2007 – 2009 SPECIAL LECTURE-RECITAL PRESENTATIONS

»»»   Johann Sebastian Bach's Journey to Lübeck: A fascinating account of Bach's fiery departure from Arnstadt and the famous walk to Northern Germany to hear the great organist Buxtehude (and probably to look over his not-very-attractive daughter).  Based on biographical-historical information as well as old German maps and a bit of logic, this presentation includes a beautiful power-point display of photographs of the German countryside and various cities along the route, taken during the same season (autumn) in which Bach made his journey in 1705. David Montgomery presents and plays music by Bach, Böhm and Buxtehude, and offers a warm, often humorous and lively story of this inspired journey.

»»»   Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert and the German Romantic Painters Caspar David Friedrich and Philipp Otto Runge.  What did these Viennese composers (well, Beethoven was a German, but he lived in Vienna, at least) and Northern German artists have in common?  Quite a bit, actually, and a close look at their technical "workshops" reveals some surprising aspirations.  The painters could control space but not time, and the musicians were in just the opposite predicament.  As it turns out, however, they all managed to have their cake and eat it, too.  David Montgomery draws upon a long acquaintance with these works for an in-depth multi-media look at the ideals of Romanticism.

PUBLICATIONS

Books and Chapters

2006        Franz Schubert, Grundfragen zur Aufführungspraxis (Tutzing: Hans Schneider, for the Internationales Franz Schubert Institut Wien).  A resource for professional performers.  German with English summaries.  For publication, winter 2005. 450 pages.

2002        Franz Schubert’s Music in Performance: A comprehensive guide to performance practices and ideals, with an examination of  Viennese pedagogical methods and tutors of the period (NY: Stuyvesant: Pendragon Press, 2002.  319 pages.

1996        Tutors, Methods and Related Sources c.1650–1915: Source Materials for the Study of Historical Performance Practices in European Classical Music c.1650–1915 (including a bibliography of some 3,000 pedagogical works). (King’s Music: Huntingdon, England).  177 pages. 

1996        “Franz Schubert’s Music in Performance: A Brief History of Events, People and Issues” in The Cambridge Companion to Schubert, ed. Christopher Gibbs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). 17 pages and notes.

1988        Basic Studies in Musicianship:  A Self-teaching Workbook for Eartraining  (UCSB Music Department Publication, 1988)  Piloted in UCSB musicianship classes, 1988-89.  22 pages.

1987        North German Romanticism: Origins and Structural Language in Music, Poetry, and Painting (Dissertation, U.C.L.A: 1987)  495 pages.

Articles

2003        "The Vibrato Thing", Soundpost-Online Musicological Review Section.  Online article with musical illustrations. http://www.soundpostonline.com:vol.3#13 (fall/2003).

2003        "Zur Funktion des fälschlich als 'Fantasie für Klavier' bezeichneten Fragments D605" in Schubert durch Die Brille 30 (Vienna: Journal of the International Franz Schubert Institute, brought out by Hans Schneider, Tutzing).  Co-authored with Ernst Hilmar.  Revised / reprinted in:  Viennse Music / die Wiener Musik [online journal, Fall 2006].

2003        "The Grazer Fantasie: Wishful Thinking or a Simple Hoax?" in Schubert durch Die Brille 30 (Hans Schneider, Tutzing, for IFSI, Vienna).

2002        "Franz Schubert and Alla-Breve" in Die Brille 29 (Hans Schneider, Tutzing, for IFSI, Vienna).

2001        “Notation and Performance in Schubert: A Discussion and Review of the Relevant Sections from Clive Brown's Classical and Romantic Performing Practice 1750­–1900” in Die Brille 27 (Hans Schneider, Tutzing, for IFSI, Vienna).

2000        “For Once: Beethoven in the Light of Schubert?  Realizing the Implications of Meter and Tempo Proportions between Slow Introductions and Allegro Sections” in Die Brille 25 (Hans Schneider, Tutzing, for IFSI, Vienna).

2000        “Performance Concerns and Criteria for Franz Schubert’s Symphony in C major D944” in Die Brille 24 (Hans Schneider, Tutzing, for IFSI, Vienna).

2000        “The Tenuto ‘Hairpin’: Evidence for a Third Interpretation in the ‘Accent vs Decrescendo’ ” Issue in Die Brille 24 (Hans Schneider, Tutzing, for IFSI, Vienna).

1999        “Franz Schubert’s Scores: Meticulous Documents or Informal Springsboards for Improvisation” in Die Brille 23 (Hans Schneider, Tutzing, for IFSI, Vienna).

1997        “Frédéric Chopin: The Piano Concerti in camera”.  Scholarly annotations for the first recording of the concerti in their quintet versions (Grammofon AB BIS-CD-847, Djursholm).  Fumiko Shiraga, piano, and the Yggdrasil Quartet with Jan-Inge Haukas.

1996        “The Performance of Franz Schubert’s Music in the Context of the Pedagogical Sources of his Day” in Early Music XXV/1. 19 pages.

1994        “The Incomprehensibility Topos: John Daverio on 19th-century German Music” in N.O.T.E.S., The Quarterly Journal of the MLA (December 1994). 4 pages. Reply by John Daverio and counter-reply by author in following issue.

1993        “Triplet Assimilation in Schubert: Challenging the Ideal” in Historical Performance VI/2. 18 pages.  Reply by Malcolm Bilson and counter-reply by author in HP VII/1.

1992        “Historical Performance Practice: Views, Reviews, and Non-views” in Musical Quarterly 76/1. 

1991        “The Myth of Organicism: From Bad Science to Great Art” in Musical Quarterly 75/4. Two biogenetic models for motivic organization in nineteenth-century German instrumental music.  Treats music of Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, Strauss, Schoenberg and others.  50 pages with plates.

1990        “From Biedermeier Berlin:  The Parthey Diaries” in Musical Quarterly 74/2. 19 pages with plates.

1985        “The Sketches for Papillons:  Robert Schumann's Early Compositional Methods” (Los Angeles, 1985.  Archives of the Atwater Kent Prize, UCLA).  First Prize Winner. 34 pages.

RECORDINGS

PRESS EXCERPTS

The Jena public is always drawn in by a Beethoven concert. To round out the season Beethoven’s name stood three times on the program.  And yesterday’s program brought with it other well-known figures.  Jena came to know David Montgomery from the previous season, when he was not in the particularly envious position of encountering a Jena summer heat record – but not only did he survive the temperature, he survived it with brilliance.  This time he appeared before the audience not in his shirtsleeves, but in the traditionally-respected white tie and tails of his profession.

Has a Beethoven overture ever sounded so exciting in Jena?  Not that I can remember.  The Leonore Overture No. 3 was presented as if chiseled in granite, with a seldom-heard clarity thanks to David Montgomery’s sharply clean baton technique and an orchestra that simply outdid itself.  What an effect was made by the offstage trumpet signal – enough to run cold chills down the spine!  The concert arrangement was just as in the old days, Beethoven times: celli to the right of the conductor, where in Jena the violas now normally sit.

After such an opening one had to ask oneself, could it get any better?  And how!  The Second Piano Concerto with the small wind-group setting – and at the keyboard Lisa Smirnova, a hot-blooded young artist from Moscow.  Her touch alone revealed what forces lie within her.  In the second movement there was impressive interplay at the end, where the piano had the melody in the right hand alone with an exemplary accompaniment from the orchestra – that brought one into the right mood indeed!  At the end of this work is a stubborn little rondo, peppered throughout with those offbeat sforzati so typical of Beethoven. And quite unusual in a single concert, after the intermission we heard another Beethoven concerto.  But exactly therein lay a particularly interesting opportunity to compare the young Beethoven with the experienced master.  Played by a brilliant pianist, who was so well able to elucidate Beethoven to the audience with sensitive pianissimos and forcefully compelling fortes.  It was a feast for the eyes as well as the ears.

– Fanfare, New York

[1998] You get doughnuts and coffee at "Mornings with the Symphony" and you get a lot more besides: an atmosphere that’s light-years removed from the evening concerts.  Here in the a.m. are all the people who don’t like to or can’t go out at night in quest of classical music.  They’re listening respectfully, as they did to yesterday morning’s baroque program, but there’s also a casual ambience you won’t find in evening subscription concerts.  Yesterday’s near-capacity symphony audience certainly liked the music, as you might well expect when Vivaldi’s perennially popular "The Four Seasons" is on the program.  It helps to have a violin soloist of the caliber of Mark Peskanov.  "The Four Seasons" calls for flair and flourish, and he has both in abundant measure. 

Montgomery conducted from the keyboard (harpsichord for Purcell’s "Three Parts upon a Ground" and Jiri Benda’s Harpsichord Concerto No. 3, with J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 thrown in as an early encore, and a small portable organ for "The Four Seasons").  A nimble-fingered harpsichordist, Montgomery’s performance of the Benda Concerto was remarkable for its brisk tempi.  The concert may have been early, but the music gave a potent wake-up call.

– Melinda Bargreen, The Times, Seattle

To balance the two Baroque concerti (J.S. Bach’s D-minor Keyboard Concerto with Paul Hersh and the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4), Montgomery programmed Barber's rapturous Adagio for Strings and Grieg's neo-classic Holberg Suite.  The Barber is powerful in its simplicity.  Montgomery approached the work as it must be approached - with vitality and strength.  Grieg's neo-baroque Holberg Suite was given a virile reading filled with exciting contrasts of tempi and moods.  Montgomery is a talented, demanding conductor.

– The Nevada State Journal, Reno

The variety of music was fanciful and fun at Friday's Waterloo chamber concert. The masterful Trio Sonata from Bach's "The Musical Offering," which opened the concert was played with great taste.  The care with which Michael Parloff [Principal Flute, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra] and Ilkka Talvi [Concertmaster, Seattle Symphony] defined the composer's weaving lines was matched by the equally careful continuo pair of Walter Gray [Seattle Symphony] and David Montgomery [New York City].

The harpsichord in particular was fresh, the realization of the figured bass probably improvised.  Montgomery did something this reviewer had never seen.  He at times let the cello play the bass line alone, allowing his own left hand the freedom to be more flexible in the accompaniment.  He also added a few extra notes in the bass when he was following that part.  The only rule seemed to be that he never played lower than the bass line, that foundation of baroque music. The whole brought to mind Dorothy Sayer's description of listening to Bach.  Her Lord Peter "could hear the whole intricate pattern, every part separately and simultaneously, each independent and equal, separate but inseparable, moving over and under and through, ravishing heart and mind together."

[1990] There was more to be learned from the two readings of Bach than from the rest of the concert in toto.  David Montgomery and Jeaneane Dowis each brought something important to Bach and he gave something back, as he always does. Montgomery treated the Prelude and Fugue [WTC I, F-minor] as a single unit.  He began with the gentle sound of the harpsichord's lute stop, then used uncoupled and unstopped 8-foot strings for the beginning of the fugue, and concluded with a full complement of strings.  The piece was thus shaped like one long wedge, a very striking and well-planned conceit.

[1993] As thunder rolled and as lightning flashed beyond the windows high above the stage, David Montgomery  walked on to play the C-sharp minor Prelude and Fugue from Book I of Bach's "Well-tempered Clavier."  The fugue in particular fit the scene.  Montgomery built it from a dark brooding exposition to a nobly tragic conclusion...[At the harpsichord] Montgomery had to use registrations and note lengths to gain expression.  He chose to play the work emphasizing French elements embedded in its style.

 – The Star Ledger, Trenton

– The Santa Barbara News-Press, Santa Barbara

– Arts & Entertainment Magazine, Santa Barbara

Franz Berwald

In this, the 200th anniversary of Franz Berwald’s birth year (1796) his most well-known works are being rerecorded, including the four symphonies, completed between 1842–45.  In his own style, Berwald combined the essential structure of classicism with romantic arches of melody, adding his own original and colorful instrumentation; and he underscored the individual character of each symphony with a sub-title [the ‘Serious’, the ‘Capricious’, the ‘Singular’ and the  ‘Naive’]. David Montgomery and the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra meet the demands of these characteristics exceedingly well.  The large melodic arches of the outer movements and the adagios are a severe challenge for any conductor, but Montgomery lets them unfold without sacrificing the whole line to any single phrase.  Happily, his method of achieving this unity is not to skim over details in a flighty performance, but through tempos that – while they do not entirely match the timings handed down by the composer – nevertheless provide a showcase for many pearls of instrumentation, particularly in the woodwinds.  Furthermore, in choosing these tempos, Montgomery in no way sacrifices the drive of the finales.  The Jena Philharmonic has truly mastered these attractive symphonies, recording them here with commitment and precision.

– Peter Overbeck, RONDO, Munich

For many labels, the 23rd of July, 1996 must have been a magic date; it was the 200th anniversary of the birthday of the Swedish composer Franz Adolf Berwald.  Among others, the Jena Philharmonic under the direction of David Montgomery has recorded the four symphonies of Berwald for BMG’s new Arte Nova label.  This solid interpretation will be a joy to fans of the Jena Philharmonic, and will intrigue specialists as well.  The recording sounds well, very cultivated and played with commitment.  Wide-reaching melodic arches and interesting sound colors leave a great impression on the listener.

E.K., Die Thüringer Landeszeitung, Jena

BMG’s New Label, “Arte Nova”

Anyone with an unusual request should cast a glance in the growing Arte Nova catalogue.  David Montgomery and the Jena Philharmonic, for example, present on a double CD a highly remarkable performance of the four symphonies of Franz Adolf Berwald, whose 200th birthday has been celebrated in 1996. 

Reinhard Schulz, Neue Musikzeitung, Regensburg

– Wolfgang Birtel, Das Orchester, Mainz

– Wolfgang Birtel, Das Orchester, Mainz

In a few seconds, the Jena Philharmonic confirmed it: the dance material, tossed between strings and winds, was as exciting as a good detective story.  Then came a sudden quiet with the "Maria" theme – intimately played in its simplicity, well above mere sentimentality.  The Dances were followed by Howard Hanson’s Second Symphony, sub- titled "The Romantic", beautifully appropriate for an American film drama.   Bernstein’s Fancy Free is an early work.  It made a brilliant display for solo pianist Camelia Sima, who began to play in a quiet American cocktail-bar fashion while her colleagues were still "tuning".  Suddenly the sassy music of the three sailors (in the ballet) broke in upon the scene, and the show was underway - creating a swinging finale to a successful concert.   Those who missed this concert have one more chance, because all of the music will be recorded on CD by the Jena Philharmonic in this season under the direction of David Montgomery.

– Kathrin Singer, Thüringische Landeszeitung, Erfurt

The real heat in the concert hall had nothing to do with the temperature, but with our hearts.  Concertgoers were introduced to a guest conductor who appeared as if he had led his musicians into battle a hundred times and left the field triumphant.  He was the master of a fiery work full of bristling rhythms on the one hand and poetically romantic lyricism on the other.  This was a passionate interplay of feelings without comparison for the audience, who found themselves now gently-pulled, now rhythmically driven – all in the same evening.  David Montgomery does not work with large gestures; where others of his profession practice shadowboxing, he leads his players with truly specific, rational and energy-saving movements.  Mostly he communicates with hands and fingertips, and any orchestra should feel confidence in his expressive metrical exactitude.     

– Karl Müller-Schmied, Ostthüringer Zeitung, Jena

Hanson

Symphonies Nos. 2, 4 / Elegy for Serge Koussevitzky

A pupil of René Leibowitz, David Montgomery, understands how to draw out the lyrical strength, the harmonic and rhythmic plasticity of these works with the Jena Philharmonic.  One hears elegant solos in the woodwinds, and wonderful revelry in the strings and a full but cultivated brass and percussion sonority.  In this interpretation the Second Symphony (1930) – Hanson's most popular work among American audiences – proves itself here to be the most accessible.  In Montgomery’s well-defined and effective interpretation one cannot miss the neo-romantic approach – devoid of eclecticism – which demonstrates Hanson's lush and expressive tonal language.

Compositionally, the Fourth Symphony (1943) is not so readily accessible.  It is a memorial to Hanson's father, and along with the Elegy for Serge Koussevitzky is heard here as a moving tonal document of grief and sorrow.  Here we have that "northern" tone which earned Hanson a reputation as the "American Sibelius".

– Wofgang Birtel, Das Orchester, Mainz

In contemplating the German past, one is always challenged by the concept of "entartete Musik" – i.e. music banned by the cultural watchdogs of the Nazi regime (National Socialists) [and later by the Stasi, or "State Security" of the German Democratic Republic].  Their damage is still apparent today: even the mention of their abusive term "entartete Musik" ("degenerate" music) is still enough to put potential audiences off. But what really was there on the program of the first "entartete Musik" concert to put people off?  Paul Hindemith’s Metamorphoses on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber,  if not well known here, belongs to the standard repertoire of Western orchestras.  In this work Hindemith has given the old variation principle a new spin, in the form of four symphonic movements – each of which is gradually transformed until it has acquired an entirely new identity.

Erwin Schulhoff worked the spirit of jazz, for him a new "style of the times", into his Suite for Chamber Orchestra of 1921.  In this work Schulhoff also could not disguise his traditionally classical symphonic heritage.  But despite such serious underpinnings, the suite still displays a kind of grotesque musical entertainment as its exterior.    Alexander Zemlinsky’s music is now finally beginning to reconquer the concert halls.  His tone poem Die Seejungfrau (The little Mermaid, 1903, fantasy after Hans Christian Andersen) reveals marked traces of Brahms.  Tchaikovsky and Dvo?ák are not far behind, as well as Liszt and his cyclical ideas.  The contours of this work often wash together, creating bewitchingly beautiful sounds.  Later in the work Zemlinsky draws his lines more sharply, and gradually we come to know his true orchestral language. 

Under David Montgomery the Jena Philharmonic has developed a sound and a way of playing that is heard rarely.  If his approach to Hindemith was a strict one, his more lenient Schulhoff was designed to de-emphasize any traditional European heritage. In Zemlinsky’s Die Seejungfrau a wide spectrum of breathtaking colors came to light.  Montgomery achieved a clearly-formed dramatic thrust of great poetic form, challenging the musicians to limits of their abilities.  They responded brilliantly.

– Thüringische Landeszeitung, Erfurt