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.

Cristal Palace glitters on Schuylkill River

Transe Express
CRISTAL PALACE
Philadelphia International Festival of the ArtsI
June 1-10
Schuylkill River, East River Drive

 

The 100 ft. arm of a crane loomed on a pristine bank of the Schuylkill River, ready to hoist the giant chandelier of for French troupe Transe Express PIFA musical spectacale the Cristal Palace a centerpiece 10-day performance that took place each night of the 10 day Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts.

The chandelier was actually a flying bandstand for the brass and string musicians who sat perched in metal nests at the end of the its ornate branches. on stage below them other musicians as well as a roaming cast of dancers, aerialists, singers and street performers portraying a gallery of characters.

The show opened with the Nobuntu, a capella quintet from Zimbabwe,  transported with a set of joyous and inspiring harmony and folkloric vocalizations. At twilight, the Palace chandelier was in motion over the stage and the musicians’ playing unfazed as they were careening around on the chandelier in tight musical medleys with the rhythm, string and keyboard musicians on the ground

Their playlist was an era transporting musical journey with everything from psychedelic gypsy rock, funkadelic and they saved the most muscle for some extended jazz journeys to cap things off, echoes of birth of the cool. When the big-band swing came in with a nod from the drummer to Glen Miller’s Sing, Sing, Sing, the crowd was on its happy feet. At one point the keyboardist  busted out his accordion and cued a  Klezmer waltz that led to a scene of music and visual European bohemian magic.

Meanwhile the cast of Comedia d’elle arte street performers from move thought the crowd. Mimes and dancers in various costumes, engaging the crowd, a chorus line of Alpine folk dancers, a glitter-bodice Moulin Rouge courtesan, a musty travesti clown, a glitter queen with frizzy hair. Dance mise-en-scenes ala Moulin Rouge from Can-Can gender fluid kick-lines, to sousey physical comedy as the bands, aloft and on the ground stage strung together street serenades, gypsy fiddling, brassy chandelier fanfares. A bit of a flyby of French social and folkloric dance history with Alpine polkas, Moulin Rouge Can-Can kick lines, Paris tango as well as Americana renditions of the Charleston, Lindy and  flashdance,

Vituouso trombonist Ernest Stewart came on in the finale with a ‘Soul Train’ theme intro, then the rest of the band burst out with funkadelia ala Isaac Hayes, the dance line in full soul diva & divo mode. As much as anything Cristal Palace broke out in a bacchanal dance party.

So infectious the esprit that toddlers and kids were the first ones to run around and dance, some mimicking the street performers, others who just naturally have the moves. At first glance Cristal Palace may have looked like a gimmicky PIFA spectacale, but by the middle of the performance it became a bona-fide happening in Fairmount Park

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.

 

 

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.

poetries

 

 

From Days of Mercury

 

prelude in transit

~”wordless darkness that underlies all verbal truth~Perhaps something only music could suggest”   -Timebends  by Arthur Miller

 

spiraling dissonance
dragged out of the ice basilica

Sutured behind a wing
vanished into sky

escaping through hands
Unwritten unspoken

swallowing the illusion
mourned to infinity

retold through time
vanquished eye
Secret away
witness from afar

catapulted yet saved in the steeled notes

banished from consciousness
but not lost finally
in the
precision of this music
conjured from the lines
Of  profane air

blessed  godless rune

sacred to itself

foretold by the wings of mercury

a prelude in transit
Riveted to his track
pulverized
then returned

this night

where these souls and eyes

dance again

 

 

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

Symphony in C
Agustin Hadelich, violin
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Gordon Theater, Rutgers-Camden

Conductor Rossen Milanov is a specialist in 20th century Eastern European and Russian rep symphonic classics, but outside of Tchaikovsky, he has not programmed much from the romantic era, but he closed out Symphony in C’s 13-14 season with a thrilling performance of romantic works – Robert Schumann Manfred Overture (1849), Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto (1864) and Brahms orchestral version of the Piano Quintet op. 25 (1861)- that could bring accusations that he‘s been holding out on us.

Even though the Gordon Theater wasn’t completely full, there was without doubt a sense of musical occasion in the air for the second appearance of Agustin Hadelich the 30 year old violin virtuoso, and that is a deserved tag, as he put his imprimatur immediately on Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Just a few bars of orchestral intro and Hadelich essays a commanding, unfussy entrance, his attack meticulous. The integral elements of the piece, seasoned control, instantly present as well as passionate playing.

But first the Manfred and Schumann was bloomed as more than a warm-up piece, showcasing the orchestra’s detailing and thrust.

Hadelich is technically hot in delivering the fine-line dimensions of this masterpiece and his crafting of the work as a whole is masterful. The cadenza sections couldn’t have been more reflective of the dimensions and ideas of Mendelssohn. The orchestra to an extend played second fiddle, not that he was upstaging, he just was that good. Meanwhile, Milanov had them razor sharp and equalized for every orchestral overlay and handoff. Beautiful structural support. The Mendelssohn was in the rank of Stern and Perelman, and in certain ways, perhaps even better. The tempos were quick, there was more tone weight in some of the more lyrical lines.

At the end the audience took a second then started bounding to their feet. Three calls for Mr. Hadelich and he returned and played the technically fiendish Paganini Capriccio no. 5; many in the string section didn’t take their eyes of his fingering. At the end another SO. People will be talking about this performance as in ’were you there the night.’

The closer, Johannes Brahms’ Piano Quintet in G minor, op. 25, transcribed for orchestra by Arnold Schoenberg in 1937, is so brilliantly played by this orchestra, you can easily believe they have been refining their performance for decades. It amply demonstrates the technical acumen of Symphony in C. and the clarity of Milanov’s musical directorship, since this is a professional training ground and young musician move on to other orchestras.

The vibrant horns in the rondo with engulfing burnished fanfares overtaking Brahms’ mannered theme, then the full gallop of the orchestra led by concertmaster Hannah Ji, with those dervish violin lines. Milanov’s conductor circle cello, violins bringing a crystalline lush salon enclave. Milanov lets the full orchestral passages reach sonic proportions, but with translucence. Also excellent oboist Rita Mites, and lead flutist Megan Emigh. This program shows this orchestra’s ensemble clarity and passion at its best.

JazzPhilly

Photo: Peter Lueders

Jon Batiste stops in Philly for Social Music</

Crossing musical borders in jazz and classical, blues, rap and R & B is composer-pianist Jon Batiste, the New Orleans, Julliard trained virtuoso who brings cross-cultural audiences together in the streets and in the concert hall.

Jon Batiste is under thirty and part of the new vanguard in jazz, but he sounds like he has been performing and creating music for much longer. He returns to the Kimmel Center this week for one night only with Jon Batiste and Stay Human that will cap off a month of jazz programming in April, which Philly designates as jazz appreciation month. After Philly, the group will perform at International Jazz Day in Newport, RI April 30 and at the New Orleans Jazz Fest May 3.

The bandleader spoke by phone from New York this week about the concerts “I love touring. The music has to go where you are inspired to go. It’s one of those things you can’t replace, the live experience,” he observes. It is the essence of what composer-pianist Jon Batiste calls ‘Social Music’ the title of the band’s 2013 recording.

Batiste is not only a gifted pianist; he is a singer with sublime jazz-blues phrasing for someone so young. He grew up as part of a famed musical family in a suburb of New Orleans, starting out with percussion instruments, At 11 his mother suggested he try piano. He studied at Julliard School in New York and has since won prestigious awards, and has performed in more than 40 countries. He is also artistic director-at-large for the National Jazz Museum of Harlem.

He recalls “loving” playing hear a few years ago as vocalist Cassandra Wilson’s pianist for her appearance in Philly on her Silver Pony tour. For his current concert, Batiste will be joined onstage by regular band members who are part of the new vanguard in jazz- alto saxophonist Eddie Barbash (alto saxophone), Ibanda Ruhumbika (tuba), Joe Saylor (percussion, Barry Stevenson (bass, banjo) and Jameson Ross (vocals). Ross also creates what the bandleader calls “atmospheric imagery.”

He described the playlist as “a mixture of material from Social Music, older stuff, then there is the unexpected the newest stuff that we’ve written and what happens with the interaction, the human exchange, with the audience in our shows, which could be anything,” he assures.

The Stay Human band members are close friends offstage, and says that the music “is definitely part of how we relate to each other as people. The musicians share the same philosophy that social music is the next phase in where we are going. My conception of music changes over time, it is beautiful to follow that path with brothers.”

He says young audiences are moving away from staid music categories as jazz and classical. “it’s normal for people to think of music and musicians in terms of genres and categories, because that‘s how we purchase our music. Music based on the genre system I think is changing now with streaming and things like that, putting all these different styles of music together in one place, so people are genre hopping whether they realize it or not, just by the nature of digital mediums now,” Batiste observes.

The Kimmel Center has been increasing their jazz programming and has hosted regular free concerts of jazz featuring salsa, Afro-Caribbean, big-bands, just to mention a few. Their current ‘jazz in residency’ series of programs features Philly-based trumpeter Josh Lawrence, saxophonist Bobby Zankel and percussionist Pablo Batista a that will culminate in performances of the completed work.

Jon Batiste and Stay Human on tour | Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center, April 25 |for a complete listing of jazz events go to http://www.kimmelcenter.org