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?

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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

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.

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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.

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Odds and Ends

OK, here's an attempt at being a real blogger, as opposed to someone who sweats and slaves over each individual post. I have recently attended (5/23/16) the finale (that's an end) of the Songbook series, Joseph Trefler, at Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts; the 10th season finale (6/2/16, another end) of "Chamber Music at Rodeph Sholom"; [for those of you keeping score at home, the close quote before the semicolon is correct]; the 10th Anniversary Season Finale (6/5/16, hello! another end) of the New York Piano Society (first half only, more on that later); an abbreviated late 19th/20th century timeline of American music (7/9/16), Alexander Wu, piano; and the inaugural concert of the 111th (!) season of the Naumburg Orchestral concerts, Ensemble LPR (7/14/16).

So, it's not as though I haven't been busy. I just haven't had time to write and post. And I really do enjoy writing, printing, hard copy editing, and finally posting—but it is time consuming. I hope to flesh all of these out (at least a little bit) later.

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