Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Vladmir Jurowski, conductor; Alina Ibragimova, violin. May 16, 2019.

Konzerthaus Berlin – Grosser Saal.  Chorbalkon Mitte links (Open Seating, 21 Euros).

Program

“Die Hebriden” – Konzertouverture h-Moll op. 26 (1829-30, revised until 1835) by Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847).

Konzert fur Violine und Orchester d-Moll op. 8 (1881-1882) by Strauss (1864-1949).

Sinfonie Nr. 6 F-Dur op. 68 (“Pastorale”) by Beethoven.

 The Konzerthaus is located at the Gendarmenmarkt, flanked by the French and German Cathedrals.

 Inside the main hall.  Our seats are located below the organ, above the orchestra platform.

Poster for the concert.

Anne and I are on a 4-city concert tour of London and northern Germany.  First stop Berlin.  We got into town earlier this afternoon.

This concert was nearly sold out by the time I got around to booking the tickets on 5/12. The only available seats were in the “Chorbalon” where seats sold for E20 each.  While I could pick the actual seat numbers (if I remember correctly), it was actually open seating on some benches.  We didn’t get there early enough to get the best choices, but ours at the edge were okay, especially considering the prices we paid.

After having visited Fingal’s Cave, Mendelssohn’s overture has been quite enjoyable, and tonight was no exception.  My complaint is the sound wasn’t as crisp as I would expect from my memory of how the cave resonates from the incoming waves.  The dynamic range was very good.

I didn’t know anything about the Strauss violin concerto.  It was written when Strauss was only a teenager and consists of three movements: Allegro; Lento, ma no troppo; and Rondo – Presto. I can stop right here: this was the work of someone who knew a lot about orchestral music and about the violin.  It showcases the violin virtuoso’s technical prowess, the first movement (Allegro) starts with so many fast double stops that our soloist sometimes muddled through, and it was intense, non-stop motion.  The second movement (Lento, ma non troppo) had some beautiful melodies, and the last movement (Rondo, Presto) could be passed off as a Beethoven piece.  Indeed the wikipedia reference states that Strauss was very reverent of Mozart and Beethoven, although I would be hard pressed to hear much Mozart in the piece.

Alina Ibragimova is a Russian-British violinist trained at the Yehudin Menuhin school and the Royal School of Music.  The Strauss piece required a lot of violence on the violin, and she was busy clearing broken hairs on her bow between movements.  One can assume she and Jurowski got to know each other as the latter is music director of the London Philharmonic.

Ibragimova acknowledging the orchestra after performing Strauss's violin concerto.

Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony can sound down right delightful when performed well.  Tonight’s performance didn’t quite rise to that level, but was quite good.  The horn was either a hit or miss with the many passages where it figures prominently.

Jurowski acknowledging the woodwind section after performance of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony.

The two primary organizations we want to see are the Berlin Philharmonic and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, this was a late add on (we booked the tickets on 5/21).  While it may not be inspiring (I run into a few every year), it was certainly worth the price of admission (and a lot more).

Sitting where we were, we had a good view of how Jurowski conducted.  His hand gestures are quite precise, and the orchestra responded quite well, although not most of the time.

The Konzerthaus is located along Unten den Linden, and is a short subway ride from our hotel (a change of train is required).

Metropolitan Opera – Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites. May 11, 2019.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Balcony (Seat A19, $133).

Story.  See previous post.

Conductor – Yannick Nezet-Seguin.  Blanche – Isabel Leonard, Madame de Croissy – Karita Mattila, Sister Constance – Erin Morley, Mother Marie – Karen Cargill, Madame Lidone – Adrianne Pieczonka.

I saw this opera a few years ago.  Anne couldn’t go, so we decided to do this again.  This entry is not supposed to be a complete review (few entries are), but rather a record of some of the thoughts that came to me during the performance.

From all indications, Yannick has been embraced enthusiastically by the audience, the critics, the Met management (at least the PR machine of theirs), and possibly the musicians.  I think he conducted three to four operas this season, and will have a similar workload next season.  Considering there are over 25 different operas staged every year, this seems to be a small fraction.  Admittedly I don’t know what the practice is, and a music director’s job is more than just conducting the orchestra.

For this season I also saw Yannick conduct Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande, I didn’t say much about his conducting in that blog entry, although I did say “filled with beautiful orchestral music.”  Today the orchestra also sounded well, and Yannick elicited an orchestra performance that had wide dynamic and emotional range, and he placed quite a bit of emphasis on some of the dramatic moments – and there were quite a few in the story.

The problem was it felt like Yannick was conducting just an orchestral performance; whether the sound from the orchestra balanced the voices of the singers didn’t seem to factor very much in his equation.  So one could have a singer start an aria well but would then get overwhelmed by the orchestra; this happened a lot.  The stage setup – mostly flat – probably didn’t help the singers a lot with their projection, and they sounded a lot weaker than how they sounded during the ring cycle.

Lest one asserts “of course different singers have different projections,” two of them (Cargill and Morley) also sang at the Ring cycle, where I had no problems with their voices.  (And I wonder if they would sing in the evening’s Gotterdammerung.)

Many stories are based on the French revolution, a tumultuous period where between 20,000 to 40,000 people were guillotined for being enemies of the revolution.  The execution of Carmelite nuns was a historical event, but it is unclear why they were killed.  Previously I had thought it was because they wouldn’t let the state confiscate their property, although I am no longer sure that was the reason after seeing tonight’s performance.

The death scene of the Prioress wasn’t as “mad” as the one I remembered from my prior encounter.  I do wonder whether she had gone mad, or she was afraid to die, or was she simply cursing at death.  The scene was certainly long enough that one would hope to understand the reason behind the emotions.  Or it was simply to contrast how the sisters calmly accepted death at the end?

Curtain Call.

I do understand why the opera started with the sisters lying prostrate on the ground (maybe).  During my trip last year to Germany I found out priests (and by extension nuns) did pray that way during the Reformation times, so it would be reasonable to expect the same tradition was observed three hundred years later.

In looking over my blog entry for the prior performance, I realized that it was also in the middle of a Ring cycle I was attending, and that Leonard and Morley are reprising their roles.

This is the New York Times review.  The reviewer heaps praises on the conductor; apparently he has better ears or a better seat (or both) as there were no balance problems indicated.

Today was the last day of the Met 2018-19 opera season.  If I counted correctly, this would be the 17^th I saw this season.

We drove in, and grab a snack at Gourmet Garage before the noon performance.

Joshua Bell, violin; Steven Isserlis, cello; and Jeremy Denk, piano. May 5, 2019.

Prudential Hall at NJPAC, Newark, NJ.  Tier 1 (Seat E103, $73.65).

Program

Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 (1839) by Mendelssohn (1809-18470.

Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 (1944) by Shostakovich (1906-1975).

Trio elegianque No. 1 in G minor (1892) by Rachmaninoff (1873-1943).

Piano Trio in A minor (1914) by Ravel (1875-1937).

Two of the three musicians are quite well-known, so it was easy to decide to buy a ticket to this event when discounted tickets became available.

I do not know what to listen for in Chamber Music except how the music sounds, how well the individual players do, and how the musicians work together as an ensemble.  Beyond those I usually don’t have much to say (for instance, about the structure of the piece or its movements.)

I can say so much, though.  The overall experience was great, the players performed beautifully – and there were some challenging passages; they cooperated well; the string players had great intonation.  The last item isn’t always a given, one “old” complaint I had of Bell was that his pitch was often off; to be fair, that complaint has been less frequent the last few years.

Here is my recollection of the individual pieces, aided by the notes I took during the performance:

Mendelssohn.  The movements are (i) Molto allegro ed agitato; (ii) Andante con moto tranquillo; (iii) Scherzo: Leggiero e vivace; and (iv) Finale: Allegro assai appassionato.  They add up to about 30 minutes.  Whoever thinks Prudential Hall has great acoustics has not seen much, the sound in Tier 1 sounded muddled,  The first movement sounded elegant bordering on regal, the second movement was peaceful, the third fiery, which led to an equally exciting finish in the fourth.  At this point I told myself I could sit through the whole thing, despite the antiseptic sound of the hall (for lack of a better adjective).

Shostakovich.  His movement markings tend to be straightforward, and for this 30-minute work they are Andante, Allegro con brio, Largo and Allegretto.  The cello began the movement with harmonics that slid up and down the instrument’s neck, and the movement has a simple sound I often associate with Shostakovich.  The violin and cello had a lot of muted passages.  Despite the marking of Andante for the movement, there were some fast passages thrown in.  The movement ended with a satisfying flourish.  The second movement was a non-stop exercise in allegro tempo.  The third movements started sounding like music written 150 years earlier, but the harmony eventually devolved into “weird,” with the strings making huge interval leaps.  The fourth movement was played attacca, and began with a lot of pizzicato.  It had a heavy dose of folk-like music but felt sad and dark overall.  Both strings had del segno and harmonics passages.  The work ended on quiet pizzicato from the strings.

Disclosure. I watched part of the Trio again on YouTube, with Gidon Kremer at the violin.  This was a recording from about 20 years ago, and he sounded much better then, with great intonation.

Before the concert began, some young people from a local youth chamber orchestra played the Canon by Pachelbel and a movement form Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins.  (The person next to me said they are from the Elizabeth Morrow School in North Jersey.)  Despite the ushers’ best efforts, they couldn’t stop some people from trying to take photographs or videos during the group’s performance.  What was inexcusable was how these family and friends felt they could come in and out as they pleased during the Trio’s performance, and that the ushers would allow them to do so.  My neighbor remarked, appropriately, that this wasn’t a baseball game.  The creaks and groans of the seats while people moved about had to be quite disturbing to the musicians.

The Elizabeth Morrow School Youth Chamber Orchestra played a couple of pieces before the Trio began.

Things quieted down a bit after the intermission.

The 15 minute Rachmaninoff piece provided a nice change of pace.  It began with the cello playing a fifth interval, followed by the violin.  When the piano crept into the ensemble it led with a beautiful romantic melody that Rachmaninoff seemed to have an abundant supply of.  The piece ended with a quiet recollection of the initial melody.

Ravel’s piece was also about 30 minutes long.  Tempo markings are in French: Modere, Pantoum (Assez vif), Passacaille (Tres large), Final (Anime); one can guess what they mean.  It began with a clean introduction.  Per a Wikipedia article I read, Ravel was worried about the cello’s not being heard, so he oftentimes separated the two string instruments by two octaves, with the piano (right hand, at least) in the middle.  That he did with the beginning.  The Scherzo was a delightful give and take among the instruments.  The Largo Passacaglia began with a piano melody followed by the cello and the violin.  It started simple enough but got more complicated as the movement progressed.  The Finale was rapid harmonics, constant motion, with a dose of oriental flavor.

During the Ravel trio one could hear clearly the barking of a dog.  I did see a service dog during intermission.

The three musicians put together a delightful program for the afternoon.

This was a great concert, despite the interruptions. NJPAC was running some promotions (including $50 for 2 seats), and the hall was reasonably full.  One complaint I do have is the lack of Program Notes other than (rather) detailed biographies of the musicians.

This program is repeated many times as the group tours various cities.  I get a lot of web ads about their appearance in Santa Barbara.  One can conclude these ad placement algorithms are either very smart or very dumb.

Metropolitan Opera – Wagner’s Gotterdammerung. May 4, 2019.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Balcony (Seat E115, $152.50).

Story.  See previous post.

Conductor – Philippe Jordan.  Norns – Ronnita Miller, Elizabeth Bishop, Wendy Bryn Harmer; Brunnhilde – Christine Goerke, Siegfried – Andreas Schager, Gunther – Evgeny Nikitin, Hagen – Eric Owens, Gutrune – Edith Haller, Waltraute – Michaela Schuster, Alberich – Tomasz Konieczny, Woglinde – Amanda Woodbury, Wellgunde – Samantha Hankey, Flosshilde – Tamara Mumford.

Wagner first wrote the “poem” to this opera, calling it “Siegfried’s Death.”  He kept writing prequels until he reached Das Rheingold.  Even though this was the longest of the four operas, and perhaps even the most dramatic (we have deceit, jealousy, betrayal, death, self-immolation, and – depends on how you want to look at it – annihilation or redemption, it’s not the most popular of the four.  We saw for the four operas performances number 171, 541, 273, and 238; making Die Walkure the most popular one, by far, and surprisingly Das Rheingold the least performed one.

One can argue whether the story lines contain too many holes (which different people will fill in differently), or too many inconsistencies (in which case one has to suspend logic), but there are enough dramatic elements to keep the audience engaged.

I am sure much more time has been spent on understanding and appreciating Wagner’s music than his libretto, perhaps to Wagner’s chagrin, but that’s how it should be.  Wagner after all has a lot more impact on music than on literature; I am sure that’s not a controversial point.

The norms remain a mystery to me.  They sounded like they were predicting the future, and were busy weaving as they did so.  Neither Anne nor I caught how the ropes suddenly disappear; we both claimed we lost our concentration only briefly.

The new characters introduced in this opera are Hagen, Gunther, and Gutrune.  These half-siblings evidently have the same mother, since having the same father would make even less sense.  Owens voice was among the weakest.  His hatred towards Siegfried was mostly because of his father Alberich’s influence, which may explain why his heart didn’t seem to be in it.  He was the last man standing at the end of the opera; clearly a significant point, but I do not get it.

The synopsis’s description of how Gunther and Siegfried deceive Brunnhilde is as confusing as ever, although things were clearer when the plot got acted out on stage.

For this Ring cycle, the machine worked well nearly all of the time.  Of course, I do not know if there was a lot of manual override to get the planks aligned properly,  The only time it hit a real glitch was when Erda came out from earth in Das Rheingold.  Other complaints would be the creaks when the planks were turning, they were not bad as I remember from prior Ring performances.  And I wonder if the singers needed to be extra careful around them.  Having seen it a few times, it no longer amazes.

The synopsis in the playbill continue to say Brunnhilde rides Grane into the fire.  For tonight she led it into the fire.  CS mentioned that the immolation scene was so “lame” that he didn’t know what it was until he read the program notes.

 The Three Norns and Waltrute after Act 1.

The Rheinmaidens, Hagen, Siegfried, Maestro Jordan, Brunnhilde, Gunther and Gutrune at the conclusion of the opera, and the Ring.

So, this was it.  A 5 ½ hour event to conclude the Ring Cycle.  It was a great one, I am glad we went. I still remember remarking after Seattle that I wasn’t sure I would go see another one; now I am quite sure I will if the timing works out.  To put together something as complex as the ring takes a lot of talent and effort, and to do it well – as was the case here – is a feat only few organizations can pull off.  Perhaps my recollected has dulled over the passage of time, but this was the best overall Ring cycle I have seen.

I had my doubts that – after seeing her performance as Elecktra - that Goerke could pull this off.  She did, although I am a bit disappointed that her multi-faceted portrayal of Brunnhilde in Die Walkure did not carry through to Siegfried and Gotterdammerung.  Schager as Siegfried was impressive.  We saw Jordan at the Paris Opera (Bastille) a couple of years back, that didn’t leave much impression on me.  He was great this past week.

For the record, I copy the durations of the four operas as listed in the Playbills below:

• Das Rheingold [150 mins] Total 2 hrs 30 mins
• Die Walkure [Act 1 65 mins][Intermission 39 mins][Act 2 90 mins][Intermission 35 mins][Act 3 66 mins] Total 4 hrs 55 mins
• Siegfried [Act 1 82 mins][Intermission 37 mins][Act 2 73 mins][Intermission 35 mins][Act 3 79 mins] 5 hrs 6 mins
• Gotterdammerung [Prologe&Act 1 119 mins][Intermission 40 mins][Act 2 60 min][Intermission 31 mins][Act 3 76 mins] Total 5 hrs 32 mins

There are many reviews in the New York Times about this Ring cycle.  This one discusses Wotan as sung by Michael Volle, the three critics had nothing but praise for him.  I could not find a review of Goerke as Brunnhilde, but here is an NPR article on her.

We got into town quite early, and stopped by to have Ramen before the concert.  The concert ended at 11:45 pm (time stamp on my iPhone photos), and it was close to 1 am when we got home.

Metropolitan Opera – Wagner’s Siegfried. May 2, 2019.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Balcony (Seat E115, $152.50).

Story.  See previous post.

Conductor – Philippe Jordan; Mime – Gerhard Siegel, Siegfried – Andreas Schager, The Wanderer (Wotan) – Michael Wolfe, Alberich – Thomasz Konieczny, Fafner – Dmitry Belosselskyiy, A Woodbird – Erin Morley, Erda – Karen Cargill, Brunnhilde – Christine Goerke.

The story to Siegfried is simple.  The Playbill actually calls this the “comic opera of the Ring.”  The three acts can be summarized as follows.  Act 1.  Siegfried is raised by Mime, the latter is planning to steal the treasure after Siegfried kills Fafner.  Siegfried melts down Nothung and forces a new sword from it.  Act 2.  Siegfried kills the dragon, claims the treasure, and kills Mime before he could poison him.  Being able to hear the woodbird after having tasted Fafner’s blood, Siegfried proceeds to find Brunnhilde asleep on a mountain surrounded by fire.  Act 3.  Siegfried wakes Brunnhilde, and the two fall in love.

There are some side plots that took considerable time, such as how Wotan became the Wanderer and warned the dragon (why?) in Act 2, and how the sword forged by Siegfried broke Wotan’s staff, thus signifying the shift in the story from the gods to the humans.  And I was surprised in the Act 3 duet there was mention of “twilight of the gods.”  I assume that would be “Gotterdammerung” in German – indeed it is as a search of the web for the lyrics would confirm.

The Program Note quotes from what Wagner wrote Liszt “Only in the course of composing the music does the essential meaning of my poem dawn on me.  Secrets are continually being revealed to me that had previously been hidden from me …”  It wasn’t like the story came to Wagner in a dream so he didn’t know its full implications, but I will allow as the creator he could re-interpret the storyline as he wished.  What I have trouble with is how critics can see layers of meaning in the plot that I am sure Wagner didn’t think of as he was creating the work; some people take themselves too seriously.

One aspect of the opera I hadn’t realized before (don’t worry, I am not philosophizing) was how much it asked of Siegfried.  Other than some tender moments with Brunnhilde, he basicially had to belt out his lines.  A keen observer might notice some fading towards the end, but to me he sounded spectacular throughout the opera.  And he didn’t get to just stand/sit there and sing, I was particularly impressed with how much he moved around as he wasn’t reforging Nothung; that included pounding on the sword, in rhythm.  Siegfried has to be one of the most difficult tenor roles in the opera genre.

I was a bit disappointed at Goerke tonight.  For my last review I described her voice as having a sweet quality to it, unexpected but appreciated.  If she needed to be tender and wistful, it was during Act 3 where she struggled with falling in love with Siegfried.  Instead her voice was a bit on the harsh side.  If I remember the story correctly, Gotterdammerung calls for a range of emotions from Brunnhilde (blissfulness, jealously, regret, among others), I wonder which Goerke will show up.

 It is amazing that the singers can be heard above such a large orchestra.  Six harps!

 Curtain Call after Act 1.  Wotan, Mime, and Siegfried.

 Curtain Call Act 2.  Mime, Siegfried, Wotan, Woodbird (sung by Erin Morley), Fafner, and Alberich.

Curtain Call Act 3.  Wotan, Erda, Brunnhilde, Maestro, and Siegfried.

Perhaps I was influenced by the Playbill, I did find many aspects of Siegfried to be comical.  So did the audience, if the chuckles every now and then are any indication.

The set again worked quite well today.  CS said he was quite impressed.  Having seen this a few times, I must say it seemed a bit “old hat.”  I do wonder if they can “restructure” the scenery for future Ring cycles, or repurpose the planks for use in other operas.  It is still a mystery to me how they project the different images onto the planks.

My expectations of this opera weren’t very high, being biased somewhat by how I remembered the three that I had seen before tonight.  (In re-reading my entries, my view had improved considerably.)  While it didn’t take me on an emotional roller-coaster, it did make me appreciate more the genius of Wagner and his realization of this Gesamtkunstwerk mentality.

Today’s traffic into town was a bit busier, I parked the car at around 5 pm.  Dinner was again street food eaten at Richard Tucker Park.  It was close to 12:30 am when we got home.

Metropolitan Opera – Wagner’s Die Walkure. April 30, 2019.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Balcony (Seat E115, $152.50).

Story.  See previous post.

Conductor – Philippe Jordan; Siegmund – Stuart Skelton, Sieglinde – Eva-Maria Westbroek, Hunding – Gunther Groissbock, Wotan – Michael Volle, Brunnhilde – Christine Goerke, Fricka – Jamie Barton, Valkyries – Kelly Cae Hogan, Jessica Faselt, Renee Tatum, Daryl Freedman, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Eve Gigliotti, Maya Lahyani, Mary Phillips.

The set in all its $40 million glory as the performance was about to begin.

One way to describe the progress of this Ring Cycle after two performances was how CS characterized it (I am paraphrasing here): he found Rheingold a bit underwhelm, but he really like Die Walkure.  This was my fifth Walkure, and I was a lot more engaged than I had expected.

The “story” I put together for my first encounter with this opera – way back in February 2008 – was a short paragraph.  It is still good, but I will add two points: that Siegmund and Sieglinde are twins, and that Brunnhilde disobeyed Wotan (an obvious point).

Some commentaries make a big deal about the twins issue, plastering the word “incest” all over the place.  And indeed Fricka condemned it (never caught that before).  I would say “Common, the story is based on Nordic and German myths; and the story can well be told without this fact thrown in.”  I was, however, a bit confused what was discovered when as that realization unfolded.

There are so many “messed-up” relationships in the story that I wonder why Fricka picked this one out in particular.  To start off, Sieglinde was kidnapped by Hunding, so I imagine her marriage to him wasn’t quick voluntary (at least a manifestation of Stockholm Syndrome), so any reasonable person would try to free her from Hunding instead of calling that particular marriage “sacred.”  To my knowledge, Wotan had several wives: Fricka, the twins’ mother, Erda (Brunnhilde’s mother), and (I am quite sure) one or more women who gave birth to the Valkyries.  So there was a lot to fix on the home front if marriage was such an important thing for Fricka.

As to Brunnhilde’s disobedience, I am still not sure what Wotan really wanted.  As the god of gods he was really pathetic, so I wasn’t sure his edict that Hunding wins was borne of true conviction or fear of Fricka.  He did seem quite resolute that Brunnhilde should be punished, though.

I realized during Rheingold that doubles were sometimes used (most likely, as I couldn’t find confirmation anywhere).  One instance is when Wotan and Loge walked down to/up from the Nibelung world; they used harnesses and were walking “horizontally” at some point).  The second instance is at the end of Die Walkure with Brunnhilde hanging upside down.  She looked different, and it is a risky move that no amateur should make.

The machine worked fine today, with creaks kept to a minimum.  The Valkyrie-horse scene didn’t look as clever as it did when I first saw it, and I came to realize that there is some degree of risk to the people involved.  A leg could slip and be crushed, the harness could break resulting in a fall, and one may run between the wrong planks and get hurt.  For the last scene I could clearly see stage workers in black clothing helping with position Brunnhilde.  Incidentally, my neighbor and I both agreed there was a glitch yesterday: Erda took too long to be raised.

We now come to the singing.  It was great.

What many people wonder about is how well Goerke would do as Brunnhilde.  We heard her as Elektra last year.  Her singing was strong, but Strauss’s work was a bit unscrutinable for us.  Per the Playbill, she also sang Turandot.  I certainly thought she sang well.  While her voice is not as strong as say that of Voigt’s, it has a sweet quality that makes it endearing.  When she first came on (in Act II) and did the war cry “Hojotoho!” she was not so much this towering woman warrior as she was someone enjoying life as Wotan’s daughter.  This quality was put to great use in her dialog with Siegmund when she told him he would die.  She still has some heavy-duty singing ahead of her, I wish her well.  (I am sure reviews are already out there about how she did in Ring Cycle I, but I am resisting the urge to read them.)

As an aside, there is this is YouTube video about Voigt and the little black dress she couldn’t fit into, it appears she has retired from many roles.  She is 59.  Goerke (per Wikipedia) was born in 1960, a bit older than I thought.

The other major characters are of course Sieglinde and Siegmund.  Westbroek sang the same role in my prior encounter with Sieglinde, and she portrayed the role well.  Turns out Skelton was also Siegmund in the Seattle Ring we saw. I didn’t write down how he did, but he was great this evening.  The dialog with Brunnhilde was one of the emotional moments in the opera for me.

Wotan has been great so far.  I thought he would disappear from the story after tonight, but in reading the synopsis for Siegfried, found out he would return as the wanderer.  His monologue gave a lot of background information for the story, which helped.  One thing I didn’t catch was that he pursued Erda to gain knowledge from her, and in return Erda bore him Brunnhilde.  (What kind of bargain is that?)

 Curtain Call, Act 1.  Sieglinde and Siegmund.

 Curtain Call, Act 2.  Hunding, Fricka, and Siegmund.

Curtain Call at conclusion.  Valkyries, Wotan, Brunnhilde, Maestro Jordan, and Sieglinde.

I have chosen to write down every artist’s name in the performance.  I realized even though the Rhine maidens scene felt like an introduction to an introduction (latter was how Wagner himself described Das Rheingold), the three ladies sang for close to 30 minutes, substantial by any measure.

As for this ring?  So far so good.  And to my delight the storylines are quite easy to follow, as long as one doesn’t get bogged down in the minutiae.

The French conductor Philippe Jordan has so far led in an excellent way, including an orchestra that is so integral to this gesamtkunstwerk of Wagner.  And this is a huge orchestra, with six harps, for instance.  He heads up Paris Opera.

We left our house at around 3:30 pm and got to the Lincoln Center area in about an hour.  We decided to buy truck food and eat at the Richard Tucker Park.  Coming back we were so absorbed in our discussion that I missed a Turnpike exit.  It was around 12:30 am when we got home.

Metropolitan Opera – Wagner’s Das Rheingold. April 29, 2019.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Balcony (Seat E115, $152.50).

Story.  See previous post.  Also see my short summary below.

Conductor – Philippe Jordan.  Woglinde – Amanda Woodbury, Wellgunde – Samantha Hankey, Flosshilde – Tamara Mumford, Alberich – Tomasz Konieczny, Fricka – Jamie Barton, Wotan – Michael Volle, Freia – Wendy Bryn Harmer, Fasolt – Gunther Groissbock, Fafner – Dmitry Belosselskiy, Froh – Adam Diegel, Donner – Michael Todd Simpson, Loge – Norbert Ernst, Mime – Gerhard Siegel, Erda – Karen Cargill.

Depending on how one looks at it, this is my third ring (I did also want a full additional cycle, although not all within a week.)  The last ring was in 2013 (also at the Met), and I last heard Das Rheingold was “in concert” with Alan Gilbert conducting one of his last concerts as music director of New York Philharmonic.  That was in 2017.

I must say for me this ring has gotten off to a shaky start.  But that’s my problem: I couldn’t help dozing off a bit at the beginning of the opera.  I certainly got enough sleep the prior evening, so may be I was bored (things did seem to happen slowly), or I didn’t have enough caffeine in me: I made sure to stay away from coffee since early afternoon so I could last through the 150 minutes.

Despite that, I found the story quite easy to follow: Alberich steals the Rheingold; Alberich enslaved the Nibelungs to mine gold, he had a ring made, and took the Tarnhelm from his brother Mime; Wotan had the giants build Valhalla and wanted to renege on his promise of Freia to them; Loge appears and together with Wotan they captured Alberich and took all his gold, the tarnhelm, and the ring; Alberich places a curse on whoever owns the gold; the giants Fasolt and Fafner agreed to take the gold and the ring as substitute payment for Friea; Wotan wanted to keep the ring but Erda’s appearance convinced him to give it up; Fafner kills Fasolt to claim the treasure all to himself; people are seen to walk towards Valhalla as the opera concludes.

The 24-plank (articulated, mind you) set, part of the $40 million (or is it $45?) production continues to be a topic of amusement and discussion.  I was wondering if they moved around less during the second year, but I am sure they got full use out of it this evening.  And I must say it did its job without too much complaint (in the form of creaks), with the (possible) except that Erda took longer to emerge.  The gentleman next to me and I concluded that if the Met as rumored retires the set after this season, then they will have used the set around 60 times, which works out to $600,000 to $750,000 per use.

We were wondering if they refreshed the costumes.  We certainly didn’t remember the suits worn by the Rhinemaidens were black.

The most surprising aspect was how well the sound came across.  We heard the singing clearly most of the time, even when the full orchestra was playing.  Was it the better positioning of the singers against the planks that projected their voices, or was a sound enhancement system used?  The only one who was consistently weak was Loge; his role was quite prominent tonight.

I do have a few questions.  I am sure Erda said she had three daughters.  I assume two of them are Flicka and Friea, but who is the third?  The people “climbing” towards Valhalla at the end of the opera, are they “random” dead people, as I stated earlier?  Towards the end I was sure Notung’s leitmotif was played, my question is why?

Curtain Call.

In a couple of hours we will start for New York again, for Walkure.  I didn’t get enough sleep last night, and it is going to be 5 hours.

CS also had tickets to this Ring, so we rode up together.  He just arrived in the morning on a red-eye flight from San Francisco.  We had dinner at Francesco’s.

London Philharmonic Orchestra – Edward Gardner, conductor; James Ehnes, violin. April 14, 2019.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Tier 1 (Seat CC101, $66).

Program

Overture to Egmont (1809-10) by Beethoven (1770-1827).

Violin Concerto in D minor (1903-04, rev. 1905) by Sibelius (1865-1957).

Symphony No. 1 in D major (1885-88) by Mahler (1860-1911).

Fairly or unfairly, tonight’s concert felt a lot more substantial than Sunday’s.  Not to minimize Ravel’s Concerto in G, in the violin repertoire the Sibelius must rank among the top, and at 56 minutes Mahler’s first symphony is a titan, even though he withdrew that title a few years after its publication.

The Egmont overture, an otherwise completely legitimate concert piece, served as the program introductory piece to provide a break for late comers to be seated.  It was played with precision, ending in a building crescendo that signaled triumph at the end.  No, Beethoven didn’t write an opera called “Egmont,” instead it was introduced in Vienna at a play based on Goethe’s tragic play.

I have reviewed the Sibelius Violin Concerto many times in this blog, my most recent encounter was in Hong Kong last September, with Joshua Bell.  What I learned from the Program Notes today was that the 1905 revision was less flashy, and conducted by Richard Strauss at its premiere.

Ehnes was flawless technically.  The orchestra was large, but he managed to maintain a balanced dialog with it throughout.  The first two movements were a bit too “mechanical” for me: there is always the risk that making sure the execution was technically flawless may make one lose focus on the message.  I once characterized this concerto as going through the stages of grief: frustration, struggle, bargaining, and acceptance.  While I was impressed with the violinist’s virtuosity throughout, it’s only in the last movement that I felt emotionally engaged with the music.

Ehnes and Gardner after the Sibelius Concerto.  The soloist held his own against a rather large orchestra.

He played two encores.  Sonata No. 3 by Ysaye was like an etude in double- and triple-stops.  He performed it flawlessly: I didn’t catch any stray notes.  A true musician can appreciate how the piece is organized, a true technician can appreciate how challenging the piece is; I am neither.  The second encore was Bach’s third violin sonata (third movement, I believe).  Bach’s music is not easy to get right, and I don’t know this well enough.  However, I think the way Ehnes approaches the violin is perfect for Bach.

I am reasonably familiar with Mahler’s first symphony. If I were to describe how I heard it, I would – as with the concert yesterday – plagiarize the lot from the Program Notes.  So I decided to include that in this blog.

I did a count of the number of musicians on stage for this symphony: 16 first violins, 14 second violins, 12 violas, 10 cellos, 8 basses, 5 percussion players (2 sets of timpani), 9 brasses (trumpet, trombone, tuba), 12 reeds (4 each oboes, bassoons, clarinets), 4 flutes, 1 harp, and 1 additional trombone in the midst of the 8 horns.  Not sure I got everyone; and of course there are doubling parts (piccolo, English horn, etc.)

The third movement started with a solo double bass playing “Frere Jacques” in a high register.  It sounded quite nice, although it could have been much louder.

It occurred to me that Mahler had to be both precocious and self-assured to think he could get away with this, his first symphony, composed when he was in his twenties.  As the Program Notes explains, “some listeners were baffled by his ingenious juxtapositions of irony and sublimity, of parody and exultation, as well as by his merging of the genres of song and symphony.”  I believe some other reviewer had a phrase like “vulgarity and refinement” as well. It was a good thing that his supporters outnumbered his detractors, I can see a critic panning his music as being “un-serious,” “comical,” “immature” and as a result he may either been shunned or driver to stop writing altogether.  Evidently the critics did get to him, since he did revise the symphony, including the removal of one movement altogether.

This is a large orchestra that held together well.  Notice the section seating arrangement was quite different from Sunday's performance.  The first time I observed something like this.

I had not sit in Tier 1 for a while.  One gets a much more interesting view of the stage; however, the acoustics at my seat wasn't the best: I could hear okay, but the sound came across at times a bit muffled.

I was impressed with both the Philharmonia Orchestra and this one.  The advantage of living near New York is that great performers come visit.

CS and his neighbor also attended this concert.  We met up for a light snack at Starbucks before the concert – I was late because NJ Transit had problems due to a downed tree in Middletown.  The concert ended at about 10:15 pm, so we had to take the 11:07 pm train home.  Anne picked me up at the train station at around 12:30 am.

London Philharmonic Orchestra – Edward Gardner, conductor; Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano. April 14, 2019.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat X103, $66).

Program

La mer (1903-05) by Debussy (1862-1918).

Piano Concerto in G major (1929-31) by Ravel (1875-1937).

Ma mere l’oye (“Mother Goose Suite”) (1908-10) by Ravel.

Iberia, from Images (1905-08) by Debussy.

These concerts belong to the Lincoln Center “Great Performers” series, and I bought tickets to this afternoon and tomorrow night’s concerts the same time I bought the Philharmonia ones.  Those concerts, led by Salonen, were in March.  I thoroughly enjoyed them, and all indications are that I will enjoy these concerts as well.

Next month Anne and I will be embarking on a European tour, and London is on our itinerary.  I looked for concerts by the few London orchestras I know, and haven’t been able to find any.  One advantage of living close to NYC is that orchestras come visit, so there is no need to go look for them.  (Of course the concert hall experience is a completely different matter.)

So I gave it away: this was an enjoyable concert.  I think back on a recent NJ Symphony concert I attended, which I said shouldn’t have the title “Debussy Masterworks.”  There is no doubt today was a show of “French Masterworks,” although one might argue French should not be limited to Debussy and Ravel.  More significantly, though, was how La Mer was performed today versus how NJSO did it, an effort I described as uninspired.

The notes in the Program (provided by David Wright) were quite short, but managed to describe quite well what the three movements of La Mer: comparing Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony with the first movement’s arrival at the sea; describing the second movement as ‘waves at play;” and that brass and strings represent the ocean the the zephyrs.  Gardner brought forth the music exactly as described.  A rather large orchestra was used, and the lines were amazingly clean.

A large orchestra was used to perform Debussy's La Mer.

As I did when Yuja Wang was the soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, I read up on the Ravel Concerto beforehand, and it added a lot to my appreciation of the music.  This was my first encounter with the pianist Bavouzet, and he was up to the task technically, and brought out much of the jazzy aspects of the music.  The first and third movements are amazing, the syncopation and the glissandos requiring a lot of coordination between the soloist and the orchestra, and they worked well together.  What was slightly disappointing was how the slow movement sounded.  The Program Notes reference Gabriel Faure and Erik Satie, I thought it could sound a bit more thoughtful (for lack of a better term.)  For parts of the first movement, the balance between the piano and the orchestra left something to be desired, but that issued went away as the concerto progressed.

I did take some notes during the Ravel concerto.  Movement 1: piano weak, fun to watch, did flourishes well; Movement 2: dreamy Faure?  Not quite; Movement 3: Very alive!

Gardner and Bavouzet at the conclusion of the Ravel G Major Piano Concerto.

I had heard he Mother Goose Suite several times before, but couldn’t tell you much about it.  I suspect the same would happen in a few days, but for a few moments I got it.  The 16-minute piece contains these movements (translated into English): (I) Pavane of Sleeping Beauty, the pavan being a grave and sober court dance; (II) Tom Thumb, who got lost in a forest, and saw his dropped bread crumbs eaten by birds, there were some bird calls in the movement; (III) Laideronette, princess of the pagodas, set in delightful Oriental music, and the princess’s name translates as “Miss Ugly;” (IV) Conversation of Beauty and the Beast, with the latter represented by the growl of a bassoon; and (V) The Fairy Garden, revealed eventually in its full splendor.

A considerably smaller orchestra for Ravel's Mother Goose Suite.

The movements to Iberia are (I) On the Streets and the Roads, a survey of a busy scene in sunshine, punctuated by rhythms from the castanets and tambourine; (II) Perfumes of the Night, with suggestive bits of habanera and other dance rhythms echoing around a deserted plaza; and (III) The Morning of a Feast Day, a sunrise that eventually leads to a roar of activity at the close.

During my act of plagiarizing from the Program Notes I felt I relived the performance.  This was how good the Notes and the orchestra were.

The audience was very appreciate at the conclusion of the concert.

Another interesting quote from the Notes, Manuel de Falla at some point made the remark that the best Spanish music was being composed Frenchman.

I had seen Gardner conducting the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Met, and New York Phil (that was just last year.)  This was the most effusive I have been.

Today started early for me as I had an early church commitment.  I was worried if I would be able to sit through this concert, and by-and-large managed to.

I took the train in, and I moved to seat Y102 after the intermission so I could rush to the subway after the program concludes.  The Program was longer than advertised, so I had to take a later train back.  Anne took a couple of grandkids to see NJSO’s Mary Poppins at the State Theater.  They enjoyed it.

New York Philharmonic – Simone Young, conductor. April 11, 2019.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat CC103, $62.50).

Program

Symphony No. 6 in A minor (1903-05, rev. 1906) by Mahler (1860-1911).

The last time I heard this symphony was two years ago, performed by the Hong Kong Philharmonic, conducted by Jaap van Zweden.  I was very curious how tonight’s concert would turn out: van Zweden was the scheduled conductor, and New York Philharmonic would be playing.

It was thus a disappointment when I received an email from New York Phil saying van Zweden hurt his shoulder (and I wish him a quick recovery) and the substitute conductor would be the Australian Simone Young.  I had never come across that name before, and I attend Sydney Symphony and other Australian musical events a few times a year.  Sure enough, the San Francisco Orchestra sent me an email (once you register with an organization, they get you; I still get correspondences from Zurich Tonhalle, in German no less) where Young would be conducting one of the series.

Might as well start with her.  A search of the web returned results saying that she is in her 50s, Australia-trained, was chief conductor of Opera Australia for a couple of years, and is considered a Wagner and Strauss specialist.

For tonight’s concert, she conducted with a lot of energy, and – fairly or not – reminds me of Xian Zhang in the exaggerated movements used to lead the ensemble.  (I know Zhang is considerably younger.)  And it worked, the orchestra played certainly more precisely than I expected it to.  More surprisingly, the volume was great (this may also be due to where we sat.)

This Mahler symphony used to be called “Tragic,” a title Mahler provided in the original score but withdrew later.  Interestingly the HK performance I saw had this term in the Program.  The other issue that often gets discussed is the order of the two inner movements.  Prior to van Zweden, the two NY Phil performances I heard had it Andante – Scherzo. Tonight’s program was printed with van Zweden as the conductor, and the order was Scherzo – Andante.  Young followed the program.  The third aspect – of which I am not 100% sure – was that tonight there were three hammer blows.  Sitting in the orchestra, I could barely make out the movement of the “hammer striker” as he moved from other percussion areas to the hammer.  It was loud – I saw another percussionist covering his ears, and I didn’t notice these sound barriers.

These issues, and Mahler’s composition routine, fill most of what one reads in tonight’s Playbill, which is about the same as how I remembered it last time.  There was not much insight beyond some words that include “… but in the sixth one encounters a cosmos that holds out no hope for mankind.”  I remember how in past performances I describe the end as multiple attempts to recover from these giant hammer blows, but the end is failure and hopelessness.  I didn’t quite get that tonight.

Young had this “deer in headlights” look at the beginning of the concert (I watched her using binoculars); she rightfully carried herself triumphally at the end as it was by many measures a great concert.  I just wish there was a bit more story-telling.  Nonetheless, my being alert and attentive during the program is an indication of how much I enjoyed it.

Simone Young acknowledging the tremendous applause from the audience.

The New York Times Review is titled “Absent 20 Years, a Conductor Rescues the Philharmonic.”  The reviewer is generally positive on the performance, and on Young, he wasn’t as enthusiastic as the title would suggest.  And he devote little space on how the performance went.  He was also looking forward to see how van Zweden would do.  Young would also return next season.

We took the train up, and the 7:30 pm start gave us ample time to catch the 9:38 pm train back to South Amboy.