Pfitzner and Musical Politics

Abstract

It should come as no surprise that the repertory of concert houses and opera stages is slowly expanding to include works that were successful and highly regarded in the past but have since all but vanished from the stage. Canonical status in the active repertory derives from a murky process that can hardly be described as an objective verdict of history in terms of normative aesthetic value. On e of the constants in that process is the pressure exerted by the character and flow of new contemporary works. The new helps push out the old. Which parts of the once new disappear is determined in turn by the nature of what seems novel and succeeds.with audiences and critics in new music and the way history is, as a consequence, steadily rewritten. Wha t is relatively anomalous is the fact that since the early twentieth century we have found ourselves faced with an ever-weakening pressure from the new. Despite some optimistic signs, including a growing number of new operas and a cadre of successful young composers, the demand for contemporary music still remains weaker than it was a century ago and than it should be. Since constant repetition in live performance, even of Mahler's symphonies or Puccini's La Boheme, is in the end implausible, the inevitable demand for something new is now being filled by a reconsideration of what the past has still to offer. Historical revisionism occupies a place once reserved for contemporary repertory, particularly in North America. This is not altogether bad, since there are treasures of first-class material languishing in the proverbial archives of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The only question is which ones we choose to revive and in what sequence of priority. Valery Gergiev has pioneered the rediscovery of the neglected Russian opera repertory. His is clearly a nationalistic enterprise, based at the Kirov, whose efforts he deftly exports. Sir Charles Mackerras has helped bring Janacek beyond ]en&fa to the fore, but in terms of the Czech repertory, our familiarity with the dramatic works of Dvorak and Smetana in performance still lags. There is much to look forward to.