Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Louis Langree, conductor; Stephen Hough, piano. August 11, 2018.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat V7, $50).

Program: All-Mozart

Meistermusik, K.deest (1785).

Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K.467 (1785).

Requiem, K.626 (1791).

Artists

Jodie Devos, soprano; Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano; Andrew Stenson, tenor; Ryan Speedo Green, bass-baritone

Concert Chorale of New York, James Bagwell, choral director

 Many musicologists believe Mozart got only as far as Lacrimosa, although some think he had jotted down ideas for many other parts before he died, and those were used by Sussmayr to complete the Requiem.

This was the sixth MMF event we attended.  I discovered during these past several weeks that the Lincoln Center Festival was merged with the MMF, and that would explain why there were some non-musical events thrown into the festival, and why it lasted longer than it did in past years.  For the past several years I attended several MMF concerts every year, and I was confused, I wonder how the general public perceived this change.

The program started with a seldom-heard composition, a ceremonial piece composed based on a Gregorian chant melody associated with the Lamentations of Jeremiah, for a Free Mason installation ceremony.  What wasn’t explained in the Program Notes was why such dark words were used (… bitter herbs, … wormwood, … I am lost).  It was later adopted into K. 477 which honored two prominent Masons who had recently died – I wonder why any adaptation was necessary at all.

It was a beautiful piece, sung by a male chorus, and properly sets the mood for the Requiem. Only problem was this little gem of a concerto.

It is superfluous to say Concerto No. 21 contains “Madigan’s theme” as its second movement, and to me the concerto is defined by how that movement came across.  As with the violin concerto in the last concerto, I had in my mind how that second movement (Andante) should sound – slow, dreamy, and wistful.  Alas, it sounded a bit too rushed and mechanical for my taste.  Not a case of inadequate technique, just a matter of different taste.  The first and third movements (Allegro maestoso and Allegro vivace assai) were also familiar, and I enjoyed how Hough interpreted them; helped by my lack of a preconceived notion, no doubt.

Hough acknowledging the applause, with Langree looking on.

Hough played as encore “Traumerei” by Schumann.

I heard Mozart’s requiem performed by the MMFO in 2014, and I looked at that blog entry just now.  I must say my observations then continue to apply to tonight’s performance; which is not a complimentary remark.  The soloists were different from last time, but I wouldn’t characterize any of their singing as “good and strong.”

To be fair, the performance improved as the piece progressed, but it never approached a state where I could sit back and enjoy without cringing at this tentativeness or that imprecision.  Men and women were again interspersed, and I noticed that it wasn't a case of females singing tenor lines (for instance). I wonder why they were organized like this, it wasn't like they wanted or needed an additional layer of challenge.

The soloists were sandwiched between the chorale and the orchestra for the Requiem.

While I wish the Festival had ended on a more positive note for me, I was glad to be able to attend the events I did.  Not having to deal with horrific traffic, and the ease off-street parking could be found, certainly helped.  There was no pre-concert recital today, so we had time to eat the East Szechuan.

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Louis Langree, conductor; Daniel Lozakovich, violin. August 8, 2018.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat T108, $50).

Pre-Concert Recital

Rhapsody in E-flat major, Op. 119, No. 4 (1893) by Brahms (1833-1897).

Reminisceneces de Don Juan (1841) by Liszt (1811-1886).

Dominc Cheli, piano.

Program

The Chairman Dances (1985) by Adams (b. 1947).

Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K.216 (1775) by Mozart (1756-1791).

Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21 (1799-1800) by Beethoven (1770-1827).

I studied (in a cursory manner) Brahms’s piano compositions numbered Op. 11X (e.g., Op. 119, simply titled “Four Pieces”) many years ago, and retain some familiarity with the Rhapsody played in tonight’s preconcert.  I could make out the structure of the piece, but not the subtleties.  Nonetheless, it sounded more like a meditative piece rather than the brilliance and playfulness one associates with, say, ones by Liszt and Gershwin.

Liszt’s piece is based on Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni.  While I am generally aware of the story behind the opera, I am familiar with only two of the tunes, one of them, “La ci darem la mano” is used extensively in this rather long composition by Liszt. The Program Notes notes that Liszt’s conception “rearranges the opera’s moods, offering doom seduction, and high living in that order.”  I was just blown away by how difficult the piece appeared (I looked at the score beforehand) and how Cheli seemed to coax the different moods from the piece.  A better knowledge of the opera probably would have helped with the enjoyment, but I was nonetheless mesmerized by how demanding the piece was.  At some point one wonders if the fingers move faster than a video camera can catch the movements (30 fps); I will do some calculations to find out.

Dominic Cheli put in impressive performances of works by Brahms and Liszt.

The “classical” parts of today’s program are from the respective composer’s early periods.  Mozart was all of 19 when he wrote his third violin concerto.  This is a piece popular with violinists early in their student careers, not too difficult, but has enough showmanship to highlight one’s skills.  Lozakovich, all of 16 years old, gave a lovely rendition of it.  As with many of these popular concertos, I have in my mind a way it should be performed.  So for me he put too strong an accent on some of the notes, and slowed down too much on some of the notes.  So there are different ways to get the job done, and the audience applauded after every movement.  This unfortunately became the practice for the entire concert.

Lozakovich and Langree after the Mozart violin concerto.

For encore Lozakovich played Bach’s Sarabande, a piece that was a bit beyond his grasp. A well-played Bach violin solo would sound like chamber music, here he was struggling to get the notes out correctly.

I wonder if this was an opportunity missed for this young man.

Many consider Mozart’s violin sonatas less intellectual (for lack of a better adjective) than his later works; I don’t recall similar remarks being made about Beethoven’s first symphony (he was 29 at the time.)  And it was indeed a full-blown, mature work, only “simple” when compared with his later symphonies.

This was a well-performed work.  Many different instruments got a workout, and met the challenges beautifully.

After Beethoven's First Symphony.

“Nixon in China” was one of John Adams’s operas, and “The Chairman’s Dance” was an elaboration of material from that opera, with a storyline somewhat like Salome (the Program Notes has Adams’s description of the scene.)  Unfortunately, the storyline was a lot more interesting than the music, which sounded a bit monotonous. There were some interesting percussion instruments scored, including these two plates that made a sound when rubbed against each other – I was wondering if static electric would be generated as a result.

The Evening's Program started with John Adams's "The Chairman's Dance."

Getting in for the pre-concert meant we had to hurry with our meal; today we had Chinese takeout.  Weather has been good so far: all our meals were eaten in the woods by the Opera House.

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Christian Zacharias, conductor and piano; Rosa Feola, soprano. August 4, 2018.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat V5, $50).

Pre-Concert Recital

Trio in E-flat major, K.498 (“Kegelstatt”) (1786) by Mozart (1756-1791).

Jon Manasse, clarinet; Shmuel Katz, viola; Drew Petersen, piano.

Program: All-Mozart

Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K.503 (1786).

Ch’iomi scordi di te … Non temer, amato bene (1786).

Bella mia fiamma … Resta, o cara (1787).

Symphony No. 38 in D major, K.504 (“Prague”) (1786).

We barely made it in time for the pre-concert recital this afternoon, and it was well worth it.  Kegelstatt means “bowling alley” which the Program Annotator insists has nothing to do with the piece. Manasse, however, referred to the simple game that inspired this composition.  He also mentioned Louis Langree started conducting MMF concerts 20 years ago – he became its music director in 2006.

I remarked a few days ago that my ears were simply not tuned to hear the viola.  The clarinet has similar softer qualities compared to the oboe, I usually can pick it out in an orchestra.  With only the piano as the third instrument, there were no issues today.  As quoted in the Program Notes, this was “a work of intimate friendship and love,” and it was pure joy to relax and listen to the give-and-take among the three instruments.

Katz, Petersen, and Manasse performed Mozart's Trio "Kegelstatt."

Both Manasse and Katz are members of the MMF Orchestra, Petersen is the 2017 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant.  The 22-minute piece consists of three movements: Andante, Menuetto – Trio, and Rondeau: Allegretto.

Despite the familiarity of the name Christian Zacharias, I could find no reference of him in my blog entries.  In any case, I am not a great fan of conductor/soloists.  Perhaps an exception can be made in cases of easy-to-digest music such as a Mozart composition (I know, Mozart can be very complicated …)  Tonight I was okay with it.  Other than a somewhat over-pedaled initial passage, the piece was generally the way I like it: light and crisp.  Zacharias continued to gesture the orchestra as he was doing his part on the piano: I wonder if that is necessary.  The movements are Allegro maestoso, Andante, and Allegretto.  The cadenza was composed by Zacharias.

Zacharias performed Mozart's 25th Piano Concerto in this All-Mozart Program.

I visited Prague a few months ago for the first time, and found it a bit touristy, crowded, and somewhat chaotic.  That evidently wasn’t true in Mozart’s time, and the Prague symphony was a delight to listen to.  It was one of his more “solemn” pieces, beginning with a heavy-duty unison in adagio.  The symphony has three movements: Adagio – Allegro, Andante, and Finale: Presto.

Between the two orchestral pieces were sandwiched two songs by Mozart.  Both “That I forget you … Fear not, my dearest beloved” and “My dearest love … Stay my dearest” are much darker than their titles would suggest.  Both were accompanied by the orchestra; a piano part was also included for the first aria.  This was Feola’s debut at the MM Festival, and she sang clearly and beautifully, conveying the emotion of the text very well.  She will debut at the Met at the next season.

This was Rosa Feola's debut at the MM Festival.  She sang beautifully.

All the works performed tonight are dated 1786, with the exception of the second aria (1787).  Not being a connoisseur of Mozart’s music, I often find tedious a concert that’s all-Mozart.  For tonight we had in addition a trio for the pre-concert.  Surprisingly I found it quite “bearable.” Either I am coming around, albeit slowly, or the variety of compositions (not three symphonies in a row) makes it interesting for us intellectually challenged.

I was a bit worried whether it would be difficult to find off-street parking on a Saturday afternoon; it wasn’t a problem at all.  We had to wolf down the street food that we bought to make it to the pre-concert recital, though.

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Louis Langree, conductor; Joshua Bell, violin. July 31, 2018.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat V5, $50).

Pre-Concert Recital

Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor (1886-88) by Brahms (1833-1897).

Stephen Waarts, violin; Henry Kramer, piano.

Program

Tromba Lontana (1985) by John Adams (b. 1947).

Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor (1868) by Bruch (1838-1920).

Symphony No. 2 in D major (1877) by Brahms.

The Brahms sonata was performed by a very young-looking violinist.  I have attempted to play all three of Brahms’s violin sonatas; indeed the first was one of the pieces I played for an exam I took as a violin student (and passed.)  They are all lovely pieces, with much give and take between the violinist and the pianist.  The violin parts were difficult enough, I am still amazed – despite my familiarity with the music – how much more complicated the piano part appeared.

In any case, this was a lovely performance by two upcoming artists.  The violinist was a bit too technical in my view, so the emotional aspects were a bit reserved.  However, somewhere I heard Brahms gets better as a player matures, so I am sure Waarts will get there.

This is one of the few four-movement sonatas that I know of, and the movements are Allegro, Adagio, Un poco presto e con sentiment, and Presto agitato.  Anne told me she knew the piece from beginning to end, either it was because I played it a lot (many years ago), or that it was often on our stereo (also many years ago.)

Waarts and Kramer after performing Brahms's third violin sonata.

One can really ask the question why the John Adams piece was program in a Mostly Mozart Festival, but the Program Notes at least make it sound interesting.  It was part of a commission of “fanfares” for the Houston Symphony, but no one who hears the piece would associate it with a fanfare, especially for the trumpet.  Phrases like “profoundly evocative sound of two faraway trumpets” and “behind them, the orchestra tintinnabulates gently …” (I had to look up the word, it was invented by Edgar Allen Poe to describe the lingering sound of a bell.)  In reality, the two trumpets were situated *behind* the orchestra, and were only at the two ends of the orchestra.  Many percussion instruments were used, including the musical saw.

Even for the short four minute duration, the music sounded exactly as the composer intended it: … passes by almost unnoticed like nocturnal clouds.  I may have taken his statement out of context, and it wasn’t meant as a compliment.

We saw Bell in March with the St. Martin in the Fields orchestra, performing the second concerto by Wieniawski.  Bruch’s concerto is probably better known, and is more “intellectual” than the more flamboyant Wieniawski work.  The three movements are Vorspiel: Allegro moderato; Adagio; and Finale: Allegro energico.  I remember remarking the last time I saw Gil Shaham that there was a little “day at the office” feel to his performance, Bell certainly was putting in everything he had, if the profuse sweating was any indication.  In any case, he made great music with the orchestra, and brought out both the virtuoso and emotional aspects of the concerto.

Langree and Bell after performing Bruch's first violin concerto.

For encore Bell played a piece from the movie "The Red Violin" in which he was the violinist.  That was 20 years ago.  The composer was John Corigliano.  The piece certainly ended with a theatrical flourish.  I am sure Bell has progressed a lot as an artist, but wonder how tonight's performance would compare with what he did 20 years ago.  I probably saw the movie inside a plane, and enjoyed the violin music as well as the story.

David Wright’s writeup was uncharacteristically short today.  He did put in a couple of interesting facts: (i) Bruch started sketching this work when he was 19 (he was 30 when it was completed, though); and (ii) Joseph Joachim considered Bruch’s “the richest and most enchanting of the four” violin concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Bruch.  That was one man’s opinion, I like them all.

I am quite sure my familiarity with Brahms’s second symphony stems from my days in the Cornell Symphony.  This is one symphony where I can catch several things at the same time, which makes any listening quite interesting.

The movement markings are uncharacteristically complex for a work by Brahms: Allegro non troppo; Adagio non troppo - L’istesso tempo, ma grazioso; Allegretto grazioso (Quasi andantino) – Presto ma non assai; and Allegro con spirit.  The horns led off the second movement, and they sounded chaotic.  The woodwinds did much better with the start of the third movement.  Despite these and other miscues, I thought this was a good performance.  Perhaps most surprising was how grand the sound was despite the relatively small orchestra.

The traffic reports were not encouraging when we were driving up, yet we got to the area early enough to eat some street food before hitting the recital.  It was also straight forward coming home.

Daedalus Quartet. July 25, 2018.

Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University.  Balcony (free).

Program

String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, op. 18 by Beethoven (1770-1827).

Chaconne (2016) by Lerdahl (b. 1943).

String Quartet No. 3 in B flat, op. 67 by Brahms (1833-1897).

Artists

Min-Young Kim, violin; Matilda Kaul, violin; Jessica Thompson, viola; Thomas Kraines, cello.

The two long pieces in the program are in the standard quartet repertoire, and the musicians put in a very enjoyable performance.

The four movements of the Beethoven piece are Allegro; Menuetto; Andante cantabile con variazioni; and Allegro.  For the Brahms piece the four movements are Vivace; Andante; Agitato (Allegretto non troppo); and Poco Allegretto con Variazioni.  It just occurred to me many quartets have four movements, in that sense more akin to a symphony than a concerto, although concertos are usually symphonic in nature.

The violist Thompson talked a bit about Fred Lerdahl, who teaches at Columbia.  The quartet and he has had a long history of collaboration, and the quartet has performed the cycle of Lerdahl’s three quartets.  This work was written for the quartet, and contains the “signature” of notes that spells out part of “Daedalus.”  I couldn’t quite make out the notes the violin was trying to sound out, and she had to attempt it a couple of times to get it right.  Per this website, the notes are D-A-E-D-A-Eb.  The most well-known Chaconne is of course the violin solo by Bach.  Tonight’s piece was also based on an 8-measure melody, which I couldn’t catch, and things went downhill from there.

The program had three movements associated with Chaconne, it was wrong information.  Turns out they were from another piece that was performed last year.

Anne couldn’t come because of babysitting duties.  Peter C came along.  We met up with the Yee’s as usual at Panera Bread.  I was lamenting to David that (i) listening to modern music requires too much use of my left-brain, he also thinks modern music appeals more to logic than emotion; and (ii) I have trouble picking out the viola lines.  So for this concert we both listened to the viola intently.  Beethoven’s was quite hopeless, but the viola’s parts fared better with me for the second two pieces.

I managed to make three of the four concerts this season, and I am glad I did.

NINAGAWA Macbeth. July 21, 2018.

David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.  Tier 4 (Seat O17, $59).

Cast

Macbeth – Maschika Ichimura, Lady Macbeth – Yuko Tanaka, Keita Oishi, Macduff, King Duncan – Tetsuro Sagawa.

The unanswered question: what sort of decision process would result in a play by Shakespeare done in Japanese be part of a Mostly Mozart Festival?  Instead of answering that, one could point out some aspects to tonight’s production.

First, Yukio Ninagawa, who died in 2016, was apparently a well-known figure in Japan.  He had directed over 20 of Shakespeare’s plays, and Macbeth was “the world’s introduction to a Japanese Theater legend,” per the Program Notes.  The role of Lady Macbeth was played by Tanaka, a popular television actress.  Naturally there are Japanese elements in the production: an ancestral armor which lights up was the ghost in the play, and there were plenty of cherry blossoms.  There were a couple of “horses” that were quite well done.

When I bought the ticket at the Theater box office (at around 6:30 pm for the 7:30 pm play), I was told the seat (last row, Tier 4) had a restricted view, namely the surtitles would be blocked.  Turns out that wasn’t the case, and I could see the projected English translation.  A few problems though: I was too far back to see the surtitles clearly, the dialog sometimes happened very quickly, and the English used was Shakespearean.  The synopsis I wrote in a prior blog (for Verdi’s opera) came in handy, especially given the straightforward plot.  Unfortunately many of the nuances and famous quotes were lost on me, including “Life’s but a walking shadow … a tale/Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/Signifying nothing.”  The surtitle projections worked most of the time, but failed at some of the most inopportune moments, such as when Mcduff claimed that he was born via a C-section (of course I don’t know if he did say it; and for the record, Macduff’s line was “Macduff was from his mother’s womb untimely ripp’d.”)

Regardless of my misgivings, I enjoyed the play. I always have trouble understanding Shakespearean English when it is spoken, but have better luck with the written text, so the setup tonight – while not ideal – helped.  Macbeth’s story does not contain that many twists, so the drama is easy enough to follow along.  I do wonder if I didn’t know the title of the play and couldn’t see the surtitles, would I even think it was Macbeth.  (The forest of Birnam Woods wouldn’t have helped as the camouflage was provided by – you guessed it – fully blossoming cherry tree branches.)

 View from Tier 4. The last row had many empty seats so I moved closer to the center after the intermission.

The cast.  While I could see the surtitles during the play, there were clearly things happening towards the back of the stage that I couldn't see.

When I first noticed this event, I erroneously thought it was an opera.  I actually kept thinking that until the day of the performance.  Does this entry belong in a blog mostly devoted to classical concerts?  I have no other place to put it, and two pieces were used quite extensively in the play: Faure’s Requiem and Barber’s Adagio for Strings.

Anne had a commitment at church so she couldn’t go, so I took public transportation in.

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Louis Langree, conductor. July 18, 2018.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, Orchestra (Seat NN20, $46).

Program

MASS: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers (1971) by Bernstein (1918-1990).

Artists

Nmon Ford, celebrant

Concert Chorale of New York – James Bagwell, choral director

Young People’s Chorus of New York City – Elizabeth Nunez, associate artistic director

Tenzin Gund-Morrow, boy soprano

Street Chorus: see photo for members

Dancers: see photo for members

First, some background material I want to record so I can reference it in the future.  This work was commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy for the opening of the JFK Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC in September 1971.  Given the controversy of Leonard Bernstein’s political views, Nixon – the US president at that time – was advised not to attend; the reason given was “this should be Mrs. Kennedy’s night.”  Not being a Catholic, I cannot tell how closely the structure of the program hews to the traditional order of mass; it appears close enough.  Except Bernstein interposes a lot of material that questions the celebrant’s faith, with the celebrant finally giving in and shattering the sacraments.  The arguing with God aspects seem to be a Jewish tradition.  Also unconventional was that the Mass was written by an atheist of Jewish descent; Bernstein did claim to be a spiritual person and wanted to write some sort of sacred music (per the Program Notes.)  In addition to traditional Latin liturgical texts, Bernstein put in some Hebrew prayers and lyrics (in English) written by himself and Stephen Schwartz (of Godspell fame.)

The music is an amalgam of various genres, including pop, jazz, classical, and 12-tone.  But the most predominant genre is broadway and street-singing.  Some recorded music was used; I also wonder how they sync up these tapes, and the transitions tonight were smooth.  The street chorus mainly played the role of doubters who constantly challenged the celebrant’s belief with “tropes” such as “I don’t know” and “Easy” that questioned the nature of sin and the worth of confession, respectively. This theme and counter-theme basically guided the rest of the music, resulting in the shattering of the sacraments.

With the aid of binoculars, one could easily observe tiny microphones worn by the singers.  The technician working the equalizer for them had a hard time keeping up with switches, resulting in some weak beginnings and an occasional loud feedback noise.  Our seats were in the second to last row of the main hall, and the voices came across fine, most of the time.  The celebrant did a lot of singing, and was on stage nearly all of the time.  He sounded uncertain at times, but generally did well.  It took me a while to locate the mic on him.

The staging was simple, with the altar as the centerpiece behind which stood the Young People’s Chorus.  Members of the concert chorale were seated in the front boxes of the first tier, women and men on opposite sides.  Dancers and street chorus used the stage to do their “thing,” and the orchestra occupied the first few rows of the auditorium.

The Program was advertised to be two hour long, without break.  It did take two hours, but didn’t feel that long; there were too many things happening that kept me occupied.

Before we decided to go to this event, we debated whether we really wanted to see it as we weren’t sure if it was worth the time (and money) to see something that might offend us.  We decided we were not that sensitive, and we had probably encountered the sentiments expressed in the work anyway.  We had some idea of what they would be anyway: Cornell made the cover of Time because of the occupation of the student center by activists, and the Engineering library was occupied for several days by anti-war protesters when I was an undergraduate.  Compared to other controversial works (Stravinsky’s, for example), this was tame.  The only cuss word used that I could catch was “goddam” and there was only one crude scene where sexual intercourse was simulated by two fully clothed actors.

When the celebrant threw the sacraments on the ground, I thought the program ended and was about to take a few photos.  Good thing I was slow, as the flute began to play a rather interesting tune (I would say also the most original) followed by singing by the boy soprano.  The Program Notes describes this as a new hope and resurrection: everything is well.  The cynical may say this simply describes the next generation of “suckers” being born.

Curtain Call.  The celebrant (Ford) and boy soprano (Gund-Morrow) are at the center.  Some members of the Concert Chorale can be seen sitting in the first tier; the Young People's Chorus at the back of the stage.

Overall, this was not a satisfactory experience, even though we had no idea what to expect.  Bernstein the composer was often maligned by his critics as being lightweight, this work would add to their ammunition.  Other than the occasional passages of brilliance, most of it sounded recycled.  The skepticism of some that the work would not have a lasting value (as noted in the Program Notes) has borne out, even to one where the anti-war, modernist movements were at the peak during his first years in the United States.  The one thing to admire was how tonight’s performance went without a hitch given the different elements involved.

A search of the web returned many positive reviews (judging by the headlines) of the performance.  The New York Times review is titled “’Mass’ Brings Out the Worst in Leonard Bernstein.”  Perhaps the cruelest remark by the reviewer was “hard to discern … why we should perform it at all – other than as a relic.”

[Note added 7/21/2018.  A couple of remarks. First was how Mostly Mozart has been transforming into A Little Mozart over the years.  The reasoning - if one can call it that - is this is "in keeping with Mozart's spirit of innovation and creativity."  The question is, which composers are thereby excluded?  The other was the similarity of my reaction to one Seinfeld had with Whatley as a Jewish comedian: that it offended him not as a Jewish person, but as a comedian.  For tonight the disappointment is not as not as much about the message as it is about the music.]

We left at around 11:30 am to have lunch with our friend Ron W in Malvern PA, and it was close to 11 pm when we got home.  A relative long day for us.  Dinner was street food in NYC.

Poulenc Trio. July 8, 2018.

Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University.  Balcony (free).

Program

Suite in the Old Style (arr. M. Krutik) by Schnittke (1934-1998).

Trains of Thought (2012) by Viet Cuong (b. 1990).

Romance, op. 97a (arr. Anatoly Trofinov) by Shostakovich (1906-1975).

A Spin Through Mosco (arr. Trofimov) by Shostakovich.

Fantasie concertante sur des themes de “I’Italian in Algeri” (arr. Charles Triebert & Eugene Jancourt) by Rossini (1792-1878).

Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano (1926) by Poulenc (1899-1963).

Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano iii. Jaunty by Previn (b. 1929).

Artists

James Austin Smith, oboe; Bryan Young, bassoon; Irina Kaplan, piano.

This was an interesting concert, with interesting stories behind several of the pieces.  Of course the combination of instruments is not common for a trio, which probably accounts for the claim that the trio “is the most active touring piano-wind chamber music ensemble in the world.”  Competition for that title is probably light, and there is every reason to believe this trio is welcomed all over the world.

Alfred Schnittke’s piece “Concerto Gross No. 5 for the Violin” is the first song (alphabetically) on my iPod, so I have listened to it many times – at least the beginning part as I usually would skip to what I wanted to listen.  The suite performed today had nothing in common, except perhaps for the rather “minimalist” approach.  Schnittke wrote in a classical (or even baroque) style.  It was a pleasant composition of five movements: pastorale, balletto, minuetto, fuga, and pantomime. The first four movements sounded exactly like their descriptions.  I didn’t know what to except of the pantomime, so was happy to ride along.  It ended with a flourish.

The second piece was composed by a young composer (he was around 22 when he wrote it).  On top of that, there was an accompanying video that was projected onto the screen when the music was performed.  Both Cuong and the animator Elizabeth Phelps made a brief remark about the work.  Cuong described the music reflected how a day-dreamer’s thoughts might move from one subject to another (“scattered brain” was a phrase he used), and when he returned to his original thought he was informed by the intervening thinking.  Phelps described her animation technique as mostly using tweezers to move objects around, and the process took nine months.

Elizabeth Phelps and Viet Cuong talked about the piece "Trains of Thought."

The music was interesting enough, so was the animation.  I unfortunately don’t have the bandwidth to process so much information simultaneously, and didn’t have time to really listen to or analyze the music while trying to grasp what was happening on screen.  The “story” was mostly about being carried away by birds in flight, and indeed the scene at the end was similar to what we saw at the beginning.  At more than 15 minutes, though, the screen play got a bit monotonous, and – by implication – the music also.  While people definitely day-dream for long periods of time, perhaps we may not find other people’s day-dreams that interesting?

My overall impression of the music was quite positive.  This naturally was my first encounter with Cuong, but I won’t be surprised if I will hear more from him in the future.  The Trio’s website has a YouTube video of the piece.  The duration was about 12:30 minutes, so it felt longer …

The first half concluded with two pieces by Shostakovich, arranged for the Trio’s instruments.

I saw the light-hearted “An Italian in Algiers” at the Sydney Opera House a few years ago, so was looking forward to hearing the “fantasie concertante” arranged by a couple of Paris Conservatory reed players.  The piece had several of the familiar themes from the opera woven into it; despite that, it didn’t sound as light-hearted as I remembered of the opera.

The Trio written by Poulenc was an example of the many chamber music works he wrote for wind instruments, and was the reason the Trio adopted its name – according to Smith.  The three movements are quite traditional: presto, andante, and rondo.

Smith joked that there is a “reed convention” every now and then, with hundreds of participants, and it was during one of those events that Andre Previn introduced his Trio.  We heard one of the movements today.

The audience was appreciative of the musicians.

We were happy that we could sit through such a concert, and I certainly got a new appreciation of how difficult these reed instruments could be (not that I ever had any doubt.)  One problem is the bassoon, especially when bellowing out low notes, is not as easy to pick up as the oboe or the piano, and I often had to consciously listen for it. The other issue was most of the attention was paid to the winds, and the pianist was mostly ignored – Smith did say there were 15x more notes played the piano, slight exaggeration.

Our second Princeton Summer Chamber concert was at 3 pm Sunday afternoon.  Melissa Bohl, the artistic director, mentioned this time slot allowed a different group of people to attend.  We did see some young children.  We stopped by Buffalo Wild Wings for an early dinner on the way back.

Omer Quartet. July 2, 2018.

Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University.  Balcony (free).

Program

String Quartet in F Major, op. 50, no. 5 “The Dream” by Haydn (1732-1809).

Four Script Styles of Chinese Calligraphy by Yiwen Shen (b. 1986).

String Quartet No. 1 in A minor, Sz. 40, BB 52, op. 7 by Bartok (1881-1945).

Artists: Mason Yu, Erica Tursi, violin; Jinsun Hong, viola; Alex Cox, cello.

For 51 years, the Princeton University Summer Chamber Concerts produces a series of chamber music concerts that is free to the community.  We have been going to them for several years, and plan to make three of the four concerts this season.

It was going to be the Zora Strings – a resident quartet at the Curtis Institute – that would be performing tonight.  For reasons not given to us (which is okay) the Omer Quartet was asked to substitute.  All the musicians look young, and are apparently graduates of Cleveland.  The quartet is now resident at the University of Maryland.

The Haydn quartet is vintage Haydn.  At some point I was wondering what the name given to it would be (I hadn’t looked at the program yet), and was surprised to see “The Dream” as I didn’t hear anything like that in the piece (or Haydn’s dreams were different from mine.)  The other interesting aspect was the glissando-sounding passages in the fourth movement.  That was the first time I heard such a sound in the violin, so I looked into the score.  The marking was “sopra una corda.”  I guess this effect is a by-product of moving the fingers up a string.

As a side remark, there are entire books devoted to early Haydn chamber music!

The sound from the first violin was brilliant.  Per the quartet’s website, the violin played by Yu is an Amati on loan to him.  He in general played very well, although I thought his intonation was off on several occasions.  The movements of the quartet are: Allegro moderato, Poco adagio, Menuetto: Allegretto, and Finale: Vivace.

Beginning of the fourth movement of the Haydn Quartet.  The effect of "sopra una corda" is like a short glissando.

Tursi talked about the Chinese Calligraphy piece written by Shen.  The two evidently knew each other (Shen has a doctoral degree from Julliard, and Tursi is a current student; per their websites) as she joked that one could call Shen about how the music should be played, but not Haydn or Bartok.

The work performed tonight consists of four movements, each patterned after a style of Chinese calligraphy: Clerical Script (隸書), Regular (楷書), Semi-Cursive (行書), and Cursive (草書).  Chinese in parentheses are taken from Wikipedia.  The last two are played attaca, but Tursi reassured the audience that they could tell by the wild finish.  I am not good at associating pictures with music, but there certainly were differences in style from one movement to the other.  As contemporary music goes, this was easy to take – being short at less than 10 minutes certainly helped.  I do have a what-if question of how things would sound if Shen had written a set of variations based on the different scripts.

Tursi also said something about the Bartok quartet.  Bartok evidently was very smitten by a pianist and wrote a concerto for her.  As a reaction to this requited love Bartok wrote this string quartet, beginning a dirge-sounding movement (Lento).  The music was ultimately uplifting after the second (Allegretto – Introduzione) and third (Allegro vivace) movements.  Along the way Bartok would incorporate these folk melodies that he collected as a ethnomusicologist.

All good, except most of what she said was difficult to prove (I looked), I did find references to a Stefi Geyer who was a violinist.  Also, the music was difficult to get on a first listen for me.  Bartok is usually easy to get in some way, tonight’s piece remained out of reach for me.  As opposed to the Shen piece, there are many recordings of this quartet on YouTube.

The viola got quite a bit of workout in this piece, which had a much better balance among the instruments than the Haydn.  The quartet should certainly be congratulated for putting out a well-coordinated performance, with seamless handoffs between instruments, and great dynamics.

Yu, Tursi, Cox, and Hong at the conclusion of the concert.  The audience was very appreciative.

The Omer Quartet is certainly a capable substitute for any other ensemble.  I would have enjoyed a more traditional programming, but what I heard tonight was fine.

We met up with the Yee’s at Panera Bread and talked about our respective musical tours.  They just spent about two weeks in Leipzig attending more than 30 concerts at the Bach Festival.

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra at Marine Park. July 1, 2018.

Marine Park, Red Bank.  Lawn seating (free).

Program

The program was announced from the stage, including the following:

Intermezzo from Manon Lescaut

Overture from William Tell

Meditation from Thais – Brennen Sweet, solo

Carousel Waltz by Rodgers

Imperial March from Star Wars by John Williams

Tribute to the Branches of the Military (army, coast guard, marines, navy, and air force)

It is my understanding that for several years now the NJSO gives a series of concerts at various (mostly) outdoor locations throughout the state.  July 1 was the last one, and Marine Park is where our boat is moored.  So we asked a few friends to come to the boat for dinner (sandwiches, chips, and fruit) and we also met some others at the park.

There was quite a crowd, and many stayed after the intermission, which is a good thing.  I think it numbered about 500, a friend said it was a couple of thousand.  So much for my (or her) ability to estimate crowd sizes.  In any case, it was a good showing of support.  Only thing missing were food trucks – I think they would have done some business.

It was hot today, the temperature was in the mid 90s at concert start.  There was a covered stage set up for the event, so at least there was some protection from the sun for the members.  The sun sets around 8:30 pm this time of the year, and we had a clear sky and a beautiful sunset.

 This was the temperature at 3 pm.  It was still in the mid- to high-90s when the concert started.

 The crowd at the beginning of the concert.  Most people stayed after the intermission.

I couldn't find the name of the conductor.  He has a strong resemblance to NJSO's Youth Orchestra music director Jose Luis Dominguez.

While I do not want to critique the performance – it was supposed to be just plain fun – I must say I enjoyed the waay Sweet played.  Meditation is not particularly difficult, but to make it sound as good as he did, in such an environment (sweating profusely, for one) was a great accomplishment.

The concert lasted about 1:30 hours, so we had time for a snack at McDonald’s after we cleaned up.

New York Philharmonic - Very Young People's Concert. June 4, 2018.

Merkin Concert Hall, New York.

This was the second such concert we brought our grandson Reid to expose him to classical music and orchestral instruments.

Princeton Festival 2018 – Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. June 24, 2018.

Matthews Theatre, Princeton, NJ.  Balcony (Seat GG106, $61).

Story. See previous post.

Credits

Conductor – Richard Tang Yuk; Madama Butterfly – Yulia Lysenko, Suzuki – Janara Kellerman, B. F. Pinkerton – Matthew White, Sharpless – Paul La Rosa, Goro – Anthony Webb.

Due to various reasons, we have not been able to attend too many concerts during this year’s Princeton Festival.  Indeed this particular opera will probably be the only one we end up attending.  (I am typing this on 6/27 while in Boston, and the Festival ends early July.)  Even this one was a “touch-and-go” as we decided on it the day before.

If I characterize this as a “near-professional” production, then it was a pretty good “near-professional” production.  Not sure if that was an insult, or a compliment.

Being in a small auditorium helped.  Given how expectedly loud some of the instruments and many of the voices sounded, I suspect there was a sound enhancement system.  When I went to the Silk Road Ensemble at the same venue recently, the instruments didn’t sound as loud, and that was with loudspeakers in front of every musician.  What I couldn’t explain was how Lysenko as Butterfly had a much stronger voice than other cast members.

Here again Butterfly made or broke the show, and Lysenko did her job well.  I could complain she could use a softer and more resigned take every now and then, but the Butterfly she portrayed was rather original compared to the others I have seen.  The rendition of “One Fine Day” was simply heartbreaking.

The same set was used in all three acts.  I suppose the artistic crew had a limited budget to work with, they nonetheless did a credible job.  Several scenes (e.g., Butterfly killing herself) were done as silhouettes.

Yuk flanked by Lysenko and White at curtain call.

Yuk (or is it Tang Yuk?) did a great job of leading the orchestra and the singers, with the caveat that there may have been some electronics help.  He is also the Artistic Director of the Festival, and last season I saw him help selling tickets at the door, certainly a very hands-on person.

There were quite a few empty seats this afternoon.  Which also a bit discouraging.

Anne and I drove to Princeton after church, stopping to get some coffee along the way.  On the way back we grabbed something to eat at Panera Bread.

New Jersey Symphony – Xian Zhang, conductor; Gil Shaham, violin. June 7, 2018.

Prudential Hall at NJPAC, Newark. Orchestra (Seat C106, $38).

Program

Overture to Candide (1955-56) by Bernstein (1918-1990).

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 (1878) by Brahms (1833-1897).

Symphony No. 1 in D Major (1884-88; rev. 1893-96, 1906) by Mahler (1860-1911).

The pieces on the program are all well-known.

Candide is one of Bernstein’s most famous compositions, and this year many ensembles perform Bernstein’s work as he was born 100 years ago.  Indeed in April the Monmouth Civic Chorus had an all-Bernstein program as a commemoration.  The overture contains some of the most memorable melodies in the oper(ett)a, and most who hear it would silently hum or tap along.  That does not make it an easy piece, with some of the quick runs testing the precision of the orchestra.  Despite a muddled phrase here or there, the orchestra put in an exciting performance, with a huge range in dynamics, and didn’t shy away from the fast tempo needed.

Brahms’s violin concerto is often compared to that of Beethoven’s (fairly or not), although it sounds (and is) more difficult and complex than Beethoven’s, also in D Major.  There was no reason to doubt Shaham’s ability to pull it off with clarity and aplomb; our seat in the front of the orchestra gave us a great vantage point (not the third row, the rows go inexplicably AA-FF, followed by A).  One comment I have always made is “Shaham needs a lot of space” as he moves from close to the conductor’s podium to close to being on top of the violins; and he often has this grin while the soloist has his silent moments.  The concerto is difficult, requiring precision figuring and bowing.  Even though Shaham was all business when he was playing, and seemed to take great care especially during the many double stop passages, he had to be familiar enough with the piece that every now and then there was the impression that it was just a day at the office for him.  Consequently I felt less excitement about the piece than I normally do.

Shaham and Zhang at conclusion of Brahms's violin concerto.

After many years of listening to Mahler and Bruckner, I can appreciate the differences in style between the two composers.  Mahler’s first symphony, however, is very different from his later ones.  One thing I didn’t know (or forgot) about Mahler was he also revised his composition extensively over long periods of time.  Per today’s Program Notes, he did it with the first symphony for 22 years.  Despite all that, the first three movements remain quite different from his subsequent works.  I don’t know how many times I have heard this symphony, but these movements all sounded quite familiar (Langsam Schleppend, Kraftig bewegt, and Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen).  They are all characterized as bright and happy.  The last movement (Sturmisch bewegt) is of a completely different character and is more in line with the majority of his work – wandering, painful to the degree of screaming.  The piece lasts 53 minutes (per Program Notes) and I enjoyed nearly every minute of it.

The Program Notes had two statements about this symphony that I take issue with.  First was that the third movement begins with “the best-known string bass solo in the orchestra repertoire.”  It is true in the sense that this is the only solo I know of (and there can’t be that many.)  However, the melody is short as others soon join in, simple, and not all that memorable by itself.  The other statement is that the fourth movement’s duration is “nearly as long as the three prior movements combined.”  True only if one thinks 23 minutes is as long as 30 minutes (roughly).  Nothing wrong with the statements, except they raised unmet expectations.

While the “headline” for the concert is “Shaham plays Brahms,” the concerto also could be considered a bold statement by the NJSO and their Music Director Zhang that the organization can do a credible job with a challenging program.  While I heard better performances of each of the pieces (notably by the orchestra across the Hudson), I am glad they pulled it off.

We were in Hoboken last night so it was easy to get to Newark for this 1:30 pm concert.

Prague Music Orchestra – Frantisek Pok, conductor; O. Jelinkova – soprano. May 20, 2018.

Smetana Hall, Municipal Building, Prague.  Orchestra B (Seat 21-10, CzK 950).

Program – Strauss, Mozart, Dvorak & Opera with Ballet.

When we planned this trip we found out, somewhat to our chagrin, that both the opera and concert seasons would be over by the time we come to Prague.  That, of course, refers to the major organizations such as the Czech National Symphony or the State Opera (not sure what the actual names are.)

Of course in many major European cities there are always concerts and operas going on, some of them designed for tourists and marketed heavily – Vienna is a good example.  Turns out Prague is similar, in many tourist spots (e.g., Republic Plaza) there are ticket booths for these sort of concerts.

When it comes to Czeckoslavia (we are of course talking the Czech Republic) the composers Smetana, Dvorak, and Janacek come to mind.  If one digs deeper, the names Suk and Mahler would also come up.  We had a chance to see Turnadot, but decided not to as we had an early flight the next day.  However, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see Smetana Hall, and thus bought tickets to this event.  The tickets cost about US$40 each.  A tourist trap, no doubt, but – as someone reminded me – we are tourists.

The concert was reasonably well attended, I would say 40% full in a hall that seats about 1250 (per Wikipedia.)  And it appears to host some world-class events also.  For instance, David Robertson would be conducting the Czech Philharmonic in a June 1 concert as part of the annual Prague Spring series.

The program tonight, however, was mostly familiar favorites.  The orchestra was small, maybe 14 people total, and there was a piano that sometimes was used as a continuo instrument.

When they first got started with the Magic Flute Overture I said to myself “uh uh” as the two first violins were not quite in sync.  To my relief things got better soon afterwards, and I got to appreciate how good the acoustics in the hall was.  Every now and then ballet dancers would come out and perform.  There was this little girl (perhaps 8?) who was quite impressive.

Jelinkova did quite a few songs.  (It may not be Jelinkova, as the program lists three possible alternates.)  Her voice is quite strong, but a bit muffled, probably due to where she stood on the stage.

Curtain Call.  Soprano Jelinkova is on the left in this photograph.

I am sure one can connect the pieces performed somehow to Czechoslovakia, I would have preferred more direct references.  How about some excerpts from The Moldau, we are in Smetana Hall, after all.

Overall, we were glad to have attended this concert.  And it was indeed an hour in duration, as advertised; the Magic Flute overture counts as Opera.

With this, our 4-city 8-concert European Concert Tour concludes.