Violas! A Rose by any other Name (9/17/26)

Dan McCarthy, viola d’amore, tenor viola, viola & Nicola Canzano, harpsichord 

This was the first concert of Gotham Early Music Scene's new fall season. Sonata No. 4 from Recueil de pièces – Attilo Ariosti (1666–1729) Pozato; Andante; Corrente; Air en Rondeau

Sonata in G Major, BWV 1027 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) Adagio; Allegro ma non tanto; Andante; Allegro Moderato

Passacaglia from The Mystery Sonatas – Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644–1704)

First, a word about the viola d'amore. It is larger than the viola you usually see, has six bowed strings, and six sympathetic strings (unbowed, but they amplify the sounds of the bowed strings). The first movement of the Ariosti sonata was straightforward and pleasant. The second was slower but not dowdy and had a rich sound. After some retuning, the third movement was definitely dance-like in a subdued way while the fourth was graceful and included odd starts and stops that were almost unsettling before a rather abrupt ending. 

The Bach was played on the tenor viola which is slightly larger than the viola you're used to seeing. Its first movement had a rich, full sound and was fairly stately. The second had a brief harpsichord intro and was a bit more lively as the viola joined in while the third had the harpsichord intro, then added the viola, and was slower and serious, with the two instruments contributing as equal partners. The fourth was also harpsichord then viola and was brisk but still in a serious vein. 

The von Biber was for solo viola and was played on the alto viola, the one you're probably used to. The work had a repetitive line in the lowest string with more intricate lines played on the upper strings. It was a very interesting and enjoyable piece, though it sort of wore out its welcome toward the end. 

Now a couple of notes about the composers. Ariosti was totally new to me; Bach and I are good buddies; and von Biber is a name I knew, but I think this was my first time hearing his music live. It seems that you can teach an old 'Meister new tricks.  ConcertMeister

Orchestra of St. Luke's at Bella Abzug Park (9/9/26)

This is a fun day where small groups of OSL players present themselves in an open-air setting. Having remembered from last year that there was no printed program, I emailed ahead of time to see if they could email me the information so that I could print it out ahead of time. Nope. As of the day before the performances, the schedule had not been finalized. So I had to wing it. 

I got there early and scoped out the two different performance spaces. I could see a brass quintet setting up, so that's where I stayed. A standard brass quintet is two trumpets, one trombone, one French horn, and one tuba. I specified French horn, as both trumpeters also played the flugelhorn at one time or another. It's an interesting-looking instrument. You should do an internet search and take a look. 

They opened with the fanfare section of La Peri composed by Paul Dukas. It was appropriately fanfare-ish, bright and (dare I say it?) brassy. Portions of Saint Saëns' Carnival of the Animals followed—Lion, a march; Elephant, featuring the tuba; Fossils, so named because it quoted parts of old songs; and Finale, which was quite rousing. It was very interesting to hear an orchestral piece scaled down to a quintet. 

A pair of '20s/'30s songs followed. Puttin' on the Ritz is a delightful arrangement that I remembered from last year and was as much fun as I remembered. Tiger Rag was next with its nice jazz riffs leading into the growling "Hold that tiger! Hold that tiger!" 

A trio of songs from West Side Story was next—Maria, Tonight, and I Feel Pretty. Maria was lovely; Tonight included the slightly mellower sounds of the two flugelhorns; while the tuba featured nicely in the "I feel charming" section of I Feel Pretty. 

The set ended with Sousa's Washington Post March, my second hearing of it this summer. Do we all remember Sousapalooza from Make Music Day in June? Once again, it was interesting hearing it scaled down. 

Here's where the afternoon got dicey. It was announced that the brass quintet would do one more set and then the youth orchestra would set up at 5:00pm. I took it upon myself to go to the second performance space where a woodwind quintet was already in full swing. Only one work was announced from the stage, so I don't really know what pieces I heard. (Gosh, a printed program would have been nice.) This woodwind quintet was flute, oboe, bassoon, horn, and clarinet. One sedate and pleasant work opened with a clarinet/bassoon pairing with the horn added briefly, followed by a flute/oboe pairing before we got all five playing together. The one piece announced was the Juba Dance from Florence Price's Symphony #1. It was lively and included the hornist playing muted. Florence Price is an interesting character. You might want to look her up too sometime. 

At 5pm, the youth orchestra was setting up in the space where the wind players had been, completely at odds with what had been announced earlier. I may skip next year and decide later about 2028. But Puttin' on the Ritz ...

ConcertMeister

Bargemusic (9/6/26)

David Shohl 13 Preludes and Fugues, dedicated to David Del Tredici  World Premiere Marc Peloquin, piano 

This was my first visit to the new Bargemusic, which is no longer on a barge. As a result, finding the new venue took longer than expected, so I got into the concert just as it was beginning. Seating was difficult but I did manage to get one. I did not get a copy of the printed program and I can't find a breakdown of the thirteen movements on line. I did take a peek at a neighbor's program, and as far as I could tell, the titles didn't seem to match up with what I was hearing. The music was very modern, quite angular, jangling at times, with lots of driving, chordal rhythms. Most of the movements were relatively short. I liked some of the softer ones better than the bombastics. One movement was similar to an impressionistic color wash, just with more of the driving rhythms. And it was difficult to tell when each movement ended. 

There were some pretty sounds, but they were few and far between; the incessant rhythms were much more prominent. It was definitely not my cup of tea. Still, I'm glad I went. Oh, the composer was in the audience for the world premiere, which is always fun. 

ConcertMeister

Naumburg Orchestral Concerts (8/4/26)

NOSKY’S BAROQUE BAND
Aisslinn Nosky, Director & Violin Soloist. Steve Marquardt, Trumpet Soloist

GIUSEPPE TORELLI (1658–1709)
Trumpet Concerto in D, Roger 188, (after 1702)
I. Allegro, II. Adagio, III. Allegro

ARCANGELO CORELLI (1653–1713)
Concerto Grosso, Op 6 Number 10, (1688)
I. Preludio: Largo, II. Allemanda: Allegro, III. Adagio, IV. Corrente: Vivace, V. Giga: Presto, VI. Minuetto: Vivace

G. TORELLI
Violin Concerto in e minor, Op 8 No. 9, (1709)
I. Allegro, II. Largo, III. Allegro e solo, IV. Largo, V. Allegro 

GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN (1681–1767)
Burlesque de Quixotte Suite, TWV 55:G10, (1761)
I. Ouverture, II. Le réveil de Quichotte, III. Son attaque des moulins à vent, IV. Ses soupirs amoureux après la Princesse Dulcinée, V. Sanche Panse berné, VI. Le galope de Rosinante, VII. Celui d'ane de Sanche, VIII. Le couché de Quichotte 

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750)
Violin Concerto, BWV 1052r, (1730)
I. Allegro, II. Adagio, III. Allegro

G. P. TELEMANN
Concerto for trumpet & strings, TWV 53:D5, (after 1702)
I. Vivace, II. Adagio, III. Allegro

To everything there is a season. And, alas, every season must come to an end. This was the last concert of the 121st season of the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts. I will be back next year. The first movement of the Torelli trumpet concerto was jaunty and very bright. The second was calm, yet full, and scored for strings and harpsichord only, and it did have a brief quick middle section. There was no discernable break before the third movement when the trumpet rejoined and headed for a brisk ending. A note on the trumpet—it was valveless, and slightly longer than most trumpets that I'm used to seeing. 

The first movement of the Corelli (and all of the movements were like brief vignettes) was sedate. The second was definitely dance-like, energetic but not too much so, while the third took us back to calm. The fourth was brightly brisk and the fifth was bright and pleasant. The sixth was easily identified as a dance movement. 

After retuning, we revisited Torelli, this time for a violin concerto. Its first movement had all of the strings playing and then we reached the soloist. The second had the same style of opening before getting to the soloist again. It was gentle and pleasant and eased (attacca) into the third which was brisk in a slightly subdued way. The fourth was a moment of calm, while the fifth was quite close to off to the races—fleet but not frantic, though darn close! 

The opening movement of the Telemann was a nice way of setting the tone and included a quick second section that segued into the calm second movement. The third was a definite attack on the windmills and was the one of the few (to my ears) thematically related movements. The fourth was gentle and lovely, while the fifth was muscular, befitting the program, and humorous as well. The sixth was a dance-like gallop. The seventh was very quick and pretty much blurred into the final movement. 

After intermission, we caught up with Bach. This was originally a keyboard concerto transcribed for violin. There was a lot of that type of thing going on in Bach's time. The first movement was indeed allegro but with a bit of a somber/dark heft and included a mini-cadenza in the middle and then again at the end. The second was very serious with just a touch of lugubrious, while the third was bright, brisk, and full. 

The second Telemann offering, a concerto for trumpet and strings, opened with a calm vivace. As in the first trumpet concerto, the second movement was only strings and harpsichord. The third had an assertive return of the trumpet though it still took a back seat at times. 

This was a really wonderful concert and, as I said earlier, I'm already looking forward to the new season. 

ConcertMeister

Naumburg Orchestral Concerts (7/21/26)

Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Brad Lubman, Conductor
Erin Wagner, Mezzo-Soprano (Walter W. Naumburg Int’l Competition  Winner, 2021)

ALL-MOZART!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), Divertimento in D major, K 136, (1772)
     I. Allegro, II. Andante, III. Presto 

W. A. Mozart, Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K. 546, (1788)
     I. Adagio, II. Fuga 

W. A. Mozart, Selection of Arias:
     Alma grande e nobil core, K.578, (1789)
     Vado, ma dove?, K. 583, (1789)
     Voi che sapete from Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492, (1786)
     Porgi amor, from Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492, (1786)
     Tutte nel cor vi sento, from Idomeneo, K. 366, (1781)

     Erin Wagner, mezzo-soprano

W. A. Mozart, Symphony No. 21 in A major, K. 134, (1772)
     I. Allegro, II. Andante, III. Menuetto & Trio, IV. Allegro 

W. A. Mozart, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525, (1787)
     I. Allegro, II. Romance: Andante, III. Menuetto: Allegretto, IV. Finale: Rondo Allegro

In a first for me, this concert took place indoors at the church of St. Mary the Virgin. The Orchestra of St. Luke's played an All Mozart program. First off, I am not a huge Mozart fan. That said, the variety of this program worked in its favor. 

The opening Allegro of the Divertimento was cheerful and somewhat familiar to me and had a nice airy ending. The Andante was calming while also having some heft and solidity. It also had a calm ending. The Presto was sprightly and energetic in a controlled way. Not bad for a 16-year-old (his age when he wrote it)! 

After retuning, the second work opened in a solid and grave manner without being somber. Moving into the fugue, it was dramatic but not overtly, with most of the drama being driven by the lower strings that, oddly, added a bit of charm to the drama. But the drama won out. 

The five arias (two, I think, were concert arias, two were from Le nozze di Figaro, while one was from Idomeneo) suffered a little from the reverb in the large church. Quick passages from the mezzo and the strings were a bit garbled and less clear than they could have been. The flutes and horns featured more prominently than in the earlier two works, and I enjoyed that. Voi che sapete was very familiar to me, though not any of the others. The Idomeneo aria was the most dramatic and heavy of the five. Ms. Wagner sang very well throughout. An encore (though I don't know what it was) ended the set and the first half of the concert.

The first movement of the symphony that opened the second half of the concert was bright and showed a youthful exuberance. The symphony was also written when Mozart was 16. It was playful at times, with a sort of false ending for each section. The second movement was slow but with a solid rhythmic energy, as well (both movements were surprisingly lengthy). The third movement was also bright in a slightly subdued fashion. It wasn't energy just for energy's sake. The fourth was rather thin at the beginning but soon bulked up. There were distinct sections throughout. 

I'm pretty sure you all know some of the tunes in Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. This was my first time hearing it live, and I was quite taken with its weight and heft (and length). I'm usually used to hearing a movement excerpted from time to time. The first movement was off to the races. The second was gentle and pleasant though rhythmic at times. The different sections seemed as if they're not going to go together, but they do. The third was bright and cheery—definitely dance-like. (Um, 'Meister, it's a menuetto!) The finale closed out the work in a very brisk and pleasant way. 

Did the concert make me a Mozart convert? It did not, but as mentioned above, the variety of the works swayed me a little bit more in that direction. 

ConcertMeister

Naumburg Orchestral Concerts (7/7/26)

 

DELIRIUM MUSICUM 
ETIENNE GARA, Music Director & Violin Soloist

ZOLTÁN KODÁLY (1882–1967)
Háry János Suite: Intermezzo, (1927)

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835–1921)
Danse Macabre, (1874)

GABRIELLA SMITH (B. 1991)
Desert Ecology: V. Cactus-Yucca Scrub, (2023)

ERIK SATIE (1866–1925)
Gnossienne N.1, (1893)

MAX RICHTER (B. 1966)
The Four Season Seasons Recomposed: Summer, (2012)
I. Summer 1, II. Summer 2, III. Summer 3

PHILIP GLASS (B. 1937)
Echorus, (2008)

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828)
Erlkönig, (1815)

JESSIE MONTGOMERY (B. 1981)
Banner for Solo String Quartet & String Orchestra, (2014)

ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678–1741)
The Four Seasons, Violin Concerto in F Minor “Winter”, Op 8 No.4, RV 297, (1725)
I. Allegro non molto, II. Largo, III. Allegro

Delirium Musicum. Well, if that name doesn’t grab you ... What a fun concert. This spunky, funky LA-based chamber orchestra was making its Naumburg Orchestral Concerts début. In fact, it was their NYC début, as well. The first work (Kodály) was rollicking but not too much so. And it was a great way to start a concert. There were nice violin solos throughout, and the piece was a series of small vignettes strung together. 

Almost all of the works were fairly short. Up next, the Saint-Saëns began with twelve gongs (most likely from an electronic keyboard) signaling midnight. Let the dance begin! Indeed, we were off to the races in a spooky waltz. It was lots of fun. 

The Smith piece was written for this group and, while I didn’t actually see them, the composer called for paper clips to be attached to the violin strings. It was modern sounding but listenable, tended to wander, and ended rather abruptly. 

The Satie was calm and almost hypnotic, in that Satie-esque way. The Richter, as the title implied, was recomposed Vivaldi, seemingly as an homage. A little static at times, it was hard to decipher the ends of movements, but the third Summer was very brisk. 

The Glass, which opened the second half of the concert, was typical Glass—fairly repetitive and, in this case, relatively calm. And that’s that for Glass. 

The reworking of the Schubert was familiar to me, as I know it as an art song. There was nice fleshing out for the string orchestra, and it captured both the tunefulness and the drama. 

The Montgomery was a patriotic pastiche without being saccharine. The string bass was used to good effect as a percussion instrument creating an omnipresent drumbeat. Even though it was described as being for solo string quartet and string orchestra, I never quite got the sense of the string quartet. 

The concert closed (sort of) with the real McCoy—Vivaldi. After somewhat shamelessly begging for an encore, the first movement ended with a fine flourish. The audience responded very enthusiastically. The director/violin soloist then explained that there were two more movements. The second movement—Largo—was lovely, while the third Allegro was also strong and bright. We got our encore. Even though it was described from the stage, Misirlou (used in Pulp Fiction) meant bupkes to me. It was pleasant enough, and the entire concert was oh, so much more than pleasant. I hope Delirium Musicum makes repeat performances in future Naumburg concerts. 

Just prior to the concert, I had a bit of a fun situation. The WQXR host, Jeff Spurgeon, was in a small broadcast tent. When he had a small break, I went up to him and introduced myself. I used the name that I post comments with on WQXR—DuckDeadeye—and he knew exactly who I was.

ConcertMeister

Naumburg Orchestral Concerts (6/23/26)

The Knights
Colin & Eric Jacobsen, Artistic Directors
Tessa Lark, Violin, (Walter W. Naumburg Int’l Competition Winner, 2012)

Christina Courtin (b. 1984), rhapsody on being giant proof, (2025)
     Christina Courtin, violin & vocals

Lisa Bielawa (b. 1968), Violin Concerto No. 2: Pulse, (2025)
     I. Tin Pan Alley, II. The Shapes, III. Old Time 
     Tessa Lark, violin

Samuel Barber (1910–1981), Adagio for Strings, (1936)

Caroline Shaw (b. 1982), The Mountain that Loved a Bird, (2017)
     Jamie Bernstein, narrator

Paul Simon (b. 1941), arr. Colin Jacobsen (b. 1978), American Tune, (2020)
     Christina Courtin, violin & vocals

The first work on the concert began with solo violin and had a slight folk feel. Then vocals were added and it turned into sort of classical music meets pop—not my favorite. 

Next up was a three-movement violin concerto. The first was jaunty and then sweetly calm combined with some old-fashioned fiddling. [phone! really?] The second movement meandered a bit. After changing to a different violin for the third movement, Ms. Lark was back to fiddling again, followed by a (pretty much planned) fiddling encore. 

The second half of the program began with the Barber—my first time hearing the Adagio for Strings live. It was a wonderful, calm welcoming. Alas, the sound mix was a little off, resulting in a cello-heavy performance to my ear. It’s tough getting the sound mix just right in outdoor concerts with large audiences. But really, I’m not complaining. And I look forward to hearing it live again. 

Based on a book, The Mountain that Loved a Bird was given a very nice musical treatment. And the narration by Jamie Bernstein worked quite well. The music evoked the story that the narration was telling. As a plus, chirping birds in Central Park added to the enjoyment. I liked all of the music, especially some of the brass writing. The narration almost veered into Pollyanna toward the end, but the entire work was fun. 

The evening ended with an arrangement of a Paul Simon American Tune—really, that’s the title. With a return to the violin and vocals that opened the concert, we were also back to classical meets pop. I wrote a note to myself that said Classical Cover. It was appropriate since the evening’s emcee was WQXR’s Paul Cavalconte who has a Saturday morning radio feature called Classical Cover. 

This was the second of five concerts in the summer series, and while the weather was iffy, we got through unscathed. The next three are 7/7, 7/21, and 8/4. They’re already penciled in on my wall calendar. 

ConcertMeister