Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder in a passionate rendering by mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender (above) with Klaus Tennstedt conducting the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra.
Watch and listen here.
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Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder in a passionate rendering by mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender (above) with Klaus Tennstedt conducting the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra.
Watch and listen here.
August 07, 2024 | Permalink
Above: Marin Alsop on the Carnegie Hall podium with the National Youth Orchestra of the USA; photo by Chris Lee
~ Author: Oberon
Monday August 5th, 2024 - Carnegie Hall's World Orchestra Week continued with the National Youth Orchestra of the USA under the baton of Marin Alsop, with guest artist pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.
Samuel Barber's Symphony No. 1, which opened the program, was brand new to me. Being a great admirer of the composer's Violin Concerto, his Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Dover Beach, and operas VANESSA and ANTONY & CLEOPATRA, his first symphony fell easily on my ear.
This work, in a single movement lasting about 25 minutes, is more boisterous than I had expected. It is filled with sophisticated rhythmic shifts and uses the various instrumental colours cunningly. Opening grandly, it develops a rich theme with summoning trumpets and a flood of sound from the orchestra's huge violin contingent. A fugue-like section commences; the music then turns briefly lyrical until there's a huge outburst of brass and drums.
Everything comes to a dramatic halt, then there's another quasi-fugue wherein the flutes and reed instruments warble amusingly. The music turns bouncy, the violins swirl, there's a witty bassoon motif, and an enticing oboe solo. The harp is lovely; the cello, clarinet, and tuba each have their say. The symphony moves into its final phase: but it's a bit too drawn out - as if Barber was not quite sure what kind of ending he wanted to make. The young musicians were truly impressive in this music, with nicely polished playing in the various solo passages.
M. Thibaudet (above, with the maestro; photo by Chris Lee) was warmly welcomed to the Carnegie stage for George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. This beloved piece of music has been in my head since my youngest days of musical awareness: it was included on an LP of classical music favorites that my parents liked (it also featured the very first operatic music I ever heard heard: the RIGOLETTO quartet and Kirsten Flagstad's Ho-Jo-To-Ho!), and so it was a genuine pleasure to hear it again tonight.
Every moment of this music delights me, and it was really fun hearing the young artists captivate us with the various jazz motifs that Gershwin weaves into the score, from the opening 'siren' of the clarinet to the ever-so-cool wah-wah effects for the muted trumpet.
M. Thibaudet, his playing as brilliant as his subtly bejeweled jacket, was so thoroughly at home in this music, which he offered with such charm and allure. The long piano solos ravished the ear, whilst the pianist's rhythmic acuity and hints of rubato captured the underlying sexiness of the whole piece.
The musicians savoured the big melodies, with a lush sound and a delightful feel for the sway of the rhythms. Special kudos to the tuba player, Rufino Medado from deep in the heart of Texas.
Huge applause from the crowd as Jean-Yves and the maestro took their bows. Ms. Alsop then announced an encore, "Victory Stride" by a rather forgotten American composer, JJ Johnson (1924-2001). Jean-Yves joined in, and the house rocked as the various sections of the orchestra stood up to play. There was a terrific trombone solo, and great work from the trumpeters. A wonderful sense of community seemed to embrace players and audience alike.
Above: a Léon Bakst costume design for the ballet Scheherazade
After the interval, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade was sumptuously played. I had not heard this music for several years, and I'd forgotten how repetitive it is: the two or three main themes recur endlessly.
The program lists the players alphabetically, so I had no way of identifying the concertmaster, whose silken and sustained playing of the featured violin melodies was enchanting. The cello, bassoon, and clarinet soloists were likewise impressive, and a big bravo to the bass players.
As the music flowed on, endlessly pleasant, my mind began to wander. Dropped items periodically annoyed, and cellphones went off twice - at the worst possible moments. Despite being gorgeously performed, I frankly could not wait for Scheherazade to end.
A massive ovation ended the evening, and a specially-devised encore composed by Laura Karpman, entitled Swing, elicited more cheers. I'll always remember this concert for the Rhapsody in Blue, which shown in all its glory.
~ Oberon
August 06, 2024 | Permalink
A brief film of conductor Robert Shaw (above) preparing the Verdi REQUIEM with singers Sharon Sweet, Florence Quivar, Jerry Hadley, and Alastair Miles. Watch and listen here.
August 05, 2024 | Permalink
Sylvia Sass (above) is Tosca and Matteo Manuguerra is Scarpia in the final scene of Act I of Puccini's TOSCA from a 1984 performance given at Santiago de Chile. Edoardo Huespe is the Sacrstan, and the conductor is Michelangelo Veltri.
Watch and listen here.
August 04, 2024 | Permalink
~ Author: Oberon
Friday August 2nd, 2024 - Carnegie Hall presenting WOW! (World Orchestra Week) featuring visiting youth orchestras from around the globe. This evening, Gustavo Dudamel (photo above) took the podium to lead the National Children's Symphony of Venezuela in a varied and demanding program.
Carnegie Hall was packed to the rafters; young musicians from the other youth orchestras to be featured in the week-long festival took up large swathes of seats, and throughout the evening they were very vocal in their support of the Venezuelans, who filled the Carnegie stage to overflowing: I think I counted a dozen basses, and large contingents of winds and brass, to say nothing of a veritable army of violins.
John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine was the perfect opener for this program: lasting less than 5 minutes, the piece commences with a crazy, insistent beat and gets faster as it progresses. Piercing flutes and summoning trumpets decorate this tumultuous and fun score.
As an ideal contrast, we then heard from composer Antonio Estévez: his Mediodía en el llano is simply gorgeous. A chord builds slowly, like light emerging from behind dark clouds. Simmering violins lead to a horn quartet, and then delicate tremolos are heard. The tempo becomes more expansive, with a broad melody leading to a lovely violin solo.
Unannounced, we now had a choral interlude; white clad young singers took the stage; Maestro Dudamel spoke briefly but inaudibly about the two pieces that would be sung: two madrigals, the second being a setting of the Gloria. The voices blended sweetly; perhaps in the coming days the Carnegie website will give details about the works.
Alberto Ginastera's Four Dances from Estancia, is drawn from a complete ballet score commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein for American Ballet Caravan. When the premiere was postponed due to the disbanding of the company, the composer extracted a suite of dances. It wasn't until 2010 that the New York City Ballet presented Christopher Wheeldon's setting of the music as part of the Calatrava Festival.
Estancia ("living room" or - in this case - "wide open spaces") opens with energetic accents; the percussionists have a lot of fun here. Next comes a slow dance, with a featured flute solo and the horns developing a big melody. A passage for piano and soft violins is especially pleasing. The third dance is big and stirring, with some crazy drumming, and, after a squeaky start, a lilting beat springs up and the percussionists are again fully engaged. Then all the musicians began to sway.
After a long intermission, there was a ceremony in which Maestro Dudamel was awarded the Glenn Gould Prize; this went on a bit longer than necessary as my companion and I waited (im)patiently for the evening's crowning glory: the Shostakovich 5th symphony.
At the time of the symphony's premiere, the composer was in deep trouble with Stalin and his Soviet government. His symphony thus took the form of a penance for having stirred up the dictator's displeasure with his daring opera, LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK. The result of Shostakovich's desire to please the authorities was a titanic symphonic masterpiece.
Maestro Dudamel and his young players gave this astounding music a performance that was thrilling from start to finishm if not always perfectly polished. Commencing with solo clarinet and moving on to a passage with piano and deep brass, the opening Moderato becomes extremely noisy..and then subsides. The pairing of flute and horn is a stroke of genius, with the clarinet and high violin picking up the melodic thread. The misterioso flute casts a spell of its own.
In the Allegretto, solo winds pop up before Shostakovich commences a waltz. Irony and wit hover overall, with featured passages for a procession of instruments: violin, flute, trumpet, a bassoon duo. Plucking strings introduce a fresh texture.
The mournful opening of the Largo dispels any thoughts of lightness that the Allegretto might have stirred up. In this third movement, the brass do not play at all. Weeping strings, and the mingling of harp and flute lead to a rising sense of passion coloured by desolation. This evolves into a theme for oboe and violins. A lonely clarinet and a forlorn flute speak to us before a grand build-up commences with the strings in unison really digging into it. The music wafts into a high haze of despin support of heir colleagues instage. air, the harp trying to console.
Sadly, during this spell-binding Largo, there was a series of intrusive noises which were so frequent as to be comical: several audience members dropped items - always at the very worst moments of the music - and a cellphone and whimpering child added to the distractions.
The fourth movement, with its epic feeling of propulsive grandeur, is thought to have marked Shostakovich's triumph over the woes besetting him; but it has also been described as “forced rejoicing”. Whichever may be the case, a glorious horn theme, the aching strings, and the slow build-up to the epic finish certainly raised our spirits tonight. The cymbalist's exuberant clashes at the end took on a celebratory feel.
There followed a tumultuous standing ovation, the young musicians in the audience screaming with deafening intensity as their Venezuelan colleagues onstage bowed, section by section. A sort of endless encore seemed poorly organized, but was played with great enthusiasm. At the evening's end, the players hoisted their instruments over their heads as Carnegie Hall literally rocked.
UPDATE: the two 'unannounced' madrigals were by Jose Antonio Abreu: "Sol que das vida a los trigos" and "Gloria".
The encores were by Romero (Fuga con pajarillo) and Leonard Bernstein ("Mambo" from West Side Story).
~ Oberon
August 03, 2024 | Permalink
The inimitable Richard Tucker sings Turiddu's "Addio alla madre" from Mascagni's CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA on the Ed Sullivan Show in January 1954.
Watch and listen here.
August 02, 2024 | Permalink
Above: Anna Tomowa-Sintow as the Empress
Richard Strauss' Die Frau Ohne Schatten, performed by Opera de Marseille in 1995.
Watch and listen here.
Kaiserin: Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Kaiser: Horst Hoffmann, Färberin: Gwyneth Jones, Barak, der Färber: Jean-Philippe Lafont, Amme: Reinhild Runkel, Geisterbote: Malcom Rivers, Stimme des Falken: Brigitte Anselmino, Die Erscheinung eines Jünglings: Alain Gabriel, Stimme von oben: Nathalie Stutzmann, Der Hüter der Schwelle: Artur Stefanowicz, Der Einäugige: Philippe Fourcade, Der Einarmige: Chris de Moor, Der Bucklige: Yvan Matiakh
Conductor: Friedrich Pleyer
August 01, 2024 | Permalink