Terrence Blanchard~The E Collective~Turtle Island Quartet Andrew Scott | Gordon Parks: An Emphatic Lens

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Jazz, jazz-classical, musicians, performance

Jazz virtuoso Terrence Blanchard is currently on an international tour with his stellar E-Collective Quartet performing music from their  Blue Note release ‘Absence.’ Joining them on this tour is the string ensemble Turtle Island Quartet and the group was in Philadelphia Oct 12. for a one-night only concert at Penn Live Arts Annenberg Center Mainstage.

The lobby of the Annenberg filled up for Blanchard’s pre-show conversation with University of Penn music scholar Guthrie Ramsey. Blanchard recalling his days as a young musician working with jazz legends Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, and Art Blakey, but also praising his early music teachers who encouraged Blanchard to seek his own path beyond their syllabus of all classical training

And that is something Blanchard continues to do, expand his musical reach, on all fronts, musically and otherwise collaborating with different genres and artistic forms. The Penn concert a multi-media performance in tribute to jazz master Wayne Shorter and /photographer Gordon Parks.

Visual artist Andrew Scott’s Gordon Parks| The Emphatic Lens screen behind the players with live shots of the musicians superimposed on the film in real-time.

The voice of Gordon Parks is heard as a montage of his photographs appear on the backdrop screen behind the musicians as guitarist Charles Altura, pianist Taylor Eigsti, bassist David Ginyard Jr and drummer Oscar Seaton open with title track ‘Absence’. (Ginyard) and a few bars in Terrence Blanchard saunters onstage plays a lush trumpet lead that just entrances as it engulfs the amphitheater.

The start of a 100- minute set of music from ‘Absence’ with its era mixing genres with focus the dynamic sounds and innovations of 70s era electronic genres. A journeying mix of jazz-funk, blues, ballade, hardbop, electronica and contemporary classical music fusion with The Turtle Quartet.

On Blanchard’s composition ‘I Dare You’ with string passages by the Turtle Quartet with a driving Beethoven-esque riff that gives way to the Collective’s rowdy jazzfunk orchestral. the title a quote Shorter when someone asked him how he would define jazz music and Shorter’s response was ‘I Dare You.’

Ginyard’s ‘The Vision’ is an elegantly somber string piece with a sonorous cello bassline, with Taylor’s bluesy electronica chambers swirling around and Seaton splitting atoms on the drums.

 Dark Horse- Charles Artura’s Dark Horse a trippy blues guitar, passionate and mystical West Coast atmospherics. The E Collective’s interplay with the Turtle Island is equally dynamic, in its agency and play between traditional classical forms and jazz, blues and progressive genres.

The concert concluded with music from Blanchard’ release ‘Breathless’ and explained that the E Collective wanted to inspire young musicians to play different jazz genres, focusing on electronica and fusion. But in the wake of more gun violence, he explained, “with young people getting gunned down in the streets, Blanchard noted ” we changed our purpose.’   The group visited “cities, where there was gun violence and there was (opportunity) for civic engagement and played a concert.” The music on Breathless “dedicated to social workers in our communities.”

The final extended selection a scorching social statement ‘I Can’t Breathe’ and in recognition of the Black Lives Matter movement Seaton’s solo opening an edgy jazz orchestral then Artura’s, Guiney & Eigsti in aggressive counterpoint to Seaton’s ballistic beat, and Blanchard blazing trumpet primal scream & afterburn, ala Hendrix, of the Star-Spangled Banner.

Blanchard has continued to be a jazz innovator as well as performing, recording, and teaching. He is the first Black composer to have his work staged at The Metropolitan Opera with ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’ based on the memoir by NYT’s writer Charles Blow, which opened their post-pandemic 2021 season.

DanceMetros

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Choreographers, dancers, musicians

Mark Morris Dance Group

Pepperland

Penn Live Arts-Annenberg Center

Philadelphia,

May 6-8, 2022

http://www.pennlivearts.org

Pepper land dress rehearsal and press night. Images by Gareth Jones

~Pepperland cast May 2022

Karlie Budge, Domingo Estrada, Jr., Lesley Garrison, Sarah Haarmann, Courtney Lopes, Aaron Loux,
Taína Lyons, Matthew McLaughlin, Dallas McMurray, Brandon Randolph, Nicole Sabella, Christina Sahaida,
Billy Smith, Noah Vinson, Malik Q. Williams

I’d Love to Turn You On…

 Choreographer Mark Morris’ dance animation of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, with a half a dozen of its songs with re-imagined by composer-pianist Ethan Iverson, with some original orchestral interludes conjuring the fantasia of Pepperland.

Sgt. Pepper was lushly produced by George Martin with symphonic fusion, introduced the pop charts to edgy ‘concept’ album and made the Beatles bigger rockstars than they already were. Morris debuted his dance production in Liverpool in 2017 to commemorate the 50^th Anniversary of the album’s release.

If Penny Lane was McCartney’s pop music confection, A Day in the Life was a chilling view of mundane British life, with themes of self-destruction and the allure of drugs and sex and a line that became lore about McCartney rumored death. That symphonic fade at the end of the album is the note that starts Morris’ freewheeling ode to the album and the era.

The dancers momentarily pose as the stars on the album cover from- Oscar Wilde, Marilyn Monroe, Fred Astaire, Sonny Liston, Albert Einstein, et. al. – Costumes by Elizabeth Kurtzman the dancers all dressed in vivid pinks, purple, yellow, green suits, and mod era skirts go with the choreographic flow.

Morris is expected to be unexpected and Pepperland’s cast of 14 dancers’ possess radiant esprit and infectious energy that win us over even through some static sections, for all around funsies. Except for a few audience members who bolted after a few numbers on this rainy night in Philadelphia, this audience loved it.

Morris’ builds a vibrant dance canvas of petit jetes and flattened out pas de bourrée (which echo Nijinsky’s Faun tableau-choreo) and sections peppered with flashes of 60s dances including the frug, pony and boogaloo and even a breakout Charleston rag.

Ringo’s hit ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ (wonderfully sung by Clinton Curtis) leads into the mise-en-scenes depicting ‘the Lonely Hearts Club’ singles hookups of a bygone era, and in the age of Tinder/Grindr apps, Morris choreographs straight and same-sex couples’ dances. Charmingly intimate, but a bit choreographically anemic in their combined effect. It seemed like a missed opportunity for either passion or comedy. Or better yet both.

Musically and choreographically, ‘Within You and Without You’ George Harrison’s rock meditation is truly inspired, with Morris’ lacing in classical Indian dance phrases and interfaith universality of cosmic connections. Groovy would be the word.

With the reprise of Sgt. Pepper at the end, is busted open musically with a Bourbon St. trombone lead by Sam Newsome, soprano sax, Ryan Keberle, trombone and Vinnie Sperrazza, percussion turns into a Bourbon St. parade, with the dancers linked and lurching over the stage like soused zombies.

‘Penny Lane‘ was slated for Sgt. Pepper but was actually released as single and was, as flimsy as it was, a hit. Pianist Iverson turns a few bars from Penny Lane into a Bachesque allegro lead in, then Curtis belts out the song’s quaint descriptive lyrics about the ‘Pretty nurses are selling poppies/though she feels she is in a play/she is anyway/A barber shaves another customer/when the fireman rushes in from the pouring rain/ very strange. Morris makes this droll lyrical narrative into a simpleton panto(dance)mime of said action.

In contrast, the simplicity of kick line Morris concocts for ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ is truly inspired, as Iverson scrambles the beat and dancers are warped out of count signatures- (explained in the program-(the between 6 & 4 is 5. under the music-hall scuffle). and despite that extra piece of the puzzle, this is Morris at his most inventive and for the dancers, a whole article could be written about their quicksilver precision. It is Morris at his best, a warm and witty dance dervish par excellence.

The startling ‘A Day in a Life’ the most compelling track musically, with its haunting lead vocal by Lennon, is the finale of Pepperland. In the 60s, guitarist jazz great Wes Montgomery turned it into a smoldering jazz jam and Iverson builds it into an elegiac anthem of a mythical cultural era.

His somber piano melody  in duet with Rob Schwimmer’s theremin’s time-bending effects that lead into the Clinton Curtis’ vocal and then the dancers singing its ethereal chorale, indeed, was such a….. contact high….. circa ’67…8…9. I cried.

Classical Philly

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composers, musicians, Philadelphia Orchestra

Gil Shaham and The Philadelphians

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Verizon Hall, Philadelphia

April 28-30, 2022

Gil Shaham, leader & violin

Gil Shaham (photo Chris Lee)

Violinist Gil Shaham fronted the Philadelphia Orchestra, as ‘Leader and soloist’ in a string orchestra program of works by Fritz Kreisler, Joseph Bologne and Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.‘ A herculean task, and yet Shaham didn’t run out of steam, in the zone-sans podium-with the full strings in a semi-circle around him. Because his body was busy with his violin, in lieu of the typical maestro choreography, Shaham ‘leading’ everything with a fascinatingly, minimalist physicality. (More on that in a moment).

On Fritz Kreisler’s Praeludium & Allego, Shaham sounding rushed on the first bars, deliberately perhaps, for when he reached the first notes of Kreisler’s central theme, his rich soulful tone engulfed the concert hall, and was a sumptuous warm up to the orchestra’s legendary strings.

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s musical director Yannick Nezet-Seguin has been correcting previous sins of omission and performing more repertory by composers of color. In this concert, Shaham soloing on a long-overlooked masterpieces of 18^th century, by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier St. Georges’ Violin Concerto no. 9 for this concert.

Born around 1745, the son of Nanon, an enslaved woman in colonialized Caribbean islands and a French aristocrat plantation owner. Mother and son escaped to France and Boulonge was raised among France nobility. Joseph excelled at fencing and a gifted violinist and composter. He was subjected to racism, along the way, other musicians refused to collaborate with him. when he was orchestrating his own works, because he was biracial, meanwhile, he was a favorite at the court of Marie Antoinette.

 The Chevalier’s Violin Concerto is in its mastery of forms and in that pocket of baroque-classical forward transitional era. St. George, and his soon to be contemporary Mozart, compositionally prescient, exploring ideas of his own. The glittering courtly structure on the first movement is prelude to the somber symphonic expressionism of the 2nd movement. The Chevalier

The finale of the Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’ performed with such rigor by the Philadelphians, still evokes a mystique that has remained undimmed in the canon of essential world music. It is earthy and ethereal, narrative and abstract, and for string musicians, foundational and challenging repertory. Each Season a ripe sonata form followed by musical depictions of weather furies, flora, fauna and the musical contemplations of the seasons of life.

Gil Shaham commanded throughout, but never eclipsed the rest of the players. This was orchestrated for a large chamber orchestra and the balance, precision and ensemble energy with Shaham was exquisite. Aside from the warm smile and Shaham was a study in maestro-maneuvers, his back to the musicians. At various times, inching toward the individual musicians at key moments of interplay with the principals up front, otherwise signaling tempos or phrasing with tilts of his head, or craning his body as he fiddled, with very expressive eyebrows signaling sonic contours.

Among the outstanding soloists- principal violinist David Kim, Christine Lin and William Polk (2nd & 3rd violin) and principal cellist Ni-Ye Ni, harpsichordist Avi Stein brilliant in the keyboard counterpoint and those eerily dissonant sustained notes.

This ensemble crystalized every musical idea of this perpetual masterpiece, from Vivaldi’s earthy rhythmic drive to the perpetual motion of baroque form, nothing was diluted.

PhillyDanse

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BALLET, BalletOrchestra, ClassicalDance, dancers, musicians, PhiladelphiaBallet, Tchaikovsky

Corps de Ballet | photo: Alexander Iziliaev

Send in the Swans

Philadelphia Ballet

Swan Lake

Academy of Music

March 3-13

www.philadelphiaballet.org

Speaking to a near sold-out audience at the Academy of Music on March 3, Philadelphia Ballet artistic director Angel Corella invoked prayers for Ukraine before presenting his production of Swan Lake. Indeed, it was hard not to think of the dire situation in Ukraine as the curtain went up on the most famous Russian ballet in the world.

It was initially a flop with Russian audiences at its premiere 125 years ago, composer  Peter Illich Tchaikovsky died before he knew of its enduring success that still attracts audiences the world over. It carries the artistic lineage of Imperial  ballet classicism created by Imperial Ballet innovator Alexander Pushkin and choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov.

The folkloric story ballet of Prince Siegfried falling in love with the Princess Odette who is turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer.

At Philadelphia Ballet,  he continues to dust off the classical repertory, and adapts for contemporary audiences, from the many productions of Swan Lake he performed at the height of his career as principal danseur at American Ballet Theatre.

The lavish production look terrific in Philly’s historic Academy of Music. Vivid period costumes by Benjamin Tyrell, from the Swan’s jeweled embroidery to the Prince’s doublets and steely crossbow.

In this revival, Corella has condensed the four acts into two, and from the start he animates the background action in the court scenes celebrating the Prince’s 21 birthday. The corps de ballet men and women really on the mark in the ensemble sharpness and esprit.

 The ballet opens with Prince’s 21^st birthday party, the Queen presents her son with a new crossbow and after some lively dancing and drinking by the guests, the Prince staggers off with his pals for a late-night hunting party. that unfolds with strong ensemble esprit and precision.

Arian Molina Soca is a most lyrical Prince Siegfried, in a starry eyed, well-acted performance. Meanwhile, Soca soars through the air with ease, his turns are centered with exquisite line and finish.  At the lake, Siegfried encounters The Swan.

Daysei Torriente & Arian Molina Soca | photo: Alexander Iziliaev

Principal dancer Dayesi Torriente shows her full range, dancing Odette/Odile. if a bit tentative in her opening scene, but then unlocks the haunted  character of the cursed woman, who can only  transform back to human form at night  as she reveals her true self to Siegfried and , he falls in love with. It’s a tricky role of swan poses and princess radiance.

Torriente’s swan  is a little too skittish as first. but her classical technique regal. In the ball scene As Odile, who Siegfried believes is Odette, Torriente commands every moment, nailing all of the demanding, high voltage pas de bourrée, impeccable jumps and pumping  out 34= fouettes, with a few doubles in the scene finale, before she reveals that she has fooled Siegfried as Odette is still trapped under the spell of Von Rothbart.

 As Benno, Siegfried’s bestie, Ashton Roxander, steals the scene with warm characterization and swagger in the extended solos. He hooks up with equally dynamic partners Thays Golz and So Jung Shin in duets and spritely trios.

 Later, The audience burst into applause at the four Cygnets- those arm-entwined quicksilver ballerinas with their witty arm-entwined pas de quatre, in this performance flawlessly danced by Alexandra Heier,  Thays Golz, Kathryn Manger, and Lucia Erickson.

Principal dancer Sterling Baca is the villainous Von Rothbart, swirling around in a black feather wingspan and horned headdress. Baca was met with lusty hisses his curtain call. He will get his turn as the Prince later in the run.

The ACT II ball scene is packed with character and folkloric dances, The Spanish couples dance with Thays Golz and  Alexandra Heier partnering Etienne Diaz and Russel Drucker; The Russian Czardas troupe led by Kathryn Manger and Aleksey Babayev lead the folkloric Czardas procession and Peter Weil and Nicholas Patterson dazzle as  the tambourine wielding Neapolitans with their a balletic flashdance.

The lakeside denouement pointed up the clarity of the corps de ballet Swans with sumptuous ensemble line and supple pointe work scored to some of Tchaikovsky’s most famous symphonic music.

Philadelphia Ballet’s conductor Beatrice Jona Affron pacing and detailing of the full score even though the overture got off to a shaky start in this performance. Among the many high points, were the virtuosic solo passages by  principal violinist Luigi Mazzocchi and principal harpist Mindy Cutcher.

 Corella typically rotates dancers in the lead and soloist roles throughout the performance run and is luminous Ukrainian principal dancer Oksana Maslova will perform Odette/Odile during the performance run.

 .

PhillyJazz

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composers, jazzfestivals, JazzPhilly, musicians, vanguards

 Monterey Jazz Festival tour | 60^th Anniversary vanguard ensemble

Kimmel Center, Philadelphia March 23, 2019

The Monterey Jazz Festival Tour is currently crisscrossing the country for one night only performances after they their exquisite debut at Jazz at Lincoln Center in March.  A millennial vanguard ensemble with vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant, trumpeter Bria Skonberg, baritone saxist Melissa Aldana, pianist Christian Sands, drummer Jamison Ross and bassist Yasushi Nakamura. with is made up of musicians and composers and they are making these concerts something truly memorable. In Verizon Hall in Philadelphia jazz multigenerational jazz fans and many local musicians were in attendance March 23 for their sizzling 100-minute set.

The group unceremoniously walked on the Verizon Hall stage and from the first notes of Cecile’s composition  ‘Fog’ this ensemble made this a musical night to remember.  Salvant’s writing her own chapter on stellar jazz phrasing and her energy with the other musicians the subtle power of her voice simply rapturous. ‘Fog’ is Salvant’s starts as a baleful torch song that breaks out into a rollicking jam. The singer joked she was inspired to write it by the rudeness of a man who stood up for a date because he said he had to walk his dog.

Also among the many substantive highlights-The free-form fusion orchestral by tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana titled ‘Elsewhere’ that initially sounds like a solo tenor sax scales study then careens for 15 or so minutes into a raucous instrumental with each player weighing in lyrically, progressively, some dissonant voicings, but all together a cohesive showcase for MJF’s ensemble virtuosity.

David Sands transcription of one of the most famous arias in all of opera  E lucevan le Stelle sung by the painter Mario in the 3^rd act of Puccini’s Tosca.  Sands builds up to the great Puccini passage with an improvisational prologue, then with Ross with whispery rhythmic and Nakamura, caressing bass bowing, it is a tour de force of jazz and classical piano fusion, then Sands solos on the soaring heart of the aria, that proved a make or break tenors around the world.

Sands’ piano, Nakamura’s bass and drummer Ross, a rhythmic internal drive proves to be towering jazz rhythmic architecture.

Not to be outdone Aldana and Skonberg’s sax-trumpet harmonics took center soundstage throughout the concert. And as Skonberg noted before she paid tribute to Valiadia Snow an African-American singer and trumpeter in the 30s and 40s. Skonberg saying how great it is to have female jazz musicians equal time on the MJF Anniversary Tour. Then Skonberg sang and blew the during a vampy swing of “I Got My High Hat Trumpet and Rhythm” in delectable homage with call and response  (HI HI-Ho HO)vocalese from the audience and Skonberg.is

Salvant returned to the stage with a tribute to legendary jazz vocalist Betty Carter’s song ‘I Can’t Help it’ with an opening vocalese duet with Nakamura.  Later she sang ‘Moonsong’ Salvant displayed her unfussy rich upper range and her entrancing  sonorous lower register. 

Ross also has a great voice/ singing his song ‘Sack Full of Dreams’ (The wonderful world of love) with evocations of acapella Africanist song intro then singing his same lyric about a world in love with love in a smooth jazz style, then weaving in lyrics from the ballads What a Wonderful World and Reach Out and Touch.  

 Yasushi Nakamura weighed in with another raucous orchestral which Sands introduced as ‘Yasugaloo’ ala the 60s Bugaloo R&B dance funk. Nakamura with a rhythmic bass line that Skonberg intercepts and blazes through a Nola style mute horn, then Sands picking up spidery piano runs. 

Sands’ finale ‘Fight for Freedom’ a blazing jazz orchestral, a musical j’accuse to the current socio/cultural landsca~ pe and the vital musical spirit of the progressive jazz vanguards. In style and substance, this MJF ensemble tour celebrates 60-plus years of America’s premiere West Coast jazz festival diaspora.

~for MJF tour cities & dates go to http://www.montereyjazzfestival.org/ontour

~The Kimmel Center celebrates Jazz month in April~ go to http://www.kimmelcenter.org for the line up of scheduled concerts and artists events

ClassicalPhilly

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guitarists, musicians, Philadelphia Orchestra, Spanish music

Macelaru’s passionate Viva Espana!

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Verizon Hall, Philadelphia

Christan Macelaru, conductor

Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

Feb. 9, 2019

Before performing an encore, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet musician Bill Kanengiser, spoke of conductor Christan Macelaru’s artistic precision and passion he brings to Spanish repertoire. And those qualities were clearly present throughout as Maelaru led The Philadeldelphia Orchestra’s Viva Espana!  concert of works by Chabriel, Rodrigo, de Falla, and Ravel.  

Macelaru often introduces pieces to his audiences, but on this night, he skipped that and let the music speak for itself. Opening with
Emmanual Chabrier’s  España, which proved a rousing prologue, with traditional eternal Spanish folkloric themes.

Next, the captivating and profoundo musical dimensions of Joaquin Rodrigo’s  Concierto andaluz, for four guitars and orchestra. Its tempo de bolero opening movement, with its dancey central theme, played with esprit and inner drive. Rodrigo’s second movement Adagio, is so soulful and in this performance the LAGQ a dazzling showcase for their sublime technical artistry. The opening descending note passages by John Dearman then in dialogue with Bill Kanengiser, is transcendence in its earthy and ethereal musicality- suspending time, Rodrigo musically reflects on his life and the environs at gardens of an historic Renassaince palace in Granada,

The journey gives way to a more communal environ by Matt Greif and Scott Tennant in a lively town musicale scene expressed in orchestral riffs and a rousing roundelay of solo passages among the musicians. The quartet’s technical mastery is virtuosic and completely inside the music.  The concerto itself has the ambiance of a journey and the Adagio the musical soul of the piece, the final movement a fiery flamenco guitar finale.        

The foursome was applauded back to the stage for an encore, the Italian Tarantella by Chilean composer Horacio Salinas, which brought the house down again.  A rowdy crystalline rhythmic dazzler, interspersed with the musicians drumming the body of their instruments.

After intermission Macelaru delivered a most muscled performance of Manuel de Falla – El amor brujo, a sultry tone poem about a gypsy card reader who sees her future of love and evil spirits, musically expressed in folkloric ritual dances.  The pacing of this unpaused labyrinth of musical narrative about a gypsy card reader and the swirling furies of her life.

Ravel – Rapsodie espagnole Macelaru’s concert closer which the orchestra brought to its full atmospheric power.  Ravel was born 10 miles from the France-Spain border and his mother was Basque-Spanish. The musical sensual impact of Spanish nights, the symphonic bloom of Andalucian Fandango and Festiva. Macelaru’s detailing of the depth of sound dimension and inner rhythmic drive, that brings the full vision of Ravelean mystique. Among the many outstanding principals building that earthy musicality included associate concertmaster violinist Mark Rovetti, oboist Peter King, clarinet Ricardo Morales, cellist Hi Yi Ni, violist Choong-Jin Chang, 2nd chair principal violin Kimberly Fisher.  

ClassicalPhilly

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classical Philly, composers, maestros, musicians, watlz

The Philadelphians make it more than holiday pageantry 

Dressed in a short blood -red velvet jacket, conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin was tres debonair raising his glass and waltzing NYE in on the Verizon Hall podium with the Fabulous Philadelphians onstage and in the audience.

Yannick kicked it off with a luminous performance of Strauss’ Overture to Die Fledermaus and Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes (arg. Hermann) both showcases for the command of the Orchestra’s swirling strings. Nezet-Seguin made the evening more than a showcase for his obvious mastery of waltz repertoire. He also camped it up for The ‘Waltzing Cat’ (Anderson) with those meowing strings, playfully clawing at the strings with his maestro paws. Then more bubbly comedy with “the Champagne Waltz” with principal percussionist Christopher Deviney swilling it down and providing sound effects.

The program highlight was Kimberly Fisher’s
Fritz Kreisler violin medley Schon Rosmann/Liebesleid/Liebesfreud. Fisher is the orchestra’s 2nd chair principal and her technical artistry and expressiveness with Kreisler’s music is soulful and simply lustrous.

Yannick clearly enjoys conducting the traditional ‘Vienesse – centric repertory, but the Fritz Kreisler selections, Richard Rogers’ Carousel Waltz and ‘Tchaikovsky’s Waltz from Swan Lake made for a most vibrant second act. finished of course, that panoramic dance over the Blue Danube and the requisite clap songs, but Yannick skipped his usual NYE closer Robert Burns’ Auld Lang Syne, perhaps kicking off the afterparty toasts on Broad St or winging back to New York in time for 2019 on Broadway.

Bramwell Tovey spirited style for Philly holidays

Meanwhile, Philadelphia Orchestra’s most popular guest conductor-composer Bramwell Tovey was also having a robust holiday season in Philly, conducting two separate seasonal programs earlier in December.

The first, Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, with Tovey’s his narrative interludes laced in. “I wouldn’t dignify it with the term narration. What I would say though is that the first time I did it was with an audience of all young people and it seemed to work very well.” Tovey said a few days later in an impromptu interview in his dressing room.

The audience disagreed, this was vibrant Britten with added charm and the perfect prelude to a strong staging and orchestral-choral performance of Giancarlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, though rarely performed is a modern classic and many in this audience still remember seeing it on tv in 1951. It was actually the first opera to have its world premiere on television and was a huge success.

The key role of Amahl, scored for a boy soprano was portrayed by Dante Michael DiMaio, who sings with the Philadelphia Boy Choir and has performed with Opera Philadelphia. 

Tovey said “Young Dante is truly exceptional,” Tovey said. “Amahl is a huge undertaking for a boy soprano. When I arrived, he was already note-perfect playing this role. During rehearsal, I asked him to do a few things and took it in a ran with it, some of it is so high, he handled those high gs.”

The adapted biblical story of a poor widowed mother and her disabled son who take in three travelers while on a religious journey. DiMaio and mezzo-soprano Renee Tatum, as Amahl’s mother, had wonderful vocal chemistry and pathos.

The Philadelphia Symphonic Choir bringing detail and emotional dimension, to the chorale. And the Three Kings- tenor Andrew Stenson (Kaspar), bass-baritone Brandon Cedel (Melchoir) and bass David Leigh (Balthazar)- making the most of their character solos.

It played beautifully on the Verizon Hall stage, not an easy thing to stage opera with the orchestra also onstage. Tovey noted stage director Omera Ben Seadia is the reason why. who moved the large chorus from the choir loft to the stage scenes with ease.

“We literally only had one staging rehearsal.  He was very creative, responsive to the beats and hungry for musical information…and if I suggested leaning on a phrase this way or that, he would do it next time and it would immediately go onto his musical hard drive.”

For his part, Tovey had never conducted the piece.   And a vast majority of the Philadelphia Orchestra had never performed it, though, on both counts, one would never have guessed. This was a triumphant performance of an underappreciated Menotti work.

The following week, Tovey’s revisited the repertory of Philadelphia Orchestra’s number one classical album of all time 1962’s The Glorious Sounds of Christmas.

The highlight of which was Tovey’s narration as he accompanied himself on piano with melodies of carols, jazz riffs, and classical improvisations, while reciting ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas, with that sonorous deep voice, delivering magical moments.

As busy as the maestro was during his holidays in Philly, he still had time for a pop-up a concert at Liberty Place shopping tower.  And he popped up to New York in between the programs to perform as guest pianist with the New York Philharmonic. “It’s fun to do it like that. In some ways, it’s easier to conduct it when I’m playing it.” Tovey recalls that  Leonard Bernstein gave him the idea.

Tovey not only cracks audiences up with his relaxed banter on the podium, but he also has the vocal prowess of a veteran British actor. For the second program with the Philadelphians is now becoming a semi-annual performance by Tovey of a recreation of conductor Eugene Ormandy’s 1964 concert The Glorious Sounds of Christmas’ that became a bestselling album across the charts recording by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1964.
“Something I really enjoy doing with the Philadelphia Orchestra,” the maestro intimated.

He narrates the  ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ Tovey’s golden baritone is as warm as a holiday fire, but he also draws more laughs with his witty asides on audience members arriving late, musical jokes about the orchestra or even slinging sharp political barbs.  He is the drollest maestro on the international circuit, but in the end, it is all about the music and his creative relationship with the musicians wherever he conducts.  

Tovey is now conductor emeritus of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, recently stepping down after his 18-year tenure as musical director-conductor. The maestro is by no means slowing down; he has been named the musical director of BBC Symphony Orchestra. Artistic advisor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and musical Director of Calgary Opera. He has a slate of new projects lined up, including plans to premiere his new opera.