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Maurice Ravel's Chansons Madécasses performed by baritone Stéphane Degout with Michaël Guido (piano), Matteo Cesari (flute), and Alexis Descharmes (cello). The concert took place at the Amphithéâtre Bastille, Paris, in May of 2015.
Watch and listen here.
Performances of works by Samuel Barber that I came across by chance on YouTube during the months of the pandemic.
Soprano Jo Ann Pickens sings arias from ANTONY & CLEOPATRA, from a live broadcast from the 1982 Spoleto Festival. Listen here.
Augustin Hadelich plays the Barber Violin Concerto with the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Krzysztof Urbański. Recorded live on November 6th, 2020, during the pandemic.
Watch and listen here.
Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 sung by American soprano Irene Gubrud with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Leinsdorf on a 1983 live broadcast. Listen here.
In the concert hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, the student choir of Saint-Petersburg State University perform Barber's Agnus Dei, conducted by Eduard Krotman. This concert took place in April 2014.
Watch and listen here.
Tenor Matthew Polenzani and pianist Ken Noda perform Samuel Barber’s Hermit Songs; the performance took place on March 29th, 2015 at the Parlance Chamber Concerts in Ridgewood, N.J.
Watch and listen here.
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Samuel Barber, at age 9, wrote this note to his mother: “I was meant to be a composer and will be I’m sure. Don’t ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football — please.”
German soprano Uta-Maria Flake (1951-1995) sings "Träume" from Richard Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder; her interpretation is rather unusual, but I like it.
Listen here.
"Ms. Flake studied at the Hamburg University of Music and, as a scholarship holder of the Hamburg State Opera, at Indiana University in Bloomington (USA). Further training by Tito Gobbi in Florence and by Mario del Monaco in Lancenigo. As early as 1971 she took part in a television recording of Offenbach's ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD from the Hamburg Opera. In 1973 she won first prize in the national singing competition, and in 1974 she was a prizewinner at a concours in Montepulciano. She began her actual stage career in 1975 at the Stadttheater in Ulm, where she made her debut as Leonora in Verdi's FORZA DEL DESTINO. From 1976-80 she was a member of the Dortmund Opera House. Here in 1979 she sang Eve in the German premiere of the opera PARADISE LOST by Penderecki; this was followed by guest appearances in this role at the Munich State Opera, at the Warsaw Opera and (in concert version) at the Salzburg Festival. From 1980-83 she was engaged at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, where she sang her great roles: Beethoven's Leonore and Weber's Agathe, Wagner's Elsa and Eva, and Offenbach's Giulietta.
She made successful guest performances at the State Theater in Hanover, at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf-Duisburg, at the State Opera (as Lisa in PIQUE DAME) and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (as Leonore), at the Covent Garden Opera London (as Elsa and as Freia), at the Teatro San Carlos Lisbon (Freia, Sieglinde, Gutrune and 3rd Norn), at the Cologne Opera House (Tchaikovsky's Lisa), and at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste and at the Stadttheater in Basel as Sieglinde in WALKURE. Ms. Flake was also a concert soloist and lieder recitalist."
Above: Rosa Feola and Benjamin Bernheim in RIGOLETTO at The Met
Author: Oberon
Saturday November 26th, 2022 matinee - After reading several glowing reviews of the French tenor Benjamin Bernheim over the past few years, and hearing of his recent success in LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR opposite Lisette Oropesa at Vienna and Zurich, I decided to add today's Met matinee of RIGOLETTO to my schedule. And I'm glad I did! This afternoon's performance was strongly cast, from the title-role down to the Page and Guard.
This was my first time to see the Bartlett Sher production. The staging is inoffensive, with some interesting ideas; but the scene of Gilda's sacrifice at the inn was clumsily managed. The set sometimes revolves like a carousel on high speed. Having been brought to the palace by the courtiers, Gilda seems eager when the duke comes to her, but then she seems humiliated when she emerges from the bedroom soon after. Having a bloodstain on her white nightgown might have been a telling touch.
In my estimation, Mr. Bernheim carried off top vocal honors. The voice is wonderfully clear and well-projected, with top notes that bloom. He is capable of ravishing soft singing, and he keeps the music fresh with subtle dynamic shifts. His performance was stylish and assured; I certainly hope we will hear more of him at The Met.
Quinn Kelsey's Rigoletto (photo above) was sung with great power and commitment. His incredibly sustained "Ah no, è follia!" at the end of the "Pari siamo!" monolog was one of the afternoon's great thrills, and throughout the opera, his vocal generosity seemed boundless. Whether it was the baritone's decision or the conductor's, "Cortigiani, vil razza dannato!" was taken at an absurdly fast pace, giving it a surface urgency rather than a deeper sense of feeling; but when "Miei signori..." was reached, the great beauty and tenderness of the Kelsey voice was at its most impressive. There were a few rather husky notes as the opera progressed, but overall Kelsey's Rigoletto was a stunning performance. (I should mention here the beautiful playing of the cellist in the "Miei signori..." section).
Rosa Feola had many lovely passages as Gilda, though the sound of the voice is not truly distinctive. To me, she seems more of a lyric rather than a coloratura soprano, and some of the topmost notes tested her a bit. It would be nice to hear her as Liu or Mimi.
Aside from Mr. Bernheim, John Relyea's Sparafucile was a big draw for me. The basso cuts a fine figure as the assassin, and his dark timbre is perfect for this music. At the end of his Act I encounter with Rigoletto, Mr. Relyea's incredibly sustained low-F drew a round of applause.
In her Met debut role of Maddalena, Aigul Akhmetshina displayed an attractive presence and a plushy voice; she merits more Met opportunities. I consider Monterone to be a very important character in the opera; though his scenes are relatively brief, if they are powerfully delivered they can make a great impact. Today Bradley Garvin sang the role with vivid authority. As the courtiers, Scott Scully (Borsa), Jeongcheol Cha (Marullo), and Paul Corona and Brittany Renee (the Cepranos) were all excellent, and Edyta Kulczak's Giovanna - clearly on the Duke's payroll - had a memorable moment: as Rigoletto stands aghast at having been an accomplice in the kidnapping of this own daughter, the nurse flees the house with her suitcase. Brilliant!
How many times over the decades that I have been going to the opera have the singers of the Page and the Guard in RIGOLETTO captured my attention? Today was the first! Met choristers Andrea Coleman and Yohan Yi each stepped up to bat, and each hit a home run. Ms. Coleman has a bit more to sing, and she sang it prettily indeed; and Mr. Yi's "Schiudete: ire al carcere Monteron dee!" was strikingly voiced. I borrowed this photo of Mr. Yi and Ms. Coleman from the Met Chorus's Facebook page:
I met Speranza Scapucci when she was at Juilliiard; several of my young singer-friends who were studying there at the time spoke highly of her. Lately, she has come into her own, with prestigious productions on her resumé, including a debut at La Scala conducting Bellini's CAPULETI ED I MONTECCHI featuring Ms. Oropesa as Giulietta. This run of RIGOLETTO marked her Met debut performances.
From the pit, Ms. Scapucci certainly gave us a lively RIGOLETTO; the opera swept by with a feeling of inevitability, yet she also had a handle on the more reflective passages. The only drawback, really, was her tendency to let the brass players cover the voices; things got out of hand in the 'storm' trio in the final act, where Mlles. Feola and Akhmetshina and Mr. Relyea were giving their all, to no avail.
Metropolitan Opera House
Saturday November 26th, 2022 matinee
RIGOLETTO
Giuseppe Verdi
Rigoletto...............Quinn Kelsey
Gilda...................Rosa Feola
Duke of Mantua..........Benjamin Bernheim
Maddalena...............Aigul Akhmetshina
Sparafucile.............John Relyea
Monterone...............Bradley Garvin
Borsa...................Scott Scully
Marullo.................Jeongcheol Cha
Count Ceprano...........Paul Corona
Countess Ceprano........Brittany Renee
Giovanna................Edyta Kulczak
Page....................Andrea Coleman
Guard...................Yohan Yi
Conductor...............Speranza Scappucci
~ Oberon
Mezzo soprano Margreta Elkins (above) sings Sir Edward Elgar's Sea Pictures with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Werner Andreas Albert, recorded in 1983. Listen here.
Ms. Elkins, born in Brisbane, was a favorite colleague of her compatriot Dame Joan Sutherland. They sang together at Covent Garden (where Elkins was for ten years a principal artist) and toured Australia together with the Sutherland-Williamson Opera Company in 1965. A regular member of Australian Opera, Margreta Elkins enjoyed a special success there in 1976 as Sieglinde.
She also appeared at Dublin, the Liceu, Boston, Philadelphia, and New Orleans, and was an admired recitalist, particularly in her native land.
Above: Luana DeVol and Ricarda Merbeth celebrate their deliverance
A concert performance of Richard Strauss's ELEKTRA with Luana DeVol in the title-role, with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Peter Schneider.
The event took place at the Passionstheater Oberammergau in 2005. Note that cuts have been made.
Watch and listen here.
Polish basso Leonard Andrzej Mróz sings four songs by Sergei Rachmaninoff, with Jerzy Marchwiński at the piano.
Watch and listen here.
~ Author: Ben Weaver
Saturday November 19th, 2022 - It is wonderful to be back at David Geffen Hall to hear the New York Philharmonic. I love the new space, which is far more attractive than the previous relic of 1960s hideousness. Bringing the stage forward to make room for seating behind the orchestra - something practically every European concert hall has been doing for decades - shrinks the auditorium and creates an intimate space. I thought I’d be distracted by the people behind the orchestra, but the design of the stage - with its horizontal lines and wood trims - creates a nice frame for the eye to focus, so my gaze was always on the players, rarely above them. (Except when someone turned on their phone flashlight to find something they dropped…that’s when one wishes one had a cannon to shoot the audience member right into the sun.) But otherwise, the hall is gorgeous.
And the sound is spectacular. For decades NY Philharmonic audiences had to listen to music land with a thud and the glorious sound of this orchestra never bloomed. No more. This was the reason these renovations were essential and long overdue. We can finally hear this great orchestra in all its sonic glory! Tonight's concert gave us a wide range of musical styles to appreciate the varied nuances of the new acoustic.
The announced program for this concert was supposed to begin with Jean Sibelius’ glorious tone poem Oceanides. Alas, it was replaced with an Igor Stravinsky piece I’ve always found to be rather a waste of time: Symphonies of Wind Instruments. Composed in 1920 and revised in 1945-47, it is a shapeless, senseless series of tedious honking. Occasionally echoes of Le Sacre du printemps do not save it. Its premiere was not a success (“hisses and laughter”) and with good reason. Fortunately it only lasts 10 minutes. One can’t fault the wonderful Philharmonic wind section here because they played wonderfully and it is good to hear them play in isolation. I wish more music was programmed generally to showcase specific sections of the orchestra.
Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion, and Orchestra, composed in 1937 as a sonata for two pianos and transformed into its current concerto form in 1940, is a virtuosic tour-de-force. One can easily see that the work was conceived as a sonata for two pianos because the orchestral contribution is rather spare throughout. The two pianists dominate, but the percussionists get a fair workout as well. The caustic, rhythmic Bartók is on full display here, the pianists and percussionists taking turns trading blows. The first and second movements are particularly aggressive, though the second movement in a more creepy way. The strings are struck with bows, adding to the percussive nature of the piece. Pianists Daniil Trifonov and his former teacher Sergei Babayan were spectacular. Playing - and occasionally swaying - in perfect sync, their ability to bring beauty and lyricism into Bartók’s most caustic music was magical. The three Philharmonic percussionists - Christopher Lamb, Daniel Druckman and Markus Rhoten - were in perfect sync with the two star pianists. The lighter and almost humorous final movement was a lively conclusion to this difficult work. Conductor Hannu Lintu coordinated everyone spectacularly.
Finland - home of Maestro Lintu (above) - dominated the second half of the program. Kaija Saariaho’s Ciel d’hiver - lifted from her larger 2003 composition Orion - was a gorgeous sensory experience. Saariaho has a highly unique sound palette, her ability to create otherworldly sounds are extraordinary. There’s a timelessness and weightlessness to her music; it’s as if it has always been there, like primordial space - it is all around us. The transparency of the sound can now be appreciated in the new acoustics.
Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7 - composed in 1924 - finally allowed us to hear the Philharmonic in its combined glory, and to appreciate the acoustics of the new Hall. If Saariajo’s music is like a frozen lake, Sibelius is a surging river and ocean of sound. His ability to make you feel the cold wind of a Finnish winter has always been a distinct feature of his extraordinary music. A relatively brief single-movement work, the Seventh realized Sibelius’ desire to pare down his music to the barest essentials. (Sadly he seems to have pared himself down to nothing just two years later. Only two major works followed the Seventh, and then Sibelius stopped composing - though he lived another 30 years!)
The symphony is made of 11 interconnected sections, some highly lyrical (recalling the more Romantic Sibelius of yore), and some far more abstract. The symphony’s final note, held by the strings, raising in volume and intensity - by turns sinister and unfinished - always reminds me of the harrowing Interlude in Berg’s Wozzeck, after Wozzeck has murdered Marie. A sustained note full of terror and hysteria. How can a single note contain so much emotion? And yet it can. Here Sibelius, like Berg before - although more subtle than Berg - shows us how.
Hannu Lintu has this music in his bones and brought out the most extraordinary performance from the Philharmonic. The climaxes were shattering, and because of the clear acoustic in the new Hall, they were shattering in volume and clarity, as well as emotion. The music simply glowed.
~ Ben Weaver
Above: pianist Benjamin Grosvenor
Author: Ben Weaver
Thursday November 17th, 2022 - The Orchestra of St. Luke’s and conductor Harry Bicket continued their multi-season traversal of the works of Felix Mendelssohn on Thursday evening at Carnegie Hall.
British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor was the soloist in Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G-minor, Op. 25, composed in 1831. The 22-year-old composer's Piano Concerto is not a standard piece in the concerto repertoire and that’s rather inexplicable. It’s a well-crafted work, with wonderful melodies, wide range of moods, and plenty for a soloist to dig into. A stormy opening from the orchestra and a quick, dramatic entry for the soloist set the tone for a wild ride. Grosvenor is an accomplished pianist and his dazzling playing was never lacking in beauty and excitement. The concerto is written without a pause between movements, effortlessly flowing from the tumultuous first to the lyrical second movement. One thing that stands out is the lack of sentimentality from Mendelssohn: he is earnest without cheap effects, and Grosvenor reflected that wonderfully. An especially lovely passage in the Andante movement passes the melody from the piano to lower strings, and here Grosvenor and the string players of the orchestra were spellbinding. A seamless transition into a quirky final movement was nicely handled, and Grosvenor continued his dazzling playing. Perhaps only a bit of humor was lacking in the whole proceeding, but I’ll place the blame for his on Maestro Bicket because this also marred an otherwise wonderful performance of Mendelssohn’s most famous work, incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Mendelssohn composed the famous Concert Overture when he was 18 years old and it became a staple of the concert repertoire quickly: a magnificent work filled with whimsy, drama, and endlessly hummable tunes, it conquered the world. 15 years later Mendelssohn was commissioned to write additional music for Shakespeare’s play and - remarkably - the now mature composer managed to time-travel to his youth and compose a score as magical as the Overture had been. After a shimmering playing of the Overture, Bicket and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s launched into the Scherzo - a lively wind section driven ode to fairies (excellent playing by the flutes especially).
Hiding among the players all along was actor David Hyde Pierce, appearing seemingly from nowhere as Puck: which is, obviously, the best way for Puck to appear. Hyde Pierce’s performance of selected sections of the text were delightful: by turns dramatic (Titania shocked to discover her husband’s tricks), a wryly delightful Puck, and gravely pompous Oberon, the real ass of the play. The veteran actor and comedian of TV, film, and stage, moved effortlessly from one mood to the next, sometimes without taking a breath. A marvelous performance! I have always enjoyed Mendelssohn’s music for these melodramas in the work, and so many recordings omit them, alas. So it was a pleasure to hear this music, especially as sensitively played as it was.
Soprano Elena Villalón and mezzo-soprano Cecelia Hall were most excellent Fairies, one wishes Mendelssohn had written more music for the singers. Members of the The Choir of the Trinity Wall Street were also excellent in their music; I especially appreciated their very clear diction.
The Orchestra of St. Luke’s played extremely well all night. The only difficulties came in the beautiful Notturno. Featuring extensive writing for the horns, perhaps the players got tired. The only thing missing in the whole - as I mentioned above - was a sense of humor in the proceedings. The dramatic and lyrical passages were magnificent, but a somewhat lighter touch would have been welcome. Since this afflicted both the Piano Concerto and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I’ll place this squarely on the shoulders of Maestro Bicket. Maybe he was just having one of those days; let’s blame it on a spell.
~ Ben Weaver