world of music

Dec 7, Perelman Theater

Conductor Leon Fleisher is such a warm, authoritative presence on the podium who seems so connected personally to his orchestra. After Fleisher suffered paralysis in his right hand in the middle of his brilliant concert piano career, he shifted his focus as a teacher and conductor. That spirit is gloriously apparent in the camaraderie onstage for Phila. Chamber Music Society’s concert with musicians from The Network for New Music.

The Maestro also knows smart programming that takes a chamber music audience into unheard territory. A rarely performed Igor Stravinsky work ‘In Memoriam Dylan Thomas’ a score to Thomas’ famous poem ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Goodnight’ Stravinsky wanted to compose an opera with the poet, but Thomas died. Fleisher had the poem recited, then the ensemble played the six minute work twice. Dirgy trombone phrases and mournful strings led by the shimmering technique of Hirono Oka, most penetrating sorrow of Thomas Kraines’ cello and sung with lush restraint by tenor David Kirkwood.

Fleischer changes the climate immediately with the carnavale clamor of Hindemith‘s Kammermusik No. 1. By design or musical coincidence the ending fire alarm was an incongruous preview to Ligeti: Aventures / Nouvelles Aventures. Two sopranos and a tenor could be mistaken for the 3 vocal stoogies as they huff, hiss, bark, gurgle and otherwise make a mockery of ‘serious music’ Is this a reconstruction of a prehistoric concert? Or a musical mockery of the Actor‘s Studio.

Tomasz Kowalczyk, the percussionist has the most fun, smashing tins with hammers, slamming a tray of glasses to the floor, ripping and crinkly sounds by tearing apart what looked like The Financial Times. He is only outdone by the orchestra with moment where they sound like they are being shoved down a grand staircase, halted at any time by the elegant hand of Fleisher, who lands them intact.

operaoperaopera

Lincoln Center, Dec 1

The Metropolitan Opera premiered Il Trittico, Puccini‘s trilogy of one-act operas – Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi- in 1918, without the composer being able to attend because of wartime travel restrictions.The composer wanted the operas staged together, since among other things, they were modern scenarios on themes from Dante’s Inferno.

Companies resisted the challenge of three completely different sets and three casts, and complete productions are rare, but the Met’s triumphant 2007 full revival is back, in full grandeur, due in no small part to the dazzling production designs, a vibrant orchestra and inspired casting.

Clocking in at close to four hours, you can understand why companies chop this opus down, with Schicchi, the farce, most often programmed with other operas altogether. Aside from the productions’ set demands, the work is also taxing on the principal soprano when, as in this case, she sings leads in all three works. 

Soprano Patricia Racette is in such glorious voice all evening, distinctive in each of these roles. As Giorgetta who has a dockside romance in Il Tabarro, singing about “my life…between the bed and the stove”, she is as earthy and the direction is as gritty as a Kazan movie. As the emotionally tortured nun in Suor Angelica, she her voices crashes in despair, when it is not otherwise imbued.

By the time she is the lovesick Lauretta singing the eternal lullaby ‘Oh mio babbino caro’ in Gianni Schicchi trying to get her father to bless her engagement, Racette owns the Met. Technically, even with some vocal evaporation in Schicchi, this is an Olympic vocal achievement. t’amo diva.