Speak the Music: Robert Mann

Classical chamber music is not just about playing well. You must play well with others. According to Robert Mann, he was never a dazzling soloist, but he had a keen sense for the dynamics of a small chamber group’s interplay. At ninety-three, Mann’s reputation only continues to grow, further burnished by filmmaker-symphony conductor Allan Miller’s documentary profile Speak the Music: Robert Mann and the Mysteries of Chamber Music, which opens this Friday in New York.

Just so there are no hard feelings, let us be clear Speak the Music is already available on DVD. However, its limited one-week theatrical run in New York will feature post-screening Q&A with Miller. Plus, this being the City, you never know who might show up. After all, Mann’s admirers are quite accomplished in their own right, including Itzhak Perlman and the late Elliott Carter. In fact, the Centenarian composer (looking and sounding tremendous) credits Mann’s interpretation of his string quartets for his two subsequent Pulitzer Prizes.

While Mann’s family appears throughout the film, Miller is clearly more interested in documenting Mann’s performances and workshops than intruding into his private life. The better portion of the film is dedicated to archival footage of Mann’s Julliard String Quartet and scenes of his incredibly detailed teaching sessions. Anyone who is interested in pursuing a professional chamber music career will find it offers much to study and absorb.

For casual viewers, there is hardly any drama per se, but Mann is remarkably candid about the tensions simmering within the later incarnations of the Julliard Quartet that were largely his own fault. In fact, Mann is quite gracious throughout the film, notably giving a shout out to criminally under-appreciated jazz pianist Bernie Leighton, with whom he played in a military combo during World War II.

Viewers who enjoyed Yaron Zilberman’s A Late Quartet should also appreciate Speak the Music. It addresses some similar musical conflicts, without any of the personal melodrama. It is a short (fifty-eight minutes) but insightful look at a master musician and his preferred musical style. Recommended for classical connoisseurs, Speak the Music: Robert Mann and the Mysteries of Chamber Music opens this Friday (5/2) at the Quad Cinema.

Chamber Music: Melos

Melos
By Vassilis Tsabropoulos, Anja Lechner, and U.T. Gandhi
ECM Records 2048

What is chamber music? Most definitions speak of small ensembles playing intimate music, with only one instrument per part (as opposed to section play in symphony orchestras or big bands). Stylistically, it is frequently, but not exclusively associated with classical idioms. Given the classical backgrounds and improvisational facility of Greek pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos and German cellist Anja Lechner, chamber music is an appropriate rubric for consideration of their latest collaboration, Melos.

Melos ventures deepest into jazz terrain when Tsabropoulos and Lechner are joined by Italian jazz drummer U.T. Gandhi (originally Umberto Trombetta), whose jazz credits include work with Lee Konitz and Enrico Rava. His shimmering cymbals work propels selections like “Vocalese,” which features the closest example to a traditional improvised jazz piano solo from the composer.

Other times, when Tsabropoulos and Lechner play as a duo, Melos fits more easily into a classical chamber bag, though it is a hauntingly elegant one. The pianist’s opening title composition is one such case. As are his concluding “Evocation” and “In Memory.” Darkly hued, but performed and recorded with eerie clarity, they have an austere beauty.

While the majority of the program consists of Tsabropoulos’s originals, the musicians do interpret three compositions by the controversial Armenian spiritualist G.I. Gurdjieff (arranged by Lechner and Tsabropoulos, based on piano transcriptions by Thomas de Hartmann), which lend an exotic vibe to the session. “Tibetan Dance” and “Sayyid Dance” have a more pronounced rhythmic drive thanks to Gandhi’s cymbal work, whereas as on “Readings from a Sacred Book,” he adds subtle color to the evocative tone poem.

While Melos might blur genres, the music is not at all abstract or diffuse. The melodies are strong, even catchy at times, like the insistent “Reflections and Shadows,” or the rhapsodic “Gift of Dreams.” With similar backgrounds (like Tsabropoulis and Lechner’s classical training, and Lechner and Gandhi’s experience playing jazz-influenced tango with Dino Saluzzi) the three musicians clearly share a high degree of rapport, resulting in music that is sophisticated, but also deeply resonate.