’Tis the Season, Parts IV and V (12/20/14)

New season repeats of the PhilHallmonics and Christmas Caroling in Greenwich Village. The good news is that I had a lot of fun again. The bad news is that I wanted the PhilHallmonics to be better than it was. First, the cast, who all did a good to great to serviceable job: Karen Arlington, Lynette Baiocco, Linda Moshier, John DiBartolo, Elizabeth Saunders, Lenore Fuerstman, Becca Yure, Dolly Ellen Friedman, Ross Hewitt, Conor McGee, Mandy Brown, Tara Palsha, Bruce Rebold, and Phil Hall as music director and arranger (including special material). Ms. Moshier’s solos were not included, so I’m guessing she was under the weather (this ain’t the Met or Broadway—no announcements/covers/
standbys/understudies). This was a bit of a problem, as it put the brunt of  the “story” line on
Ms. Arlington, who performed like the trouper that she is.

The inclusion of four guys into the mix looked good on paper, but it detracted from my enjoyment of these productions as “the Ladies” strutting their stuff. The guys were OK, but just. On to the show.

Ms. Arlington started strong with Hostess with the Mostes’, with a touch of bawdy, and updated, lyrics. The Ladies delivered the goods with Christmas in New York, which included sweet tunes with real harmonies sung well by the female octet. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree slipped in a nice bridge from Jingle Bell Rock—nicely done! Obviously, I won’t comment on all 25 to 30 songs on the program.

You’re All I Want for Christmas included the verse ahead of the chorus; I believe it’s the first time I’ve ever heard it. Ms. Saunders had good microphone technique. Which brings me to one of my problems with the afternoon. While the movement of props and furniture was handled pretty well, the same cannot be said of the sound system. Body (hair) microphones fought with handheld mics and standing mics, including ‘pops’ and ‘squeals’. It detracted from the enjoyment.

Ms. Feurstman did a bang-up job of The Twelve Days After Christmas. Google it if you’d like some laughs. When She Loved Me was a poignant take on growing up, as the soloist sang and there was a dance interpretation of a doll being left behind. It could have been cloying, but Sharon Halley’s staging set just the right tone, as it did throughout the entire afternoon.

Mandy Brown’s performance of They Don’t Let You In The Opera (If You’re A Country Star) was a tour de force. It was funny and incredibly well performed. Favorite lyrics included, “It’s like Opry with an ‘A’,” and (to her child, who was born in the house of the Met), “If they say, ‘no’ don’t be upset—it just means ‘not yet.’” Powerful stuff beautifully performed.

The finale of Maxim’s and The Night They Invented Champagne was OK but didn’t create the bang I wanted. I’ve seen at least three or four PhilHallmonics holiday programs. This one didn’t thrill me, though I enjoyed it a great deal And, yes, Merry Christmas Darling brought tears to my eyes (and probably will forever—“I’ve just one wish on this Christmas Eve—I wish I were with you”). Not for me, unfortunately.

Now for the upbeat! Christmas caroling in the Village was fun, if cold. This was the fortieth iteration! How could I have not known this? This was my third attendance. When we arrived, we got a group # and a lyrics sheet. I was in Group 3. (See perky young ladies, below.) Here’s the thing—your group leader makes all the difference in the world. This year’s, for me, were a perky pair of young ladies. They walked fast. I walk fast. The rest of the group had to catch up. The leaders didn’t get it. They should have. Still, the singing (mostly unison) was fun. I added some harmony. Last year I jingled my keys during Jingle Bells. This year, I brought a real ‘Thelma Bell’* plus a foam red nose for Rudolph. The ‘Thelma Bell’ also worked well for Silver Bells. When we returned from our shift, they were just sending out Group 12! I had already turned in my lyrics booklet (de rigeur, so they’ll be set for next year). I just glommed onto Group 12. Appropriately, their first song was The Twelve Days of Christmas. Can you sing, ‘Five Golden Rings’ really loud and long? We could. After I had joined Group 12, I was out-Rudolphed! There was a young fellow with a blinking red nose! But we played nice and shared. I then sheared off of Group 12 and made my way home to leftovers for dinner. Whew! Loads of Christmas fun!

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*Info upon request.

’Tis the Season, Part III (12/15/14)

The Nutcracker and I

Billed as ‘A New Holiday Musical Comedy’ (on the handout that included cast bios and the list of musical numbers) and ‘A NEW Madcap Holiday Musical Comedy Spoof’ (on the cover of the generic handout at Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts), The Nutcracker and I is an amusing take on the Nutcracker story, updated to the present time and given the comedy touches of Gerard Alessandrini, he of Forbidden Broadway notoriety.

The piece was conceived and created by Mr. Alessandrini and Peter Brash, with nifty musical direction here by Richard Danley, who played the bulk of Tchaikovsky’s ballet score (arranged) on the piano. The winning cast included Benjamin Barham-Wiese, Haley Carlucci, Amy Griffin, Herndon Lackey, Charles Osborne, and Joseph Spitali, with most of them doubling (or more) roles.

The slightly convoluted story was used as a vehicle for Mr. Alessandrini’s lyrics set to Tchaikovsky’s score. That was a plus and a minus; while they were witty (and sometimes downright funny, as was the book) there were lots of lyrics. Lots and lots of lyrics that often flew by at a rapid pace. There were many references to “that certain ballet” that was infrequently named. Song titles included Song of the Sugar Rush Fairy, The Nuttiest Nutcracker, Is There a Ball Tonight?, March of the Toy Police, The Nutcracker Rocks, and (to me, the most enjoyable sequence) NYC Multi-Culture Tour Medley: Navidad in Spanish Harlem, Hindu Cabbie’s Christmas, A Little Little Italy, and A Jewish Chinese Christmas.

Though the semi-staged performance was presented without an intermission, the first act takes place in Pawchusett, a New England mill town, while the second act takes place in Snow Globe City, a version of NYC inside a snow globe. Partially because of the rapid-fire patter of patter songs and dialogue, I took very few notes. In general, the first act was a bit of a slow go, mostly because the first act’s ballet music is less familiar to me. Perhaps die-hard Nutcracker aficionados had a different result. The divertissements of the second act came off better.

March of the Toy Police was a crackerjack patter song. Another patter song was The Department Store Trepak, reminiscent of a Danny Kaye routine. In the poking-fun-at-everyone-under-the-sun department, we had a Hispanic-accented bodega owner (Navidad), an Indian-accented cab driver (Hindu Cabbie’s Christmas), an Italian-accented pizza boy (... Little Italy), and the always-popular Jewish/Yiddish-accented Chinese restaurant diner on Christmas day (A Jewish Chinese Christmas). The Nutcracker Rocks showed us another side of the uptight toy, busting out some James Brown and Chubby Checker moves while referring to himself as “the cracker Nutcracker.” A couple of quips included, “In a magic snow globe, Christmas tree bulbs never burn out,” and, in a poke to the muscle-bound jock who says, “I’m a snowboarder!” the retort was, “I’m bored already.”

One lyric that did stick in my head was from Is There a Ball Tonight? set to the tune of The Waltz of the Flowers: “Waltzes by Tchaikovsky (la-la-la-la-la), Not Steve Sondhiem-offsky (la-la-la-la-la).”

This was more of a reading than a full-out production but that was OK, and even provided some self-effacing humor from the performers. It was, at times, slightly awkward since all of the performers were using standing microphones, so they and their script/score had to move from music stand to music stand. I got a good overall sense of the piece, while wishing I could have grasped more of the ‘in’ jokes. The piece premiered in 2011, so I guess it’s been knocking around for a while. Will it become a holiday classic? Time will tell.

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’Tis the Season, Parts I and II (12/12–13/14)

Friday night found me at a concert by the New Amsterdam Singers, Clara Longstreth, Music Director. This was not a freebie, but I was gifted a ticket as an early Christmas present (thank you, Uncle Mark!) The venue was totally new to me, even though it’s a church in my neighborhood. The mostly amateur singers (my best guess) turned in an impressive performance of a variety of music.
 

Jubilate Deo; Giovanni Gabrieli (1557–1612)
And the Song Am I; Abbie Betinis (b. 1980)
Quatre Petite prières de St. François d’Assise; Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
Sing with the Spirit, from The Garment of Praise; Randall Thompson (1899–1984)
Singet dem Herr nein neues Lied; J.S. Bach (1685–1750)
 – Intermission. –
O Lieber Gott; Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672)
Irish Lullaby for the Christ Child; Gaelic, arr. Steven Sametz (b. 1954)
Nova, nova, ave fit ex Eva; Williametta Spencer (b. 1932)
Seven Joys of Christmas; Kirke Mechem (b. 1925)
Jubilemus deo salutori nostro; Jaako Mäntylärvi (b. 1963)
Christmas Cantata; Quem vidistis pastores, O magnum mysterium, Gloria in excelsis Deo; Daniel Pinkham (1923–2006)

Do NOT expect in-depth commentary on every piece. In addition to the choir, there was an organist (playing a small, portable organ), a harpist, and a brass quintet—a mixed presentation throughout the evening.

The choir sang very well throughout (and there was a smaller chamber choir that performed a few pieces). Soloists were drawn from the choir, and all of them performed well, too. Jubilate Deo was a good opener, exploiting the back and forth of contrapuntal (one group against the other) choir and brass. The brass almost overshadowed, but that’s the norm in these situations—brass sound travels really well; voices (even a group, and this was 60 to 70) not so much. But balances were generally good all evening.

Additional highlights of the first half included the New York premiere of And the Song Am I, mostly a cappella with the brass quintet as commentary/accompaniment, a good choral blend, brief but effective. I liked the Poulenc (for men’s voices), with its French Romantic/Neo-Classical harmonies, as well as being prayer-like without being wishy-washy, plus the full sound of the final movement, even though it was not my favorite. Sing with the Spirit (also the title of the concert) was brief, with a truly American sensibility, though still just as effective as the Poulenc. The Bach, as a finale to the first half, fell a bit short to my ears. The textures were a little bit dense, though the solo quartet (centrally located within the choir) did a fine job.

On to Act II—The Irish Lullaby, for women’s voices and harp, was pleasant and well performed. I particularly liked Nova, nova, since I was familiar with the text, and I enjoyed the re-setting of it. That was my reaction to the Seven Joys, as well, since it included updated re-settings of
Din don! Merrily on high; Joseph dearest, Joseph mine; Patapan; and Fum, fum, fum! The inclusion of a Japanese traditional song/carol was an added bonus. The Pinkham Cantata seemed very familiar to me, especially movements two and three. I suspect it’s because I’ve sung them at one point or another, but they’re not familiar enough that they would have been multiple performances. Thank you, Uncle Mark; and thank you New Amsterdam Singers.

Saturday found me at Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts’ Holiday Songbook. Songbook is a series that features new and up and coming Broadway/theater composers and lyricists. Holiday Songbook takes that a step further by creating new holiday songs, in this case mostly composed for this concert. This year’s version had eleven songs; I enjoyed each, on some level.

Evicted for Christmas had a bit of a country/rock feel and a touch of humor. The title sort of says it all—a New Yorker ends up {gasp} having to move back in with his parents. The First Time was upbeat, in terms of lyrics, and really positive without being sappy.

One Lucky Guy was a very funny presentation of the eternal Christian/Jewish dichotomy of a family holiday. The Streets was a ‘what-if’ song about a person in search of the ideal Christmas. It was a little bit static and a little bit sad, but a little bit of sadness at this time of year is also OK—it happens, and we have to work through it. Just Ain’t Christmas was an unabashedly black comment on the perceived white Christmas. It was a Motown soul duet summed up by, “I don’t get along with you most of the time, but … it Just Ain’t Christmas … without you here.” Here was a lovely ‘you complete me’ duet.

Holiday Zombie took us in a totally new direction—it had humor (and choreography!) and was written by a deaf composer. Yep, you heard me right. Jay Alan Zimmerman progressively lost his hearing beginning (or from) 2004 yet he continues to write theater music, including this very funny piece.

A Christmas Pageant. Oh my, where to start? It’s not your normal Christmas pageant, with kids in bathrobes portraying Mary, Joseph, the Magi, et al. Oh no, this is your host, Dick Blizzard (backed up by two comely chorines), presenting Santa, Frosty, Jesus, Christmas Tree (with flashing lights for the ‘talent’ competition), and Billy Zimmerman, all competing in A Christmas Pageant. When Billy, a child of wonder, is declared the winner, he turns the tables by declaring that we are all the winners, “So celebrate us all!”

Twas the Night Before Christmas was a very effective contemporary pop setting of the traditional text. A Child’s Dream will Light the Way proved to be a great ‘11 o’clock’ number, powerfully performed by Tony Award–winner Lillias White (even with a slight lyrics flub). Celebrate Christmas (With Me) was a pop romp with piano, a (single) maraca, sleigh bells, kazoo, guitar, one of those air-powered-keyboard-thingies, and a mini-glockenspiel. Does that say Christmas or what? It did to me!

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Whirlwind Weekend (12/6–7/14)

Peter Pan (Not Live), New York Repertory Orchestra, Tree Lighting/Community Caroling

Saturday afternoon found me at the silent movies again, seeing the 1924 version of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Interesting backstory in that when Disney decided to do their Peter Pan, they locked up the rights and essentially mothballed this 1924 version for decades. It was “found” in 1971. As a result the print itself was in very-good-to-excellent condition. The plot was fairly straightforward, and included many aspects of the original 1904 play, even having one actor play both Nana and the Crocodile in animal suits. Betty Bronson was Peter Pan, with
Ernest Torrence as Captain Hook. The lighting effects for Tinkerbell were quite advanced for 1924 (and yes, we all clapped for her and brought her back from the brink of death). The swordplay between the Lost Boys and the Pirates veered slightly into slapstick apropos of the silent era. All in all, a very enjoyable afternoon, and once again Ben Model’s improvisational-style score was a highlight of the afternoon. I especially liked how he included tunes of the day (for instance when Mrs. Darling was at the keyboard) and “Home, Sweet Home” toward the end. Oddly, the screenplay was very USA centric, with references to growing up to be president and the boys wanting to fight for the USA.

Changing gears for the evening found me at a New York Repertory Orchestra concert,
David Leibowitz, Music Director/Conductor, performed at the church of St. Mary the Virgin (affectionately known as “Smoky Mary’s”). On tap were:

Overture to Aroldo; Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901)
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra – I. Maestoso, II. Aria: Adagietto, III. Allegro brioso; Vernon Duke (1903–1969) with soloist Sam Magill, Cello
Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 7 – I. Allegro orgolioso, II. Andante, III. Allegro comodo – Andante sostenuto, Finale: Allegro con fuoco; Carl Nielsen (1865–1931)

First off, the acoustics in this church can be somewhat difficult as there is so much natural reverb. In fact, spoken comments at the beginning, and then again after intermission, were somewhat garbled. The balance of the orchestra, however, was quite good, with the exception of the flutes/piccolo being somewhat shrill periodically. It probably couldn’t be helped.

Verdi’s opera overture was nice as a curtain raiser—it had a very soft opening that was more gentle than mysterious, followed by a trumpet melody (played very well), leading to the full orchestra playing. The piece was a bit workmanlike but pleasant, with individual tunes (three or four) laid out pretty clearly. As I said, a pleasant opener.

The first movement of the cello concerto opened with a solo cadenza. The entire movement had a nice Romantic feel to it but with modern touches (harmonies and dissonances). It also closed with a solo cadenza. The second was pleasant and pleasantly played, yet didn’t really strike me as distinctive. The third opened with a bang-up orchestral introduction that then led to a back and forth between the soloist and the orchestra. As a piece, it was enjoyable if not overly interesting (to me).

The first movement of the Nielsen symphony had the full orchestra playing from the very beginning, with pleasing melodies and orchestration. The second was slower, and seemed like one long through-composed feeling of tension, with small resolutions here and there. The third movement rolled along nicely, pleasant again but not really saying a lot. The last movement was bright and full, and then turned slightly introspective. There were several interesting themes that I wish had been linked together better. Over all, it was a generally pleasing work and a nice orchestral concert to hear and experience.

Sunday’s event was a small-scale Christmas Tree Lighting in Carl Schurz Park, a couple of blocks away from my apartment. This year’s version once again featured Cantori, Mark Shapiro, director, singing four a cappella pieces, a countdown to the ta-da! moment, and then community caroling led by Cantori accompanied by the Orbital Brass. It was fun but cold, so I bowed out early but kept singing along as I walked back home. Well, for a bit—not all the way home. That would have made me a CrazyMeister. So, quite a jam-packed, fun, free weekend in NYC.

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Piano Masterpieces (11/22/14)

Mohamed Shams played an ambitious program on Saturday afternoon (a few Saturdays ago, now). In general, he played quite well, if with a sense of restrained control. 

Songs without words, Op. 67; Six short movements – Felix Bartholdy-Mendelssohn
Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 14, “Concerto without orchestra”; Allegro, Quasi Variazione: Andantino di Clara Wieck, Prestissimo possibile – Robert Schumann
Preludes (selection); Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest, La fille aux cheveux de lin, Général Lavine – eccentric: Dans le style et le mouvement d’un Cakewalk – Claude Debussy
Mephisto-waltz No. 1 – Franz Liszt 

The Songs without words were just that—nice, songlike pieces that you could just imagine should have words. The first was gentle while the second had a jaunty accompaniment, in a minor key, but with a positive spin to it. It also had a fuller piano sound and a nice use of rubato (a sort of stretching the tempo/rhythm from time to time so that it’s not totally steady—tick-tock, tick-tock). It was my favorite of the six short movements. The third had a slower pace, settling down yet still with a nice sense of an arc to it. The fourth started out mysteriously and had a hint of sadness. The fifth was a waltz with a slight Viennese feel to it, and the sixth had lots of fast finger work, sort of bumblebee-esque.

Schumann’s sonata had quite a bit of heft to it. The Allegro was very full and very rich, with clean lines (and playing), and had lots of big themes balanced by gentle, contrasting sections. It finished with a bang. The Variazioni had a slight feel of a dirge that then grew into a gentle section with a real feel of warmth. It was introspective, even in the fuller sections, ending with dramatic chords. I was really looking forward to Prestissimo possible (hello! as fast as possible?), and it had a lot of sound and fury, but I didn’t really sense where it was going. The sonata is a piece I wouldn’t mind hearing again, just because it’s so daunting upon first hearing.

The first of the Debussy pieces was quite modern sounding, with Stravinsky-like rhythms. The piece did evoke the wind (le vent d’ouest) at times. The second piece was gentle to begin with—not exactly wispy, more like a substantial wispy, if that makes sense. The tune might be familiar to you, “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair.” It’s worth a YouTube search. The third piece (which did not really remind me of a cakewalk) was stronger and fuller, with a very good display of technique, yet still fully musical.

The Liszt was a fragmented waltz with a rhythmic introduction that then morphed into very fast finger work and octaves in both hands. There was a lot of compositional bravura, executed very well. The sheer number of notes was astounding.

As mentioned before, I sensed a slight feeling of controlled restraint. Perhaps as Mr. Shams continues as an artist, there will be some occasions to give in a bit to a sense of abandon. I liked the entire program; I just was waiting for a little more oomph. Once again, though, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing works that were new to me.

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