音楽は別次元に昇華し、眼前に異次元の光景を創出する。
線の太さ、繊細さ、音圧の粗密、虚空を目指すベクトルの太さ・・・
古典曲は言ふに及ばず、現代音楽やピアソラの名曲までもが、クレーメルの手にかかると繊細な硝子細工のやうな、また叙情と感傷に満ちた世界に変容していく・・・
まさに、音の呪術師の気質。このやうな演奏者は他に知らない。
　　　
ギドン・クレーメル - Wikipedia
　　　

　　　
About this Album

Silencio is a meditative collection of 20th century works for string orchestra, including works by Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass and Vladimir Martynov. The disc is bookended with works by Pärt, whose Tabula Rasa opens the disc. The work was written for and dedicated to Kremer, violinist Tatjana Grindenko and conductor Eri Klas (all featured on this recording), who premiered it in 1977 in Estonia. It was recorded live for release on ECM later that year. Tabula Rasa is scored for string orchestra, solo violins and prepared piano.

Philip Glass’s Company was originally composed for a Public Theater production of a play based on Samuel Beckett’s short novel of the same name. Later it became Glass’s String Quartet # 2 and received its first recording by Kronos Quartet, on their self-titled debut, in 1986. It is heard here in an adaptation for string orchestra.

The Russian composer Vladimir Martynov wrote “Come in!” for Kremer and Grindenko, who premiered the work in Leningrad in 1988. A six-movement work for two solo violins and string orchestra, it takes its title from the following text, written by the composer:

The staircase to Heaven is inside your heart; you enter through the door of your soul.

Our whole life is but an attempt to find this miraculous entrance.

All our deeds are but a timid knocking on this mysterious door

All our hopes are to hear a voice that would respond, ‘Come In!’

Closing the disc is the world premiere recording of Arvo Pärt’s Darf ich... (May I), recorded in Berlin last year.

Kremer founded the Kremerata Baltica, an orchestra of young musicians from the three Baltic States, in 1996. They first performed in Riga, Latvia in February 1997. Kremer had long sought to share his rich artistic experience with young musicians in his native Latvia and the Baltic region, and was prompted to form a more lasting relationship with the artists, as a way to give back to the community that fostered his own musical growth. The Kremerata Baltica is made up of musicians whose average age is 25 and who hail from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Kremer, who acts as the group’s artistic director, said, in an interview for The New York Times, that it functions as “a musical democracy...open-minded, self-critical, a continuation of my musical spirit.”

The Kremerata Baltica, who the Los Angeles Times calls, “...extraordinary young players...they animate everything their bows touch...” recently signed an exclusive, six-record agreement with Nonesuch Records, inaugurated earlier this year by the release of Eight Seasons. This reorchestration of Piazzolla’s Cuatro estaciones porteñas, paired with the Vivaldi classic, brings with it a new way of listening to both works, and the possibility of discovering the connections they share.
　　　

　　　
One searches in the outer world as well as in others' reflections of oneself - with all its insecurities, joys, convictions, evaluations. The world observes these oscillations of our feelings with a proud indifference. Here and there a person hurries by, producing a sound that resembles one's own. But it's already gone, and one is again embraced by silence. Our pain and insomnia as part of the whole. Our despair: a drop in an ocean. Death - the final bill, in which the challenge turns into a phantom. Ambitions, hopes, enchantment. All this finds its peace there in the world beyond.
.. .Words irritate. Gestures mislead. Emotions dissolve. Only sounds speak a language that might be understood. If one opens the heart, would there be someone receptive enough? But who is listening? Who is able to feel it? Often I do ask myself, where does a heartbeat identical to mine exist? And the attempt of an answer is: out there, on the other end of my own sound.

―Gidon Kremer, from Obertöne

Music must be given the chance to express itself. Words confine music. And then, music makes itself dependent on words. In my view, the very existence of music is jeopardized by today's society's obsession with communication.

―Arvo Pärt

In early 1983 a new Beckett work was produced by Mabou Mines at the Public Theater - an adaptation for the stage by Frederick Neuman of "Company," a short novel by Beckett. It was presented as a monologue in four parts, directed and performed by Neuman. The music was placed in the monologue according to Beckett's directions. ("I see. The music appears in the interstices of the text, as it were.")

―Philip Class

The odd sound. What a mercy to have that to turn to. Now and then. La dark and silence to close as if to light the eyes and hear a sound. Some object moving from its place to its last place. Some soft thing softly stirring soon to stir no more. To darkness visible to close the eyes and hear if only that. Some soft thing softly stirring soon to stir no more.

―Samuel Beckett, from C