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.

World of Music

Philadelphia Orchestra
Robert Spano, conductor
Benjamin Beilman, soloist
Verizon Hall, Feb. *26, 27-28

What could be a more potent evening of a mix of music by Claude Debussy and Jennifer Higdon, so it was disappointing to see empty seats in Verizon Hall for the first of three concerts.

Hidgon has commissions world over, lives in Philadelphia and couldn’t do us more proud as not only one of the composers of her generation and at the height of her creativity. Higdon was on hand for the pre-concert series LiveNotes, to talk about music with Robert Spano and soloist Benjamin Beilman, a virtuoso 25 year old was playing Higdon’s 2010 Pulitzer Prize awarded Violin Concerto which she composed for the towering talents of Hilary Hahn in 2008, also a Curtis alum.

The concert opened with a rote reading of Debussy’s Sunken Cathedral a lush tone poem (orchestration by Stokowski). The piece had a studied quality in the first half, but fully bloomed with those full symphonic surges awakening its mystique. In contrast, the orchestra locked instantly in fiery form with Higdon’s Violin Concerto, over three movements that shape -shift conventions and bristles with unexpected musical ideas. The first movement, 1726, is titled for the street address of the Curtis Institute, a musical homage to the roster, past and present, of Curtis’ young virtuosos.

Beilman carving those scratchy, exploratory string lines, surfing the edge of dissonance, then gliding with sonorous command. Hidgon devises not only a framework for the soloist, but on an equally compelling parallel violin track played by associate concert master Juliet Kang. Kang and Beilman weave in and out of the concerto’s orchestral crosscurrents that never engulf; Higdon’s chamber music inner circle of lead cellos, violas and violins in sumptuous interplay.

There are effects with celesta and xylophone simmering and fast fades to lingering bent-notes that echo Asian minimalism. Beilman’s lead breaks to torrential solo passages of fiendish speed (the breakneck technique required a given). His mature tone and phrasing displaying both control and interpretive skills.

Higdon came onstage hugging Spano and Beilman to a rowdy and deserved standing ovation. Higdon’s Blue Cathedral is her somber and serene tone poem and musical elegy. The arc of this is Debussian, ethereal lower strings, eloquent and serene lines with the players fading out by ringing metal ball cymbals.

As fiery and detailed as the orchestra performed the first movement of Debussy’s Iberia, the following two sections struck as underpowered and even hazy at key points. But, this fade-out hardly takes away from an altogether vibrant musical evening.

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.

BooksBooksBooks

Ludwig unplugged
Beethoven | The Man Revealed
By John Suchet

Beethoven The Man Revealed is John Suchet’s unconventional biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, that does indeed reveal the flawed, tragic man behind the iconic artist. Suchet acknowledges that much of this is well-trod material, from sources long out of print and has never been organized and told in a single modern volume. Suchet, a BBC classical radio host and Beethoven scholar, explains in his afterward to the book that his is not a bio for musicologists, but for the interested lay reader. Indeed, the composer‘s messy life is as dark, enigmatic and majestic as some of this music.

Beethoven was a tortured artist, egotistical, sometimes maniacal genius in very distilled terms. Almost all of Beethoven’s triumphs were accompanied by calamity or near disaster. Few people realize that he started to have trouble with his hearing while still in his 20s, was plagued with several health problems in his life and that he was a lonely man unlucky in love. The author gives a fascinating, if incomplete account, vis-à-vis the musical universe Beethoven created. Suchet deftly condenses the musicological aspects and makes it vital to the narrative of the composer’s life. Not a small feat.

Suchet’s is confident in reconstructing dialogues between Beethoven and some of his family members and musical contemporaries that fill in narrative gaps, sometimes with his own fertile imagination. Some of which, however authentic, can be read with caution, even skepticism.

In contrast, Suchet’s authority is in little doubt as he recounts, for instance, the raucous premiere of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Beethoven, by then was almost completely deaf, conducting the musicians and singers some of whom almost stormed out of the performance because of the unprecedented musical demands of the work. There even had to be a shadow conductor behind Beethoven, as insurance that it would come off, since Beethoven couldn’t reliably hear the musicians.

Beethoven volatile personality is front and center throughout the book, puncturing more romantic perceptions. Ludwig often acted out with vengeance when crossed. Beethoven was head of his blood family at a young age. He hated his father, a minor composer and musician, who became raging alcoholic to the extreme embarrassment of his son. His often toxic relations with his brothers continued through his life. After his brother Carl died, he tried cruelly took legal action to separate his wife Johanna from their son Karl. Beethoven used his clout to lay legal claim to his nephew as his own. Even though he cared for him financially, his tyrannical ways drove his nephew away..

Beethoven’s problems though, rarely interfered with his composing and as his fame grew through Europe, he was becoming a more and more isolated and eccentric celebrity. He became an object of ridicule for his unkempt appearance and erratic public behavior in Vienna. Adding to the tumult the fact that the city was repeated in the path of the Napoleonic wars and under repeated siege. Still Beethoven was visited by royals and connected patrons; as well as his musical contemporaries from Schubert to Haydn to Rossini. It is an amazing tale of a singularly brilliant career. Touching, incisive and in the end chapters, even symphonic, Suchet’s biography of Beethoven is engrossing and disquieting portrait of an elusive, brilliant and troubled artist.