Live Broadcast - Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Louis Langree, conductor; Augustin Hadelich, violin. October 24, 2020.

Program

The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives (1874-1954).

Concerto in A Major for Violin and String Orchestra, Op. 5, No. 2 by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1754-1799).

Pulcinella Suite by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971).

CSO is offering a series of digital concerts for free, donations accepted.

This is the first live concert I have viewed since COVID restrictions hit in mid-March.  There were a maximum of about 40 musicians on stage, which can easily accommodate four times as many people.  Each musician sits alone, with partitions between the wind instruments.  All other players wear masks, and the seating is "reversed" so the conductor is in the back of the stage and the winds at the front: makes sense as the front is most open.

I have heard the Ives piece a couple of times before, performed by the New York Phil, conducted by Dudamel and Gilbert.  Here Langree said he wasn't even sure what the question was; NY Phil claimed it to be question on existence.

Bologne was born in Guadeloupe to a slave mother; his father was a wealthy landowner.  He eventually moved to France and was a composer, virtuoso violinist, conductor, and a champion fencer to boot.  He was a prolific composer, with 6 operas and many violin concertos among his works.  And this was the first time I heard about him.  His work reminded me more of Vivaldi than Mozart, both in sound and in apparent difficulty.  The concerto wasn't easy, but I imagine within reach of most violin students.  It was always enjoyable to see Hadelich perform.  The clarity of his sound is simply amazing.

We had heard Pulcinella only once before, and it was adapted for three brass instruments.  Today had a "full" complement of musicians.  This was composed during Stravinsky's "neo-classical" period, and it was reasonably easy to get.

The Bologne concerto has three movements: Allegro moderato, Largo and Rondeau.  The Pulcinella Suite comprises of the following: Sinfonia, Serenata, Scherzino, Tarantella, Toccata, Gavotta con due variazioni, Vivo, Minuetto, and Finale.

I am glad to have caught this concert.

Dimmed lighting for Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question.

Hadelich performing Bologne's Violin Concerto No. 2.

Stravinsky's Pulcinella.  Notice the partitions placed between the wind instruments.

About 40 members on stage.  Each person by him/herself.

ALL-ARTS Channel Broadcast - Israel Philharmonic. Itzhak Perlman, conductor. October 21, 2020.

Original Performance Date: March 22, 2010.

Location: Mann Auditorium, Tel Aviv.

Program - All-Beethoven 

Egmont Overture, Op. 84

Triple Concerto in C Major, Op. 56

Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 (Pastoral)

Trio Members

Giora Schmidt, violin; Zuill Bailey, cello; Navah Perlman, piano.

I came across this concert while browsing through the ALL ARTS channel schedule.  I have never seen Itzhak Perlman conduct, so that would be something new.  Navah is Perlman's daughter and a sufferer of rheumatoid arthritis.  She was about 40 years ago when she performed at this concert.

The concert recordings are also available on YouTube.  I actually watched the entire concert via a combination of YouTube and ALL ARTS viewings.

I got the date of the performance from a YouTube recording.

All the pieces are quite standard, and the performance was most enjoyable.

92Y Online Concert – Tai Murray, violin & Hee-Kyung Juhn, piano, play Beethoven and Jeffrey Scott. October 15, 2020.

"Live" Broadcast from 92Y ($10).

Program

Beethoven, Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24 "Spring"

Jeffrey Scott, Transparencia (2015)

Beethoven, Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 "Kreutzer"

Today's program worked much better than the one on Tuesday.  I enjoyed it very much.

Much of that was undoubtedly due to my familiarity with the two Beethoven sonatas, which are "requirements" for violin students in their career.  I haven't listened to either sonata for a while, and Murray certainly attacked them with a lot of gusto, and in an unorthodox manner in some instances.  Not that the sound was very different, but the bowing was certainly not how I remembered it.  Both pieces were performed very well, although I thought the pianist could have asserted herself more forcefully when she had the baton, so to speak.

The movements of the Beethoven sonatas are:

Sonata No. 5 (1801)

Allegro

Adagio molto espressivo

Scherzo: Allegro molto

Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo

Sonata No. 9 (1803)

Adagio sostenuto - Presto

Andante con variazioni

Presto

Sandwiched between the two sonatas was a composition by Jeffrey Scott, a Queens, NY native who now teaches at Montclair State University in New Jersey.  I didn't know what to expect, but overall I liked what I heard.  It was supposed to capture all kinds of Brazilian music, but I frankly wouldn't know what Brazilian music should sound like.  I couldn't find much about the music on the web, and vaguely recall its having four movements.

Murray is in her late 30s, and is a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.  She plays on a ca. 1765 Tomaso Balestrieri fecit Mantua.  Well, I don't have a good audio setup at home, so couldn't tell how good the sound was.

Our grandchildren were listening to part of the program.  Maisie (not quite 6) made the remark that the piano part looked so much more difficult than the violin part.  I couldn't object.  Wait till she sees a Mozart violin sonata.

92Y Online Concert – Brentano String Quartet Plays Mendelssohn and Haydn. October 13, 2020.

“Live” Broadcast from 92Y ($10).

Program

Mendelssohn, Selections from Four Pieces, Op. 81

Haydn, Quartet in D Major, Op. 17, No. 6

Mendelssohn, String Quintet No. 2 in -flat Major, Op. 87 (with Hsin-Yun Huang, viola)

Quartet Members

Mark Steinberg, Serena Canin – Violin; Misha Amory – Viola; Nina Lee – Cello

92Y offered a series of solo recitals and chamber concerts at $15 each, discounted to $10 each if one signed up for all 10.  It is a rather impressive list of artists, at a very reasonable price.

It is very difficult to locate on the 92Y website the program for the concert, and I still can’t find any notes on the different pieces being played.  One would think that would be a natural, what with the concert being on-line only.  I did manage to locate the music scores for the pieces, and able to follow along.  There were "technical issues" that caused a postponement of an hour; so not all kinks have been worked out yet.

It took me a while to locate this description of the Program on the 92Y website.

I don’t have a good setup to view these online concerts.  I could only use Chromecast if I view that on our TV.  That ended up with a jerky video stream, so I ended up watching this on a laptop, using my Bose Bluetooth speaker.  It was okay, but not great.

There were quite a few lovely passages, performed beautifully by the musicians.  I just wish the viewing experience had been better – no doubt much of the bad experience was my setup.

The string quintet was my first encounter with a second viola in a group.  One could argue there is a richer texture to the music, but one could also be excused if one doesn’t notice a fifth string instrument in the mix.

The movements of the pieces are listed below:

Mendelssohn: Four Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 81.  These were four different works published together after Mendelssohn’s death.  As far as I could tell, all four pieces were played.

Tema con variazioni (Andante sostenuto) in E Major, Op. 81/1 (1847);

Scherzo (Allegro leggiero) in A Minor, Op. 81/2 (1847);

Capriccio (Andante con moto) in E Minor, Op. 81/3 (1843);

Fugue (A tempo ordinario) in E-flat Major, Op. 81/4 (1827).

Haydn: Quartet in D Major, Op. 17, No. 6 (Quartet No. 20, Hoboken No. III:30) (1771)

Presto

Menuetto

Largo

Finale: Allegro

Mendelssohn: String Quintet No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 87 (1845)

Allegro vivace

Andante scherzando

Adagio e lento

Allegro molto vivace

Notice the marking "DVR" on the upper left corner of the screen.  At the beginning of the broadcast it said "Live."

Metropolitan Opera at Home - Wagner's Gotterdammerung. October 10, 2020.

Original Performance Date: April 21, 1990.

Conductor - James Levine.  Brunnhilde - Hildegard Behrens, Siegfried - Siegfried Jerusalem, Hagen - Matti Salminen, Waltrute - Christa Ludwig, Gutrune - Hanna Lisowska, Gunther - Anthony Raffell, Alberich - Ekkehard Wlaschiha, Norns - Gweneth Bean, Joyce Castle, Andrea Gruber; Woglinde - Kaaren Erickson, Wallgunda - Diana Kesling, Flosshilde - Meredith Parsons.

One reaction I didn't expect to have is that I prefer the 24-plank set to this one, described (somewhere) as the one truest to Wagner's original concept (at least until then, and who is to judge?).

Behrens got hurt at the end of one of the Gotterdammerung Valhalla destruction scenes, and had to withdraw from the last cycle.  Since she also sang in the April 26, 1990 Siegfried, one can assume it wasn't at this performance.  She would die in her early 70s while traveling in Japan.

The quality of the video was quite bad.  I wasn't sure if that is how it is, or my home network had bandwidth problems.  I took a look at the Parsifal broadcast; it was in HD, and was fine.

In a live Ring cycle one sits through 4 operas in 6 to 7 days, here it was broadcast over four nights.  Very difficult to sustain that level of concentration, and there are so many distractions at home.

Gibichung vassals being summoned to the marriage of Guther and Brunnhilde.  One of the few instances in the Ring where a chorus is used.

Hagen, Gunther and Brunnhilde talking about Siegfried's weakness.

Curtain call after Act 2.

Hagen stabbing Siegfried in the back with a spear, as Gunther looks on.

Immolation scene.

Curtain call at end of opera.

List of actual performance dates for this "Ring" cycle.  Looks like only Das Rheingold and Siegfried are from the same Ring cycle.

This recording from Parsifal was done in 2015, the video quality has improved tremendously over the years.

Metropolitan Opera at Home - Wagner's Siegfried. October 9, 2020.

Original Performance Date: April 26, 1990.

Conductor - James Levine.  Siegfried - Siegfried Jerusalem, Mime - ?, Wotan (the Wanderer) - James Morris, Alberich -  Ekkehard Wlaschiha, Fafner - ?, The Woodbird - ?, Erda - ?, Brunnhilde - Hildegard Behrens.

I was a bit busy on October 9 and 10, and thus watched only Acts 1 and 2 of this opera, missing Act 3 where Siegfried awakens Brunnhilde.  Also, I didn't get to view the credits at the end of the broadcast, so the list of artists listed in this entry is not complete, and may be in error.  However, I am sure Siegfried Jerusalem sang the title role.  He was Loge in Das Rheingold.  Both recordings are from April, 1990, so evidently he sang both roles in the same Ring cycle.  I wrote this after seeing Gotterdammerung, and found out Christa Ludwig sang the roles of Fricka (in Das Rheingold) and Waltraute (Gotterdammerung, but not Die Walkure).

In any case, below are some screen shots I took from the performance.

Siegfried forging Northung, here working on the bellows.

Siegfried facing Fafner, who has turned into a dragon.

Curtain call after Act II with Wotan, Siegfried, Mime, and Alberich.

Metropolitan Opera at Home – Wagner’s Die Walkure. October 8, 2020.

Original performance date – April 8, 1989.

Conductor – James Levine; Brunnhilde – Hildegard Behrens, Wotan – James Morris, Sieglinde – Jessye Norman, Fricka – Christa Ludwig, Siegmund – Gary Lakes, Hunding – Kurt Moll, Helmwige – Katarina Ikonomu, Orlinde – Martha Thigpen, Gerhilde – Pyramid Sellers, Waltrude – Joyce Castle, Siegrune – Diane Kesling, Rossweisse -Jacalyn Bower, Grimgerde – Wendy Hillhouse, Schwertleite – Sondra Kelly. 

Production - Otto Schenk, Set & Projection Design - Gunther Schneider-Siemssen

This was the first time I saw Jessye Norman - whose name is well-known in the music world - in concert, one recorded over 30 years ago.  Both Norman and Behrens died in their early 70s, and evidently the Ring set fell on Behrens (she hurt her spinal cord, but recovered).

The four operas being broadcast were not from the same cycle.  This one was a year earlier than the other three.  We will find out if the main characters were the same.

Screen shots of TV:

Online Carnegie Hall Opening Night, 130th Anniversary Season – A Virtual Gala Celebration. October 8, 2020.

Event date: October 7, 2020.

The recording of the event was available on Facebook the next day, so I got to view it.  For last night I decided to start the Met Ring Cycle (see previous entry).

I have never been to a Gala before, but whatever my expectations were, this was not it.  It was a lot of A-list musicians talking about the past, instead of looking forward.  While the fate of the 2020/2021 Carnegie season is up in the air, one can probably say more than “here is to another 130 years” (or some words to that effect) in anticipation of what the Hall will bring.

My understanding was most of prior year’s galas were traditional classical music programs.  There was a lot of reference to jazz and pop during this relatively short session.  They did play “Here Comes the Sun” performed by James Taylor and Yo-Yo Ma from five years ago (also season opening gala, as far as I can tell), so music other than classical does appear every now and then.

An impressive list of musicians.  Not much music on the program, though.  (And these are labeled "performers.")

In any case, below are the notes I took during my viewing of this rather short program:

Dudamel introduced Bach Goldberg variations #26 by Lang Lang

Winston Marsalis introduced

John Baptiste - Charleston Rag by Eubie Blake

Recording "Send in the Clowns," sung by Sarah Vaugh (Sondheim)
Sinatra singing "Mack the Knife"
James Taylor talked about Ozawa and BSO doing Mahler 5, "Here Comes the Sun" with Yo-Yo Ma.  Taylor headlined a concert 50 years ago.
Angelique Kidjo sang ‘find yourself’ (Once in a Lifetime)
A collaborative song with singers in different countries - led by Rihannon Giddons
Renee Fleming reminisced
Joyce DiDonato sang song last year (Winterreise)
Yannick Nezet-Sequin accompanied
Isaac Stern mentioned
MTT talked - 2008 SFS performance of Mambo

Metropolitan Opera at Home – Wagner’s Das Rheingold. October 7, 2020.

Original performance date – April 23, 1990.

Conductor – James Levine; Freia – Mari-Anne Haggander, Fricka – Christa Ludwig, Erda – Birgitta Svenden, Loge – Siegfried Jerusalem, Mime – Heinz Zednik, Wotan – James Morris, Alberich – Ekkehard Wlaschiha, Fasolt – Jan-Hendrik Rootering, Fafner – Matti Salminen, Froh – Mark Baker,  Donner – Alan Field, Woglinde – Kaaren Erickson, Wellgunde – Diane Kesling, Flosshilde – Meredith Parsons.

Production – Otto Schenk, Set & Projection Design – Gunther Schneider-Siemssen

Some literal screen shots taken of the TV.