JazzOrchestra

A Cole Christmas with Philly’s Jazz Orchestra

 Trumpeter Terell Stafford & Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia

 

JOP director Terell Stafford & Freddy Cole reunite in holiday concert

Kimmel Center, Philadelphia

Dec. 15

www.jophilly.org

Trumpeter Terell Stafford founded The Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia in 2014 and in five years they have covered a lot of musical ground with concerts that have represented every era of jazz- From the heyday of the big-bands, bebop, cool, progressive and contemporary compositions.

Every December though they revisit Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn holiday classic The Harlem Nutcracker. Philly Jazz legend Jimmy Heath so admired what Stafford and the JOP orchestra was bringing the piece that they should include it every year. Indeed, it is vintage Ellington magic, with jazz and blues riffs on Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet score.  But at key points JOP swings it more like the Basie Band.   The year, The Harlem Nutcracker is the opening act ‘A Cole Christmas’ with guest vocalist and pianist Freddy Cole, the latest in the orchestra’s stellar line-up of jazz giants to perform with the orchestra. Stafford said he has wanted to perform with Cole since JOP launched.

“Freddy’s worked with everyone and he is such a legend,” Stafford said in a phone interview earlier this month. “I first worked with him in Dizzy Gillespie’s band. And we’ve done recordings together.” Freddy Cole is among a handful of veteran jazz musicians who emerged after WWII as the great big-band era was coming to an end. Cole whose career spans 65 years and he still records and sings with jazz and symphonic orchestras around the world.  Cole is one of the standard-bearers of classic jazz vocal style, with indelible blues and jazz artistry. His brother was jazz titan Nat King Cole, who of course, sang the definite jazz Xmas classic version of Mel Torme’s ‘A Christmas Song.’

Cole is added to the list of jazz virtuosos who have performed with JOP so far including Wynton Marsalis, Jon Faddis and Philly vanguards The Heath Brothers, Larry McKenna, Bootsie Barnes, Benny Golson, Pat Martino. Add to that list Freddy Cole. “Yes, Freddy can do everything and more than anything if any pianist wants to know what the artistry of accompaniment is, they should listen to Freddy sing and accompany himself,” Stafford commented.

Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia continues to refine their sound. They regularly create new works for big-band and re-envisioned arrangements of standard repertoire. Most of the 17 musicians have been on the roster since the beginning and the line-up includes three generations of stellar musicians, mostly Philly-based musician-composers, all with their own separate careers. Trumpeter Brandon Lee is newest musician on the JOP roster that includes such heavyweight players as virtuoso saxophonists Dick Oates and Tim Warfield.  Stafford has limited tours with the band and several of the players perform with him as part of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra regularly at their regular Monday night sets at the Village Vanguard

JOP has limited tours, and their last performance in the Kimmel’s Verizon Hall was the premiere of a jazz adaptation of Gustav Holst’s ‘The Planets’ with each movement inspired by the Holst’s themes as jazz orchestral jumping off point. The event was in collaboration with NASA scientists and filmmakers, who screened live footage from space and the Mars landrover.

The performance was by all accounts one of the jazz highlights of the musical year in Philly. Stafford said “I have two recordings I really want to do. ‘The Planets’ would be great to record and document,” he said, but his first priority dream is to get all of the guest artists in the studio with the band and “to celebrate Philly jazz legends with all of those artists. “That is my top (recording) priority. I’m going to be optimistic about the funding.”

Meanwhile, Stafford, the virtuoso trumpeter is very much in demand. In JOP concerts he often doesn’t pick up his horn until the last numbers in the show.  Yet his solos are as warm and commanding as if he has been performing throughout the concert. Stafford will admit “yes, it’s easier actually to be playing all night when you have a solo. But I get so inspired by just listening to the improvisations of these musicians during our concerts together. It always a joy to listen to their artistry.”

The spotlight will be on Stafford’s solo playing when he performs as solo guest artist in with the 65-piece Philly POPS Orchestra, January 18-21 (www.phillypops.org).  Stafford and POPS Musical Director Michael Krajewski are creating an overture homage toDizzy Gillespie’s music and Stafford will be the led trumpet on tributes to Philly jazz titans John Coltrane and Lee Morgan. Jazz vocalist Dee DeeBridgewater will join Stafford onstage for a set from the Billie Holiday songbook.     

Trumpeter Terell Stafford (courtesy of Kimmel Center) 

DjangoLives….

All-Stars at Carnegie Hall, May 2018|

Django Festival All-Stars
Perelman Theater, Philadelphia
Nov. 3

The Django Festival Allstars  kicked off their current US tour in Philadelphia Nov. 3 with a 90 minute set as the premier artistic disciples of legendary guitarist-composer Django Reinhardt. The ensemble bringing Reinhardt’s artistic legacy and with new interpretations, variations and compositions bringing “gypsy jazz” to a new generation of avid fans.

Led by veteran guitarist/violinist Dorado Schmitt, his two sons Samson and Amati Schmitt on guitars and Franko Mehrstein, rhythm guitarist; filling out the AllStars accordionist extraordinaire Ludovic Beier, violinist Pierre Blanchard and bassist Gina Roman.

The AllStars are consummate musicians, virtuosic without doubt, but with a jam session vibe going,  constantly feeding off the energy of each audience.  Their one night only concert At the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater in Philly bringing the house down more than once.

Here are some random highlights.

 The AllStars ignited the night with a quick tempo arrangement of Cole Porter’s ‘Love for Sale’ turned into a foxtroty rhythm guitar of Samson Schmitt and Mehrstein, under Blanchard’s supple violin lede melody, and the spidery accordion of Beier, all spinning the room around. The audience was in Django ‘s world of “hot jazz’ of the 30s by the end of the song that spins the room spins around.

The All-Stars only played one track from their latest recording 2017’s Attitude Manouche and with Beier saying they were delighted to kick off their tour in “beautiful Philadelphie and we have some new songs” for the occasion.

Beier announced a composition called “Deep Sea Waters” (I think) he wrote the week before the concert. He states the theme with a run of a 16th note stream of accordion consciousness with, a mach speed tempo, quick step tango, that like the dance keeps getting more intricate. Pierre has a cadenza then Mehrstein takes the lead on rhythm guitar, along with the muscled counterpoint of bassist Gina Roman.

Next, Samson  Schmitt  introduced his composition” Lovely Wife” the only track the AllStars performed from “Attitude Manouche. ”  Samson’s Spanish-French guitar, backed by Beier and Blanchard atmospherics, is a true troubadour romanza.

They introduced “Dorado’s Smile” dedicated obviously to the leader of the AllStars. The tune is a accordion and guitar jam, A stop time dancey tune that in the dance hall of the 30s, couples who floor the floor for an at-ease Lindy hop.

Samson then introduced “the boss” his father Dorado and brother, fellow guitarist Amati Schmitt (in a suave satin floral jacket. A song from the film “Django.”  Dorado hit the full swing violin jump. The tempo akin to ‘One o’clock jump’ and the ambiance just transporting and hypnotic. The breathtaking passagio fiddling up and down the scale, tingled up and down your spine. The rhythmic gypsy jazz rondo and Dorado’s violin voicing reaching the stratosphere and Beier’s lightning speed on the accordion keyboard hypnotize, in this tune there was even a blue slide feel ala Fats Waller, along with some rowdy vocalizing by the rest of the band.

When Pierre was offstage, Dorado played the soulful ‘For Pierre’ a sentimental tribute to the musical artistry of Blanchard.

As astounding as Beier is on the accordion as a one man orchestra, he is spellbinding playing the accordina a mini-mouth accordeon powered by his own lungs, his fingers playing a keyboard. In a lengthy improvisational ballade (possibly End of a Love Affair) exemplar of his astounding breath control and keyboard dexterity.

The AllStars showcased the range of Reinhardt’s aesthetic and as proponents of “gypsy jazz” how it has infinitely many permutations, colors, themes, evocations and musical possibilities in its multi-national folkloric fusion. The encore had so much Eastern European & Russian folkloric (an echo of  Glinka?) DNA, maybe,  who knows, it’s all jazz as Sachmo famously said, and with the Django Festival AllStars, it still sizzles, catch them if you can on their current tour.

After Philly, the band was headed for New Jersey, then a five night run at Birdland in New York, a few nights in New England, onto Canada and then the West Coast.

Classical Philly

 

Kirill Gerstein (photo: courtesy Philadelphia)

 

French Tales

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Oct. 25, 26, 10.27.2018*

Camille Saint-Saëns: Danse Macabre, Op. 40

César Franck:  The Accursed Huntsman

Paul Dukas: Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Maurice Ravel:  Piano Concerto in G major

Suite no. 2 from Daphnis and Chloé

 

Louis Langrée, conductor

Kirill Gerstein, pianist

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra music director Louis Langrée returned to the Philadelphia Orchestra podium to conduct a sumptuous evening French repertory in what was one of the concert highlights of the year in Philadelphia across the board. Langrée also renowned as director of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, brings the same vibrancy to a program of Saint-Saens, Franck, Dukas and a Ravel’s Suite & the marquee draw of Ravel’s monumental concerto performed by Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein.

Langrée is a debonair, warm presence on the podium as he ignites Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre with a dimensional orchestral clarity. His tempos blazing a revelation and framing an equally fiery violin solos by concertmaster Juliet Kang, Kang’s signature lush tone and fiery fiddler drive in an altogether thrilling performance.

Next, Caesar Franck’s aggressive orchestral The Accursed Huntsman, a work full of brass and percussion pyrotechnics and other symphonic effects that fit the season. All fueled at full volume in this performance, but Langrée’s   fluid detailing during the less bombastic  passages to make it more than a showy showpiece.

Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice is pure fun and fitting for October’s last weekend and the orchestra, a Halloween seasonal favorite with those famous harrumphing bassoon motifs known to kids of all ages from Walt Disney’s Fantasia with Mickey Mouse commandeering a brooms to carting water. And child’s play with virtuoso bassoonists Daniel Matsukawa, Mark Gigliotti and Angela Smith (a scene stealing growler bassoon) not beyond vamping, but Langrée again giving equal luster to the rest of the piece.  (at some point a surreal moment did come for some of us in the audience when a mouse scurried across the aisle.)

Kirill Gerstein’s interpretation of Ravel’s masterpiece Piano Concerto in G, was the concert highlight of an evening of stellar musicianship. Gerstein’s command of every aspect of this masterpiece hypnotic to watch and his precision and interplay with the orchestra. In this performance the voicings of  jazz sinfonia deftly essayed by Gerstein. But all of the dimensions and mystique of this concerto inspiring his technical artistry.
Thrilling duet passages between Gerstein and principal harpist Elizabeth Hainen

Langrée stayed in Ravel’s musical universe for the altogether magical performance of Suite no. 2 from Daphnis and Chloé, Ravel’s illusory orchestral that still can has the contact high of a belle epoch opium den, that only the lusty applause by this audience would crash one back to reality. The orchestra just luminous throughout and among the outstanding soloists principal flute Jeffrey Khaner and actually all the way down the woodwinds.

In the three curtain calls Langrée expressed his already palpable rapport with the Philadelphians, shaking hands with several players and cuing every section of the orchestra to take ensemble bows.

DanceMetros

Pennsylvania Ballet
Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo & Juliet
Artistic director, Angel Corella
Staged by Julie Lincoln and Robert Tewsley
Academy of Music, Philadelphia
Oct. 11-21
http://www.paballet.org

Pennsylvania Ballet opened their 55th season with a strong production of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo & Juliet. Scored to Serge Prokofiev’s brilliant ballet score, MacMillan created this version of R & J at the Royal Ballet in 1965 and it stands as a contemporary story ballet masterpiece. PABallet artistic director Angel Corella, in his fifth year running the company, makes this production a glittering showcase for his new roster of corps dancers, star principals and soloists. Corella ambitiously continues to rotate several casts in the lead and supporting roles. Playing those doomed lovers on opening night were Principals Sterling Baca and Lillian Di Piazza are in a word, luminous.

MacMillan’s choreography requires interpretive acting and consistence technical artistry, by all of the lead dancers. This vital level of performance is established from the first scenes in the opening night performance. Much credit goes to the detailed staging by Julie Lincoln and Robert Tewsley. There is, indeed, plenty of ballet classicism, but

MacMillan doesn’t implant rote balletics that can be virtually interchangeable (something Balanchine didn’t hesitate to do) in different story ballets.
The houses of Montague and Capulet are sworn enemies in Verona. During a bacchanalia in the town square they taunt each other things get out of hand, swords are drawn and bodies start to pile up. Jermel Johnson brings full gravitas to Exacalus, radiating displeasure at the warring families and gets them, to lay down their swords. Meanwhile, this scene has some of the most thrilling sword fight choreography you will see in any ballet.

Of course, the rivalry reignites when the three masked Montagues crash Juliet’s coming out party, where she and Romeo dance and instantly fall in love. Meanwhile, Lord Capulet has arranged for Juliet to marry Paris, a young nobleman.
In the key supporting roles, soloist Albert Gordon turns in a defining performance as Mercutio. He is the rakish leader of the Montagues, looking out for his best pals Romeo and Benvolio, who is equally charming as performed by corps de ballet member Jack Sprance.

Principal dancer Ian Hussey is the protective and brutish Tybalt, a nephew of the Capulets, ready to fight anyone in his path and tries to keep Romeo away from Juliet. Hussey’s steely performance is pitch perfect and so is his every move.

Later back in the town square, Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt, to keep the peace, since he is now secretly married to Juliet. Mercutio, incensed at Tybalt’s taunts picks up the sword and challenges him. When Romeo tries to intervene, Mercutio is wounded. He staggers about, tries to make light of his injury and before he collapses points to the rival families and dances the equivalent of “A plague on both your houses.”

Di Piazza is perfection both as the dutiful young daughter, clutching her doll and hiding behind the skirts of her nurse, but she grows up fast after falling in love and can’t abide being away from Romeo. Company apprentice dancer Pau Poul makes the most of what can always be an invisible role as the spurned Paris. Also making the most of gestural character roles are PAB’s ballet master Charles Askegard and corps dancer Marjorie Feiring as Lord and Lady Capulet

MacMillan keeps the corps dancers animated with dance and character business in and the ensemble dances are top-notch in every act, from the noble court dance processional to the ensemble of six ballerinas, Juliet’s friend, in their elegant precision ensemble configurations. Their counterparts, the ensemble of men with mandolins, are equally charming.

There is comic relief along the way, drinking games and bawdy seductions by the town Harlots and at one point the gents are hidden in shredded ribbon outfits twirling like fire dancers, led by a hot acrobatic aerial solo danced by Peter Weil.

Of course, the center of the ballet is the doomed love story enacted by Baca and Di Piazza, and rising and falling on their partnering chemistry and combined artistry. Baca’s tours en ‘air have command and ballone (and the occasional ragged exit) and most importantly he is always the most attentive partner, never hydraulic in his lifts, for instance. These qualities are crucial within MacMillan’s aesthetic which requires equal lyricism and expression from both dancers. On top of her thrilling pointe work, and diamond hard arabesques, Di Piazza’s Juliet captivates from start to finish. At one point she drapes herself over Baca’s back in a precarious inverted position and is just held there, just one of the breathtaking moments in this couple’s performance.

The opulent sets and costumes by Paul Andrews, is so gorgeously suited for Philadelphia’s historic Academy of Music. This production also marks maestro Beatrice Jona Affron’s 25th season as PAB’s musical director and it is cause for celebration just to hear her masterful interpretation of Prokofiev’s brilliant ballet score. Affron brings full dimension to this score, from Prokofiev’s blazing horn heralds, and at the other end of the sonic spectrum, the aching, tender violin passages performed by soloist Luigi Mazzocchi.

,

PhillyStage

epic radical faerie realness =

judy

Taylor Mac

judy

A 24-Decade History of Popular Music

judy

at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts

 The undisputed house down performance at Philadelphia International PIFA was Taylor Mac’s A 24 Decade History of Popular Music at the Merriam Theater.

Mac’s opus features over two centuries of hit songs as a cultural document & interpreted through a social justice lens/ GLBTQueer fantasia by ‘judy’ Mac’s preferred pronoun because “my gender is performer.”

the nomenclature perhaps an homage to the great Judy Garland, who used to be called leather lungs, because of her versatility and vocal stamina, qualities that can certainly apply to Taylor Mac, previously performed in the uncharted time zone of 24 continuous hours, but for PIFA a still staggering 12 hour installments.Popular songs and music that annotate the cultural history of America, from decorous baroque of the late 17th century to our tumultuous and perilous times.

Part 1 covered 1776 to 1896 on June 2 covering music from 1776 to 1896 and on June 9, Philly Pride weeken spanning music from 1896 to the present. judy was joined at various times by over 30 musicians and other guests including Philadelphia Temperance Choir, dance troupes Urban Bush Women, Tangle Movement Arts, Camden Sophisticated Sisters/Distinguished Brothers and drag diva bestie Martha Graham Cracker. And working both shows onstage and in the audience the corps of ‘Dandy Minions’ of dancers, aerialists, burlesque performers and superdivas stomping the aisles.

The 246 song cycle showcasing among other things Machine Dazzle’s devastating radical faerie drag realness with judy transitioned into (with the help of dressers) in front of the audience.

I was only able to attend a chunk of four hours+ spanning the 60s-through the 80s~

by that time, judy had been on the Merriam stage for six or so hours- Here are just a few random highlights

First kudos to the incredible vocals of backup singers-soloists Steffanie Christ’an and Heather Christian.  judy’s blazing version of the Stones ‘Gimmie Shelter’ the scorching  duet with Christ’an was the house down as ‘judy’ turning it into a GLBTQueer anthem of liberte.

Bringing girl group realness to the Supreme 60s gay jukebox DL song “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.”  From “I’m Just a Soul (whose intentions are good)” to Nina’s Simone’s “Mother Goddamn” her searing j’accuse against racism in America.  judy gave the backstory of Simone appropriating an essentially minstrel tune structure in a searing  j’accuse against racism in America.

Judy mused on the parallels (and differences) of the black civil-rights movement of the 60s and the gay rights movement. judy providing local history about a son of West Chester PA, black gay activist Bayard Rustin organizing the march on Washington in 1963 and kept in the background by the movement leaders because he was an out black gay man.

judy talked about the protests in San Francisco and historic Stonewall riots, the queens who fought back on the weekend that Judy Garland died. He sang ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ finished off with “over the rainbow” on piano.  A member of the audience portraying dead Judy Garland, was carried out in a spontaneous cortege over the stage and down the aisles with the Dandy Minions in fab funeral drag.

The gay sexual liberation of the 70s transitioned to the catastrophic decade of death, survival and solidarity in queer America.  Judy inspired by the uncompromised gay firebrands of ACT-UP Larry Kramer and Maxine Woolf as inspiration to create unapologetic confrontation through civil action and public performance art.

Judy exalted the soundtracks sex in 70s gay club backrooms, where between hookups “one minute you could be talking about Foucault, the next Cher.” Refusing to be shamed about anonymous sex, joking that it was indeed an intimate experience, consider the truism “a stranger knows something about you that your mother will never know.”

Looking for songs specifically composed by out gay men during the worst years of the AIDS epidemic in New York, when record producers were blocking any GLBTQ expression. judy found a searing testament of courage with out gay British songwriter Marc Almonds’ dirge ballade about grim realities of the disease and the inhumanity that PWAs faced in the 80s.

judy’s raucous survival manifesto through the AIDS years a mash-up of Led Zeppelin’s titanic Kashmir with the static disco frenzy of ‘Stayin Alive.’ judy’s vocal prowess seems almost in a category by itself, judy can turn something like the musically static ‘Addicted to Love’ turned into a polemic against the ‘moral majority’ movement of Christian evangelists and political hypocrites who demonized the gay community and called for PWAs to be put in camps and branded.

judy was loathe to learn his “Snakeskin Cowboy” (about “fag bashing” Nugent proudly said publicly) judy nevertheless turned the song into an ironic cautionary tale about washed up homopanicked fossil rockers.

Judy slipped into a blinding Purple sequined jumpsuit with a glitter Mohawk headdress to perform “the best make out song ever” singing Prince’s “Purple Rain” perched on the Merriam Theater balcony ledge.

Even after eight hours of performance, perfect pitch, even in an air pocket or two. balladeer, B’way belter, soulful chanteuse, art song artiste. judy’s muscled baritone on Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain is Going to Fall” the song reaches dramatic heights that Dylan’s limited vocal ability could not and all of Dylan’s poetry is realized.

On Bowie’s “Pretty Things” judy is the equally powerful falsetto queen and is the baritone crooner on ‘Heroes’ a manifesto of sexual freedom, and accompanied by the burlesque troupe in leather in the balconies, for some acrobatic sex,

Inflatable Macy’s Day Parade size penises of the American and Russian flags are floated & come together.  judy weighs in with scathing editorial as the gasbags deflate.

The transitions from era to era with judy being changed in Extravaganza symbolic costumes in front of the audience, when judy is near naked, it was symbolic too, of this full throated, thrilling performance. She evokes the ghost of Judy at Carnegie Hall, who told  the audience in 1962, that they can stay all night and she can sing them all. In Philly for Pride Weekend judy took everybody over and back through the GLBTQueer rainbow, not only singing the history of pop music, but reclaiming our history through theater, music and drop dead diva drag.

 

 

 

 

Classical Philly

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca |Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica: Libretto

Verizon Hall, Philadelphia, May 12, 16 & 19, 2018
Jennifer Rowley (Tosca); Yusif Eyvazov (Mario): Ambrogio Maestri (Scarpia): Richard Bernstein (Angelotti); Ehtan Lee (Shepherd Boy)
Philadelphia Symphonic Choir, Joe Miller (director); Philadelphia Boys Choir Jeffrey R. Smith (director)
James Alexander (designer and stage director); Jon Weir (lighting design)

Baritone Ambrogio Maestri & Soprano Jennifer Rowley in Tosca (photo: Jessica Griffith

Philadelphia Symphonic Choir & Philadelphia Boys Choir in Tosca

Since Yannick  Nézet-Séguin became musical director of the Philadelphia Orchestra five years ago, he has tried to stage operas in Verizon Hall, by design not easy, since the orchestra is not in a pit, but onstage during performances. It works well enough with minimalist operas like “Bluebeard’s Castle” and “Electra” where the singers able to perform in front of the musicians, but more  problematic for the semi-staged production of Puccini’s Tosca, in a semi-staged production with the singers ensconced on a platform in the choir loft. Stage director David Alexander having to move the cast block the loft tiers, making the scene focus diffuse and somehow static and scrambled at once.

On the ps side the orchestra is in sight for the whole performance, a rare chance in grande opera to take in aspects of singers-conductor- orchestra dynamics. Further, Nézet-Séguin is able to vault the orchestra’s voluptuous sound, and otherwise igniting Puccini’s symphonics at the outset. Nezet-Seguin specializes in equalizing large scale classical pieces with famous stand alone passages familiar to concert hall audiences.  Tosca’s famous arias and dramatic passages are landed in context by the Philadelphians with precision and balance, relative to the entire score.

And handling the most dramatic ones, Soprano Jennifer Rowley as Tosca, and stepping in at the last minute for an ailing Sonya Yoncheva.  At the May 16  Rowley seemed detached and with little passion in Act I’s scenes with tenor Yusev Eyvazov, who played her artist lover, Mario. Since Flora Tosca is a singer herself, Rowley was a bit underpowered and detached portraying flirty jealousy. She made up for it in Act II when she tries to save him from being tortured by Baron Scarpia, starting with her ‘Vissi d’arte’ aria.

The drama begins as Cesare, bass Richard Bernstein  (making the most of his short dialogue passages) an escaped political prisoner is being hidden, in the church by a sousey Sacristan. In pursuit is Scarpia, wealthy chief of police, who suspects that Cavaradossi and Flora are withholding information.  Scarpia arrests Mario to force Tosca to talk about what she knows of Cesare whereabouts.

Baritone Ambrogio Maestri is the dastardly Scarpia, who later blackmails Tosca into being his lover.  She bends to his will as she hears Mario being tortured in his cell. Rowley and Ambrogio have great adversarial chemistry. Scarpia can certainly be portrayed with over the top villainy, but Maestri tamps that down as an actor and vocally to his characterizations, his baritone bringing subtlety and breadth.

Rowley has to be convincing leading him on until she can make a move to help Mario.  She unleashes  her soaring gold soprano, particularly commanding upper vocal range surfing over Puccini’s the orchestral crescendos. Yusev Eyvazov’s brings the house down in the famous “E lucevan le stelle” aria with thundering classic tenor drama.

Bass Kevin Burdette is used as comic relief as the Sacristan, swigging from a flask and flouncing about as he leads the choir to distracting the guards & protect Caesare.

Director James Alexander lets the Philadelphia Boys Choir scamper around the seats and rock out a bit for their sacred hymn “Te Deum.” The adult members of the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir are costumed as soldiers, police and townsfolk, but there is not much for them to do. Boy Soprano Ethan Lee appears as Shepard in Act II in perfect voice, both ethereal and earthy.

Nézet-Séguin was animated and even had a few new dramatic conductor moves to punctuate the crescendos. He looked like he was having a great time, going for every dimension of the score, despite production limitations. Among the standout soloists Jeffrey Khaner (flute), Hai- Ye Ni and Priscilla Lee, lead cellos, CJChang, viola,  David Kim, violin; Richard Woodhams, oboe and the breathtaking horn herald that launches Act III by the always masterful Jennifer Montone.

Nézet-Séguin is now conductor designate at the Metropolitan Opera and has already been putting his stamp on the Met Orchestra. Meanwhile, he is showing equal flair in the sustained clarity, detailing and character of Puccini with The Philadelphians. In fact, so assured, that even though Yannick had the score in front of him, he barely seemed to look at it.

Other issues swirled around the three performance of Tosca and the regular concert season closing concerts with piano superstar Helene Grimaud.  The performances were met with protesters objecting to the orchestra’s tour of Israel, because of current policies concerning and conflict with Palestinians.  The orchestra asserts that their tour is not political and their mission is one of musical diplomacy.  Stay tuned.

 

 

~BalletMetros~

PABallet’s Court Dances
Pennsylvania Ballet
Grace and Grandeur
Merriam Theater, Philadelphia
April 5, 2018
The Pennsylvania Ballet was a near sell-out at the Merriam Theater for their Grace and Grandeur program, artistic director Angel Corella’s showcase for classical court dance lineage laced through Marius Petipa’s Paquita which premiered at the Bolshoi in 1847, George Balanchine’s Theme and Variation 1947 first staged at Ballet Theatre in New York, and even laced though moments of Christopher Wheeldon’s 2006 virtuosic male quartet in For Four.

As old as Paquita is, it bypasses being a brittle period divertessment through the effervescent of Ludwig Minkus’ ballet music.  Even though conductor Nathan Fifield and Ballet Orchestra brought out all of its musical elan, the corps de ballet women, uncharacteristically, struggled up front with ensemble unison, wayward pointe work and scrambled pacing in the transitional steps. In contrast, featured dancers Nayara Lopez, Yuka Iseda, Oksana Maslova and Alexandra Hughes followed with their solo variations, all performing with glittering technique.  Kudos also to exquisite harp solos by Mindy Cutcher.  In the concluding ensemble scenes, the corps de ballet returned with more cohesive focus, especially sharp on Minkus’ showdance prestos.

Of course, most of the focus is on Principals Mayara Pineiro and Arian Molina Soca exuded so much charm, their technical artistry and chemistry conveying virtuosic command. The Merriam stage seemed to confining for Soca in his thrilling jetes around the perimeter. And huge scissoring battement and stag leaps, and signature saute de basque sequences. An extended turn sequences did fall apart in its final rotations, but by then the audience was already dazzled for good reason. Pineiro’s fiery artistry and deportment is breathtaking. Pineiro nailing over 30 fouettes (many with lashing double turns) like a spinning diamond.

Mayara Pineiro & Arian Molina Soca with PABallet corps de ballet in Paquita

(All photos: Rosalie O’Connor)

 

For Four is a dazzling showcase for a quartet of men dancing abstractly to
Schubert’s String Quartet. The score’s taut string interlocks fuel Wheeldon’s neoballetic/postmodern phrases, that he punctuates with court jester bows, stag leaps, bows, tornadic pirouettes and darting arrow jetes ala Paul Taylor.

(l-r) Peter Weill, Sterling Baca, Zecheng Laing & Jermel Johnson~For Four

Sterling Baca is stoic and steely in his technical artistry.  Zecheng Laing a most lyrical dancer as his body arcs to the side, then he bolts over the stage in razor sharp allegro steps. Jermel Johnson in graceful command with unfussy and floaty jetes and entrechats. Peter Weill’s at ease phrasing the definition of  fleet and assured technique.

This piece was built for modern danseurs, and Corella was in the original, but when it is stars outdoing each other it doesn’t come alive, but this foursome was as ‘connected’ as the strings in Schubert’s score, led by the master violinist Luigi Mazzocchi.

Theme and Variations is one of Balanchine’s more inventive ballets in its distillation of Russian Imperial Ballet classicism. Balanchine is straightforward in showcasing the dancers without tangling them up as he does in many of his larger works. But the quick tempo classicism does require clean and sustained technique is a glittering showcase for both the corps de ballet women and men. Throughout the Balanchine’s morphing ensemble geometrics, the unison lines, pointe work and group port de bra, the corps de ballet women on top of their game in Theme and Variations. The full mens corps also near perfection in their unison jumps and deportment in the ballroom partnering sequences.

Dayesa Torriente & Sterling Baca and corps de ballet~ Theme and Variations

Baca was back, most impressively and his partner Dayesa Torriente deepened their onstage chemistry after their dazzling performances Siegfried and Odette/Odile last month in Swan Lake.

Corella’s range of updated classical repertory has been paying off artistically and commercially. Just a month after his streamlined version of Swan Lake, a retro-update styled after Petipa/Ivanov definitive version, was a near sell-out even with questionable edits to the score.  Next month he mounts Jewels, George Balanchine’s three ballet opus with its penultimate distillation of Imperial Ballet Classicism in Diamonds.

 

ClassicalPhilly~

 

Turkjazz & Russian Musical liberation

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Lahav Shani, Conductor

David Bilger, trumpet

Verizon Hall, Philadelphia March 24

conductor-pianist Lahav Shani

(photo: Marco Broogreve)

 

In March, Israeli conductor Lahav Shani made an impressive Philadelphia Orchestra debut with a substantive program that showed, among other things, his interpretive range of repertory, in this case Stravinsky’s Firebird and Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony, already ambitious, and a piece by classical-jazz fusionist composer Christian Lindberg. Based on his concerts here it is no surprise that  29- year old conductor  is succeeding Yannick Nezet-Seguin this year as chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and is also conductor designate of the Israeli Philharmonic and following the towering tenure  Zubin Mehta in 2020-21.

Swedish composer Lindberg’s Akbank Bunka for trumpet and chamber orchestra, transcribed here for the full Philadelphia Orchestra with principle trumpet David Bilger the soloist. Lindberg has faint echoes of from Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain to Ravel and risks a pastiche quality. During Akbank, the first movement, the solo trumpet seems in its own zone, and Bilger projecting a pristine, even studied precision. The work bursts open up midway through, with staccato note runs and steely voicings by Bilger that just engulf the concert hall and soar in concert with the orchestra, with driving interlocks and sonic vaults and blue note eloquence. Then Lindberg’s second and third movements, Turkjazz, just break out into a rowdy percussive soundfield and Bilger’s blazing horn as cool as the midnight sun.

From the first rumbling basso architecture of Stravinsky’s ‘Firebird Suite’  Shani summoned Stravinsky’s earthy, atmospheric symphonic power. The ballet score has lost none of its luster 100 years later  in this 1919 ‘Suite’  when it is conjured in such vivid and seductive orchestral magic.  Shani brings out its dynamic rhythmic drive, clearly and subtly, there is translucence that reveals feral flight of  The Firebird that soars on the lushness of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s famous strings. Jeffrey Khaner flute igniting this Firebird with mythic purpose and luminous power.

Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony, composed during WWII, when Sergei was under the complete control of Stalin’s music union aka his board of censors dispatched to kill works for being too polluted with western ideas and condemning composers out of favor, based on dictates by Stalin. Prokofiev was in favor having produced film scores to Eisenstein’s films Ivan, the Terrible and Alexander Nevsky, and was under state commission to write the nationalist opera adaptation of War And Peace.

The 5th was an immediate hit and like the other works of this period Prokofiev was able to subvert the restrictions on ‘Western’ music. His music of this era had USSR requisite Nationalist bombast to cover for Prokofiev’s inner humanist and emotionally expressive ideas roiling below the surface, a tucked into the chamber mise-en-scenes. A hidden artistic statement aimed at freeing the hearts and souls of the Russian people, beyond the tyrant Stalin and his oppressive regime.

In this performance, the first movement struck as a bit diffuse. But the Allegro and Adagio movements were crystalline and engulfing Verizon Hall with Prokofiev’s soulful narrative, which Shani brought in its full dimensions.

ClassicalPhilly

 

 Revisiting Lenny at 30

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Verizon Hall, March 17, 2018
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Leonard Bernstein: Symphony No. 2 for piano and orchestra
Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 4
Richard Strauss: Don Juan

Canadian pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet (photo courtesy Philadelphia Orchestra)

Yannick Nézet Séguin continued the season long centenary tribute to Leonard Bernstein with a bit of a rarity for the Philadelphia Orchestra with Bernstein’s Symphony no. 2, The Age of Anxiety and two repertory favorites that Yannick clearly loves conducting.

Canadian pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet was soloist for Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2, for piano and orchestra, composed in 1949, Lenny himself at the keyboard in its premiere performance. Inspired by W.H. Auden’s poem ‘The Age of Anxiety’ Bernstein orchestrating a late night intellectual jam session of urban denizens out of an Edward Hopper painting. Lenny has a lot of compositional jumping off points and it has both an adventurous and derivative orchestral narrative.

Thibaudet strode on the Verizon Stage all smiles, dressed in an Elvisy copper shark-skin jacket that matched his relaxed charm. The score was in front of him, but he was playing chunks of it from memory, but at several points leaning intensely into the charts. Meanwhile his engagement with the orchestra impressed as he powered through Bernstein’s stylistic complexities. A less focused performance by the orchestra would have exposed the symphony’s pastiche quality.

The weakest elements are Bernstein’s foray into jazz chromatic flights ala jazz innovator Thelonious Monk. Bernstein hedges his bets, careening to more conservative stride piano vamps. Meanwhile, there are Copland-esque symphonic progressions, but more interesting is thematic peeks into Bernstein’s oeuvre- passages that are prescient to his MASS, and there are some cinematic sonic waves foreshadowing his soon to be composed score to the film On the Waterfront, and certainly brazen urban sensibility that fuels West Side Story.

Of course Bernstein’s crowded keyboard runs, hand over hand dexterity and note clusters that accelerate to a point that they seem to be crashing like waves in the concert hall. Thibaudet brought all of the technical drama of those passages, without pounding, and most admirable delicacy enough that during the largo passages- lucid, as a resolve, not merely sonic contrast.And it is also concerto for orchestra and Lenny uses everyone. Stunning harp counterpoints by principal Elizabeth Hainen and soaring woodwinds led by oboist Peter Smith.

Nezet Seguin has expressed musical love for the works of both Robert Schumann and Richard Strauss, he has conducted and recorded their repertoire with many orchestras around the world.  The Philadelphians brought the 4th to its full dimension in this performance from the subtlest distant echoes of baroque forms to its full throated lush salon symphonics that hint at modernism.

The closer was Strauss’s one-acter Don Juan that YNS delivers like a walk in the park brassy showpiece, but every detail is present. The lush salon orchestral mise-en-scene. Jennifer Montone, exquisite leads with the supporting hornists in the codas blazing heralds.

PhillyDanceMetros

BalletX dances for Spring

It still might be cold outside but BalletX dancers are already burning the floor at the Wilma Theater in an otherwise chilly Philly. Where else but BalletX can you hear the sizzling mambo of Tito Puente, Marvin Gaye’s ultimate 70s dance groove “Got to Give It Up” and the classical fire of live musicians from the Curtis Institute performing onstage with the dancers.

Opening the concert is choreographer Darrell Grande Moultrie ‘Vivir’ scored to Latin jazz and salsa music that he loved hearing growing up in Spanish Harlem. From the driving acoustic guitar of Rodrigo y Gabriela to the sultriest orchestrals by Tito Puente, Grand Moultrie fusion of ballet pointe work and salsa.

(All photos by Bill Hebert)

Gary W. Jeter in Gran Moultrie’s ‘Vivir’

Dancers fly on and offstage, joining each other in pulsing ensemble configurations, trio and duets. Gary Jeter remains onstage and dancing a soul searching solo to Bebo B. Cigala’s bittersweet ballade Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar. Gary Jeter and Francesca Forcella frequent partners lead the sensual, fluid motion duets

Matt Neenan’s premiered ‘Increasing’ in 2014 at Vail International Dance Festival with the company joined by New York City Ballet guest stars Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild. The ballet looks just as good in its Philadelphia premier with the BX roster dancing those solo sections and joined by the stellar musicians from the Curtis Institute of Music on stage with them performing Schubert’s String Quintet C Major.

In flamenco it is called duende and the synergy when dancers are in the direct zone of live musicians, and the ballet is exemplar of the potential of that dynamic as well.  Neenan’s choreography so inspired by the propulsion and introspection of Schubert’s chamber music, more than any implied narrative. The ensemble in quicksilver configurations that flock and scatter. Neenan punctuating with aerial variations and liberated pointe work.

Jenny Winton & Zachary Kapeluck  Neenan’s ‘Increasing’

Caili Quan’s mach speed pirouette entrance with her arms sculpted close to her sides. Quan and Skyler Lubin in a jaunty balletic unison duet and Richard Walters and Roderick Phifer in their own mirroring duet. The push-pulls of the violin interplays of Eunic Kim and Piotr Filochowski as hypnotic as the dancing. And this is a Neenan signature to keep the music an equal element on the dance stage.

Flash dance partnering spring from the taut string dialogue between the violins, then another dancer may fly on and pick up the undercurrent bassline by cellists Glenn Fischbach and Branson Yeast, or the counterpoint of violist Yoshihika Nakano. Kudos to former Pennsylvania Ballet II and Joffrey dancer Jenny Winton for subbing for company member Chloe Perkes who is recovering from an injury.

Roderick Phifer in McIntyre’s ‘Boogeyman’

Trey McIntire scored a huge hit “Big Ones” set to a song cycle by the late R&B singer Amy Winehouse, but as cleverly idiosyncratic his choreography was, it didn’t emotionally connect to the music in key ways. McIntyre’s “Boogeyman” does. There is an esprit, wit and a floating narrative of a young man expressing himself via the music to 70s pop hits. Roderick Phifer is alone in his bedroom plugged into his bulky headphones (I know, who would have guessed that they would be back) that turns into a witty, joyous, bittersweet drama of a breakup between enacted by dancers Roderick Phifer and Andrea Yorka.
Phifer has period headphones on hunched over and start some unhooked moves to one of the club megahits starting with Gaye’s ‘Got to Give it Up.

‘Boogeyman’ BXers

Phifer explodes into full on funk moves punctuated with vaults and somersaults over his bed. A quartet of partiers saunter on, they are dressed in 70s show drag and McIntyre revives Soul Train dance line moves with witty samplings of proto-break, robotic and wave choreo and who can forget those deep plié gyrations. As they funk down the line, Andrea Yorita and Phifer circle a phonebooth that might be the scene of their breakup. off and Andrea Yorita is in a state of catatonia in the bed but starts to express the angst sung out by Leo Sayer’s heartbreaker ‘Alone Again Naturally.’ Later Phifer and Yorita dance their fated lover’s tale to Stevie Wonder’s soul search lovers’ ballade ‘Never Dreamed You’d Leave Me In Summer.’ Earth, Wind and Fire’s ‘September’ party on luster  is McIntyre’s liberated dancing that soars in the bodies of this ensemble.