Bargemusic (7/19/14)

I hesitate to call Bargemusic an “old standby” but its Saturday Music in Motion concerts are events that I know I can count on. Saturday’s turned out to be a real winner—
Sophia Agranovich, piano, playing works by Schubert and Chopin.

Fantasie in C Major, Op. 15, D. 760, “Wanderer” – Allegro con fuoco ma non troppo; Adagio; Presto; Allegro – Schubert (1797–1828)
Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23; Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38; Ballade No. 3 in
A-flat Major, Op. 47; Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52 – Chopin (1810–1849)

This was a very ambitious program very well played. The Schubert opened in a dramatic manner and was martial at times, particularly via rhythmic motifs. The phrasing seemed a little on the dry side to me at the very beginning (not enough flow) but that quickly changed. I especially liked the flow between movements, making for a cohesive, almost through-composed performance. (I later learned that that is actually part of the composition itself.) There was a nice mix of both powerful and delicate playing in this altogether pleasant rendition of this Romantic-era piece.

Chopin’s Ballades are classical masterpieces; hearing all four at one sitting was extremely interesting. I won’t presume to do in-depth analysis, though I’m sure there is plenty of that out there. I’m most familiar with the first and I have a fleeting memory of hearing all of them (or at least parts of each) before.

The first opened with a melancholy, but not cloying, introduction. While I thought some of the phrasing was just a bit mannered, it was certainly a valid interpretation. Slower, flowing phrases were quite beautiful—close to haunting—leading to fireworks at the end.

The second was gently rocking, to start, sounding slightly wistful. This was followed by a rushing section before returning to rocking. This pattern repeated, alternating, ending with a quiet solemnity. The second Ballade paled slightly in comparison to the first but it was nevertheless quite strong on its own.

Number three had a folk-song feel to some of the melodies, in my opinion. This piece also alternated between bombast and gentleness, and included fleet finger work. The fourth had a brief introduction that did not seem familiar to me though I certainly recognized the main theme which was gentle, and could seem melancholy, but I sensed a bit more hope. The main theme returned, with filigree writing in both the left and right hands. Compositionally, the different sections seemed almost too varied to me, making the piece feel a little segmented. Perhaps I just need to revisit it again and eventually experience more familiarity.

All in all, this was a very well played performance and a most enjoyable afternoon. And thank you to Bargemusic for providing printed programs—it’s very helpful to me. Another patron went to get one as soon as she saw mine and heard my reaction to what was on the program.

Bonus!

Part of my Sunday afternoon was spent at Bryant Park, attending portions of the
65th Annual Obon Dance Festival—a summer Buddhist holiday in Japan and Japanese American communities honoring the memory of those who have passed away. Participants included Tachibana Dance Group, members of the public (invited to join in the folk dances being performed), and Soh Daiko, a terrific taiko performing group (drumming and intricate, athletic choreography). The entire afternoon, or at least the part I attended, was a lot of fun and carried a lot of meaning. Yes, I even participated in one of the easier folk dances. And it’s always a pleasure to see Soh Daiko—this was my second time. There’s free culture out there, folks. Take advantage.

ConcertMeister

Two Shorts and a Feature (7/12/14)

More Mary Pickford—Love Among the Roses (1910), The School Teacher and the Waif (1912), and A Little Princess (1917).

One of the interesting things to me is the vast difference in style between the shorts and the feature. You can really tell that the shorts were just knocked out quickly and the feature was treated with much more respect. The thin plot of Love Among the Roses is that of a highbrow gentleman entering into a marriage of convenience. Mary Pickford comes along (she’s a lace maker) and also enters into a marriage of convenience, with a gardener. Well, don’t you know, the highbrow gent sees Mary and is smitten, the gardener sees the highbrow’s wife and is smitten. Highbrow’s wife returns her ring to her husband, and Mary returns her ring to the gardener. So the two couples get together with their newly smitten partners and the film ends.

In The School Teacher and the Waif, Mary, the daughter of an alcoholic farmer, is suddenly forced to attend school. She is woefully unprepared for socialization with others and is consequently bullied by the other students. The school teacher provides friendship, and things get better for a while—until she is made to wear a dunce cap after a spelling bee (she has no way of knowing what the letters are). Dejected, she becomes a truant, gets hooked up with a con man who says he’ll marry her, and is eventually rescued by the teacher, who has gone out on his own to find her, since she had not been in class. Once again, a bit of a clunky ending.

A Little Princess is based on a book written by Frances Hodgson Burnett (the book is actually a rewritten version of her earlier serialized story Sara Crewe, or What Happened at Miss Minchin’s). Sara (Miss Pickford) is placed in a boarding school while her wealthy father returns to India. Capt. Crewe has left instructions (and finances) for Sara to be treated with only the best, and the headmistress, Miss Minchin, does that, but with some simmering resentment. Sara gets along well with the other children, after an initial adjustment period; she is a gifted storyteller, and regales the other children with a version of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (giving rise to opulent sets and costumes for use in the film). Then word comes that Capt. Crewe has died—Sara is suddenly a pauper. Miss Minchin keeps her on at the school, but as a scullery maid, forced to live in the attic with the slavey (Miss Burnett’s word, not mine) Becky (winningly played by Zasu Pitts). The two girls get along very well and have quite a few interesting, and funny, scenes. A neighbor observes Sara being treated cruelly by Miss Minchin, and he decides to make her life much more pleasant. As Christmas is approaching, he sets up a full turkey-with-trimmings dinner for Sara and Becky in their attic rooms. Miss Minchin finds them enjoying their dinner and proceeds to drag both girls away. Their benefactor sees this and rushes in, along with his boss, who turns out to be Capt. Crewe’s best friend. It seems that he and the captain had invested heavily in a diamond mine, but he had lost track of the captain and, subsequently, Sara. But the mine has profited greatly, and Sara’s share of her father’s estate means that she is no longer a pauper. Her new benefactors move Sara and Becky into their own home, and Sara convinces them to have all of the children from Miss Minchin’s to share Christmas day with them. Miss Pickford was quite convincing both as a little rich girl and as a little poor girl.

As always, Ben Model provided excellent piano scores to all three films, with enough variety between them to keep them interesting while adding greatly to the mood and to the enjoyment of the silents. There’s one more afternoon to come in this Mary Pickford series. I hope to be there.

ConcertMeister

You Win Some ... (7/5/14)

... you lose some. (Everybody saw that coming from a mile away, right?) Saturday’s
choral concert was definitely in the loss column. The venue is one of my favorites—the Ukrainian Institute of America, housed in a beautiful mansion on Seventy-Ninth Street at
Fifth Avenue. The concert took place on the second floor, and there were oil paintings on display in there and on the staircase leading up from the lobby. On paper, the program looked pretty interesting—choral music by Canadian composers of Ukrainian descent. The choir was celebrating its 60th anniversary with a tour that included Edmonton, Ottawa, Montréal, Ellenville (NY), and NYC.

The choir (and I’m assuming that they are amateurs) sang in tune, and seemed to be well rehearsed. Unfortunately, their tone was somewhat unfocused and there was little attention paid to vocal blend. Two of the pieces in the first half were composed especially for this 60th anniversary celebration. The first, Ode to Canada, was an a cappella selection that was sung with great fervor. The second piece on the program seemed slightly more controlled, and I liked its style of composition better. Toward the end of the first half, there was some impromptu percussion when a young child started clapping (and not necessarily along with the music). When impromptu vocals were added, the child was, wisely, taken outside of the concert area. To their credit, the choir members maintained their composure throughout.

I stuck it out through the entire first half, but at the intermission, I, too, made my exit. As I said, on paper it looked to be right up my alley. Alas, the execution didn’t live up to expectations. Oh, well—you win some ...

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Culture—of a Different Kind (6/28/14)

I like walking tours. Often, I try to find one or two (guided or self-guided) when I visit cities for the first time. So why not check out my own hometown? Saturday found me on the Lower East Side, exploring parts of Chinatown that were new to me, under the auspices of Two Bridges Neighborhood Council and their free NeighborFood tour. It was a variation of a tour they have where they show how, by buying locally, a meal for four can be put together for $10. On that tour, there is a cooking demo, as well—ours was just the tour.

Our guide offered well-presented information about the neighborhood and the way it’s changed, for both better and worse. It’s a mostly lower-income spot that recently lost its Pathmark supermarket. As a result, some of the residents, including seniors, need to find a new way of shopping. Along the way, we learned that most of the Asian population speaks Mandarin and Cantonese and, more recently, Fujinese. As a result, there is often little interaction—vocal or even eye contact—between the cashier and the customer in many markets. In some of the markets where a family runs the business, there will be more interaction.

Additionally, stores owners rent out the sidewalk space in front of their store to individual vendors. So, your items chosen on the sidewalk get paid for out there, and if you go into the store for additional purchases, those get paid for inside. Haggling/bargaining rarely occurs. On the street we saw bitter melon, lychees, dragon fruit, and many more that I didn’t recognize (and don’t remember). I took a few notes, but that was difficult, as we were walking and the sidewalks were somewhat crowded on a Saturday morning.

Inside the larger markets, we saw water spinach, winter melon, and mangosteens. (Interesting aside—our guide told us that the mangosteen was a favorite of Queen Victoria and that she would bestow knighthood if someone were to bring her the fruit. When checking online for the writing of this post, I came across another rumor that said she would pay 100 pounds for the fruit.) And we saw seafood. Live fish, live crabs, whole fish on ice, shrimp, mussels, and clams. This was not your mainstream Chinatown; the tour was limited to the Two Bridges (Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges) area, with the goal of supporting local merchants and keeping spending dollars in the local area.

One of the stops along the tour was a family-run business. There, according to our guide, there would be (and was) more interaction and those types of places will often supply more information as requested by shoppers. And we were treated to dragon fruit, which has a taste reminiscent of kiwi, although I sensed a more floral flavor. The outside is pinkish, with scale-like nodes while the inside flesh is white, with tiny black seeds. The fruit is cut into slices and eaten out of hand by peeling the skin away (very easy to do) and eating the flesh. It’s helpful to have a napkin handy. Once again, there were lots of items on the shelves that I couldn’t make heads or tails of, but I did by a small jar of bamboo shoots in chili oil. I haven’t tried them yet but I think they’ll be a nice addition to my next stir fry.

Our last stop of the day (and the tour was a pleasant 90 minutes long) was a fish store where we saw most of the aforementioned seafood as well as—live frogs! I’m somewhat adventurous but I don’t think I’ll be cooking frog anytime soon.

So, I learned a bit more about a part of town that I’ve only been to and through a few times, and I learned more about the culture of the people who live and work there, too.

ConcertMeister