ClassicalMetros

The Philadelphia Orchestra & soloists with composer Jennifer Higdon take a bow after the premiere of Higdon’s Low Brass Concerto (photo: Phila.Orch)

Cristian Măcelaru finished his three-year tenure as Conductor- in -residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra but he is frequently back on the podium, last month subbing for Yannick Nezet-Seguin in one of the four performances with violinist Joshua Bell.

Măcelaru often interacts with the audience and introduces the playlist, but on the night he subbed for Nezet-Seguin, he launched into an erratically paced performance of Beethoven’s Leonore overture, distinctly underpowered in the first half, but seemed to ignite midway through by way of the impeccable artistry Jeffrey Khaner’s flute lines.

Everyone was on the same page for Joshua Bell’s solid performance of Henryk Wienlawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Indeed, Bell’s focus and energy with The Philadelphians seems to bloom more each time he returns, he is never the ‘star’ in his own zone. Bell has performed this concerto through his career and his interpretive technical artistry has, admirably both authority and immediacy. The lengthy orchestral intro sharp and warm for Bell’s silvery tone in the opening passages.

Wienlawski composed in the 1862 is fascinating in its invention and its decoratively virtuosic passages, which Bell nails.  But to this ear, the second movement is much more musically interesting, especially with Bell’s expressive and subtle phrasing. Măcelaru’s closed the program with Anton Dvorak’s 8th Symphony, switching up the program from Nezet-Seguin’s programming from Shostakovich’s ‘Leningrad’ Symphony.

Anton Dvorak’s 9th (New World) Symphony, is a concert hall favorite, but his other symphonies, particularly the composer’s 8th Symphony is just as compelling and Măcelaru detailing bring it to full power and dimension, Măcelaru accenting Dvorak ‘s modernist progressions, and thrilling sonic accelerations.

Măcelaru is particularly expert with orchestral dance music of Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly’s Dances of Marosszek, with its vivid folkloric eloquence at the center of the piece and it was the rousing opener for the Philadelphians the following week, the centerpiece being the premiere by Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Low Brass.

Higdon’s Low Brass Concerto (in one movement) has a distinctly nebulous opening with almost subdued solo lines by Nitzan Haroz and Matthew Vaughn (trombones), Blair Bollinger (bass trombone and Carol Jantsch (tuba).  Higdon typically likes to reveal the musician’s strengths and build the energy  between the strings, winds, percussion and other brass instruments, then Higdon just busts this piece open. It is no surprise that it had so many voicings beside fanfares.

the soloist’s ascendant note passages build dramatic, sustained trombone lines that suddenly riff with staccato dialogue that utterly thrill as the orchestra surges and surfs around them. The polyrhythmic counterpoint of the strings, percussion and another woodwind surfing in and out of the string counterpoint.  This piece has power and brassy poetry.  Higdon received a thunderous ovation as she was coaxed onstage to take a bow with the soloists.

Also on this program, Beethoven’s 8th symphony and Brahms’ Hungarian Dances,   especially interesting to hear how distinctly different the strings are- full, warm and dramatic in both, but in such different ways.

DanceMetros

Cracking the Nutcrackers

Russian expat George Balanchine choreographed The Nutcracker for New York City Ballet in 1954. Balanchine danced several roles in the ballet at the Maryinsky Theater created by Lev Ivanov’s 1892. He streamlined the story with a mix of neoclassic balletics and pantomime dance for American audiences. The Balanchine artistic trust only permits certain companies permission to dance Balanchine’s Nutcracker and there are plenty of other interpretations that re-imagining the story, some sticking closer to the ballet’s Russian origins.

When The Moscow Ballet’s ‘Great Russian Nutcracker’ swung into Philly for two nights at the Annenberg Center in Philly just nights after the Pennsylvania Ballet’s Balanchine production opened, I thought it would be interesting to compare the choreographic templates, lineage and impact on contemporary audiences.

PB principal Alexander Peters leads the Candy Canes

PB Principals Ian Hussey & Amy Aldridge as Sugar Plum & her Cavalier

PB Corp de Ballet in Snowflake scene

MoscowBallet Arabian Variation Sergey Chumakov & Elena Pretrachenko

MB’s Harlequin scene

Pennsylvania Ballet’s production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker

Academy of Music, Dec. 9-31

Pennsylvania Ballet Artistic Director Angel Corella continues to sharpen the company’s production of George Balanchine’s Nutcracker and since the Balanchine trust keeps tight reins on the few companies that are licensed to perform Mr. B’s, PAB’s attention to the smallest details make all of the difference, dusting off ACT I of ballet, which is can drag on if not fueled with enough performance energy.

Child dancers Claire Smith and Rowan Duffy as siblings Marie and Fritz, Both young dancers have natural stage presence and are strong dancer-actors, a key element in focusing the opening scenes. And this energy extends to all of the children at the Holiday party, which can often look like seasonal pageantry.

Corella is making sure that both the children and adult dancers are defining characters in their pedestrian and gestural movement.

PAB’s new dance master Charles Askgard portrays Herr Drosselmeir, and is a study of detailed pantomime dance. Even Balanchine’s lumbering mouse battle moves swiftly along.

The Act I solos commence when Drosselmeir animates the Harlequin dolls in their cute pointe patterns, but Balanchine saves the fireworks for the toy soldier solo, a precision dance, with precision flatfooted jumps and limb moving in sharp opposite angles- In this performance danced by Peter Weil with haunted eyes executing the drill steps.

After the faux mouse battle, Marie and the Nutcracker Prince are transported to the snowy forest where Snowflakes perform vintage Balanchine choreography full of geometric configurations and requiring tight esprit de corps. At this performance the corps’ ensemble had the pulse but veered off with some blurry unison pacing and scrambled transitions.

Amy Aldridge as the Sugar Plum Fairy among the little angel gliding over the floor to open Act two and Aldridge who has danced this role many times and this performance can be counted as among her most radiant performances.

In the Act II divertissment Lillian DiPiazza smolders as Coffee in the Arabian Dance and Jermel Johnson slices through the air with saber leg splits for Tea. Alexander Peters and his battalion of Candy Canes getting through those hoops with jaunty flair. Making the most of their flash tarantella in the Spanish Dance are newcomers Sterling Baca and Nayara Lopes.

But it was Dayesi Torriente dancing the lead in Marzapan Shepardess that stood out. This is a deceptively simple looking mid-tempo choreography, is actually very tricky and easily scuttled. Balanchine’s counterpoint patterning can loose technical clarity and merely look pretty. In this performance Torriente commanded with thrilling artistry and her Shepardesses- Adrianna deSvastich, Jacqueline Callahan, Yuka Iseda and Ana Calderan, were completely in sync.

The corp de ballet looked sharper than in the Snowflake scene, with precision and attack in Dewdrop Flowers dance. Principal Mayara Pineiro set the highest mark with her fiery lead solo. Pineiro can just hang on point arabesque and her transition steps flawless entrances and exits to diamond centered turns, airy jetes and luminous pointe work.

The finale pas de deux is all Balanchine fireworks and tests the mettle of even the most technically proficient dancers. Aldridge not missing a moment to thrill with her solid technical prowess from every angle. Aldridge and principal dancer Ian Hussey as her Cavalier with palpable chemistry throughout highlighted by their consistent fluency Balanchine’s difficult lift sequences. Hussey’s solos highlighted with centered turns and solid tours en l’air.

It can’t be understated how vibrant conductor Beatrice Jona Affron’s tempos, detailing and orchestral thrust of Tchaikovsky score are key. In Act I, among the outstanding soloists are Luigi Mazzocchi’s violin solo just engulfing the Academy and harpist Mindy Cutcher floating gorgeously crystal strings first as the first snowflake piques on the floor.

Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker

Annenberg Center, Philadelphia

Dec. 12-13

The Moscow Ballet version of the Nutcracker is a more classic Russian version, without doubt and is a choreographic update by the directors after Imperial Ballet period versions by Russian choreographic masters Vaganova, Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov.

At the Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker, you pick up right away that the story is much different, with Uncle Drosselmeyer, in a wonderfully danseur lead character part performed by Maksim Bernadskyl. Uncle is Christmas Eve magician who conjures the young girl Masha’s Nutcracker dream escorts us through the whole ballet.

Drosselmeyer Anastasiya Terada is hypnotic in her mechanical moves in a multi-colored ribbon tutu ‘Kissy Doll’ and Konstantin Vinovoy’s Harlequin (the prototype for Balanchine’s Soldier) equally spellbinding. Not transcribed by Balanchine are the Moor Dolls.

Where Balanchine leans heavily on just pantomime and gestural acting to carry Act I, here there is much more dancing including a waltz for the adults, and an officer saber dance.

The Nutcracker Doll & Prince is danced by Mykhailo Syniavskyl throughout (Balanchine turned it into a mostly pantomime role for a young male dancer).

The mice battle is a much more interesting scene, than Balanchine’s limp and comedic version. Here Sergyl Merzlyakov is not a fat cartoon rat, but a scary Rat King in red and black dyed tights stylishly sinister headpiece. The fight choreography has Merzlyakov slicing through the air or in thrilling sword dances with Nutcracker Prince.

Elena Petrichenko and Sergey Chumakov were flash dancing ‘Moor Dolls’ in the first act, but they emerge as virtuoso dance – acrobats to open Act 2 as the Dove of Peace, each with a majestic wing and they cleave together in a series of lifts that keep moving to various symbolic and sculpted positions. Later, the couple appears in an even more dramatic tableau in the Arabian Dance (a lengthier transcription of the Arabian music from Tchaikovsky’s score.)

Balanchine made this a solo dance and one of the highlights of his version for a smoldering solo for a principal ballerina. This has an equally entrancing quality and these two make the most of it.

Balanchine was skimpy on his version of The Spanish Dance even though he has four couples animated in a stylized tarantella, with fancier footwork for the leads pair. Moscow Ballet’s duet for Boris Yastrub and Olga Aru is more interesting in its variation; this couple has wonderful presence and flair in this dance, though their technique flagged.

Moscow Ballet’s ‘Chinese Variation’ (Tea) is much more developed than Balanchine’s flash dance version with glittering repeated phrases. MB’s is much more a character dance, however un-pc with ‘Orientalism.’ Juliya Verian and (stealing the show again) Sergyl Merziyakov’s playful patterns transition steps to technically dazzling double tempo grand pirouette and razor sharp aerial splits.

The reverse is true in The Snowflake ensemble dance at the end of Act I, Moscow’s Snowflakes are exemplar of Russian ballet decorousness, whereas in Balanchine’s turns the heat way up for the Snowflake scene to cap off Act I.

Moscow Ballet’s ‘Russian Variation’ is an expanded Czardas dance with Anton Romashkevych and Anna Bogatyr in traditional Ukrainian dress exuberant in high stepping patterns. Romashkevych in robust barrel rolls and Cossack plies, around Bogatyr, who is twirling like a top. Balanchine turned this into the Candy Canes hoop dance, which is just as effective as a scene, but doesn’t have this folkloric flavor.

Mykhilo Syniavskyi and Veronika Hordina have great chemistry and refinement in the central pas deux that define their characters and unfolds in dramatic finales for both acts.

So Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker has a lot to offer in contrast to Balanchine’s distillation of Russian aesthetics. Even with techniques among this large cast erratic, particularly in the corp de ballet scenes, it should be noted that dance schools and companies in Russia have gone through drastic reduction of state sponsorship over the last 20 years and that is a classic Russian story for another cold winter’s dance night.

Stage

 

bass-baritone Daniel Noyola as the dastardly Don serenading his next conquest. (photo courtesy AVA)

Academy of Vocal Arts
Don Giovanni
By W.A.Mozart
Directed by Jeffrey Buchman
Conducted by Christofer Macatsoris
Philadelphia
AVA’s Helen Corning Warden Theater & area venues
Nov. 7-21
http://www.avaopera.org

The Academy of Vocal Arts’ mounts Mozart’s Don Giovanni every few years and it always seems to show them at their best. Their 2011 production, directed by the Tito Capobianco, and had the lusty Don Giovanni, in flagrante delicate all during the overture in just his breeches as he pretends to be Donna Anna’s fiancé Octavio. In their current production, director Jeffrey Buchman chose to be more discreet until later, but all of the lustiness was rendered by the orchestra alone in maestro Christofer Macatsoris vibrant interpretation conjures nothing less than glorious Mozart.
Macatsoris accents the darker themes right, the clamor of the first scene, an attempted rape and a death, seemed a bit too clamorously paced. When Donna Anna discovers the ruse and her father the Commendatore comes on the scene to challenge Giovanni to a duel. And Octavio, who resembles Giovanni, adding to the confusion as DG and Leporello steal away.
Meanwhile, Elvira, just jilted by Giovanni, chases him in anguish, but realizes what a philandering cur he is, after Leporello shows her the log of his many trysts (1003 in Spain alone). While nearby, Giovanni happens on the wedding of Zerlina and Masetto. He lures the party to his, and seduces the bride right under Maestro jealous nose.
The mob turns on him, but not before he sets off on a new round of dalliances and deceptions. He tries to win Elvira back by having Leporello stand in for him while she pines on her balcony. It’s all a ruse though to throw his pursuers off his scent. Things come to a head as he hides in the graveyard and the specter of the Commendatore gets his revenge on the doomed Giovanni.
The opera is a great barometer of AVA’s roster of singers in its vocal demands and to test their acting chops with equal parts drama and comedy. Soprano Vanessa Vasquez’s Donna Anna and her fiancé Octavio, sung by tenor Jonas Hacker have charming low-key chemistry in their scenes together, but it is in their solos toward the end that they triumph. Hacker nails the lengthy sung soliloquy in the final act. Two breakout performances by baritone Jorge Espino and mezzo-soprano Allegra Di Vita as Masetto and Zerlina. Espino conveying his jealousy with humorous gravitas. Di Vita so vocally powerful and a fine comic actress playing a gorgeous flirt.
Stellar performance by Anush Avetisyan as Elvira. She conveys every emotion as she goes from rage against Don Gio to giving in to his charms. Bass-baritones Andre Courville and Daniel Nayola as Leperello and Don Giovanni, sustain balance, and vocal clarity, with sardonic wit, in two of the most demanding vocal roles in all of opera. And the chilling finale of the stony presence out of the graveyard to exact Don Giovanni’s mortal damnation is sung with engulfing basso gravitas by Anthony Schneider.
Director Buchman opening scenes could use some streamlining, but he keeps the cast in motion throughout and uses the tight space at the Warden Theater to maximum effect. Peter Harrison’s set of modular grey panels frame Val Starr costume design of velvet doublets, plumed hats and breeches on the men and Versailles gowns on the women, seems in moments like an animated Renaissance painting.
Macatsoris’ and the AVA orchestra is a separate review and the intimate AVA Helen Corning Warden Theater a perfect venue to hear this orchestra’s dimension and detailing. Among the standout players’, the harpsichord continuo by Richard A Raub and first violin lines of Igor Szwec, essaying lustrous Mozart. Not to mention the voluptuous counterpoint lower strings by cellists Vivian Barton Dozor and Lynee Beiler.

WorldofMusic

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Donald Runnicles, conductor
Johannes Moser, cello
Oct 16
It is hard to take your eyes off of Donald Runnicles when he conducts, he has a warm persona, his white hair curling out and arms lurching forward like he is hugging the orchestra.

He also brings an air of musical occasion and palpable connection with the musicians. His tempos are sharp and the orchestra cohesive, the famed Philly strings at their most dimensional.

In October, Runnicles was in Philly for two weeks of performances of Beethoven, Elgar, Brahms, Strauss and Mozart on the playlist.

Runnicles opened his mini-fest with Beethoven’s 8th Symphony eliciting the chamber music luster he brings to large symphonic works. A distinct translucence he sustains that illustrates the Beethoven’s inner drive, as well as the composition’s looming symphonic architecture.

Runnicles qualities of orchestral balance were so present in the sterling performance of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto with soloist Johannes Moser. Moser has a relaxed theatricality, but is altogether at one with the many technical demands of this piece. It was composed in 1918 at the end of WWI and Elgar was also recovering from ill health. There is an atmosphere of loss and sorrow, and its stirring eloquence unsentimental.

The sobering atmospherics give way to Elgar’s musical whimsy, maybe even the composer’s expression of joy having survived. Every implication of this piece, musically and philosophically, is fully bloomed in this performance. Elgar quicksilver cello lines, the strums, the whispering phrases and other effects, are not ornamentation. Johannes has stated as many have that he believes Elgar was writing a war requiem.

Moser’s is also at one with the full orchestra his head swings around to finish a fiery acceleration with the strings, or he leaned back to shoot a glance of appreciation with the interlocks with the lower strings. Philadelphia Orchestra seems to conjure a certain triumphal sound with Elgar; they made it a repeated showstopper last season.

Runnicles closer in the first concert was Brahms’ Theme of Joseph Haydn, Op. 56a which was a fine prelude to his imprint on the Brahms’ masterpiece Double Concerto performed the following week, with the orchestra’s concertmaster David Kim and principal cellist Hai-Ye Ni the soloists delivering a masterful performance.

Oct. 24

Runnicles, conductor
Hai-Ye Ni, cello
David Kim, violin

Kim versatile in almost every style, but with Brahms his command more muscled and his artistry more vivid. Ni has a warm, inviting tone that is all about technique and character of the music and she too, is in top form and together this is sterling Brahms. If any work takes the heavy romanticism associated with Brahms’ symphonic works, it is this concerto.

The opening basso string lines she plays with lusty sonority and edge. As lead players in the same orchestra, Kim and Ni bring so much to the technical artistry to this piece. A work not often played because of its demands, it was a triple virtuoso zone, because the orchestral side of this was just as impressive.

Also on the program Mozart’s Symphony no. 29, so fascinating for its structural innovations from an 18-year-old Mozart. Even though the 1st movement is one of Wolfgang’s most recognizable the whole work is rarely performed these days and the duality of the music’s sardonic esprit and solemn meditation as present as it is in Don Giovanni.

Runnicles’ again, masterfully contours the textures as a chamber piece and the orchestra delivers a performance that is joyously Mozartian. The maestro’s closer was a lusty showpiece performance of Richard Strauss’ Don Juan.

World of Music

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Donald Runnicles, conductor
Johannes Moser, cello
Oct 16
It is hard to take your eyes off of Donald Runnicles when he conducts, he has a warmth podium persona, his white hair curling out and arms lurching forward like he is hugging the orchestra.

He also brings an air of musical occasion and palpable connection with the musicians. His tempos are sharp and the orchestra cohesive, the famed Philly strings at their most dimensional.

In October, Runnicles was in Philly for two weeks of performances of Beethoven, Elgar, Brahms, Strauss and Mozart on the playlist.

Runnicles opened his mini-fest with Beethoven’s 8th Symphony eliciting the chamber music luster he brings to large symphonic works. A distinct translucence he sustains that illustrates the Beethoven’s inner drive, as well as the composition’s looming symphonic architecture.

Runnicles qualities of orchestral balance were so present in the sterling performance of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto with soloist Johannes Moser. Moser has a relaxed theatricality, but is altogether at one with the many technical demands of this piece. It was composed in 1918 at the end of WWI and Elgar was also recovering from ill health. There is an atmosphere of loss and sorrow, and its stirring eloquence unsentimental.

The sobering atmospherics give way to Elgar’s musical whimsy, maybe even the composer’s expression of joy having survived. Every implication of this piece, musically and philosophically, is fully bloomed in this performance. Elgar quicksilver cello lines, the strums, the whispering phrases and other effects, are not ornamentation. Johannes has stated as many have that he believes Elgar was writing a war requiem.

Moser’s is also at one with the full orchestra his head swings around to finish a fiery acceleration with the strings, or he leaned back to shoot a glance of appreciation with the interlocks with the lower strings. Philadelphia Orchestra seems to conjure a certain triumphal sound with Elgar; they made it a repeated showstopper last season.

Runnicles closer in the first concert was Brahms’ Theme of Joseph Haydn, Op. 56a which was a fine prelude to his imprint on the Brahms’ masterpiece Double Concerto performed the following week, with the orchestra’s concertmaster David Kim and principal cellist Hai-Ye Ni the soloists delivering a masterful performance.

Oct. 24

Runnicles, conductor
Hai-Ye Ni, cello
David Kim, violin

Kim versatile in almost every style, but with Brahms his command more muscled and his artistry more vivid. Ni has a warm, inviting tone that is all about technique and character of the music and she too, is in top form and together this is sterling Brahms. If any work takes the heavy romanticism associated with Brahms’ symphonic works, it is this concerto.

The opening basso string lines she plays with lusty sonority and edge. As lead players in the same orchestra, Kim and Ni bring so much to the technical artistry to this piece. A work not often played because of its demands, it was a triple virtuoso zone, because the orchestral side of this was just as impressive.

Also on the program Mozart’s Symphony no. 29, so fascinating for its structural innovations from an 18-year-old Mozart. Even though the 1st movement is one of Wolfgang’s most recognizable the whole work is rarely performed these days and the duality of the music’s sardonic esprit and solemn meditation as present as it is in Don Giovanni.

Runnicles’ again, masterfully contours the textures as a chamber piece and the orchestra delivers a performance that is joyously Mozartian. The maestro’s closer was a lusty showpiece performance of Richard Struass’ Don Juan.

Classical Philly

It was not without irony that Russian maestro Valery Gergiev was conducting Russian classics by Sergei Prokofiev and Dimitri Shostakovich for his two concert evenings in front of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Gergiev is principal conductor at the London Symphony Orchestra and artistic-general director of the storied Mariinsky Theatre, is a longstanding guest conductor with the Fab Phils.

He has been fielding criticicism where ever he appears lately for his reported close association with Vladimir Putin. In front of the Kimmel Center there were protests against the maestro and Putin’s aggression in the Ukraine. Gergiev’s association with Putin has also ignited protest by gay rights groups who accused him of being anti-gay, a charge he flatly denies, claiming publicly that he was, in fact, for worldwide pro-GLBTQ rights.

Whatever the political truths, concert-goers can’t ignore these issues and decide for themselves if they are making a statement by not going because of the actions, or reputed actions of one player. Gergiev is not the only person on that stage. There are the musicians, the technicians, the theater employees and, indeed, the long gone composers, who in fact were making statements about living under the iron fist of Stalin.

A discussion for a separate article.

Meanwhile, back to the musical ironies, both Prokofiev and Shostakovich worked with impunity under the Soviet Composer’s Union, a censoring mechanism of Stalin who was in control of the Iron Curtain play list. But both composers knew how to disguise the free-expression of their music, below the sanctioned surface.

Gergiev hustled onstage without much of a nod to the audience and he did look distracted (at least) for the opening work Stravinsky’s Symphony in C, and the Moderato opening movement sounded rushed and under-powered. Deeper in the piece, Stravinsky’s razor sharp orchestral turns fueled its surface luster. But this work is more of a pastiche (if witty) Stravinsky, with a quality of a warmed over ballet score. Its balance proved an erratic performance for Gergiev, with hazy mis-en-scenes crowding out more potent sections. Through its bouncy coherence, Peter Smith’s oboe swirled masterfully around all of the orchestral filigrees.

Sharper focus and intensity came with Shoshtakovich’s Symphony no. 9. In a controlled and completely thrilling symphonic arc. Perfect and vital volume fluctuations and striations of the lower strings with Gergiev accenting the Russian effects of fuller bowing. All of the woodwinds stellar and Daniel Matsukawa essaying a solo bassoon line with profound, penetrating clarity, floating over shadowy strings. A passage so intimate that its humanist intent was probably a complete enigma to the Soviet censors.

The capper actually proved to be Prokofiev’s Symphony no. 5. Gergiev seeming to go for every detail with attack and clarity- summoning crystallized brass swallowing counter-melodies and clashing against Prokofiev’s cascading strings. Pianist Kiyoko Takeuti ‘s masterful on the composer’s dodgy piano voicings, not to mention the steel chamber violin leads by David Kim. A triumphal performance without doubt. When the maestro finally faced the audience at the end, as the lusty ovation thundered in, he seemed to finally breathe.

Classical Philly

Juilliard String Quartet
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society
Perelman Theater, Philadelphia
Jan. 25

For their second appearance at The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society this month, The Juilliard String Quartet was scheduled to perform with premier pianist Leon Fleisher playing Brahms’ Piano Quintet. Unfortunately Mr. Fleisher had to bow out due to illness. JSQ substituted the Brahms with a handy string quartet. Violinists Ronald Copes and Joseph Lin, violist Roger Tapping violist and Joel Krosnick performed one of their regular season programs an altogether sterling concert of Haydn, Beethoven and contemporary composer Shulamit Ran.

Music scholar Paul Schiavo points out in excellent program notes that Haydn was the first to develop mature string quartets. It is evident in his String Quartet in G Major, op. 33, it states, defines and even anticipates so much in this form. The witty and vibrant baroque-ness leads to intense, and adventurous string dialogues with the intricate baroque-classical mixes, sounding to an extent free form. Scherzo brightness gives way to somber clusters. Joseph Lin’s passionate and precision playing can’t help but take the spotlight early on, but the ensemble synergy is as resplendent as the composer’s timeless musicality.

Connected in form, but at the other end of the musical spectrum in effect is Shulamit Ran’s String Quartet, op. 2, Vistas composed in 1988-89, was occasioned by a musical cultural exchange with Russia. Shulamit is the second women to win a Pulitzer Prize for composition and her voice in this piece also displays her compelling voice and the drama she brings to this form.

Ran An overt and virtuosic challenge of form under subheads- Concentric, Stasis, Flashes, Vista- is musical architecture in constant structural and dazzling motion, like a chaotic, but fully formed sonic world with muscled, sometimes hostile phrases, razor sharp string interlocks , note bends, roving contrapuntal language and subtle, lyrical echoes of Hassidic music. Each musician has challenging solo lines, with the two final movements cued by Krosnick with a somber dissonant line that pushes, almost furiously, in different directions. This piece and JQ’s playing grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go.

Beethoven’s String Quartet op. 26 doesn’t sound like Ludwig’s epic symphonic work, cathartic solo pieces or even his violin concertos, but almost a liberated form, even with Beethoven’s defining technical prowess, this admirably, is without any signatures. Beethoven showing that the viola is not second string to the violin and Tapping making the most of those movement lead-ins. This string quartet has an almost self-mocking edge in moments, one of the composer’s rare instances of musical levity.

Without pause, Juilliard String Quartet’s trademark full sound and technique is always in the musical moment with the audience.

Classical Philly

Eschenbach returns in grand style

. (Maestro Eschenbach with the Philadelphia Orchestra Jan. 10)

Former Philadelphia Orchestra musical director Christoph Eschenbach returned to Philly on what so far has been the coldest week of winter, but he was igniting the warmest orchestral sounds on the Verizon Hall stage Jan 10. Eschenbach left in 2008 and his conducting tenure was relatively short and not without its struggles. He has since become musical director of the National Symphony and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Eschenbach back on the podium look practically jubilant on the podium, bringing a seasoned vibrancy to the program of Strauss and Schumann.

Digging in from the start with Richard Strauss’Till Eugenspiegel’s Merry Peaks
a swirling, bombastic tone poem that, for its time, shakes classical structure by the tail. Strauss conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra first performance of the piece in the Academy of Music in 1904. The musical narrative of the pranks of a German folk hero percolate, appear and vanish; a collage of different sounds, anticipating classical fusion, is robustly accented. Eschenbach was dancey and seemingly engaged with every player, pivoting around for precision progressions. This was one pumped maestro.

To achieve Strauss’ matrix of sonic quality, Eschenbach moved the players around from their usual spots on the Verizon stage- the cellos positioned in the conductor circle, with the basses at stage right instead of their usual spot on the left and the violins flanking the full front. The winds and brass on low risers presumably to equalize and spike the rear flank instruments which facilitated beautiful blending of a muscled brass.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has been featuring their own ranks more as premier soloists and it was great to see hornist Jennifer Montone, such a virtuosic player consistently in every style in front to tackle Strauss’ Horn Concerto, an early, decidedly studious work. In three un-paused movements with her typical lucidity. The piece itself, next to later, more adventurous Strauss, seems more like a conservatoire technique exercise. But Montone brings her beautiful tone and her flawless interplay with the other musicians Outside of one wayward note, Montone’s precision and lyricism is exquisite.

The concert was going so well Eschenbach could have cruised through Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 and still held this audience. And there are memories with this orchestra of his disengaged and cold technique with romantic era warhorses. Not so with for this passionate interpretation of Schumann, Eschenbach giving it a majestic intimacy, the orchestra expressing the soulful musicality. Outstanding solo lines in the third movement by oboist Richard Woodhams, Ricardo Morales on clarinet and Daniel Matsukawa’s bassoon.

The strength of this concert was not lost on the audience who gave Eschenbach a lusty standing ovation and all of the players applauded him.

Classical Philly

Fab Phils dig in with 40/40 Project Yannick Nezet-Seguin & soloist Jean-Guihen Queyras (Ph: Phil Orch)

Philadelphia Orchestra principal clarinetist Ricardo Morales is sometimes hard to catch sight of in his usually positioned toward the back of the orchestra, but audiences certainly know him from the sterling tones of his playing. Thanksgiving weekend Morales was in front of the orchestra with guest conductor Juanjo Mena, for two stylistically disparate pieces for clarinet and orchestra.

But first, Mena’s opened the concert with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espanola with its famous Spanish Gyspy song equalized with Mena immediately eliciting a full-orchestral thrust scorching brass on this piece and a gorgeous narrative build of Rimsky-Korsakov‘s Russian classicism.

After a pause, Morales came onstage looking almost embarrassed, but soon enough was detailing, with penetrating clarity, Debussy’s Rhapsody no 1 for clarinet and orchestra. Conductor Mena pacing Debussy’s atmospherics with a subtle and quiet orchestral pulse. Even with one or two hazy overlays, this was an intoxicating performance of a technically tricky piece. Morales then tackled Rossini’s Theme and Variation for Clarinet and orchestra which features Rossini’s his vocal signatures transferred to the clarinet voicing- the vaulting roulades and the line gallops, among other effects- all masterfully dispatched by Morales.

Mena closed the concert with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no. 4. with its opening heralds stating the themes of passion, intimacy and turmoil immediately. The symphony expressive to the dramatic events in Tchaikovsky’s at the time he was composing it, which included his escaping a false marriage and accepting himself fully as a homosexual. The razor-sharp arrests and haunting fortissimo that gives way to a trailing line on a solo instruments, sharply paced by Mena. Among the standout passages, the full string pizzicato Scherzo, and outstanding solo from oboist Peter Smith and cellist Yumi Kendall.

Both the Rimsky-Korsakov and the Rossini compositions are part of Philadelphia Orchestra’s 40/40 Project , designed by musical director Yannick Nezet-Seguin, of repertoire that have not been performed by the Fab Phils for 40 years and you wonder why they’ve kept these gems on the shelf for so long. Nezet-Seguin has been covering many of the works as well in his concerts and is obviously displaying strengthened aspects of the Philadelphia Orchestra with his stamp on these classics.

Conductor Nezet Seguin was back in Verizon Hall the first week of December for an Austria-German composer program for two performances in Philly and one in between in Carnegie Hall. He will perform the same program in Vienna this winter. Nezet Seguin toys with the concert convention, opening this concert with Brahms’ Symphony No. 3.

Much of the Allegro movement though suffered from erratic pacing and Nezet-Seguin kept the strings too turned down. It started to glow in the back half of the first movement, especially with the clarion French Horn of Jennifer Montone, refocusing the narrative drive. The Andante movement is Brahms is static from the start and Nezet-Seguin doesn’t bring anything other than an academic reading to it. Then Brahms’ famous recapitulation of that towering orchestral wave thunders in, but Nezet-Seguin admirably not leaning on its Brahmsian hook and making the composer’s non-crescendo ending a poetic statement. Along the way, Montone’s interplay with bassoonist Daniel Matsukawa a magical mise-en-scene.

After intermission, French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras bounded onstage with his 1796 cello and without fuss launched into Haydn‘s Cello Concerto in C Major. Queyras’ fluid approach to this pivotal baroque-classical hybrid by Haydn brings it out from under glass. His tones are sonorous and entrancing, during the cadenza, Queyras vibrantly exploring the implications of Haydn’s musical universe. Even though Queyras was in eye contact with Nezet-Seguin at any given time, he was driving this, meanwhile he had complete synergy with the reduced orchestra, and he was not in his own soloist zone. His passion in performing this was not lost on this audience.

Nezet-Seguin chose the full Suite from Suite from Der Rosenkavalier to close the program. Yannick has a special affinity to Strauss, but most instructive as Nezet-Seguin conjures the atmospherics, but also frames Strauss’ entire operatic drama. The internal drive calibrated by the chamber orchestra quality of the conductor’s circle, led by sumptuous violin leads by principal violinist David Kim.

Philadelphia Orchestra Nov. 29 (Juanjo Mena, conductor);Dec. 4 (Yannick Nezet-Seguin, conductor) performances in Verizon Hall, Philadelphia.

Classical Philly

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classical Philly

Phil Orch’s 40/40 Project

Conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin is programming compositions that haven’t been played by the Philadelphia Orchestra for many years. His ‘40/40 Project’ of works that are not in heavy concert rotation, is resulting in compelling program mixes. In October, his Russian program illustrated what this idea is really about, how Nezet-Seguin illustrates musical connections and threads living musical legacies, in this case works by Russian composers Alexander Glazunov, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Aram Khachaturian.

Alexander Glazunov’s ‘The Season’ and Rachmaninoff’s ‘Symphony no. 1’ were composed within a few years of each other in the late 1890s and the third work Khachaturian‘s Piano Concerto premiered in 1936. All huge, bombastic works with wildly different styles, but deeply embedded Russian musical DNA.

The Rachmaninoff Symphony disappeared after its disastrous premiere with Glazunov conducting. Among other mishaps, it was under-rehearsed. Afterward Rachmaninoff suffered a near nervous breakdown and the piece was not played again until 1945 and finally recognized as a masterwork of Russian repertoire. Khachaturian’s concerto suffered a similar premiere disaster in 1936, but much exalted in later performances.

The concert began with Glazunov’s The Seasons a ballet score and by now concert showpiece with glittering surfaces, but the orchestral sub-streams are just as compelling, and that salon waltz gliding in unexpected, in contrast to lead string phalanx spiking through Verizon Hall.

Jean -Yves Thibaudet bounded onstage, collar on his Vivian Westwood up, and game face on to tackle Khachaturian Piano Concerto, a signature work for Canadian pianist. Thibaudet instantly locked into the intense orchestral drama and his piano interplay was commanding from the start. Khachaturian develops is a fiery exchange between piano and orchestra, not a polite concerti dialogue. At times the piano is the percussive drive in this piece. Thribaudet was a man musically possessed with every line detail charging through mach speed keyboard runs punctuated with chromatic density that he kept translucent. Khatchaturian’s Georgian folkloric markers instructively accented by Nezet Seguin. Among the other standout soloist’s Peter Smith’s penetrating oboe line that gives way to the richest sonorities in the cellos.

Rachmaninoff Symphony no. 1 was the well chosen closer and stood up to the other pieces in robustness as a composition and as played, starting with the foreboding symphonic entrance, the orchestra’s brass retooling the acoustics. Rachmaninoff had a vibrant relationship with the Philadelphians and YNS pays homage to this legacy in his altogether vivid performance.

Later in the month, Russian maestro Vladimir Jurowski, principal conductor at London Philharmonic, is also a marquee draw when he guest conducts with the Philadelphians, where he typically elicits a distinct symphonic thrust from the players, which admirably, has nothing to do with volume.

Jurowski is fun to watch he stands bolt upright, with very centered physicality and his minimal moves are hynotic, and more important, you pick of the synergy between the maestro and the musicians. He is reflective of the musical mili-second. He also shows range. This program was book-ended by two sonic works- contemporary British composer Julian Anderson’s classical-jazz symphonics of Stations of the Sun and the metaphysics of Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra in its totality. In between, there was the crystalline classicism of Mozart.

Anderson’s Stations contemplates the seasons and the attendant human rituals in observing them. It is a time-lapse tone poem that keeps building in front of our ears. It opens with an upper and lower string pizzicato prologue that intensifies to a ping-ponging sound matrix, enter swirling woodwinds, then Japanese temple bells that cue percussive anarchy with sounds of ratchets, claps, gongs, tubular bells, xylophone, tom-tom and hidden bongo cool polyrhythm . The cross – current orchestral careens intriguingly into jazz symphonia, more Ellingtonian than Gershwinesque, Anderson makes the cross genres cinematic and earthy.

Next, Alina Ibragimova played Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 4 next to Jurowski off the podium encircled by two-dozen musicians for a plush chamber orchestra – size reading. Smart, unfussy conservatoire reading on the Allegro, and in the second movement, Ibragimova with so much line polish and interplay with the other musicians, easily showing interpretive mastery in the solo sections.

From Elvis fans to 200l: A Space Odyssey aficionados everyone knows Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathuthra’ ‘Dawn’ entrance, but there is a lot of music that comes after and Jurowski essays its full, if less dramatically sonic dimension. Also a tone poem in continuous segments- ‘Great Longing, Joys and Passions, Grave Song, etc. this is an epic symphonic arc.

Jurowski put his stamp on the famous opening not letting the organ rumble bottom out as the lingering sound concussive statement, he tightening the tension between the brass and strings. The crescendo is punched through the hall, thrillingly and the pick up of the thread had its own musical physics. Strauss’ structure The folkloric tone poems in the work bloom, with the ‘Dance Song’ another waltz time mise-en-scene appearing magically, David Kim’s lead violin lines just one of many thrilling performances by individual musicians in this piece.