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

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

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

Program

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Program

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

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

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

Kavakos and Noseda after the Shostakovich violin concerto.

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

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

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

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

Kavakos played an encore.

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

Walker's sinfonia was performed after the intermission.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Book by Thomas Meeshan

Music by Charles Strouse and Lyrics by Martin Charnin

Based on "Little Orphan Annie."

Cast - 3rd and 4th Grade Hoboken students

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

A few of the principals have good voices.

Reid wasn't mad.  He was in his role.

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

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

Program

Sarah Gibson warp & weft

Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43

Berlioz Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Li and New after the Rachmaninoff.

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

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

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

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

New Jersey Symphony. Eric Jacobsen, conductor. March 30, 2023.

NJPAC, Newark, NJ.  Orchestra (Seat E114, $68).

Jacobsen, Buchanan, Smith and Townsend at the conclusion of Faure's Requiem.

Program

Ravel (1875-1937) Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914-17, 1919)

George Walker (1922-2018) Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra (1995-1996)

Faure (1845-1924) Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48 (1887, rev. 1893 & 1900)

Artists

Tiffany Townsend, soprano; Reginald Smith Jr, baritone

Montclair State University Chorale, Heather J. Buchanan, director

I got tickets for this concert as Jacques Lacombe, NJ Symphony's music director before Zhang, was going to be conducting.  After I got the tickets, I notice the conductor was changed to Lionel Bringuier (if memory serves).  A web search said Lacombe would be conducting in Greece during this time.  And when the concert date drew near Eric Jacobsen's became the conductor.  While disappointed that I won't get to see Lacombe, I was okay.

And I enjoyed the program, even though all three pieces were on the dark and melancholic end of the emotion spectrum.  Le Tombeau de Couperin was written with Ravel's friends who died in World War I in mind.  Walker wrote Lilacs as an elegy to Abraham Lincoln after Lincoln's assassination.  Despite taking out the Dies irae movement, a requiem is still about death.

Ravel's piece consists of four movements: Prelude, Forlane, Menuet, and Rigaudon.  The last time I heard this was in 2019, also performed by the NJ Symphony.  My reaction to the piece then was lukewarm, and I am glad to report that I enjoyed today's performance.

George Walker graduated high school at 14, and studied piano, strings, and composition at several well-known music schools.  He was the first Black graduate of Curtis.  He was commissioned by Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1995 to compose a work to honor Roland Hayes (1887-1977), a Black American who attained international fame.  Walker was the first Black composer to win a Pulitzer Prize.

The lyrics are taken from four stanzas from Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Blooom'd."  They start from a place of sorrow to a place of hope.  Before each stanza was sung, it was read aloud on stage.  That sensible act helped greatly with the atmosphere.  The orchestra's sound was traditional enough, but the vocal lines were extremely atonal.  I do wonder if the soloist Tiffany Townsend had to shout on top of her considerable lungs all the time.  It helped that her voice remained pleasant even at volume.

Townsend and Jacobsen after Walker's Lilacs.

Donors get a number of tickets to attend the Intermission reception.  I didn't bring ours with me, but they still let me in.  Here is the free glass of sparkling water.

Faure's Requiem is different from the other well-known ones in that it is the most "gentle" of the lot.  The hellish "dies irae" is omitted altogether, and most of the passages are on the "peaceful" end of the spectrum.  I was first exposed to it while in college, and have appreciated it since.  It is not as frequently performed as the other requiems.

Today's performance was good.  Townsend's singing was more in line with the tone of the piece, and Smith also did well.  The piece lasted about 30 minutes, so the soloists didn't have extended passages.

Montclair State Chorale generally does well, and today was no exception.  I was somewhat surprised by the noticeable sloppiness at some points.  Whenever a Montclair State ensemble performs I wonder why Heather Buchanan doesn't conduct some of the concerts.  Today was no exception.

One could say today's pieces were all on the "sad" side.  I walked away calm, not depressed, and was glad to have this as an antidote to what I heard the day before.

New York Philharmonic. Susanna Malkki, conductor; Claire Chase, flute; esperanza spalding, bass. March 29, 2023.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat Y119, $79.50).

At the conclusion of the concert.

Program

The Unanswered Question (1900-ca. 1941) by Ives (1874-1954).

Double Concerto (2019; New York Premiere) by Felipe Lara (b. 1979).

Petrushka (1947 version) by Stravinsky (1882-1971).

"If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all" is something we learned as a kid.  By that rule this will be the shortest review I have ever written. But I am not a nice person.

Most of my venom, such as it is, is directed at the piece by Lara.  It started with the name of the bassist, who decided capitalizing the first and last names was for ordinary people, and she certainly wasn't ordinary.  I thought of quoting some of the more ridiculous statements in her bio in the Playbill, and decided it's not worth my time.  Similarly, the Program Notes talked about how the composer's "humility" about his success, and gratitude for his good fortune, are woven into the fabric of the Double Concerto."  One can be pretentious if one has the talent to back it up, but neither the composer nor the soloists could back it up, in my opinion.

The first reaction I had to the actual performance was "no words."  True on two levels: there are no words to describe the piece (none worth writing down, anyway), and there are no words in the piece, despite all the vocalizing and humming by the bassist.  The second reaction was: it's a piece of gibberish occasionally interrupted by a few coherent notes.  The flutist spent as much time spitting into the various instruments she used as she did actually playing them.  It evoked the image of someone so frustrated with her ability to perform that she crossed the line into insanity.  I found the contrabass flute quite interesting: if only she produced some pleasant sound from it.

Wait, there is more.  Some instruments are tuned a quarter-note higher/lower than their counterparts.  I honestly don't know how that combination works in a sane world; things probably would sound slightly out of joint.  In the context of this piece it doesn't matter at all, whatever dissonance this produced was lost in the overall chaos.

I thought this was a good reflection of much of today's aesthetics: I pretend to do something complex, revolutionary, beautiful, and otherwise great, and you pretend to appreciate it.  Is the composer spitting in the audience's face just as the flutist spits into her instruments?

Someone sitting behind me remarked that this piece was 36 minutes long by her watch.  To that I say it's 40 minutes too long.  The enthusiastic applause at the end generates a couple of thoughts: do we really want to encourage this? What's wrong with you people?

The flutist Claire hase and the bassist esperanza spalding.

The concert started auspiciously enough.  Ives's short piece showed off the colors that an orchestra could produce.  And the trumpet (at the rear of the auditorium) and the flutes (above, in the second tier) created a good effect.  Given half a chance, the New York Phil can generate great music.

Stravinsky's Petrushka is a lot more accessible than many of his other works.  With proper narration, one can probably visualize a ballet in one's mind.  Without a detailed plot, it was still a piece woven together nicely.  We heard the 1947 version, which was intended more as an orchestral piece.  About ten years ago we heard the 1911 version.  It would be interesting to compare the two.

On prior occasions, I described Malkki's conducting as somewhat mechanical.  But it appears to get the job done.

The ticket for tonight's concert was discounted by 30%.  Overall attendance was quite good.

Metropolitan Opera. Wagner's Lohengrin. March 28, 2023.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat I22, $25).

From the Met's website.

Story.  The story takes place in Antwerp, ruled by King Heinrich.  Elsa is accused by Count Telramund of having murdered her brother Gottfried, heir to the Duchy of Brabant.  Telramund was once betrothed to Elsa but has since married the sorceress Ortrud.  Elsa calls on the knight she dreamed of to defend her innocence in a duel with Telramund.  A newcomer miraculously appears in a boat drawn by a swan, defeats Telramund with his bare hands, and asks Elsa to marry him.  One condition is that she never ask his name or origin.  Elsa agrees.  Ortrud and Telramund plot vengeance with Ortrud sowing doubts in Elsa's mind that the knight is an impostor.  On the couple's wedding night, Elsa's anxiety and uncertainty compel her to ask the knight's name.  At that moment, Telramund bursts in but is killed by the knight.  Telramund's body is brought to the banks of the Scheldt, the knight and Elsa follow.  The knight tells the king he is the son and knight of Parsifal of the temple of the Holy Grail, and his own name is Lohengrin.  The swan returns to fetch Lohengrin, and is transformed back into Elsa's brother Gottfried.  Lohengrin disappears, Ortrud collapses, and Elsa falls to the grounds, in the arms of Gottfried.

Conductor - Patrick Furrer.  Lohengrin - Piotr Beczala, Elsa von Brabant - Elena Stikhina, Friedrich von Telramund - Thomas Hall, Ortrud - Christine Goerke, King's Herald - Brian Mulligan, King Heinrich - Gunther Groissbock.

Not quite sure how to do this entry, so let me start by saying I am glad I went to see it.  While I have seen most of Wagner's operas, this one was on the "not yet" list, so I am happy to check it off.

The staging is at best "curious."  Another description that comes to mind is "low budget."  The "main" backdrop, if one calls it that, is a "slab" the size of the stage with a hole in it.  The slab either hangs at a 45-degree angle, or placed vertically.  In the back are projected stars and the moon (which moved rather quickly during the Act 1 overture).  Many characters' first appearances (Elsa, Lohengrin and Gottfried) had them walking down from the top of the staircase close to that opening.  The boat pulled along by a swan never showed up, all we saw were projected on the back the wings of a swan.  The other backdrop consists of two vertical walls (?).  As far as acoustics is concerned, the setup works very well in helping the singers project their voices.  This is underlined by how Lohengrin's voice dramatically increase as he walks down from the top of the stairs (with the opening behind him) to the stage (here helped by the solid slab).

Except for the beginning or Act 3, this was basically the set.  Projected behind this "hole" are stars and the moon.

Perhaps helped by the backdrop, or because I was close to the stage, all the singers put in excellent performances.  After having seen Beczala several times (first encounter 2018), that he did well was no surprise.  This was the first time I heard the Russian soprano Stikhina sing, and she was impressive, and more than compensates for her acting skills.  Both Groissbock and Goerke are stars in their own right, and they performed very well in tonight's secondary roles.  Thomas Hall and Patrick Furrer are both "substitutes."  The conductor was going to be Yannick Nezet-Sequin.  Both subs were scheduled for some performances of this opera this season, so I am sure we didn't miss much.

From the left: Herald, Talrumund, Elsa, Maestro Furrer, Lohengrin, Ortrud, and King.

Banner displaying Lohengrin has a swan on it.  No swan in the actual production.

I did write down some notes after each act, and am including them here (filling in some details) so the efforted isn't for naught:

Act 1.  Chorus members were wearing cloaks that could switch among the colors white/black/green or red.  Ortrud (Goerke) has a small role in this act, singing in one ensemble number.  Elsa has eight attendants.  Lohengrin fought without a sword.

Act 2.  At 85 minutes felt a bit long.  Most of that was scheming between Ortrud and Telramund on how to get Elsa to doubt the knight.  Chorus quite large and sang quite a bit.  So far Lohengrin has a smaller role compared to the other principals.

Act 3.  This "don't ask my name" business reminds me of Samson & Delilah, the Tree of good and evil in Eden, and Turandot.  Both the conductor and Telramund are subs, and they are very good.

Overall.  A better experience than Parsifal.

I wrote the notes in case I forgot, in this case perhaps not necessary.

Parsifal is Lohengrin's father, but Wagner composed Lohengrin (first performed 1850) years before Parsifal (1882), which would explain why Lohengrin is a lot more accessible than Parsifal.

The most famous tune in the opera probably is the wedding march at the beginning of Act 3.  It was played during the wedding, which was not shown. Instead we have Ortrud pacing as she schemed to take her revenge. 

If there are lists of a composer's work that I want to see, Wagner's operas probably would be on it.  The other would be Mahler's Symphonies.  Last year we got to see two while we were in Leipzig (Die Feen and Das Liebesverbot), which brought the list down to Rienzi and Lohengrin.  I have resigned to myself that our chances of seeing Rienzi is quite minimal, having missed it last year (sold out before I tried to get tickets), but I wasn't about to miss Lohengrin, last staged at the Met 17 years ago.

My ticket was a rush ticket.  That the seat was quite good meant - alas - there were many empty ones for tonight's performance.  The opera ended at 11:10 pm, so I couldn't make the 11:18 pm train back to South Amboy.  It was after 1:15 am when I pulled into the garage.

New Jersey Symphony. Neeme Jarvi, conductor. March 25. 2023.

NJPAC, Newark, NJ.  Grand Tier (Seat C101, $58).

At the conclusion of the concert.

Program

Arvo Part (b. 1935) Cantus in Memoriam of Benjamin Britten (1977)

William Grant Still (1895-1978) Symphony No. 1, "Afro-American Symphony" (1930/revised 1969)

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36

This was again a concert led by a former NJ Symphony music director.  Jarvi led the orchestra during the years 2005-2009.  His tenure was somewhat linked to the "Golden Age" string collection gifted by Herbert Axelrod; one can readily find details about this controversial chapter in NJ Symphony's history, so I won't go into details here.

Arvo Part is of Estonian descent, so is Jarvi.  Indeed the only other concert led by Jarvi that I have seen (Mostly Mozart, August 2016) also had a piece by Part in the program.  Today's piece was written in memory of Benjamin Britten, whom Part admires but had never met.

The online Program Notes contains the following description: A single chime opens Cantus, providing subtle color and a spiritual element. Pärt explores the sonorous beauty of the strings in different patterns of descending minor scales. The entrances grow progressively slower in their downward trajectory, creating layers of sound that coalesce on a low A-minor chord. Pärt’s thought-provoking music leaves us with a sense of bereavement that is also curiously peaceful.  The "single chime" would evoke Britten's "Four Sea Interludes," especially the "Sunday morning" bells.  There was that. And indeed the piece ended on this low A-minor chord, in the way described in the Notes.  My reaction was, unfortunately, "why did it take so long?"  And the piece lasted only six minutes.

 My only prior exposure to William Grant Still was an online concert hosted by 92Y during the COVID pandemic.  The annotator considers him an indispenssble figure in American classical music.  The Afro-American Symphony is the composer's best known work, and is an excellent example of how Still incorporated jazz into musical forms associated with the European tradition.  So says Laurie Shulman.  That may be so, but I just couldn't shake that it sounded like jazz first and foremost.  And there is nothing wrong with that, and do we need to really analyze how "European" the composition is?

The four movements were supposed to be performed without pause, but there were clearly pauses between movements, even if it was just to turn the page.  (And it didn't matter.)  Still offered the following titles to the movements: I.  Longing: Moderato assai; II. Sorrow: Adagio; III. Humor: Animato; IV. Aspiration: Lento, con risoluzione.  Jarvi performed the third movement as an encore.

The Arvo Part piece calls for a string orchestra and bells.

After the performance of Still's "Afro-American Symphony."  In the Instrumentation there should be a banjo, we didn't see/hear it.  We heard the harp clearly, though.

The concert is titled "Neeme Jarvi Conducts Tchaikovsky."  There are quite a few entries in this blog about Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, with the famous "fate" theme, and they are mostly positive.  That would include a 2016 performance by NJSO (as it was called then) led by the then-new music director Zhang.  Per that blog entry, I thought the piece was competently performed, but NJSO still had a way to go in that "there is this missing element of what the music was trying to say."  This is about seven years later, and to my dismay the same comment still applies  The orchestra was competent, the individual lines were clean and even enjoyable, but again there was no "storyline" to the performance.

I have heard this piece many times before, including from the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Moscow State Symphony, and my remarks were generally more positive than this.  If I were to find an excuse, I would blame that on my jet-lagged state.  I do think, however, the NJS still needs that extra "something" to become a great orchestra.

This was an evening concert, with the typical (low) attendance for a regular NJS concert.  A sports event also finished when we were done, so we had to drive through new parts of town to get home.

Second Hong Kong International Conducting Competition (Round 1). March 22, 2023.

Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall.  Front Stalls (Seat H13, HK$50).

Repertoire

Stravinsky Concerto in D for String Orchestra: I Vivace

and on of the following works, determined by a draw:

Beethoven Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b

Mozart Symphony No. 39 in E-flat, K543: I Adagio -Allegro

Candidates (per the brochure)

Rodolfo Barraez, 29 (Venezuela)

Vicente Chavarria, 34 (USA/UK)

Linhan Cui, 28 (China)

Taichi Fukumura, 30 (USA/Japan)

Mark Hui, 31 (Hong Kong)*

Edmon Levon, 34 (Spain)

Omer Shteinhart, 27 (Israel)*

Yi Wei, 26 (China)

Yao-Yu Wu, 33 (Taiwan)*

Nathaniel Efthimiou, 30 (USA/Finland)

Roc Fargas, 26 (Spain)

Kyrian Friedenberg, 24 (USA/Canada)

Brian Liao, 30 (Taiwan)

Mikhail Mering, 31 (Israel)

Abner Padrino, 30 (Venezuela)*

Satoshi Yoneda, 26 (Japan)

* ones we saw in the round

We saw advertisements about this event posted around MTR stations, and thought it would be interesting to attend one to see how these competitions work.  That it only costs HK$50 (discounted price for seniors) for four hours of music makes it a no-brainer if there are not other pressing matters to attend to.

The event is either sponsored by, or closely affiliated with, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta.  The CEO of the orchestra Dorothy Yang introduced the event.  She spoke for about 15 minutes without notes, and I didn't take any notes ...

The first competition was held in 2018, so I assume it wasn't going to be an annual event.  While they were fretting if people would apply, they ended up getting close to 200 applications, from which they selected 16 candidates for the multi-day event this week.  The candidates would be meeting the orchestra for the first time (one would think the one from Hong Kong may know the orchestra or some of the musicians in it), and were told which random piece (Beethoven or Mozart) they would be asked to conduct.

We sat through the first four candidates (asterisked above), each one taking 15 minutes.

Everyone played through the Stravinsky piece.  The second piece was treated more as a rehearsal as the candidate would stop and explain to the orchestra what he wanted.  15 minutes seem an awfully short amount of time to have one's future in conducting determined.  (I am assuming a win will give one a career boost.)  If forced to pick among the ones I heard, I will choose Mark Hui.  However, if he doesn't get to the next round, I can also accept that.

The orchestra is the instrument, but an instrument that can learn, and one with human emotions and problems.  One conductor might ask a timpanist to play in a particular way, the other may ask for a specific way of phrasing, if these are good suggestions, should the specific players retain those suggestions unless prompted by the "new" candidate to change?  Won't the last candidate be building on the work of his/her predecessors?  To cite as an example, the way the orchestra started the Mozart symphony was pretty bad - to put it bluntly - and the candidates actually all tried to improve it.  So would the judges take that into account when the last candidate pulled an A+ performance (probably no chance of that happening)?  By the end of the day the orchestra will have played for 4 hours; and if they take the job seriously, quite exhausted from both the physical playing and the mental concentration needed.  I won't be surprised if they sound tired at the end of the day.

I guess the judges would take all that into account.  Also for this round the task is to narrow the field to eight people.  Even I can probably tell the extremes (good and bad), it's the middle ones that would present problems, but there are eight jurors, so some level of safety in numbers.

After listening to the first tranche of four candidates, we decided to head off to an early lunch.  And this is more like an event than a concert.

[They announced the semi-finalists earlier today (March 22 HK) on their website.  Of the four candidates we saw, only Wu made it to that round.  My "favorite" Hui didn't make it.  My career as a judge quashed on my first try.]

Bamberg Symphony. Jakub Hrusa, conductor. March 19, 2023.

Hong Kong Cultural Center Concert Hall.  Balcony (Seat N124, HK$740).

Program

Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90 by Brahms (1833-1897).

Lontano by Ligeti (1923-2006).

Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88 by Dvorak (1841-1904).

Around each time this year Hong Kong hosts a HK Arts Festival.  This year's would be the 51st.  Whether they counted the pandemic years or not would not detract from the fact that this has been ongoing for a while.  I left Hong Kong in 1970, so probably missed the inauguration year of the festival, which I assume would be a relatively modest event.

The Festival officially ended on the 18th, with Bamberg Symphony performing in the Festival Finale.  That concert was sold out when I checked into it.  For whatever reason, there was going to be another concert the day after the Finale, and tickets were readily available.  The actual Finale program had more popular pieces of Brahms (4th Symphony) and Dvorak (New World), but I was sure I would enjoy the less popular symphonies by these composers.  And I was right.

Brahms and Dvorak lived around the same time, yet their musical styles were very different.  A program that contains work from both composers would provide an interesting contrast, which today's program did.

My experience with Dvorak's Eighth runs hot and cold.  I have always attributed that to how well the piece was performed.  I have no reason to change my theory, today's performance belongs in the well-performed category.

After performance of Brahms' Symphony.  The Usher (doing his job) told me photos were to be taken after the entire concert concludes.

This is taking "miniature score" to the next level.

The conductor acknowledged the soloist in the orchestra.  Here the flutist.

Many sections were close to being entirely empty.

Time stamped at 7:12 pm, after the orchestra played an encore.  Not sure today's added much to an already exciting program and performance.

The movements in the Brahms' Symphony are: Allegro con brio, Andante, Poco allegretto and Allegro - Un poco sostenuto.  For Dvorak: Allegro con brio, Adagio, Allegretto grazioso - Molto vivace, and Allegro ma non troppo.

The Program Notes contains the following quote from Ligeti: "Technically speaking, this is achieved with the aid of polyphonic methods: Fictive harmonies emerge from a complex vocal woven texture; gradual opacity and new crystallisations are the result of discrete alterations in the individual parts.  The polyphony in itself is almost imperceptible, but its harmonic effect represents the intrinsic musical action; what is on the page is polyphony, but what is heard is harmony."  My best description of the experience was the aural equivalent of watching a lava lamp where the "lave" coalesces and then breaks apart.  To make things more interesting, add some tint to the liquid, that would describe a "... credible performance ... requires inextinguishable intensity wed to a mult-faceted presentation of iridescent orchestral colours."  Again quoting from the Program Notes.

The program on the 18th had instead Ligeti's "Poeme symphonique for 100 metronomes."  That does sound interesting.

Bamberg is a small city in Germany, and Bamberg Symphony evidently does a lot of tours.  It was formed in 1946 by former members of the German Philharmonic Orchestra of Prague after the war.  It has the honorary title of Bavarian State Philharmonic Orchestra, and receives considerable funding from the Free State of Bavaria.

As to the Czech-born conductor Jakub Hrusa, he will become the music director of the Royal Opera House in London in 2025.

Earlier in the day we had lunch at the Rainbow Restaurant on Lamma Island.  The Restaurant provides a ferry service to Central and Tsim Sha Tsui.  We took the 2:45 pm ferry and got off right at the Cultural Center.  We had enough time for coffee before the concert.

For whatever reason, today's concert was poorly attended.  I was talking to the ushers and they had no idea why.  Some more expensive sections were completely empty, so one must wonder if HK$980 (priciest) was too much to ask for.  Of course the same price tickets were sold out for the prior day's concert.

New York Philharmonic. Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor; Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Dashon Burton, bass-baritone. March 10, 2023.

David Geffen Hall, New York.  Orchestra (Seat X103, $64.50).

MTT acknowledged each of the orchestra sections after the program concluded.

Program

Meditations on Rilke (2019; New York Premiere) by Michael Tilson Thomas (b. 1944).

Symphony in C major, D.944, Great (1825-26) by Schubert (1797-1828).

From what I can tell, even though his career has taken him overseas often, MTT considers himself more as an American conductor and composer (he would mention his Jewish roots every now and then).  From both the Program Notes and his short speech before the concert, Meditations on Rilke is very much a result of his heritage: his father the piano player trying to find work in the 1930s (that would be before MTT was born), and his grandfather's life in 1915 - a connection I failed to grasp.  He also speaks of the "Schubert-Mahler-Cowboy Western" arc.  Schubert being a great writer of songs; Mahler whose format for Das Lied von der Erde MTT tried to follow for these songs; and western (Red River Valley type of western, not country western) because of his heritage.

The Meditations are based on poems by the German Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926).  It consists of six songs sung alternately by a man and a woman vocalist, with the fifth one a duet.  (If you are counting, man: 1, 3, 6; woman 2, 4; duet 5.)  One might ask why an American experience would use German lyrics; not a clue.

The six songs, totaling about 40 minutes, are:

Herbsttag (October Day)

Ich lebe mein Leben (I Live My Life)

Das Lied des Trinkers (The Song the Drunkard Sings)

Immer wieder (Again, Again!)

Imagniarer Lebenslauf (Imaginary Biography)

Herbst (Autumn)

MTT took about five minutes to describe this collection.  I quote some of what he said below, together with my observations.  For the first movement, he mentioned the use of  a slightly detuned upright piano, and that the piano plays an ascending scale (or is it descending?).  I didn't catch that at all.  There was quite a bit of ragtime swing to it, with the piano first passing the baton to the oboe which in turn passes it on.  The third movement begins with quite a bit of orchestral music.  The fourth begins with two cellos and horns.  The last song is also "Autumn" and has an inverse (of the first song) scale played by the flute - I didn't catch that either.  Overall, Sasha Cooke came across much better than Dashon Burton.  The acoustics at my seat wasn't bad otherwise.

For "In the Composer's Words," MTT describes the songs as "based on motives that recur, recombine, and morph differently in each song."  The opening piano passage describes a bar pianist of over 100 years ago (his father, as he said at the beginning), and the first song introduces many of the motives in the subsequent numbers.  He also mentioned the fourth song is like a Schubert "cowboy song."

I perhaps got 10% (an arbitrary number) of all that.  MTT expresses the wish that the audience would walk away with some of the melodies he wrote.  While the songs are quite lyrical, I can't remember one single melody!

Sasha Cooke and Dashon Burton after performing MTT's Meditations on Rilke.

Looking back on the blog entries I made after listening to Schubert's Great (and it has been a few times), words like "boring," "long" were often used.  I did enjoy it once (at least as recorded in this blog).  The remark I made to myself tonight was: how many times can Schubert tease the audience about a movement's ending, but disappoint them by repeating another theme?

Much is made of Brahms not daring to compose a symphony because of the giant shadow cast by Beethoven.  Schubert evidently had no such qualms, even though he was an admirer of Beethoven.  Schubert never heard a full scale performance of any of his symphonies during his lifetime.

As mentioned above, my seat's acoustics was generally good, with the exception of the bass-baritone.  To my surprise, on several occasions I seemed to catch the sound of an individual instrument.

View of auditorium from Seat X103.

The audience gave an enthusiastic ovation after the concert was finished.  MTT quoted Bernstein and said "Far be it for a conductor to try to end a standing ovation ..."  After the audience calmed down, he proceeded to thank each section of the orchestra.  A nice gesture on his part.

Today MTT seemed to walk a bit more deliberately than when I last saw him in 2019.  At about 79 that's not unexpected.  I remember hearing his name in the 1970s, when he led the Buffalo Philharmonic.  For the Schubert, he had the music score in front of him, but didn't seem to refer to it much, nor did he turn the pages consistently.  The audience let out a chuckle when after each movement he seemed to flip over many pages to get to where he needed to be.  After first publishing this blog, I found out MTT disclosed his cancer diagnosis last year.

When I got an email announcing a discount for this concert, I grabbed two tickets.  Turns out we had babysitting duties and have to be in Hoboken.  I gave CS a ticket and met up with him at the venue.  Today traveling to and from Lincoln Center from Hoboken was straightforward.