TÁR: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture (CD Review)

By Karl Nehring

Hildur Gudnadóttir: For Petra; Mortar; TÁR; *Mahler: (rehearsals for) Symphony No. 5; **Elgar: (recording session for excerpts from) Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85; Johnny Burke and Jimmy van Heusen: Here’s That Rainy Day; Bach: (lesson on) Prelude in C Major; Elisa Vargas Fernandez: Cura Mente. Hildur Gudnadóttir; London Contemporary Orchestra, Robert Ames, conductor; *Dresdner Philharmonie, Cate Blanchett, conductor; Sophie Kauer, cello; London Symphony Orchestra, Natalie Murray Beale, conductor; New Trombone Collective & Friends; Elisa Vargas Fernandez. Deutsche Grammophon 486 3431

It's hard to know just where to start with this review, for this is a not a release that is easy to characterize in any sort of simple, straightforward way. It’s just not a simple, straightforward sort of recording. First of all, it is not a soundtrack album. DG states on their website, “The multi-faceted concept album features music from and inspired by the movie, including a series of stunning new tracks by Gudnadóttir, as well as extracts from major works by Elgar and Mahler. It complements the film by presenting completed, real-life versions of the music on which we see the fictional protagonist Lydia Tár working. One of the aims of the album is to reveal something of the complex process that goes on behind orchestral rehearsals and recordings.”

Perhaps it might be best to pause here for a background sketch of the film for those who may be unfamiliar with it. The plot revolves around the main character, Lydia Tár (played by Cate Blanchett), a conductor who has risen to the very peak of her profession – music director of the Berlin Philharmonic. However, all is not well in her rather messy – to put it politely – personal life; naturally enough, her psychological equilibrium is also increasingly under strain as the plot progresses. Of course, there is much more to the film than that (no, I have not seen it), but you get the general idea. It is not without controversy: Marin Alsop, probably the world’s foremost female conductor, remarked of the film in an interview for the New York Times, “I first read about it in late August and I was shocked that that was the first hearing of it. So many superficial aspects of Tár seemed to align with my own personal life. But once I saw it I was no longer concerned, I was offended: I was offended as a woman, I was offended as a conductor, I was offended as a lesbian.”

Now, back to the CD. Some classical music fans may find the cover photo vaguely familiar. In fact, some may even have the reason for that feeling of familiarity resting on a shelf somewhere in their CD collection. I no longer own the Abbado CD myself, but hey, I knew I had seen that Tár image somewhere, and I knew it was Abbado. As the liner notes, which were penned by the film’s producer/writer/director, Todd Field, declare, “one look at the the album’s cover art will be enough for you to understand that yes, in some parallel universe Lydia Tár was finally able to convince the good people at DG to create a cover adorned with her aped image of Claudio Abbado.”

Musically, the program combines, as it says on the cover, music from and “inspired by” the film, seemingly more of the latter than the former. As Field summarizes it, “the album includes Cate Blanchett conducting rehearsals for Mahler’s Fifth, Gudnadóttir’s making of the score for the film, in addition to music she composed that was inspired by, but not heard in the film, the New Trombone Collective recreating the storied 1967 recording of Here’s that Rainy Day played by the great Urbie Green, and finally Sophie Kauer making her professional debut in rehearsal for the Elgar Cello Concerto.”  Now, you might wonder: Why such a mishmash?  Field’s highlighted answer to that question is, “The tracks, like the film, are meant to invite the listener to experience the messiness involved in the making of music.”

Well, yes, it is a bit of a mess, this CD, but there is some good music to be found in these tracks, too. Gudnadóttir’s contributions are especially interesting. The young (b. 1982) Icelandic composer and cellist contributes three fascinating pieces to start off the program. She sings the melody of For Petra, the musical theme which forms the basis of a composition by the fictional Lydia Tár. The CD also contains a longer version of For Petra that Gudnadóttir has composed for orchestra, which is presented on this recording framed by introductory and concluding remarks by the composer to conductor Robert Ames and the London Contemporary Orchestra at the recording session (apparently intended to illustrate “the messiness involved in the making of music.”) She also contributes a three-movement moving expressive chamber composition titled Tár.

Next on the program are brief excerpts from Symphony No. 5 by Mahler, these now taken from scenes in the film wherein Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tár is rehearsing the orchestra. We get a bit of the opening funeral march, a bit of the scherzo, and of course – what else? – some of the gorgeous Adagietto. We also get Cate Blanchett speaking, imploring the orchestra to play with one voice. At the end of this session, she asks the orchestra members what they would think of having the Elgar Cello Concerto as a companion piece on the upcoming program (uh oh, she has an ulterior motive – things are getting messy indeed!). We then hear some chunks of the work itself, not as satisfying as hearing the whole work, but at least enough to sit back, relax, and enjoy. In fact, Sophie Kauer and the LSO’s 12-minute performance of the Allegro movement is the longest uninterrupted stretch of music on the entire CD. Following a bit more from Kauer’s Elgar audition (which Field in his liner notes justifies by drawing an out-of-left-field parallel with historical recordings in the same studio) we then get an even more out-of-left-field musical selection, Here’s That Rainy Day, played by a small jazz ensemble (truth be told, however, it’s actually quite pleasant) before the program concludes with a song that in the was used in the film in a scene that fictionally portrayed Lydia Tár making a field recording in the Amazon in 1990.

Just as it was hard to know where to start this review, so it is to know just how to end it. This is – by design, really – a release that is difficult to categorize. It is not really a soundtrack, nor is it really a documentary about how music is made. It does have some interesting new music by the young Icelandic composer Hildur Gudnadóttir, so in the end I can perhaps be justified in giving it a solid recommendation as a Hildur Gudnadóttir EP with some stuff from the film Tár thrown in as a bonus. Alternatively, for fans of the movie, I can recommend it as an interesting take on the film from its director with some fascinating new music thrown in as a bonus.

Meanwhile, I’ve reserved the DVD of the film at my local library. Although I will confess that I am not predisposed to like it, I’m willing to give it a try. Will my wife and I be able make it all the way through? We shall see…

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