The Phnom Penh International Music Festival, now in its 22nd year, does not seek to bring the best of all classical music all mixed together for one three-day romp. “Under the broad theme of European music cultures, the festival opens the opportunity for a special focus on, say, a particular period or geographical region,” says festival founder and director Anton Isselhadt. “Last year we looked at Ukrainian musical heritage, and how it looked to the west for inspiration – Poland, Germany, Austria – rather than east to Russia.
“This year our focus is on European salons, a very important and meaningful movement in the 19th Century. The term salon these days might suggest a massage salon or a beauty salon; this is a different kind of salon. It was a mostly bourgeoise movement, an elite movement, putting on small domestic presentations of music and literature that frequently were world premieres. Salonieres included such names as Chopin, Rossini, Marcel Proust, Georges Sand, Auguste Rodin. Where could you hear new music at the time? There were opera houses in large cities like Paris and Vienna, sometimes a concert hall performance, once or twice a year. But the salons were vibrant, and everywhere.
“Interestingly often it was the women who ran the salons, and also the Jewish communities were very involved. Franz Liszt was a salonniere. He would improvise for two or three hours. That fell out of fashion – these days classical musicians do not improvise anymore. Bach, Mozart! They were improvisers! Bach would play in the coffee houses of Leipzig, where people eat and drink.”
As ever when talking to Anton, the subjects range far and wide, particularly with reference to music, and his desire to break down the barriers that might prevent someone from attending a classical recital. “I am not in an ivory tower. Here we are talking about black blues and white blues, and Charles Ives and Jimi Hendrix, and Frank Zappa. Nowadays you hear a Mozart sonata in a concert hall, but during Mozart’s time it was never played in the concert hall. It was a study for a concertos, and played in a salon, a private circle. Bach’s works were often for his students and his children to practice, and he played in the coffee houses of Leipzig! Similarly Chopin made his career in the salons, playing mazurkas for homesick Polish aristocrats.
“These were gatherings of intellectuals. The salons survived through the Great War, then La Belle Epoque, but already there was the rise of movements like Dada and Surrealism. After the Second World War the movement ends, the spirit moves to the jazz bars, where musicians, writers and intellectuals discuss politics and philosophy.”
The concerts take place in Phnom Penh at Raffles Le Royal, from Friday 14 to Sunday 16, at 7 pm, with a pre-concert talk each evening at 6 pm. “In the programme each composer is connected with a specific salon. On the first night Tony Yang plays Beethoven – who was supported by the Salon Countess Josephine von Brunsvik in Vienna – and Schubert, from the Salon Joseph von Witteczek. On Saturday Giovanni De Cecco relives Johann Sebastian Bach playing at Zimmermann’s Coffee House in Leipzig, and Rossini, who after writing for the opera, settled down and made his own very successful Parisian salon that he composed piano pieces for. For the grand finale on Sunday, Dmitri Malignan pays tribute to the Berlin salon of Fanny Mendelssohn, the wife of Felix, with a group of his works, and the Salon Marquise Cristina Trivulzia di Belglojoso in Paris who supported Chopin.
“Out of 100 different salons across Europe, we highlight nine different salons in European cities with works that were composed and performed by European composers. What can we do in three days? And how do we know about what was played, who was playing and who hosted? The press was often invited, and it was in the newspaper the next day. The aristocrats were in attendance, but they no longer had any power – maybe a castle or a vineyard or two, but they had no political power.”
A last piece of advice from Anton is to not be afraid. “To listen to music – does not need to be explained. Sit down, open your ears, and listen to what you hear. You can always feed your ears to support your listening, but that is just assistance. The painter does not have to explain the painting.”
Tony Yang, Giovanni De Cecco and Dmitri Malignan
