New York Philharmonic. Santtu-Matias Rouvali, conductor; Nemanja Radulovic, violin. January 12, 2023.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Tier 1 Parterre.  (Seat EE201, $59.)

Program

Catamorphosis (2021) by Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b. 1977).

Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63 (1935) by Prokofiev (1891-1953).

La Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) (1911-13) by Stravinsky (1882-1971).

Yes, these two weeks constituted an audition for Rouvali as the next New York Philharmonic music director.  Indeed if one does a search on the subject, one finds many other contenders, including Dudamel and Malkki.  And (unfortunately), the Parterre seats aren't that good when it comes to a solo violin either.

If those were my only take-aways from the two concerts I attended, that would be pathetic.  The highlight of the evening was actually Prokofiev's second violin concerto.

This is a piece I have known since I was a teenager, and over the years I have heard it a few times (not often programmed), and have enjoyed every single performance.  The same tonight.  The concerto has always felt short in duration, so I was surprised it was 26 minutes in duration.  It went by quickly.  Being close to the orchestra, I had a renewed appreciation for how these professionals could do it so effortlessly.  And how "violent" the soloist attacked the violin.  The Serbian-French violinist Radulovic had to tune his violin between movements, which is expected.  Interesting the string players in the orchestra didn't need to do that (of course they can do that during the performance and not get noticed).

With the violinist's back towards us, and thus blocking both the violin and its sound, I often had to strain to hear the instrument.  When he moved in such a way that we could hear the instrument well, it sounded clean and clear.  The Program Notes doesn't say what violin it was, and I suspect it's a Strad.  (One clue is he won some "Stradivarius Competition.")

The three movements of the concerto are: Allegro moderato; Andante assai-Allegretto-Tempo I; and Allegro ben marcato.

For encore Radulovic played a piece I would call "Variations on a Theme by Paganini."  Perhaps it's a tribute to Rachmaninoff's take for the piano?  Here it is only the solo violin.  The original caprice is already difficult, the variations make it impossibly so.  There were quite a few sloppy passages, and it reminds me of how Repin played Ravel's Tzigane: a controlled train wreck.  But for the sections that work, it was surely great and impressive.

Radulovic acknowledging the orchestra, with Rouvali and Hwang looking on.

The Program Notes makes the Thorvaldsdottir piece very interesting.  The title, Catamorphosis is a word made from catastrophe and metamorphosis, and the piece (per the composer) is inspired by "the fragile relationship we have with our planet."  She further describes it as "... revolves around a distinct sense of urgency, driven by the shift and pull between various polar forces - power and fragililty, hope and despair, preservation and destruction;" and that "it is quite a dramatic piece, but it is also full of hope - perhaps somewhere between the natural and the unnatural, between utopia and dystopic, we can gain perspective and find balance within and with the world around us."  Words I don't understand.  To the extent I can make sense of them, I would expect contrasts that reflect the extremes expressed in the prose.  Another example of after five minutes one wonders if there will be anything new, and after ten minutes one can't imagine the music can keep going.  In this case the whole thing lasted twenty minutes.

The Program Notes lists the following atmospheric subsections, marked as inspirations for the players: Origin, Emergence, Polarity, Hope, Requiem, Portentia, and Evaporation.  With our binoculars we could indeed see these markings on the music.  I couldn't tell how much they inspired the musicians.

This was the US premiere of Catamorphosis.  The composer Thorvaldsdottir came on stage at the end of the performance.

CS (who didn't go to this concert) mentioned the reviews were very good, and the headline of the NY Times review is extremely positive about the performance of the Rite of Spring (the author had to say some bad things about van Zweden's performance a few years ago).  Perhaps it's where we sat, but I kept telling myself during the performance "does it have to so loud?"  That evidently didn't bother some folks sitting close to us as they applauded enthusiastically afterwards.

Nothing wrong with loud music, but a well performed Rite of Spring should bring out the mystery, anticipation, and horror of the sacrifice process, instead of an attempt to damage the eardrums of every member of the orchestra, and audience sitting close by.  (I didn't see any ear plugs in this particular violist.)

How loud was Rite of Spring?  Loud.  The Noise APP on my Apple Watch showed levels as high as 91db.  Difficult to screen shot, though.

I found out later that the iPhone keeps a record of the sound levels.  Here it shows a maximum of 99 dB, definitely too loud.

Rouvali made it a point to acknowledge the different players in the orchestra.  Here with Judith LeClair, NY Phil's bassoonist whose line started the piece.

As to Rouvali coming on as the music director, I have no opinion.  Since I described him as Dudamel-like, I do wonder why get a copy if the original is available?

We again took the train in.

Metropolitan Opera. Giordano's Fedora. January 11, 2023.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Dress Circle (Seat G129, $97.50).

From the cover of the Program.  (I actually took a screen shot of the online version.)

Story.  Count Vladimiro Andrejevich is shot in St. Petersburg and dies.  The Nihilists are suspected to be behind this assassination.  Fedora, bride-to-be of Vladimiro, vows revenge.  Several months later, Fedora and Ipanoff are at Olga's party.  While Ipanoff is smitten by Fedora, Fedora wants to get Ipanoff to admit that he is the killer.  She reports her suspicion to the Russian authorities and Ipanoff's brother is arrested.  Fedora and Ipanoff eventually fall in love, and live together in Switzerland.  While Ipanoff is out, Fedora receives the message that Ipanoff's brother drowned in jail due to flooding of the river Neva, and their mother died upon hearing the news.  When Ipanoff finds out it is due to Fedora's action, he curses her.  Fedora takes the poison in her necklace, and dies in Ipanoff's arms.

Conductor - Marco Armiliato.  Countess Olga Sukarev - Rosa Feola, Princess Fedora Romazaoff - Sonya Yoncheva, Count Loris Ipanoff - Piotr Beczala, Giovanni De Siriex - Lucas Meachem.

The only Giordano opera I am familiar with is Andrea Chenier, and I have seen it on several occasions: at the Met, the Royal Opera House in London, and Deutsche Oper Berlin.  The short aria "Amor ti vieta," from Fedora, is very popular, with multiple versions available on YouTube, including a 10-tenor compilation.  As it was with Andre Chenier, I knew the tune, but had no idea what the opera was about.

The great experience I had with Andrea Chenier was not matched today.  The disappointment is on many levels.

First, the story.  I have remarked in the past that music makes or breaks an opera.  Still mostly true, but this story is just lame, for the most part. Compared to Andre Chenier with an intersection between political rivalry and personal jealousy, Vladimiro's affair with Loris's wife was the driver behind the shooting: Ipanoff found out they were having an affair, and shot Vladimiro in the ensuing struggle.  Perhaps told in the "right" way one would lament how unintended mistakes can lead to unintended consequences, I didn't get that here.  The only scene that is close to evoking pity or horror is when Fedora asks for forgiveness as she dies.

It appears Yoncheva is the star soprano at the Met nowadays, and indeed deserves much of the praise she has received.  Tonight her acting was simply flat, despite her putting a "sad face" on most of the time.  Her voice was good, but lacked the emotion I expected of her.  At the end of the day, she isn't quite ready to take Netrebko's place.

My first encounter with Beczala was him in role of Rodolfo in Luisa Miller at the Met in April, 2018, and role of Werther at the Zurich Opera a month later.  He dispatched the main aria with ease, and got the only applause during the opera.  Perhaps today I was a bad listener, out of the four performances I have seen him in, tonight's was the flattest.  The Met put out him singing this aria on YouTube.

I wonder if the apparent lack of chemistry between the principals contributed to how the performance was perceived.  (Conjecture on my part, of course.)

The bright spot tonight was the orchestra.  Armiliato elicited a great sound from the orchestra, helped by lovely harp accompaniment and the solo violin.  The music was generally quite lyrical, but didn't have too many memorable tunes.  Amor ti vieta is only about 1 minute 15 seconds long.

Each of the scenes takes place in a different city: St. Petersburg, Paris, and somewhere in the Swiss Alps.  The set designer went for realism, which is fine.  One can also easily imagine surreal settings for the three different settings.  The depth of the Met stage features prominently in the designs, especially when viewed from my seat.

The roster doesn't include the role of Vladimiro, perhaps he has no vocal (nor singing) role in the performance.  He is ubiquitous though.  First as someone doctors are trying to save, then as a wandering ghost in both later acts.  At some point I thought the dead Fedora would follow him - didn't happen.

Chopin's supposed nephew  (Boleslao Lazinski) played a couple of piano pieces during the Paris scene.  Billed as virtuosic pieces, they didn't add much to the story.  An audience has expectations of what they get from an opera performance (e.g., ballet scenes in Verdi), but tastes do change over time.  I do wonder if it is appropriate to adapt the operas to the audience (heretical statement?).

Then there is this shepherd boy (more likely cowherd as we are in the Alps) singing and playing this accordion-like instrument.  He did add a tinge of sadness to the overall atmosphere.  And would better fit in a surreal set.

The opera is relatively short (less than 2 1/2 hours, with a 30-minute intermission).  Attendance is so-so.  The seat I bought was the last row in dress circle.  The row in front was quite empty, and I took one of the seats (F123), which would have cost $30 additional.

From the web.

The curtain call was a long process: each of the dozen or so solo cast members took their time to come out.  Yoncheva was last (time stamped at 9:26 pm).  I made my way to the subway station, waited about 3 minutes for the next train, and then ran to catch the 9:38 pm train which was just pulling out as I got on the platform.  The next train was at 10:20 pm.  In hindsight I should have stayed a little longer.

I took the train, and missed the return train by less than a minute, so spent 40 minutes in Penn Station.

New Jersey Symphony. Xian Zhang, conductor; Daniil Trifonov, piano. January 6, 2023.

Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University.  Balcony Left (Seat CC11, $69).

Program

Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 83 by Brahms.

Don Juan, Op. 20 by Richard Strauss.

Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59 by Strauss.

Today is some sort of a double-header, Yuja Wang in the morning, Daniil Trifonov in the evening.  I bet that doesn't happen often.  It's with two different orchestras, though.

Trifonov was supposed to perform a Brahms concerto (not sure if it was the 1st or the 2nd) with the NJ Symphony in November, 2021, but performed instead Beethoven's second because of an injury.

There is much contrast between Brahms' two concertos.  The second one starts boldly, and demands a great deal of virtuosity from the performer, which Trifonov (as usual) handled with ease.  From our seat in the balcony of this small auditorium, the performance felt very intimate.

A couple of remarks.  First was both Brahms concertos are on the long side at around 50 minutes, although with a great performance time went by quickly.  The second was this duet between the cello and the piano  in the slow movement: one wishes the two instruments are in more balance - in this instance the cello was way too loud, even though Spitzer put out a great sound.  I discovered with amusement that Principal Flute Feller also doubled as a piccolo player for this piece.  NJ Symphony does have someone listed under "Piccolo" in its roster.

For encore we heard a lyrical duet between Trifonov and Spitzer.

Trifonov and Principal Cellist Spitzer after performing a lyrical encore.

Don Juan was the first work by Strauss that was popular world-wide.  He was 24 years old when he wrote it.  The opera Der Rosenkavalier, however, was written more than twenty years later.  Don Juan is a tone poem, a genre popularized by Strauss.  Per Wikipedia, Strauss had nothing to do with the Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, which Wikipedia speculates as being arranged by Rodzinski as he conducted at the world premiere by the New York Philharmonic (in 1945).  Strauss evidently didn't object to it; 

A Strauss musicologist can probably describe how his composition style changed and matured in the intervening years.  For the casual (and somewhat serious) listener, Strauss's music is best understood in terms of the various motifs (or tunes, since they can be quite long) he uses to describe the different characters and scenes.  (Other examples that come readily to mind are "A Hero's Life" and The Alpine Symphony.)  I hadn't taken the time to review these motifs.  One can discern several themes in Don Juan, but with Der Rosenkavalier some familiarity with the opera helps.  The two well-known motifs from the Suite are "Presentation of the Rose" and "Baron Ochs's Waltz."  Several sensual scenes can be observed in the work also.

The orchestration for Der Rosenkavalier certainly was more complex than that of Don Juan.  Here a third flute/double piccolo was used, and the percussion section included a ratchet.  The cymbals for some reason sounded tentative on several occasions.

A harpist was used in Don Juan.  Also notice a third flutist.

Two harps were used in the Der Rosenkavalier Suite.

CS and Shirley went to the concert also, and we had dinner before at SCHouse in Princeton.  Both Anne and Shirley know the cook there.  On the way back we discussed how energetic Zhang is, and whether that is a good quality to have.  I am generally okay with that, and the quality of NJ Symphony - even with its Jekyll and Hyde performances - has certainly improved considerably during her tenure.  I do wonder, however, if the Strauss pieces wouldn't have sounded as chaotic if she had been a bit restrained.

Dinner with old friends before the concert.

CS did the driving.  The concert was quite long, so we got home rather late.

New York Philharmonic. Santtu-Matias Rouvali, conductor; Yuja Wang, piano. January 6, 2023.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Tier 1 Parterre (Seat EE205, $53).

Program

Overture to Semiramide (1822) by Rossini (1792-1868).

Piano Concerto No. 3 (2022) by Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958).

Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36 (1801-02) by Beethoven (1770-1827).

Rouvali and Wang at the end of the Lindberg Piano Concerto.

If I am being honest, the draw of today's program is Yuja Wang.  Still a victim of "big names," a well-known artist is enough to draw me to a concert.  For this year the exception is the NJPAC performance by Ma, Ax, and Kavakos; I refuse to pay Ticketmaster $22.60 (checked just now) to buy a ticket for the event.

Back to the entry at hand, today's Piano Concerto turned out to be a disappointment, on a couple of levels.

First, the "new" David Geffen Hall (technically the Wu Tsai Theater) has new seating sections behind the orchestra, which gives the overall Hall a more intimate feeling.  That intimacy, however, doesn't extend to the solo piano.  With its lid open, the piano's sound projects towards the main auditorium, and those in the back (called parterre to make it sound distinguished) hear a rather muffled sound.  So there was a level of frustration that while Wang pounded away (and she did, often) at the keyboard, I still had to listen intently for what was produced.

I do wonder, however, whether my reaction would have been any different if I had been able to hear the piano clearly.  My overall impression: a lot of movement, but the music never seemed to want to get anywhere.

Lindberg came on stage at the end of the concerto.

CS took this blurry picture of Wang, dressed more conservatively than usual. Those must be 4" heels though.

Lindberg of course sees it differently, in the Program Notes he is quoted as saying the work is "almost like an opera," "it's huge in a way, ... the biggest piece I have written," "I would almost call it three concertos in one piece," and "... a chart of eight different characters ... like a William Faulkner novel: There are many stories going on at the same time ..."  All of that is true, no doubt, but how much is a first-time listener expected to grasp this richness in his work? By the way, the markings for the movements are really helpful: first, second, and third.  And Lindberg's level of self-confidence - bordering on hubris - almost rivals that of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss.

In a previous entry I said "I am certainly glad Lindberg's tenure as composer-in-residence will end this year."  That was 2010, quite a while ago.  I see no reason to revise that statement.  I admire those who love Lindberg's work.  Some of these composers - Lindberg included - use computers to generate (ideas for) their music, I would similarly need a computer to understand their work.

It's interesting that this modern composition was bookended by two works composed about 200 years ago.

The Overture to Semiramide started the program for the morning.

Beethoven's Second Symphony concluded the program.  I found myself humming some of the tunes the next couple of days.

We saw Semiramide at the Met with Angela Mead in the title role, back in 2018.  The Program Notes reminded the reader that this was a tragedy, with her son killing her (accidentally, per my entry for that performance) at the end.  The overture itself, however, sounded very crisp and bright (thus very "Rossini") which is a bit incongruent with the overall story - I don't recall hearing a single ominous passage in the overture.  At about 12 minutes, it is rather long for an overture.  Enjoyable, though.

The Beethoven piece brought out a few things.  As the Podcast "StickyNotes" says many times, Beethoven could get away with a lot of things that other composers cannot, in this case how often a theme is repeated.  The second was Beethoven is still pleasant to listen to - if it is well-performed, as it was today.  Symphony No. 2 sounds very much like Mozart and Haydn.  His Number 3 (Eroica) definitely shows a huge change in his compositional style; what's amazing is No. 2 is dated 1801-1802, while No. 3 is dated 1803, just one or two years later.

What I didn't expect, however, was how "routine" these two pieces sounded.  The Beethoven piece, in particular, was a representative of change in compositional periods.  One can legitimately ask whether these warhorses are enough to sustain the continued popularity of the classical genre.  Probably not, but that doesn't necessary mean the mantle has passed on to many of the modern composers.

The Finnish conductor Rouvali looks younger than his 37 years, and one of his teachers was Hannu Lintu, whom we saw recently.  Rouvali vocalized quite a bit, especially during the Beethoven piece.  I assume all conductors do that, it's just clearer when one is facing him.  Some people have described his moves as that of a ballet dancer; his flowing curly locks of hair and mannerisms remind me of Dudamel (who is only 42).  Rouvali will also conduct the next NY Phil series, which makes me wonder if he is auditioning for the post to be vacated by van Zweden in a couple of years.  We have tickets to that concert, with similar seats.  The solo piece is a violin concerto, I wonder if the sound would carry better in that case.

This concert was at 11 am, we took the train up.  CS also attended this concert.

New Jersey Symphony. Xian Zhang - conductor. December 16, 2022.

 

Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall, Princeton, NJ.  (Parterre L2, $90).

Program

Messiah by Handel.

Artists

Ellie Dehn, soprano; Maya Lahyani, mezzo-soprano; Miles Mykkanen, tenor; Nicholas Newton, bass-baritone

Montclair State University Singers, Heather J. Buchanan, director.

The last full Messiah concert we attended was in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic closed down such performances for the last two years.  When this series by NJ Symphony was announced, I quickly got tickets as the Richardson Auditorium is quite small (capacity less than 1000).  The other possibility was the performances by New York Phil.  We are still in the "avoid NYC" frame of mind, so decided to pass.

Being in Row L means one is very close to the stage (well, the entire main floor is very close to the stage).  Together with being in a small auditorium, sound just carried well.

The tenor got to set the tone.  He voice was beautiful, steady, and firm.  All the qualities you want in an aria that set the tone for the program (Comfort Ye and Every Valley).  One could feel the audience's desire to applaud afterwards, and it is a good thing they thought better of it.  Otherwise the oratorio may be much delayed by all the interruptions!

The other 3 members of the soloist group held their own.  Perhaps it was just me, one got the sense there was a bit of "one upmanship," perhaps all in good fun.

The Montclair choir did very well.  Great articulation, nice voices, and the singers were generally enthusiastic.

The harpsichord and the organ were played by the same artist, and he had to carry the music from one instrument to the other as he moved from one keyboard to the other.  Better than having two copies and getting lost, I guess.  This was also done in other performances I have seen.  Too bad the Program didn't list his name, or the names of the other principal players in the string sections.

All in all, an enjoyable evening.

It was drizzling on our way over, so the driving was a bit difficult.  Things cleared up on our way back.

After Part I.

At the conclusion of the performance, Zhang acknowledged the different players.  Here the trumpet player.

New Jersey Symphony. George Manahan, conductor; Awadagin Pratt, piano. November 20, 2022.

State Theatre New Jersey.  Balcony (Seat F101, $57).

Program

Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K. 504 "Prague" (1786) by Mozart (1756-1791).

Rounds for Piano and String Orchestra (2021-2022) by Montgomery (b. 1981).

Suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Op. 60 by Strauss (1864-1949).

Program for the afternoon.  Lasted 1:45 hours, with intermission.

As part of its Centennial celebration, NJ Symphony has invited back its past conductors to lead several concerts.  I know Manahan from the days NYC Opera was still a functioning organization.  Turns out he was NJS's interim director for the years 1983-1985, before I began attending NJS concerts regularly.

The Prague symphony was written by Mozart when he was in Vienna.  The Prague audience at that time was a lot more receptive than Mozart's home town, so the Symphony was premiered there, and hence its name.  Symphonies No. 39-41 readily come to mind when one talks about Mozart, but the Prague can hold its own, with its many memorable melodies.  The Adagio opening of the first movement also stands out, with many comparing it to the dramatic opening of Don Giovanni.  If one searches the web for "Mozart's most popular symphonies," No. 38 is often in the top five or ten.  It's always a pleasure to listen to a familiar Mozart piece.

The symphony is also unusual in that it has only three movements: Adagio-Allegro, Andante, and Finale (Presto).

Mozart's Prague Symphony was the first on the program.

Jessie Montgomery must be one of the hottest composers nowadays.  Her work is programmed by many orchestras, national and regional.  A check of her website shows her work being performed by nine different organizations for November (admittedly one of the busier months).

Today's 14-minute work is quite accessible.  She asks the soloist and the orchestra to use some interesting techniques to produce different sounds.  A couple of interesting situations.  The pianist stands up and plugs the strings on the piano on one occasion.  On a couple of other occasions the violins play arpeggios as the background: think Mendelssohn violin concerto, but for the whole section.  The effect didn't quite work out in this instance.  There is a 4-minute cadenza that is partially improvised.

The Program Notes makes this a "brainy" piece.  It's based on T. S. Eliot's poem "Four Quarters," and is in Rondo form.  Today's soloist Pratt collaborated with Montgomery during the composition process.

This was my first encounter with Pratt, and he certainly got the job done.  A recipient of the prestigious Avery-Fisher grant, he has performed with many well-known ensembles.  This work was one of his seven commissions for either piano and string orchestra; or piano, string orchestra, and Roomful of Teeth (which also has as one of its members Caroline Shaw).

An enjoyable piece, but probably requires multiple listenings to appreciate many of the subleties, e.g., there is a rondo within a rondo!

Awadagin Pratt was masterful in the performance of Jessie Montgomery's work.

In the opera Ariadne auf Naxos is incorporated a play.  The original plan was a three-act play, which didn't work out.  A second attempt didn't work either.  Out of that music Strauss extracted nine movements and published them as a suite.  He also incorporated some work of the 17th century composer Jean-Baptiste Lully into the music.  That was 1920, and this suite supposedly became a 20th century classic.  This was my first encounter with it.

The titles of the movements are: Overture to Act I; Minuet; "The Fencing-Master;" "The Entrance and Dance of the Tailors;" "Lully's Minuet;" Courant; "Entrance of Cleonte, after Lully;" Prelude to Act II; and "The Dinner."

It was easy enough (most of the time) to trace the movements in the suite.  The Program Notes describes the piano part as being very difficult, which may well be true.  What the Notes doesn't say is that the Concertmaster also has quite a few difficult passages, bordering on virtuosic.  The suite is compared with the suite from Der Rosenkavalier, although there didn't seem to be as many melodies in the suite we heard today.  (Perhaps my unfamiliarity is a factor.)

Eric Wyrick had some difficult violin solos in Strauss's suite.  I was somewhat surprised at how small the ensemble was.  There were, for instance four violins.

I drove up to New Brunswick at about 1:45 pm, and got a 30% discount senior ticket.  The concert was poorly attended, which was unfortunate.

I am somewhat looking forward to the concerts conducted by former music directors.  The only two I know are Jacque Lacombe and Gemma New.  In the earlier communications Lacombe was scheduled to conduct Faure's Requiem, but he is no longer on the roster.  A report I saw said it is due to a schedule conflict, indeed he has a commitment in Greece.  But I do wonder if the story is a bit more complicated, as I understand these schedules are set years in advance.

New York Philharmonic. Hannu Lintu, conductor; Sergei Babayan & Daniil Trifonov, pianos. November 18, 2022.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat BB105,  $49).

Program

Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920; rev. 1945-47) by Stravinsky (1882-1971).

Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion, and Orchestra, BB 121 (1937/40) by Bartok (1881-1945).

Ciel d'hiver (2013) by Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952).

Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 105 (1918-24) by Sibelius (1865-1957).

Percussionists: Christopher S. Lamb, Daniel Druckman, Markus Rhoten.

While I have heard of all the composers on today's program, all the pieces are new to me.  I looked for - not diligently - the New York Philharmonic Program Notes which are usually posted on line, but couldn't find them.  So I feverishly tried to read the Playbill that was handed out at the door.  They provided minimal help, as they talked mostly about the "context" of the pieces, rather than what the pieces were about.  There are a few exceptions, and I found those quite illuminating, but also felt like I was grasping at straws.  Perhaps the music is to be experienced, rather than described?  (Charitable statement to both myself and the commentators.)

Stravinsky wrote the first piece for wind players only.  The Program Notes describes Stravinsky as growing suspicious of how string instruments tend to get "expressive," and he wanted the piece to have an "uninflected sound."  He described the work as "tonal masses ... sculptured in marble ... to be regarded objectively by the ear."  The piece was dedicated to the memory of Debussy, the latter had dedicated a couple of his own compositions to Stravinsky.  Another interesting fact(oid) was that when Stravinsky created the version for today's performance, he had to use other people's "arrangements" of his original work; unusual, but how did it get that way?  I counted 22 musicians on stage for the piece.  New York Phil has always had a great brass and woodwind section.  I thought the NJ Symphony's brass section was comparably competent - Anne didn't think so.

22 players for the Stravinsky piece.

Perhaps it is not possible to talk about the Bartok piece without talking about his declining health at the time, and that he wanted to leave something for his surviving widow to earn money on.  There's always that tinge of sadness when Bartok's later works are discussed.  The piece didn't start that way, it was first written for two pianists and two percussionists, and enjoyed considerable success.  When Bartok was asked to revise the piece to its current form in 1940, he had already moved to the US, and was already suffering from leukemia.

With five soloists playing, and some of them playing multiple percussion instruments, the piece sounded quite complicated.  And the stage looked complicated, with two pianos, two pianists, two page turners, three percussionists and many percussion instruments (per Program Notes: timpani, xylophone, cymbals, suspended cymbal, snare drums played both with and without snares, tam-tam, triangle, and bass drum.)  For good measure a celesta was thrown in the mix.  I do suspect if the percussionists and their instruments were situated in their usual positions in the back, things would sound the same - and I say that with great admiration for the percussionists.

The stars are of course Trifonov and Babayan.  I know little about Babayan, other than he was Trifonov's teacher at some point, and that he is Armenian-American.  This was also the NY Phil debut for the Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu.  With van Zweden leaving in a couple of years, one wonders whether there is any audition elements whenever a new face appears.

The 25-minute piece was quite interesting. I couldn't see the pianists clearly, I could tell they were enjoying the give and take between themselves, with the percussion, and with the orchestra.  The three movements are (i) Assai lento - Allegro molto; (ii) Lento, ma non troppo; and (iii) Allegro non troppo.  Bartok was supposedly very analytical when he composed the music, with the work employing the strict mathematical ratios of the Golden Section and the related Fibonacci and Lucas sequences.  Not that I know what a Lucas sequence is, but I am sure there is no way I can tell.

The five soloists for Bartok: Rhoten, Lamb, Druckman, Trifonov and Babayan.  Notice how far back the concertmaster is.

This was my first in-person encounter with Saariaho.  I did watch (part of) her opera L'amour de lion on TV, performed by the Met, during the pandemic.  Today's Program Notes talks quite extensively about her musical style.  She had composed Orion in 2002, and today's piece (meaning Winter Sky) was arranged from that work's second movement, which has Orion the constellation stuck forever in the sky.  Orion is readily visible this time of the year, and I often look up the night sky to admire it.  I did that this evening, and yes, it is not good to be stuck in the sky for eternity (well, so far only a few billion years).  Betelgeuse, at about 550 light-years away is closest to earth, is a red giant that will "self-destruct" (that is, have a supernova explosion) in about 100,000 years.  So its eternity will eventually come to an end.

There is this E-flat - D - B theme that gets repeated in different ways.  Saariaho wrote different versions of it for different instruments after learning the different sounds from members of the Cleveland Orchestra. It is interesting to listen for that.  How that relates to Orion being frozen, however, is a mystery.

Compared to the three pieces that came before it, Sibelius's seventh symphony, his last, sounded downright simple.  At least the sounds are more traditional, dynamics go pretty much as expected.  The only novel element is that the 21-minute piece is one continuous movement with eleven different tempo markings.  Some analysts try to map them into traditional movements, and I am doing this for efficiency: (I) Adagio - (II) Vivacissimo - Adagio - (III) Allegro molto moderato - Allegro moderato - (IV) Vivace - Presto - Adagio - Largamente molto - ... with a coda consisting of Affettuoso - Tempo I.  In 1918 Sibelius did describe this work as "Joy of life and vitalite with appassionata passages in three movements - the last a 'Hellenic Rondo.'"  Although he allowed that things could change.  While I enjoyed the piece, I also spent considerable energy in trying to relate what I hear to what section I should be hearing, with little success.

The concert ended at 12:45 pm (time stamp for this photo).  This is the full orchestra, with perhaps 16 first violins, and it looks less crowded compared to the old hall - so perhaps there were some significant modifications made.  The music pieces total about 66 minutes, 10 minutes longer than the NJ Symphony Centennial celebration, yet today's concert felt a lot more substantial.

What's the characteristic of this blog entry?  It is quite long, and I might say quite informative as a lot is plagiarized from the Program Notes, yet it doesn't say much about the music itself, or how I experienced it.  Just what I said at the beginning.  This is somewhat like many of my visits to modern art exhibits.  I may have read up on the artists, maybe even a discussion of their work, but then I just walk through the exhibit hall without stopping to examine the displays.  I come out not knowing much more than when I got in, without an experiential appreciation (if there is such a thing) of the objects on display.

Just before the concert began the lights hanging over the stage were raised, reminiscent of what is done at the Met Opera.  Then the lights did a small dance number, which sent a chuckle through the audience.  This is my second visit to the renovated hall, and it felt more like someone just threw on a new coat of paint, with little change to the "bones" of the place.  The sound was okay, but then I didn't have too much trouble with the old hall either (other than complaining that there was no perfect seat in the auditorium).

Sometime in October NY Phil was advertising a 30% discount for subscriptions of three or more concerts, we took advantage of that offer.  We bought only three because of all the uncertainties around our schedule and travel to New York.  The price at the beginning of this blog entry?  Not a typo, and it includes a service charge of $6.  I am typing this paragraph on Saturday morning, and there are still scattered seats available for tonight's concert.  An orchestra seat in the last row (HH) costs $140+$21.50.  Again not a typo.  I just went back to review my credit card charge, it was $322 for six tickets.

We took the train in for this 11 am-start concert, and the trip was quite uneventful.

New Jersey Symphony and New Jersey Ballet. Xian Zhang, conductor; Yo-Yo Ma, cello. November 12, 2022.

NJPAC, Newark, NJ.  Grand Tier (Seat D104, $144).

Program

Herald, Holler and Hallelujah by Wynton Marsalis (b. 1961).

Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104 by Dvorak.

Selections from Four Dances from Estancia by Alberto Ginastera.

100 years ago, 19 musicians started an ensemble in Montclair, which eventually evolved to the current orchestra.  While the 2022/2023 season started a few weeks ago, tonight's concert is the Centennial Gala of such an event.

The Program Notes states that the durations of the three pieces are 6, 40 and 11 minutes, totaling to less than one hour.  While the program didn't start at 7:30 pm, it didn't end until around 9 pm.  Several people spoke congratulatory messages, including Governor Phil Murphy.  I guess that's to be expected.  Not that people would remember much what was said, except perhaps Murphy and Ma knew each other from their college days.  (They both attended Harvard at about the same time, and Murphy evidently was an aspiring musician then.)

The Marsalis piece was co-commissioned by NJ Symphony and was first performed at NJPAC in January.  The Program Notes describes it as "exuberant and celebratory," and that it "floats in and out of marching band, big band, and jazz."  The ensemble consists (coincidentally?) of 19 brass and percussion players.

All good.  While I didn't get the range the Program Notes talks about, I certainly hear Gershwin, Copland, and lots of jazz in the piece.

There are several YouTube videos with Yo-Yo Ma playing the Dvorak concerto.  I saw (parts of) two of them, and they are both great.  My expectations were thus high.  And looking back, one of my previous encounters (two entries in the blog) was a great experience.  Alas, expectations were not met.  A major contribution to the disappointment has to be the acoustics at our seats.  The cello sounded distant, and therefore weak.  The other reason - perhaps - was Ma made this look easy, so there was less appreciation of the degree of difficulty involved.  I had written previously about the background, and the loss expressed in the last movement.  That came through in the recordings I viewed, but not tonight.

For those who think this writer is being too critical, let me say perhaps Ma doesn't have any bad days, but the listener may have a bad day every now and then.  Also, at Gilbert's farewell concert in June, 2017, with NY Phil, Ma joined the cello section after performing as a soloist, I didn't notice him in the orchestra today.

I don't understand how the third piece fits in with the program, especially since I have not noticed much cooperation between NJ Ballet and NJ Symphony in the past.  One could also ask why the Montclair choral ensemble wasn't included in today's celebration, as they have been cooperating with the Symphony for quite a while.

The Brass Section was in First Tier for the Marsalis piece.  The percussionists and the conductor were on the regular stage.

Before the performance of the Dvorak cello concerto.  When I checked earlier in the day, only a few tickets were left.  A typical NJ Symphony concert would have 40% or so empty seats in my experience.

Ma didn't bring out his cello after the performance, meaning there would be no encores.  He did try to whip up the audience to applaud the orchestra.

Ma made it a point to go to the cello section and shake hands with the players.

After the performance of Ginaster's dances.  Time stamp was 8:59 pm.

The other source of puzzlement is why only three of the four dances were included in the last piece.  Be that as it may, the music was accompanied by pairs of ballet dances who were either delivering a story, or simply dancing for dancing's sake.  The lady sitting a few seats away from us kept complaining (too loudly, at times) they should shine more light on the stage.  I agree with that sentiment.

Perhaps I am looking at it all wrong.  As a musical event this wasn't the best of my experiences with NJ Symphony.  One could argue for a celebration this fit the bill.  And the Symphony raised a lot of money from the event ($1M?). My counterargument then is if it's not about musical excellence, then what is it about?  One could go back and forth, but it was what it was.

We left right after the program ended, even though there were rumors of an encore.  Somehow I got the impression Parking Lot C (our usual place) was closed (turns out it wasn't), so we parked in this huge underground Military Park lot, and we didn't want to be stuck in traffic when we leave.  People were handing out these "commemorative" books, and I grabbed one.  It contains some interesting tidbits, including that once Ma, Ax, and Dudley Moore (!) performed with the Symphony.

100-year birthdays, no matter whose, don't come around that often.  I was glad to be at this one.

Opera for All Voices. Chandler Carter's This Little Light of Mine. October 29, 2022.

Lensic Performance Arts Center.  Sante Fe, NM. Balcony (first row, left, $25).

Synopsis.  The opera follows the life of Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) from a share-cropper to a civil rights activist, emphasizing events that happened during (approximately) the years 1962 to sometime shortly before her death.  See the "official" version in the screenshot below.

Conductor - Jeri Lynne Johnson; Fannie Lou Hamer - Nicole Joy Mitchel, Dorothy Jean Hamer - Kearstin Piper Brown; June Johnson/SNCC Worker - Heather Hill.

Fannie Lou Hamer

We are visiting New Mexico and I came across this event.  The opera featured prominently on the Sante Fe Opera's website, and was commissioned "by the Sante Fe Opera through Opera for All Voices."  My interpretation of this was Sante Fe paid for the composition, but a "community opera" will be performing it.

Lensic Performance Arts Center reminds one of Count Basie and State Theater.  It is in very good condition, so perhaps also renovated recently (indeed completed in 2001).  The theater seats around 800 people, and attendance was 60 to 70% for tonight's performance.  There were very few African American in the audience, perhaps a reflection of Sante Fe's demographics (less than 1%; for the State, 2%).

I didn't know what to expect from the story.  Turns out one didn't have to be too graphic to relate the horrors blacks suffered at that time.  Events that came to mind are: a hysterectomy was performed on Fannie Lou without her knowledge, she was beaten up for standing up for her rights, she was fired soon after her attempt to register to vote, her negotiations with Hubert Humphrey, and her daughter dying young.

The staging was minimal.  The backdrop is a screen with different images and videos projected on it.  The main prop is a platform.  Put some chairs on it, and it is a bus or a church, put a facade in the front and it is a house, project some bars on the screen and it is a jail cell.  Sometimes Fannie Lou would sing as a video of (the real) her is played saying the same words.  The list of orchestra members is short, but produced an adequate sound that balanced well with the vocal lines.

Before the opera started, the composer Chandler Carter came on stage to describe a little bit about the process, and acknowledged the presence of the librettist Diana Solomon-Glover.  Brown, billed as Dorothy Jean, also played many other roles, including a pastor and a white police officer.  There is a warning of "strong language, racial slurs and symbols of violence."

People in the front row: Conductor Jeri Lynne Johnson, Composer Chandler Carter, Librettist Diana Solomon-Glover, Brown, Mitchell, and Hill.

Given the politics of today, one often forgets how necessary the civil rights movement is.  And this also puts the birth of liberation theology in perspective.  It was great that I got a refresher on these issues.

It should be quite easy to get to the venue.  But this was Halloween weekend, so we were caught in traffic - that we missed the entrance didn't help.  We made it to the seats with 10 minutes to spare.

New York Philharmonic. Jaap van Zweden, conductor; Roomful of Teeth, vocal ensemble. October 22, 2022.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat M104, $42.50).

Program

Prelude a l'apres-midi d'u faune (1892-94) by Debussy (1862-1918).

Microfictions, Vol. 3 (2022) by Caroline Shaw (b. 1982).

Symphony No. 4 in D minor (late 1930s) by Price (1887-1953).

Recently I took advantage of a CYO sale and bought tickets to three concerts for the season.  This was not one of those three, but I decided to take advantage of the $35 "any seat" offer.  Anne and I had to look after the grandchildren in Hoboken while their parents were away for the weekend, so I went to the concert by myself.

Nowadays it seems every concert has a piece by a modern woman composer such as Caroline Shaw or Jesse Montgomery.  Today's program also featured a symphony by Florence Price.

The other noteworthy aspect of this concert is that the New York Philharmonic, after in exile for about two year during the hall's renovation (compounded by COVID), has returned to David Geffen Hall.  I was interested in seeing how the new hall worked.

Shaw's piece was commissioned as part of Project 19 to commemorate the 19th Amendment passed in 1920.  Microfictions Volume 1 was premiered by the Miro Quartet in 2021, Volume 2, a cello solo for Alisa Weilerstein, has not been premiered.  Volume 3 was first performed in Bergen, Norway on July 8, 2022, and this series is the US premiere of the work.  One can conclude from the titles that all three would sound very different, and wonder if there is some sort of uniformity in the musical language used across the pieces.  I heard Shaw's piece Blueprint more than six years ago.

Evidently there is this genre called "microfiction" where stories are limited to 280 characters.  Shaw was trying to paint different micro images with each of the movements, although she took a lot more notes to do the job (or a word is worth a thousand notes?).  Here an ensemble of eight singers would add texture to the music.  Mostly vocalizations, other than a short unintelligible phrase here or there.

What do I think?  The effect sounded interesting, but gets monotonous after a couple of minutes.  It reminds me of Philip Glass, where the overall pace is quite slow as the music slowly changes direction through phrases that change imperceptibly as they get repeated.  At about the 20-minute mark I was wondering how different things could be in the next ten minutes (Program Notes estimated time of 30 minutes).  Things built quickly to a climax and the music ended, somewhat to my relief.

Roomful of Teeth is an octet of which Shaw is an original member.  Shaw participated in the performance.

It is interesting to see if there will be eventually a "Caroline Shaw Sound," as distinct as Glass's.

After the performance of Caroline Shaw's Microfictions, Vol. 3.  Shaw is the third person from the left (dark jacket, bowing).  She was invited onto the podium also.

The young man seated next to me clearly enjoyed it.  He owns the album, loves it, and was excited to see the piece performed live.  I wonder if Shaw's appeal is also a generational thing.

Price certainly could write some very difficult passages for the orchestra.  Her music is quite traditional, so languished in relative obscurity for a while until the current craze (for lack of a better word) to program women composers - especially minority women - into concerts.  Fair or not, one thinks of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, or Shostakovich as the typical twentieth century composer; or more parochially Gershwin, Copland, and Ives.  As a result, the best people can do is date this symphony to the late 1930s, and the piece was premiered in 2018.

Two noteworthy (as far as the Program Notes is concerned) facts.  One is an oboe melody that's surprisingly similar to one in Dvorak's New World.  Melodies of this kind permeated African American soundscape, and I agree (as the Notes implies) that different composers can reference them as they see fit.  The other is the use of the "Juba dance" theme in the scherzo.  The fragment included in the Notes is simple enough, but I frankly didn't catch it.

A musicologist can analyze Price's music for her composition techniques, her ability to organize, her use of different orchestral colors, and how she could weave the motivic material through the movements of her work like a silken thread (all these phrases found in the Program Notes), the fact of the matter is as a 20th century composition one expects something more avant-garde than this, and when compared with more traditional works not quite at the level of a Sibelius or Dvorak.

After performance of Price's Symphony.  It's good to see New York Phil live again.  There were a couple of notable personnel changes in the orchestra.

Unfortunately I didn't make it to Lincoln Center in time to hear the Debussy piece, which should be interesting to hear as the concert hall was newly renovated.  To travel from Hoboken via bus and subway should take about 45 minutes to an hour.  Bus 126 didn't show up at the stop for 15 minutes, Lincoln Tunnel was very congested, and the No. 1 train also took about 15 minutes to show up at the Port Authority Station.  And it didn't stop until the 72 Street station which meant an eight minute additional walk.  Any of these wouldn't have been a problem, but the combination made me miss the Debussy piece, and just barely got seated for the Shaw piece.  (It took me less than an hour for the return trip.)

The young man next to me said the Debussy sounded great, although as a new resident of NYC this was his first concert at Lincoln Center.  The Roomful singers used microphones, and I have nothing to compare the Price symphony with, so while I have no complaints about the acoustics, I am in no position to determine if I like it more.

I noticed the absence of Eileen Moon-Myers, and the return of Liang Wang.  The formed resigned for personal reasons, and the latter after winning an arbitration case.

The common area outside the auditorium has a rather modern look it it.  However, the general color scheme is a bit darker than I'd like.

In the old Avery Fisher Hall there was this slight unease about falling off the (inside) balcony.  The new hall has solved that problem, at least for me.

The blue carpet on the steps (only a little shown in this photo) looks dated already, especially against these bright tiles adorning the walls.

Now one can sit behind the stage.  One can somewhat relate the new layout with the old one.

It used to be simply Avery Fisher Hall.  If the lobby, the theater, and the stage were named for other people, their names were certainly not prominently displayed.  News reports say the theater was name Wu Tsai for a $50M donation, I wonder how much it cost for the lobby and the stage.  In contrast, David Geffen is not seen inside the Hall at all.  May be a case could be made that he gets some of the money back?