The Fabulous Philadelphians Return

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composers, opening nights, Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Yo-Yo Ma

Photo: Jeff Fusco

The Philadelphians soulful season opener

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Yannick Nezet-Seguin, conductor

Yo-Yo Ma, cello

Charlotte Blake Alston, Speaker

Yannick Nezet-Seguin and the musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra were back in Verizon Hall on October 5^th for their season opener that ended18 months away from performing for a live audience. On this night playing to almost packed house for a moving concert program with cello superstar Yo-Yo Ma.

The orchestra was not already onstage as the audience filed in, but instead made their entrance together, and the audience bounded out of their seats to greet them back. In a sartorial switch, the musicians had more modern dress code, sans tails on the men for starters and even maestro Yannick had ruby studs on his shoes. Meanwhile, the crowd had on their required masks, but otherwise were decked out in celebratory outfits- sleek gowns, stylish suits, cocktail hour wraps, studded pumps- giving the evening an added sense of musical occasion.

But the most glittering thing about the night was the program that Nezet-Seguin designed to meet this unique moment. Without ceremony, Yo-Yo Ma entered with the maestro and guest speaker Charlotte Blake Alston. Mr. Ma started to play a somber solo that just engulfed the room and led to Ms. Alston’s invocation for the audience to “stand in the name of human dignity” and spoke to the need for unity in a perilous time and finishing her remarks with a poem by Langston Hughes. Then Ma launched into the Aria from Villa- Lobos’ ‘Cantilena Bachianas Brasileiras’ leading the Philadelphia strings in music that was so appropriate, so reflexive of this moment in time.

 From there, without pause, Ma glided into the musical labyrinth of Camille Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto, with its unique structure. Ma performance is completely in the service of the music, from the sustained bowing , dark sonorities, staccato riffs,  its joyous lyrical passages to its most profound musical chambers. Ma has been playing the concerto for decades, and still does so with such rapturous immediacy.

Throughout, Ma’s interplay with the orchestra musicians showcases a joyous shared artistry.

 The concert was performed without intermission, and Nezet-Seguin spoke about the role that music can play to help heal a traumatized world. And to be together again for the shared expressions of “Joy, reflection, introspection, hopes and dreams.”

He then introduced Valerie Coleman’s ‘Seven O’Clock Shout’ composed in tribute to the front – line workers that saw us through the pandemic. Coleman was inspired by the New Yorkers who banged on pots and shouted their support every evening in solidarity for health care workers, police officers, food service employees, transit workers and who kept serving their communities. The somber atmosphere of the first half of the piece shifts into an orchestral  statement of communal solidarity with the musicians shouting out and the percussion banging out a joyful noise of hope.   

The closer was Ravel’s ‘Bolero’ which never loses its luster with audiences. Even though the lead solos were sharp, this ‘Bolero’ seemed a tad disjointed in the first half of its slow build symphonics.  It all came together midway through, with outstanding solos by Peter Smith (oboe), Daniel Matsukawa (bassoon), Ricardo Morales (clarinet) and the blazing trumpet of Jeffrey Curnow.. When the full strings thundered in, their lustrous depth engulfing Verizon Hall, led by principal violinists David Kim and Kimberly Fisher.

The Fabulous Philadelphians packed their season launch with events, the following night  were in New York City for their return to Carnegie Hall performing a completely different program with soloist Yuja Wang, then were back to Philly for a three-concert weekend with a program called American Masters, with pianist Aaron Diehl performing Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue.’

ClassicalPhilly

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composers, NYE Classical concerts, Philadelphia Orchestra, SanctuaryofMusic

Maestro Tovey rings in 2020 with humor & musical class

British composer-conductor Bramwell Tovey
(photo: courtesy Philadelphia Orchestra)

 

British conductor Bramwell Tovey was back on the Philadelphia Orchestra podium for a spirited ‘musical tour around to globe’ on New Year’s Eve.  Tovey has a unique relationship with the Fabulous Philadelphians; he has composed new music in both classical & jazz genre, he has guested as piano soloist and his sharp wit continues to delight Philly audiences when he leads the orchestra’s year end holiday programs, always bringing surprises on top of the traditional seasonal classical fare.

True to form, maestro Tovey rang out the ragged decade with a rousing NYE concert in Verizon Hall, peppered of course with his wry asides. The first half of the program plum with showpieces from Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Brahms, and the second half the inevitable Strauss waltz carousel, with a piece of Mahler as the entre-acte.

To open, Tovey bounded to the podium and launched the band into the rousing orchestral fireworks of George Gershwin’s ‘Strike Up the Band.’ After-which he picked up the microphone and had the audience laughing right out of the gate with some ribbing about the antics of the coming Mummers parade and even working in a loaded line about New Jersey drivers coming to town for the cine-bomb movie ‘Cats.’

He told the wayward maritime tale of how Rimsky-Korsakov composed ‘’Capriccio espanole’ when the Russian composer was then a merchant marine’ who never actually set foot in Spain, but heard the music from his ship off harbored off shore, “Isn’t that what they all say?” he quipped. But adding Tovey how brilliant a Spanish-Russian symphonic fusion Rimsky-Korsakov made. Tovey’s interpretive detailing bringing it to its full musical dimensions in the fast shifting tempos and stellar orchestral passagio. Among the outstanding soloists Peter Smith (oboe), Patrick Williams (flute) and Associate concert master Juliet Kang, essaying those haunting gypsy lead violin lines.

Tovey set up the fantasy story of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake about a Prince falling in love with a Swan, joking all the way, but also noted that he was playing the composer’s original version which had been tampered with on the ballet stage many times after Tchaikovsky’s death   ‘He’s a de-composer now.’  but adding that his ballet music is “So transparent…in expressing the tenderest feelings of love.”

In Tchaikovsky’s original Act II ‘White Swan’ pas de duex- The harp -violin dialogue representing the Prince/Swan duet onstage.  Juliet Kang’s violin and Elizabeth Hainen’s harp were dancing on air and into our souls.  The orchestral elements though proved a bit wayward in this arrangement. An unscheduled infant’s soft crying was heard from the balcony (like Baby new year trying to bust in early, no?), it was, indeed, a magical moment in Verizon Hall.   

As urbane as the maestro is he is also not afraid to bring a POPs Orchestra sentimentality via in waltz miniatures by American composer Leroy Anderson in works including ‘Belle of the Ball’, ‘Forgotten Dreams. ‘ Then the fireworks of ‘Bugler’s Holiday.’ The last a virtuoso walk in the park for trumpet trio Robert Curnow, Tony Prist and principal David Bilger, returning to the orchestra after recovering from shoulder reconstruction and leading those staccato triplet lines in fine form. Later, Bilger also stellar in the trumpet solos in Gustav Mahler’s tone poem ‘Blumine’ that opened the concert’s second half.

The highlight of the entire concert was Brahms’ Hungarian Dance’ no. 5. In the 1938 arrangement byMartin Schmeling. As in the Rimsky-Korsakov, Tovey showcasing the dynamics of the orchestra in top form, as well as the brilliance of the music.

“A chance to have a fresh start and begin again.’ and ‘Let’s have a good time tonight.” Sincere sentiments from the maestro in light of the fact that Tovey told arts journalist Susan Lewis for the live NYE broadcast on WRTI that he had missed a half year of conducting because he had just recovered from cancer treatments. And in light of that it is particularly inspiring to observe how dancerly maestro Tovey continues to be in performance. 

For Johan Strauss’ ‘Emperor’s Waltz’ Tovey set the scene for us to imagine being a lady in a 19th Vienna ballroom waiting for the Viennese gentleman-officer to ask you to dance and raising your hand reach his in “long white gloves covering up most of your tattoos.”

Strauss’ The Kunster Quadril’  a waltz mash of 19^h century greatest hits tropes of Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, & Schubert, which Tovey dubbed “classical elevator music.” but made it more than a pastiche piece.  

On Johan & Josef Strauss’s ‘Pizzicato Polka’ which Tovey announced he was recreating his first time conducting with many “bad habits then.” He hilariously (& lithely) emoted through the music as he wielded two batons and characterized the music ala- la- Looney Tunes maestro. The comedy continued with the Strauss Champagne Polka, punctuated by a cork popping instrument, but Tovey also brandishing a bottle of fine bubbly popping the last cork note almost on cue and pouring the wine into flutes then handing out glasses to cellist Yumi Kendall who just got married ‘to a wonderful man’ Tovey enthused. Then slugging back a glass himself, complete with a soft-shoe spin on the podium.

The concert closer, inescapably ‘Blue Danube‘  that waltz to dance us into a new decade.  The encore which the British Tovey introduced in a Scottish B(urr)ogue of “Rrrobbie Burns”  Auld Lang Syne. Tovey raising his voice in song, his eyes sparking with hope and resignation for us all to face the music and dance.

ClassicalPhilly

Tags

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.