New York Philharmonic. Marin Alsop, conductor; Joseph Alessi, trombone. May 27, 2023.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat BB103, $94.50).

Alsop and Huang shaking hands after performance of Barber's Symphony No. 1.

Program

Symphony No. 1 (in One Movement) Op. 9 (1935-36) by Barber (1910-81).

Concerto for Trombone (2020) by Corea (1941-2021).

Selections from Romeo and Juliet, Suites Nos. 1, 2, and 3 (1935-36/1946) by Prokofiev (1891-1953).

The concert was sometimes billed as "Joseph Alessi plays Chick Corea."  That Marin Alsop was going to conduct didn't push it over the line for me, until I saw a 30% discount offer for tonight's tickets.  At $94.50 (including fees) for seats in the Rear Orchestra section, they were still expensive.

I am rushing to get ready for a trip overseas, so I can only jot down what I thought of each of the pieces.

Barber wrote Symphony No. 1 when he was quite young, and the piece's premiere in Rome helped launch Barber as a serious American composer.  The composer supplied a layout for the piece when the piece was premiered by the New York Philharmonic, calling it a synthetic treatment of the four-movement classical symphony. The acute listener can follow the sections Allegro non troppo, Allegro, scherzo, Andante tranquillo, capped with a recapitulation for the entire symphony.  Alas, I am not an acute listener.

If asked to guess who Chick Corea was, I would say a jazz musician.  And I would mostly correct, although he also performed as a classical musician, and wrote music in the classical tradition (my wording).  He was spurred into writing this concerto by NY Phil's principal trombonist, Joseph Alessi.  Unfortunately he passed away before the piece was premiered in Sao Paulo.  The orchestration was done by Corea's frequent collaborator John Dickson.

There was a full array of percussion instruments, including many I had never heard of before (e.g., clave, gankoqui, sabar, shekere, almglocken, and many others).  I counted eight percussionist, a timpanist (Kyle Zerna), a pianist, and a celesta player.  Turns out the pianist was John Dickson.  Also, almglocken are tuned cowbells, why not just say so?  We don't say Cor Anglais (English Horn) in programs, do we?

The concerto was about 25 minutes long, played without breaks.  The sections are titled: A Stroll; Waltse for Joe; Hysteria; and Joe's Tango.  I wonder if the concerto showcased all the things one could do with a trombone - no doubt a difficult instrument to master - and came away hoping it did not.  Perhaps a heavily jazz quality would at least make the music easier to understand.

Alessi acknowledged John Dickson, and the two performed an encore.

Alessi and Alsop after performing Corea's Trombone Concerto.  Notice the array of percussion instruments in the back.

John Dickson did the orchestration for Corea's piece.  He was the pianist in the orchestra.  He and Alessi played an encore.

For the Prokofiev piece, Alsop made selections from all three suites Prokofiev put together, and arranged them in an order that made "musical sense."  I thought it by-an-large also made "plot sense."  It was a very enjoyable performance of a much loved piece.  The concertmaster Frank Huang had to do quite a few solos, and did them well.

The movements are: The Montagues and the Capulets; Scene; Morning Dance; The Child Juliet; Masks; Friar Laurence; Dance of the Five Couples; The Death of Tybalt; Dance of the Girls with Lilies; Aubade; Romeo at the Tomb of Juliet; The Death of Juliet.

Tonight's concert concluded with selection from the different Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet suites.

When I started humming a tune from the ballet, Anne pointed out it was actually from Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite.  I was duly embarrassed.

There are concerts that hold a potential of being great or a disaster - such as a Mahler symphony.  And there are concerts that - if one looks at the program - will never rise to the "great" level.  That was the thought I had going in, and that was the conclusion I drew coming out.  I tried to have an open mind, and held out hope I was wrong.  The Prokofiev suite pushed the concert forward, but didn't quite manage to take it across the line.

This is Memorial Day weekend, we stopped by Hoboken to visit.  Taking the bus to Port Authority followed by a subway ride to Lincoln Center is convenient when things work well.  Today they worked well.  We didn't get home until 11:45 pm, actually not too bad considering the concert didn't end until 10:10 pm or so.

New York Philharmonic. Gianandrea Noseda, conductor; Leonidas Kavakos, violin. May 5, 2023.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat BB103, $66.50).

Program

Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 99 (1947-48) by Shostakovich (1906-75).

Sinfonia No. 1 (1984) by Walker (1922-2018).

Feste romane (Roman Festivals) (1928) by Respighi (1879-1936).

Kavakos and Noseda after the Shostakovich violin concerto.

The intermission was moved to right after the Shostakovich piece.  Which made sense as the seating rearrangement can be made during intermission

Looking over my blog entries, I have encountered this Shostakovich violin concerto a couple of times before, performed by Christian Tetzlaff (2009) and Lisa Batiashvili (2014).  There was much about how unconventional the structure of the concerto was, whether the delay in its premiere was due to the shifting political climate in Russia or to David Oistrakh's neglect, and to what is the proper opus number for the work (No. 77 according to the composer's output, 99 per its publication date).

Those are interesting, but don't really add to how the concerto would sound.  Compared with (my recollection of) what my two previous encounters were like, Kavakos' performance didn't quite measure up.

There is no question Kavakos is a great technician, producing a sound that is clean and accurate.  However, one couldn't help but think he was playing an etude, one that is quite difficult, no doubt.  That's how I felt after the first two movements.  His technical prowess served him well when it came to the third movement: the variations were woven seamlessly into the repeating "bass" theme.  Similarly the fourth movement was very enjoyable.  So, hits on the third and fourth movements, misses on the first two.

Kavakos played an encore.

I had encountered George Walker's music before; twice, both performed by NJ Symphony.  The pieces, Lyric for Strings and Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra, are both mentioned in today's Program Notes.  Today's sinfonia is the first of five sinfonias composed by him, and contains two movements, labeled helpfully 1 and 2.  Notes supplied for the premiere of the work for its August 1984 premiere helps with understanding the structures of the two movements.  At 13 minutes in length, the piece was over before I could make much sense of it beyond what the Notes say.

Walker's sinfonia was performed after the intermission.

Respighi is the composer of "Roman Triptych" consisting of Fountains of Rome (1915-16), Pines of Rome (1923-24), and Roman Festivals (1928).  My blog entries contain a few works by him, but the only one from the Triptych was the Fountains performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, and by this orchestra from Manchester (played in Montepulciano).  The Roman Festivals describe: games at the Circus Maximus; the Jubilee; the October Festival; and the Epiphany.  The "festivals" were performed without a break.  The change from the first to the second was readily discernable, while the "mood changes" later on were more subtle.  The Program Notes end the description with "... Respighi piles up sonority upon sonority to achieve one of the most tumultuous raisings of the roof ever heard."  I don't think the piece rose to (or dropped to) that level, although it was quite loud at times.

This is at the end of the concert.  Time stamp 9:58 pm.  We left soon after to catch our train back to NJ.  We noticed the principal bass from NJ Symphony in the bass section.  One can play the game of "spot the differences" in this photo with the one prior.  Among other changes: no harps, different percussion instruments.

At intermission I got to the top level (Tier 3) and took this photo of the Wu Tsai Theater.

As a review, this writeup is "lukewarm."  Nothing wrong with it, but nothing that spectacular either.

One cannot tell from the photos I took, but among the bassists was NJ Symphony's principal.  Her bio does say she performs with the NY Phil.

Tonight's tickets were bought when NY Phil offered a 30% discount.  For this season I bought three tickets as a "create your own" deal, the rest of the concerts were single-event purchases.  I just signed by for a 7-concert subscription for next season, including the final series led by Jaap van Zweden - and it's Mahler's Second.

We took the train in.  Our trip to New York experienced a 30-minute delay, which made it a bit tight.  We left the concert hall quickly (after the first applause), and made the 10:23 pm return train, with a few minutes to spare.

Stevens Cooperative School. Annie Kids. May 1, 2023.

\Stevens School Jersey City Campus, Gym.  (Free)

Book by Thomas Meeshan

Music by Charles Strouse and Lyrics by Martin Charnin

Based on "Little Orphan Annie."

Cast - 3rd and 4th Grade Hoboken students

Reid was in the production as one of the ensemble cast, and sang in a few of the choruses.  The shortened version of the musical lasted about an hour.  Of course as grandparents we enjoyed it.

A few of the principals have good voices.

Reid wasn't mad.  He was in his role.

New Jersey Symphony. Gemma New, conductor; George Li, piano. April 29, 2023.

Count Basie Theater, Red Bank, NJ.  Balcony Center (Seat F113, $61).

Program

Sarah Gibson warp & weft

Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43

Berlioz Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14

Gemma New at the end of the concert.  The applause was justifiably quite enthusiastic.

This is another of those "former NJSO conductor" concert.  Gemma New was assistant (or associate) conductor when Jacque Lacombe was the music director of the orchestra.  When I started to type this I didn't remember ever seeing her conduct.  A review of the blog returned one concert, in 2016.  By that time she had left as associate director of the orchestra.  Other than that I didn't say anything about her conducting, one can take whatever from such silence.

While this concert happened about a week ago, I remember one of the things I noted was this was an enjoyable concert.  While my added understanding of the Rachmaninoff and Berlioz pieces no doubt played a role, New's interpretation of the pieces surely added a lot to how good the concert was.  Contrast this with what I said about Manahan's and Jarvi's recent appearances, where I didn't say much about the conductors.

New started the program by describing the Sarah Gibson piece.  She used phrases like "a wall described by the same note," and "decorations."  Much of modern music is so nebulous that the casual listener could use words like "trenches" and "graffiti" to describe the same music.  At less than 15 minutes (time stamp of 8:19 pm when the piece was finished, and I am sure the performance started after 8:05 pm) it was no particularly difficult to sit through.  I recall asking myself "where is the wall?" and "where are these decorations?"  Note that the Program Notes doesn't remotely say what New said.  Instead we are asked to imagine the workings of a (weaving) loom.

The one thing very noticeable was the beat changed continuously.  New's conducting motion was fluid, but she clearly delineated the different notes in a measure: I noticed 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s.  I am sure some 6s were thrown in as well.  What is unknown to me how helpful this is to the musicians.  Such mechanical movements diminished a lot for the Rachmaninoff and Berlioz pieces.

After the Sarah Gibson piece.  Note the absence of the piano for the Rachmaninoff piece to follow.  A rather rare occurrence at an NJS concert.

I do wonder if Rachmaninoff's rhapsody tells a particular story, or is just an exercise in compositional techniques to showcase a composer's and an artist's skills.  I am okay if it's just the latter, and in any case I have trouble trying to get a story out of it.  The things that make the music interesting are: the basic theme from Paganini, which is a nice tune; the melody inversion in one of the variations; the use of dies irae; and that indeed we have variations on a theme in the composition.  For the pianist there are technical challenges to overcome.  George Li made it look easy, perhaps too easy.

Li and New after the Rachmaninoff.

He played an encore.  My remark to Anne was one can never out-Rachmaninoff Rachmaninoff, so it must be difficult to find a suitable encore piece.

Similarly, knowing some elements regarding the Berlioz piece also makes the piece that much more enjoyable.  It's always poignant to remember that in real life Berlioz got his wish fulfilled, but the dream did turn into some sort of nightmare.  He married the object of this fantasy, Harriet Smithson, but they separated after about 10 years.

Quite a few percussion instruments for Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique.  At one point there were four people hitting the timpani drums.

The auditorium again had many empty seats in it, which was a pity.  The audience applauded quite enthusiastically, though.