Tuesday, December 20, 2016

The Weekend that Almost Wasn’t (12/17–18/16)

Saturday was outdoor Christmas caroling in Greenwich Village, sponsored by the West Village Chorale, and hosted by Judson Memorial Church. When I ran errands on Saturday morning, it was snowy, but OK. As I ended errands, it was rainy and not OK. I decided to ditch it. Then I checked the weather online. Hmmm, fewer chances of rain. I braved it and got to the Village at noon. A couple of groups had already departed, but mine would be heading out shortly.

Group 3 did a bang-up job in Washington Square, along West 4th Street and Cornelia Street. We even went into a café for a subdued and pleasant rendition of Silent Night. At one point, we hooked up with another roving Group and formed a small choir for Silver Bells and one other song. Fun. Later, we strolled, singing the Twelve Days of Christmas—not the best choice. The Lords a Leaping weren’t quite in the same tempo as the Ladies Dancing. Somehow we all got together for Five Go-o-o-o-o-lden Rings! And somehow we all ended together. Along the way, we Came Upon a Midnight Clear, we Jingled, we Roasted Chestnuts, we Gloriaed, and we We Three Kinged, etc. I’m glad I overrode my veto!

Sunday had the prospect of going to the {gasp} Bronx for The Orchestra Now. Once again, I almost talked myself out of it but decided to take the plunge. I’m so glad I did.

Aladdin Suite – Oriental Festival March; Aladdin’s Dream and Dance of the Morning Mists; Hindu Dance; Chinese Dance; Prisoners’ Dance; Negro Dance (1918–1919) – Carl Nielsen (1865–1931)
Shéhérazade – Asie; La flûte enchantée; L’indifférent – (1903) – Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Scheherazade – The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship; The Legend of the Kalendar Prince; The Young Prince and the Young Princess; Festival at Baghdad—The Sea—The Shipwreck (1888) – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908)
All conducted by JoAnn Falletta

There was so much so cool about this concert. The Orchestra Now is a sort of training orchestra—to the best of my knowledge, all of the players are graduate students at Bard College. Actually, going back and re-reading the well-written program notes, it is “an innovative pre-professional orchestra and master’s degree program at Bard college … .” That means that this concert was free, but the ones they play at the Met Museum, Carnegie Hall, etc. are not.

This was a large orchestra, which was a good thing. Good in that you rarely hear an orchestration that includes two harps plus a celeste. And all three works had 22 violins … 5 French horns … 2 trombones plus a bass trombone … get it?—lots of instruments.

The Nielsen was great as a concert opener. The first movement was straightforward, while the second was calmer and slower, followed by a graceful dance section. The third movement was rather sinuous and included an extended winds-only section. The fourth movement was much brighter, with a quicker tempo while the fifth was much more dramatic, with a large brass presence, especially in the lower ranges. The final movement was rhythmic and very fast.

Both Scheherazades that followed were essentially a retelling of the 1,001 Arabian Nights fable (which also blended in well with Aladdin).The potentate/Caliph/grand pooh-bah was unhappy in love. His solution was to marry a virgin and then decapitate her after one night. Scheherazade decided to nip that in the bud. She married the aforementioned guy. On her wedding night, she wove an intriguing tale and spun it out until dawn, withholding the actual ending. Thus she lived to see another day. After 1,001 nights of this, the guy decided that she was a keeper.

The Ravel was a mini song cycle for mezzo-soprano and orchestra. Susan Platts was the very effective mezzo in the three-song cycle.

The Rimsky-Korsakov is somewhat of a warhorse that I think you’d recognize, but here it was played very well. I had a few minor quibbles with tempi and the cohesiveness of sections and movements, but these were very minor.

There were two excellent portions of the afternoon. Each piece was introduced by an orchestra member, who recounted some of what we could read in the program, written by other orchestra members. Additionally, there was an Orchestra Quick Guide (similar to a setup card for your laptop or tablet) that gave you titles of the works, dates of the composers, date of composition and premiere performance, and orchestration. Cool stuff. One of The Orchestra Now’s missions is to create a new audience for classical music and, specifically, classical music concerts. To that end, there was a group of students in the rows behind me whose teacher pointed out the Quick Guide to them and also pointed out that there was more detailed info in the printed program itself.

As is often the case, the students were quick to applaud after the first movement before realizing that most audiences take a work as a whole before offering applause. This is not a hard and fast rule, but one that is generally accepted and they caught on pretty quickly. They did, though, tend to chatter a bit while the orchestra was playing. It could be attention span or just not acknowledging the talent/work/discipline on display on the stage. I think it will come, but these were young teenagers who should have known better by now.

Throughout, the orchestra played very well. Unfortunately, with the hall only about one-third full, it was difficult to sustain applause, especially when Ms. Falletta wanted to acknowledge individual solo players (specifically in the Rimsky-Korsakov). It was even difficult to sustain the applause for the de rigeur second curtain call for Ms. Platt after the Ravel. Sometimes one acknowledgment from the audience is enough.

Would I go again? You bet I would. This performance was at the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts at Lehman College (a new venue for me). The next two free Around Town concerts by The Orchestra Now will take place in Brooklyn and Queens. Woo-hoo! I go non-Manhattan-centric!

ConcertMeister

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Very Full Weekend+ (12/10–12/16)

Saturday afternoon was Holiday Songbook I, with the music of Jay Alan Zimmerman, consisting of sixteen songs, all of which were holiday themed. Representing crass commercialism (and fun) was Buy! Buy! Buy! which melded well with the fact that Mr. Zimmerman’s published holiday songbook is now in print and available. If memory serves, all of the songs we heard on Saturday afternoon are available in the print version.
 
It’s somewhat hard to do an all-holiday-themed show (there are just so many regular and off-the-wall scenarios to be dealt with), but this was a fun afternoon. Mr. Zimmerman repurposed a few existing songs with Emmanuel (a reworking of
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel), sung by Matt Case, and Carol Loves the Bells (probably my favorite title of the show), sung by Casey Erin Clark and the guys from the entire performance cast. Both were quite interesting. A patter-style, Grinch-like Happy Jolly Merry Headache, sung by Doug Shapiro, was also fun, as was Gingerbread Man, sung by Angel Desai and a pair of backup singers, Stephanie Joyner and Tony Ramos. Not listed on the program was a rather ribald The Perfect Gift which was essentially a musicalized orgasm. The plight of the homeless was brought to light in No More Room, where a homeless man,
Ritt Henn (also the terrific bassist for the afternoon) is down on his luck and a somewhat ghost-like choir intones, “No more room,” in nice harmonies.
 
A “trunk song” (one written a while ago but then for some reason tucked away), Mistletoe Manipulation, was brought out and given a first performance. The nicely sung duet eventually brought Ray Zanders and Mariana Barbosa together for a Christmas smooch. A Little Holiday Secret dealt with a gal, Tiffan Borelli, who lets her atheist Jewish fiancé, Ross Urken (actually Tiffin's husband), know that she really, really, really likes Christmas. It was fun and enjoyable.
 
Quite touching was Time to Find Home, performed by a deaf actor,
Stephen Drabicki, and sung by Angel Desai. It was doubly effective
in that Mr. Zimmerman himself is a deaf composer. His deafness was a direct result of the 9/11 attacks, though he’s kept on composing ever since. Holiday Zombie was a bit of a hoot and included appropriate zombieography.

The show finished with a touching duet, Silly Star, sung by Mr. Zimmerman and his 21-year-old (if I’m remembering correctly) son Zachary. It’s one of the first songs he ever wrote and was quite appropriate to end the afternoon with.
 
Sunday afternoon found me out in the cold at Rockefeller Center where, in front of the famous tree, 424 tuba players took part in the 43rd Annual Tuba Christmas. From the beginning organ-like sound of O Come, All Ye Faithful, which was really awe inspiring, to the final notes of Jingle Bells, it was a fun afternoon. I’ve attended this event at least a couple of times previously, and every year they announce that they’ll play each song twice—first for us to listen to and second for us to join in and sing. It never works. We, as a crowd, are just too far away and dispersed for any type of cohesive choral sound to be effective. A few of
us valiantly sang along, but it still just didn’t work. Favorites included the sacred (We Three Kings, Away in a Manger, etc.) and the secular (Deck the Halls and the aforementioned Jingle Bells) and, possibly my favorite, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, where the tubists stop playing in the middle and they sing to us! At approximately forty minutes, the concert was just the right length for me, though I know that others in the crowd got there up to thirty minutes ahead of the start time.
 
Monday evening was Holiday Songbook II, a more typical songbook in that more than one composer was featured. In this case there were sixteen different composers/teams with seventeen different songs performed. Many, though not all, of the songs were specifically written for this occasion, or at least written with Holiday Songbook, generally, in mind. As always, and including Songbook I, hearing new songs for the first time doesn’t necessarily give a lot to go on in terms of really commenting closely. In this case, some really crackerjack performances/
performers made me like some songs better than others. Not new, songwise, was the choreographed trio to Bette Midler’s recording of Cool Yule that opened the performance, with loads of fun.
 
A very timely We’re Not Going to Talk about …, sung by Danielle Trzcinski (also the lyricist), was all about holiday get-togethers where politics, as a discussion subject, is off the table. Until some of the guests get a little too much in their cups. There was some funny stuff here. Also very funny and effective was Beth Glover singing By Christmas, as a somewhat snooty mother trying to convince her son to ditch his current girlfriend or she (the mother) would be dead by Christmas.
 
Michael Linden and Larry Owens did a bang-up job of Sam Salmond’s Make My Yuletide Gay and Mr. Owens was positively manic in Will Aronson's and
Bill Nelson’s Oh My God I Love Christmas—an adult going all-out bonkers with the excitement of Christmas. With Polkadots Christmas, from Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical, Brittney Johnson gave us a Motown pop-style up tempo rendition of a song set to a sort of music minus one soundtrack—she was singing live to a recorded track that included backup singers, as well as performing with a live piano accompanist.
 
The Christmas Tree Blues was funny, even allowing me to jot down some of the lyrics by Sam Carner (music, Derek Gregor): “I’m as blue as any evergreen could be,” and “Ain’t no way I’ll make it to spring … on my very last ring,” sung by Solea Pfeiffer. Then the dysfunctional family was represented again in Merry Christmas, with Grampa getting drunker and drunker. There was even a reference to that other holiday via the lyric, “Happy gin & tonic-a.”
 
Snow Day, with music and lyrics (and sung by) Jessica Ann Carp gave us hearts full of sorrow, pleading that these current times make us need some calming snow. The piece was scored for piano, violin, cello and voice, and the cellist made a special trip from North Carolina just to appear in this concert with Ms. Carp. That’s holiday spirit!

Joey ContrerasFirst Sign of Forever was given a touching performance by
Mia Gerachis telling of finding a new love at this special time of year. As a finale, we heard a rather adventurous, if slightly uneven, Focus on Tomorrow (music: Jake Chapman, lyrics: Henry Nettleton), that was a retelling of the nativity story through the Bailey children from It's a Wonderful Life. There were some good ideas, but it was a little on the long side and a little flawed.

Still, and I say this every time, it's astounding that so much talent (all volunteering their time and energy) is on display at every one of these Songbook presentations. I got some Christmas presents early this year. (Apologies for not naming every composer, lyricist and performer.)
 

Saturday, December 10, 2016

WQXR Midday Masterpieces (12/7/16)

This is a joint venture between WQXR, NYC’s classical music radio station, and the Juilliard School of Music, which may or may not be their official name. Still, it’s a great combination. Wednesday’s version presented four vocalists in an all-Schubert program. The following info is taken from WQXR’s website, since they don’t provide programs or info at the concerts.

Viola, D. 786Angela Vallone, soprano; Chris Reynolds, piano
Die liebe Farbe; Die Böse Farbe (from Die schöne Müllerin) D. 795;
Erlkönig, D. 328Matthew Swensen, tenor; Jinhee Park, piano
Ganymed, D. 544; Abendstern, D. 806; Lied eines Schiffers an die Dioskuren,
D. 360
; Auf der Bruck, D. 853Miles Mykkanen, tenor; HoJae Lee, piano
An Sylvia, D. 891; Fischerweise, D. 881; Prometheus, D. 674Alex Rosen, bass; Chris Reynolds, piano

In keeping with ’Meister’s plan of not offering reviews—merely commentary on free and low-cost programs—let me state that all four vocalists presented themselves very well, as did the three partners/accompanists (because really, with lieder, the accompanists are truly partners). That said, Viola was nicely sung, with good (if maybe too direct) diction. The piece was fairly lengthy but had enough interest to fully engage us in the audience.

With the first of the two Die schöne Müllerin selections, the tenor captured the dark mood, but he really came into his own in the second. With Erlkönig, he might have worked a bit too hard differentiating each character, vocally, but it was still an effective performance of this somewhat chilling piece.

Ganymed seemed slightly mannered to me, as did Abendstern and Dioskuren. This could possibly be because these students (and we must remember that these are students, not seasoned professionals) are still developing their voices as well as their personal performing styles—indeed, their professional, performing personalities. Auf der Bruck was referred to as the ‘other’ horse riding song (in a reference to Erlkönig) and was well performed.

Surprisingly, An Sylvia and Fischerweise were the most difficult to pull off, in that they were classic, simple lied—strophic, relying on the artist to imbue the texts with enough interest to keep our interest involved. This was incorporated pretty well. Prometheus, on the other hand, was a dramatic setting, with a very effective performance. I think that the bass voice added a feeling of heft, maybe unfairly in comparison to the upper register voices that we had heard earlier.

Are these performers and voices that we will hear more of/from later? Hard to tell. Speaking from experience, there are lots of talented performers who have to work hard at finding their particular niche in show business. Or not. But these are seven very talented performers, and I wish them the best of luck (and I hope I hear more from them in the future!).

ConcertMeister

Monday, December 5, 2016

It's the Most Won ... (12/3–12/4/16)

OK, maybe I'm jumping the gun a little.

Saturday found me at Gotham Radio Theatre's production of Auntie Mame! It was a great retelling of the Patrick Dennis memoir of life with his Auntie Mame. I was seeing it through the filter of the book, the play, and the musical. Still, I got the gist of the story, though I may go back and read Dennis' original memoir.

The Gotham Radio Theatre troupe have Drood-style Radio Theatre characters (played by real-time actors playing Radio Theatre characters playing the characters in Auntie Mame!). I'm going to skip that. Here's the real-name cast list with their role(s) in Auntie Mame!

Laura Leopard – Auntie Mame (Mame Dennis)
Valerie Gilbert – Vera Charles, Nora, Agnes Gooch & others
Megan Mekjian – Pegeen Ryan, Gloria Upson & others
Jack Milazzo – Young Patrick
Kurt Hellerich – Patrick and others
Martin McGeachy – Beau, Mr. Babcock, Ito and others
John Moss – O’Banion, Lindsay and others

Directed and adapted by Sydnie Grosberg Ronga; Musical Director – Michael Ferrara

First off, the actors appeared with scripts in hand, which would be par for the course for radio broadcasts. And all of the troupe members took part in the audible sound effects—clip-clop shoes, paper rustling when reading the will, ding-dong! doorbells, pouring Auntie Mame's drinks, etc. And all of the actors were terrific. Watching Ms. Gilbert voice Vera, Nora and Agnes within seconds of one another was a tour-de-farce, while Ms. Leopard brought the right panache, plus sincerity, to Mame. Of special interest to me was the nifty hand-off when Patrick (as our narrator) would yield the stage to Young Patrick. Just a little nod, but it was a telling gesture repeated throughout the performance.

The score was provided by Mr. Ferrara (piano) plus strings (violin, viola, cello), reeds (saxophone, clarinet, flute), and drums. In true radio theatre style, our sponsor for the show was Chevrolet, so we heard, "See the USA, in your Chevrolet" (sing along—you know you want to) several times. The saxophone as a hunting horn for the fox hunt scene was a bit of genius. Other perfect sound effects included hand-manipulated tap shoes and slide whistles—I'm not making this up you know!

And at one point, there was a very effective split-screen situation—we were seeing it, but you could really hear it as part of the broadcast.

This is my second (at least) experience with Gotham Radio Theatre, and they have a real convert here. This was a most enjoyable afternoon in the theatre/radio.

Sunday found me at the Carl Schurz Park Ye Olde Annual Candlelight Holiday Carol Sing Along, which also included a countdown to lighting the Christmas tree. Not quite Rockefeller Center but more manageable. This was pretty much a repeat of the last two or three that I've attended—Cantori New York singing, and Orbital Brass (quintet) playing.

The welcoming remarks, featuring local politicos, was a little more streamlined this year, but still sort of yada-yada-yada-look-what-I've-done-for-you-and-the-park. Hey, that's what happens. This year, however, Cantori presented a much better-sized choral opening, with four nicely sung holiday songs (though with a slightly over-aggressive ved-y English-dictioned tenor).

They started (a little surprisingly) with Go Tell It on the Mountain, followed by Carol of the Bells, I'll Be Home for Christmas, and finishing with We Wish You a Merry Christmas (with lots of Med-y Ch-dr-istmases and B-dr-ing some dr-ight here from the aforementioned tenor). When the sing along started, I wended my way to the local liquor store while singing along with the brass, as long as I could hear them. Yeah, I got some weird looks on the street, but 'tis the season!

ConcertMeister

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Chicago, the Silent Film (11/12/16)

Ah, a story near and dear to my heart. I love the musical (and have performed in it many times). The silent film (1927) is based on the 1926 play (Maurine Watkins (Maurine Dallas Watkins for the musical)).

Where to begin? The silent film focuses on Roxie Hart (Phyllis Haver) and Billy Flynn (Robert Edeson), but gives a much larger role to Amos Hart (Victor Varconi).

Matron is there, as is an abbreviated Velma Kelly (all based on real people but with different names).

Roxie shoots and kills her lover. Amos stands by her, even offering to take the blame. Billy Flynn gets an acquittal. Roxie is eclipsed by "Two Gun Rosie" (a "Go-to-Hell Kitty" prototype?). But in this version (and the play, too?) Roxie ends up walking down the street, in the rain, seeing her headlines in the papers trampled and washed down the drain. Literally. Amos, who has stood by her throughout the trial, has had enough and throws her out into the street. Not nearly the "ha-cha" of the musical.

It was fascinating to see a property I knew on one level in the guise of its earlier state. I'd love to read the 1926 play. Apparently it was a major breakthrough for George Abbott, as a director. Who knew?

Interestingly, in preview remarks and a few of the post-viewing remarks I heard, Bruce Lawton kept referencing the 2002 film (makes sense, he's a film guy). But that version, even though I know and respect the director, is not my favorite; I vastly prefer the 1975 stage musical. Though, who knows? I might really prefer the 1926 play.

As usual, Ben Model provided a spot-on pianistic soundtrack and Steve Massa's program notes were interesting, as always. Also interesting was the "short." When films were sent to the local distributors, the local censors had thumbs-up/thumbs-down power, and there were snippets of film cut, from place to place. The "short" on the bill was a compilation of those snippets, so you got lots of flappers, some belly dancers, falls that tended to showed too much leg, and lots of stockings being unrolled (shocking, I tell you, shocking!). It was interesting though a little too much same-same. Still, it pointed us at censorship in all of its glories (hah!).

ConcertMeister

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Juilliard 415 (11/2/16)

Courtesy of WQXR

This is part of a continuing series of highlighting Juilliard students in one-hour concerts at the Jerome L. Greene space. I'm such a fan that I've taken off the last two first Wednesdays of the month (and Dec. 7) to attend. These are free concerts, though an RSVP is required.

OK, I'm not going to copy 'n' paste every description/title/date, etc. I'll just hit the highlights and my reaction to those highlights.

Dario Castello's sonata (Venice, 1629), was a sextet, though I didn't scribble down all of the instruments. Described as a "madrigal without words," the solo violin was joined by a second violin, then the other four players joined in. One of which was a harpsichord. This is important, as harpsichords in the early baroque era were tuned to A 415 (as opposed to the more modern A 440–442), hence the moniker Juilliard 415. (You now have a trivia/Jeopardy answer/question in your back pocket. You're welcome.)

After a regrouping, we heard a piece by Giovanni Legrenzi (Venice, 1673) that was calm and almost somber after an opening of tutti performers (sorry, no printed program).

After another regrouping (I don't think any of the students played in more than one ensemble), we heard Alessandro Stradella's Trio in D minor (violin, cello, harpsichord). This was in a very different style—more disjointed—seemingly more modern/experimental. And here's something to cogitate on. We think of old/baroque/early music as, well, old/baroque/early. But some of it was truly experimental in its day. That said, some people may have been disappointed in it as much as I am disappointed listening to Philip Glass, but I digress. A fugal movement followed, swiftly followed by a dance-like third movement that was almost a sonata in itself.

Fourth on the program was another Castello piece from 1629, with two violins, viola da gamba, dulcian (new to me, I had to do an internet search), and theorbo (not new to me). A theorbo is like a lute on steroids—regular strings (I didn't count how many) and really, really long strings (six, seven feet long?). So you get two instruments in one. The piece started with a kitchen-sink style—everything thrown into the mix. That was followed by a duo (sort of, violins and theorbo) that was quite playful at times. The piece closed out with the full ensemble in a very rich, solid style. Oh, and the dulcian is a precursor to the bassoon.

A Tomaso Albinoni Trio in D minor followed (Venice, 1694) for baroque flute, violin, cello, and theorbo (maybe the same instrument? definitely different player). Here, the theorbo was used more rhythmically, including knocking on the wooden frame for percussion sounds.

The one-hour concert closed out with Antonio Vivaldi's Chamber Concerto in
G minor "La Notte" for baroque flute, bassoon, two violins, string bass and harpsichord. The harpsichord had more of a presence in this work, and there was plenty of layering of strings and other instruments to create forward energy, which one associates with Vivaldi (think Four Seasons). I mentioned to my seat mates that it would have been pretty cool to have all of the players come out for a brief orchestral work, as a grand finale. Alas, that did not happen.

Throughout the afternoon, different students gave us brief introductions to the pieces and all acquitted themselves quite well (with a few microphone malfunctions). All in all, a wonderful one-hour concert with erudite, well seasoned young performers. Thank you WQXR and Juilliard!

Monday, November 7, 2016

Arts and Artists of Tomorr … ah the heck with it Songbook (10/31/16)

Looked great on paper. Songs from one show, Perfect Picture. Book and Lyrics: Ellen Bluestone Sherman; Music: Gail C. Sherman.

Good cast, including Mark Jacoby (Norman Rockwell), Lillias White (Actor A) [uh-oh!], Angel Desai (Actor B), and Crista Moore (Actor C). Actors A, B, and C [uh-oh!] were called upon to play wives, lovers, bosses, government employees, second wives, etc., which got a bit muddy, though the performances were all very good, in this concert version.

I hesitate to single out performances, but Mr. Jacoby projected just the right qualities of nebbish and newly conceived personality pretty well. Ms. White scored best in the somewhat recurring role of blues-y, jazz-y outside commentator.

The story arc followed Norman Rockwell through the rejection of his Four Freedoms project through to its successful completion. The road traveled didn’t quite do it for me. The sister team of composer/lyricist has a good feel and a good vibe. For me, though, there were too many songs that made me go, “Oh, that sounds like … and that’s like … .” They weren’t bad, for songs that were like other show-biz songs. I could walk you through each one, except for the fact that some of them blended into each other. Were they a medley? A montage? Two, three, or four mini songs that sounded similar?

Apparently Perfect Picture has had a few iterations, and this was one that the writing team chose for a distinct distillation. I’m not quite sure it works in this format, though they may be very happy with it. It wasn’t bad, and the music was interesting (if a little derivative). I wouldn’t mind seeing a fully fleshed out production of the piece—it might make more sense to me then.

That said, the sisters know their craft, and they seem to be really in tune with each other on many levels. I could listen to more of their songs.

ConcertMeister

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Two Minis (10/24/16, 10/29/16)

Lyrics by Lee – A Celebration of Broadway Lyricist Lee Adams/
The Emily Dickinson Suite–A Chamber Recital in Words and Music

Cabaret artists Steve Ross and Maximilian St. James presented a wonderful evening of the lyrics of Lee Adams. The good news is that lyrics are a great thing to be celebrated. The bad news is that their presentation is linked to composers and performers. The composer for all was Charles Strouse, who made a (late) appearance. The performers were a mixed bag. Lyrics from:

A Broadway Musical (1978)
Applause (1970)
Bye, Bye Birdie (1963)
All American (1962)
I and Albert (1972)
It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman (1966)
Golden Boy (1964)
Marty (2002; unproduced on Broadway)

Interspersed with musical numbers, there were readings from tribute letters, from (big breath) Chita Rivera, Anita Gillette, Tony Bennett, Hal Prince, Sheldon Harnick, Donald Pippin, and Charles Strouse (who later spoke, in person).
The music (and hence lyrics) was mostly great. I enjoyed hearing cabaret artists like Marilyn Sokol and Penny Fuller, and Mr. Ross was the consummate accompanist/partner. Len Cariou was effective, if not in fine voice. I’m sad to report that Carleton Carpenter did a disservice to “Kids” from Bye, Bye Birdie. Maybe it’s a built-in problem? I did a production with a well-known comedic actor as Mr. McAfee, and he had problems, too.

Still, the lyrics (and music) shone. After Mr. Strouse spoke, he was goaded into sitting at the keyboard and playing the theme to All in the Family—“Gee, our old LaSalle ran great!” Those were the days. Most of the kids in the audience were clueless.

Emily Dickinson was a different kettle of fish. This is at least the second Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts tribute to Miss Dickinson that I’ve seen.

The performers included Alison Looman, actress; Elmira Darvarova, violin; Mélanie Genin, harp; John Sorensen, director (for Emily Dickinson: Portrait of a Poet; Robert Herridge, script; Tom Scott, music); Ms. Darvarova, violin; Na Sun, violin; Ronald Carbone, viola; Samuel Magill, cello (for Three Pieces After Emily Dickinson; Mary Howe); Nicole Brancato (piano); Sarah Dutcher (piano); Jai Jeffries (piano) (for What of That; George Boziwick); and Katharine Whyte (soprano) with Matthew Odell (piano) (for 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson; Aaron Copland).

Well, lots of stuff happening, so I’ll just hit the highlights. The violin/harp interludes between the spoken words in the first piece were my favorite parts. They ranged from introductory interludes to dance-like, mournful, slightly modern (surreal and short), again dance-like, music-box theme, dramatic and fuller, slightly subdued, to slightly dark yet with a touch of hope. They were interspersed with introductions (by the director) and snippets of poetry by the actress. Relatively effective, but as I said, the music spoke more to me than the texts.

What of That was … just bizarre. Set for piano, six hands (I’ve never seen that before), the pianists also intoned the poem (sometimes unintelligibly) as they were playing the piece. Per the composer’s introduction, the three players represented Doubt, Certainty, and Belief. It didn’t ring true to me. And the bang-bang-bang rhythm signifying What. Of. That. was overkill.

Copland’s 12-song cycle was nicely performed. Ms. Whyte’s English diction was a big plus, and she handled Copland’s sometimes awkward vocal writing as best she could. It was interesting to hear a bit of redux from the poetry that was used in Portrait of a Poet, at the beginning of the afternoon. Definitely a learning experience. There’s a lot of stuff out there, folks.

ConcertMeister

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Open House New York (10/15–16/16)

Okay, posting from the website (not my fave). Any bizarre things, I have very little control over.

Open House New York is, ostensibly, an architectural extravaganza. In reality, for me, it's a really cool way to see things I'd never otherwise get a chance to see in NYC.

As usual, I set an over-achievable agenda for myself. But here’s what I did accomplish.

Saturday, 10am – Brooklyn Academy of Music (1908 construction). A wonderful tour with a very knowledgeable guide. It was a little heavy on the ‘new music’ aspect of the resurgence of the hall, but it covered the basics as well as the more modern aspects. A+ in my book.

After a mad dash to the B38 bus (said dash shared with a couple from San Francisco who come back to NYC every year for OHNY!), we made our way to the Kings County Brewers Collective (381 Troutman Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn – highly recommended). The brewery is visible from the Tap Room. The Tap Room is visible from the street. They have $2.00, 5 oz. tasting glasses available. They have 12 brews available. Hello! They’ve only been in existence for three months. Go there, my NYC peeps.

But I digress. Also on Troutman Street (225) was a design firm which used its own building as an advertising work space. They converted a slim building into a showcase work space cum duplex living space cum apartment building cum green roof— quite a feat. The floors were generic poured concrete (not my favorite, though the designers said they really didn’t mind the cracks). The wood accents were really cool. They bought (cheaply) planks from the Coney Island boardwalk. They shaved off the wear and tear, then split the boards, and then oiled the Brazilian hardwood. Absolutely gorgeous. A little overdone but very effective.

Lift/Next Level was a bit of a bust—sensory deprivation pods making a comeback from the ’70s and ’80s. Not for me. I then went to the Black Lady Theater on Nostrand Avenue, which is being renovated and had some very interesting murals on display. Still, the very loud reggae music was so off-putting that I quickly left.

Sunday at noon found me in the Bronx, at CUNY Bronx Community College. Originally part of NYU, it transformed to BCC. However, one of the crown jewels of the campus—the Gould Library—dates from the early 1900s and is a stunning example of a Stanford White building. I believe that the campus was overwhelmed with the amount of visitors they received, and I’m certainly glad I got there early. The Gould Library tour was stunning. While I did not visit it this time around, I will go back to see the Hall of Fame of Great Americans (check times and availability, but it’s always free).

My next stop on the campus was a set of Marcel Breuer buildings, including (I kid you not!) Meister Hall, Begrisch Hall, and Polowyczk Hall. Very modern, very brash. The docent was extremely knowledgeable and extremely approachable. I followed this with a tour of the new library, built as part of a refurbishment of the quad on campus. It fits in perfectly.

I then went all the way back to Flatbush Avenue to see the newly renovated Kings Theatre—one of the huge movie palaces of the late 1920s. This $95 million restoration was phenomenal. In the lobby is the restored original theater organ console (alas, the pipework and organ itself are lost forever).

A year ago, I volunteered for OHNY, and it was a less-than-enjoyable experience. After seeing and chatting with this year’s volunteers, I may reconsider for October 2017.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Another Openin' (10/8/16)

My first concert of the season of the Carnegie Neighborhood Concerts (all five boroughs, some tailored to all age groups). Saturday found me at a vocal recital by Ryan Thorn, baritone, assisted by Andrew Sun, piano. I'll start out by saying that these two were collaborators, in the truest sense of the word, throughout the recital.

Selections from Gedichte von Eduard MörikeAuf einer Wanderung, In der Frühe, AbschiedHugo Wolf (1860–1903)
The Dream, Op. 8, No. 5; She is as lovely as midday, Op. 14, No. 9; I was with Her [their capitalization, not mine], Op. 14, No. 4Sergei Rachmaninoff
(1873–1943)
Lieder eines fahrended Gesellen [German's capitalization, not mine!] – Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht; Ging heut' morgens über Feld; Ich hab' ein glühend Messer; Die zwei blauen Augen [at last! one I can decipher] – Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)
Songs of TravelRalph Vaughan Williams – (1872–1958)

The first piece (Wolf) was an up tempo, bright song, with a contrasting second verse. The second was darker in tone. The third was pretty much a dramatic patter song that seemed to remind me of the darkness of Kurt Weill. Not a bad way to start a recital.

After a pause, the first Rachmaninoff song was very poignant. The second was calm, with a feeling of yearning, while the third, with a faster tempo, was a hymn to love. I'm not sure whether the four Mahler songs were were from the same work, performed in order, but thy certainly worked well together. The first projected a real feeling of loss. His love is lost – to another. The second was bright and patter-like, as in, all's right with the world. Until it's not. The third was dramatic and dark, even with the rushing tempo. The second verse was calmer, but just as dark; coming to terms with grief. The fourth projected, to me, that life is sometimes sad and unfair. It was straightforward though not maudlin. My take was that it was learning to come to terms with unhappiness.

These vocal recitals are a part of the Marilyn Horne legacy at Carnegie Hall, and in fact, Ms. Horne was there and briefly spoke after the intermission. It was sometimes hard to hear her, but you do not (as one woman behind me did), call out, "Louder!" to a well-established diva. Bad. Form. Anyhoo, the gist of
Ms. Horne's remarks were that recitals, as such, are falling out of favor. And that they should fall more in favor. I agree 100%.

The second half of the program was given over the Vaughan Williams' ten song cycle, and Mr. Thorn and Mr. Sun acquitted themselves quite well, as they had all afternoon/evening (5:00pm on a Saturday is an odd time for a concert/recital to my thinking).

I'm not sure I got a feel for the overarching tone of the song cycle (both performers are young, and will probably grow into various interpretations through the years), but the individual songs came off quite well. From the martial (but not quite military) opening to songs with harp-like accompaniment, from strophic with perpetual motion feelings to calmer, from splashy to then settling down, this was a nice rendition of a song cycle—and cycles aren't heard in their entirety very often (see Ms. Horne and recitals, above).

Both performers received very warm applause and some standing from the audience. In a first for me, the collaborators shook hands and then did a man-bro hug. Not a problem for me; I'd just never seen it before.

Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts. Check them out, my NYC peeps.

ConcertMeister



Sunday, October 9, 2016

Fall for Dance (9/29/16 & 10/6/16)

First off, not a freebie, but quite the bargain. Fall for Dance presents mixed bill performances at City Center (gorgeous theater with nice leg room in the mezzanine and balcony) with all seats priced at $15.00. You can buy tix in person at the box office or on line. As it turns out, tix went on sale at 11:00am on Sat., 9/10, and I was volunteering in Central Park on Sat., 9/10 from 6:00am(!) to 9:00am, so I decided to take a bus down Fifth Avenue and scope out the in-person situation. Well! When I got there at approximately 9:30am there was already a line. I figured that I was already there, so what they hey!

Unfortunately, it was a very hot morning. Fortunately, I had nice line mates who let me leave the line periodically to go across 55th Street to get out of the sun. One gal was there with her hubby (from South Africa) and one gal was a former dancer who lives in Manhattan with her Chinese husband. We talked food; we talked tourism; we talked (hello! we were there for more than two hours).

Anyhoo, I saw four dance troupes on the Sept. 29 bill (Richard Alston Dance Company, Aszure Barton & Artists, Wendy Whelan and Edward Watson, and Grupo Corpo). I enjoyed them all, but especially the Alston Company, as they danced Rejoice in the Lamb, performed to live accompaniment by Montclair State Vocal Accord, with Vincent Carr, organist. Rejoice in the Lamb, a setting of poetry by Christopher Smart, a mystical and most likely slightly crazy poet, was set to music by Benjamin Britten. But I really liked all four groups, and seeing powerhouses Wendy Whelan and Edward Watson was also pretty cool.

On Oct. 6, I saw four different troupes (Jessica Lang Dance, Royal Ballet Flanders, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and The Sarasota Ballet). It's hard to pick a favorite, but I think the nod goes to Royal Ballet, whose settings and scenery were the most interesting of the evening. The Ailey, Cry, a re-creation of a ballet from 1971, was certainly interesting, but to me more as a historic rendition. And the Sarasota's Marguerite and Armand was yet another retelling of Dumas' La Dame aux camélias, with the grand ballet tradition of having to suspend disbelief just a bit too much. The score, however, Franz Lizst's Piano Sonata in B Minor, played here by Matei Varga, was a big plus.

OK, I probably saved a few bucks by buying in person, and I was already out and about early that Saturday morning of Sept. 10. That said, if I go for Fall for Dance in the future, I just might bite the bullet and fight with online ordering. And pay more for the same cheap seats.

ConcertMeister

Friday, October 7, 2016

Frank Morelli and His All-Star Bassoon Quartet (10/2/16)

This one came about in a strange fashion. When I was at Songbook recently, one of the pieces incorporated a string quartet. When the string players were asked (the host always asks the performers) what they were up to, the cellist, Ben Larsen, said that he was busy with the running of Concerts on the Slope. That sounded familiar to me, so I checked out their website and, lo and behold, this concert popped up, so I decided to check it out. The Slope involved is Park Slope in Brooklyn, and the concerts take place (for the most part) in St. John’s Episcopal Church, one more new venue for me. The bassoonists were Joey Lavarias, Frank Morelli, Jorge Pacheco, Blair Shepperd, and Jacob Wellman.
Mr. Morelli teaches at the Juilliard School, and the other four are his students.
 
Highlights of the concert included a clever entrance—all five marching in to Marche funèbre d’une marionette, by Charles Gounod (1818–1893). For those of us of an age, it was instantly recognizable as the opening theme to Alfred Hitchcock Presents, from the 1950s and ’60s. Almost all of the music was presented in arrangements, but I’m not going to bother with naming names (or commenting on each work, for that matter). Two J.S. Bach (1685–1750) pieces followed—Fugue in c, BWV 537 and Air from 3rd Orchestral Suite in D, BWV 1068. The first, for the quintet, was nice, if a little bit muddy. I got most of the fugal entries but the internal themes sort of got lost. The second, for the student quartet, had a prominent theme accompanied by nicely done harmonies, including a bit of a jazz riff in one of the repeats.
 
The next piece, Thunder and Blazes, by Julius Fučik (1872–1916), would be recognized by all of you. Think of going to a circus and hearing the band play the always popular circus march—YA-da-dadada-YA-da-da-da—got it? This was for the quintet again, with each player at the forefront with different themes, from time to time. A Cantilena by Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959) didn’t quite cut it for me, though it obviously hits the spot for Mr. Morelli, in that he did the arrangement himself for solo bassoon and bassoon quartet and has recorded it at least once.
 
“Le Phénix,” by Michele Corrette (1707–1795), was the only piece that was not an arrangement, essentially a concerto for bassoon and continuo. Mr. Morelli played the continuo part for all three of the movements, with the solo part taken by three different students, while the other students acted as a small bassoon orchestra. My brief notes included (i) bright and energetic, (ii) chorale-style feeling to the opening, and (iii) more jaunty than the first movement, if a little long-winded (no pun intended).
 
After intermission, three arias from The Barber of Seville, Giacchino Rossini (1792–1868) followed. They also didn’t quite cut it for me. Lascia ch’io pianga, from Rinaldo, George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), fared a little better, with a good choral/organ sound that was simple yet effective in what was really a wonderful arrangement. A pseudo-medley from West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990), consisting of Tonight, Maria, America, and Somewhere, was really quite pleasant. Alas, the same could not be said for
Mr. Bernstein’s Overture to Candide, where I found the scoring to be a little too muddy, again, for my taste. Having many of the individual tunes/phrases in the lower range of the bassoons made them difficult to distinguish.
 
That said, I liked bassoon quartets and quintets far better than the concert looked on paper. And I’ll probably go back to the Slope again. If you go, while it’s listed as a free concert, they also have a basket for a free-will offering and, as mentioned from the front of the church during intermission, all of the collected funds go directly to the performers. It seems like a bit of a guilt trip to me, and while I didn’t contribute on Sunday, I probably will in the future.

ConcertMeister

Monday, October 3, 2016

New Season – Songbook (9/26/16)

I'm posting this directly online, which is not my favorite way to go. But ...

Will Aronson, composer and lyricist, was celebrated on Monday, Sept. 26 (appropriately the beginning of Songbook's 26th season).

I really liked his stuff, though I'm not sure I heard his lyrics (unless he collaborates with book writers and lyricists on his shows). And yes, I say shows. Several have been produced, though still works in process, and several have upcoming productions (most notably, in Korea!).

The format was great—we got songs from already written shows grouped together (with a few exceptions).

Hansel & Gretl & Heidi & Günter
Mother, Me & the Monsters
Pete the Cat
(split)
Wind-Up Girl
What I Learned from People


My first notes from hearing Come Home Safe (H & G & H & G) were, "Nicely complex composition that is totally believable and understandable." While this didn't hold true for the entire evening, it set a great tone. Dear Random Stranger was an effective story/patter song duet for Hansel & Gretl. The third piece from this segment also highlighted great harmony, both in the composition and singing.

Mother, Me & the Monsters, the opening number from its show, had shifting, overlapping rhythms and text that was a little cluttered, but it grew on me. Poem on My Pants had a rock flair with a touch of hip-hop. Sometimes Someone You Love was styled very successfully, with a light pop/rock feel.

The Sneezing Song, from Pete the Cat (currently on tour) was a cute novelty (ah-choo!) song.

The songs from Wind-Up Girl (Work in Progress, Clockwork World) were a little obvious—lots of clicking and clacking but pleasant.

We then revisited a song from H & G & H & G, Best. Meal. Ever. (sung by the witch) which was a bit over the top for me, but it may work in the context of the show.

The four songs from What I Learned from People seemed the weakest to me. It's going into production in Korea soon, and my guess is that there will be some fine tuning going on. Interestingly, a string quartet was involved in a 'mood piece' here, and the cellist (when asked what he was up to—John Znidarsic does this with everyone) commented that he was involved with a new concert series, Concerts on the Slope. I scoped them out and went to one of their concerts on October 2. How cool is that? But I digress.

The finale was VW Bus from Pete the Cat, which was an old-school rock 'n' roll number sung by three great performers, singing with a great vibe.

In fact, that was the tone of the entire evening—truly polished compositions from a composer/lyricist who really teamed well with other lyricists and book writers.

ConcertMeister
This was definitely one of the better Songbooks I've seen in a while.




Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Late-Summer Update

9/15/16 – ICE at the Library – Collecting Anna Thorvaldsdottir
9/17/16 – Norman Dee, flute, Josephine Chan Yung, piano
9/19/16 – repco360 – Works in Progress

ICE (the International Contemporary Ensemble), at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts, presented two works by Anna Thorvaldsdottir:
Transitions (2015), for solo cello, and Sequences (2016) world premiere, for bass flute, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone, and contrabassoon (subtitled, by me, “How Low Can You Go?”).

Often, when I hear a contemporary piece, I’ll post, “But I wouldn’t seek it out again.” Well, ICE took that option off the table. After Transitions, which I rather enjoyed, the host had a brief conversation/Q&A with the cellist, who commented on the composer’s use of broad, sustained lines, with little secondary inputs within the overall framework. Then the cellist played it again!

A herky-jerky, recorded (via Sk- y -pe) interview with the com- po -ser, stated that her music had broad lines, with secondary inputs within the overall framework (hmm, sounds familiar). We then heard Sequences. It had broad lines, with secondary inputs within the overall framework. After the Q&A with the quartet, I left. I did not need a second hearing; I did not need a second hearing of the first piece, for that matter.

The Flute & Piano concert held a little bit more interest for me:

Sonata in E minor, for Flute and Continuo, BWV 1034 – Adagio ma non tanto, Allegro, Andante, Allegro – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Introduction and RondoFriedrich D. R. Kuhlau (1786–1832)
Kleine Suite für Flöte Allein – Improvisation (Ruhig), Tanz (Schnell), Theme mit Variationen (Mässig Langsam) – Hugo Kauder (1888–1972)
Sonate, Opus 36 pour Violon & Piano (Transcription pour Flute & Piano par l’auteur) – Allegretto, Allegretto tranquillo, Andante non troppo/Allegro un poco agitato – Gabriel Pierné (1863–1937)

Kuhlau and Kauder were new to me, while Pierné was vaguely familiar. The Bach opened quite gently, almost plaintive yet very pretty, with varied rhythms and ranges, especially for the flute. The second movement was jaunty and bright, with a hint of perpetual motion. The third was gentle again, with less of that plaintive quality. The final movement was brisk, to the point of almost frantic (as in I wasn’t quite sure they would make it to the end, but they did).

The Kuhlau had fuller writing for the piano (indeed it was used as continuo in the Bach—a drier, lighter sound and compositional style), with a nice back and forth between flute and piano. In the Rondo proper, there were many ripples in both the flute and the piano. Alas, there was a mini-train wreck, and after stopping, the players resumed without any further problems. It finished with lots of pyrotechnics.

The Kauder showed the solo flute to good advantage, with a combination of flowing phrases, repeated sections, lively in a folk tune way in the first two movements. My notes said that it was like a showpiece that’s not too showy. The last movement had a somber theme, and variations that were subtle and interesting.

The Pierné was reminiscent of Debussy to me, though the program notes cited Fauré. It opened with rippling accompaniment to a rather jaunty flute tune, with some added touches of dramatic writing, in style as well as rhythmically and with volume shifts, though the first movement was a bit on the lengthy side. The second movement had interesting dance-like figures in both piano and flute, like a modern-ish waltz. The final movement included an introductory phrase with a few mildly dissonant harmonies, followed by a quick-tempo section with driving rhythms—virtuosic for both flute and piano. After a slower section, it went back to brisk, and then headlong into a rush to the end.

The folks at 360repco offered up two readings of plays that were works in progress. In fact, both were not completely written, so we were the equivalent of human guinea pigs. Sherry Bokser's With the Best of Intentions, presents a fairly dysfunctional family dealing with family drama, obsessions and possible sexual abuse. I say possible, because the play has not yet been completed.

Thom Fogarty's patient lover friend is a new take on the response to the ever-present AIDS crisis—from various viewpoints. Both works had very strong writing, and the cast that doubled in both plays (after having only one table reading before Monday's public reading) performed quite well. There was a brief Q&A session after each reading that took a bit of time to get off the ground, but I get the feeling that both authors got some interesting feedback.

Well that's the summer roundup—let the fall season begin!

ConcertMeister

Thursday, September 8, 2016

When Sugar Hill Was Sweet (9/3/16)

This was an event that I heard about on WQXR—but only briefly. I eventually jotted down the web address they gave, and searched for it, unfortunately getting very little concrete information. Finally I learned that there was going to be an afternoon of panels, talks and a concert. The time was listed as 12:00pm–6:00pm. Not knowing what to expect, I managed to find Sugar Hill Park (it’s in Harlem), arriving a little before noon (I’m an early person). They were still in the middle of setting up and doing sound checks, so I spread out my towel on the (rather uneven) lawn to settle in and wait. I saw one gal who looked like she was probably in charge, and asked whether there was a printed program or a schedule of events. After receiving a program booklet, I learned that the event was properly titled Echoes of the Era: Music from 409 and 555 Edgecombe–Concert and Panel Discussion. So far, so good, but I still didn’t know when anything would be happening. So I just decided to wing it.

It turns out that 409 and 555 Edgecombe Avenue are large, somewhat ornate apartment buildings (both still there and still apartment buildings) that featured in the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and ’30s. From my notes and memory, the names W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, Billy Strayhorn, and Count Basie, among others, all featured in the music from 409 and 555. Alas, there was never a schedule presented of which events would be held when.

It turns out that the panel discussion was first, and that kicked into gear around 1:30pm. The moderator was Felipe Luciano, who hosted Herb Boyd and Terrance McKnight as panelists. It was interesting, and tied into the idea of “where are you from?” and how it related to those musical members of 409 and 555, and how it’s really the question for all of us. As the table for the discussion was cleared away, we moved into the concert portion.

Because of the lack of printed material, names of pieces and composers will be a little haphazard. The concert began with a couple of pieces played by the West Village Quartet, a string quartet. Both pieces were fairly modern but with pleasing melodies and harmonies. The quartet was then joined by Angela L. Owens (soprano) and Charles David Carter (bass-baritone) for a performance of the GershwinsBess, You Is My Woman Now. They sang well, though the blend and balance with the string quartet was a little bit difficult, due to the outdoor setting, the microphones, and the somewhat windy day. Next, Ms. Owens, with
Roy Jennings (piano) and Wayne Smith (cello), sang a pair of songs by
André Previn with texts by Toni Morrison—from the lyrics, my best guess at titles is Stones in My Bed and In This Soft Place. They were also fairly modern settings and were pretty. Ms. Owens’ diction was quite good throughout the afternoon.

Mr. Carter and Mr. Jennings then presented We Shall Walk through the Valley in Peace, in Mr. Jennings’ (if I’m remembering correctly) arrangement, in modern-gospel style. It was very effective. Ms. Owens followed with The Paradox and Dawn, settings by the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, also composed by
Mr. Jennings. Mr. Carter performed a Duke Ellington piece, In the Beginning, God, which has a choral arrangement as well as this solo version (information I gleaned from listening to snippets of a conversation in front of me on the lawn).
Ms. Owens then sang a Henry T. (“Harry”) Burleigh setting of Langston Hughes’ Lovely Dark and Lonely One and a setting of Hughes’ I Too Sing America.
Mr. Jennings then went to town on a rendition of (I think) Troubled Waters, to round out the section.

Next on the agenda was a set of jazz tunes played by Geri Allen, whose style reminded me of Mary Lou Williams. Indeed, via Wikipedia, Ms. Williams is one of Ms. Allen’s primary musical influences. I liked her compact style and technique. Though I can’t find a source (and I may be misremembering the title, or it might be a recent composition), Openhandedly was my favorite of her set, as it was a little less frantic and fractured than some of the other pieces she played. Her set finished with a rendition of an Erroll Garner piece (Moonlight? Moonglow?).

Melba Joyce was announced next (but then they said they were waiting for her to arrive), so they started setup for the Sugar Hill Quartet. That looked as though it would take a bit of time, and that’s when I went exploring Edgecombe Avenue and found 409 and 555. Once the quartet was set up (with a fifth player added, on trombone), Ms. Joyce kicked the set off with the unofficial Black American National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing, in a nice arrangement, backed by the quar/quintet. I listened to the band play a couple of jazz tunes, and heard Ms. Joyce join them for a couple more, including Lover Come Back to Me. As it was approaching 4:30pm, and I had a bit of a trip back home, I didn’t see the need to stay till the very end.

So I learned a little bit more about Harlem and heard some varied music. Not a bad Saturday afternoon at all.

ConcertMeister

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Strange Saturday (8/27/16)

11th Annual Great Harlem Community Garden Tour
Rite of Summer Music Festival


My first thought upon waking up Saturday morning was that another peak rose season had come and gone without me visiting the Harlem Rose Garden. I even have a post card on display at work and I still forgot! My next thought was that if it was the last Saturday in August, that probably meant that the Harlem Community Garden Tour was happening. A quick look online proved me right. So I got my rear in gear, ran a few errands and made it up to 122nd Street, which was the kickoff point for the tour. One of the cool things about this tour is that they feed you. I had my annual taste of gumbo, along with a little bit of breakfast casserole and half a bagel. (They feed you at the end of the tour, too, but I wasn’t there for that part—more about that later.)

This was the eleventh iteration of the tour, but I’ve only been going for three or four years. Some of the gardens were repeats of former tours, while some were new or so vastly different from last year that they seemed new. There were also more people attending this year—they had two school buses for those who didn’t want to walk, as opposed to only one last year. I was one of the walkers, and there was also a small contingent of cyclists. A note on community gardens in NYC—they are undeveloped land that groups of citizens take over, clean up, and put to use as gardens. Some are just for fun while others are sometimes set up with individual plots where people grow flowers and/or veggies. It’s always a treat for me to see people’s creativity on view.

So, after I realized that it was garden tour day, I had to make up my mind when to ditch the tour, since the third concert in the Rite of Summer series was that afternoon. Rite of Summer usually does two performances, one at 1:00pm and a repeat at 3:00pm. And I have always opted for the early performance in the past, but made an exception because of the garden tour. After skedaddling down to the Governors Island ferry terminal, I took the two o’clock ferry, thinking that I had plenty of time to make the three o’clock performance. Oopsie! Because of the nature of the piece being performed, there was only one concert that afternoon, and it began at two o’clock. Phooey. (And I wasn’t the only one caught off guard, but it was totally my fault for not checking their website.)

The piece I ended up hearing most of was John Luther Adams’s Inuksuit, featuring 70+ percussionists, led by music director Amy Garapic. This was one strange piece of music. The full complement of performers gather together and then begin collective controlled breathing. As individuals separate from the group, they begin making percussive sounds. Some had rattles (maracas, shells, etc.) while others had cones of paper, sort of like megaphones, that they breathed sounds through. The most interesting sound maker that I saw was a guy rubbing the tops of two terra cotta flowerpots together. One part I found a little strange (and off-putting) was that as the musicians broke away from the group, they walked in a very specific controlled way, gazing straight ahead. Not quite Stepford wife–like, but close. Oh, there were also large seashells to blow through and those skinny tubes you can whirl around to make various pitches.

So the deal was that we, the audience, were encouraged to also leave the gathering place and make our way to the pre-set percussion areas set up around the Hills section of the island. I found the whole thing rather silly. At one point, I saw an unattended music stand blow over. An audience member set it back up. I said, “Maybe that’s part of the performance.” He chuckled. Here’s the thing—the piece will never be performed the same way twice, since it was designed to be performed by nine to ninety-nine players. Well, this one was certainly going to be different, because at one point I saw a couple of kids playing some of the as-yet-unattended drums. So they actually contributed to the overall performance.

The piece eventually went from soft to loud to soft. That’s about it, except that I should probably mention that the soft/loud/soft structure was stretched out over seventy minutes! I stayed to the bitter end (I think) as the playing dwindled down to a few triangles and wind chimes. Of course, there was no way to acknowledge the players because at the end of the piece they were still dispersed all around the Hills area. I viewed the performance as successful, in that they brought it off, and unsuccessful, in that it had no real positive impact on me. This is one I will never, ever, ever seek out again. My horizons were broadened, but that’s about it. I almost wish that I’d stayed with the garden tour and attended the cookout at the end of it. Oh, well, there’s always the twelfth iteration next year. And maybe I’ll even remember to have gone to the Harlem Rose Garden during peak rose blossom time next year, as well.

ConcertMeister

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Naumburg Orchestral Concerts (V of V) – (8/2/16)

Woo-hoo! I made it to all five concerts this summer, the last of which was with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), in a well-played eclectic program.

La Oración del Torero, “The Bullfighter’s Prayer” (1925) –
Joaquín Turina (1882–1949)
Selection of MadrigalsClaudio Monteverdi (1567–1643)
String Theory (written for ECCO) (2015) – Pierre Jalbert (1967–)
Five Folk Melodies (1952) – Witold Lutoslawski (1913–1994)
Serenade for Strings in E Major, Op. 22 (1875) – I. Moderato;
II. Menuetto: Allegro con moto; III. Scherzo: Vivace; IV. Larghetto; V. Finale: Allegro vivace – Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) [not b. 1983, as printed in the program!]

The Turina, new to me, was originally composed for four lutes and was a mood piece with a touch of Spanish flair. Not quite conductor free, it was led by a female leader in the first violin position. The leaders changed throughout the program. It was pleasant, if lacking the feeling of a solid arc, and it ended very quietly. Almost to the point that you weren’t really sure the piece was over.

A different female led the Monteverdi Madrigals. I liked the structure and dance-like rhythms of the first one, the more lyrical, chorale feel of the second, and after a layered introduction, the sprightly and solid feel of the third. One doesn’t usually hear that much Monteverdi, and I’m glad we did.

After retuning, there was a male leader for the Jalbert. It began (Partials) with a modern feel, including swoops and harmonics (different microtones played on individual strings), and had a mix of pizzicato and rhythmic, driving sections. The second movement (Timeless) was much more static, with some very pretty, if dissonant, sounds, plus a couple of dramatic, almost angry-sounding sections. And the third (Rhythmus) certainly lived up to its name, with the orchestra sometimes providing a pulsing feel, and sometimes with fingers flying over the strings. Overall, the work was fairly successful but I don’t think I’ll be searching out another hearing any time soon.

In the Lutoslawski, led by a female, the small individual melodies seemed to be more influenced by folk elements as opposed to actually being folk melodies. Each section was a little gem that included some richness in the middle.

The Dvořák is one of my most favorite pieces and it was a joy to hear it again. Led by a male (possibly the same as from the Jalbert), the opening was gentle and melodic, with a great fullness, compositionally, incorporating tunes that build complete movements. It was light and graceful, but still had its own heft. With nice segues between movements, the second was dance-like but without being too light. The first and second movements had very similar endings. The third was light and bright, with a contrasting middle section and then a great build to the end. The fourth was very lyrical, without being sappy—with each movement Dvořák builds on the opening to expand the movement, and this one closed with a quiet grandeur. The fifth was, well, just a romp. And why not?

All in all a most satisfying ending to a summer (or any) concert series. I’m already looking forward to Naumburg’s 112th season!

ConcertMeister

Monday, August 1, 2016

Theater Odds ’n’ Ends (8/1/16)

7/16/16, 7/20/16, 7/24/16, 7/30/16

One was not a freebie. More on that later. On July 16, I attended a series of one acts/playlets at Equity Library Theater (my first visit there, though I auditioned for many productions there in the past). There were four linked short plays with a Staten Island ferry theme. The link was a bit iffy and the four plays were uneven, at best. In an odd twist, some of the plays had an offstage reader providing stage settings and stage directions. Best Title Award goes to Nass-Holes, a treatise on the faking of the 1969 moon landing. Best Presentation Award goes to Worthless, a powerful piece for five actors which was the most fully fleshed out performance. Very strong; very moving.

July 20 was a matinée splurge of Something Rotten. Big, splashy Broadway musical with fun, sophomoric humor, and energy, energy, energy! What’s not to like? [Note to self: Avoid matinées with young kids. I’m glad they’re experiencing Broadway; I don’t need to hear the squealing.]

Next was a one-woman show directed by a former co-worker, Ron Bashford. Presented at the Stella Adler Center for New Works in Movement and Dance Theater (MAD), this was a new venue to me. Seven Devils and a French Nun – A True Story. Very enjoyable, though it’s hard to figure out whether/when it’s OK to laugh at a nun. Still, this nun rang bells, imitated priests, and a played a bunch of other nuns. Carine Montbertrand, a co-creator, was the one woman in this one-woman show and did a bang-up job.

Last, but not least, was the Instant Shakespeare Company reading of As You Like It. It’s worth listing all of the performers, some of whom are Actors’ Equity Association members (though the program omits the apostrophe, a bugaboo of mine). Charles Osborne, David Wetter, Clinton Powell, Kelsie Jepsen, Nathanael Taylor, Laura Iris Hill, Abby Wilde, Drew Bolander, Elliot Nesterman, and Paul Battiato. These folks (who were the bulk of the audience, as well) all did a fabulous job. Mr. Bolander showed a very expressive singing voice in his two songs. There were probably only five or six non-actor audience members, myself included.

This semi-staged reading (book in hand) was very, very funny. Mini-pratfalls, cross-gender double casting, funny rendition of the text. I was surprised by the audience members who had the text in front of them. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the performers as opposed to watching the script and the performers. I know very little about this company, but they seem to be really interested in performing the works of the Bard. New York peeps, you might want to check out the rest of their season. http://shakespeareinc.com/instant-shakespeare-company.html Enjoy!

ConcertMeister

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Rite of Summer Music Festival (7/23/16)

OK, this is slightly offbeat. As an obvious “take” on Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, this is a concert series that stretches boundaries. In fact, I did not attend the previous concert because I chose a more mainstream piano recital, as opposed to experimental cello music (I’m not making this up, you know). That said, I really enjoyed hearing Kara Sainz, mezzo soprano, and Peter Dugan, piano, on Governors Island this past Saturday.

In an “aw, shucks” world, the two were recently married (to each other) in May of this year. It was an eclectic program.

SummertimeGeorge Gershwin
Seven Popular Songs (selections)Manuel de Falla
Danza del Gaucho MatreroAlbert Ginastero
Noël des Enfants – Claude Debussy
“I have dreamt” from Wuthering HeightsBernard Herrmann
It’s Not Me, It’s YouLeonardo Dugan
If Music Be the Food of LoveHenry Purcell

Widmung – Robert Schumann
Liebst du um SchönheitClara Schumann
Die Mainacht (announced from the stage) – Johannes Brahms

I’m Glad There Is YouT. Dorsey/Madeira
My RomanceRichard Rodgers
Embraceable YouG. Gershwin
How It Felt to Love YouSainz/Dugan

Did I mention eclectic? I think that the duo did themselves a big plus by starting with less-than-classical fare. Summertime opened with a jazzy piano intro that morphed into a song stylist’s rendition of the song. The de Falla bridged us into a classical mode, though not knowing how many of the seven songs would be performed, the audience was left in flux. Do we applaud each song? The end of the set? When did the set end? Bad programming.

The Ginastera was a nice 1930s piano solo. The Herrmann was from an opera version of Wuthering Heights. Who knew? It was pleasant enough. The Dugan (brother of pianist) was also from an opera—very contemporary. One lyric got a chuckle from me and the folks on their picnic blanket near me (oh, did I not mention this was an al fresco concert series on Governors Island?). “You’re much more like a nightmare / than the man of my dreams.”

Returning to the classical vein, the Purcell was very interesting, though performing out of doors with necessarily needed amplified sound made some of the delicate filigree efforts a bit hard to appreciate. The three-group segment that followed did not quite work as a segment. Still, the overarching theme of love was evident and Ms. Sainz acquitted herself quite well, ably assisted by her husband.

A torch-ish version of I’m Glad There Is You followed, with a piano solo version of My Romance right behind (see the theme here?). Embraceable You was enjoyable.

Not so much the country-tinged downer of a song from the pens of our two star performers. It wasn’t a bad song but it was a bad way to end a concert celebrating love. Really? Written and performed by newlyweds?

ConcertMeister

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Naumburg Orchestral Concerts (IV of V) – (7/19/16)

Four for four! (I hope I don’t jinx myself.) Weather cooperated and the music was fun. This was the second concert, all chamber pieces, from The Knights. The program:

Suite Paysanne Hongroise for flute and string orchestra (1914–1918),
(arr. Paul Arma) – Chantes populaires tristes, nos. I–IV; Scherzo; Vielles danses, nos. I–IX – Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
Berceuse élégiaque (1909) (arr. Arnold Schoenberg) – Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924)
Bagatelles, Op. 47 (1878) – I. Allegretto scherzando; II. Tempo di minuetto, Grazioso; III. Allegretto scherzando; IV. Canon, Andante con moto; V. Poco allegro – Antonin Dvŏrak (1841–1904)
Quintet for flute and strings in G minor, Op. 19 (1774) – Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805)
Yann’s Flight (2013) – Shawn Conley (1983–)
Kaiser-Walzer (1889), (arr. Arnold Schoenberg) – Johann Strauss II (1825–1899)
A Stork Crosses the Danube, in the Company of a Raven, (arr. Ljova, 2016) – Taraf de Haïdouks (Est. 1991)

Eclectic, as you can see. The opening work was folk based, with a modern but not jarring sound. The second movement had a nice pizzicato quality, leading into an upbeat finale, though it was hard to distinguish nine separate dances. The Busoni was a nonette, taken from a much larger orchestral work. It opened with low strings and a very subdued piano ostinato that was tuneful but that also included some harmonic Schoenberg twists. The middle section featured a harmonium (sort of a parlor pump organ) while the whole piece was very grounded toward the end. As a nice visual, the Naumburg banner was set a-fluttering at one point—one more plus to an al fresco concert.

The Dvŏrak was really enjoyable, with a tuneful, folk flair first movement that featured the harmonium in a melodic mode, followed by a graceful, indeed, minuet. The final three movements tied everything together beautifully, even if the canon was slightly less than a canon, and the mixed mode/tonality of the final movement led to an ultimately quiet ending.

Oddly, I commented to the sound crew during intermission that the sound balance was good, for outdoor chamber music. Alas, the sound in the second half of the concert was a little overblown.

The Boccherini quintet was a pleasant piece, played well, if slightly innocuous. It sounded to me as though it was multiple movements sort of mashed together—but maybe that was Boccherini’s intent. Shawn Conley’s (bass player in Tuesday night’s concert) Yann’s Flight was a little too new age-y for me, hinting at the Mark O’Connor contemporary-classical-bluegrass style.

The Strauss, via Schoenberg, was played by a septet, with the varied six players retuning to the piano. It was fluff—fun fluff—but still fluff. Oy! So many false endings. The Romany-style last piece seemed to be akin to a roving band’s tune all gussied up. I can easily see how this could be adapted to a film score, and while not my cup of tea, it was certainly a crowd pleaser. An energetic way to end the concert, with hints of Leonard Bernstein and a great use of both the harmonium and the piano.

Fingers crossed for V of V!

ConcertMeister

Monday, July 18, 2016

Naumburg Orchestral Concert (III of V) – (7/12/16)

The Knights
Colin Jacobsen and Eric Jacobsen, Artistic Directors; Eric Jacobsen, Conductor

This concert was the first of two by The Knights, a Brooklyn-based (or at least
-formed) orchestral collective. Their word, not mine. Tuesday evening’s program:

Symphony No. 64 in A Major, “Tempora Mutantor” (1807) – I. Allegretto con spirito; II. Largo; III. Menuetto and Trio: Allegretto; IV. Finale: Presto –
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
Crane Palimpsest (2012) – I’m not listing the movements; if you really want to know, contact me directly – Gabriel Kahane (1981–)
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major (1816) – I. Allegro; II. Andante con moto;
III. Menuetto; Allegro molto; IV. Allegro vivace – Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
The Big Noise from Winnetka (1938) – Bob Haggart (1914–1998)/
Ray Baudic (1906–1988) (arr. The Knights)
The Times They Are A-Changin (1968) – Bob Dylan (1941–) (arr. The Knights)

This was an enjoyable, if a bit uneven, concert that was well played all the way around. The Haydn, performed without a conductor, was strictly classical, with a pleasant, almost sprightly opening, plenty of strings, plus a few woodwinds, and the requisite chirping birds (it was an outdoor concert, after all). The second movement was very gentle but did have some build, with the woodwinds taking center stage. This was followed by a dance-like third movement, slightly sedate and then a bit livelier. The Finale was a rather mild Presto, but it did have some spirit as well.

Mr. Kahane’s work had a modern classical introduction followed by a pseudo easy-listening pop tune. The movements all blended into one another and Mr. Kahane provided vocals, guitar playing, and piano playing (maybe eight bars of piano total?). It had grand goals but didn’t quite achieve them in my opinion.

The Schubert was my favorite of the evening. Similar to the Haydn, the symphony form had grown up and was more presentable. The opening was very familiar and gently rollicking, unless that’s an oxymoron. The second movement was also familiar but not in an “oh no, not again” mode. There was a very rich orchestral sound, especially for a small-ish orchestra. While seeing my first fireflies of the summer, I heard several distinct sections, each with its own interest. The third movement always reminds me of the darkness of Sir Arthur Sullivan’s “Ruddigore”—though it’s probably the other way around. It was also dance-like but solid without being heavy. When the final movement begins, you just know it’s a final movement. It has the same sparkle as Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream scherzo.

“Big Noise” had the classical players cutting loose a little, with hints of Gershwin in his later jazz-feel years. The Dylan was surprisingly Copland-esque, using a folk tune in a new way. It was somewhat, but only somewhat, effective. Okay. We had a mix of the old and the new. Not surprisingly, I liked the old (but the newer of the old) better than the new. Still, I’m glad I heard the new, if that makes sense. Concert IV of V tomorrow (7/19, also my mom’s birth anniversary!).

ConcertMeister

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Bargemusic (7/9/16)

Bargemusic is a standby for me, of sorts, but I had not visited in a while. I’m glad I went on Saturday. In a recap of a recent concert, we heard Mark Peskanov, violin, with Nina Kogan, piano, playing Beethoven. Specifically the Sonatas for Violin and Piano, although Mr. Peskanov graciously said for Piano and Violin, since the piano has so many more notes. I’m not quite sure, but I’ll defer to the professional. I got to play “New-Yorker-in-the-Know,” since the gal behind me was talking to her son and saying things like she wasn’t exactly sure whether the concert would be outdoors or indoors. I explained that it was, indeed inside on the barge but that there were large windows behind the performers, giving a great view of the NYC skyline. She promptly became a “New-Yorker-in-the-Know” when her husband arrived—but then gave me credit.

Combined with a concert from the week before, one to be played that evening and Sunday, and one more later in the month, Mr. Peskanov and Ms. Kogan are presenting all ten Beethoven Violin/Piano sonatas. Announced from the stage, we weren’t quite sure what we would hear. It turned out that we got all of Sonata No. 1, in D Major, the first two movements of Sonata No.5, in F Major, and the first movement of Sonata No. 8, in G Major. Since we didn’t know beforehand what we would be hearing, it made perfect sense to applaud after every movement (something usually frowned upon in the concert hall, when hearing a piece in its entirety). As always there are two schools of thought about that, too.

Playing first movements of works is usually a gimme, since they are almost always fresh, upbeat and have a strong finish, and that was the case with all three first movements we heard. Not so with the second movement of Sonata No. 1 and No. 5. If I hadn’t started the applause after each, we might still be sitting there!

That said, Mr. Peskanov and Ms. Kogan both play beautifully and with a very good rapport (a big plus, since they’re playing all ten sonatas together). Of note, the scheduled page turner couldn’t make it, so a volunteer popped up out of the audience and did a darned good job of it. Only in New York, kids. Also of note, I got there really early (and they don’t open the barge until fifteen minutes before the concert), so I found a nice little spot to buy and drink a $5 Montauk Driftwood Ale—not a bad way to kill some time before a concert.

If you go, the concerts are approximately one hour in length, start at 4:00pm, and are family concerts—meaning that there are children there, and the audience is sometimes a little more, um, lively than usual. On the plus side, it’s really great to see children and parents attending a classical concert together. There is also a Q&A session after the concert that engages the audience—adults and children—and the performers. You’re never quite sure what you’re going to get when you go to a Bargemusic concert. And that’s part of the experience.

ConcertMeister

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Emanuel Ax's Listening Party (6/30/16)

This was a very interesting event that took place at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts (sort of my home away from home). Program Director Evan Leslie had an informal discussion with world-renowned pianist Emanuel Ax and, based on an earlier phone interview with Mr. Ax, we heard excerpts from what would be Mr. Ax's personal listening list. In this case, the excerpts were culled from the library's extensive Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound of the New York Public Library (blatant plug!).

After an initial faux pas (Mr. Ax sat on his cordless microphone that was waiting for him on his chair), Mr. Leslie lobbed sort of soft ball questions that Mr. Ax volleyed with variants of, "I'm not really sure." Which was not a problem. Because when questioned about why you like what you like, and what's the best (fill in the blank), there are no easy/real answers. But the discussion was lively and, as mentioned above, punctuated with recordings from the library's extensive collection (blatant plug!). After taking copious notes, I learned that there would be a printed Listen List available upon exiting, complete with QR codes for those savvy enough to use them. The list also has hard copy info for those of us not savvy enough to use the QR codes. Thoughtful, indeed.

While the musical excerpts were enjoyable, more so was being able to listen in on an artistic discussion with a living legend via a library curator who is also a musician.

Highlights: According to Mr. Ax, Mozart is one of those composers who will last! (Emphasis, mine.) Da Ponte (Mozart's librettist) moved to New York at one point. As a surprise, Mr. Leslie played a "recording" of Mieczyslaw Münz, Mr. Ax's teacher. And there were highlights featuring Mr. Ax's collaborations with Isaac Stern, Jaime Laredo, and Yo-Yo Ma. Heady stuff. Of special note, the Münz was an aural recording of the piano roll created by the Ampico company—a company that created piano rolls played by living composers playing their own works, that could later be played back on a player piano. High tech for this 1927 recording!

In a (slightly contrived) "lightning round," Mr. Ax's listening list included the operas Aida, Tosca, and La Bohème, as well as jazz (Bill Charlap Live at the Village Vanguard, Ella Fitzgerald, live at Mister Kelly's, and Oscar Petersen: Exclusively for My Friends). Another "lightning round" selection was Maurice Ravel: Daphnis and Chloé; Pavane pour une infante déunte; and La valse.

The main listening list included Mozart, Chopin, Fauré, Schubert, and Tchaikovsky—you know, the usual suspects. But, oh what usual suspects, and oh what wonderful recordings from the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives. There's a bunch of good stuff out there, folks. Seek it out.

ConcertMeister

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Naumburg Orchestral Concerts (II of V)

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (6/28/16)
Nobuyuki Tsujii, Piano

Beautiful concert. Slightly less than perfect weather. In fact, I know of one regular listener/attendee who skipped it because of weather possibilities. That said, here’s the program:

Coriolan Overture, Opus 62 (1807) – Ludvig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, “Emperor Concerto”, LvB, Opus 73 (1809–1811), I. Allegro; II. Adagio un poco mosso; III. Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo – Nobuyuki Tsujii, piano
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, “Fate”, LvB, Opus 67 (1804–1808) – I. Allegro con brio; II. Andante con moto; III. Scherzo, Allegro; IV, Allegro

Yep, an all-Beethoven program. And I enjoyed it. The Coriolan Overture actually had a false start, since this outdoor concert was being broadcast live on WQXR. The orchestra began, but then had to regroup, since the broadcast had not yet begun.

Sans conductor (an Orpheus trademark), the overture had a dramatic opening that had shifting moods, highlighted by the Naumburg banner as a visual accompaniment.

The first movement of the piano concerto had familiar themes that were somewhat interesting but fairly lengthy. The time- and weight-wise effect was really great. The second movement opened with strings only, then winds were added, plus a very gentle piano line. Just before the Rondo, a trio of dames traipsed in—really? You couldn’t wait for the end of the movement? Which was also the end of the first half of the concert? Despite the intrusion, the piano broke out into a strong theme that was then picked up by the orchestra, for a very strong finish.

After lengthy applause, Mr. Tsujii played two encores—a Gershwin piece and Liszt’s La Campanella. Thoroughly delightful and gratefully accepted. (As an aside, I have never experienced a solo encore at the end of the first half of a concert—but I'm thrilled that it happened.)

After intermission, we heard Beethoven’s Fifth. Ba-bum-bum-BUMMM! But so much more. The opening was played with a very brisk tempo, with the brass featured much more strongly than I remember. That said, I usually hear one movement at a time on the radio, and not the whole work in one sitting. The second movement opened with low strings, leading once again to very dense and rich passages, with a few grandiose passages midway through. The third and fourth movements blended together a little for me, but I was aware of a misterioso section followed by bolder brass, and then a quiet section (but with insistent rhythms) and a playful section. All in all—Beethoven at his best.

Once again, I know I’ve heard each individual movement from time to time on the radio, so the individual themes were familiar to me, but I usually don’t sit down to listen to a symphony all the way through on the radio. I’m glad I had the opportunity to hear a world-class chamber orchestra present it al fresco in NYC. I’m pretty sure it’s streamable (is so a word!) on WQXR.com.

ConcertMeister

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Cirque De Jonée (6/20/16)

In honor of Gay Pride Week/Month, the self-billed World Première Concert Pianist Drag Diva, Jacqueline Jonée, gave a really fun performance on Monday evening. I have seen her (and posted, I believe) before, so I knew I was in for a treat. Her entrance outfit this year was all white, including lots of feathers, a showgirl headdress, and a Siegfried & Roy–esque white tiger (stuffed, that is) across her shoulders. Very funny! After the headdress was off and a ’60s-style bouffant wig was on, the music got off to a bang-up start with a delightful When You Wish upon a Star, à la Mozart/Chopin.

After a bit of biographical patter explaining that she grew up on a dairy farm in the wilds of Canada, we heard Swinging on a Star (with a bit of a Gershwin Piano Concerto thrown into the mix), where she likened the animals, mule/pig, to her own on the farm. When she got to, “You could grow up to be a fish,” she deadpanned, “Well, they are farmed now!” Ably assisted by her six-person band, the JouJou Jacquettes Philharmonic Orchestra, we heard I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now? in English and en Français.

Returning to more classical roots, we heard Debussy’s Golliwog’s Cakewalk with a little more Gershwin thrown in (perhaps Catfish Row?), and Scott Joplin’s rag Solace. In a nod to the circus, we had a high-wire act—on four wires! This was
Fritz Kreisler’s Liebesfreude, played by Miss Jonée and concertmaster (no relation)
Jim Tsao, violin. More guests arrived in the guise of Ms. Jonée’s real-life sister and niece, Mary Ellen Buckwold and Laura Holmes, who lent their sweet voices to Charlie Chaplin’s Smile. Yes, he was a composer as well as comic/actor/mime/
director, et al. The set finished with an Erik Satie Gymnopédie.

A set piece followed, one I’ve heard before but which is always welcome, a medley of America/Not While I’m Around/There’s a Place for Us, nicely played as always. Back to the circus theme and in the spirit of Liberty, Justice, and Equality—for all!—Ms. Jonée opined that even though we now have gays in the military, it’s not enough. We should have baton-twirling rabbis in the military, too. To that end, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, from Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, obliged as a baton-twirling drum major performing to Chopin’s Military Etude.

After changing into gown number two—oh, did I forget to mention that Ms. Jonée does all of her costume changes right onstage(?) (in a discreet three-sided cubicle), ably supported by her long-suffe—oops!—longtime dresser, Anthony “Euphoria” Bullock, Ms. Jonée treated us to Lizst’s Etude in D-flat, followed by a nice rendition of I’ll Be Seeing You. The performance ended with another set piece medley that I never tire of hearing, I Am What I Am/Somewhere over the Rainbow. Can you tell that I had fun?

ConcertMeister

Bonus post: Thanks to BabyBro, I found out about Theater People’s Summer Series. Theater People is a podcast that he listens to with some regularity and told me about. I haven’t listened to any, though I might by visiting their website. Anyhoo, after a missed opportunity earlier, Patrick Hinds (the guru behind the whole shebang) agreed to hold a ticket for me at the door Sunday evening, 6/19/16. This one’s not a freebie, but it is inexpensive. I even splurged on a glass of wine and a raffle ticket. The episode I saw live featured Lindsay Mendez (a performer new to me), who has appeared in Everyday Rapture (by Sherie Rene Scott), Saturday Night (Sondheim), and Nerds, the Musical. Well, sort of. Favorite anecdotes, for me at least, was when Mr. Sondheim gave her a note one time about a certain bit she was doing, then came back the next night and told her that his suggestion didn’t work and she should go back to her way. How cool is that? And Nerds simply … had the plug pulled. Want more? Check out their website, http://www.theaterppl.com/. Enjoy! I may go back in early August.

CM

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Naumburg Orchestral Concerts (6/14/16) (I of V)


On an absolutely beautiful Tuesday evening, Ensemble LPR opened the 111th season of the Naumburg Orchestral Concert series. That’s a mighty impressive run. There are four more this summer in case you want to join in on the fun. Ensemble LPR is the “house band,” if you will, of the downtown performance venue Le Poisson Rouge. I’ve never attended anything there, so I’m glad I got to hear the ensemble in Central Park.

Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (1910) – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
Concerto for Clarinet, Strings and Harp (1947–1949) – I. Slowly and expressively – Cadenza; II. Rather fast – Aaron Copland (1900–1990)
Cruel Sister (2004) – Julia Wolfe (1958–)
The Unanswered Question (Revised Version ca. 1934) – Charles Ives (1874–1954)

The Fantasia’s opening was quiet and somewhat stately. The piece, for strings only, also included a rich sound with some strong accents. I particularly enjoyed a step-out viola mini-solo. I’m not sure if it was the composition itself, the outdoor setting, or perceived relaxation, but it felt ever so slightly rambling at times. Nevertheless, the entire piece was lovely.

Vasko Dukovsky, clarinet, jogged onstage and cued the ensemble to begin the Copland Concerto. The lyrical opening was for solo clarinet and strings, with harp and piano adding a bit of heft, as well as light percussive accents. The clarinet cadenza introduced more “tunes” and the energetic clarinet jazz riffs, plus a foray into swing, swept right into the second and final movement. The swing section was more classical swing than classic swing, and rounded out the piece nicely. Both the ensemble and the soloist played really well. The piece was commissioned for Benny Goodman and you can easily feel and hear Copland’s ear in framing the piece for him.

After intermission, Pulitzer Prize-winning (Anthracite Fields, 2015) Julia Wolfe’s piece began with an introduction set in the low strings that was rhythmic but not totally driving. There were repetitions of phrases, building of mild tensions, and returns to the initial rhythms, sometimes with rhythmic variations. While the piece didn’t really gel for me, there was a drone-sound section that neatly coincided with being able to see the International Space Station crossing the NYC sky—not your everyday concert experience!

The Ives also started out with a very quiet beginning that was so quiet that many in the audience didn’t realize the piece had actually begun. In fact, the quiet openings to all four of the pieces were a little too similar for my taste. Of interest to me, and others, was the juxtaposition of the ensemble onstage, a solo trumpet out in the house (house right), and a small contingent of woodwind players just off of the stage (house left). The piece was aptly slightly amorphous—hello! unanswered question—but once again beautiful and beautifully played. I already have the next four Naumburgs on my calendar. Kudos to WQXR, who will be broadcasting all of the concerts live, and to Jeff Spurgeon, who hosted with just the right mix of dignity, charm, and humor.

ConcertMeister

Sunday, June 19, 2016

American (North and South) Timeline (6/9/16)


Alex Wu, piano, presented a relatively low profile concert on Thursday afternoon. He’s an artist that I know, and he was the draw that got me to the concert. The venue was yet another branch of the New York Public Library—this one on West 23rd Street—in a small meeting room. The audience numbered 30 to 40 tops.

There was no printed program, so all of my notes were taken while listening to
Mr. Wu announce from the front of the room. The first piece was A New Hiding Place, by Henry T. Burleigh, based on the tune My Lord What a Mornin’, and had some slight syncopations but also sections of grandeur. This was followed by The Easy Winners (1901), a nice, bright and breezy “rag” by Scott Joplin. Mr. Wu reminded us (and I have read about this before) that there is an annual Scott Joplin festival on or around June 5th in Sedalia, Missouri.

Heading to South America, we heard Manuel Poncé’s In Spite of Everything, a tango for left hand only that was written in honor of a sculptor friend of his who lost his right hand in an accident, yet still continued working as a sculptor. It was an effective slow tango. This was followed by Ernesto Lecuona’s Midnight Conga, a Cuban 1920s composition that was a little frantic, more jazz influenced, and almost clangorous at times.

Back in the US of A, we next heard Earl Wild’s variations on Gershwin’s The Man I Love and Fascinatin’ Rhythm; the former was rippling and technically very busy/difficult while the latter had a hint of Flight of the Bumblebee. I enjoyed both of them (and have heard Mr. Wu play Fascinatin’ Rhythm at least once before). From the ’30s and ’40s, we heard a couple of Duke (Edward Kennedy) Ellington tunes, the first moving from roots and hints of ragtime into the beginnings of swing while the second was from Canadian Suite, originally composed for Oscar Peterson. (Yes, I was frantically scribbling notes.)

Moving further into the 20th century, we heard some film score music—Cool (Leonard Bernstein), music from A Streetcar Named Desire (Alex North), and the theme from The Magnificent Seven (Elmer Bernstein, no relation). Taking us back into Latin flavors, we had Antonio Jobim’s Girl from Ipanema and Astor Piazzola’s Street Tango, with a mix of hard, driving rhythms countered with gentler ones, and a mix of classical styling thrown in. It seemed to me as though Mr. Wu was using the pedals of the piano almost as a percussive element. It’s unknown to me whether that was Piazzola’s intent, but I found it quite interesting. At least until someone’s phone went off!

The afternoon finished with Dave Brubeck’s Blue Rondo à la Turk, apparently written as a blues/jazz tribute to Mozart. It had a powerful build of repeating rhythms, eventually interspersed with blues and jazz riffs in a dense structure that was very effective. All in all, a well-thought-out and well-played concert from
Mr. Wu. Exactly as I expected.

ConcertMeister