JS Bach's Goldberg Variations were played in the saxophone-cymbal-cello arrangement of Előd Kostyák, in the present trio version as a first performance (!) in the Great Várad Philharmonic Hall, on Tuesday evening, February 27, 2024, after the long wait before the premiere, after a little wait , instead of the announced 7 p.m. approx. Starting at 19.10 - during that time, as a matter of fact, an extremely decent-sized audience gathered for the occasion, if we take the recent Várad chamber concert balance as a basis. The seats in the middle part of the hall were well grouped and filled, even if statistically this is approx. max. it is also considered a quarter house. It should be noted that the Varad Philharmonic recently very enthusiastically re-embraced the stagnant local chamber music tradition, which seemed to have been lost for years, although mainly from imports. This concert was a bit uneconomical on the part of the philharmonic's usual fast-moving PR guest reception staff who celebrated with bouquets of flowers (or their indifference), but also in terms of the meager advance announcement. There is no documentable trace of the original show in terms of program booklet either...
Fortunately, the host of the concert was of a higher order, i.e. Bach, not to mention three excellent guest artists from Cluj: Előd Kostyák (vocal conductor of the Hungarian Opera in Cluj, also the custodian of the orchestration of this work), Zoltán Réman (clarinetist of the Cluj Philharmonic, this time four on alternating position/position saxophone: soprano, alto, tenor, baritone), and Réman Gergő on dulcimer (a young percussionist of the Várad Philharmonic who fortunately moved on recently, currently graduating from the Budapest University of Music).
I had a conversation with Elöd Kostýák about his Goldberg initiative.
Then I wrote these out of admiration for Bach, and then the quoted text, Előd said.
TG: If Bach is the origin in the coordinate system of music, then the Goldberg Variations in the middle of the O are the masterful outpouring of the world order created by the Big Bang, the "grand unified theory" behind the functioning of the universe, the meeting of mathematical precision and architectural masterpieces with impressive artistic expression, hand in hand with materia and metaphysics , soul and spirit, matter and energy, compositional rigor and freedom, intimacy and virtuosity, micro- and macro-constellation in complete harmony. It is understandable why he has inspired his interpreters to soar again and again. Due to its prescribed notation, the keyboard (harpsichord/piano) is the dominant basic instrument in performance practice for this work, but of course it invites many more possibilities in terms of structure and content. Accordingly, many transcriptions have been made of it since the worthy re-recognition of Bach's art, the arrangements include string, guitar, and harp versions, but e.g. jazz trio excerpts, electronic music experiments, and also a saxophone quartet.
Előd Kostyák, the horn player, as the originator of the current arranger, is now making an absolute premiere at Várado with a version that we haven't heard before. Perhaps the PR of the Nagyvárad Philharmonic could have handled this phenomenon a little better than with occasional social media internet posts and a belated press newsletter. I will partially try to make up for what the Philharmonic failed to do a day before the show. We asked Előd Kostýák about the concert and inspiration, I quote him:
KE: "The Goldberg approx. it clicked for me two or three years ago. For some reason, I became attracted to the dulcimer, but it has been several years. Suddenly a childhood memory came up: Márta Fábián and Ágnes Szakály's 1981 record, on which they play two cymbals from Bach's Francia suites. I'm a bit hasty in my memories, because another precedent is that when I played Monti's Tavern at a New Year's concert a few years ago (as a solo cellist of the Hungarian Opera in Cluj), I added a bit of color to the orchestration by having the dulcimer play a solo role alongside the cello in the piece, which at the time it was sung by the poor late Kálmán Koszorús, may God rest in peace... But returning to Goldberg: I liked his theme, the Aria, more and more, and around last year the feeling grew stronger in me that I should rewrite it for some ensemble, in which, of course, the cello plays one of the parts. There is already a pure string transcription for violin, viola and cello, but my problem with that is that the sound is too homogeneous, so if there is a transcription, the polyphonic musical fabric, i.e. the voice leading, should not be washed out, the movement of the voices should be better followed linearly. In the meantime, I heard that Gergő Réman, being a percussionist, started to seriously deal with the dulcimer, and since at the same time I remembered the sound of Bach on the dulcimer, I thought that e.g. some of the two-part inventions could be played with cimbalom and cello. But then the Goldberg idea got stronger, because I remembered that Réman Zoli, the saxophone professor in Cluj, had given, so it could naturally turn into something in the Réman family, so I finally decided and transcribed the entire Goldberg for this team.
The trio doesn't have a name, it's an occasional association, but we will perform the "occasion", i.e. the project, in many places, at least according to our hopes. Originally, we would have presented it in Cluj at the Bach Marathon organized by Zoltán Horváth in the Evangelical Church in Cluj every year on Bach's birthday, i.e. March 21, but luckily Gergő was a percussionist in the Nagyvárad Philharmonic Orchestra, so the original presentation of the transcription ended up being in Várad. His second performance will therefore be in Cluj and it is conceivable that he will also perform in Brasov this summer, my friend and fellow musician Horia Mihail constantly organizes better and better cultural events in Brasov, at his invitation he will probably perform there as well. The goal is to take it to as many places as possible. We plan to make a CD recording of it in July.
One of the characteristics of this transcript is that it is constantly experimenting. First of all, everyone always plays all kinds of parts, the dulcimer, cello and saxophone also play upper, middle and lower parts in the different variations, so all the members of the saxophone quartet (soprano, alto, tenor and baritone) sing separately during the piece . The two-part variations (with the exception of VII) are played on cymbals and cello, because the sound range of a saxophone is not sufficient to cover the wide register spectrum of the respective variations. In its style, the present performance tries to follow the historical tone, articulation, choice of characters, I have no choice but to accept Glenn Gould's or other versions performed on the piano. I am mostly inspired by the performance of harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, who I consider a brilliant figure. In his YouTube interview, he says of the work that it is an ode to Silence.
I played with Réman Zoli several times in various chamber ensembles, in which he played the clarinet. I came into contact with his saxophone playing by going to the concerts of the Transylvanian Saxophone Quartet since their foundation, they even performed at the international chamber music festival deCAMERon, which I organized some time ago. When Zoli was still a member of the orchestra of the Hungarian Opera in Cluj-Napoca, we had a dance production together with the Opera with the Jazzybirds group (which mostly consisted of orchestra members), to the music of Claude Bolling, in which Zoli also played the saxophone.
Another thought about Goldberg: the Aria to the Aria da Capo goes so far in the thirty variations that I thought it couldn't sound the same again, so it ended up with a completely different orchestration.”
At the same time, Előd Kostyák writes about the presentation on his social media page, and we quote from here for the artistic work behind the rebirth of the work: "I would also like to thank my wonderful fellow musicians, saxophonist Zoltán Réman and my colleague dulcimer Gergely Réman, for their endless patience, for their professional attitude that is always open to challenges and extremely creative and inspiring, for great individual and joint work!"
As Elöd Kosták's chamber partner, two other great artists (father and son) who, unfortunately, the Nagyvárad Philharmonic previously were not able to retain in the orchestra, will also participate, and the truth is that they were meant for more. Until 15 years ago, Zoltán Réman gave his brand of international A1 standard to the clarinet solo in the symphony orchestra (now he does the same in the Cluj-Napoca Philharmonic), and his son, Gergő Réman, was a stable and sensitive mainstay of the percussion solo for a short time recently (the Budapest he completed his master's degree at the Academy of Music last year). After here and there, instead of yesterday, tomorrow will come at Várado in style, so Zoltán Réman and Gergő Réman, as well as Kostyák Előd, who was also seen/heard here a long time ago (in 2016), will return to this stage, the Hungarian Opera of Cluj gordonka voice leader.
And then, after a preview, about the concert itself.
Reformulating the essence based on what he just heard, Elód organically touches both the architecture and the soul of the Goldberg Variations in his simultaneous and successive material. The harpsichord-cymbal kinship here becomes a sound kinship, whether the trebles, mid-tones or low registers of the four positions of the saxophones fit into the entire musical fabric like softly melted butter on toast, the cello's continuo and its soloistic or figurative ventures also blend into the entire musical fabric. with what to say. Let's say this despite the fact that this presentation in Várad was actually the run-in test for this Goldberg, even with its minor passing unpolished scratches - the fact is that this concert was also planned for Cluj-Napoca, the March 21st Bach marathon there. But still, how good, how honorable, that we could hear it here for the first time, in Váradon. You are asked to note this.
Oléd's dreamy simultaneous polyphonic timbres are both natural-harmonic and magical, there is nothing to superlative about Zoltán Réman's always perfect timbres and dynamics (at the most, he has been sorely missed in the Várad Symphony Orchestra for 15 years), we have already highlighted the sensitive harpsichord-dulcimer kinship, all this together they bring out an essence of Goldberg, which actually makes it an evening song by Bach, a soporific that keeps you awake (because originally this was its anecdotal-historical function), metaphorically it became the same, just like Kodály's Evening Song , a return home through wanderings to values, security, love, despite doubts - here, in terms of orchestration, between "trinities" - i.e. back to unity. It is no coincidence that at the end of the 30 versions, Bach humorously codifies German melodies in the two themes of the final quodlibet, when he admits that so far he has only cooked "vegetables" (cabbage, carrots, etc.), "If my mother had also cooked meat, I would have stayed", then a big comeback, before the da capo reunion: "I haven't been with you for a long time". Előd Kostyák's orchestration here partially mirrors the Aria in the da capo. But I like even more what Elöd unfolds from the successive latencies, nuances of orchestration-chaining interjections in harmony with the flow. I could tell a long story, but maybe another time, somewhere else. Congratulations to the artists for their entrepreneurial spirit and spirit. The piece was heard again in this form in Cluj on March 21, 2024.
photo: after the rehearsal in Cluj - Zoltán Réman, Gergő Réman, Előd Kostyál
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