Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Jeffrey Kahane, conductor and piano. August 12, 2016.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra Center (Seat S103, $50.)

Program – All-Mozart

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

Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491 (1786).

Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat major, K. 482 (1785).

Despite the 1785 and 1786 dates, these piano concertos were written within a year: spring 1785 to spring 1786.  The Snapshot section in the Playbill describes them as “widely varied in their overall character, from the cheerful, bustling C major, K. 467, to the searching, even desolate C minor, K. 491, to the majestic E-flat major, K. 482.”

As I resume writing this entry on August 17, my original assessment that this didn’t leave a lasting impression is confirmed.  I recall No. 21 as being quite familiar (how can it not be, with the well-known slow movement), and being quite surprised how unfamiliar I was with 24 and 22.  To use my old cliché about my not being able to tell a good from a great Mozart performance, I must say this definitely wasn’t in the “great” category.  What I heard from Richard Goode at the last concert was definitely much better in comparison.

Kahane’s lines were simply unsatisfactory to my ears.  The phrasing wasn’t smooth, and he used too much pedal – Anne called it fuzzy playing (she used a Chinese colloquial term which means “unclear.”)  Perhaps he should concentrate on the piano instead of also trying to lead the orchestra?  The cadenzas were his own compositions.

At conclusion of tonight's concert.

The movements of No. 21 are Allegro maestoso, Andante, and Allegro vivace assai; for No. 24, Allegro, Larghetto, and Allegretto; for No. 22, Allegro, Andante, and Allegro.

I have a playlist of Mozart's works that I listen to on these long flights I take, with the hope that the soothing music will help me get some sleep.  That sometimes works.  Tonight reminded me of such a playlist, although I must say I stayed awake the whole time.  But there were times I was asking myself where things were.

Our son and family were visiting, so we took a late afternoon train to get to Lincoln Center.  My using an old train schedule, and that Penn Station was congested meant we had to buy a couple of sandwiches and eat on the subway.  CS was there with a couple of his friends, and he gave us a ride back to NJ.

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Louis Langree, conductor; Richard Goode, piano. August 9, 2016.

David Geffen Hall at Linoln Center.  Orchestra Left (Seat Z13, $39.50).

Program: All-Mozart

Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, K. 16 (1764-65).

Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K. 414 (1782).

Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 (“Jupiter”) (1788).

This is an unusual program in at least a couple of ways.  First, it’s all-Mozart, which is relatively rare even in a festival headlined as “Mostly Mozart.”  The other is both the first and the last symphonies Mozart wrote would be performed.

There is little doubt that 41 is the last symphony Mozart wrote, even though there is still considerable speculation on why he wrote it, and if any of the group of three he wrote during the summer of 1788 was ever performed during his lifetime.  K. 16 was written when he was eight, on tour in London; the Program Notes paints this beautiful picture of how Mozart’s sister Nannerl helped copy down the music as Mozart was composing it.

The other interesting thing is how Mozart reused one of the motifs in K. 16 (do-re-fa-me) in many of his subsequent works.  One could wax nostalgic how a theme in his first symphony got such a prominent role in his last (of course Mozart didn’t know No. 41 would be his last.)

I read up on the Playbill before the concert, so I was all eager to get the main and subtle points in the Program Notes.  Of course Mozart became a very different composer over the 20-some years between the symphonies.  Indeed No. 1 could be mistaken for a simple Haydn, and No. 41 for Beethoven.  And indeed the do-re-fa-me theme got reused multiple times in the last movement of the Jupiter Symphony.  The short (13 minutes) K. 16 has three movements: Molto allegro, Andante, and Presto; while the 31-minute K. 551 has four: Allegro vivace, Andante cantabile, Menuetto: Allegretto, and Molto allegro.

What I found more interesting was how in Jupiter Mozart built up the contrapuntal complexity by introducing additional themes (four altogether?) into the music one at a time.  Even though I couldn’t follow the exact notes of the different melodies, it was an interesting exercise nonetheless.  It would have been a more fruitful exercise if the annotator wrote down the four lines for us (Paul Schiavo calls them principal melody, counter-theme, and two counter-subjects.)  Indeed the Wikipedia entry on this symphony has markings of the themes which helped me greatly in understanding this.  And it has five of them.

The two symphonies were both delightfully performed.  Perhaps my attempt at analysis helped me overlook some of the sloppiness in the execution.  With the many quick passages (a lot of 8^th notes in 2/2 time, 16^th notes in some places) it may be too much to ask the strings to play as one voice, nonetheless I can imagine a more precise performance.

Sandwiched between the symphonies was Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12, performed by Richard Goode.  The last (and only) time I saw him perform was about three years ago, with the New York Philharmonic.  He looked quite a bit older than he did then, if memory serves.  Again he needed the music, although there was no page turner this time, and he did refer to the score very often.  That didn’t detract him from putting in a nice rendition of the piece, with some beautifully executed light-touch passages.  I need to slip back to my “can’t tell great from good” mode, though.  The concerto’s three movements are Allegro, Andante, and Rondeau – Allegretto (oh, the simple markings Mozart used.)  The cadenza was by Mozart.

Richard Goode at conclusion of performance.

The performance was broadcast live on WQXR, and videotaped for a later TV showing.  I wonder if they will edit out Langree’s heavy breathing before a dramatic phrase – I could hear it sitting in row Z!

Overall, the program was captivating enough that I found myself listening intently throughout the evening, which for me is a challenge when it comes to an all-Mozart concert.  Later this week we will hear in one concert three Mozart piano concertos, I wonder how well I will do then.

I have always wondered about the New York audience’s level of sophistication.  There were a few vignettes that were interesting.  Someone was trying to impress his date by explaining K (as in K. 16) stands for catalog, and that the harpsichord was a spinet piano.  Naturally this knowledgeable gentleman gave a standing ovation at the conclusion of the concerto.  Also, after the orchestra was seated for the piano concerto, many applauded as three people came on stage.  Turns out they were the (highly-paid) stage hands who had to move things around a bit to create enough room for the pianist.  Interestingly enough, few applauded after the conclusion of particular movements.

We had two tickets (from Goldstar), Anne had a dinner commitment and thus couldn’t go.  I took the train up and walked to Lincoln Center from Penn Station, grabbing some pizza along the way.  The concert ended early enough that I made the 9:38 pm train by a couple of minutes by taking the subway.  However, the train was held up for 20 minutes as only one tunnel was in use, and it had to wait for the eastbound trains to come through first.

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Paavo Jarvi, conductor; Martin Frost, Clarinet. August 5, 2016.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra Center (Seat Q103, $50).

Pre-concert Recital by Andrew Tyson, piano.

Ballade in A-flat major (1841) by Chopin.

Sonata No. 28 in E-flat major (“Les Adieux”) (1809-10) by Beethoven.

Program

La Sindone (2005/rev. 2015) by Part (b.1935).

Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622 (1791) by Mozart.

Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major (1806) by Beethoven.

The first piece probably found its way onto the program because Arvo Part is from Estonia, as is Jarvi.  The word Sindone (no idea what language it is, probably French) means shroud, and specifically refers to the Shroud of Turin.  Part was commissioned to compose a piece for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, and wrote this as “a dark meditation on Christ’s death and burial.”  While I skimmed over the Program Notes before the concert, I forgot about this, and instead tried to listen to a description of the Shroud, including the burned corners.  Of course I didn’t get what I was expecting, and even now (a few hours after the concert) cannot make the connection between what I remember to what Part was trying to convey.  The piece was foreboding enough, and reflected in many instances the minimalist style of Part.  (Of course by the 2000s Part was more into music of a spiritual character.)  The piece called for several percussion instruments (triangle, church bell, bass drum, and others).  Anne’s remark was “not even close to being Mozart.”

Whatever one’s misgivings might be for the first piece, they were all dispersed with a simply delightful rendition of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto.  A piece that is easy to like, it was captivating with Martin Frost performing it.  He seemed to enjoy playing it immensely, even though I am sure he has done it countless number of times.  Not a student of the clarinet, I don’t know how difficult this piece is technically, but certainly there were passages that called for adept fingering, long breaths, and large changes in pitches.  Mozart after all wrote it with the virtuoso Anton Stadler in mind.  It is so impressive that I have to withdraw my usual "I-can’t-tell-good-from-great-Mozart-performance" remark to: I can’t imagine seeing another performance of this composition that I would enjoy more.

Frost is Swedish, and his career seems to go beyond being a clarinetist to a conductor and a musicologist.  For encore he played a piece – with orchestra accompaniment - written by his brother Johann called “Don’t Worry” which contains bits of the popular birthday song, in commemoration of this being the 50^th anniversary of the Mostly Mozart Festival.  Evidently he had played something called “Be Happy” on some other occasion.

Curtain call after the Mozart Clarinet Concerto.

In looking for a review of this concert (didn't find any), I came across an article on Frost and the Mozart Clarinet Concerto.  One interesting fact is Frost plays this concerto on "a modern replica of a basset clarinet, a longer version that has an expanded bass register."

Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony is the little brother (or sister) sandwiched between the Eroica and the Fifth, and is not nearly as popular as those two.  This symphony would dispel the notion that Beethoven’s even-numbered symphonies are much calmer than the odd-numbered ones (musicologists used more sophisticated terms.)  There was a lot of contrast in rhythm, urgency, loudness, and other aspects.  Perhaps not as much as the odd group, but enough to make the piece distinctly Beethoven.

The flute got a lot of workout, especially in the first movement, and it came across dependably all the time, beautifully most of the time.  The concertmaster still dominated.  And there was some loss of control during the fast runs.  I do wonder how this would compare with an Orpheus performance.  Overall it was an enjoyable rendition of the symphony.

Paavo Jarvi is the son of Neeme Jarvi.  He leads the NHK Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles.  His motions were a lot more exaggerated than his father’s (I read up on my writeup on Neeme), and they elicited good responses from the orchestra.

Today we left our house at 4:30 pm and got to the Lincoln Center area at around 6 pm, giving us enough time to eat something simple at Europan before attending the pre-concert recital.

Tyson is a young pianist with quite a list of “wins” to his name, including the Avery Fisher Grant in 2013.  The Chopin ballade was light and cheerful (and difficult.)  I had not heard of Beethoven’s “Les Adieux” sonata before.  There is somewhat of a story behind this.  The first movement (Das Lebewohl, which translates into the French title, Adagio-Allegro) was written to memorialize the departure of Beethoven’s patron Archduke Rudolph from Vienna as Napoleon was about to lay siege to the city.  The second movement Abwesenheit (absence, Andante espressivo) is an expression of grief and loss.  But Das Wiedersehen (seeing someone again, Vivacissimamente) was composed after Rudolph returned to Vienna in 1810 and reflected Beethoven’s happiness.  All that in 17 minutes.

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Thierry Fischer, conductor; Martin Helmchen, piano. August 2, 2016.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra Right (Seat O13, $39.50).

Program

Symphony No. 59 in A major (“Fire”) (c. 1768) by Haydn.

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

Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 (1788) by Mozart.

Andres Orozco-Estrada, whom we saw a few years ago in Vienna and currently with the Houston Symphony, was originally on the program. He had a back program, and Fischer, of Utah Symphony stood in for him.

My first thoughts were that we have not had a truly “mostly Mozart” program for a while (the “Illuminated Heart” being an unusual exception,) so was rather looking forward to an evening I could simply sit back and enjoy.

To that end the program succeeded greatly.  The two Mozart pieces were reasonably familiar, and the Haydn one easy enough to grasp.

Per the program annotator, many believe that the Fire Symphony was also used for the play “The Conflagration” staged at Eszterhaza in 1774.  The annotator then proceeds to describe each of the movements in some detail: (1) Presto: flamboyant, octave-leaps, bursts, contrasts, furious; (2) Andante o piu tosto Allegretto: ambivalent, unexpected turns, fortissimo horn call; (3) Menuetto: bare texture, major-minor ambiguity, dance with gracefully taper phrases; and (4) Allegro assai: first and last words by wind instruments, military, fiery, blazing scales.  The performance was all that, as long as one remembers we are talking Haydn (and not Beethoven).  I was wondering how all this could be fitted into the 17 minutes stated in the program.  They didn’t, it took a couple of minutes longer.

Both Anne and I noticed the annoying aspect of a few of the string players dominating the rest of the section.  Today it was the concertmaster (called “First Violin Principal” in the program.)  There were times it sounded as if he was the only one playing and the others were simply going through the motion.  Probably because we were sensitized to that, the problem persisted throughout the evening.  I do have to give the orchestra some credit for sounding quite precise.

Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 was completed the day before it was scheduled.  My usual remark about Mozart is I can’t tell a good performance from a great one.  Today’s performance probably also falls into that range.  However, I do have gripes at various times that the lines sounded disjoint (which I don’t ever recall saying), or too much pedaling was used.  At about 30 minutes, it was on the long side for Mozart.  The three movements are Allegro maestoso, Andante, and Allegretto.  The cadenza was by Martin Hecker.  The last movement was in rondo form, if not in name.

This is the first time we saw Helmchen, who looked quite young from where we sat.  Despite my misgivings, it was an enjoyable performance.

The program concluded with Mozart’s 40^th Symphony, one of the three Mozart composed in the span of six weeks during the summer of 1788.  The 35-minute work consists of Molto allegro, Andante, Menuetto: Allegretto, and Allegro assai.  It was one of only two minor symphonies Mozart wrote, it might be considered bleak by musicologists, but I suspected it sounded to most listeners as being sunny, as it did me.

Fischer didn’t have a railing behind the platform, and he didn’t need it as his feet was firmly planted on the ground.  However, his upper body motion could be quite exaggerated at times.  I don’t know how long ago he was called to do the conducting, but the orchestra responded to him well.

Thierry Fischer.

This New York Times article contains a one-paragraph review of the concert.  Both Fischer (“stylish”) and Helmchen (“refined”) got good grades.

We left home at around 5 pm today, traffic was bad, and it was around 7 pm that I parked the car and got to Lincoln Center.  The way back was quite straightforward, and we managed to swing by Newark to pick up CS, returning from a San Francisco trip.

Calmus Vocal Quintet. July 27, 2016.

Richardson Auditorium, Princeton.  Balcony Left (free).

Members

Anja Poche, soprano; Sebastian Krause, counter-tenor; Tobias Poche, tenor; Ludwig Bohme, baritone; Manuel Helmeke, bass.

Program: ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE - Shakespeare a Capella

The was the fourth and last of the Princeton Summer Free Chamber Music series for this season, and is the third one I attended.  The ensemble is all all-voice group, and I believe this was my first encounter with a group like this (not counting the isolated instances.)

The group at the end of the first half.

While I can carry a tune, I don’t think I have as much appreciation of the voice as an instrument as “instrument” instruments.  So my expectations weren’t that high when I sat down.  Anne and I came away very satisfied, happy that we went even though we couldn’t get tickets on line and had to drive to Princeton without knowing if we would be turned away.  Of course that wasn’t really expected as we had never seen a full auditorium.

The selection of music reminded me of yesterday Mostly Mozart concert.  Yesterday the songs were picked because they had to do with emotions.  For today most of the songs were selected because they were written to Shakespeare’s lyrics.  Many of them were arranged for the quintet by one of the musicians in the group.

The Concert Program.

Each of the members also took turn to talk a bit about the music, which added quite a bit of appreciation when the songs were performed.  There were some musicological insights as well, but I frankly didn’t get all of it, and in any case don’t remember much of it.

The one aspect that was interesting to me was while the pieces range from being written in the 17^th century (or even earlier) to the 20^th, the “styles” were not all that different.  Take as an exmaple the group of three songs chosen for their association with “Twelfth Night.”  One was written by Purcell, the other two were written by the Finnish composer Jaakko Mantyjarvi (b. 1963) and Nancy Wertsch (b.1943).  If I hadn’t read the program, I wouldn’t have placed the composers that far apart.  Now that may just point to my lack of music knowledge, but I certainly won’t make the same mistake with instrumental music, or operas for that matter.

One reason I put forward is one can make an inanimate instrument do all sorts of atonal stuff.  As long as you hit the right key or have the finger in the right place, the music will come out.  With a capella singing however, the artists are limited by more natural intervals (I won’t go into the physics, but octaves, fifths, and thirds are more natural than fourths and sevenths, for instance.)  With instruments provided a reference (from an accompanist, for example), most competent musicians can get the note right.  However, if all you have are other people’s voices, then the music has to be written more “naturally.”  And perhaps all this is nonsense.

Each of the individual voices was great, but when put together they just produced incredibly nice music.  Perhaps due to their German background (the group hails from Leipzig), the singers for the most part just stood there, but the coordination among them was simply incredible, they all did their t’s and d’s and the same time, and ended their notes at the same time.

While the songs were sung in English (it’s Shakespeare after all), I had trouble with a lot of the words.  For encore they sang Brahms’s Waldensnacht, in German of course.  An all-Shakespeare program for a first encounter is a bit on the heavy side, so one wish I have is a more varied program so I could appreciate more the musical range a vocal ensemble can provide.

There is something about Princeton during the summer.  At 9:30 pm there were still lots of people out and about.  Of course there was no one on Broadway when we got back to South Amboy.

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Louis Langree, conductor. July 26, 2016.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat JJ15, $39.50).

Program

The Illuminated Heart – Selections from Mozart’s Operas

Artists

Kiera Duffy, soprano; Christine Goerke, soprano; Ana Maria Martinez, soprano; Nadine Sierra, soprano, Marianne Crebassa, mezzo-soprano; Daniela Mack, mezzo-soprano; Matthew Polenzani, tenor; Christopher Maltman, Bariton; Peter Mattei, baritone.

There were quite a few sales for Mostly Mozart tickets by Lincoln Center and through Goldstar.com, and I have bought tickets for five of these concerts so far.  We decided we will take advantage of our being in New Jersey through early September.

Having been busy with a couple of issues, I didn’t have the time to research tonight’s program, other than it’s selection from Mozart’s operas.  And I made the mistake of thinking the concert starts at 8:00 pm.  Chung Shu came by to pick us up at 5:30 pm – I having turned down his suggestion of 5 pm because of said mis-conception – and we got to Lincoln Center only a little before 7 pm, so we managed to get into our seats a few minutes before curtain after grabbing a quick meal at Europan.  That also meant I had no time to read the Playbill beforehand.

That might have helped.  I will get back to that later.

The selected pieces are from the operas Le nozze di Figaro (1786), Die Zauberflote (1791), La clemenza di tito (1791), Zaide (1779-80), Don Giovanni (1787), and Idomeneo, re di Creta (1781).  The one opera I had not seen – nor had heard of – is Zaide.

As the opera stage, we have a box that tapers a bit, and for different arias different projections were used to depict scenery for the occasion.  The orchestra occupied the first few rows at the orchestra level.  The singers were all in costumes, most period, but some period-indeterminate (e.g., Idomeneo.)

The stage worked quite well.  Although the projections would fool no one, they did provide proper settings for the arias being sung.  Most interesting was what happened during the overture.  Mozart’s signature was projected on to the back of the box, and as the overture progressed a maid was there erasing the signature, and the signature actually disappeared.  I couldn’t figure out what the trick was.

The overture was delightfully performed.  It also illustrated the limitations of the MM Festival Orchestra: as the pace accelerated towards the end, one sensed that the orchestra was barely hanging on and began to lose the crispness called for in the piece.  Since my attention was on the singers after the overture, I cannot comment on how they did.  To their credit the cooperation with the singers was seamless.

The singers all did well.  The two names I recognized were Goerke and Polenzani.  Turns out I had heard quite a few of them at the Met, mostly in secondary roles.  Sierra was a new name, and I was impressed with how well she sang.

Curtain call.  Singers and Langree on stage.  This is Mostly Mozart's Fiftieth Year.

After the concert both Anne and I thought this was an opportunity lost.  Perhaps it is just us, when we think of these operas (except Zaide that we didn’t know anything about), we all have their iconic arias in mind (e.g., the Queen of the Night song from the Magic Flute) and most of them were not sung.  The program concluded with the Act IV finale from the Marriage of Figaro, where all nine singers were on stage.

Before I wrote the above, I had the chance to read up on a couple of articles in the Playbill.  They added some insight into the selection of pieces: they reflect intense moments in the operas.  Indeed, in the Program Notes there is a short description of each of the arias and the emotions associated with them.  But still I insist there could be a better selection of pieces.

We also wonder how much this set up (it is a debut) cost, and if it could be reused somewhere else.  At least today’s attendance was close to a “full house” (no third tier), but I imagine MM can’t be awash with money.

The New York Times review is based on the Monday performance.  Despite all the praise of the individual aspects of the production and singers, the reviewer in the final analysis panned it, describing the program as “while clearly organized with care, it felt a bit scatter shot.  And also a bit insubstantial …”, concluding with “The performance, attractive and polished, didn’t teach us anything about Mozart that we didn’t already know.” (Ouch!)  I think Woolfe is expecting too much of these events.

The 90-minute program was performed without an intermission, so it was around 10:15 pm when Chung Shu dropped us off at home.

The International Organ Summer Hallgrimskirkja 2016 - Sigrun Magna Thorsteinsdottir, organist. July 7, 2016.

Hallgrimskirkja, Reykjavik (ISK 2000).

Program

Konan og drekinn by Hildigunnur Runarsdottier (b. 1964)

-          A woman clothed with the Sun

-          The Salvation and the Power

-          Michael’s Angels

Chorale, op. 3, No. 1 in B-dur and Andante, op. 3, No. 5 in a-moll by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1874).
Festal March (1993) and Adoration (1951) by Florence B. Price (1887-1953).
Fiesta by Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927).

This church, designed with a basalt theme, is the tallest building in Reykjavik.  The Klais Concert Organ dominates the entry to the building.  Quoting the brochure, the organ has 4 keyboards and pedals, 72 voices and 5275 pipes.  It is 15 meters high, weighs about 25 tons, and the largest pipes are about 10 meters tall.  The brochure makes the further claim that the organ has an international reputation as a magnificent concert instrument.

Hallgrimskirkja.  The columns are supposed to represent basalt lava flows.  One can ride an elevator to the top of the tower and get a 360-degree view of Reykjavik.

The pipe organ dominates the backwall of the nave (i.e. the main entrance).

Closeup view of the keyboard.

During summer various organ concerts are held at the church, including one every Thursday.  We caught this one after our city tour.  We were surprised that there were over 100 people in attendance.

Today’s concert was an all-woman affair.  The soloist is the organist at the Akureyri Church.  There is a short description of each work in the program.  Of note is Florence B. Price, who was African American.  She lived during a period when a black person wasn’t welcome everywhere in the country, and moved around until she settled in Chicago.

We sat very close to the organist, and could see how she worked the different parts of the instrument.  At some point someone had to help with some switches.

They served coffee afterwards, which makes this very much like a church function.  We took the elevator to the top of the tower and had a great view of the city.

Reykjavik Classics @ Harpa – Mozart. July 5, 2016.

Eldborg Hall at Harpa, Reykjavik, Iceland. Orchestra Center (ISK 3500).

Program

Prograasy in D minor, K. 397 by Mozart.

Flute Quartet in D major, K. 285.

Artists.  Nina Magret Grimsdottir.  Ari Thor Vihjalmsson, violin; Ashildur Haraldsdottir, flute; Sigurdur Bjarki Gunnarsson, cello; Thorunn Osk Marinosdottir, viola.

We landed at the airport this morning, and after putting our luggage in a locker, we went on a puffin-seeing cruise before we came to Harpa to purchase tickets.

Harpa was started during Iceland’s halcyon banking days, but work had to stop as many of the banks that funded the project had collapsed during the financial crisis of 2007.  There was much discussion of what should be done with the half-completed building, from tearing it down to repurposing it.  The final decision was to proceed with the $200 million (US) project, but at a lower pace.  Harpa was completed in 2012.

It is a building enclosed by a glass structure consisting of mostly polygons, situated right at the water front.  Most of Reykjavik’s buildings in this area have a conservative design, so the building really stands out.

Harpa as seen from the Harbor.

What we were told was that there was tremendous demand from “international visitors” (tourists?) to hear the acoustics of the hall.  Since there are usually few classical concerts during the summer, this series of short concerts filled the gap.  Hopefully the modest ticket price can provide some struggling artists with support.

Mozart’s Fantasy in D minor is a familiar piece for piano students, and we had heard it practiced multiple times in our house.  Grimsdottir, who is also the artistic director for Reykjavik Classics, was the soloist.

The Mozart piece is mostly flute, with several thematic violin passages.  The players, especially the flutist, put in a spirited performance.  The movements are Allegro, Adagio, and Rondo.

Indeed our seats had great acoustics.  All the musicians, except the violist, were trained at some point in the US.

Curtain Call.

The hall seats 1,800, perhaps 50 people showed up.  The quartet played a short encore piece, thus we end up over the 30-minute time limit by a little.

It was an enjoyable half hour, and we got to see the inside of the concert hall.

Prima Trio. June 28, 2016.

Richardson Auditorium, Princeton.  Balcony Center.

Members: Anatasia Dedik, piano; Gulia Gurevich, violin & viola; Boris Allakhverdyan, clarinet.

Program

Trio for Clarinet, Viola and Piano, E flat, K. 498 “Kegelstatt” by Mozart (1756-1791).

Suite for Clarinet, Violin and Piano, Op. 157b by Darius Milhaud (1892-1974).

The Klezmer’s Wedding by Srul Irving Glick (1934-2002).

Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano by Khachaturian (1903-1978).

Otono Porteno (from Cuatro estachones portenas) byPiazzolla (1921-1992).

Serenade for Three by Schickele (b. 1935).

I was under the impression that there would be several pieces where the string instrument would be the viola, it turns out only piece that fit the bill was the Mozart piece.  Given Mozart's affinity for the viola and the clarinet, it is quite natural he would compose a piece for those instruments.

David explained to me “Kegelstatt” was a bowling game popular during Mozart’s time.  The three movements are Andante, Menuett, and Allegro.  As usual, I had some trouble picking out the viola part even though there were only two other instruments.  In any case, there was much interplay among the three players, and they did quite well.

Milhaud was born in France, but spent a lot of time in California writing music for movies.  The Suite was based on incidental music he wrote for a play “The Traveller without Luggage.”  When I looked up his Wikipedia entry, he had a long list of students, including Philip Glass and Peter Schickele, whose music was also on today’s program.

The movements of the Suite are Ouverture, Divertissement, Jeu, and Introduction et Final.

Per one of the musicians, Glick was also one of Milhaud’s students (confirmed by his Wiki entry.)  Klezmer’s Wedding is a lively dance that has a heavy dose of Jewish melodies.  To me it could easily have been lifted from the musical The Fiddler on the Roof.

The Khachaturian trio was how this group got together in 2004, while all were students at Oberlin College.  Khachaturian was an Armenian living in St. Petersburg – the clarinetist is Armenian (born in Azerbaijan to American parents), and the pianist is from St. Petersburg.  The trio contains reference to Uzbek melodies, the country the string player hails from.  From that start they have since built up quite a repertoire and record at various competitions.  I probably know more than one piece by this composer, but I think “sabre dance” when the name Khachaturian is mentioned; and this trio is nothing like that.

We just heard Winter and Spring by Piazzolla at the New York Phil Snug Harbor concert, today we got to hear Autumn.  Today’s arrangement is for three instruments.  I got the fast-slow-fast structure of the piece, but didn’t get any reference to Vivaldi’s work.

We heard of Schickele during our college days, what I remember was he wrote “funny” music, often for an electric keyboard.  That may or may not be correct.  What I heard today was quite serious.

The group did a short encore afterwards, making this a rather long program. The players took turn to say something about the piece that was about to be played.  I thought when playing the violin the musician was often a bit off; I wonder if switching between two instruments, with the different stop distances, may affect the muscle memory a little bit.  I did appreciate how well each of them played, and how well they worked together.  While many of the pieces can be considered contemporary or even modern, they all sounded quite melodious and relatively easy to get.

We got to Princeton early and had a leisurely dinner with David and Vivien.  It was good to have some time to catch up, even though we do see each other quite often.

Aizuri Quartet. June 23, 2016.

Richardson Auditorium, Princeton.  Balcony Center.

Quartet members: Miho Saegusa, violin; Ariana Kim, violin; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Karen Ouzounian, cello.

Program

String Quartet No. 6 in B-flat major, Op. 18 by Beethoven (1770-1827).

Blueprint by Caroline Shaw (b. 1982).

String Quartet No. 3 in A major, Op. 41, No. 3 by Schumann (1810-1856).

This was the first of the four chamber music concerts hosted by the Princeton University Summer Concerts organization.  As usual, it was David and Vivien who brought the series to our attention.  Since we just returned from Maine a couple of days ago, and had attended the Snug Harbor concert the day before, Anne decided to forego the event.  I was quite ready to go.

The quartet consists of four young women, and was formed in 2012.  David mentioned to me there was a recent change in membership as one of the violinists left for a solo career.  In any case, the violinists switch the first and second violin roles, with Saegusa playing the lead in Beethoven and Schumann, and Kim the Shaw piece.

Since I am not very good with chamber music, my reaction to the pieces was “that’s pretty good.”  Particularly so since I am writing this several days later, and had heard a second concert in the series just now, thus any specific recollections have been wiped clean.

A Princeton professor, Scott Burnham, introduced each of the three pieces.  His descriptions were simple enough, a few sentences about each of the movements, using familiar words and phrases like brilliant, emotion, gallop, and descending fifth.  While they helped me look for particular patterns, they were not all that “educational,” and I have forgotten most of them by now.

The movements of the Beethoven quartet are (i) Allegro con brio; (ii) Adagio ma non troppo; (iii) Scherzo: Allegro; and (iv) La Molinconia: Adagio-Allegretto quasi Allegro.  For the Schumann piece: (i) Andante espressiv - Allegro molto moderato; (ii) Assai agitato; (iii) Adagio molto; and (iv) Finale: Allegro molto vivace - Quasi Trio.

The exception was the piece Blueprint, both the composer and the composition turned out to be quite interesting.  Burnham described how he heard on the news that a certain Caroline Shaw won the Pulitzer Prize in music composition and marveled at that winner as having the same name as one of the students in Princeton’s music department before it dawned on him that it was their Caroline Shaw that won the prize.  At age 30, she was the youngest winner in the music category. Blueprint was written for the Aizuri Quartet.  The word Aizuri-e in Japanese has something to do with the blue ink used in woodblock print that was imported to Japan from Europe.  What Shaw did was to “reduce” Beethoven’s Quartet we just heard into its fundamental elements, and then wrote a new quartet based on those elements, thus the title “Blueprint.”  The music equivalent of Picasso’s cubism, I guess.

If I ever write about paintings, I would say I may appreciate Picasso at a gut level, but I can never make heads or tails of how cubism informed his work.  (And I have a book on Picasso, yet to be read.)  If someone goes through the two compositions and explain to me how the Beethoven blueprint leads to Shaw’s quartet, I may be able to follow.   But I probably won’t hear it.  I joked to David that it sounded more like it was based on Quartet No. 5.

In reading up on her on Wikipedia, I found out she is a violinist, a singer, and a composer.  And another curious fact about her: she is the great-great-grand daughter of the conjoined twins Chang and Eng.

The concert was generally a good experience.  The individual players all seem to do very well.  I only wish I had a more solid grounding in chamber music to be able to appreciate it more.

We didn’t meet up for dinner as David and Vivien had a family dinner with Daniel (whom we also know.)

New York Philharmonic – Frank Huang, leader/violin. June 22, 2016.

Snug Harbor Music Hall, Staten Island.  Seat center front.  ($0.)

Program

Selections from Las cuatro estacioes portenas (The Four Seasons in Buenos Aires), for violin and string orchestra (1965-70) by Piazzolla (1921-92).  Arr. L. Desyatnikov.

Le qquattro stagioni (The Four Seaons) (ca. 1715) by Vivaldi (1678-1741).

Yi-Heng Yang, harpsichord.

We had tickets to the regular season concert in which Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons was programmed, but had to give the tickets away because of a China trip.  So it was an easy decision when I found out about this free “Concert in the Park” event, especially since it would be held indoors, on Staten Island.

Music Hall at Snug Harbor

I don’t know much about Piazzolla, other than he had this tango sound.  Per the Playbill, the “Seasons” are among the most advanced examples of his New Tango style.  Indeed, the Playbill has more detailed description of how this work pays tribute to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.  One example is each “Season” has a fast-slow-fast form, the other is the inclusion of some melodic allusions; I did get one or two of those.  The music is generally pleasant to listen to, but I can’t say I understood it, or enjoyed it.

The two seasons performed were Invierno porteno (Winter in Buenos Aires, 1970) and Primavera portena (Spring in Buenos Aires, 1969).

For us the excitement of Vivaldi was that Yi-Heng got to play the continuo part on the Harpsichord.  Of course I also wanted to hear Frank Huang, the new concertmaster.

Huang certainly was up to the technical challenge, and there were many in this piece, mostly in how fast some of the passages are.

The “orchestra” was properly named “Musicians from the New York Philharmonic” as it consisted of ten string players and the harpsichord.  Surprisingly I didn’t get as crisp a sound as I expected from such a small ensemble.  While the harpsichord as continuo was only supposed to provide “background,” I would have preferred a louder volume.

Curtain Call after Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

Another interesting observation: of the 12 players, 10 were Asians, 10 were women.  This speaks to the generational cultural shift in this organization, if not the country.

I was hoping to compare how the New York Phil and its concertmaster compare with their New Jersey counterparts (heard in November, 2015), and decided to cop out as I don’t have a clear winner.  How’s that for bravery, or lack thereof.

Snug Harbor is a nice location for a summer evening.  Chung Shu and Shirley came by our house to share a pizza before we headed up.  We could have packed a picnic and eaten there.  In any case, getting to it was relatively easy, and we could park right next to the concert hall!

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra – Jacques Lacombe, conductor; Joyce Yang, piano. June 11, 2016.

Count Basie Theater, Red Bank, NJ.  Balcony (Seat E102, $37.60).

Program

Night and the City (2010) by Rogerson (b. 1988).

Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30 (1909) by Rachmaninoff.

La Valse (1920) by Ravel (1875-1937).

Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2 (1912) by Ravel.

This is the farewell series led by Lacombe after a six-year stint with the NJSO.  Coupled with Joyce Yang playing Rachmaninoff’s piano concerto No. 3, one would think this is a concert not to be missed.  Leave it to New Jersey to have many empty seats in the small Count Basie Theater.  If one’s expectations are low, then that there were more in attendance today than usual is an encouraging sign.  One of the trustees came on to thank Lacombe (after thanking the sponsors) for taking NJSO to new heights; a statement I would generally agree with, and I have said multiple times the orchestra plays well under him.

The six-minute lead-off piece is by the young composer Chris Rogerson.  The piece describes his first experience living in a big city (Philadelphia).  As new music goes, I liked it very much.  It is quite sonorous, and describes a scene that somehow reminds me more of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” than a busy Philly evening.  He is young (not yet 30) so should have a lot of time to improve his craft.  He came on stage at the end of the piece to take a bow.

I haven’t encountered Rachmaninoff’s Third that often in concert, but have heard it over my iPhone multiple times during some of the long flights I have taken.  Perhaps there is a reason it is not played that often, it is close to 40 minutes of non-stop virtuosic playing, with a break only here or there.  Joyce Yang burst onto the music scene a few years ago as a young woman, so I was looking forward to this first opportunity to hear her perform.

Overall I was disappointed.  Even when the first piano notes were played, I was surprised at how loud it was compared to the sound of the orchestra.  My usually complaint is the soloist gets overwhelmed, in this case it is the opposite.  With a few exceptions, the orchestra seemed to be whimpering along, afraid of intruding on the soloist.  While much of this might be attributable to the acoustics, but I don’t recall having this concern ever inside Count Basie.

I can’t comment on Yang’s technique, and am indeed very impressed with what I saw.  My major issue is the performance seemed to be simply stringing together a long series of difficult passages, there is no story, no conversation, and no engagement.  Impressive for most 25-year old pianists, but not quite at the level of a master.  (Yang was born in 1986.)  In any case, the applause afterwards was thunderous.

The three movements of the concerto are Allegro ma non tanto; Intermezzo: Adagio; and Finale: Alla breve.

We heard two Ravel pieces after the intermission.  By now I knew how La Valse started as waltz but devolved into rather dark music to reflect Ravel’s disappointment with humanity – this was a couple of years before the first world war.  Daphnis and Chloe was a ballet score Ravel written in cooperation with Sergei Diaghilev.  Suite No. 2 consists of three movements Lever du jour, Pantomine, and Danse generale.  They make up the final scene of the ballet where Daphnis and Chloe are united, and they mime the story of Pan and Syrinx, followed by a celebration of their love.  Both pieces are easy to get, although tonight I didn’t think La Valse sounded all that dark.  I gained some appreciation of how Ravel could use music to depict specific scenes (like sunrise and birds chirping.)

So that’s it, end of an era.  I was hoping Lacombe’s tenure would end on a higher note, he deserved it.  While I am generally impressed with how he brought high standards to the orchestra, I do feel things have plateaued for a while.  Where will Xian Zhang take this organization in the coming years?

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra – Jeremie Rhorer, conductor; Augustin Hadelich, violin. May 14, 2016.

NJPAC in Newark.  Orchestra (Seat G105, $52.)

Program

The Hebrides Overture, “Fingal’s Cave” Op. 26 (1829-30, revised until 1835) by Mendelssohn (1809-1847).

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op, 35 (1878) by Tchaikovsky (1840-1893).

Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11 (1857-58) by Brahms (1833-1897).

We got home after a 240 or so mile drive from Boston on Friday, the previous night.  And for today (Saturday) we needed to check into our hotel in Rockville, MD; we were planning on attending a 9:45 am service on Sunday.

Our daughter and others, after hearing this, all agreed the prudent thing to do was to skip the concert. But with Hadelich playing Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto, I really wanted to hear it.  So we decided to compromise by leaving after the first half of the program.

I usually don’t do any research, beyond reading the Program Notes, before I listen to a live concert.  Either I am that lazy, or I don’t want to be biased towards one particular interpretation.  (For similar reasons I don’t read the reviews either.)  There are those who swear by learning about the music as much as possible beforehand.  I imagine there are reasons to go one way or another.

Today I made the “mistake” of searching for the overture on YouTube, and listened to it.  It matched very well the description in today’s Program Notes, with the seas around the island calm at times, and stormy at others.  Tonight’s performance was at best competent, I had to really work on my imagination to picture the scenery. Perhaps it’s the unfavorable comparison to the YouTube tape, or it was simply an uninspired reading.

Fingal’s Cave is on an island that is just a little south from the Isle of Skye, a place we are visiting later this summer.  It would be interesting if we can find a way to see the cave.

The size of the orchestra remained the same for Tchaikovsky.  Hadelich put in a great performance, although the violin was slight off-tune after the first movement, some of which couldn’t be fixed as they were harmonics, but a bit of minor tuning before the second movement (and the enthusiastic applause) fixed the problem.

We were seated quite close to the stage, and I expected a great sound from the instrument.  Not that there was anything wrong with it, but the violin didn’t quite have the brilliance of a Stradivarius, and didn’t quite measure up to my memory of Hadelich’s previous performances.  The Program Notes doesn’t mention the violin, so let me try a web search now … the Wikipedia entry says he is still playing on the 1723 Stradivarius.  I also found out he suffered severe burns when he was a teenager and required extensive skin grafts during his recovery.

The applause was thunderous, and for encore he played Paganini’s Caprice No. 5.  It was close to perfect.  So readers of this blog won’t complain about my harsh grading, I considered the way he played No. 24 perfect, and this was certainly a better performance than the last time I heard him play it.  (So far he’s played Paganini’s caprices as encores for all three of the concerts.)

We have seen Rohrer conduct a couple of times before, leading the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.  I described him as animated, and he was relatively subdued today.

We left Newark a bit after 9:15 pm, and it was about 1:30 am that we checked into the hotel in Rockville, MD.  It was worth the trouble to go to this concert.  

New York Philharmonic – Bernard Haitink, conductor. April 19, 2016.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra 1 (Seat Q103, $69.50).

Program

Symphony No. 9 in D major (1908-10) by Mahler (1860-1911).

I remember telling myself that I didn’t have a lot to say about this gargantuan piece (advertised at 79 minutes, probably lasted 10 minutes longer).  Due to family visits, this is more than a week after the event, so I probably have even less to say about it.

A listing of the movements gives a hint of how unconventional this composition is: (1) Andante comodo; (2) Im Tempo eines gemachlichen Landlers, etwas tappisch und sehr derb (In the tempo of a comfortable Landler, somewhat clumsy and very coarse); (3) Rondo: Burleske (Allegro assai, sehr trotzig) (Allegro assai, very insolent); and (4) Adagio (Sehr langsam und noch zuruckhaltend) (Very slow and even holding back).  Other than the third movement, the music was generally slow and sad; although I got only hints of coarseness and insolence in the middle movements.

I heard this piece in 2008, conducted by Lorin Maazel.  That blog entry actually contained a more detailed description of the music than I remember of this one; I probably took notes then.  I also mentioned that the piece lasted about 90 minutes.

However, I felt a bit differently this time.  The most noticeable difference of this piece is how much less it wanders compared to many of Mahler’s other symphonies.  That was even more marked in the case of the first movement, rather long at about 30 minutes.  I could hear motifs repeated throughout the movement.  Also, I didn’t find the ending repetitious at all this time; I was straining to listen to the notes as they slowly petered out, to good effect.  The first violins were not playing any notes towards the end, but all the players kept their bows in the playing position – except one who evidently didn’t get the memo.

The piece calls for solo passages from many of the principals, including quite a few by the concertmaster Huang.  Huang certainly didn’t have an intonation problem, but I can’t quite tell how good he is, yet.  Later in the season he will be playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, but we probably have to miss that concert.  Most section principals were at tonight's concert, but many associate principals were missing.

CS, who went with me, saw a video with Bernstein discussing this symphony.  He said the piece reflected the despair Mahler felt, at many levels.  First was his personal tragedy, he knew he didn’t have long to live because of his heart condition.  Then was his lament that the traditional symphony form was on its last legs (one would think he contributed to its demise, but he evidently didn’t think so.) Lastly, the world probably was in a very agitated state, as the first world war would occur in a couple of years.  Indeed the Playbill describes this symphony as “filled with intimations of yearning, nostalgia, regret, despair, isolation, resignation, and even personal solace.”

This was the first time I got to see Haitink conduct.  When I saw the stool on the conductor podium I was expecting him to walk out with a cane; he is 87, after all.  Instead, he only needed 30 or so seconds on the stool in between movements.  He was quite economical with his gestures, but was clearly in control.  There were several well-deserved curtain calls.

Bernard Haitink flanked by New York Philharmonic players. 

I could find the New York Times review tucked within an article talking about other performances of Mahler in New York (the review is titled “A Mahler Mini-Festival in New York.)  Only two, albeit positive, paragraphs were spent on the performance.

Anne couldn’t go, so we gave her ticket to CS’s neighbor.  Traffic was quite bad getting into town, so we could only share a sandwich from the Geffen Hall café before we had to rush into the auditorium.

San Francisco Symphony – Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor; Inon Barnatan, piano. April 15, 2016.

Prudential Hall at NJPAC.  First Tier (Seat B8, $37.50).

Program

Orchestra Variations (1958) by Copland (1900-1990).

Inscape (1967) by Copland.

Piano Concerto (1927) by Copland.

Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61 (1846) by Schumann (1810-1856).

While surfing Goldstar.com a couple of weeks ago, I found out tickets for this concert were offered at a 50% discount.  A no-brainer as SFS and MTT are on the program.

Thomas actually described the first two pieces before they were performed.  I vaguely remember the Orchestra Variations can be called a concerto for the orchestra, and Inscape as starting on a 11-note chord, then resolving into simpler music for various parts of the orchestra, and ending on the same 11-note chord again.

If I have to name two Copland works, they would be Appalachian Springs (1944) and Billy the Kid (1938).  Both these works predate the first two pieces in the program, and the evolution of Copland as a composer clearly shows.

Copland’s description of Variations, cited in the Program Notes, is simple enough: a theme of dramatic characters followed by 20 variations and a coda.  The annotator adds more, grouping the piece into “Chapter 1” (through the 10^th variation), a slow movement (11), a scherzo (12-18), section of increasing speed (19-22), and a “magnificent spare-textured coda.”  All well and good, except the theme sounded more complicated than I thought, and I gave up on counting the variations after a few.  I suspect this music is more interesting studied on paper than heard with the ear.  The entire piece lasted perhaps 12 minutes, so things were going at a fast clip.

There are 12 notes in the chromatic scale, so I naturally wonder which note was skipped in the initial chord (calling it a chord is a bit of a stretch, in my opinion.)  Interestingly the chord sounded much more harmonious than I would expect.  I like the intervening passages that seemed to probe different aspects of new music.

A search of the web indicated some suspected Copland, whose music had been lyrical, was trying to stay relevant with his exploration of new styles of music writing.  The premiere of Inscape – commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and conducted by Leonard Bersetein – was not well-received.  I, on the other hand, would only attribute the “head-scratching” to my lack of understanding.

In contrast, the piano concerto was written early in Copland’s career, and was much easier to appreciate.  It consists of two movements played without pause: Andante sostenuto, and Molto moderato (molto rubato) – Allegro vivace.  Not only did it sound like the Copland I know, to me the jazz and “American” elements in the music made it sound like Gershwin on many occasions.  The Program Notes contains the composer description of the music, and it is relatively easy to follow.  This turns out to be the last composition Copland wrote in this style, remarking that American music could not possibly be confined to two dominant moods: the blues and the snappy number.

Inon Barnatan probably is an up-and-coming pianist, having been retained as NY Philharmonic’s artist-in-association.  He put in a delightful performance, often masquerading himself as a jazz pianist (successfully, I might add.)  We heard him last year performing Ravel’s F with the NY Philharmonic.

Curtain Call, Barnatan and Thomas.  

The other interesting aspect of the first two pieces is the number of percussionists they called for; at one point I counted six of them.

I am not familiar with Schumann’s second symphony, even though I had heard it a couple of times in the past few years.  The Program Notes describes this tribute to Bach with the notes B-flat/A/C/B-natural.  I tried very hard to listen for it, but failed.

The San Francisco Symphony is a large organization.  In addition to the many percussionists, they also have large sections – I counted 14 first violins, roster says 18.  They sounded precise, and had good dynamics. Unfortunately the acoustics at our seats were a bit flat, so I couldn’t characterize the sound.  The played the same program at Carnegie Hall twice before coming to NJPAC.  Attendance was okay, although there were quite a few empty seats in Tier 1.

Parking fee just jumped to $20 (from $17), so we parked at the hotel lot for $15.  I notice with some satisfaction that the lots were quite empty.

The New York Times review is of the Carnegie Hall performance.  It is generally positive, and provides more background on Copland's works.  The review did complain that the Schumann reading was a bit on the "sober" side.

Metropolitan Opera – Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. April 14, 2016.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat EE21, $25.)

Story.  The pirate Simon Boccanegra is elected doge of Genoa.  The daughter he has with Maria disappears when the old lady she was left with dies.  Maria’s mother (also named Maria) dies while being imprisoned by her father Fiesco who disapproves of Boccanegra.  Twenty-five years later baby Maria has grown up as Amelia, daughter of the wealthy Grimaldis, who are actually the Fiescos, who in turn isn’t aware of Maria’s true identity as their grand-daughter.  Amelia and Gabriele are in love, but Grimaldi wants her to marry Paolo. Gabriele has been plotting to overthrow the doge.  Boccanegra meets Amelia and by comparing portraits of her mother, they two recognize their father/daughter relationship.  Paolo attempt to kidnap Amelia is thwarted, and Boccanegra forces Paolo to curse himself.  By putting poison in Boccanegra’s water bottle, Paolo poisons the doge.  While Boccanegra suffers from the poison, all the relationships are sorted out.  Paolo is condemned to death, and Boccanegra pardons Gabriele and names him his successor.

Conductor – James Levine.  Paolo Albiani – Brian Mulligan, Simon Boccanegra – Placido Domingo, Jacopo Fiesco (aka Andrea Grimaldi) – Ferruccio Furlanetto, Maria (daughter of Boccanegra, aka Amelia Grimaldi) – Lianna Haroutounian, Gabriele Adorno – Joseph Calleja.

I tried but was unable to put together a story that both makes sense and describes the plot as it unveils.  While I think my summary hangs together, it skips over parts of the story that deals with the political climate at that time.  The most noticeable missing parts are how the government of a city-state worked, and the rivalry between Genoa and Venice.  There was also mention of Guelphs during the opera which I frankly didn’t understand.  (Per Wikipedia, Guelphs is a faction that supported the Holy Roman Emperor.)  To indicate how complex the plot is, the Playbill compares it to that of Il Travatore, another Verdi opera whose plot is difficult to summarize.  This opera also has the distinction of having a tragic beginning (death of Boccanegra’s love Maria) and a tragic end (his own death.)

CS mentioned to me a while ago he read a New York Times review of the performance.  Before I could stop him, he said the review wasn’t kind.  I asked if the reviewer complained about Domingo’s being a former tenor trying unsuccessfully to become a baritone, and that Levine was also past his prime; he basically said yes.  That didn’t stop us from wanting to see the opera, and we did so today, together with a couple of his friends.  Anne had too many things on her plate and couldn’t go.

Let’s start by saying of course things could have been better.  Domingo could have a stronger voice, Levine could have conducted a better performance.  But isn’t that always the case?  I am glad to have attended.  Exaggerating a bit to prove my point, instead of an A+ performance we saw only an A performance.

I haven’t seen Domingo at his prime – the first opera I remember seeing him in was Tan Dun’s “The First Emperor” in 2008 – so I don’t have any reference.  But he did a splendid job today.  His singing was rich and strong most of the time, and I didn’t notice any deficiencies in the lower registers.  Maybe a tad weak here or there, but I thought this role fitted well a singer who was at the twilight of his career (I mean “singing career,” I hope he has many good years as a conductor ahead of him.)  Similarly with Levine, while one has to sorry to see how Parkinson’s has ravaged him, he put in a great performance.  The orchestra sounded exquisite and precise.

The other principals were impressive, each fulfilling their roles brilliantly.  This was my first encounter with the Armenian soprano Lianna Haroutounian, she had a beautiful voice, and was a match for the others, even though it was one woman against many men.  Ferruccio Furlanetto - no spring chicken at 66 - demonstrated what a rich basso voice should sound like, and Joseph Calleja also did great as Gabriele Adorno.

The sets, first used in 1995, are quite elaborate: outside a castle for the prolog, a garden that reminds me of Tuscany for Act I Scene 1, the inside of a doge’s palace for Act I Scene 2, a room inside the palace for Act II, and a repeat of Act I Scene 2 in Act III.  Levine conducted the 1995 series, with Domingo in the role of Gabriele.  It was repeated in 2010 where Domingo played the title role.

A few years ago I caught this opera on TV, but saw it for only a few minutes.  I remember it starred a young and dashing Domingo (in hindsight he was probably playing Gabriele); I was blown away by this handsome singer.  For tonight he played the role of an old man.  Time marches on.  He could still fall impressively, though.

Curtain Call, with Domingo in the center.

The New York Times review is indeed unkind, suggesting Levine and Domingo should retire lest they tarnish their towering and colossal career, respectively.  Tonight’s auditorium was fuller than it has been for a while.  The reviewer also says Domingo has been booked as a singer far into the future.  I am glad the regular opera attendee doesn’t follow what they read in the paper.  The reviewer mentioned (grudgingly, no doubt) that the two will reunite next season in Nabucco.  Perhaps not at their prime, these two artists still hold their own, and they should do so with well-deserved pride.

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra – Xian Zhang, conductor; Jennifer Frautschi, violin. April 9, 2016.

Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ.  Balcony (Seat E101, $37.60).

Program

Marche Slave, Op. 31 (1876) by Tchaikovsky (1840-1893).

Violin Concerto, Op. 14 (1940, rev. 1948) by Barber (1910-1981).

Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 (1878) by Tchaikovsky.

This is the first series with Zhang as the conductor after she was named the next music director of NJSO.  I had seen Zhang two or three times before, conducting the New York Philharmonic when she was an associate conductor there, and the New Jersey Symphony recently as a guest conductor.  CS, Shirley, and Agnes also came to the concert.

Calling this program “Zhang conducts Tchaikovsky” is only partially correct as there is also a Barber concerto.  Perhaps someone can Barber with Tchaikovsky, but not I.  Even though this is touted as “the most-performed” violin concerto by an American composer, it is still not program all that often.  A search of my blog indicated this having occurred twice: in 2015 with Lisa Batiashvili, and in 2010 with Gil Shaham.

The name Frautschi is quite familiar as there is a Laura who is with the Orpheus and Mostly Mozart Festival orchestras.  Jennifer Frautschi looks quite a bit younger.  She is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Grant (I wonder if this is now renamed David Geffen Grant), and performs on the 1722 “ex-Cadiz” Stradivarius.  Things look good if name recognition is the game.

The parallel that sprang up in my head once the concerto got underway was Sibelius. Not that the two sounded at all alike, but I thought the first movement of Barber sounded wistful and sad, and the second, frustration.  However, while Sibelius there was a clear “resolution” in the third movement, Barber’s third movement seemed to be an etude showcasing the soloist virtuoso technique.  The three movements are Allegro, Andante, and Presto in moto perpetuo.

Frautschi came across as a better musician than a technician.  She managed to convey (what I thought was) the mood of the first two movements quite well, although her intonation was off slightly on occasion.  However, the third movement sounded just like a good student playing a difficult exercise piece: passable, but not much beyond that.  The most puzzling aspect is how the Stradivarius sounded ordinary in the smallish Count Basie venue.

The program started with Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slave.  It is a collection of some very familiar tunes, which the Program describes as “a mish-mosh of Serbian tunes that sounded strikingly like Tchaikovsky’s original themes.”  On top of that was the Russian National Anthem.  Indeed it was a music that one could tap along.  I do wish a listing of the tunes had been provided though.

Perhaps this piece set my expectation for the rest of the program.  There was quite a bit of volume dynamics in the presentation, but somehow the music sounded flat for eight or so of the ten minutes.  The only time it got exciting for me was the end where everything was thrown into the coda, including the Russian National Anthem.

Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony is in four movements: (1) Andante sostenuto; (2) Andantino in modo di canzona; (3) Scherzo: Pizzicato ostinato; and (4) Finale: Allegro con fuoco.  While I am quite familiar with it, somehow I had in mind the theme from his Pathetique in my head as the performance was to begin.  So, on the bright side, the piece sounded refreshing when it began.

Everything seemed to work well.  The orchestra was together, the dynamics were good, the different sections were quite impressive.  However, at the end we have only a competent orchestra playing some well-known passages by following the dynamics markings faithfully.  There is this missing element of what the music was trying to say.

In the past Zhang usually wore heels.  Today she wore flats, which made her small stature that much more noticeable.  She conducted with the same level of gusto I have come to associate with her.  The orchestra responded to her well, which is a good thing.  I hope as she develops a closer relationship with the organization some of the musicianship would come through more clearly.  She did engage the audience with a short talk at the beginning of the program, including the fact that Barber knew he wanted to be a composer at a very young age.

The event was newsworthy enough that I found a New York Times review on the concert.  The reviewer is generally positive, describe Zhang as “a name worth memorizing” and “a pint-size bundle of energy.”  She also said the orchestra had moments “that would be the envy of better-known ensembles on the other side of the state lines.”  I assume she is referring to both NY and Philadelphia?