Oberon's Grove

Shostakovich ~ Beethoven @ The NY Philharmonic

Above: Maestro Jaap van Zweden; photo by Chris Lee

~ Author: Oberon

Wednesday May 22nd, 2019 - As their 2018-2019 season winds down, The New York Philharmonic offered a well-contrasted pairing of works tonight at Geffen Hall: Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony and Beethoven's 3rd symphony: the Eroica. The Philharmonic musicians were on top form, and the orchestra's Music Director, Jaap van Zweden, led a performance that ended with an enthusiastic ovation.

For all the concert's musical excellence, extraneous factors made the evening something of a trial. The lobby at Geffen Hall during the half-hour leading up to the performance's start time has lately become weirdly chaotic: it has the feeling of an airport, with staff folks yelling at you to go here or there, and long, snaking lines between the velvet ropes to pass thru the "non-invasive" scanner only to be wanded once you've gotten the green light. It's quite stressful, and hardly conductive to the state of mind one hopes to be in when a concert starts: calm, focused, receptive.

The opening minutes of the Shostakovich featured a chorus of coughers from the audience; the woman next to us coughed throughout the concert while the fellow in front of us nearly busted a lung with one coughing fit: I actually thought he might pass out. Aside from ruining the music, germs are being spread. If you are sick, be courteous enough stay home.

But the performance of the Shostakovich Chamber Symphony was simply thrilling. This work is an arrangement of the composer's 1960 String Quartet No. 8, Op. 110, by Rudolf Barshai, a renowned violist and conductor who founded the Moscow Chamber Orchestra in 1956. Barshai's transcription honors the original instrumentation: it's set for large string ensemble. And it's simply magnificent to hear.

The symphony is in five movements, played without pause. From a somber start emerges a soft, sorrowing violin melody (beautifully played by concertmaster Frank Huang). Six basses bring a sense of grandeur to the music, which is richly layered. Suddenly, a sizzling energy flares up: the basses dig in, with swirling violins and slashing celli, as the music becomes a huge dance. For a spell, violins and violas compete; then the music comes to a sudden halt.

The violas set the pace for a waltz, played by the violins, which later slows down and fades away. A dirge-like passage is followed by a poignant lament. Carter Brey's cello sings to us in its highest range, a song which Mr. Huang's violin takes up. The music meanders a bit, ebbing and flowing, before a magical fading finish.

This work, and the Philharmonic's playing of it, was one of the highlights of the season for me. Mssrs. Huang and Brey were enthusiastically applauded as they rose for a bow. I was surprised to read that this was The Philharmonic's premiere performance of this symphony.

I must admit that I don't find Beethoven's Eroica all that interesting. Its initial theme:

...reminds me of a simple melodic scrap I wrote for a compulsory exercise in music theory class in high school. We hear it repeatedly in the symphony's Allegro con brio, and to me it's tiresome.

Sherry Sylar's oboe solos and some warm-toned horn playing captured my interest in the Adagio assai, but I don't think Beethoven's idea of a funeral march shows much imagination. It feels aimless, missing the weighted grief of Chopin's or the epic grandeur of Wagner's (and for wit, there's always Gounod). The hunting horns in the Scherzo again reminded me of high school, where I struggled to be a proficient horn player, but without success. Ms. Sylar and clarinetist Anthony McGill illuminated their solo bits in the Finale, but I found my mind wandering. 

Whenever a musical work that is highly regarded by many fails to reach me, it makes me feel deficient. What am I not getting? So it was interesting to read in the program notes that Beethoven's 3rd was not initially regarded as a masterpiece, but seemed instead overly long and lacking a sense of unity.

Still feeling that the Eroica has eluded me, I went to a classical music chat room where one person wrote: "I would never deny the power and genius of the Eroica, but I never want to sit through it again."

The evening honored musicians who are retiring from The Philharmonic this season. One who I will especially miss is violinist Anna Rabinova (above), whose dedicated artistry I have come to know thru her appearances at the Philharmonic Ensembles concerts at Merkin Hall. I hope she'll continue to be part of the City's musical scene in the coming years.

~ Oberon

Ernst Kozub

Above: Ernst Kozub as Lohengrin

The German tenor Ernst Kozub's career is not well-documented. Born at Duisburg in 1924, he developed a thriving career, singing mainly Wagnerian roles. He performed extensively throughout Germany, and also at Covent Garden and Barcelona. 

John Culshaw wanted Kozub to be the Siegfried on Sir Georg Solti's recording of the complete RING Cycle for Decca. It's believed that ill health prevented the tenor from learning the arduous role, and he was replaced as Siegfried by the veteran heldentenor Wolfgang Windgassen.

Ernst Kozub died on December 27, 1971, aged 47, at Bad Soden, Germany. Three weeks prior to his passing, he had sung Tannhauser in Italy. The cause of his early death is uncertain; it has been attributed to leukemia by some sources, and to a chronic heart disorder by others.

Here are some samples of Mr. Kozub's singing:

Ernst Kozub - Die Zauberflöte ~ Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön

Melitta Muszely & Ernst Kozub - Nun In Der Nächt'gen Stille ~ OTHELLO

Claire Watson & Ernst Kozub - WALKURE ~ Act I finale - London 1964 - Solti

~ Oberon

Ballets Russes @ Chamber Music Society

Above: violinist Nicolas Dautricourt, photographed by Bernard Martinez

~ Author: Oberon

Sunday May 19th, 2019 - For their final concert of the 2018-2019 season at Alice Tully Hall, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center offered a program of works by composers associated with Serge de Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. It was a long program, full of rewards.

Jennifer Johnson Cano, the Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano who in February shared a memorable program with tenor Matthew Polenzani at Zankel Hall, sang works by Manuel de Falla and Maurice Ravel, and a septet of marvelous musicians were heard - in varying configurations - in these, plus music by Debussy, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky. 

Ms. Cano (above, in a Matthu Placek portrait) opened the concert with Manuel de Falla's Psyché in which she was joined by Tara Helen O'Connor (flute), Nicolas Dautricourt (violin), Yura Lee (viola), David Finckel (cello), and Bridget Kibbey (harp). Composed in 1924, as a setting of a poem by Georges Jean-Aubry, this is the awakening song of Psyché, a mortal woman whose beauty has caught the eye of Cupid, god of Love, who she will eventually marry.

The flûte enchantée of Tara Helen O'Connor opens the work; the addition of M. Dautricourt's ethereal violin and Ms. Kibbey's delicate harp create an exotic atmosphere. Ms. Cano's singing - clear, warm, and wonderfully nuanced -  was vastly pleasing; in her unaccompanied opening passage, the sheer beauty of her tone and its evenness throughout the registers marked her as a singer of exceptional natural gifts.

Adding depth and colour to the enticing 'orchestration' were Ms. Lee's viola and Mr. Finckel's cello; overall the five instrumentalists created an impression of a larger ensemble thru the richness of their individual timbres. The music becomes urgent, and Ms. Cano's singing golden, as flute trills and harp melismas lure the ear.  Psyché this evening was an intoxicating delight.

For Maurice Ravel's chamber arrangement of Shéhérazade, Ms. Cano and Ms. O'Connor returned, along with pianist Alessio Bax. It's Mr. Bax's delicate, silvery playing that sets the mood of the opening song, Asie. At "Je voudrais voir des assassins souriant", passion builds: Ms. Cano brought an operatic quality to her performance at this point, rising to her steady and blooming upper range to fine effect. Asie has a little pendant at the end, full of lovely mystery. It ends on an exquisitely tapered note.

La flûte enchantée brings forth limpid, entrancing sounds from Ms. O'Connor's flute, and the weaving together of voice, flute, and piano is hypnotic. The concluding song, L'indifferent, begins with a calm lullabye played by Mr. Bax. Ms. Cano's beguiling singing, sometimes bringing straight tone into play, was a marvel of expressiveness.

Infringing on our enjoyment of the Ravel was the sound of text booklets dropping onto the floor, and a crash of something falling in the outside corridor. But Ms. Cano held to her course; this is a truly wonderful voice that I would love to hear in the music of Massenet's Charlotte.

Above: harpist Bridget Kibbey

Mlles. O'Connor, Lee, and Kibbey then offered a sublime performance of Claude Debussy's Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp, written in 1915. In an evening filled with marvelous sounds, the opening sustained flute tone of this sonata - taken up by the viola - sent chills thru me at the start of the Pastorale. The blend these three remarkable musicians produced was exceptional. A gentle animation arose - soft and merry - only to subside. Mlles. Lee and O'Connor duet, the viola deep and buzzy. Swirls of notes from the harp - and then from the flute - lingered on the air.

The Interlude commences with a viola melody underpinned by the harp, After a sprightly interjection, viola and flute play in unison, and the harp tapers to pianissimo.The viola is plucked, the music soft and swift. A percolating motif opens the Finale, like the break of dawn on a sunny day; after a momentary slowing down, the piece ends abruptly.

Prokofiev's Sonata in D-major for Violin and Piano, Op. 94a, brought together Mssrs. Dautricourt and Bax for a fabulous performance that sparked a shouting, standing ovation from the crowd. Though the piece was composed in 1943 as a flute sonata, Prokofiev later obliged the great violinist David Oistrakh by creating a violin version, which premiered in 1944.

Mr. Dautricourt launched the sonata with a high sweet/melancholy song. As the music becomes increasingly animated, an ultra-familiar theme is heard, which will crop up several times along the way. Vibrant, agitated, march-like music ensues; Mr. Bax displays magic tricks of his own, and the movement has a lovely ending.

In the Scherzo, Mr. Dautricourt's virtuosity is astounding. A demented, off-kilter dance commences, then slows to a high-lying interlude before resuming. The music, and the playing of it, are thrilling...and then it comes to a sudden halt.

The audience, who all evening applauded between movements, prompted the violinist to declare "Two more!" before commencing the Andante: a sorrowful song which tends to meander a bit over time, with a hint or two of of jazz thrown in; in the end it becomes high and eerie. 

The concluding Allegro con brio dances along, with some respite for a poignant interlude before dancing on again. Moodiness briefly takes over, and then a rush to the finish. The applause began before the music stopped: Dautricourt/Bax are a winning team.

Lucille Chung and Alessio Bax (above, photographed by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco) joined together for the evening's Fokine finale, saluting Diaghilev's ground-breaking choreographer with a piano-four-hands arrangement of Igor Stravinsky's Petrushka.

Despite more intrusions - a loud clang from the balcony, and the sound of something (or someone) falling - Stravinsky's brilliance prevailed. For 40-minutes, the outstanding Bax/Chung duo sustained the vibrancy of a theatrical presentation; everything felt so alive - with dazzling rhythms and infinite colours - that the entire ballet danced in the mind. For their brilliant and generous playing, the couple were rewarded with hall-filling, joyous applause. What a way to end the season!

~ Oberon

Liebesnacht

I keep telling myself to stop buying CDs, but every once in a while I'll come upon something that piques my curiosity. The disc pictured above - of scenes from Acts II and III of TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, recorded in 2005 at Bratislava - features two Wagnerian singers with busy careers: soprano Linda Watson and tenor Robert Dean Smith. The Slovak Radio Symphony play very well, under the baton of Ivan Anguélov.

Ms. Watson has been a go-to Brünnhilde for a couple of decades, notably at Bayreuth. The shortness of her top range has prevented me from fully enjoying her singing over the years, but last Summer I became quite taken with her whilst watching the documentary and performance of The Colón RING on DVD. Mr. Smith gave us a sterling Tristan as his Met debut in 2008 when he flew in to sing the HD Simulcast after Ben Heppner withdrew. Mr. Smith later sang Strauss's Bacchus and Puccini's Pinkerton at the Met; in both those roles he was somewhat compromised by mediocre conducting, but his fine singing carried the day.

The CD has been sitting here in a pile of un-played discs for several weeks; on a damp and dismal Sunday morning, I put it on for the first time and was frankly blown away by the two singers' breathtaking performance of the love duet.

Purists will probably take issue with the structuring of the opera's highlights as they are heard here (it's not an easy opera to excerpt): the Act II prelude (begun here with with a wonderfully furtive feeling) skips seamlessly to the ecstatic greeting of the impatient lovers, and then quite soon to "O sink hernieder, nacht der liebe".  The interjections of Brangäne are omitted, with linking orchestral passages turning the disc's opening tracks into a 30-minute feast of tender, passionate lyricism. Both singers adopt an intimate and finely-nuanced style of singing here, and the result is engrossing.

The end of Act II has now become one of my favorite parts of the opera. Broken-hearted by Tristan's betrayal, King Marke seeks answers from the young man: how did this come to pass? Tristan cannot explain, as he is under the spell of the love potion. Turning to Isolde, Tristan says he will go now to the realm of darkness, and asks if she will follow him there. Isolde replies:

Linda Watson & Robert Dean Smith - Tristan und Isolde ~ Als fur ein fremdes Land

"Wherever Tristan's goes,
there let Isolde go also.
There I shall follow him
in grace and faith."

Tristan turns to his friend Melot, who has betrayed him to King Marke, and challenges him. When Melot attacks with his sword, Tristan drops his guard and is run thru.

In Act III, Tristan, attended by his faithful servant Kurwenal, lies gravely wounded in the ruins of his ancestral home, Castle Kareol. In a delirium, he waits for Isolde's promised arrival; for King Marke has been told of the love potion and has sent Isolde to her beloved.

In a moment of calm, Tristan envisions his beloved's arrival...I've never heard this passage so beautifully sung:

Robert Dean Smith - Wie sie selig ~TRISTAN UND ISOLDE

"She sweetly,
bravely and gently
wanders across
the watery plains.
On soft waves
of blissful flowers,
she gently comes
ashore.
She smiles at me,
giving comfort and sweet peace,
she brings me
- at last - renewal.
Ah, Isolde! Isolde!
How lovely you are!"

The recording brings us much of Tristan's long scene, sung with an extraordinary mixture of poetry and madness by Mr. Smith.

Isolde arrives at last; Tristan dies in her arms, tenderly saying her name for one last time.

~ Oberon 

Young Concert Artists Gala ~ 2019

Author: Oberon

Thursday  May 16th, 2018 - This evening at Alice Tully Hall, Young Concert Artists marked the end of their 2018-2019 New York season with a gala concert that honored both the organization's founder, Susan Wadsworth, who is retiring, and long-time YCA friend and patron, Peter Marino.

Teddy Abrams was on the podium tonight, leading the Orchestra of St. Luke's in music by Ibert, Chausson, and Mendelssohn. Three very talented young musicians upheld the sterling reputation of Young Concert Artists, and organization which has - over the years - introduced and promoted an astounding number of first-class artists.

Flautist Anthony Trionfo (above, photo by Paul Shim) opened the concert with Jacques Ibert's Flute Concerto. Wearing a jacket woven from the Rhine Gold, Mr. Trionfo dazzled even before he began to play. Ibert's concerto, which premiered in 1934, was just the right vehicle for this charismatic flautist's golden tone and colossal technique, and his glittering jacket seemed made for the occasion.

In the opening Allegro, a jaunty first theme finds perfect contrast in a languid second theme. Reams of spot-on fiorature flowed with wit and sparkle from Mr. Trionfo's flute, whilst his body English kept us visually engaged. In the lyrical Andante, the flautist's impressive breath control set the long melodic line serenely above the accompaniment of the St Luke's cushioning strings. Mr. Trionfo ended the Andante on a remarkable sustained tone that hung endlessly on the air, evoking gentle sighs of admiration from the keenly attentive audience.. The longest of the work's three movements is the last: a jazzy Allegro scherzando laced with virtuoso solo cadenzas. This demanding finale is such a challenge for flautists that it became a test piece at the Paris Conservatoire. Would Mr. Trionfo have passed such a test? With flying colours, to be sure. Tonight's audience loved him. 

In striking contrast to the vibrancy of the Ibert, SooBeen Lee (above, photo by Paul Shim), a violinist from South Korea, offered Ernest Chausson's Poème. In this atmospheric work, the darkish glow of the orchestra (Chausson in a Wagnerian mood) underscores themes of longing and tenderness played with silken clarity and poetic nuance by Ms. Lee.

The deep, mysterious orchestral introduction features solo moments for oboe, clarinet, and flute. SooBeen Lee sustains a long tone, accompanied by the timpani; this leads to a pensive solo passage, and to a hymn-like statement from the strings. As the music increases in passion, the violin shines on high before a breathtaking descent.  Following ethereal phrases from Ms. Lee, the music turns cinematic. The autumnal horn sounds, and a series of shimmering trills from the soloist brings this haunting work to a close. Ms. Lee's performance was very warmly received by the audience.

To conclude the program, Nathan Lee (above, photo by Paul Shim) performed Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto #1. This young virtuoso, who hails from the state of Washington, began playing the piano at the age of six, and made his orchestral debut at the age of nine. Although he looks like a boy about to enter prep school, Mr. Lee is now 17, and has already built an impressive resumé. Displaying the assured artistry we would expect from musicians much further along in their careers, Mr. Lee's depth of feeling in the Andante (often playing with his eyes closed) and his nimble and dynamically nuanced Allegro work captivated the audience. 

From its opening orchestral agitato of rising chromatics, the pianist serves up his splendid opening statement; the music then slows for a lyrical piano solo. Horn calls precede a cadenza, during which a double-barrelled cellphone intrusion (it rang, and then a recorded message was clearly audible throughout the house) nearly derailed the performance. But Mr. Lee maintained his focus. In the ensuing Andante, his playing was expressive, magical, and abundantly gorgeous.

Turbulence marks the start of the concerto's concluding Molto allegro e vivace, the pianist commencing with cascades of notes, delivered with dazzling dexterity. The orchestral writing made me think at times of Offenbach. Mr. Lee's playing was marked by charming dynamics...and a sweet tug of rubato, judiciously applied.

As the concerto came to its brilliant conclusion, the audience went wild for Mr. Lee. Returning amidst an insistent standing ovation, the pianist offered an encore: Debussy's poetic "Beau soir", played with ravishing clarity. 

~ Oberon