Hong Kong Philharmonic – Lawrence Foster, conductor; Li Biao, percussion. December 6, 2014.

H.K. Cultural Centre Concert Hall.  Stalls 1 (Seat A19, $160.)

Program – Radio 4 Live! A Birthday Celebration

Commentaries (first performance) by Richard Tsang.

-          Kathy Lam and Jonathan Douglas, narrators.

Percussion Concerto by Joseph Schwantner (b. 1943).

Symphony no. 9 in E minor, op. 95, From the New World by Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904).

Anne and I were visiting Hong Kong for a few days, and our friend David L was also in town.  I found out about the concert by looking at the HK Phil website, and David went ahead and bought 3 tickets (with senior discount) for the evening.  David and I met up late afternoon, Anne joined us for dinner, and we then went to this concert together.  Our seats were in the first row of the auditorium.  I would have preferred a seat in an area that gave a better view of the stage, but all things considered, they were okay.

My recent reviews of the Hong Kong Philharmonic were enthusiastic, and it is for this orchestra that I coined the phrase “the orchestra deserves a better audience.”  Unfortunately after tonight’s performance, that assessment is now subject to review.  I hope it was a glitch (or combination of glitches) that caused this revision in my opinion, but only future concerts will tell.

Frankly the program wasn’t all that interesting.  It began with two esoteric pieces: one by a local composer writing to commemorate the 40^th anniversary of RTHK Radio 4, and one a percussion concerto premiered in 1995 at the New York Philharmonic.  With Dvorak’s New World on the program, I at least expected to get some enjoyment out of the evening.

What went wrong?  Not much, actually.  However, nothing went that “right” either.

First the commemorative piece.  In all the program listings of works by living composers I see dates of birth for the composers.  Not so with Mr. Tsang.  I didn’t look carefully, since it wasn’t worth my time to do so, only the German wiki entry in the search results gave his birthday as 1952, making him a tad over sixty.  This wasn’t that original a piece either, as he took the piece he wrote 10 years ago (naturally for the orchestra’s 30^th anniversary) and embellished it with some extra material and the addition of two narrators.  To illustrate the depth of the work, let me quote the last few lines of the composer’s (in this case the author’s) poem (or is it prose) called “The Chant:” Differences enable CHANGE, Changes define TIME, And TIME defines EXISTENCE.  (But what if TIME doesn’t really exist?)  Mixed in this brilliant poem (to the causal reader of the blog, I am being sarcastic) are quotes from various people ranging from Dr. Seuss (Don’t cry because it’s over – Smile, because it happened) to Friedrich Nietzsche (Invisible threads are the strongest ties.)

Typing this a week later, I recall very little of the music other than it wasn’t unbearable.  Which may be a compliment after all.  And if I happen to be in Hong Kong ten years from now, and am still in the concert-going mood, I probably won’t let the next version deter me from going to a concert, provided that it is kept to about the same duration of 12 minutes.  Radio 4 used to be an all-classical radio station.  It is now labeled as a “classical music and fine arts” station.

The only aspect that I distinctly remember is the lady narrator’s voice.  She spoke mostly the Chinese portion of the narration, and her voice kept reminding me of the women that would dub various TV programs (such as Bonaza) into English when I was growing up in Hong Kong.  She is too young to be doing it then; but perhaps like broadcasters she was trained to speak in a certain way.  The composer also came out for the curtain call.

It is so much easier to make complaints as I also have a lot to say about the percussion concerto.  It is great that the percussionist can occasionally be made into the soloist.  I remember as a young boy being very impressed with what drummers (pop music at that) could do with their sets.  However, 30 minutes of that is just too much.  The concerto is in three movements: Con forza – ‘In Memoriam:’ Misterioso – Ritmico con brio (with restrained energy) con forza.  It was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and premiered by Richard Lamb, who remains with the orchestra to this day.

During the first movement, the soloist played together with other percussionists.  For the second movement, written as a memorial to Schwantner’s fellow composer Stephen Albert, the soloist stood in the front.  He continued to shake the (for lack of a better name) salt shakers as he moved to the back for the third movement.  The instruments I could see (and listed in the program notes) were a vibraphone (played with mallets and with a contrabass bow), a rack of nine Almglocken, a high-octave set of crotales (played with beaters and with a bow), two triangles, two cymbals, a water gong (a tam-tam lowered into a large kettledrum – in this case just a regular plastic container – filled with water), a concert bass drum, and a tenor drum.  Indeed the Program Notes contains a detailed description of the music, but it didn’t help.

I subscribe to the view that any craft at its best is impressive.  Again that must be revised after today.  Taking away nothing from how difficult the piece is, I wasn’t impressed.  And why else would someone write such a piece?  I enjoyed it for 10 minutes or so, and then it sounded repetitive bordering on boring despite the different timbres and pitches provided by the huge set of instruments.

Li played an encore written by his friend I vaguely recall had something to do with jazz and blues.  Surprisingly he doesn’t have a gig with a symphonic orchestra but does solo recitals and heads up a group of percussionists.

I hadn’t seen (nor heard of) Lawrence Foster before.  He is 73 years old, born in Los Angeles, and since 2013 owns the city of Marseille as leader of both the Opera Company and Philharmonic Orchestra.  After the first half of the program, all I could conclude was that he was a meticulous time-keeper.  I did not see any evidence he was trying to shape the music at all.

It takes a lot to butcher the New World Symphony.  And the orchestra didn’t.  The symphony is easy to enjoy, and I enjoyed it.  Not without misgivings, though.  The many folk tunes make it a natural vehicle to tell a story, and one could envision the scenes that go with the movements.  Such attentive listening inevitably would make one cringe as the orchestra muddled through some passages.

Perhaps this is an example to prove that the conductor matters?  I am sure the Hong Kong Philharmonic could have done a much better job with the music (even the first half), or at least I fervently hope so.

Today’s attendance was atrocious.  A generous estimate would be 50% of the seats were filled.  This reminds me of the time that they put out a program called “Russian Shakespeare” which probably scared a lot of people away.  Time to go back to the basics?

Moscow State Symphony Orchestra – Pavel Kogan, conductor; Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin. November 16, 2014.

State Theatre, New Brunswick.  Orchestra (Seat V102, $29.75)

Program

Romeo and Juliet overture-fantasy (final version 1880) by Tchaikovsky.

Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 by Bruch.

Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 by Tchaikovsky.
Note: Actual performed piece was Symphony No. 4 in E minor by Brahms. 

Goldstar had this event listed in August, with tickets at $24 each (plus a $5.75 processing fee.)  I didn’t know much about this Orchestra, but certainly knew about Salerno-Sonnerberg, and at this price it sounded like a bargain.

To get to the 3 pm concert, I had to cut out of Youth Choir practice early.  Being an unseasonably cold Sunday, traffic was not a problem.  Anne had to attend a workshop at church, so she could make only the second half of the concert.

It is inexplicable to me why Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” is not as popular as Prokofiev’s; and I enjoy the Prokofiev ballet.  The former contains many nice romantic themes that should make it very popular with the audience, and they were put to good use in this adaptation.  While it was difficult to closely correlate the story with the music – and I am not sure this is a condensed version of the original score anyway – one could catch glimpses of the drama.  And this is a great way to get the afternoon started, even though it wasn’t a technically or musically challenging piece.

Given how well-known she is, it surprising that I have never seen (or remember having the chance to see) Salerno-Sonnerberg perform live before this afternoon.  (And the other well-known thing about her was that she sliced her finger while fooling around with a knife.)  She certainly made a statement with the white pants she was wearing.  Franck’s violin concerto is easy to enjoy, and she didn’t disappoint.  The little I have read about Salerno-Sonnerberg is that she gives the performance everything, and that she has some quirky mannerisms.  Both are somewhat true.  But not much more than your average virtuoso.  With her white pants her movements might look more exaggerated than they were; and she did have a habit of standing astride with the violin held under her chin when she wasn’t playing.  And there was a passage of the orchestra’s that she didn’t to play along with the first violin.

The sound of her Guarnerius (confirmed by a web search) worked very well in the relative intimacy of the auditorium.  It didn’t have the brightness of a Strad, something I wish it had for some of the passages.

Off the top of my head I couldn’t remember any of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth’s tunes.  At first I thought I misread the Program and that they were playing Brahms, with the descending and ascending third theme.  To me the piece could be passed off as Brahms’s until the themes get reused so many times.  Brahms or Tchaikovsky, it was a great performance of a lovely symphony, even though a relatively “quiet” one compared to the fifth and the sixth.  One complaint is the relatively poor acoustics of the hall.  Even with all the players beating down on their instruments hard, the volume was still only relatively modest.

The 45 or so minute work consists of four movments: Andante sostenuto; Andantino in modo di canzone; Scherzo: Pizzicato ostinato; Finale: Allegro con fuoco.  I was quite familiar with the first three, but the fourth didn’t sound familiar.  Perhaps I always fell asleep by then?  No a problem today.

[Note added about an hour after this entry was first published.  I am doing this inside UA89 EWR-PEK.  The wifi access I purchased does not allow me to watch youtube videos.  However, the Wikipedia entry for Brahms 4 does contain soundtracks to the music.  Guess what, the piece played was Brahms No. 4 after all.  The movements are: Allegro no troppo, Andante moderato, Allegro giocoso, Allegro energico e passionato.  Should have trusted my first instincts.]

This audience also had the habit of applauding after each movement – at least after the exciting ones.  I usually don’t mind unless the applause interrupts the flow of music.  And I must say it did in the case of Franck’s concerto.  The conductor also seemed to show some impatience as he would sometimes keep his baton up in between movements.

MSSO’s website makes the claim that it is one of the five oldest orchestras in Russia.  I don’t know how it compares quality-wise, but what they did this afternoon was certainly first rate.  A search of the web also indicated that the have been on a tour of various places, including Connecticut and Iowa, performing the same program.

They played several encores (we left after three), and both the orchestra and the audience were quite enthusiastic during the process.  The names of the first two encores were posted outside the hall: a waltz by Strass and a Hungarian Dance by Brahms.  We couldn’t tell who wrote the third one.

We don’t know how this Program fits in with the State Theater’s program.  Our Program book lists the events in November, and most of them are country and pop.  And there is no description of the pieces, just brief biographies of the artists.

  

New York Philharmonic – Case Scaglione, conductor; Joshua Bell, violin. November 14, 2014.

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra 2 Left (Seat BB13, $64.50).

Program

Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1892-94) by Debussy (1862-1918).

Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 82 (1904) by Glazunov (1865-1936).

Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 100 (1944) by Prokofiev (1891-1953).

Scaglione had been an assistant conductor with the New York Philharmonic for several years, and this year he got both a promotion (to associate conductor) and a chair.  We saw him sitting in the first row during a concert last year acting as a prompter: the soloist was called in at the last minute and evidently needed some cueing.  I also noticed he was a guest conductor for the Hong Kong Philharmonic recently (I didn’t get to see the concert.)  I was thus somewhat curious how he would do tonight.  That Joshua Bell is on the program was a positive factor too.

Debussy’s prelude, based on a Symbolist poem “The Afternoon of a Faun” by Stephane Mallarme describing how a faun spent a languorous afternoon observing a group of alluring nymphs, was a sensation when it was first performed.  Like my previous encounters with it, tonight’s performance was also pleasant.  However, things unfolded a bit too slowly for my taste, and it was more sterile than the story associated with the poem would suggest.

I knew about “The Mighty Five,” Russian composers who followed Glinka’s nationalistic classical style.  What I didn’t know was that a rival camp of more traditional classicists also existed, often in rivalry with the Mighty Five.  This rival camp would include Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.  Glazunov was a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, one of the Mighty Five.  To make things more complicated, the two camps were based originally in Moscow (Five) and St. Petersburg (traditional).  However, the centers of the two schools were swapped when Tchaikovsky moved to Moscow (in 1866) and Rimsky-Korsakov left for St. Petersburg (in 1871).  All this I got from the Program Notes.

The violin concerto is relatively short at 20 or so minutes, and the three movements (Moderato; Andante sostenuto – Tempo I; Allegro) are played without pause.

Joshua Bell certainly put in an enjoyable performance.  He didn’t have any of the intonation problems that he had in the past, and he handled the considerable technical demands of the music with ease.

This was the first time I heard this piece (a review of my blog confirms this,) and this is not a piece that I can grasp on the first encounter.  So I was left with sitting there enjoying the tunes, and admiring Bell’s techniques.  The last time I heard a Strad on stage was last month in Count Basie Theater, with Gil Shaham the soloist.  That instrument sounded great in the smallish auditorium.  The Strad today wasn’t quite loud enough for the vastly larger Avery Fisher Hall.  It came through most of the time, but every now and then I had to pay close attention to hear the soloist above the orchestra.  The third movement was the best of the three, and provided glimpses of the “Mighty Five” school of Russian nationalism.

Leopold Auer, a name well-known to violin students, was the soloist at the premiere.  About two decades prior he was offered the same task for Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto, but he declined citing that it was unplayable.  (He eventually became a champion of the composition.)  I can’t be sure, as I haven’t seen the score, but other than being quite a bit shorter, Glazunov’s work is equally demanding on the musician as Tchaikovsky’s.  Indeed with the many quick harmonics and double-stop passages, one could make a case the Glazunov is more demanding.  Of course by that time Auer also had another twenty years of violin craft under his belt.

Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony is probably a great piece to showcase a conductor’s ability to marshal a large ensemble to generate great music.  It is reasonably accessible to the average concert-goer, familiar enough that he doesn’t have to work very hard to grasp it, yet not so popular that he will have formed an opinion of how the composition should sound.

Indeed I have heard this composition a few times before.  The simple movement markings (Andante; Allegro marcato; Adagio; and Allegro giocoso) do not do justice to the substantial 45-minute work.  To my surprise, I was well acquainted with the first and last movements, but the middle two movements didn’t sound familiar at all.  The Annotator describes the second movement as “so full of hilarity and satire … one of the composer’s most irrepressible scherzos,” and the third as “a study in elegant lyricism, though not without tragic overtones.”  That is all true (except I can’t confirm the remark about irrepressibility,) but to me they sounded the least directed movements of the symphony.

Any orchestra would be happy with how the first and last movements were delivered.  They were exciting, purposeful, showed great dynamic ranges, and sounded exquisite.  Indeed the audience could not help but applaud after the first movement, and the conclusion of the work was met with very enthusiastic response.  No doubt some of the applause was directed at Scaglione as encouragement.

I was a bit puzzled why Debussy would be paired with two works by Russian masters.  During Prokofiev I thought I heard a lot of semblance to the Debussy piece.  I don’t know if this is my trying to tie the  program together, or indeed Prokofiev was influenced a bit by Debussy’s music – Prokofiev spent considerable time in Paris, after all.

The reader may find this review more disjoint than usual.  That is unfortunately how I felt at the conclusion of the program.  Nothing particularly bad about the evening, but no “wow, that was a great concert” either.  Perhaps a bit too much to ask for from such a young conductor?

The New YorkTimes reviewer didn’t think much of the first half of the program, characterizing the Debussy piece as “pretty” rather than “seductive,” but had good words to say about the second half.

Having been out of town for a while, we stopped by Jersey City to visit Reid, and didn’t get into the West Side until about 7 pm, which gave us only time for takeout from Europan (and Anne from a street vendor.)  The concert hall had quite a few empty seats, and the city was quieter than usual – it was an unseasonably cold night, and it would drop below freezing this evening.  There was little traffic when we got out, and we must have broken our trip record at about 45 minutes.

RTE Concert Orchestra - Proinnsias O Duinn, conductor. November 5, 2014.

National Concert Hall, Dublin.  Stalls (Seat S25, E30).

Program - Mendelssohn's Elijah

Artists
Orla Boylan, soprano; Kate Allen, alto; Julian Hubbard, tenor; David Park, bass.
Our Lady's Choral Society
Galway Baroque Singers (Director: Audrey Corbett)
Wesley College Chamber Choir (Director: Helen Doyle)

Our car radio was tuned to RTE-Lyric while we were driving from Killarney to Dublin (by way of Rock of Cashel), and we heard the announcement that there was going to be a performance of Elijah tonight.  We were going to stay overnight at a hotel close to Dublin Airport to catch our flight the following day, and decided we could squeeze in another event before checking into our hotel.

Traffic into town was a bit congested, but with our GPS and Anne's constant reminder that we should keep to the left, we managed to get to the Concert Hall without too much difficulty.  Arriving at the time we did (around 5 pm), we found a few open spaces on the street, and we parked right across the street from the venue, having to feed the meter only E5.  Tickets were still available, and we decided not to get the senior discount this time.  We had enough time for coffee followed by a leisurely dinner.

They certainly had a lot of singers for this concert - easily over 200.  It's a combination of three different organizations.  The RTE Concert Orchestra is a different organization than the National Symphony Orchestra, the most obvious distinction is its smaller size.  "College" in Ireland refers to high school, and the 20 or so young girls mostly sang the part of angels.

We enjoyed this performance.  No doubt I didn't bring along the mind of a critic as a tourist, and no doubt the small concert hall helped tremendously with the acoustics, but the performers also did a great job.  Unfortunately the attendance wasn't that great; I estimate the hall was only about 60% full.

During the intermission I read up on my blog entry of the New York Philharmonic performance we saw several years ago.  I had no real recollection of that event, but the blog seems to indicate that we enjoyed it also.  I did remark the bass had some trouble at the beginning but came back strong after the intermission.  Tonight's bass had the reverse problem, he was a bit weaker during Act 2, it was still okay, though.

Park is Korean, did his training in Germany, and had a rather strong accent.  I had quite a bit of trouble following him - and I am glad we shelled out E5 again for a program which contains the libretto.  It makes me wonder if a native-speaking Italian would similarly cringe when an Italian opera is performed by non-native speakers.  The role of Elijah is quite demanding, and overall he did a great job.

The other soloists did well also.  The choirs did very well, convincingly portraying the roles of the masses and the angels. O Duinn demanded and got quite a bit of dynamics and precision from them, and in doing so delivered much of the drama of Elijah's story (or rather the several episodes chosen for this oratorio).

The role of the child looking for signs of rain was performed by the boy soprano Andrew Jones.  It must be exhilarating to be able to do that at such a young age.  He was understandingly shaking a bit, but delivered his lines clearly.

There was enthusiastic applause afterwards, and everyone got a bouquet.  We felt a sense of relief when someone finally gave Jones one; I thought he was ready to burst into tears.

With my getting to the wrong hotel, it was past midnight that we checked into our hotel room.  Nonetheless, I was glad we got a chance to go.

RTE National Symphony Orchestra – Jamie Phillips, conductor; Enrio Pace, piano. October 31, 2014.

Main Auditorium, National Concert Hall, Dublin, Ireland.  Stalls (Seat J10, E28.80).

Program – Music for Halloween

The Firebird Suite (1919) by Stravinsky (1882-1971).

Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini by Rachmaninov (1873-1943).

Totentanz (Danse Macabre) by Liszt (1811-86).

La damnation de Faust – Dance of the Sylphs: Hungarian March by Berlioz (1803-69).

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Dukas (1865-1935).

We are on a short trip to Ireland, and will be in Dublin for a couple of days.  When I did a search back in NJ, this is the concert I found, at that time it had many empty seats.  After we landed yesterday, we walked over to the venue (less than 15 minutes) and bought two tickets.  By telling the agent we were over 60, we got 10% off, and we were also told there were many seats available.  It was good that the place was perhaps 70% filled today.

The familiarity of the music on the program (or most of it) contrasts greatly with my lack of knowledge of the conductor, the soloist, and the orchestra.  It stands to reason Dublin has an orchestra, but a bit surprising that the major one is RTE (Irish initials for Radio and Television Ireland,) and not the Dublin Philharmonic or the Irish Symphony – I actually started searching for the more “reasonable” names first.  The conductor, an assistant conductor at the Halle Orchestra in Manchester, is in his early 20s.  This is our first encounter with the pianist, either in name or in person.  The concert hall has comfortable seats, has a capacity of around 1200 (estimate), and is not unduly ornate.  It does have a lot of common space, so people don’t keep bumping into each other before the concert or at intermission.

Feeling a bit guilty about paying so little for a concert, I went and bought a program for E5.  Other than some announcements of upcoming events, there are no advertisements. The commentary was simply written, but quite illuminating.

Overall this was an enjoyable concert.  Certainly not in the “great” category, but footed the bill very well.  All of the pieces have a “dark” side to it, with the Dies Irae theme heard in a couple of them.

Even after hearing it multiple times, the Firebird Suite still sounded a bit unfamiliar to me.  A look back at my blog entries indicated that I had listened to this 1919 5-movement version at least three times, which I all enjoyed.  Tonight’s wasn’t a bad performance, but nowhere near great.

Since I had no expectations going in, I would have been happy if the rest of the evening stayed at this level.  Turns out the rest of the evening got much better.

The piece by Rachmaninov is based on a virtuoso piece written for the violin by Paganini.  I have some idea how difficult the Paganini piece is, and from the looks of it, the Rhapsody isn’t any easier.  The Rhapsody is a set of 24 variations on the theme of Caprice No. 24, and the Program Notes goes into considerable detail about its structure.  For me the “insight” was there are basically three themes: (i) the Paganini theme in minor key, (ii) an inverted theme in a major key played at a slower speed, and (iii) the use of Dies Irae in some of the middle variations.  Pace’s performance was thoroughly enjoyable, nuanced: strong, playful, and frightful.  He was very attentive to the conductor also.

In keeping with the season, after the intermission Pace brought out a small skeleton and hanged it on the piano.  The Orchestra’s Co-Leader (most organizations would use the term Concertmaster) also brought out a skull with flashing red eyes.

Liszt’s Totentanz uses the Dies Irae theme also.  Per the program notes, he was inspired to write this after seeing “The Last Judgment” in Campo Santos.  Since he finished this work after 20 years, one could argue either way: the work left a lasting impression on him, or the influence isn’t that real.  Yesterday Anne and I went to visit Ireland’s National Gallery and viewed an exhibit where current writers picked out paintings that inspired their work.  Oberlin College loans out master paintings to their students during the school year.  I remember going to some children recitals where paintings were placed next to the piano: perhaps there was something about the practice, after all.

In any case, this was another brilliant performance by Pace.  While he didn’t make the difficult passages look easy, he played in such a way that exhilarated rather than got the listeners worried.

The Berlioz piece was quite light-hearted and delightful, even though it is excerpted from the serious work for Berlioz.  Given the story often associated with it, the Dukas piece is more humorous than scary, and that is a great way to describe Halloween here.  When we came out a little after 10, some streets were filled with people costumed up for their parties.  They were all well-behaved, perhaps it was too early to be seriously drunk yet.

If I remember correctly, a symphony orchestra in Northern Ireland (Belfast?) was on the verge of declaring bankruptcy.  Given today's attendance, and (as far as I can tell) that there is no music director, I am slightly worried about this organization as well.  That would be too bad as my limited exposure to them would indicate their adding a lot of cultural value to the city.

It was a short walk in nice (for Ireland dry is nice) weather back to the hotel.

New Jersey Symphony – Jacques Lacombe, conductor; Gil Shaham, violin. October 25, 2014.

Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, Orchestra (Seat M106, $44).

Program

William Tell Overture (1828-29) by Rossini (1792-1868).

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1844) by Mendelssohn (1809-1847).

Symphony in D Minor (1886-88) by Franck (1822-1890).

We got these tickets at Amazon Local.  Great seats for $44 each.  The program is a mix of a popular first half followed by a more serious second half.  I was looking towards it as Lacombe was the conductor; and he has always come through in the past.

While the title of William Tell is well-known, I actually don’t know the story, except Tell was forced to hit an apple sitting on top of his head with his bow and arrow.  I assume the good guys eventually prevailed.  Similarly, even though several of the tunes in the overture are quite well-known (especially the Lone Ranger theme,) I don’t even remember the last time I heard it live, or from a recording for that matter.

It was a delightful way to start the evening.  The overture was longer than I expected at over ten minutes, but it was an enjoyable ten minutes.  I am quite sure it is not a technically or musically very difficult piece, but there is nothing wrong with simply sitting back and enjoying the music.

I carry the same attitude with the Mendelssohn violin concerto.  A diligent musicologist or composer may be able to do a detailed analysis of its form, its significance, and how the work came into being.  But for me it is just a brilliantly written piece of music.  Difficult enough to show off a violinist’s skills, but not so difficult that it is beyond the reach of all but the most virtuoso players.

Given our proximity to the stage, everything sounded great.  Shaham’s violin produced a perfect sound.  He still moved about the stage quite a bit, infringing on the conductor’s and violinists’ space every now and then, but that was not distracting at all.  His technique was flawless, and he just had a great give and take with the orchestra.  He attacked the piece violently enough that I was wondering if the strings would hold up – they did.

Every now and then I got the feeling that this was just a day at the office for him, and there is nothing wrong with that.  He just had the piece down pat so the notes simply rolled from his fingers and the bowing simply came naturally.  These soloists do a few concertos a year, so I am sure this piece got its share of practice.

I know Franck mostly from his ensemble works.  Indeed he wrote only one symphony.  The Playbill notes is a bit unkind to this work, other than saying the second movement is the most successful, most of the commentary is devoted in how the symphony is structured.  The other oddity, so to speak, is that this is a three-movement work: Lento – Allegro non troppo; Allegretto; and Allegro non troppo.

Perhaps I was influenced by the Playbill’s writeup, I found it hard to follow where the music was going.  On top of that, this was an unexpectedly sloppy performance.  At 37 minutes it isn’t particularly long, and I had no problem sitting through it, but I had a lot of trouble following where the music is trying to go.  As I type this review a few days later, I don’t remember any of the themes used in the symphony.

Sometimes I don’t understand how people pick the music for a particular program. 

I was a bit worried that there would be many empty seats in the theater.  While there were some, the attendance was still respectable.  Sitting next to us was a father taking his son to his first concert.  They left after the intermission.

Today was a relatively busy Saturday.  Anne came down with some bug yesterday and wasn’t quite herself yet.  My day started with a drive to Hoboken where Ellie and Kuau ran in a 5K race, and I had to watch Reid for all of 40 or so minutes.  That turned out to be easier than expected as the kid was asleep the whole time.  I also had a church meeting to attend from 3 to 6 pm, after which I drove home and picked Anne up for the concert.

New York Philharmonic – Alan Gilbert, conductor; Yefim Bronfman, piano. October 24, 2014.

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra T106 ($61.50).

Program

Piano Concerto No. 3, BB 127 (1945) by Bartok (1881-1945).

Symphony No. 8 in C minor (1887/1890, ed. Nowak 1955/94) by Bruckner (1824-96).

For us, this is the first New York Philharmonic concert this season.  The tickets were bought with an eClub discount offer; for $59 a ticket we got excellent seats.  On the other hand, I am slightly worried that discounts were already needed to fill the hall so early in the season, and with a popular artist at that.

I didn’t give the program a lot of scrutiny before deciding to buy the tickets.  If I had been a bit more diligent, I would have discovered that we heard the most recent Philharmonic performances of both pieces (Bartok in April, 2014 and Bruckner in January, 2012.)  And to top that off, the last New York Philharmonic concert we saw also had Gilbert and Bronfman collaborating.  (Dicterow and Bray were also on tap at that farewell series.)  Had I noticed those factors, I would have saved the time and money for another concert: there is so much I haven’t heard.  It is a good thing I didn’t though; I would have missed a very delightful evening of music.

Perhaps the eClub and other discount offers did the trick, to my relief the auditorium was quite full.

I didn’t quite get the Bartok piece the last time I saw it with Peter Serkin at the piano and Pablo Heras-Casado conducting (and we saw Heras-Casado just a week before, speaking of the recycling theme.)  My reaction to that performance was at best lukewarm, and that because of his family name.  Tonight’s was a completely different performance.  Bronfman’s playing gripped the audience at the very beginning and was thrilling till the last note.  What I remembered as muddled and uninspired playing became crisp and spirited.  Since Bronfman was around a lot the last couple of seasons, he and Gilbert worked together very well, each supporting and urging the other along.

I had a lot of good things to say about the Bruckner performance led by Zubin Mehta.  I recall my reaction as being very positive, although a re-reading of the blog entry didn’t confirm that recollection.  A CD I bought since has been in my car for a long time.  During our driving trips, whenever we find ourselves in a location without good radio access we will turn on the CD, and there it is, all 80 minutes of it.  In other words, we have gotten very familiar with this particular symphony.

With a large scale work like this, nothing beats a live concert.  Especially one that is as well executed as this one.  When I heard this in 2012, I was trying very hard to analyze the music.  Today I just went along for the ride.  If it wants to keep coming back to the same theme, so be it.  If it wants to be very loud, so be it.  (Many musicians had to put on ear plugs, though.)  This is a long composition, played after a full concerto and an intermission, yet it didn’t feel long at all.  And to the artists’ credit, they were as fresh at the end as they had been at the beginning of the Bartok concerto.

Bruckner’s compositions are well-known to have gone through many different alterations after first completion, with many of the changes approved by the composer himself.  One does wonder if this particular theme (or variations thereof) needed to be repeated so often.  Anne tried to keep count, and she thought it was 68 times.  No one tried to cut out a couple of instances of this repetition?

The orchestra has not named a new concertmaster yet, as far as I know.  Apparently they were auditioning for one at this concert.  A young Asian fellow.  He seemed to fit in okay – not that I am in any position to judge – but perhaps he moved more like a soloist.  Speaking of personnel changes, there are quite a few changes to the roster.  The Ginsbergs (with the husband being the principal second violin) retired, so there are a couple of openings there.  Orin O’Brien is now part of the regular rotation (a demotion?).  Joshua Weilerstein left his post as assistant conductor, in his place is Courtney Lewis.  Those were known or at least not unexpected.  Most interestingly, Gilbert seems to have lost his chair.  Oh the palace intrigue.

Anne was not feeling well (we later decided it was stomach flu).  After a quick dinner at Europan where she had only soup, we bought pre-concert talk tickets.  She couldn’t make it as she thought she might black out, so I went by myself.  The speaker Mark Travis, the orchestra’s “in-house producer,” probably was a last minute substitute for the scheduled speaker.  His talk was not particularly insightful (on a good day I might come close,) but he did remind me Bruckner and Brahms were contemporaries and to a certain extent rivals.  As a young music student I learned the 3 B’s: Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.  If Bruckner had written a wider variety of music, it could have been Bach, Beethoven, and Bruckner!

When this season was announced way back when, I lamented that it didn’t look as exciting as some prior seasons.  Actually with our rather busy travel schedule this year I had to work hard to pick ten concerts for the subscription.  I don’t remember exactly why this concert was not on my original pick list, perhaps it was my crazy travel schedule these two months, or because I thought I had heard the pieces before.  It was good that I still ended up going to this one.  If others are close to this high quality, this will be a great season after all.

The New YorkTimes reviewer spared no word in praise of Bronfman’s performance.  She is a bit more reserved when it came to Bruckner, saying that the performance “left [her] feeling adrift and disengaged.”

Friends of Mozart – Mozart Keyboard Concertos. October 22, 2014.

Christ and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, New York.  Sanctuary. Free (donation).

Program

Concerto in C major, I. 415 (387b), for piano and strings (Vienna, 1782-83) by W. A. Mozart (1756-1791).

Prelude and Fugue in C minor, K. 426, for strings (Vienna, 1783).

Concerto in A major, K. 414 (385p), for piano and strings (Vienna, 1782-83).

Artists

Yi-heng Yang, fortepiano.  Theresa Salomon, violin; Amelia Roosevelt, violin; Jessica Troy, viola; Lindy Clarke, cello; Max Zeugner, double bass.

Went by myself on a rainy day – Anne had a class to teach.

During the intermission, one of the Board members asked us to contribute as "pianos don't grow on trees."  I think it is entirely appropriate even though the concert is billed as "free."  I, for one, would love to have a chance to show my appreciation of the artists and the organization, but not to the extent that I want to become a member.  A small donation works for me.

Metropolitan Opera – Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer. October 20, 2014.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Balcony (Seat C113, $87.50).

Story.  The cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked by four Palestinians after it left Alexandria.  The one hostage they killed was Leon Klinghoffer in a wheelchair.  The story is told as a recollection from various people: the captain, the first officer, a grandmother and her grandchild, a Swiss woman who hid in her cabin, and a British Dancer.  After the terrorists disembarked at Cairo, Marilyn Klinghoffer was told of Leon’s death.  The opera ends with Marilyn expressing her sorrow.

Conductor – David Robertson.  The Captain – Paulo Szot, The First Officer – Christopher Feigum, Leon Klinghoffer – Alan Opie, Marilyn Klinghoffer – Michaela Martens, Swiss Grandmother – Maria Zifchak, Austrian Woman – Theodora Hanslowe, British Dancer – Kate Miller-Heidke, Molqi – Sean Panikkar, Mamoud – Aubrey Allicok, Rambo – Ryan Speedo Green, Omar – Jesse Kovarsky, Palestinian Woman – Maya Lahyani.

With the passage of about 30 years, I had only a vague memory of the event until the Met announced this opera for this season.  Wanting to get some modern opera in, we booked this as part of this season’s subscription.  Other commitments got us to make a couple of exchanges before settling on tonight’s performance.  Thus we got to see the premiere performance of the opera at the Met.

During the summer the Met announced that it was cancelling a live broadcast of a performance because of the controversy it generated.  I didn’t explore the reasons for the cancellation (not that people would really tell the truth with these things,) but attributed it to political correctness to not offend Palestinians.  It therefore came as a surprise as the premiere date drew closer that the groups most vocal against the opera are Jewish groups.  The big issue is they feel the opera puts Palestinians and Jews on the same footing, thus committing the sin of “moral equivalence.”

I do have some strongly held world views, but I have tried to avoid talking about those in this blog, since it is really more about the arts and the enjoyment thereof.  However, a visit to Bethlehem in 2012 punctuated for me the hardship Palestinians live under.  Of course people with different political leanings would attribute different reasons for why this is so, and in no way should such despair justify terrorism, yet I also feel talking about their hopelessness is not automatically anti-Semitism, and having a chorus of exiled Palestinians right next to one of exiled Jews does not equate to moral equivalence.

It was difficult to avoid talking about the protest at Lincoln Center at the event.  One of speakers against the opera was former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who said as a lover of opera he liked the opera as a music composition but denounced it for not being factually accurate and damaging.  A few hundred people gathered in Dante Park across the street, many wearing signs condemning Peter Gelb, the general manager.  News reports say many people in wheelchairs showed up to protest, although we didn’t get close enough to the crowd to see too many of them.  Security managed to cordon off all entrances into Lincoln Center Plaza (both efficient, and disturbing, if you think about it), only people with tickets were allowed in.  Of course one could tell the officer that it was a “will call” and get through.  Some people did get in wearing placards with various statements.  There was no attempt to remove them; instead they were followed by guards a couple of steps behind.

Perhaps it was important to have some level of security in the off-chance that things got out of hand.  But I thought the police handled it well.  Be there, let them know there are limits, and to the extent possible, let it be.  They would even let people into the auditorium with statements taped to their bodies.  During the performance there was one episode with someone shouting to the effect “The murder of Klinghoffer won’t be forgotten,” and I read that one person was arrested.  Otherwise the protests during the show were limited to booing when others were applauding.   Frankly the booing could be attributed to displeasure at the music or its performance.

I certainly support one’s right to protest, even at some inconvenience to others – and the inconvenience is minimal in this instance.  I do feel the animosity towards the opera is mis-directed.  Unless they already harbor these thoughts, few people would leave with thoughts of moral equivalence and justified terrorism after seeing this opera.  Indeed the sympathy is with the Klinghoffers and other people on the hijacked ship.  Left alone, the opera would just be a docudrama of that horrible event.  The protests probably got more people to try to examine the different angles to the story.  In the Playbill there is an article by the two daughters of the Klinghoffers that ends with the accusation that the opera “sullies the memory of a fine, principled, sweet man …”  I certainly can’t begin to appreciate the pain of losing one’s father that way, but having his memory sullied by the opera is the last thought that came to my mind when the opera concluded.

Also in the Playbill is a listing of the performance history since its debut in Brussels in March 1991.  Indeed it was performed in New York several times, by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Philharmonic, and Julliard.  Evidently there was no such brouhaha during those runs.

The story is told with narration by the principals.  Juxtaposed throughout are “re-enactments” of various scenes, some quite chaotic.  Most of the action took place on the ship deck, with various video projections depicting the ship’s wake, radar screen, and passage of time (different positions of the sun.)  There were also instances that the concrete slabs were used to depict the wall at the West Bank.  In addition to the two Exiled choruses that started the show, there were three others: Ocean, Dessert, and Day.  These choruses were highlights of the opera, complex yet nice tunes that conveyed the sentiments well.

I don’t know Adams’s music well enough to be able to characterize it.  We had the (mis)fortune of sitting around some sophisticated music connoisseurs.  The two on our right were talking about how some adaptations were made for this Met run.  More interestingly, the two behind us compared John Adams to Philip Glass.  Perhaps it is indeed the case, perhaps it was the power of suggestion, I did hear some Philip Glass, especially in Act 3, in that a relatively simple theme  repeated over and over while migrating forward.  Adams’s construction sounded more complex though.  Oftentimes the melodies, such as they were, were in the orchestra rather than in the vocals.

We were practically in the same seats we had last Friday for Carmen.  There I was amazed at how strong all the singers sounded.  Tonight the voices were quite a bit weaker.  The opera ended with Marilyn’s solo after she learned of Klinghoffer’s death.  It is supposed to be heart-wrenching, but somehow the sentiments didn’t come through.

Given the chaos that was happening on the stage, Robertson was impressive in delivering a crisp performance.  One got the strong impression that the performance progressed in exactly the way he wanted it to.

It is difficult to compare this opera with other (relatively) modern operas I have seen (Shostakovich and Glass come to mind.)  I suspect without the politics, I would walk away equally puzzled.

The curtain call was met with thunderous applause, much more than your usual modern opera where many were probably busy scratching their heads instead.  Even I did my share of heavy clapping to show appreciation of the skills of the artists and support for the organization to stage such a controversial event.  Being a Met premiere, Adams and the rest of the production crew all came on stage.  I caught a glimpse of Robertson, he seemed to have aged considerably since the last time I saw him.  (He was born in 1958, a relatively young guy.)

The New YorkTimes review is one of the longest I have seen.  It has a good description of the specifics of the opera.  The reviewer calls the final monologue “overwhelming,” quoting some of the poignant passages in the libretto. Did he read the libretto in advance, or does he have such keen appreciation of poetry?  Also, one adaptation made for this production is the actual murder of Leon Klinghoffer on stage.

All was quiet by the time we left.

Princeton Opera Alliance – Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. October 19, 2014.

Princeton Meadow Church, Princeton, NJ. ($10.)

Story.  See previous post.

Conductor – Derrick Goff.  Don Pasquale – Joshua Hemmings, Malatesta – Rashard Deleton, Ernesto – Tom Mulder, Norina – Pei-Ju Yu, Notary – Craig Sanphy.

We were made aware of this opera performance by Angela, whose son plays in the orchestra.  Our intention was to be there to show support.  I remember seeing this opera at the Met, and seeing Anna Netrebko for the first time singing the role of Norina.  In the back of mind, I was wondering how to compare tonight’s performance with one at the Met that boasted a renowned cast (Juan Diego Forez sang the part of Ernesto.)

If I were to write a headline for the review, it would be “A Gem in the Rough Nestled in a Corner of New Jersey.”  It was already impressive that the artists managed to put together a respective rendition of a rather complex piece of music, it was even more so with the singers performing at a high standard.

It didn’t start out that way: the orchestra began the overture with intonation and precision problems.   Luckily it began to settle down when they reached the well-known tune “So anch’io la virtu magica.”  This would characterize the orchestra’s playing throughout the evening, some passages that were okay interspersed in a mostly marginally acceptable performance.  Orchestra members range from senior citizens to (maybe) middle school kids.

The set is simple, which is to be expected given the budget the company has to work with.  A desk, a sofa, and some backboards.  Some plastic plants were trotted out for the garden scene.  The only suggestion I have would be to add some soundsoak to dampen the echoes that proved distracting and annoying.

The singers, however, were uniformly good, with most of them holding advanced degrees in music from well-known schools.  The small sanctuary certainly made projecting their voices much easier, but it was still impressive how well they carried themselves.  Yu belted out her lines so loudly that I worried that she would lose it at the end of the opera.  She didn’t.  The one complaint I have was the volume of the singers was mostly on “high.”  While the comedic nature of the opera doesn’t require a lot of introspection, a soft passage here or there would be a great improvement.

The opera calls for a minimal cast, and no chorus.  Still Donizetti squeezed in quite a few duets, trios, and quartets.  (I didn’t notice any quintets even though there was a total of five singers.)  The arias were many and nice, but I find most of them not quite hummable.  The story, however, was as inane as my first encounter with it.

Only about 60 people or so attended the performance – and I suspect the majority of them were family and friends.  It is a real pity since it would have been a pleasant 3-hour experience.  The artists are to be commended since they didn’t allow this to dampen their enthusiasm.

Metropolitan Opera – Bizet’s Carmen. October 18, 2014.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, Balcony (Seat C111, $104.50).

Story.  See previous post.

Conductor – Pablo Heras-Casado.  Micaela – Hei-Kyung Hong, Don Jose – Aleksandrs Antonenko, Carmen – Anita Rachvelishvili, Escamillo – Massimo Cavalletti.

This is the first opera of the season for us, so I set out with some level of anticipation and excitement.  While Carmen is a very familiar story, and I know many of the tunes quite well, I was quite sure I was going to enjoy it.  A couple of unknowns loomed in the background: a new set (introduced in 2009,) and that the performers were relatively unknowns to the Met.  The one exception is Hong, whom I saw tonight for the first time.  She was a frequent artist at the Met many years ago, but her appearances seem a lot more sporadic nowadays.

Enjoyed the opera I did, but not without some misgivings.

Let us first get the new set out of the way.  In two words: it worked.  The curtain at the beginning was a red lightning bolt on a black background.  That “theme” is echoed as the opening of a cave, and in the dress worn by Carmen at her death.  By rotating the two parts of the set, the scenery changed from outside to inside, a design that is simple yet clever.  While not really part of the set, two dancers did their bit during the overture (to Act 1) and interlude (to Act 3).  The dancers Maria Kowroski and Martin Harvey added a visual element to the music, but not much else in my opinion.  The one element that was missing: live horses.  Instead of singing the Toreador song astride a horse (or with one nearby,) Escamillo did that next to a chair.  To compensate for that, a dead bull came into view at the end of the opera as the set rotated to expose the interior of the arena.

The principal protagonist of the opera is, of course, Carmen.  When well-performed, Carmen elicits a range of emotions ranging from sympathy to pity from the audience.  (I tried to use the word “disgust” as she is also the villain, but couldn’t bring myself to do that.)  Knowing how the story unfolds made it easier to ride along emotionally, but the way Rachvelishvili approached her role made the experience a lot more about enjoying her singing - which she did superbly – and less about the complex character that is Carmen.  In the song and dance she did for Don Jose, the sound of the castanets was provided by the orchestra.  Her voice was strong, and there were occasions that I thought a whisper would do nicely.  There were also a couple of places where she couldn’t quite reach the high notes.

A similar description can be applied to the other singers.  They all have strong voices, but failed to deliver the drama expected of their roles.

Perhaps in the interest of time, there was only one intermission, after Act 2.  One has to admire how the singers, especially Rachvelishvili, managed the entire opera with only one break.  As far as I could tell, they held nothing back.  (Again, I wish they would during some of the more tender moments.)

Even though I claim familiarity with the opera, I continue to pick up new insight about the work.  For one, I didn’t realize (or had forgotten) that Bizet died while the opera was going through its first run, and thus didn’t know how very popular the opera would become.  (We saw the Met’s 990^th performance, which is a lot of performances.)  Another aspect that I hadn’t noticed before was the music got much darker during the second half.  That’s when the unraveling of the relationship between Carmen and Don Jose eventually led to the murder.  The version used for this performance was by Fritz Oeser; the main characteristic was little spoken dialogue, I noticed only a couple of sentences.

We have seen Heras-Casado a couple of times before: once with New York Phil, the other time with Mostly Mozart.  He was fine with the overtures, and the orchestra in general sounded good.  It was thus a bit puzzling that the whole experience was a bit on the chaotic side.  Things were more out of control than even the storyline would suggest.

I said at the outset that I enjoyed the opera.  What I do not know is why I enjoyed it.  Perhaps the great music, the powerful story, and the individual performers combine to overcome the flaws in the overall execution.

The New York Times review is generally negative, contrasting this run with the 2009 performances led by Nezet-Seguin.  The reviewer thought the performance of Rachvelishvili was more interesting than the entire opera.  Or is that what he means by “Her Carmen is more interesting than this ‘Carmen’?”  Interestingly, there is a New York Times review in 2012 that was also critical, although about different aspects.  The reviewer in this case agrees with me: the dancing is superfluous, and Rachvelishvili shaded flat a couple of times.

Traffic was quite bad getting into town, and I had trouble finding parking.  Together with the need to change some tickets (again,) my dinner was take-out quiche from Europan.  We did stop by Burger King along the Turnpike on the way home.