Across a Crowded Room (2/15/25)

Final Presentations of New Musicals

Well, not exactly final. As some of you readers may know, this is a series of 20-minute musicals. The Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts throws wannabe bookwriters, composers, and lyricists (sometimes some being more than one) into a room—the Bruno Walter Auditorium—where they meet, greet, and match up, to lead to the challenge of creating a 20-minute musical. The results are ... interesting.

I saw eight this past Saturday, and they ranged from less than fun to really fun. As we all know, I'm not a reviewer, so I'll give titles and impressions.

Twenty Nickels had a good hook (the last Horn & Hardart in Philly – ask if you don't know) and the twenty minutes spanned three generations of women and two generations of loss. It was quite effective.

Big breath, please. The Most Depressing Play in the Western Canon of Dramatic Literature: A Presentation in Musical Form for Mr. Clinton's World Theatre Elective on the Topic of Censorship in the Matter of Henrik Ibsen's 1881 Play Ghosts, Written and Performed by Group 2: Craig, Jen, Billy, and Metz. The show was fun, and the four performers glommed right into teens pretending to have read Ibsen's Ghosts. Fun, but not great.

Next was Ghost/Writer. A two-hander, this was the tale of a writer (with a block) and a real ghost (or was she?) who got the writer through the block. Both the writer and the ghost were happy with the ending, as was I.

Another long title (I'm not particularly liking this trend). BILL OF FARE or: The Possibly True Reconstructed History of the Many Menus of Miss Francis E. Buttolph But You May Call Her Frank. The hook here, and it was a good one, is that we saw Francis (Frank) in three different eras. There were real song titles—Ephemera (the actual cards that replicated the menus) and What's on the Menu Today?, which needs no explanation. At one point, I wondered whether Frank was just a woman claiming to be a man in order to get in print. If the work is expanded, maybe we'll find out.

The Collector wasn't quite as effective. It dealt with a collector claiming the actual life source of a performer, while a journalist commented on it. Just a little too disjointed for me.

All About Mae was a wannabe story about a waitress-cum-singer preparing to wow Mae West at the supper club after Mae's performance of Sex (her play, not the actual act). Alas, Mae was carted off in a paddy-wagon and our songstress was left in the lurch.

Off to Love! featured Isadora Duncan being thrust into ancient Greece to choose between Eileithyia, Pheme, and Mania as goddess of the Parthenon (I'm not making this up, you know). Of course, Isadora's spiritual guide is Terpsichore. Guess who wins?

They saved (and so did I) the best for last, Check Out! has characters named Dewey, Dez, S Volume, Sci-Fi Paperback, and Toni Sexton. It all takes place in a library. In fact, it could be subtitled Library – The Musical! Dewey is an intern at the library whose goal in life is to be middle management. Dewey has never held a physical book in her life. Everyone is shocked. Dewey sings a blockbuster song—Middle, Middle Management. (This will be in NYC cabarets/piano bars very soon.) Dewey must choose a physical book. She eventually chooses Sci-Fi. He is over the moon—bad pun, I know, but that's the tone of this musical. Toni is the bad guy, writing his name in books with a Sharpie, and plastering his name all over buildings, but it doesn't really matter. The library is the good guy, and the winner.

ConcertMeister

Treasures of the High Baroque (2/6/25)

Gotham Early Music Scene
Jörg-Michael Schwarz ~ violin; Dongsok Shin ~ harpsichord 

Sonata per il Violino e Cembalo in G Major, BWV 1021 – J.S. Bach (1685–1750)
Adagio; Vivace; Largo; Presto

Sonata per il Violino e Cembalo in F Major, BWV 1022 – J.S. Bach
[Largo]; Allegro e presto; Adagio; Presto

Sonata in G minor del Signore Bach, BWV 1020 (formerly attributed to J.S. Bach) – C.P.E. Bach (1714–1788)
Allegro; Adagio; Allegro

Sonata No. 6 in G Major, BWV 1019 (ca. 1720) – J.S. Bach
Allegro; Largo; Cembalo solo Allegro; Adagio; Allegro

It was a wonderful concert. Both players are masters of their instruments. As you can see, all four works were very similar, so I'm going into teacher mode. Some of you may want to skip this part. Adagio = slowly (though not always somber). Vivace = brisk. Largo = slowly but maybe a little different from Adagio. Presto is more brisk than Vivace.

[Largo] has already been addressed, but I have no idea why the brackets were included in the second work on the program. Allegro e presto seems to be a hybrid Vivace. 

So far, the first two works were four movements each. It's a sort of a standard—until it isn't. The third work was three movements, which is also perfectly acceptable as sonata form.

So, of course, the fourth work had five movements. Is anyone confused yet? Suffice it to say that there were interesting situations where the harpsichord had a brief introduction before being joined by the violin. There were many instances where the two were equal partners. There was the cembalo (and as far as I can find, cembalo and harpsichord are interchangeable) solo movement in the fourth sonata. So, as much as the four works were alike, they were also slightly different. To me, that's a good thing.

Of note, the violin retuned to the harpsichord between each work, but not between individual movements. Hmm, the things that make me go hmm. Also of note (see the BWV listings above), I learned that BWV stands for Bach Werke Verzeichnis, Leipzig 1950; i.e., Complete Works of J.S. Bach. Which is probably why the C.P.E. Bach piece has a BWV number, since it was originally attributed to J.S.

Did I mention that the music was wonderful? And that the crowd was very appreciative? I'll be back (no, I am not going there) for more GEMS concerts.

ConcertMeister

Passiones Animae ~ Parisian Sensibilities (1/23/25)

This concert was under the auspices of Gotham Early Music Scene.

Ela Kodzas, violin; Nuria Canales Rubio, flute; Ryan Cheng, violin & viola da gamba; Allen Maracle, violoncello; Nathan Mondry, harpsichord

Suite en trio No. 1 in G minor, from Livre de Simphonies, Op. 1 ~ Louis-Antoine Dornel (1680–1765) [six movements]

Sonata 4 in D minor from Sonates pour un flute traversière par accords ~ Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689–1755) [four movements]

Sonata No. 2 in D minor from Livre 3: Sonates pour le violoncelle ~ Jean Baptiste Barrière (1707–1747) [four movements]

Paris Quartet No. 4 in B minor from Nouveaux Quatuors ~ G.P. Telemann (1681–1767) [six movements]

Obviously, I'm not going to name every movement of every work—in fact, sometimes they sort of blended into one another. One caught my eye, however. The last movement of the Telemann – Meneuet – flipped with the fourth – Vite. I could only find Menuet as a spelling. But I digress.

The first work was for flute, violin, cello, and harpsichord. A note, here, the harpsichord was omnipresent, as continuo, though it was featured more fully a few times. Continuo sort of means always there, as a base for the work.

The second was for violin and flute. OK, I'll get these out of the way from the get go. All of the movements for all of the works included lively, calm, brisk but not frantic, dance-like in a genteel way, brighter, and fun, etc.

One of the works included viola da gamba and cello. As a result, all of the movements had a bit more heft, because of the presence of lower strings. But the flute was also there, to brighten things up.

The Telemann managed to skip the George/Georg quandary. By flipping the fourth and sixth movements, the ensemble ended up on a bright note. I imagine this type of thing also occurred regularly in the 1700s.

Three of the four composers were new to me, which is fairly rare. But I'm always happy to learn.

ConcertMeister

The Baltimore Consort (1/9/25)

The Food of Love: Songs, Dances & Fancies for Shakespeare

Mary Anne Ballard ~ treble & bass viols; Mark Cudek ~ cittern; Larry Lipkis ~ bass viol, recorder, crumhorn & gemshorn; Ronn McFarlane ~ lute; Mindy Rosenfeld ~ flutes, fifes, bagpipes & crumhorn; Danielle Svonanvec ~ soprano

Happy New Year from the Gotham Early Music Scene concerts. They had one on January 2 that I did not attend—better late than never, eh?

With sixteen pieces (most composed in the very late 1500s) on the program, you're only getting highlights. Nine plays were represented: As You Like It (two pieces); Twelfth Night (three); Romeo and Juliet (two); Henry IV, Part II & A Winter's Tale (two); The Tempest (three); Merry Wives of Windsor & Othello (two); and Midsummer Night's Dream (two). Quite a full plate.

Are some instruments new to you? Me, too. The cittern is a plucked string instrument with a flat back;  therefore it's a little sturdier and easier to construct and transport than the rounded-back lute. The viols are precursors to cellos. Fifes and bagpipes are fairly self-explanatory. Your assignment is to seek out the gemshorn and the crumhorns. Class dismissed.

On to the music. This well-curated program flowed beautifully. Instrumental pieces segued very nicely into the vocal pieces associated with them. Even with the array of instruments, most of the pieces were mild to gentle, though there were some livelier dance-like works. Some were pieces that might have been a part of the aforementioned plays, while others were lyrics that Shakespeare himself wrote. Those included It Was a Lover and His Lass, O Mistresse Mine, Where the Bee Sucks (composed by Robert Johnson), Full Fathom Five (also R. Johnson), and Willow Song.

Others that might have been included, perhaps as incidental music, were Greensleeves, and two broadside ballads – slightly longer works – Complain My Lute, and The Carman's Whistle. The soprano acquitted herself quite well throughout but outdid herself in the final work on the program – The Mad, Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow. She had changed from her earlier pretty dress into a pair of trousers, a shirt, and a hooded cape. She used props (a drape) and humor (a withering glare at the bagpiper) to very good comic effect. Robin Goodfellow is also known as Puck, so you can see why humor was involved.

Preceding the final work was Fairie Rownde, from Pavanes, Galliards, and Alamains (1599) (composed by Antony Holborn). It was lively and playful, as fairies should be!

Happy new year, indeed, from many years ago.

ConcertMeister