New York Philharmonic. Semyon Bychkov, conductor; Katia and Marielle Labeque, pianos. December 1, 2023.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat W05, $80).

The Lebeque sisters, Semyon Bychkov and Bryce Dessner on stage after the piano concerto.  The sisters wear matching outfits with skirts that flare up.  Cute in children, here we have 70+ year old ladies (born in 1950 and 1952).

Program

Don Juan, Tone Poem after Nikolaus Lenau, Op. 20 (1888) by R. Strauss (1864-1949).

Concerto for Two Pianos (2017) by Bryce Dessner (b 1976).

Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 (1940) by Rachmaninoff (1873-1943).

The first remark I made to myself as the concert began was: wow, the New York Phil does have a better sound than NJ Symphony, which I heard yesterday.  There is a high degree in subjectivity to what constitutes good sound: the musical instruments, the precision, and the acoustics of the auditorium.  And in the past I have made the remark Carnegie Hall's sound sometimes is so clean that it would sound "antiseptic."  Whatever the reasons, subjective or objective, I was impressed with how well the sound came across.

The Program Notes mentions Liszt as one of the first composers in the "tone poem" genre.  I don't recall hearing any of Liszt's ever, but Strauss's have made regular appearances in concerts I attend.  Indeed, Don Juan was on the NJ Symphony program in January this year.  One would think the various conquests of the Don would be clear, but I couldn't tell how many were described in the piece, and (to be somewhat prurient) how the conquests were made.  That final thrust of the sword, however, is quite obvious.

The concertmaster (Staples for today) had to play a few solo melodies, and the sound was weaker than I expected, given how dependable she had been in the past.  The ear is a funny thing.  In the NJ Symphony concert Bell acted both as a concertmaster (in Mendelssohn's Overture to Midsummer Night's Dream) and a soloist (his violin concerto).  In the first instance he just blended with the violin section, and in the second instance his violin stood out.  I am sure the orchestra, and he, played the same way in both instances.  (Not quite germane to this blog entry, I know.)

A large ensemble was used in the Don Juan tone poem.

Things got busy on stage between the first and second pieces on the program.  Many chairs were removed for the smaller orchestra, two pianos had to be brought out.  Stage hands (I counted five of them) and librarians (two) were busy getting things ready.  I guess it's not in the musicians' contract for them to carry their own music.

I knew the piano duo Lebeque sisters from simply browsing the internet.  Today's encounter was my first, online or in person.  We had seen Dessner before with the NY Phil, back in 2019, where his composition "Wires" was first performed, and he played the electric guitar.  I was nonplused then.  I was equally nonplused today.  Since the NY Phil invited him back (at least his music), so there had to be something there.

The Concerto had three movements, helpfully named movements 1, 2 and 3.  The two pianos face one another, so one had its lid opening to the audience, the lid for the other one was missing.  I couldn't tell who was Katia, and who was Mariella; that was probably not important.

The opening was exciting enough.  But that excitement didn't last very long; the music just seemed to drone on after the initial several minutes, punctuated every now and then by something lyrical or episodic. The Program Notes has references to Philip Glass and Stravinsky.  To the extent that Glass's music move forward through slow changes, parts of today's concerto was indeed so.  Glass's music had a simplicity that I couldn't find in Dessner's.  Stravinsky?  I don't know what the Stravinsky sound is.

Watching the two pianos at the same time could become cognitive dissonant.  From where I was sitting on the left side of the auditorium, I could see one pair of hands move and correlate what I hear with the movements.  On the other hand, there was piano music coming from the other performer, and I kept wondering how the sound came about.  Perhaps an overhead camera projecting the two pairs of hands onto a screen would help.  Or a seat in the higher tiers where both keyboards can be seen.  As it was, I kept telling myself since the music didn't correspond to the hand movements I saw, it had to come from the other Lebeque sister.  A small orchestra was on stage for this, yet the pianos were still overwhelmed at times.

I caught the headline of the New York Times Review, the reviewer seems to pan this piece.  Not having read the article, I am not completely sure.

It would be a stretch to call Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, dances; I can't imagine a ballet or dance routine based on the music.  That may well be my limitations.  As music, however, there is much to be liked.  Going over my blog entries, the conductor of a NJ Symphony performance painted a picture of a dance hall with dancers entering and leaving.  Today's Program Notes mentioned Rachmaninoff had considered naming the three movements parts of the day (Noon, Twilight, Midnight; or Morning, Noon, Evening; proving that one can sometimes make arbitrary associations of title to music).  The interesting part for me is still how Dies Irae gets incorporated more and more in the last dance.

End of program.  One obvious difference is the use of a piano in the Rachmaninoff piece.

Bychkov was quite energetic in his conducting, and the orchestra responded well.  I also noticed the NJ Symphony principal bass in the bass section.  She was absent in the NJ Symphony performance yesterday.  Thoughts of "small fish in big pond, big fish in small pond, what is better?" came to mind.

New Jersey Symphony. Joshua Bell leads the NJ Symphony. November 30, 2023.

NJPAC, Newark, NJ.  Orchestra (Seat B104, $73).

Joshua Bell acknowledging the audience's applause after a brilliant Mendelssohn Violin Concerto performance.

Program

Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 21 by Mendelssohn.

Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 by Mendelssohn.

   (Original cadenza by Joshua Bell)

Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major, Op. 60 by Beethoven.

It isn't an understatement to say "Joshua Bell leads the NJ Symphony," as claimed in the title of the program.  For the three pieces in the program Bell was the conductor/concertmaster, he was the soloist(naturally)/conductor for the concerto, and he was the conductor for the symphony.

This is one of the best attendance I have seen at a NJ Symphony concert (except for Messiah which take place in much smaller halls), and I am sure the draw for most of the "non-regulars" was Bell, and the concerto he was to perform.

The program annotator (Laurie Shulman) has many words to describe the concerto: mature, virtuosic, pleasant, splendidly successful, and so on. All true.  However, many commentators also consider this a "light-weight" intellectual piece that's not much more than a technical tour-de-force and a crowd pleaser.  Whenever I listen to the concerto, however, I cast all that away and just sit there admiring the composer's genius, and the violinist ability to pull it off.  Shulman's notes describes how Mendelssohn consulted Ferdinand David in writing the concerto.

Of the four classical war-horse violin concertos I can think of, Mendelssohn's probably is the easiest technically.  (The others are Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms; people may have different lists.)  Nonetheless, Bell made the piece sound absolutely beautiful.  The solo violin comes in after a couple of introductory measures, and the Stradivarius simply sounded smooth, clear and brilliant (not an easy combination).  He was very much in his element.  Perhaps just a day in the office for him, but what a day.  The cadenza he composed had a degree of similarity with Mendelsohn's original and sounded it could have been composed by Mendelssohn himself.

During the breaks in the solo violin line, Bell would conduct by swinging his bow with considerable gusto, so much so that I was afraid the bow might hit a stand and break.  He has a similar role with the Academy of St Martin in the Field, I wonder if a conducting career is in his future.

Mendelssohn's genius is often compared with that of Mozart's, both were prolific composers early in their sadly short lives. The overture (simply called a Concert Overture then) was composed  in 1826 when he was 17, and was incorporated into the incidental music composed in 1842  for the actual play.  For this Wyrick "yielded" his seat to Bell.  (Wyrick did return for the rest of the concert.)

One usually expects a lot of "anger" (angst, as used by Shulman, probably is more appropriate) when Beethoven's work is played.  The fourth symphony is different.  My appreciation of the work was greatly enhanced by Shulman's notes.  However, it was also limited by my not having studied the work in advance.  Thus the overall effect was pleasant music punctuated by vignettes I can make out.  I would argue a great performance would bring a narrative to the audience, and today's performance was not at that level.

Bell led the NJ Symphony as conductor and concertmaster for the Overture by Mendelssohn.  He uses a piano bench.

Bell greeting Wyrick at the conclusion of the concert.  Bell did only the conducting.

The NJPAC staff, while friendly, did not handle the large crowd well.  Perhaps the issue was more with the administration.  The auditorium's narrow aisles and few doors mean it take a long time to get a large crowd seated.  As far as I could tell, the audience was let in about 15 minutes before the 1:30 pm start time.  Bell came out a few minutes after 1:30, got the orchestra ready, made a few remarks (e.g., good to have so many people show up, which is true), and then decided to leave and come back out when the audience had settled down.  The concert didn't start until 1:45 pm (or a couple of minutes later).  That was completely avoidable, as I am sure NJPAC had seen full houses before, even for NJ Symphony concerts.

The program was relatively short, so the concert ended at around 3:30 pm.

Boston Ballet. Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker." Conductor: Mischa Santora. November 26, 2023.

Citizens Bank Opera House, Boston.  Mezzanine Center Left (Seat C115, $154).

Choreography - Mikko Nissinen; Set and Costume Design - Robert Perdziola; Assistant Scenic Design - Micholas Kostner; Lighting Design - Mikki Kunttu.

Dancers.  The Nutcracker Prince - Jeffrey Cirio; Sugar Plum Fairy - Ji Young Chae; Drosselmeier - Lasha Khozashvili; Clara - Sophie Hatton.

We saw the same program back in 2005, my recollection was the experience was generally forgettable.  What stood out in my memory was the orchestra's sound was such that it sounded as if it came from two speakers on recording; that was my first use of "tinny" to describe the sound of an orchestra.  I certainly didn't remember if it was a live orchestra or not.  Going over the blog, I concluded the orchestra was live, and my complaint was limited to the orchestra - I had a lot of admiration for the ballet company.

This is 18 years later, I am still not sure about the orchestra.  May be preconception dictates one's perception, the orchestra sound, while richer, was still on the tinny (second use) side.  There was an artificiality to the sound that came and went.  Not what a good performance of say the Nutcracker Suite would sound like.  On the positive side, there were quite a few well-played movements.

The set was very different from the 2005 one (or what I remember of it, anyway).  Certainly the Christmas tree was more impressive, and the mouse scene was choreographed very differently.  Tonight the fights didn't happen in the dark.  What was missing was this loud cannon shot that ended the fight; it was more of a "puff" today.  Also there were more comic elements incorporated: a dancing bear, and a sheep that kept falling behind are two examples.

There is a lot of leg shaking - for lack of a better word - in the choreography.  Yes, it looked as awkward as it sounded.

People who went in Joe's car got there early.  DD wasn't in the picture as he and I were taking the T.

At first I thought it was a new Artistic Director, turns out Mikko Nissinen has been in the post since 2001.  Today's performance is Mikko Nissinen's The Nutcracker, so perhaps this is new choreography he composed (designed?) after 2005.

Many who attend a Nutcracker performance are young children, so some noise during the performance is probably inevitable.  While none rose to the level of "disruptive" (and parents are asked to take the children to the lobby), some were out of control, with behavior encouraged by their parents.  The program booklet also says "no photography," but the insert limits the prohibition to "during the performance."

DD and I walked to the Assembly Square station to catch the T to Downtown Crossing, and the opera house is a three-minute walk away.  Joe parked his car nearby, so it took no time to get back afterwards.  We did stop by Assembly to pick up some take-out for dinner.

Handel and Haydn Society. Jonathan Cohen, conductor. November 25, 2023.

Symphony Hall, Boston.  Center Balcony (Seat F10, $79.75)

End of concert.  One can see the baroque horns being used.  In the front: John Holiday, Joelle Harvey, Jonathan Cohen, Stuart Jackson, Jose Coco Loza.

Program: Handel's Messiah

Artists: Joelle Harvey, soprano;  John Holiday countertenor; Stuart Jackson, tenor; Jose Coca Loza, bass-baritone.

Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra and Chorus

The chorus roster lists 31 singers, 30 were on stage.  I am recording this so I can compare with how many will be singing with the New York Philharmonic in December.

We had bought tickets to NJ Symphony's performance of Messiah at Alexander Hall in Princeton, but had to return them because of conflict with a trip to Boston in mid-December.  Separately, we decided to come up to Boston after Thanksgiving since we had not seen Joe's family since the summer.  When I asked if there were any Messiah programs, I was told the H+H Society puts out a series every year, and it will coincide with our visit.

We head heard H+H chorus at a New York Philharmonic Messiah performance, back in December 2019, and enjoyed that concert.  The chorus will again be in NY this year, we have tickets, so I am quite curious to see how they do in their elements.

Bottom line.  They were okay, but did far below my expectations.  At intermission Anne and I both shook our heads, albeit at different aspects.

My assessment was the performance was technically great, but lacked exuberance.  There are no fatal flaws - this group first performed music from Messiah in 1815, after all.  After making this statement, I read in the Program Notes someone's critique of a 1784 performance at Westminster Abbey: ... the effect resembled a clock-work in everything, but want of feeling and expression.  Better wordsmithing, same sentiment.

The chorus was surprising small, 30 people altogether (the roster shows 31).  For the 2019 NY Phil performance I counted 44 chorus members, and I wonder how many will be there next month.  The volume relative to the orchestra and soloists was good, but overall the sound was weak.  I thought they did the high notes very well, and the 16th note runs were crisp.

The orchestra uses period instruments, they had to be tuned several times during the performance.  I notice all the violinists and violists are women (roster has one or two men).  The trumpets used were period (perhaps what's called baroque trumpets), noticeable by the lack of valves, and long pipes.  One of the two players had his mask on all the time; I didn't think that was possible.  It did seem difficult to play precisely in tune, perhaps due to forced harmonics produced by the unmovable parts.  There were two harpsichords used, one by the conductor, and a small organ (or a harmonium).  One complaint is that I can't find a list of instruments used.  There are year-over-year variations in how NY Philharmonic puts together the instrument ensemble, I imagine that's true of H+H also.  The concertmaster Aisslinn Nosky was in a recital with Yi-Heng last year, which I saw on line.

I heard Joelle Harvey before, in a Messiah performance 10 years ago.  She was the standout among the soloists.  The countertenor had a voice closest to a female's - not sure if that's the objective - but sounded saccharine perhaps because of it.  The two male voices are on the weak side, especially that of the bass-baritone; I had to cup my ears to hear him properly.

One note after I posted the blog entry just now.  Many Program Notes for Messiah discuss why audience members stand during the Hallelujah Chorus, and that it is up to the individual to decide.  My first thoughts were Boston is where the tea party happened, so why would people here want to honor a tradition a British monarch may or may not have started.  To my surprise, nearly everyone stood.  Being the conformists/cowards that we are, we also stood.

There were a few empty seats in the auditorium, and quite a few left at the break.  Boston audiences are less concerned about disturbing others.  A few people were taking photos or videos during the performance, and the father/daughter in front of us kept whispering to one another.  I was hushed in New York for turning the page too loudly.  The noticeably younger audience did not cough as much, so that was good.

The auditorium was reasonably full as the performance was about to begin.  Quite a few people left at intermission.

This is Jonathan Cohen's first year as the director, and this is the first Messiah performance, so perhaps there were some opening concert jitters?  I couldn't tell, but here's hoping he will do better.

The chorus must be invited to various venues during the Messiah season, so the members have a busy schedule ahead of them.  They should be admired for bring great music to people across the country.

Joe dropped us off.  The Orange Line has a station a couple of blocks away.  When we asked the station agent whether we could simply swipe our credit cards for the gates, she simply opened a gate for us and invited us to walk through.  The trains are quite new, and we got off at Assembly Square to have dinner with Joe's family.

New York Philharmonic. Paavo Jarvi, conductor; Alena Baeva, violin. November 18, 2023.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra 3 (Seat V103, $83).

Alena Baeva and Paavo Jarvi after performing the Britten violin concerto.

Program

Overture No. 2 (1958-59) by Tormis (1930-2017).

Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 15 (1938-39, last rev. 1965) by Britten (1913-76).

Symphony No. 6 in E-flat minor, Op. 111 (1945-47) by Prokofiev (1891-1953).

After the concert the first thought that came to mind was how rare it was nowadays that I hear three pieces I hadn't heard before.  Indeed this was my first encounter with Tormis.  But a review of my blog entries returns one Prokofiev (12/2017, NJ Symphony) and multiple instances of Britten (and twice in 11/2018, NJ Symphony and NY Philharmonic).  This blog entry should be read with that in mind.

Writing on Tuesday, 3 days after the concert, I have already forgotten about how the Tormis overture sounded like, and whether it has any distinguishing characteristics.  But fear not, I did jot down a few phrases, including "quite enjoyable."  One reason I attribute to its likeability because while the approach is clearly modern, there are enough classical (or psudo-classical, if there is such a term) elements to the work that may it quite accessible.  That the Program Notes has a "The Work at a Glance" byline helps tremendously in following the music.  To quote the last section: This time, more-prominent brass and military drumrolls ratchet up the sense of urgency - perhaps even the imminent doom of a march to the gallows - as Tormis closes dramatically with three final, stark shots across the bow.  That description certainly announced the end of the piece; or one can look at one's watch and tell when 11 minutes have lapsed.

After the Tormis piece.  Many sections were headed by the associate/assistant principals for this concert.

In my defence, I heard the Britten concerto last in 2018, a full five years ago.  Still, how could I forget the vehemence with which the violin is attacked, and all the technical demands on the soloist from double and triple stops to left hand pizzicatos, and double harmonics.  And to string together the phrases to provide a narrative (for the musical soul, since I am not sure Britten was trying to describe anything).  The Kyrgystan-born Baeva was up to the task.  She plays a Guarnerius (ex-William Kroll of 1738) with a tone quality and brilliance that rival a Strad (meant as a compliment) for the first two movements.  The violin was overwhelmed often during the third movement; I wonder if the concerto asks a lot of the performer.

With a piece so technically challenging, one would expect issues in the performance.  For tonight it was mostly intonation and uncertain harmonics.  I don't need to wonder how a more technically accomplished performance would sound like: one of the 11/2018 performances was by Hadelich, who came through better than tonight's, if what I wrote for that day is any indication.

For any encore we heard a movement of a concerto that was more of the same: a showcase for technical prowess, in this instance with a lot of flying arpeggios.  It would have been nice to hear a more lyrical piece.

For most of the 20th century Russian composers had to go with the political wind.  Shostakovich is the prime example, but Prokofiev was subject to the same praise and criticism by the "culture department" of the government.  (What I can never understand is why Prokofiev chose to return to Russia; perhaps thinking 'this time it will be different?'.)  The Program Notes describes how the sixth was praised by critics when it first came out in October 1947, and Prokofiev was named People's Artist of Russia, and then denounced in January 1948 with the symphony censured.  It didn't return to a Russian hall until the 1960s; in the meantime it received international acclaim.

Prokofiev's original description of the symphony is succinct (quoting the Program Notes again): The first movement is of a restless nature, at times lyrical and at times stern; the second movement is more tranquil and songful; the finale, fast and buoyant, would resemble in nature my Fifth Symphony but for the stern echoes of the first movement.  To get that, I will need to listen to the symphony multiple times; and this was my second time.  A few more to go, then.

We had babysitting duties in Hoboken this afternoon.  It was quite easy to take Bus 126 in.

Hoboken Children's Theater. Finding Nemo Kids. November 10, 2023.

Hoboken Children's Theater.  Stalls ($5).

Maisie had a role in this production, so Anne and I attended the second of the two performances.  They had 8 practice sessions.

HCT is putting out multiple version of the show: a one-hour long program for 5th/6th graders, 35 minutes for grades 3 and 4, and shorter versions for younger children.  A lot of work for the teachers.

The theater is small, the music was taped, and there was no sound system, so the dialog was sometimes difficult to get.

And there were quite a few costume changes, which the production team managed brilliantly.

As grandparents we were happy to go along for the ride.

I dropped Anne off at the Theater, parked at Ellie's, and then walked to the Theater.  They started when I got to my seat, 2 minutes late.  (Quite possible they waited for the straggler.)

We walked back afterwards, late fall was in the air.

New York Philharmonic. Susanna Malkki, conductor; Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano; Jeno Lisztes, cimbalom. November 3, 2023.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra 1 (Seat Y105, $90).

Aimard and Malkki after the Ligeti piano concerto.  The orchestra did not seem particularly large, but there were a lot of instruments involved.

Program

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor, S.244/2H (1847; arr. 2017) by Liszt (1811-86), arr. Listztes (b. 1986).

Romanian Folk Dances, BB 76 (1915; orch. 1917) by Bartok (1881-1945).

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1985-86/1988) by Ligeti (1923-2006).

Pictures at an Exhibition (1874; arr. 1922) by Musorgsky (1839-81), arr. Ravel (1875-1937).

This is an eclectic program.  It begins with two short pieces based on Hungarian and Romani tunes, followed by a piano concert by Ligeti.  The second half was Russian music orchestrated by a French composer, but remains undoubtedly Russian in character.  The audience was also treated to the cimbalom, a Hungarian variation of the hammered dulcimer.  Individual pieces have their merits, but I can't see how the pieces constitute a coherent concert program.

Jeno Lisztes is a Budapest-born musician.  He adapted the Liszt piece for the cimbalom, which he performed today.  Some tunes in the rhapsody are famous: Cat Concerto famous, in this case.  Any musical instrument performed well is impressive, and it is impressive how two hammers can produce such complex sounds from the instrument.  While the experience was enjoyable, and perhaps memorable, it was nonetheless little more than a "sing-along" experience, at least as far as this concert-goer is concerned.  The Program Notes says this piece is about 7 minutes, it was quite a bit longer than that.  (Time stamp of applause at 2:16 pm, and the concert started quite promptly, at say 2:05.)

Jeno Lisztes performed his arrangement of Liszt's Rhapsody.

An image of the Cimbalom downloaded from the web.  The Chinese have a similar hammered dulcimer called the Yanquin.

Bartok managed to squeeze in seven (some would say six) movements into 7 minutes.  And these were quite enjoyable.  The movements are Stick Dance, Sash Dance, In One Spot, Horn Dance, Romanian Polka, and Fast Dance (one or two).  The tempo markings (see Program) were easy enough to discern (one might argue the line between Andante and Moderato), but the feel of each dance had little to do with the title of the movement.  I looked at the score and the description of the Stick Dance in the Program Notes just now: "young men's solo dance ... consists of kicking the room's ceiling."  One would think that would be done with fanfare and difficulty, but the score doesn't read that way, neither did the performance.

A relatively small ensemble used for Bartok's piece.

This is the 100th year of Ligeti's birth, and many orchestras - including the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony - celebrate by putting out tributes.  The piano concerto was first a 3-movement work, and later expanded by the composer to five.  Here is how the Program Notes quotes Ligeti on the fourth movement: "Its formal process is fractal in time: reiterating the same formula, the same succession always in different shapes, using simultaneous augmentation and diminution of the same models ... focusing on smaller and smaller details."  That I don't understand what he was saying is inconsequential, Ligeti won many prizes and accolades because of this work (even before it was expanded).  The Annotator offered brief descriptions of each of the movements, and offers up the observation that after the fourth movement's uproar, the "concluding Presto luminoso seems more a coda than an emphatic sort of finale."  In my view it was a fitting - and hefty - finale.

As to how Aimard did it.  The Program Notes contains a review of his performance in 2019, the last paragraph of which is "Aimard rose superbly to the technical challenges of the piece, but more impressive still was his command of Ligeti's ironies and ambiguities of tone - no sweetly inviting, now dry and sardonic."  I am not about to argue with that assessment.  The only surprising thing was he needed the score in front of him.

The piece involves a large number of instruments, including 23 "percussion" instruments.  Some of them I classify as "percussion" only because they were played by the percussionists.  Examples are bird whistle and Hohner harmonica.  What can't these versatile folks do?

Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition was based on an exhibit in memory of Musorgsky's close friend Viktor Hartmann, an architect and designer.  Not all of the movements can be associated with specific items at the exhibit, but the overall structure of moving from one room to the other is clear.

I recall the Promenade as being more prevalent than today's performance, where it showed up four times.  A piano score I looked at just now had the Promenade appear five times, so my recollection was off.  The piece is easy to listen to, and easy to like.  Today's performance was no exception.  One can try to associate what one hears with the title of the movement, but that is not necessary.  Some complain that Ravel's orchestration could be more "Russian," but it was clear Russian for me.  In any case, there is no way a piano can duplicate the grandiosity of a full orchestra.  Listening to parts of piece played by a pianist just now, I can confirm it cannot.

A good performance of Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is always enjoyable.

Before the second half began, the Orchestra played a movement from Elgar's Enigma Variations (Nimrod) in memory of a colleague (a stage manager) who recently passed away.  It was a great tribute.  Done without a conductor, it makes one wonder how much a conductor adds to the performance: we recently heard it performed by the NJ Symphony.

This concert started at 2 pm.

New York Philharmonic. Jeannette Sorrell, conductor. October 28, 2023.

David Geffen Hall.  Orchestra 3 (Seat AA118, $70).

Photo taken after Act II, before the intermission.  There were only 4 soloists at this point.

Program

Israel in Egypt, Oratorio in Three Parts, HWV 54 (1739) by Handel (1685-1759).  Adapted by Jeannette Sorrell.

Artists

Soloists: Amanda Forsythe, soprano; Sonya Headlam, soprano; Cody Bowers, countertenor; Jacob Perry, tenor; Edward Vogel, baritone.

Apollo's Singers (Chorus of Apollo's Fire), Jeannette Sorrell, artistic director.

Sheryl Staples, Lisa Eunsoo Kim, violins; Carter Brey, cello; Robert Botti, oboe; Christopher Martin, trumpet; Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord.

This is an oratorio composed by Handel in the span of about a month.  In its original form it lasts about 3 hours.  Over the years different people have made various attempts to shorten it.  Tonight's version, about 100 minutes in duration, was adapted by Sorrell in 2017.  In the Program Notes she mentions her restoring some portions of Part I to make the storyline more complete.  To keep the oratorio's duration manageable for modern audiences, she for the most part made cuts within movements and added some dynamics to drive the story.  Practices, she claims, that were common for performance of Baroque music in Handel's time.

The three parts of the oratorio are familiar to those with some knowledge of the Bible: Act I: Lamentation of the Israelites for the Death of Joseph; Act II: Exodus; Act III: Moses's Song.  Most of Act III is taken from Moses's song as recorded in Exodus 15, which also recorded what Miriam sang.  

The death of Joseph as recorded in the last verse of Genesis reads: And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt (NIV).  The last line in Act I is "Their bodies are buried in peace," a quote supposedly from Ecclesiastes 44:14.  That book has 12 chapters.  It turns out in the KJV (up till 1885) the books in the apocrypha was included between the traditional Old and New Testaments.  So Handel (more likely his lyricist, believed by many to be Charles Jennens, who also did the lyrics for Messiah) was quoting from the book of Ecclesiasticus.  Act II is basically a short description of the plaques that visited on Egypt, and the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites, and ending with "the waters overwhelmed their enemies."

There is much to like about the performance.  An easy to understand story, music that doesn't overwhelm (unless one chooses to be, by trying to analyze what one hears), performed by competent musicians.  The Program Notes describes how vivid Handel made the music: frogs jump off the page; flies appear ... in the violins; hailstones drops ... overwhelming torrent; indeed one can hear these effects, but they are not necessarily more realistic than what Beethoven did in the Pastoral Symphony, to cite an example that comes to mind readily.

Apollo's Fire is based in Cleveland, Ohio.  The chorus was founded in 1992 by Sorrell.  For tonight there were about 50 singers on stage.  Per the listing in Playbill, today's soloists are the leaders of their respective sections (if listing order is any indication).  If one looks at the organization's website, there are only 36 singers listed, and none of tonight's soloists is listed as a "core singer."  Sounds like a democratic and/or egalitarian organization.

The unfortunate fact is when one thinks Handel and oratorio, Messiah is the one that comes to mind.  Enjoyable as it is, Israel in Egypt suffers from a storyline that may be too simple, and the lack of memorable melodies.  Indeed none of the movements sounded familiar to either Anne or myself.  That in itself may not be that unusual.  The last (and only) time the entire oratorio was performed by this orchestra was in 1891 (some single arias were done, evidently).  I wonder what Handel would think if he knows this oratorio is performed less than once per century, but Messiah is performed every year.

Acoustics at our seats was generally fine.  The solo voices didn't come across as strong as I would like.  So there is a difference between Orchestra 3 and Orchestra 1, after all.

We left right after the concert concluded, and managed to catch the 9:38 pm train back to South Amboy with a few minutes to spare.

New Jersey Symphony. Joseph Young, conductor; Sterling Elliott, cello. October 21, 2023.

Count Basie Center, Red Bank, NJ.  Orchestra Center (Seat G101, $55).

Soloist Elliott acknowledging the orchestra, with conductor Young looking on.

Program

Snapshots by Jessie Montgomery.

Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 129 by R. Schumann.

Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, "Enigma" by Elgar.

The draw of the concert, for me, is the Schumann Cello concerto.  About ten days prior we heard the piano concerto performed by Trifonov.  Today's Program Notes isn't as "educational" as the writeup in NY Phil's Playbill, but the music is equally fascinating.  Instead of taking years to write the piano concerto, Schumann took all of two weeks to do it for the cello; it was written in 1850, a few years later.

It's a lovely concerto.  Again I am more familiar with it than I thought.  The young soloist is a recent Avery Fisher Prize winner.  He is from a musical family, and was brought up with a jazz and blue-grass background.  For an encore he played "Julie-O" by Mark Summer (I heard Julio by Mark Sumner, a search using that term returned some videos that sounded like the encore).

Who am I to haggle with Avery Fisher Price judges, but I did think the performance was missing a coherent story line.  It is still amazing how one could still get a accurate pitch jumping around the fingerboard, though.  And Schumann seemed to use every note available to the cello.

The movements of the concerto are Nicht zu schnell, Langsam, and Sehr lebhaft.

Despite all the writeups extolling the virtues of the "Enigma" variations, it remains an enigma to me.  Not so much what specific people Elgar had in mind for the specific variations, but something quite fundamental: how each variation deals with the theme.  I am embarrassed to say by the time we got to the finale, I couldn't tell how similar it was to the original theme.  Perhaps next time I will read up on the music (rather the story) and look at the score.

Tonight's program began with Montgomery's Snapshots, a work commissioned by several orchestras, including the NJ Symphony.  The movements are all marked by tempo markings, but the music didn't feel rigid at all.  Montgomery had a brief description of each of the vignettes, and as quoted in the Program Notes, "Each movement [is] distinct in character and based on an imagined scene, mood or effect."  The movements are described as boisterous (I, Quarter note = 168), whimsical and playful, a passing storm that never quite quits (II & III.  Lively: quarter note - 132; Meandering: quarter note = 60), and being influenced by film music and Ravel and Debussy string quartets (IV: Con fuoco: quarter note = 112).  Multiple listenings may get a listener to appreciate what she was saying, but I wouldn't even want to try with a first-listen.

The conductor Joseph Young has several concurrent assignments, one being the resident conductor of the National Youth Orchestra-USA at Carnegie Hall.

Our grandchildren were staying with us this evening.  I left the house a little before 7 pm to get a discounted ticket for the 8 pm concert.  This concert was poorly attended, the auditorium was perhaps 1/3 full.

Quatuor Danel. October 15, 2023.

Town Hall, New York City.  (Orchestra, Seat N117.  $15.45)

The quartet at the conclusion of the concert.

Program

Franz Schubert (1797-1828), Quartet in C Minor, D. 730 "Quartettsatz" (1820).

Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996), Quartet No. 16 in A-flat Major, Op. 130 (1981).

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80 (1847).

Artists: Marc Danel, violin; Gilles Millet, violin; Vlad Bogdanas, viola; Yovan Markovitch, cello.

The quartet is named after it's leader, Marc Danel, and has been around for over 30 years.  It's has worldwide presence; for example, in the month of October they have concerts in several cities in the US and in Leuven, Belgium.  Naturally this was my first encounter with the ensemble.

The Schubert piece was relatively short (less than 10 minutes) and contains two movements: Allegro assai, and Andante.

Weinberg was a Polish-born Russian composer and pianist, per Wikipedia, which also lists the 159 compositions authored by the composer.  The musicians certainly got a workout from the piece - the longest of the three.  As with most modern compositions, I spent a lot of time trying to "analyze" what I heard - without much success, as usual.  This composer is a favorite of this quartet, which performed the complete quartet cycle in Manchester in 2019.

Mendelssohn's piece would straddle the relatively simplicity of Schubert and denseness of Weinberg.  I enjoyed it.

My lack of words in this blog reflects my need to get more familiar with this genre.  Indeed I appreciated how the four parts worked with (and sometimes against) one another, but I don't have the vocabulary to describe what I heard.

After finding out about People's Symphony Concerts (PSC) I decided to do a 6-concert subscription (the Solomon series).  The whole series cost $90 (plus a 3% fee).  Frank Salomon is the third manager in the organization's 125-year history, and has been in the role for 50 years.  His predecessor did it for 58 years.  I am sure he is a major benefactor as well.  Despite the word "symphony" in its name, PSC hosts very few (if any) symphonic concerts.

The concert was reasonably well-attended.  The gentleman next to my assigned seat mentioned that the auditorium used to be full pre-pandemic, but hasn't quite worked back up those crowd levels yet.  We also commiserated on our inability to understand many of today's compositions.  I moved before the concert started (social distancing) and moved to the back row after intermission so I could make a quick exit.

NJ Transit ran smoothly, so I had time to stop by a pizzeria for lunch.  Cost about $16 for two slices and a soda.

New York Philharmonic. Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, conductor; Daniil Trifonov, piano. October 13, 2023.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra 1 (Seat O105, $90.25).

Trifonov after the performance of Schumann's Piano Concerto, with Grazinyte-Tyla looking on.

Program

De profundis for string orchestra (1998) by Raminta Serksnyte (b. 1975).

Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 (1841-45) by R. Schumann (1810-56).

Selections from Lemminkainen Suite, Op. 22 (1895, last rev. 1939).

The drawing card on the program for most people was most likely Trifonov who at 32 has been a reliable (perhaps sensational is the better adjective) soloist for about 10 years.

And the piece did not disappoint.  Looking over my blog entries, I found out to my amazement and chagrin that in January 2019 I had seen Trifonov perform this concerto with the New Jersey Symphony.  And my reaction then is valid for today's performance as well.  One could argue Liszt's influence came across clearer today, but that may well be due to my level of familiarity with this concerto.

Some interesting side notes.  The Clara Schumann concerto, completed in 1936, was performed by Inon Barnatan and the New Jersey Symphony in 2020.  She didn't marry Robert until 1939, so was still Clara Wieck.  The Program Notes also mentions her influence by Liszt and Chopin.  Perhaps that just the development of classical music during that time period?  Also, Clara Schumann gave the premiere performance of the Robert Schumann concerto.

Today's Program Notes also describe most concertos written during that time were considered lightweight vehicles for showmanship.  The composers listed - Kalkbrenner, Thalberg, Herz, Pixis, and so on - have indeed slipped to the fringe of the repertoire; I didn't know any of them.  The Schumann concerto had its origin in 1841 as a one-movement Phantasie for Piano and Orchestra, performed twice at the Leipzig Gewandhaus with Clara Schumann as the soloist, and Felix Mendelssohn as the conductor.

[Note added October 25: Trifonov played an encore that sounded like one of Bach's three-part inventions, if there is such a thing.]

De Profundis was written by Serksnyte as her bachelor's graduation work in 1998.  She is now teaching at the same Lithuania Academy of Music.  In her words as quoted in the Program Notes: "This dramatic music, full of contrasts, reflects a certain worldview of a young person...  At a young age life is perceived in an extreme, "severe" way, where euphoria quickly changes to disappointment..."

The composer of De Profundis, Raminta Serksnyte, on stage after the performance.

Indeed it's easy to discern some of the contrasts she talks about ("extreme" is too strong a word): beauty and melancholy, Western and Eastern cultures, rational and irrational ideas - quoting again from the Program Notes.  And the use of major and minor thirds.  For me, however, the music doesn't go beyond that.  Other than describing these contrasts, the music didn't say much else to me.  I certainly did get what the Annotator describes as "a taut, spellbinding intensity that eventually quiets even as it never entirely dissolves."  Over the ensuing 25 years the composer has written music and many different genres, and accumulated quite a few prizes.  De Profundis, however, is still her most-performed work.

My reaction to the Lemminaiken Suite by Sibelius runs hot and cold, mostly cold.  In fact I considered my first encounter of "The Swan of Tuonela" forgettable.  The one positive reaction I had was when the entire Suite was performed by NY Phil, under the direction of Sir Colin Davies.  That was the first time the piece was performed in its entirety by the ensemble.  The pieces selected for tonight's performance are: Lemminlainen and the Maidens of the Island; The Swan of Tuonela; and Lemminkainen's Return.  Ryan Roberts, the orchestra's English Horn, was the soloist in the Swan movement.

The Program Notes spent quite a few words describing what is behind the first movement, discussing if it describes how Lemminkainen sleeps with with every woman on the island, or if it simply a portrayal of the wanton life of the protagonist (the word "hero" used doesn't seem appropriate).  One would think the latter remark, supposed from Sibelius himself, would cut off all discussions of this nature.  Being a tone poem, there should be storylines behind each movement, and I am sure there are.  Those are not described in the Program Notes for tonight.

Ryan Roberts was the English Horn solo for the Swan of Tuonela movement.

This is the debut performance by the young Lithuanian-born Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla.  She had a presence that is remarkable, especially considering her small stature, and is one of the few conductors with an upward facing palm in her conducting techniques.  The reports that I have read all seem to heap praises on her, so it's somewhat of a pity that tonight's performance wasn't a showcase of her talents - others disagree.  Of course the Schumann concerto being as pleasant as it was had to be due to the great performance of the orchestra.  Unfortunately she was blocked from view by the piano.

Today's concert began at 11 am, so we were planning to take the 9:04 am train from South Amboy.  As with our last trip, a pedestrian accident (which ended up being a fatal one) stopped all trains coming up from the south.  Fortunately the 9:17 am train originated from South Amboy, so we got to Lincoln Center with 15 minutes to spare.  The return trip was fine.

There were some empty seats in the auditorium, and - as is the case with many of these day-time concerts - many in the audience are older folks.

New York Philharmonic. Jaap van Zweden, conductor; Joshua Bell, violin. September 30, 2023.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  (Orchestra 1, Seat R101, $90.25)

Program

The Elements (2023) by Puts, Meyer, Heggie, Higdon and Montgomery.

Third Symphony (1944-46) by Copland (1900-90).

Concertmaster and Conducting shaking hands after the concert.  This would be van Zweden's last year as Music Director of New York Philharmonic.

First, we didn't get to Lincoln Center in time for the Elements.  I will get to the reason later.

It was about 8:30 pm when we got to David Geffen Hall.  The renovated building has a rather large atrium with a couple of large screen TVs that would broadcast the event live, and is open to the public.  The atrium was reasonably full, with all the seats occupied.  There was quite a bit of standing room, and some available seating in the box office area.  So we managed to see part of the performance.  For various reasons it was difficult to concentrate, but I did get a glimpse of what the piece sounded like.

The piece wasn't over until around 9 pm.  The durations as stated in the Playbill total 38 minutes.  If my logic is correct, that would mean we missed only about 8 minutes of the piece.  In my mind I had given up on hearing the piece, so I wasn't focused on it, and consequently don't remember much of it.  Perhaps it is sour grapes, but Anne and I concluded we didn't miss much.

At intermission we were allowed into the venue.  We have attended concerts in the renovated David Geffen Hall quite a few times, this, however, was the first time we sat in a prime section (Orchestra 1).  My first impression was that the sound was loud, although not as clear as it could be.

The Copland piece was finished after the second world war, and the work is considered by some both as a contribution to the war effort and the celebration of its end.  Honestly, without the Program Notes I wouldn't have gotten either.

The four movements of the symphony are (i) Molto moderato with simple expression; (ii) Allegro molto; (iii) Andantino quasi allegretto; and (iv) Molto deliberato (Fanfare); Allegro risoluto.  A few noteworthy (well, to some) comments on the work.  First, Copland deliberated name this the Third Symphony, instead of the more expected Symphony No. 3.  Wikipedia has it listed as "Symphony No. 3 (Copland)."  What would a purist say to that?  Second, the third and fourth movements are performed without pause.  Third, the fourth movement contains the well-known theme "Fanfare for the Common Man" composed by Copland a few years earlier.  Lastly, Copland made it clear this was the only non-original part of the symphony, and that it contains no folk, jazz or other popular material; he allowed he might have been influenced by Mahler in a general way.  Well, had it not for the last sentence, Mahler would not have crossed my mind: and I have been listening to Mahler recordings quite a bit recently.

One can see the performance live from large screen TVs installed in the Atrium, for free.

I wonder why there is this grey hue in the stage area.  Photos taken with iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Both Anne and I agreed this was not a particularly inspired performance.  Whether it was due to our mindset, I don't know.  Let's hope things improve: we have tickets to an additional 12 concerts.

One word about the ticket price.  This is part of the "Add-On" package I bought, the "best available seats" were priced at $89 (price of $90.25 includes part of the booking charge).  I checked the NY Phil website, a similar seat purchased at "retail" costs $217 (including a $23 service fee).

We took the 5:40 pm train from South Amboy, which would have gotten us to NY Penn at 6:40 pm, ample time to get something to eat before the concert.  There was a train accident in North Elizabeth involving a pedestrian fatality at 4 pm, which resulted in delays the rest of the day.  As a result, we didn't get to NY Penn until around 8:15 pm.  This kind of delay - thankfully - is rare, but does happen.

There was no food at the Bar, nor the kiosks in the venue, so we made do with a bag of chips (each).  We did have time at NY Penn for the return trip, and shared a sandwich between the two of us.

The train was more crowded than usual, but was on time.  It was just past midnight that we got home.

Hong Kong Philharmonic. Jaap van Zweden, conductor; Rudolf Buchbinder, piano. September 16, 2023.

Concert Hall, Hong Kong Cultural Center.  Stalls (Seat FF49, HK$390).

Banner inside the Cultural Center.

Program

String Symphony No. 13, Sinfoniesatz by F. Mendelssohn (1809-1847).

Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor, by Beethoven (1770-1827).

Symphony No. 4, Italian, by Mendelssohn.

This was taken at 7:52 pm, 8 minutes from start.  Still many unoccupied seats in the Orchestra section.

The String Symphony was written when Mendelssohn was 14.  The Program Notes makes a credible case that Mendelssohn was even more of a musical talent than Mozart, as the latter wrote nothing to this level of sophistication at the same age.  In defense of Mozart, he was born more than 50 years prior, and music had not progressed to this level of sophistication.

In any case, one could discern (at least) two segments in the short 7-minute piece (Program says 6 minutes).  A slow introduction followed by a rather fast section with a heavy dose of fugues.  My appreciation of the piece was helped by the Program Notes.  The annotator further claims this reflects Mendelssohn's love of Bach and perhaps began his revival of Bach's music.

Over the years I have heard quite a few Emperors performed.  Today's was quite different from the rest, but impressive in its own way.  First, Buchbinder made it seem so effortless.  From where I sat (and the venue is very intimate) he didn't seem to break a sweat.  The concerto probably won't be nicknamed "Emperor" because of this performance, yet the whole piece simply hangs together.  The orchestra was a true partner in that it did not try to overwhelm the soloist - that was my fear at the beginning.  Van Zweden should know what would work: this is his home turf.

For encore Buchbinder played a rather familiar piece by Johann Strauss.  I didn't get the title of the piece, though.

I had heard Buchbinder perform twice before, once with Orpheus, once with Mostly Mozart.  They were a while ago, he was already "old" then.  The Austrian-born pianist is 76 years old.  Turns out the van Zweden/Buchbinder combination will find its way to New York Philharmonic in January, 2024, and I have tickets to that concert.  That would be Beethoven's Fourth Concerto, which was played in Hong Kong the night before (September 15).  I wonder if I will remember enough of this performance to do any sort of comparison.

As an aside, Joshua Bell opened the HK Phil season with a piece he commissioned called "The Elements."  He will do so with New York Phil at the end of this month.

Mendelssohn's 4th Symphony turns out to be quite familiar, even though I hadn't heard it for a while - I think.  That is particularly true of the first two movements.  The first one (Allegro vivace) is sunny, a hymn is based on the melody of the second movement (Andante con moto).  While the third and fourth movements are not as familiar, they nonetheless evoke a happy and sunny atmosphere.  To quote the end of the Program Notes (written by Stephen Johnson): "This is music of wonderful abandoned rhythmic energy; unusually it remains in the darker minor key right through to the final chords, though a joyous use of the minor mode is hard to imagine."  The tempo markings for the last movements are Con moto moderato and Saltarello: Presto.  The Saltarello is an Italian folk-dance very similar to the Tarantella, so says the Program Annotator.

After the first piece.  Notice the seats were mostly occupied.

Buchbinder and van Zweden.

At the conclusion.  One can't but feel Jaap is very comfortable with these musicians.

Apparently in Hong Kong there is not this pressure to program in modern or neglected composers yet, if the programs for these two evenings are any indication.  The concert was still completely satisfying.  This actually didn't occur to me until I am wrapping up this writeup.  The January 2024 concert has the Beethoven concerto bookended by Wagner and Brahms.  That's fine by me.

I am glad I could catch this concert, especially with a discounted ticket.  And there were few empty seats in the auditorium, which is simply great.