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

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

Program

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Program

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Program

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

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

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

Artists

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All was quiet by the time we left.

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

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

Story.  See previous post.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Story.  See previous post.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Washington National Opera – Catan’s Florencia en el Amazonas. September 24, 2014.

Opera House at  The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC.  Tier 1 (Seat E212, $95.)

Story.  The story takes place on a steamship named El Dorado sailing from Leticia to Manaus on the Amazon.  One of the passengers, the legendary diva Florencia, is returning to the town in which she grew up for a concert at the opera house.  She is looking forward to meet Cristobal, a butterfly hunter whose passion awakened her voice before she left.  Also on the boat are the couple Paula and Alvaro, they are hoping a trip to attend the concert will rekindle their romance; the young writer Rosalba working on a biography of Florencia; the Captain’s nephew Arcadio whose dream is to become a pilot; the Captain who has a great love for the sea; and Riobolo, who has a multiple role of deckhand, narrator, and – for a few moments – the river god.  Paula and Alvaro starts off by bickering over everything but eventually rediscovered their love for each other after Alvaro falls overboard in a storm but miraculously survives.  Rosalba and Arcadio fall in love despite their being career-minded.  As the boat nears Manaus, Riobolo announces that the city is suffering a cholera epidemic and the passengers cannot disembark.  Florencia has found out earlier that Cristobal may be dead already, but sends her song towards him anyway, saying “I know that you hear me in life or in death.  If you were not listening, my song would cease.”  The story ends with her being transformed into a butterfly.

Conductor – Carolyn Kuan; Florencia – Melody Moore, Riolobo – Norman Garrett, Rosalba – Andrea Carroll, Paula – Nancy Fabiola Herrera, Alvaro – Michael Todd Simpson, The Captain – David Pittsinger, Arcadio – Patrick O’Halloran; Principal Dancers – Durell Comedy, Allison Mixon, Christopher Pennix, Matthew Steffens, Ricardo Zayas.

Anne has a business trip to DC for a couple of days, Amtrak tickets were on sale (less than $120 roundtrip) so I decided to tag along.  I found out about this opera at the WNO website, and also from Goldstar that discounted tickets were available (regular price around $150.)

On top of that, there are some interesting aspects to the opera and the performance.  This opera was commissioned by the opera companies in Houston, LA, and Seattle, and was first performed in Houston in 1996.  There must be very few operas with libretto in Spanish (I don’t recall having seen a single one,) so it would be a first for me.  The librettist Marcela Fuentes Berain was a student of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the latter being a Nobel Literature Prize winner known for “magical realism.”  In researching for a trip to Brazil (which I didn’t take) I found out about this Amazon Opera House built by rubber industrialists located in Manaus.  Finally, the conductor is a young Chinese American woman who has recently been appointed as director of the Hartford Symphony.  All in all a lot of interesting aspects that I looked forward to.

I didn’t walk away disappointed.  On the other hand, I didn’t walk away being wowed either.  Another case of reality not living up to expectations.  Admittedly, some of the expectations were of my own doing (such as expecting to learn more about the Amazon Opera House and the conductor,) but WNO did nothing to moderate the hype with their use of words and phrases such as “magical realism,” “visually stunning,” “inspired,” and “mesmerizing.”

The storyline is remarkably straightforward.  The stories of the two couple are quite simple: two of them rediscovered their love, and the other two couldn’t help but fall in love.  This is told matter-of-factly, no suspense, no surprises.  This contrasts poignantly with the fate of the protagonist; hers is an unknown.  Either the librettist is not capable of doing anything other than the most obvious, or didn’t bother to do so.

Great music would have easily made up for that shortcoming.  The music is certainly okay and relatively easy to follow, but nowhere near the “great” end of the spectrum of modern music I have heard.  It is contemporary sounding, but yet gives me the impression that the composer was more trying to avoid being called “classical” than trying to forge new ways of expression.  The melodies while not easily hummable are pleasant to hear, but don’t always match up with the mood of the moment.

My seat allowed me a view of the back of Kuan’s head and her arms as she went about her job.  She was a very precise conductor, giving cues to the singers throughout the work.  Her work with the orchestra had the appearance of simple time-keeping; yet the orchestra played with great precision.

The singing was good but generally devoid of emotion.  The opera house is on the small side (2350 per their website), so it was a bit surprising sometimes the acoustics was on the weak side.  There were a lot of empty seats – the two rows behind me were completely empty.  WNO evidently has a young artists program named Domingo-Cafritz, from which many of the singers graduated.

If there is one clear disappointment, it is the staging.  Basically it consisted of a mock-up steamship (or parts thereof) that can rotate on a platform, with projections in the back to represent various sceneries.  I had my complaints about the Met’s Ring production which also used a lot of projections (in that case onto planks), but that is great artistry compared to this.

This is the one single prop used throughout the opera.

Five dancers were used in the opera representing various things such as a school of piranhas and stormy waves.  The Playbill devoted much space to explain the genius behind the choreography and how the use of one woman dancer modified the level of energy.  I certainly appreciated the athleticism of the dancers, but fail to see how this group is different from the many other groups I have seen before.

If I were a reviewer writing about the opera, I would use phrases such as: straightforward plot, pleasant music, competent delivery, and simple sets.

As is my usual practice, I refrain from reading review until I finish mine, so … here is the review in the Washington Post.  The reviewer has also a mediocre assessment of the show she saw (with the role of Florencia sung by another soprano,) although she did it with much better prose.  I do want to quote what she said at the outset: “Also like a dream: It’s not as substantial as it looks.”  My disagreement with that is I didn’t even think it looked substantial.  The reviewer also found the dancers distracting.

I was staying in the National Zoo area, and it was quite straightforward to get to the JFK Center from there.  On my way back I picked up some Chicken McNuggets and share them with Anne back at the hotel.

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Louis Langree, conductor; Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin. August 23, 2014.

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra Left (Seat W5, $88.50).

Artists

Susanna Phillips, soprano; Kelly O’Connor, mezzo-soprano; Dimitri Pittas, tenor; Morris Robinson, bass.

Concert Chorale of New York, James Bagwell, director.

Program

Polyptyque: Six Images of the Passion of Christ (1973) by Frank Martin (1890-1974).

Chorales from St. John Passion (1724) by Bach.

Requiem, K.626 (1791) by Mozart.

Tonight’s was the last concert for this season’s M|M Festival.  Anne is in Brazil, so she can’t go.  CS also bought a ticket to the event, so we went up together in his car.  We had dinner at the Hunan restaurant Legend on 72^nd.  I also had time to exchange some of the tickets for the upcoming opera season.  (Out of the series of 7 operas, I may end up exchanging tickets for 6 of them; such are the perils of committing early.  Today I did three.)

The program certainly held a lot of promise.  And it has Langree’s fingerprints all over it.  The piece by Martin was commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin to commemorate the 25^th anniversary of the UNESCO-founded International Music Council.  It is for the solo violin, with a double string orchestra.  A similar arrangement (although it was with two “complete” orchestras) was used in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.  Naturally the chorales used for today are from Bach’s other passion: St. John’s.  What Langree did was to put a “relevant” chorale between pairs of Martin’s movements.  This results in the following structure for the first half of the concert:

Image de Rameaux

*Chorale: O grosse Lieb

Image de la Chambre haute

*Chorale: Ach grosser Koenig

Image de Judas

*Chorale: Wer hat dich so geschlagen

Image de Gethsemane

*Chorale: In meines Herzens Grunde

Image du Jugement

*Chorale: Durch dein Gefangnis, Gottes Sohn

Image de la Glorfication

Per Wikipedia, Kopatchinskaja was born in Moldova in 1977.  The violin she plays – an 1834 Pressenda – makes a good but not brilliant sound.  Against a smallish orchestra (actually two smallish orchestras) it worked quite well.  The description in the Playbill (by David Wright) was quite easy to follow, and the sentiments are consistent with the titles of the movements.  One exception is Judas, instead of sinister (Wright describes it as “seethes with barely contained malevolence”) it sounded comical.  I imagine I would have found the piece enjoyable if I had listened to it as one integrated piece; I can’t imagine I would put it on the same level as Bach’s Chaconne, as Menuhin apparently did after premiering it in 1973.

Unfortunately I didn’t listen to the piece as a whole.  Instead it was interrupted again and again by the chorales from St. John’s Passion.  (Some would say Bach's chorales kept being interrupted by Martin.) The idea has some merit to it, but in practice it didn’t work for me at all.  If Langree wanted to incorporate some chorales into the program, perhaps he should have done them on a stand-alone basis.  For me that would make the contrast more apparent, instead of making both parts sound disjoint.

It is a pity that these are the thoughts that stay with me after a day (I am writing this review about 24 hours after the concert.)

When I wrote the review on the Salzburg concert I went to last month, I remarked that it was my first encounter with Mozart’s sacred music.  That was an erroneous statement: I had heard the Requiem before at a New York Philharmonic open rehearsal, in November, 2013.

My reaction to the New York Philharmonic rehearsal was very positive, with me conjecturing that the actual concert would sound “great.”  Tonight’s was a good performance, for sure, but I must say it was nowhere near “great.”  Both the orchestra and the chorale sounded somewhat stretched, the music probably challenged their technical and musical ability: the high notes were a tad too high, the precision in the instruments wasn’t quite there, and balance was somewhat lacking.

The chorale consists of about 45 members.  I saw a couple of women among the men, CS thought men and women seemed to be randomly placed.  If that is so, it must be a great challenge for the conductor.  The four soloists all had good and strong voices, but they didn’t seem to work together, leaving me with the impression they were trying to outdo one another.  Interestingly they were situated between the orchestra and the chorale.

Mozart died with much of the work unfinished.  While a version was soon published with the “blanks” filled in by Mozart’s pupils, with Xaver Sussmayr doing the bulk of the work, performers often have felt free to modify the work to suit their taste.  Langree did that.  I don’t know if it is because of that, or because of the way it was performed, the music didn’t come across as particularly sacred, or requiemesque (if there is such a word.)  Of course the text helped remind me what it was.

The applause afterwards was thunderous and prolonged, and many roses were presented to the soloists, the orchestra members, and the conductor.  I assume this is the audience showing appreciation at the end of the Festival.  These guys put out 10 different programs over the course of 5 weeks, a challenging deed by any measure.

I managed to attend four of the concerts, and am glad I went.  This is a music festival, after all.  New York Times published an online review a few hours ago; the reviewer couldn't quite bring himself around to say "it was a great concert" either.  He provided one example of how Langree modified the Requiem.

Traffic home was quite smooth also.  I got home a bit after 11 pm.

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Louis Langree, conductor; Magali Mosnier, flute; Xavier de Maistre, harp. August 15, 2014.

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra Right (Seat P12, $39.50).

Program

Dance of the Furies, from Orphee et Eurydice (1774) by Christoph Gluck (1714-1787).

Concerto in C major for flute and harp, K.299 (1778) by Mozart (1756-1791).

Symphonie fantastique (1830) by Berlioz (1803-1869).

M|M always wants to squeeze in a lot of music into each of their programs.  Tonight’s was no exception: the three pieces were 4 minutes, 30 minutes, and 55 minutes in duration.  With an on-time start, and a short intermission, all that was done in 2 hours, quite a logistics feat.

I am ahead of myself.  In any case, the afternoon started with our leaving the house at about 4:30 pm.  Traffic on Westside Highway was bad until we reached Lincoln Tunnel, so the trip took about 1 ½ hours.  We did find parking on 65^th, and managed a leisurely meal at East Szechuan.

We got to Avery Fisher Hall at about 6:45 pm for the pre-concert recital.  Well, there was no recital today, instead there was a talk on Symphonie fantastique that started at 6:45 pm.  We made our way to The Rose Building, and managed to find seats in the rather crowded auditorium.  Even though I was fighting jetlag (having returned the day before,) I still learned quite a few new things about the composition.  The speaker fumbled a bit with the audio cues, but still managed to get his points across.  I will come back to this in the section on Berlioz.

The one aria I know from Gluck’s Orphee et Eurydice is “J’ai Perdu Mon Eurydice.”  Thus I was a bit disappointed that wasn’t the selection.  Come to think of it, it was unlikely an aria would be chosen for an orchestral performance.  Indeed, the selection with the Furies (demons?) trying to scare Orpheus away is as good as any.  The short piece was enjoyable, with some brass instruments placed in the second tier, and I was amazed at how different Gluck and Mozart sounded even though they were contemporaries (well, Gluck was born 40 some years earlier.)  In doing some background research on this blog entry, I listened to Callas’s rendition of the aria (exquisite), and a performance of the Dance by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.  I must say the youtube performance is more along the lines of what I thought Gluck’s music should sound like: there is a continuo part in it.

Per the program notes (written by Hugh MacDonald,) Mozart may have started to write a flute concerto and a harp concerto for Count Guines and his daughter, who were quite proficient at their respective instrument.  The end result was a delightful concerto for flute and harp which was quite enjoyable.  Not being a player of either instrument, I can’t tell the degree of virtuosity required in the musicians (perhaps Ellie, who took lessons in both, can shed some light on the subject.)  What I could tell was the flutist and the harpist both seemed to have a lot of fun with it.  Again quoting from the annotation, “Brilliance, sentiment, and courtly gallantry are all found in this concerto, a fair reflection of the qualities Mozart felt, with some scorn, to be the predominant features of Parisian society.”  So Mozart may not have been particular fond of the circumstances under which he composed this music, but for an M|M evening it worked very well.

I have always been amazed how one single flute or a single harp can be clearly heard in an orchestra, even a large one, thus it was surprising that both solo instruments sounded a bit weak tonight.  Not so weak that I had to strain to hear them, but not strong enough that they sounded as equal partners to the orchestra.  De Maistre is one of the few men that play the harp, and he naturally was picked up by the Vienna Philharmonic.  (For the confused reader, the Vienna Philharmonic was an all-male ensemble until recently.  The first female member was a harpist.)  Both soloists are French musicians.

The movements of the concerto are Allegro, Andantino, and Rondo: Allegro.  The cadenzas were by Sylvain Blassel.

Despite having heard Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique live only once, I had considered myself reasonably familiar with the piece.  Be that as it may, tonight’s lecture added a lot to my understanding of the music.  While the Program Notes has a more detailed and somewhat different account of the storyline behind the music, the real insight I picked up was the image of “the beloved” as represented in the theme (idée fixe, obsession) used throughout the composition.  Also, in the fifth movement, the plain-chant Dies irae was used to great (and grotesque) effect.  The Symphony was completed in a short three months, although Berlioz used a lot of material he had planned for other works (e.g., The Ball was originally intended for Romeo and Juliet.)  One more piece of information: the harp was used for the first time in a symphonic work.

Idee fixe (obsession) used throughout Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique.

Dies irae (Days of Wrath).

Given the usual size of the M|M Festival Orchestra, many extras were used in the performance of this large-scale work.  There was a fourth double bass and large percussion and woodwind contingents.  Most web entries mention the use of two harps, here we have four.  Interestingly, all their names are listed in the roster for the evening.

Before I go into any specifics, I must say I enjoyed it.  Being always on the lookout for the theme was interesting, seeing how the oboe (or was it the English Horn) leave to play off-stage was interesting, listening to the church bells was interesting; and the orchestra put in a spirited performance.

Interesting and spirited do not a great performance made.  And this was by no means a great performance.  While an additional string player was added here and there, the string sections were simply too small to hold their own against the orchestra’s other sections.  I felt particularly bad for the cellists who despite pounding away at their instruments simply couldn’t produce loud enough a sound.  I had this complaint before, but the violin sections seemed to be dominated by a few players.  On the other hand, I appreciated how coherent, urgent, and despondent the music sounded.

It is worth repeating the movements of the Symphony: (i) Reveries – Passions: Largo – Allegro agitato e appassionato assai; (ii) Un Bal: Valse: Allegro non troppo; (iii) Scene aux champs: Adagio; (iv) Marche au supplice: Allegretto non troppo; and (v) Songe d’une nuit du Sabbat: Larghetto – Allegro.

As with other M|M concerts, tonight's made for a satisfactory summer concert experience, and that is good enough for me.

Tonight’s tickets were purchased at a discount via Goldstar.  Anne will be out of town next weekend, and I wanted to get a ticket to the last series for this season, with Mozart’s Requiem on the program.  I checked the Lincoln Center website and saw that not too many good seats are left, so I bought a $85 ticket at the box office when I picked up the tickets for tonight.  I just bought a series of tickets to New York Philharmonic’s new season, each of them costs “only” $64.50!

Our drive home was as smooth as it could be, we got back before 11 pm.

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Louis Langree, conductor; Christian Tetzlaff, violin. August 5, 2014.

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat Z114, $39.50).

Program

Moz-Art a la Haydn (1977) by Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998).

Violin Concerto No. 1 in B-flat major, K. 207 (1773) by Mozart (1756-1791).

Overture to L’isola disabitata, Hob.Ia.13 (1779) by Haydn (1732-1809).

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

Recently there is an Apple Computer ad on TV “starring” Esa-Pekka Salonen.  It follows how he started with a fragment of a tune and ends with a violin concerto performed by Leila Josefowicz.  Using an iPad, of course.  That may or may not sell an iPad, but certainly illustrated how a contemporary composer may go about his work.

Still, oftentimes I wonder what a composer is trying to say with a particular piece.  I get even more cynical when a supposedly clever title is concocted.  Tonight’s Schnittke piece belongs in that category.  Actually I began with a rather open mind, as the notes (written by Paul Schiavo) made the composition sound intriguing.  At the end of the day, it was modern music with snippets of Mozart melodies buried in it.  Perhaps realizing that there isn’t much there, the composer put in requests that the players (about 14 of them) move about on stage, and that they leave one by one at the end of the piece.  That is supposed to be inspired by Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, I was ready to hum the tune form The Sound of Music.

Two violinists (Concertmaster Ruggero Allifranchini and Principal Laura Frautschi) had lead roles in the music.  There was an annoying hum at the beginning: I just couldn’t tell if it came in from the street or was intentional.

One would think this is how a disaster unfolds.  But I had faith in the rest of the program, in the conductor, and in the soloist.  My faith was rewarded.

Mozart’s violin concertos were standard fare for the violin student, at least when I was one decades ago.  They may present a challenge, but most could put together an decent sounding performance.  Helped by the passage of time, I am sure that is what I did.

A little while back, I was dismayed to learn that all Mozart’s five violin concertos were written before he turned 19 (considered the immature period,) and he was 17 when he completed the first one.  Simply put, it sounded very mature tonight.

Tetzlaff and Langree wove together a beautiful rendition of the piece.  I remarked in my Salzburg Festival blog that I like Mozart light and crisp, and it was light and crisp today.  Tetzlaff’s lines were smooth, runs flawless, technique exquisite, and interpretation inspiring.  There are many ways to interpret Mozart, and this is as good as any.  Tetzlaff played his own encores, but they sounded like they belong in the original composition.

That’s what a Mostly Mozart Festival experience should feel like.

The three movements of the Concerto are Allegro moderato, Adagio, and Presto.

After a couple of curtain calls, he played a encore.  It sounded familiar, but unfortunately I couldn’t place it.  I have to say the real effect of the encore was to get me to look at my watch again and again as I had a 10:18 pm train to catch.  (The next one is an hour later.)

Perhaps everyone was trying to keep to a schedule, so the intermission was relatively short at about 20 minutes.

If I am asked to name a Haydn opera, I won’t be able to.  Evidently he wrote quite a few, mostly for his patron Prince Esterhazy; that they are seldom performed today is attributed to their old-fashioned librettos.  I am paraphrasing Playbill without knowing what it means.  It also says the prelude performed this evening is great symphonic writing, and is popular to this day.  Naturally, this was the first time I heard of it.

Given the opera storyline in the Playbill, and its description of the 8 minute piece, it was quite easy to follow along.  And in this case there was truth in advertisement.  Overall a delightful piece of music, and because of it I might go see a Haydn opera if there is a chance to do so.  I have expressed several times my opinion of Handel’s operas in this blog, how much worse can it be?  (I know I enjoyed Julius Caesar.)

If one thinks about it, the world of Salzburg and Mostly Mozart must collide at some point.  And in this instance it did, as the Prague Symphony.  I heard this performed by the Mozarteumorcher less than two weeks ago, with Honeck conducting.

Had I known this, I would have jotted down more notes in Salzburg: I love the opportunity to compare how different artists interpret the same things.

Like the entire program itself, the symphony didn’t start all that auspiciously.  It just didn’t sound like everyone was on the same page when the playing first started.  However, things improved as the first movement went along.  There was one noticeable flaw: the transitions from one motif to another sounded grafted and abrupt; I remember them as natural in the Salzburg performance.  Despite all that, I was still impressed with how the movement was performed.  Thus it was unfortunate that the second and third movements were not played as well: the second movement sounded dry, and the orchestra muddled through some of the faster runs in the third.

So far this blog has affirmed many of my clichés (e.g., liking Mozart light and crisp.)  Here is another one: I can’t tell a great Mozart performance from a good one.  Tonight I can: overall, I am sure this is a good performance.  Nothing wrong with it though, I come to M|M concerts to relax, not to do heavy intellectual exercises.

The program concluded at around 9:55 pm.  The gentleman sitting next to me also wanted to leave early, so I used him as a blocker to leave the auditorium.  I got to Penn Station at about 10:05 pm, so I could have stayed for a couple of extra minutes.  Anne picked me up at the train station.

Mostly Mozart Festival Pre-concert Recital. Christian Tetzlaff, violin; Caroline Goulding, violin. August 5, 2014.

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Center, free).

Program

Sonata for two violins in D major, Op. 3, No. 6 (1730) by Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764).

Selections from Forty-four Duos for two violins, BB 104 (1931) by Bartok (1881-1945).

Anne had a class tonight, so I was on my own.  I took the 5:25 pm train which got into New York about 10 minutes late at 6:35 pm.  With a good subway connection, I managed to pick up my ticket for the evening and got into the auditorium with 7 minutes to spare.

The pre-concert program consists of two short pieces.  The Playbill has a short annotation of Leclair’s work.  The most interesting part unfortunately was that he was murdered, probably by his nephew who was also a violinist.

The sonata was short (even shorter than the advertised 12 minutes,) yet consists of four movements: Andante, Allegro, Largo, and Allegro ma non-troppo.  The Playbill annotation made the music quite easy to understand.  It was a delight, and contains some rather challenging passages (the composer was a violinist, after all.)

Someone asked Bartok for permission to transcribe some of his piano compositions into duets for violins.  Bartok countered by writing 44 duets, with most of them (except 2) based on actual folk tunes.  The six selections - some short, others shorter - totaling 9 minutes of play, are: Transylvanian Dance, No. 44; Fairy Tale, No. 19; Burlesque, No. 16; Sorrow, No. 28; New Year’s Greeting I, No. 21; and Arabian Song, No. 42.  Between the titles and the notes, there was no doubt where things were.  Yet there was some hesitation before the audience applauded at the conclusion.

Here Goulding took the lead.  For me this is characteristically Bartok in that I get it (i.e., I can follow the music,) yet I don’t get it (i.e., not sure where he was trying to say.)  At one level I could dismiss them as simply etudes written for student/teacher recitals, but I suspect there is more to the.

When Goulding and Tetzlaff came on stage, I was surprised at how young she looked.  (She was born in 1992, a search of the web revealed.)  A perusal of the Playbill told me she already has quite a few awards under her belt, and that she is Tetzlaff’s student.  Must be a star student for her to be invited along.  She put in a delightful performance, and seems to command a certain stage presence.  I can see her performing on the big stage at some point.

Tetzlaff is known for playing a violin modeled after a Guarnerius.  Goulding performs on a Stradivarius (General Kyd, ca. 1720.)  So it is doubly amazing that Tetzlaff produced a much richer sound than Goulding did.

In the flurries of activities this afternoon (including preparation for my trip to Hong Kong the next day,) I didn’t get to eat anything before I left the house.  So I bought a half sandwich at Avery Fisher, for $6.50.  I am quite sure they were selling whole sandwiches for $8 each the last time I bought something.

The entries for both the pre-concert and the concert were written inside UA117 (EWR-HKG.)  That may explain the more than usual amount of typing and grammatical mistakes.  (Note: I did some proof-reading before posting this blog on August 16.)

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Andrew Manze, conductor; Steven Osborne, piano. August 1, 2014.

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Orchestra (Seat O08, $39.50).

Program

Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major ,  Op. 73 (“Emperor”) (1809) by Beethoven (1770-1827).

Symphony No. 104 in D major (“London”) (1795) by Haydn (1732-1809).

The Playbill has an interesting observation that both compositions represent the last of the composers in that particular category.  It goes on to imply there is something special about the music.  My first instinct was how can that be?  I can see how a composer would pay special attention to a particular composition (Mozart’s requiem, for instance, is a “definite maybe.”)  However, I am quite sure Beethoven didn’t set out to say “this will be my last piano concerto, so I will do something special about it, and I won’t be able to write anything better than this.”  Neither would Haydn say, “I should stop at this nice round number of 104.”

Now that I have gotten that rant out of the way, let me return to my original intent of going to these concerts.  People should try to take things easy in the summer, and that was the thinking behind my purchasing three concerts to this season’s M|M Festival when discount tickets became available on Goldstar.  Given my original travel plans for July and August, I was happy that I could squeeze them in.  Tonight’s concert is less than a week after we returned from Europe, and I am going to the next one the day before I leave for Hong Kong, and the third one the day I come back.  I was counting on some snoozing time during the concerts, and am happy to report that at least for tonight I stayed fully awake for the whole time.

This was the third time this year that we heard the Emperor Concerto.  And I still enjoyed it.  The annotator David Wright provided some interesting observations on technical details that were quite useful as we followed along.  Particularly insightful was how he described this “stumbling over its own feet getting started” at the beginning of the last movement due to the syncopation.  That and other insightful remarks added a lot to my appreciation of tonight’s performance.

This was Steven Osborne’s debut performance at Mostly Mozart.  We did see him last year, in Singapore, of all places, playing Britten’s piano concerto.  Perhaps it was a case of nerves, there was a little bit of “stumbling” when he started the piece.  A pianist must train himself/herself to delineate the multiple lines in the music, but sometimes I felt his two hands were out of sync.  His performance improved as the music moved along.

Actually I really liked how he played the relatively short second movement.  Slow movements tend to be less challenging technically, and the artists must hold the audience (at least the shallower ones in the crowd, like me) with their musicality.  The way Osborne interpreted it really spoke to me.

The last time I heard this was in late June, with Yefim Bronfman as the soloist.  Both Bronfman and Osborne used a Steinway, and I would venture to guess it was the same instrument.  Interestingly they produced very different sounds.  Bronfman’s was richer, and Osborne had a wider dynamic range.  I wonder if that’s attributable to how they approach the piano, or is it because of the acoustics (our seats, location of piano).

Some readers think I can get too critical in these blogs; and there is much truth to that.  On the other hand, I am not perceptive enough to say I like A for the following reasons, B for this different set, and C yet for this third set of reasons; and they are all great.  I can say, however, I know relatively how well I enjoyed the three performances I have heard so far this year (Orpheus/Tsujii, New York Phlharmonic/Bronfman, and Mostly Mozart/Osborne.)  I leave it to the reader to guess.

I am not even sure I have heard 10 of Haydn’s 104 symphonies.  If I have, I certainly can’t tell you which ones.  One characteristic was that the ones I have heard are all easy to get.  The “London,” however, is quite a bit more complex than anything I remember.  David Wright’s notes again make the music easier to follow and to appreciate.  Well, I do think he goes a bit overboard sometimes, such as comparing the opening 5^th and 4^th intervals with Beethoven Fifth’s “fate knocking.”  Also, I didn’t quite get the “reluctance in putting down the pen” and the “unprecedented thematic unity,” statement attributed to Haydn’s biographer H. C. Robbins Landon.

The London Symphony was written by Haydn in 1795, while Beethoven started his First around 1799.  It was interesting to note that at (probably) its most complex, Haydn’s symphonies still sound simpler than Beethoven’s earlier symphonies.  There, my contribution to music analysis.

The symphony has four movements: Adagio – Allegro, Andante, Menuet: Allegro, and Finale: Spiritoso.

We saw Andrew Manze at last year’s M|M festival.  I don’t remember the performance well, but remember enjoying it.  (A re-reading of the blog entry confirms it, and that I have seen him on three prior occasions.)  He conducts with quite a bit of motion, often favoring facing the orchestra sideways (from where I sat.)  There were a few precision problems which perhaps is to be expected.  For this evening I was sure he asked the second violins to come in loud.  As someone who played in that section, I appreciate that.  On the other hand, I thought it was a bit much.

Overall, however, tonight was an enjoyable evening.  Anne helped out in Jersey City today, I met up with her at around 4 pm, and we left for New York at around 4:30 pm.  Despite the busy traffic, we still managed to have a leisurely dinner at Legend (a Sichuan restaurant on 72^nd.)  It is only when we got to the concert hall that we remembered they had a pre-concert at 7 pm!  We will forgo dinner if necessary next time.  The drive home was straight-forward.

Mozarteumorchester Salzburg – Manfred Honeck, conductor. July 20, 2014.

Stiftung Mozarteum, Grosser Saal.  Orchestra (Row 19, Seat 8, 89 Euro.)

Program – Mozart Matinee

Symphony in D Major KV504, “Prague Symphony” (1787) by Mozart (1756-1791).

Regina coeli in C Major KV108 (1771).

Mass in C Major KV317, “Coronation” (1779).

Artists

Eva Liebau, soprano; Judith Schmid, alto; Mauro Peter, tenor; Thomas E. Bauer, bass.

Salzburger Bachchor, Alois Glassner, artistic director.

We are on vacation with our son and his family.  With an 18-month toddler, our days have been slow, which suit us just fine.  Our son was doing the trip planning, and he has us coming to Salzburg on July 19.  Turns out that was the start of this year’s Salzburg Festival.  Anne and I were originally planning to go to one of these touristy type Mozart concerts, and then we found out there were still a few reasonably priced seats available for this concert, so we walked to the ticket office and got (probably) the last two tickets at 89 Euros each.  Tickets at the next tier would have cost 116 Euros each.

We had a little debate on whether we wanted to go to a “genuine” Salzburg festival concert.  We only have tourist clothes, and for some reason people dress up to go to concerts, even more so than what I remember of other European cities (Zurich, Vienna, Paris, London; I think that’s it.)  Actually some even put on lederhosen and dirndls.  We decided we wouldn’t let that bother us.  We also wanted to check off this “Salzburg Festival” as an event we attended.  It turns out with a polo shirt and khaki pants I was probably the third worst dressed man in the audience (the worst had on a black T-shirt and shorts.)  Anne was in the 20^th percentile, let’s say.

The hall seats perhaps 1000, and it was mostly full; we did see an empty seat here and there.  The place looks newly renovated, and is remarkably well-lit.  Not bad for a hall that is about 100 years old (the outside shows the age.)

We ended up enjoying the program very much.  We saw Honeck once when he substituted for Dudamel in a performance with the New York Philharmonic.  Referring to my blog, I enjoyed that performance, calling his interpretation controlled and nuanced.

Today’s performance was also enjoyable, but Honeck’s conducting style was neither controlled nor nuanced.  He actually let it rip, conducting with great motion and eliciting a great sound from the performers.  I usually like Mozart light and crisp, but I didn’t mind the huge amount of stomping today.  No doubt the small size of the hall helped: the acoustics was great.  While Honeck asked for a huge dynamic range from the orchestra, at no point was it too loud.

The soloists are all from this part of Europe.  They did a good job, with great balance among the voices.  The soprano Liebau had to do most of the lifting (only soloist in Regina Coeli, and several solos in the Coronation Mass.)

The choir is rather large, especially considering the size of the orchestra.  Again perhaps due to the size of the hall, their sound carried very well.

The Symphony has three movements: Adagio – Allegro, Andante, and Finale: Presto.  The Mass consists of Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei.

Curtain Call.  Notice the number of cameras out.

I also learned a few new things.  First is that Mozart wrote quite a bit of sacred music, but I believe this was my first encounter with it.  He did it mostly as an obligation to his patron the Archbishop of Salzburg whom Mozart disliked.  A short mass (missa brevis) was used in a church service while the longer mass (missa solemnis) was more a pure form of composition.

I resisted but yet must give in to remark how today’s performers compare with ones I know a bit better.  First is the comparison of the orchestra with Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.  While I have gotten to appreciate the MM Orchestra more over the years (and just bought tickets to 3 concerts yesterday,) today’s performance was better than what I have heard from MM.  In MM’s defense they have a wider repertoire.  The other comparison is between the Bach choirs of Salzburg and Bethlehem.)  Here there is no contest: Salzburg wins hands down.

I continue to be unable to tell a good Mozart performance from a great one.  So what?  This was a really enjoyable concert, and that’s good enough for me.

American Ballet Theatre – Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. June 27, 2014.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Balcony (Seat F105, $65.)

Choreography by Kevin McKenzie after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, Set and costumes by Zack Brown.

Conductor – Ormsby Wilkins; Odette-Odile – Hee Seo, Prince Siegfried – Herman Cornejo, The Queen Mother – Nancy Raffa, von Rothbart  - Roman Zhurbin and Alexandre Hammoudi.

We came about seeing this ballet in a rather round-about way.  It started with our asking Kimberly – a 10-year old girl from church who takes dance lessons – whether she would like to see Cinderella (the ballet.)  The timing didn’t work out because school was still in session when Cinderella was on, so Anne and I went by ourselves.  This particular performance worked out for her (school concluded the day before,) and I don’t mind seeing it another time.  We ended up going with Kimberly and Agnes.

Hee Seo, who debuted Cinderella earlier this season, was tapped to perform the role of the swan as the guest artist Alina Cojocaru withdrew because of an injury.  Which was perfectly okay with me, as I hadn’t looked into who was going to be in the performance anyway.  Also, one of the two dancers playing von Rothbart (Sascha Radetsky) was replaced.

I did enjoy the performance.  First of all, the music while a bit sugary is very pleasant to hear.  It is one of these ballet scores that can stand on its own.  This is not a given as my experience with Prokofiev’s Cinderella indicates.  The orchestra put in an enjoyable experience.  There are some very familiar passages that get repeated quite often; and I noticed the violinist stood up for the violin solos.

Even though roles such as Prince Siegfried are quite substantial, Odette and Odile are the ballet.  I don’t know if ballerinas keep a few compositions in their repertoire in the way concert soloists do, but Seo put in a performance that one wouldn’t have guessed is by a (last-minute?) substitute.  At least not to a novice observer like myself.  The choreography calls for many dreamy scenes where the dancers imitate swans with the positioning of their arms and bodies.  Even though I am sure everyone does it that way, I must say it works quite well.

Sometimes it seems I sit through a 3-hour opera just so I can hear a couple of familiar arias (Nessum Dorma in Turandot, for instance.)  Similarly, the scene where Odile spins around 30-odd times is the one that’s most anticipated.  Seo did an excellent job, pirouetting more than 30 times.  She did it with some movement around the stage, and I thought she ended a bit wobbly.  I located a clip in Youtube (performed by ABT’s principal dancer Gillian Murphy, starting at around the 4:19 mark) that was simply impressive.  So there is a difference in the level of performance, after all.

How did Kimberly like it?  Well, the first half was a bit difficult, and I was ready to propose we leave if she found it unbearable.  She wanted to stay, and I lent her our binoculars.  She stayed glued to them the whole second half.  Being able to see more clearly, and the simple fact that there is more action in the second half, make it much more enjoyable.

Traffic was reported to be bad when we were driving into New York.  After picking up Anne in Jersey City, we decided to park the car and take PATH into the city.  That unfortunately left us with enough time for only sandwiches at Europan.  By the time we got back to South Amboy, it was past 11:30 pm.

New York Philharmonic – Alan Gilbert, conductor; Yefim Bronfman, piano; Glenn Dicterow, violin; Carter Brey, cello. June 16, 2014.

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra G115 ($68.50.)

Program: The Beethoven Piano Concertos: A Philharmonic Festival.

Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Cello in C major, Op. 56 (1804).

Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, Emperor (1809).

For me, tonight’s concert is as much about the Emperor Concerto as it is about its being the final program with Glenn Dicterow as the concertmaster.  As music goes, both are easy pieces to enjoy, and the majesty of the Emperor contrasts very well with the genteelness of the Triple.

I have remarked many times on Glenn Dicterow as a soloist, and the comments mostly fall under the “critical” category.  To be fair, that the New York Philharmonic has enjoyed a solid reputation during his 34 years as its concertmaster speaks volumes about his leadership; it is something that he has every right to take credit for, and be proud of.  I joined in the enthusiastic applause as the soloists and Gilbert took the stage; I am sure most of the welcome was directed at Dicterow.

For me the Triple Concerto is best characterized as a Trio played against an orchestra more as an accompaniment than as an equal partner; there are of course some instances that the orchestra asserted itself.  As to the composition itself, a quote from the Playbill is illuminating: the very people who most blame Beethoven for writing below his full powers would be the first to acclaim it as the work of a still greater composer.  Indeed it doesn’t have the “sturm und drang” that characterize so many of the composer’s works; instead it is a light-hearted piece that could even pass itself off as background music.  (I am sure the composition student can find a lot to admire about the work’s details.)

For tonight, it was simply an enjoyable composition played by great musicians.  In case one is wondering, that remark applies to Dicterow too.  One of the constant refrain I have made about Dicterow is his choice of music when he was a soloist: the compositions were chosen more for his fellow musicians and scholars than the typical concert-goer.  I wonder how my opinion would have been shaped if he had performed works by composers such as Lalo, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven, instead of Szymanowski and Dutilleux.  I guess we will never know …

The applause was thunderous afterwards.  I seldom stand up during curtain call – as a matter of principle, great performances are expected of world class players – but I did tonight.  I think the appreciation shown by the audience is well-deserved.  As it was, this series also concluded Bronfman’s two-year stint as artist-in-residence.

By the time the Emperor Concerto was premiered in Leipzig, Beethoven’s deafness had advanced such that he couldn’t introduce it as the soloist.  Evidently the concerto got its nickname because someone shouted “C’est l’Empereur!” during its Viennese premiere.  Beethoven by that time was totally disillusioned with Napoleon.

The piece, like his violin concerto, with its great contrasts, is characteristically Beethoven.  Bronfman just sat there and pounded out a great interpretation.  I said after the last concert that his playing reminded me a lot of Emanuel Ax’s; that was reinforced today.

Overall, this was a great way for the orchestra to conclude its regular season.

It was just a great evening of music.  I do want to record a couple of (small) quibbles.  First, I thought Carter Brey’s cello could be a bit louder.  The cello has a prominent role in the Triple Concerto, and Brey’s playing was exquisite, but I would have like to hear more of it.  The other complaint is the Emperor Concerto calls for a lot of majestic playing that sometimes sounded loud instead.  Most of the time Bronfman’s interpretation was majestic, but every now and then some harshness crept in.

For completeness, the three movements of the Triple Concerto are Allegro, Largo, and Rondo alla Polacca, and those of the Emperor Concerto are Allegro, Adagio un poco mosso, and Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo.

The New York Times review spends most of its energy on discussing the various players, dishing out some insider information in the process.  Interestingly the reviewer didn’t have much more to say about the music or the performance either.

We left Boston this morning, after spending a few days helping out with household duties while our son went to Brazil with a group of friends to watch a few FIFA World Cup matches.  It would have been too stressful to drive home and then come back to the city, so we went straight to the city, getting in at around 4:30 pm.  While we were in Rubenstein Atrium having coffee and deciding what to do, the opportunity to meet with Nancy came up.  She was to start her work with a non-profit that we support in a few days, but was still working in mid-town.  Anne and I sat down with her for about an hour to get to know each other.  So we made great use of the idle time, after all.