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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

This will be the first time that some of us - make that nearly all of us -  will have the opportunity to hear Menachem Wiesenberg's music when "Reflections" makes its U. S. premiere with the Kansas City Symphony this weekend.  David Peironnet talked with the composer about  'new' classical music and his new work.

David Peironnet:  When your composition, Reflections makes its U. S. premiere in Kansas City, it will likely be the first time that most people in the Kansas City will have heard one of your works.  What would you like for them to leave with at the end of the concert?

Menachem Wiesenberg:  I would like them to relate to my music in the same way they react to the music of the 18th and 19th century, namely to react emotionally with no prejudice concerning their phobia of "modern" music.  I would like them to come out with the feeling that they've experienced something new which will arouse their curiosity to listen again to this piece or other pieces of mine.

DP:  New music has a reputation for being weird.  Yet, your compositions are remarkably absent of "weirdness," although distinctive and modern.  How do you explain the difference?
 
Menachem Wiesenberg:  It's not up to me to explain it, but some musical scholar to analyze the phenomenon and explain it.  I want to point out that I don't try to be "original" at all costs.  I believe that originality is an inborn thing and it shouldn't be consciously sought after.  It should be a natural outcome and not a target we strive for as artists.  This is my strong belief.  It's either you have it or you don't have it.  It cannot be adopted artificially.  I feel very attached to the musical tradition which I try to follow.  I believe really in evolution and not in revolution.

DP:  Is the "weird" reputation held by modern compositions even accurate?
 
Menachem Wiesenberg:  Sometimes it is accurate because the music is too cerebral and arid emotionally.  But, sometimes it's the fault of the audience that doesn't like to open up to new experiences and be more curious.

DP:  Some of your compositions are quiet and deeply introspective, while others are exuberant.  The Concertino for Violoncello & String Orchestra possesses great complexity within a deceptively simple structure, and Jerusalem for symphony orchestra is declarative.  What should we expect with the piece the Kansas City Symphony will perform?
 
Menachem Wiesenberg:  Reflections has both sides; the meditative one and the flamboyant one.  It is a bit more "jazzy" than the other two you have mentioned and you can even detect a hint of Gil Evans instrumentation here and there.  I find it very Israeli in a way.  It is based on a Ladino Song and an Arabic song that was adapted by the Jewish Israeli to become a kind of folk song.

DP: You've written quite a few pieces for choir though comparatively fewer for full orchestra.  Do you see yourself more as a composer of choral works or as a composer of orchestral works?  What are the unique challenges of composing for orchestra?
 
Menachem Wiesenberg:   I started as a choir composer and I have a special place in my heart for songs; I have written many, many arrangements for Israeli and Yiddish Songs.  I have been the musical director of Israel's most important singer in the seventies and the eighties - Chava Alberstein - and I was an accompanist for 12 years with Israel's most important contralto classical singer, Mira Zakai.

As I have developed, I have became more and more of an orchestral composer, however most of my orchestral pieces are Concerti.  I just finished last week my Mandolin Concerto. I feel now ready to go back and write choral music and song cycles....

Anything you write has its own difficulties.  It's very difficult to pinpoint exactly what that is.  You must think of balance all the time, of writing challenging parts but not too challenging compared to writing for chamber groups or soloists.

 Kansas City Symphony
World Premiere of Reflections by Menachem Wiesenberg
Brahms Double Concerto, Plus Dvorak
Friday January 8 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, January 9 at 8 p.m.
Lyric Theatre, 11^th and Central
Kansas City, MO

Sunday, January 10, at 2:00 p.m.
Carlsen Center
Johnson County Community College
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS
For tickets call 816-471-0400 or online at www.kcsymphony.org

By David Peironnet

Special to KCM

David Peironnet has been a concert-goer for more years than he would care to admit, and can clearly recall hearing the Kansas City Philharmonic under the baton of Hans Schweiger. This comes from someone who admits to be only 24 years old though acknowleges that his undergraduate degree was not in math but rather political science -- a group of people who are notoriously able to see only those facts they want to see in statistical data.

David has churned out the newsletter for the Friends of the Symphony - Kansas City for six or seven years. He doesn't recall and really doesn't care how many years it has been because the only thing that's important is the next deadline -- and the one after that.

This is one of a series of interviews he runs periodically usually consisting of five open-ended questions which reveal answers which can give information to the person walking into a concert hall for the first time, or like himself have been enjoying concerts for many years.

David and Kathy Peironnet frequently work at the Friends of the Symphony gift shop which is located in the lobby of the Lyric Theatre. The next time you come to a concert, stop by and say, "hello." Ask for a copy of the current FoS newsletter. If a copy isn't available, just ask and one will be mailed to you.