92Y Online Concert - The Emerson String Quartet and Yefim Bronfman, piano. Viewed November 19, 2020.

Live Broadcast on November 19, 2020.  Part of the 10-concert subscription series.

Program

Schumann, Movements 2 & 3 from String Quartet in A Major, Op. 41, No. 3 (1842).

Brahms, Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34 (1864).

Even during these COVID times when I seldom go anywhere, I still had trouble catching too many of these 92Y concerts live.  Go figure.  In any case, I caught up with this later in the evening, thus both "viewed" and "live" dates are November 19.

Another enjoyable concert.  Only remark I had was about Bronfman's appearance: he appeared thinner, not as impeccably groomed as he used to be for the live concerts I attended (most notable was his somewhat unkempt hair, which was a lot whiter than I expected), and didn't push himself up as much.  Overall, he looked a lot healthier.

The quartet only played two of Schumann's four movements: Assai agitato and Adagio molto.  Brahms's quintet also has four movements: (I) Allegro non troppo; (II) Andante, un poco adagio; (III) Scherzo: Allegro; and (IV) Finale: Poco sostenuto - Allegro non troppo - Presto, non troppo.

For the Brahms piece, I was following along with the score.

92Y Online Concert - Aaron Diehl, piano. Viewed November 18, 2020.

Live broadcast on November 17, 2020.  Part of the 10-concert subscription series.

Program

William Grant Still (1895-1978): Seven Traceries (1940)

Sir Roland Hanna (1932-2002): Century Rag

Willie “The Lion” Smith (1893-1973): “Fading Star”

James P. Johnson (1894-1955): “Keep Off the Grass"

Wynton Guess: “J-Walking”

Duke Ellington (1899-1974): “New World A-Comin’”

R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943): “Juba Dance”

This is a program of works by (mostly) African American composers, with quite a few in what I would call the Jazz genre.  Below are some of the notes I jotted down, some from what Diehl said on stage, and some from the web.

Diehl is a young (early 30s) jazz pianist with classical training at Julliard.  We heard him performing with the New Jersey Symphony in December, 2018.

The piece by Still was the longest, the seven traceries being the seven attributes of God.  The movements are: Cloud Cradles, Mystic Pool, Muted Laughter, Out of the Silence, Woven Silver, Wailing Dawn and A Bit of Wit.  I managed to locate a webpage describing the work, which I used to follow along. Still is known as the "Dean of African American Music."

Hanna dedicated "Century Rag" to Eubie Blake, who was the founder of Eastern Ragtime, which later evolved to the "strike style" (just quoting Diehl here).  Diehl proceeded to mention that the pieces by Smith and Johnson were written in that style.

Guess is a young American composer, about 24.  The work "J-Walking" was commissioned by American Composer Orchestra.

Dett was an Canadian-American Black composer per Wikipedia.

92Y Online Concert - Anthony McGill, clarinet and Members of the New York Philharmonic. Novemeber 12, 2020.

Live Broadcast from 92Y ($10).

Program

Mendelssohn, String Quartet in D Major, Op. 44, No. 1 (1838)

Coleridge-Taylor, Clarinet Quintet in F-sharp Minor, Op. 10 (1895)

New York Philharmonic members

Yulia Ziskel, violin; Na Sun, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Nathan Vickery, cello.

How much the concert can be enjoyed depends very much on how well the internet is working at the moment of broadcast.  Today the network was somewhat unstable.  Nonetheless, I enjoyed the Mendelssohn piece and learned something about Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.  The clarinet quintet probably would sound better if one gets more familiar with it, although the last movement was quite easy to like.

The movements of the compositions are as follows.  For Mendelssohn: (1) Molto allegro vivace; (2) Menuetto: Un poco Allegretto; (3) Andante espressivo ma con moto; and (4) Presto con brio.  For Coleridge-Taylor: (1) Allegro energico; (2) Larghetto affecttuoso - Molto espressivo; (3) Scherzo. Allegro leggiero; and (4) Finale.  Allegro agitato - Poco piu moderato - Vivace.  Coleridge-Taylor also supplied the tempo for the various movements.

A few things I learned about Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.  He was born in London in 1875 and died in Surrey in 1912 from pneumonia.  His mother was English, his father a physician from Sierra Leone who returned to Africa not knowing he had left a pregnant woman behind.  He was named after the poet Samuel Taylor Colerdige, and at some point added the hyphen to his name.  A musical prodigy, he enrolled at the Royal College of Music at age 15 and eventually studied composition.  During one of his many visits to the US, he was nicknamed the "African Mahler."  His work supposedly drew on African music in the same tradition as Brahms with Hungarian music and Dvorak with Bohemian music.

92Y Online Concert - Midori, violin; Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano. November 6, 3030.

Live Broadcast from 92Y ($10)

Program

Grieg, Sonata No. 2 in G Major, Op. 13

Mozart, Sonata in E-flat Major, K. 302

Franck, Sonata in A Major

This was the fourth concert in this online series at the 92Y, and was the most enjoyable one so far.  First, the movements of the sonatas:

Grieg (1867): Lento doloroso - Allegro vivace; Allegretto tranquillo; Allegro animato.

Mozart (1778): Allegro; Andante grazioso.

Franck (1886): Allegretto ben moderato; Allegro; Ben moderato: Recitativo-Fantasia; Allegretto poco mosso.

While Midori was definitely the headline artist, Jokubaviciute also put in a remarkable performance.  It's a pity that the cameras were mostly focused on the violinist.

92Y Online Concert - Emerson Quartet. Viewed November 5, 2020.

The program was broadcast live on November 4, I viewed it a day later.  This was part of the 10-concert series subscription.

Program

Beethoven String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130 (with Grosse Fuge, Op. 133).

The history of the composition is somewhat interesting.  Beethoven first completed the piece in the form played tonight.  The reception to the last movement at the work's premiere was negative, and at his publisher's urging Beethoven replaced it with Finale: Allegro in B-flat major, and the original sixth movement (Gross Fuge) was published as a stand-alone work numbered Op. 133.  Modern performances tend to go back to Beethoven's original version, although some argue the best interpretation is to play the "modified" work followed by the Grand Fugue, thus making the quartet a seven-movement work.  

Beethoven completed the replacement Finale in late 1826.  The first performance of the modified quartet was in April 1827, a month after the composer's death.

The Emerson Quartet performed the six-movement, "original version."  The movements are: (i) Adagio, ma non troppo - Allegro; (ii) Presto; (iii) Andante con moto, ma non troppo, Poco scherzoso; (iv) Alla danza tedesca.  Allegro assai; (v) Cavatina.  Adagio molto espressivo; and (vi) Gross Fuge (Op. 133) Ouverture.  Allegro - Meno mosso e moderato - Allegretto - Fuga. [Allegro] - Meno mosso e moderato - Allegro molto e con brio - Allegro.

I managed to locate the music on line and could follow along as the quartet played.  It was generally enjoyable, although there were segments that could have sounded cleaner than they did.  As this was my first encounter with the piece, I do not know if that how it should sound.  The 92Y website describes this quartet as the piece that put the Emerson Quartet on the map.

Information from the 92Y website.  Conflicting information as to when the recording was made.