Amateurs on the road with Paul Juon
Conductor Hugo Bollschweiler has evaluated eight works by Paul Juon, edited for the first time, for the EOV according to practical performance criteria. In the following, Bollschweiler presents the content and aims of his report - and describes his passion for the late Romantic composer with a Swiss family.
The Romantic composer Paul Juon (1872-1940) with Swiss roots has experienced a quiet renaissance in recent years. His extensive chamber music oeuvre in particular has now become a permanent fixture in concert halls at home and abroad. The situation is different with Juon's symphonic canon: Despite exemplary editorial work by Christoph Escher and Ueli Falett, who have meticulously researched and republished a considerable number of Juon's major symphonic works, the large-scale oeuvre remains largely terra incognita for performers, audiences and organizers. This is precisely why opportunities are opening up for amateur orchestras: innovative programming includes the discovery of forgotten works.
In order to make Juon's orchestral music accessible in a low-threshold and uncomplicated way, I was able to analyze and evaluate eight selected orchestral works in collaboration with the EOV in terms of practical feasibility and instrumental requirements. The result is a 25-page report - a kind of travel guide - which can be downloaded from the EOV website. The brief evaluation and detailed comments are intended to help interested orchestra managers to make a quick and pragmatic assessment of the respective works.
Travel guides: For evaluation and use
The basic approach of the evaluations aims to examine the practical suitability of selected symphonic works for amateur orchestras. Since the latter exist at very different playing levels, the evaluation must always be read with the proviso that it necessarily refers to an average.
A distinction must be made between technical, organizational and musical aspects. Factors such as tempo, intonation, key, tonality, rhythm and complexity of the ensemble playing were examined. Organizational requirements include instrumentation, special instruments, divisi for the strings (minimum number of instruments), length of the piece, volume and audience friendliness. Particular attention was paid to challenges of an instrument-specific nature: exposed solo passages, special registers, openness of the passages and the complexity of the conducting.
The type of evaluation is divided into three levels and serves different needs. The brief evaluation and the spider diagrams allow a quick and visual overall assessment of the piece, while the detailed comments provide specific and in-depth analytical insights into the inner life of the work. It should be borne in mind that no reference recordings are available for most of the eight works examined. The ratings should be seen as a guide and not as a guarantee of a perfect partnership between orchestra and work. A look at the score (link below) remains indispensable. Here, the individual abilities of the respective orchestra members can be compared with the requirements of the work in order to arrive at a differentiated overall assessment.
Travel recommendation: A musical-practical conclusion
There are exciting and rewarding discoveries to be made in Juon's oeuvre for amateur orchestras. A practical-psychological aspect should not be underestimated: The majority of Juon's symphonic oeuvre is not yet available on recordings. Without top-class reference recordings, there is no pressure to compare, which inevitably shapes the audience's expectations of established works. The way in which Juon's tempo is arranged allows a certain freedom of interpretation (and thus an adaptation to orchestra-specific possibilities). The tempo indications are not fixed with metronome markings and allow a great deal of creative freedom (especially in virtuoso and fast movements).
Juon's musical language is accessible and often inspired by extra-musical motifs. This makes his music a grateful building block within thematically oriented concert concepts. The works with the character of variations or suites prove to be flexible in their use: here it is quite conceivable to couple and omit individual movements. Juon's compositional craft is well-founded, his knowledge of the instruments sovereign and the dramaturgical gesture always consciously employed. I recommend traveling with Paul Juon without reservation.
To the report with the work evaluations: www.eov-sfo.ch
To the scores: www.patrinum.ch
About Hugo Bollschweiler: www.hugobollschweiler.ch
