Messiah

To commemorate this blessed season, here's William Christie leading his Baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants in Handel's Messiah.

Happy Holidays to one and all!

Thanksgiving Program at the New York Philharmonic

 (Photo: clevelandclassical.com)

(Photo: bso.org)

Andrey Boreyko, Conductor
Frank Peter Zimmerman, Violin

Mendelssohn - Overture to Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde (Son and Stranger) (1829)
Shostakovich - Violin Concerto No. 1 (1945-48)
Dvořák - Symphony No. 9, From the New World (1893)

On Tuesday night I attended the New York Philharmonic's concert featuring works by Felix Mendelssohn, Dmitri Shostakovich and Antonin Dvořák.

At the age of 20, Mendelssohn composed his one act opera Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde for a private performance for friends and family. The overture remains its best known excerpt and features a sunny virtuosity that reflected the young composer's talents.

The Shostakovich concerto provided a stark change in mood. Its anxious melodic lines and disturbing rhythms probed the depths modern angst. The third and fourth movements contained  many dazzling passages for the soloist which Zimmerman met with ease.

The New York Philharmonic commissioned Dvořák to write his New World Symphony while he was the director of the New York Conservatory from 1892 to 1895. The composer incorporated American spirituals into the score and it was fitting to hear this expansive, optimistic piece as a prelude to Thanksgiving.

It was interesting to hear the Russian conductor Boreyko's interpretation of a Czech composer's impressions of American folk music. Boreyko imbued the performance with a lilting tenderness that somehow seemed fresh and very touching, and taken together with the two earlier pieces fully demonstrated his range as a conductor. I hope that the Philharmonic plans to invite him to lead many future performances.

Mahler's Ninth with the Philharmonia Orchestra

(photo: Richard Haughton)

Due to a busy work schedule I haven't been able to blog about concerts lately but I just had to post about the Philharmonia Orchestra's incredible rendition of Mahler's Symphony No. 9 at Avery Fisher Hall last night.

All I can say is WOW. Mahler's Ninth, composed in 1910, is in my opinion one of the highlights of symphonic literature but it is the rare interpretation that can move this sprawling 90 minute score at a good pace and still leave the listener emotionally wrecked by the end.

The conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, did just that. He conducted the esteemed ensemble with glistening precision but not at the expense deeply felt emotion. The final movement in particular was just ravishing with otherworldly strings and slowly dissolving tempi. It felt like Mahler's farewell to romanticism and everything else that he loved in life.

The program, unfortunately, won't be repeated but New Yorkers will have a chance to hear this work again next spring with Michael Tilson Thomas leading the San Francisco Symphony at Carnegie Hall.

Opening Night at the New York Philharmonic

(photo courtesy of The New York Times)

Alan Gilbert - Conductor
Leif Ove Andsnes - Piano

GYÖRGY KURTÁG -  ... quasi una fantasia ... Op. 27, No. 1 (1987–88)
BEETHOVEN - Piano Concerto No. 3 (1803)
STRAVINSKY - Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) (1911-13)

Last Wednesday the New York Philharmonic opened its season with a program featuring works by Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Hungarian composer György Kurtág.

Kurtág wrote  ... quasi una fantasia ... as an homage to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. On my first hearing, I didn't quite get the melodic connection though the atmosphere was similarly haunting, with a surreal and ghostly atonality pervading the work.

The 10 minute piece was an extension of the surround sound theme of the Philharmonic 360 series last June (which I missed unfortunately). The piano and timpani were located onstage; the vibraphone, marimba, cimbalom, and percussion in the rear orchestra; the harp and celeste in the first tier, and the strings, winds and brass in the third tier. It was certainly novel and very interesting but the size of the Avery Fisher Hall pretty much guaranteed a dynamic imbalance for most of the audience, especially for those who were seated next to one of the groups of instruments (like me).

I've always thought of Andsnes as a cerebral rather than an overtly emotional pianist and so it was interesting to hear him in Beethoven's third piano concerto, which admittedly seems more Mozartean than the composer's unabashedly Romantic later works. Andsnes brought his formidable technique into play especially in the first cadenza where he deployed the most brilliant runs and arpeggios I've ever heard in a live performance. His Largo was noble and profound, and the third movement was just exhiblirating. A wonderful performance indeed.

The Rite of Spring may no longer seem so shocking nowadays but it's still a riveting orchestral piece. Gilbert conducted the score with great polish and incisiveness, perhaps underplaying the raw expressionism a bit, but still full of dramatic splendor even without the original ballet.

The program was broadcasted live on WQXR and you can still listen to the recording here. The best thing about the concert? I got an orchestra seat with my student discount - for $13.50. The Philharmonic could very well turn into a weekly habit for me. I'm certainly looking forward to the rest of the season.

Wagner's Dream on PBS

Last night PBS presented Wagner's Dream, a documentary by Susan Froemke about Robert Lepage's new production of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle for the Metropolitan Opera.

I've seen all four operas over the past two seasons and very much enjoyed Lepage's technical wizardry and pioneering vision. It was courageous of him to even conceive of such a high-tech, futuristic production for the conservative Wagnerian audience at the Met.

Predictably, critical reaction was hostile, particularly Anthony Tommasini's dismissive review for the New York Times. But this didn't affect my enjoyment of the Ring at all. Over the years I've come to realize anyway that music critics don't really have the qualifications to assess theatrical innovation in a knowledgeable manner. Let's just leave it at that.

Wagner's Dream features Lepage and his team conceiving and working out the various problems of this hugely expensive production, particularly the logistics of the main setpiece consisting of oscillating planks with digital projections.

Deborah Voigt, the most affecting Brünnhilde that I've ever seen in a live performance, is featured in extended interviews, and it was fascinating to watch her and Lepage negotiate some of the trickier aspects of the blocking and direction. I've also never seen the backstage of the Met before and was fascinated by scene behind the scene.

PBS will be broadcasting the entire Ring starting with Das Rheingold this evening, Die Walküre tomorrow, Siegfried on Thursday, and Götterdämmerung on Friday. The operas, including Wagner's Dream, are also available on DVD at the Met Opera Shop. I'm glad that this visionary production is finally getting a wider audience.

New York Times demotes Allan Kozinn as music critic

Yesterday, Norman Lebrecht's blog Slipped Disc reported that the New York Times has demoted music critic Allan Kozinn to a new post called "general cultural reporter" in order to create a vacancy for the hiring of freelance music and opera critic Zachary Woolfe.

I'm only hearing one side of the story, of course, but still... the politics at the Times is disheartening. I've always enjoyed Kozinn's informative, engaging reviews, and always thought of him as a fair and insightful critic, so much better than some of the newer writers whose commentaries can seem so trite and obvious. Kozinn's articles have been an inspiration for my own blog posts even though I can never hope to achieve the depth of his knowledge and perspective.

The article was a bit cryptic about the inner machinations of the classical music department:

The reasons are purely internal. Culture Editor Jon Landman knows he has a problem in the classical department. The chief critic Anthony Tommasini is thought to have failed to win the confidence of New York’s opinion formers.

Most of the comments voiced support for Kozinn, including one from Paula (Kozinn's partner?) who described Kozinn's extensive preparation for reviews:

I’ve attended hundreds of performances with Allan, and he is always interested in what he’s hearing — no matter how many times he’s heard the piece or orchestra before, or what a weak rendition it is. He hears every note and all the variables. Rather than feeling bored, he’s fascinated by each nuance. That’s what makes him so good at what he’s been doing for so long.

And he doesn’t just go to the concerts and throw together a review. The day of the concert includes listening to various versions of the piece, revisiting the scores and the earlier (when they exist) and latest works by the performers, reading volumes of related information, researching links for the online version and sifting through old and erroneous info often put out by the groups themselves.

Our home is a library. He has built a priceless collection of music, scores and books. It is a very rare occasion that he needs to hear something and does not already have it ,here, in his collection (usually in many versions), no matter how new or obscure. Just taking photos of the walls of CDs and books would fill an album. To give you an idea of how extensive this is — just one part of his collection contains an estimated 180,180 CDs. We have an entire wall of scores, alone.

Not to take anything away from other writers, particularly Steve Smith and others who I have a great deal of respect for, no one can hold a candle to Allan in term of expertise. I see firsthand, that his entire day — every day — as well as vacations and days off are consumed by this passion of his.

One dissenter, Jane, said:

Get a GRIP!

For TOO LONG the NY Times contemporary classical reviews have completely lacked the diversity of opinion found in, for example, the book reviews. Reviews of every concert – as in literally ever concert – range from pretty good to amazing. Is there no bad music in New York? Really?

There is no objectivity in the writing. Kozinn (and even Smith) proudly “like” and back-slap the very people they’re writing about – on Facebook of all places – for all to see. The New York music scene has become a very chummy club between the reviewers and their subjects.

A contemporary composer can proudly post their Smith/Kozinn review to Facebook, tag the review onto the reviewers Wall, and get it “liked” back by the very same reviewer (or their partners). What message does that send out?

Just read all the posts on here and currently on Facebook. God forbid an independent critic is appointed.

Some professionalism and maybe training the NY Times reviewers on how to and how not to use social media might be a good idea. Alex Ross gets its right: there’s a “Chinese wall” attitude to his handling of his reviews and their subjects.

WAKE UP!

Indeed, I can't recall any negative classical music reviews (excluding opera) in the Times over the past few years so perhaps Jane has a point.  

At any rate, an online petition to reinstate Kozinn has gathered over 800 signatures here. We'll see how this  plays out.

Janet Cardiff at MoMA PS1 and the Park Avenue Armory

The Canadian installation artist Janet Cardiff has two stellar projects currently on view in New York City for a few more days.

For the first piece, The Forty Part Motet, Cardiff arranged 40 speakers in a loft at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City. Each speaker plays a recording of a single voice singing Thomas Tallis's 16th century polyphonic motet Spem in alium, giving the listener the effect of standing in the middle of a choir.

This sacred music was written in 1570 for soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass voices without instrumentation. It reverberates through your core and induces a definite spiritual high. This composition lasts for about 10 minutes, and will be at PS1 until September 4, 2012.

The second piece, The Murder of Crows, is a far more ambitious work. Conceived in 2008. Cardiff, in collaboration with George Bures Miller, installed 98 speakers in the cavernous Drill Hall at the Park Avenue Armory.

In the center of the room, through a megaphone set upon spotlit table, Cardiff's voice narrates three vaguely connected nightmares that she had in Africa, accompanied by surreal layers of moving sound effects that include chanting Tibetan nuns, factory noises, guitars and strings, crashing waves, the beating of giant wings, a choral sequence, and marching bands.

According to the artists,

The title for the installation is ‘The Murder of Crows’, which means a grouping of crows. Sometimes when a crow dies, many other crows flock to the area around the dead bird and caw for over 24 hours, creating a ‘crow funeral’. The title also provides a thematic entry into the installation; a basis to create a work that becomes a metaphor for our political situation today.  

I wasn't sure that I got the political metaphor, unless the artists were alluding to social unrest and economic uncertainty in many parts of the world. The whole effect was certainly dreamlike and disturbing. The 30 minute sequence is played in a continuous loop. I listened to it twice, first sitting in the center of the room, then (as many others were doing) walking around the space to experience the swirling soundscape. Really fantastic.

This rarely presented work is part of the Mostly Mozart Festival and will be on view at the Park Avenue Armory until September 9, 2012.

(photos courtesy of MoMA PS1 and Huffington Post)

Closing Night at Mostly Mozart

Louis Langrée, conductor
Martin Fröst, clarinet
Layla Claire, soprano
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
Paul Appleby, tenor
Matthew Rose, bass
Concert Chorale of New York
James Bagwell, director

MOZART: Clarinet Concerto (1791)
BEETHOVEN: Mass in C major (1807)

Mostly Mozart ended its season with a program featuring Mozart's Clarinet Concerto and Beethoven's Mass in C major.

The concerto has been one of my favorites ever since I first heard it in the film Out of Africa. The Swedish clarinetist Martin Fröst gave a splendid account, clearly articulating the bass, alto, and soprano voices of his instrument in a way that suggested murmured conversation or even lovers' vows. The second movement was lovely - it bloomed like a rose and Fröst's wistful recapitulation of the opening theme was almost heartbreaking.

For an encore Fröst played Giora Feidman's spirited Let's Be Happy as arranged by his younger brother, Goran Fröst. The jazz rhythms provided a nice contrast to Mozart and Fröst seemed to relish playing the piece. The applause from the audience was deafening.

From the 1790s to 1800s, Prince Nicholas Esterhazy II commissioned a new mass to be performed on the Sunday following the name day of his wife, Princess Maria Elisabeth. Haydn, who was Beethoven's teacher, handled these assignments until Beethoven received the commission in 1807.

Beethoven's first liturgical attempt was structured within the framework of the ordinary mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo. Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei). Esterhazy, however, was flippantly dismissive of the high seriousness and reverential orchestration of the work, and the offended composer refused to dedicate this piece to him.

The Mass is rarely performed nowadays since it has been overshadowed by Missa Solemnis and the composer's late masterpieces. I felt blessed to have heard this Mass in a live performance. The choral writing is glorious and the Concert Chorale sang magnificently. The parts for soprano, mezzo, tenor, and bass seemed more integrated with the chorus (compared to Mozart's Requiem and Mass in C minor anyway) but Layla Claire, Sasha Cooke, Paul Appleby, and Matthew Rose nevertheless sang with clarity and passion.

In both pieces Louis Langrée conducted the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra with true elegance and refinement. He will be the new music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra next year. They are indeed lucky to have him.

The program will be repeated tonight at 8:00 pm in Avery Fisher Hall.

Garrick Ohlsson plays the Emperor Concerto at Mostly Mozart

(photo courtesy of Garrick Ohlsson)

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Susanna Mälkki, conductor
Garrick Ohlsson, piano

SCHUBERT/BERIO: Rendering (1990)
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”) (1809)

Last season I had the pleasure and great privilege of hearing Garrick Ohlsson play Liszt and Mozart , and so I was excited to hear him again last night with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in my favorite works, Beethoven's Emperor Concerto.

This masterpiece of piano literature opens with a grand flourish and develops its famous themes into virtuosic passages for the soloist in the exposition. Ohlsson played Beethoven with his customary brilliance and forthright, lapidary style and it was thrilling to listen to him in the cadenzas.

It was particularly interesting to hear him play the Adagio, where he avoided extreme pianissimos and slow tempi in favor of a more candid, ardent phrasing. The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra seemed to lack the heft that I have come to associate with Beethoven, but perhaps this wasn't such a bad thing. Maikki conducted the score with a Mozartean lilt, emphasizing the concerto's classical, rather than romantic, aspects.

The program began with Luciano Berio's Rendering, which he composed in 1989 using fragments of Schubert's unfinished Tenth Symphony as his framework. It certainly sounded like Schubert, at least in the opening themes, but then surreal, diaphanous passages of atonality and dissonance filled the gaps, resulting in an impressionistic soundscape much like a sweet dream morphing into something more disturbing. The orchestra played its many facets with wit and polish.

This was my first Mostly Mozart concert in a very long time. Their season runs through August 24. I should definitely look into their remaining concerts on the calendar. Here's a complete recording of Rendering with Christoph Eschenbach conducting the Orchestre de Paris.

Season Finale at the Philharmonic

(photo courtesy of the New York Times)

Alan Gilbert, Conductor
Emanuel Ax, Piano
Jennifer Zetlan, Soprano
Jennifer Johnson Cano, Mezzo-Soprano
Paul Appleby, Tenor
Joshua Hopkins, Baritone
New York Choral Artists, Joseph Flummerfelt, Director

MOZART Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat Major, K. 482 (1785)
MOZART Mass in C Minor, Great, K. 427 (1782)

Last Wednesday I attended the final subscription concert of the New York Philharmonic featuring Emanuel Ax in an all-Mozart program.

Mozart wrote his Piano Concerto No. 22 at the same time as The Marriage of Figaro, which might explain the concerto's almost narrative melodic structure. Its themes, which include lovely passages for the clarinet, unfold in a graciously regal manner with keyboard passages that are like extended arias. Ax's interpretation was quietly refined and free of any flourishes. It was a pleasure to listen to him.

Ax will be the orchestra's artist in residence next season. His upcoming concerts will include works for piano by Bach, Mozart, Schoenberg, and a modern piece by Christopher Rouse. It will be interesting to hear him in these varied pieces.

Like his Requiem, Mozart's Mass in C Minor is an unfinished liturgical masterpiece that features a soprano/mezzo/tenor/baritone quartet alternating with the choral parts. The Mass isn't quite as dark as the Requiem but is nevertheless full of solemn beauty. Zetlan, Cano, Applyby, and Hopkins performed admirably, and the New York Choral Artists were magnificent.

Gilbert once said:

Mozart's music looks deceptively easy on the page, and it's deceptively simple sounding, but he actually poses a great challenge....

Mozart does not put a lot of instruction in his scores. there are suprisingly few dynamics, and almost no changes of tempo. Other composers, such as Mahler, hand much of the interpretation to the performer on a platter; you know when he wants less, or more, and when he wants rubato. With Mozart the roadmap is not specifically determined. 

As a Mozart interpreter, Gilbert is very much a classicist. While he conducted the concerto and the Mass with a natural sense of balance, he also drew out the melancholy and dramatic aspects of the music within the framework of classical decorum: always correct and never overtly sentimental.

It's been great rediscovering the Philharmonic during the second half of the 2011-12 season. I've subscribed to an eight concert series for next season, which will include some favorites such as Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, Elgar's Enigma Variations, and Handel's Messiah. I'm looking forward to it.

Bach, Mozart, and Stravinsky at the Philharmonic

J.S. BACH Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041 (1717-1723)
MOZART Violin Concerto No. 5, Turkish (1775)
STRAVINSKY Concerto in D major for String Orchestra (1946, revised 1961)
MOZART Symphony No. 39 (1788)

Last night the New York Philharmonic performed a program of Bach, Mozart, and Stravinsky with Pinchas Zukerman as the soloist and conductor.

Zukerman is an apollonian artist. His accounts of the Bach and Mozart concerti were very correct, tasteful, and patrician though he managed to avoid any dullness with his thoughtful phrasing and elegant, singing line.

The Stravinsky concerto did not have a solo part but it nevertheless sounded like a logical extension of Bach and Mozart. The strings played with uncommon sweetness (for Stravinsky anyway) and the piece as a whole brimmed with gentility. In context, Jerome Robbins' choreography in The Cage highlighted the same concerto's more sinister aspects but last night's reading was anything but that.

Mozart's Symphony No. 39 is the last of the composer's three great and final symphonic works. Zukerman drew a poignant account from the orchestra. The wind section was especially fine.

The season concludes with more Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22 and the Mass in C Minor. I can't wait for that concert.

Atlàntida and Carmina Burana with the New York Philharmonic

FALLA Selections from Atlàntida Scenic Cantata (1926-46)
ORFF Carmina burana (1937)

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos,  Conductor
Erin Morley,  Soprano
Emalie Savoy,  Soprano
Nicholas Phan,  Tenor
Jacques Imbrailo,  Baritone
Orfeón Pamplonés,  Chorus
Igor Ijurra Fernández,  Director
Brooklyn Youth Chorus,  Chorus
Dianne Berkun,  Chorus Director

Last Friday, the New York Philharmonic presented two massive choral works.

The orchestra performed Manuel de Falla's Atlàntida for the first time. I wasn't sure what to think of it. The composer conceived of an ambitious opera about the birth of Spain but had only completed sections of it when he died in 1946. The excerpts presented were from Falla's original score, impressive sounding but (not surprisingly) lacking in narrative structure. Orfeón Pamplonés,  the Spanish chorus, Savoy, and Imbrailo did sound wonderful and the orchestra under de Burgos performed with nationalistic fervor.

Carl Orff's Carmina burana isn't a subtle piece: the melodies are simple, the libretto is a bit crude, and the rhythms are heavy handed. But it's a crowd pleaser and the orchestra and both choruses seemed to be having a great time performing the work. Lovely solos from Morley and Imbralio, and Phan was delightful as the roasting swan.

During the intermission, right by the doors of the Orchestra section, I noticed portraits of the Philharmonic musicians by Thomas Mitz. The paintings are quite enchanting. Check them out next time you're in Avery Fisher Hall.

website

Salome at Carnegie Hall

(photo courtesy of the Stamford Advocate)

The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, Music Director and Conductor
Nina Stemme, Soprano (Salome)
Eric Owens, Bass-Baritone (Jochanaan)
Rudolf Schasching, Tenor (Herod)
Jane Henschel, Mezzo-Soprano (Herodias)
Garrett Sorenson, Tenor (Narraboth)

Last Thursday the Cleveland Orchestra presented Richard Strauss's Salome in concert at Carnegie Hall. The opera, which ends with Salome kissing the decapitated, bloody head of the prophet Jochanaan, has to be among the grisliest ever written. According to the program notes, after the opera's first appearance in New York at the turn of the century,  a citizens' protest against the "moral stench" of this "loathsome, abhorrent" work closed the Metropolitan Opera production after one performance.

I thought that listening to this opera in concert would be a good way to experience the music in a visceral manner and sidestep the camp of most stagings. Under Welser-Möst, the orchestra played admirably but seemed to gloss over the restless dissonances of Strauss's score. During the first half I thought I was listening to chamber music. I could also barely hear the singers including Owens, who was stupendous as Alberich in the Met's Ring cycle, though his voice gained clarity as the evening progressed. Owens seemed to view Jochanaan as a coolly erudite seer, condemning but decidedly above being enraged by the queen's immorality. His repudiation of Salome's advances likewise seemed grounded in ethics rather than disgust.

Henschel was regal but obviously unhinged as Heroidas. Henschel played Herod as a cad who just happened to be the king: lusting after the title character then later denouncing her for being too high maintenance.

Stemme turned out to be a riveting Salome, especially after the Dance of the Seven Veils when she silences Herod's offers of riches by demanding the execution of Jochanaan. During her final, wrathful monologue with the severed head, Stemme fully expressed her character's psychosis. It was a privilege to listen to her and I hope that she makes more frequent appearances in New York. She is, after all, considered to be the reigning dramatic soprano in the Strauss and Wagner repertoire.

Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

Charles Dutoit, Chief Conductor
Maria João Pires, Piano
The Philadelphia Singers Chorale, David Hayes, Director

Program
GLINKA Overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila
CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21
RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé (complete)

Last Friday I attended the Phildelphia Orchestra's concert at Carnegie Hall.

The program began with a blazing account of Mikhail Glinka's overture to the opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila. This spirited piece affirmed that notwithstanding financial troubles, the Philadelphia Orchestra still ranks among the world's best with a distinctive sound that is surpassed only by the Vienna Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic.

I have a treasured recording of Bach partitas by Maria João Pires so I was excited to see her live for the first time. At 67, she is still in top form and her lustrous rendition of Frédéric Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 was nothing short of breathtaking. Her phrasing was full of longing and expectation and sounded achingly beautiful against the famous sheen of the orchestra's string section.

The complete ballet score of Daphnis et Chloé is considered to be Maurice Ravel's masterpiece though it's not my favorite work by the composer - not enough rhythmic variety for me, something like Bolero on a grander scale. Still, the impressionist soundscape has its own beauty and Dutoit drew a committed and polished performance from the orchestra and chorale.

I do hope that the Philadelphia Orchestra sorts out its financial affairs and emerges from bankruptcy soon. It is a national treasure and deserves the full support of its subscribers and classical music lovers everywhere. I'm looking forward to hearing them again next season.

Here is Pires performing the Larghetto from Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, 1925-2012

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone singer, born May 28, 1925; died May 18, 2012. I've listened to many of his recordings over the years and regret that I never got to see him in a live performance. His Youtube videos of Mahler lieder were particularly wonderful. Rest in peace.

From The Guardian obituary:

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the distinguished German baritone, has died aged 86. His protean career was surely unique, as he sang and recorded more vocal music than any who came before. In particular, he broached more lieder (German songs) than any of his predecessors of the genre, his recordings running into the hundreds. Many of these songs he recorded several times over: for instance, he made no fewer than eight recordings of Schubert's Winterreise.

This truly incredible output was the result of an inquiring mind, an insatiable desire to tackle any and every song he could find, and to be a proselytiser for the art of lieder and singing in general, all these underlined by an instinctive wish to achieve perfection in his craft. More than that, he was an inspiration to the vast number of singers who have followed his example in this field, and made the singing of lieder a common experience. He also created an audience for this kind of music-making. Look at the concert and radio listings, look at the myriad discs of songs released in the CD age, and you will hear the benefits of his pioneering effort.

Fischer-Dieskau was born in Berlin and studied there with the veteran lieder artist Georg Walter, then after the second world war with Hermann Weissenborn, who partnered him at the piano in early recitals. But many of his first successes were in opera in Berlin. He made his stage debut there in 1948, as Posa in Don Carlos at the City Opera, where he would go on to be heard in most of the major baritone roles, Italian and German. From 1949 onwards he was appearing regularly at the Vienna State Opera and at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He also sang at the Bayreuth festival from 1954 to 1956 as the Herald (Lohengrin), Wolfram, Kothner and Amfortas.

In 1961 he created, magnificently, the ego-mad Mittenhofer in Hans Werner Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers at the Schwetzingen festival and in 1978 the title role in Aribert Reimann's Lear at Munich, an overwhelming portrayal. His Covent Garden debut came in 1965 when he created an immense impression as the impassioned Mandryka in a new production of Richard Strauss's Arabella under Georg Solti. He returned later to portray Verdi's Falstaff, a large-scale but somewhat unidiomatic reading.

Among roles in which he was unforgettable and which he recorded for posterity are Count Almaviva, Don Giovanni, the Flying Dutchman, Wolfram in Tannhäuser, Telramund in Rudolf Kempe's classic set of Lohengrin, Busoni's Faust, Hindemith's Mathis, Mandryka, Barak in Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten, and both Oliver and the Count in the same composer's Capriccio.

One of Fischer-Dieskau's first and most moving portrayals on disc was as Kurwenal in Wilhelm Furtwängler's legendary 1952 recording of Tristan und Isolde. Another classic recording with the German conductor was of Mahler's Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen. He twice recorded the same composer's Das Lied von der Erde, first under Paul Kletzki, then with Leonard Bernstein, taking the three movements usually sung by a mezzo-soprano and making them very much his own.

Tall, with expressive features, Fischer-Dieskau was a riveting figure on stage and a not inconsiderable actor. Nobody who caught him as Mandryka, Mathis or Wolfram is likely to forget the experience.

His enormous repertory also included many choral works. Besides recording many of Bach's cantatas, he was a sympathetic Christ in both that composer's Passions, an imposing Elijah in Mendelssohn and one of the original soloists in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, the baritone contributions written specifically for him. Britten in 1965 composed his Songs and Proverbs of William Blake for Fischer-Dieskau, just one of the many commissions his singing inspired.

Yet it was with his lieder that he achieved his greatest deeds. He recorded all the songs of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Hugo Wolf and Strauss suitable for a male voice. He worked on them first with Gerald Moore, doyen of pure accompanists, and then was partnered by a host of distinguished solo pianists and the conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch, each of whom inspired him to refreshingly new insights.

Fischer-Dieskau had a full, firm and resonant baritone, which could be honed down to the most delicate mezza voce. It was used with the utmost care in managing and projecting the text. He could on occasion be too emphatic in his treatment of words and was sometimes accused of overloading climaxes, but these were only the downside of a singer who was totally immersed in everything he undertook. An excellent linguist, he was almost as happy singing in Italian, French and English as in his native tongue, and he spoke English with virtually no accent.

In a career lasting more than 40 years, there was, as the years went by, inevitably some deterioration in his tone, but he compensated for the decline with a new lightness of approach and an even deeper penetration into the meaning of each song, as his 1986 recording of Winterreise with Alfred Brendel reveals. After he had retired from singing in 1992, Fischer-Dieskau took up another career reciting literary texts, often associated with song. He was also willing to give private lessons to carefully chosen singers to whom he imparted his immense experience as an interpreter.

He published a book of memoirs, Nachklang, in 1987, translated into English as Echoes of a Lifetime. It was an unusual autobiography in showing a man who, for all his many achievements, was uncertain of himself. That reflected the impression made when you met him. He was initially shy, but you always felt that behind the quizzical, sly, humorous eye and manner lay a man of philosophical bent, perhaps amazed himself at what his genius, for it was no less, had led him to achieve.

He is survived by his fourth wife, the soprano Julia Varady, whom he married in 1977, and three sons by his first wife, the cellist Irmgard Poppen, who died in 1963.

Here he is singing Bach (lyrics).

Mahler, Shostakovich, and Mahler

Tuesday, May 1, 2012, Carnegie Hall

Performers
Matthias Goerne, Baritone
Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano

Program
MAHLER "Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft"
SHOSTAKOVICH "Morning," Op. 145, No. 2
MAHLER "Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen"
SHOSTAKOVICH "Separation," Op. 145, No. 4
MAHLER "Es sungen drei Engel"
MAHLER "Das irdische Leben"
MAHLER "Nun seh’ ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen"
MAHLER "Wenn dein Mütterlein"
MAHLER "Urlicht"
SHOSTAKOVICH "Night," Op. 145, No. 9
MAHLER "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen"
SHOSTAKOVICH "Immortality," Op. 45, No. 11
SHOSTAKOVICH "Dante," Op. 145, No. 6
MAHLER "Revelge"
SHOSTAKOVICH "Death," Op. 145, No. 10
MAHLER "Der Tamboursg'sell"

Encore
BEETHOVEN "An die Hoffnung," Op. 94

Wednesday, May 2, 2012, Carnegie Hall

Performers
New York Philharmonic
Alan Gilbert, Conductor

Program
MAHLER Symphony No. 6

Last Tuesday I attended a recital at Carnegie Hall with baritone Matthias Goerne accompanied by pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, featuring songs from Gustav Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Rückert-Lieder, and Kindertotenlieder, and Dmitri Shostakovich's Michelangelo Suite.

Goerne's Papageno at the Metropolitan Opera made a huge impression when I saw him in Die Zauberflöte many years ago, and Andsnes's Schumann Piano Concerto has always been one of my favorite recordings. I was curious to hear both of them again.

At first glance the program seemed rather bleak - lost love, the death of children, mortality - but it turned out to be a stimulating evening. Goerne has a warm, polished baritone which he used to great effect in Mahler. His phrasing was studied and scrupulous (perhaps overly so in Nun seh’ ich wohl where I wished for more abandon) but his emotional commitment was fully evident. His renditions of Urlicht and Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen were just heartbreaking.

The Shostakovich songs were like shots of iced vodka between glasses of Mahlerian bordeaux, if you'll excuse the metaphor. More than anything they seemed like declamations set to music and to be honest Goerne's vocal nuances were lost on me. But this is where Andsnes seemed to shine - he conjured many distinct moods with the spare melodies.

The Beethoven encore, An die Hoffnung, was one of the loveliest songs of the evening.

On Wednesday, the New York Philharmonic played Mahler's Sixth Symphony - an unabashed, propulsive rendition of the same themes of love and death. It was good to hear the orchestra at Carnegie Hall where the strings took on an unusual glow. Gilbert chose to play the Andante as the second movement and his was a ravishing, deeply romantic interpretation. The final movement was literally earthshaking: it was almost like hearing it for the first time. The Principal French Horn, Philip Myers, received well deserved bravos at the end.

I'm now curious to hear the orchestra's Memorial Day concert where Gilbert will be conducting Mahler's Ninth. Especially since it's free. Tickets will be handed out at arund 6:15 pm for the 8:00 pm concert at St. John the Divine.

Garrick Ohlsson plays Liszt

BACH Fantasy and Fugue for Organ in G Minor, BWV 542; (transcribed for piano by Franz Liszt, S. 463)
LISZT Fantasy and Fugue for Organ on "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" (after Giacomo Meyerbeer), S. 259; (transcribed for piano by Ferruccio Busoni)
LISZT Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S. 173
LISZT Étude No. 5, “Feux follets,” from Études d’exécution transcendante, S. 139
LISZT Valse oubliée, S. 215, No. 1
LISZT Nuages gris, S. 199
LISZT Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke), S. 514

I was eager to hear more of Garrick Ohlsson after his performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 with the New York Philharmonic last week, and so yesterday afternoon I attended his recital at Carnegie Hall featuring works by Franz Liszt. Ohlsson replaced Maurizio Pollini who was scheduled to perform but cancelled because of illness.

The program opened with piano transcriptions of two organ compositions. Liszt wrote Fantasy and Fugue for Organ on "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" in 1850, which Busoni transcribed for piano in 1897. The work was structured in three parts: fantasy, adagio, and fugue. Liszt transcribed Bach's Fantasy and Fugue for Organ in G Minor in 1869, several years after he had retired from concert performances. Ohlsson displayed formidable technique in the denser passages of both pieces as well as ardent lyricism in the Bach fugue and the Busoni adagio.

The second half of the concert featured a sampling of shorter works that spanned Liszt's career. Liszt composed Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude in 1834 when he was 23 years old. As the title suggests, Bénédiction featured a sublimely beautiful theme with softly undulating notes that suggested an encounter with the divine.

Liszt wrote Étude No. 5 at the age of 15. It's a bright, glittering piece that showed his precocious talents at that age. The next two works, on the other hand, were composed during Liszt's later years. Valse oubliée conveyed a certain restless melancholy, brimming with wistful atmosphere, and Nuages gris was a slow quiet piece with a darker cast, almost like a longing for death.

Ohlsson saved Mephisto Waltz No. 1 for last and delivered it with great bravado.

The encore, a short work in A-flat Major from Klavierstück (which Liszt wrote 1865, if I heard Ohlsson correctly), had a lovely autumnal air and was a bit more introspective than most of the preceding works.

Liszt, born in 1811, was a contemporary of Schumann and Chopin and so this recital was a wonderful follow up to last Wednesday's concert with Richard Goode. Two programs featuring works from the Romantic period by two great pianists, both in the same week. What more can you ask for, indeed.

Batiashvili and Neikrug at the Philharmonic

New York Philharmonic
Conductor: Alan Gilbert
Violin: Lisa Batiashvili

Program:
Hector Berlioz, Le Corsaire Overture (1844)
Marc Neikrug, Concerto for Orchestra (World Premiere)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major, K. 216, Strassburg (1775)
Claude Debussy, La Mer (1905)

The picture above was the view from my third tier box seat at the New York Philharmonic last night.

The program began with a rollicking account of the Le Corsaire overture by Berlioz, followed by the premiere of Neikrug's Concerto for Orchestra. I didn't know what to expect with this new piece since I wasn't able to find any original compositions by Neikrug on Youtube. From the online program notes:

When Alan Gilbert was at Vail with the Philharmonic a couple of summers ago, and Marc Neikrug was Composer in Residence at the Vail Music Festival, they began to discuss the possibility of a commission. The composer thought possibly a wind concerto, but Alan Gilbert said that’s not what he had in mind; he wanted something “with more flash”…something a little more “sparkly.” Neikrug suggested that a concerto for orchestra might fill the bill. Traditional concertos for orchestra (by Bartók, Lutoslawski, for example) tend to highlight sections of the orchestra as virtuoso entities, but rarely pick out individual instruments or players, the way a solo concerto would. By contrast, the present work will build the concerto from multiple layers to show off the Philharmonic: the brilliance of the entire orchestra playing together; sections of the orchestra (e.g., strings, winds, percussion); smaller groups of musicians (a trio of strings, for example); as well as individual players.

The concerto turned out to be a rather serious piece with a percussive opening in the first movement, followed by a scherzo with winds sounding vaguely like Stravinsky, and then an adagio for strings, evoking Mahler. The finale was quite grand and impressive and involved the entire orchestra.

On my first hearing, it was hard to tell what Neikrug sought to achieve with this score other than providing a virtuosic showpiece for the Philharmonic. But I did like it a lot, especially its brooding atmosphere and interplay of harmonies and dissonances. My only crits were that the concerto could perhaps benefit from improved precision among the strings and more concise phrasing towards the climax.

Batiashvili gave a radiant and emotionally charged account of Mozart's third violin concerto, which can sometimes seem chirpy and simplistic in lesser hands. Her tone was sumptuous throughout the piece and her candenzas had a noble beauty.

Gilbert likewise provided a sensuous reading of La Mer, perhaps a bit short on mystery but he did move this piece along with dynamic cadences that kept my interest from flagging. I began to understand why Sviatoslav Richter once called it "a piece that I rank alongside the St. Matthew Passion and the Ring cycle as one of my favorite works."

All in all, a great program. Next week: Mahler's Sixth.

Richard Goode at Carnegie Hall

SCHUMANN
Kinderszenen, Op. 15
Kreisleriana, Op. 16

CHOPIN 
Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 55, No. 2
Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 39
Waltz in A-flat Major, Op. 64, No. 3
Waltz in C-sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2
Waltz in F Major, Op. 34, No. 3
Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major, Op. 47

Last night pianist Richard Goode presented a program of solo piano pieces by Robert Schumann and Frédéric Chopin at Carnegie Hall.

Schumann and Chopin were both born in 1810 and went on to become two of the great masters of the Romantic era. Surprisingly, they had little contact with each other and moved in different circles (Schumann was based in Leipzig whereas Chopin lived in Paris). Schumann was primarily influenced by Beethoven; Chopin revered Bach and Mozart. This concert was a great opportunity to hear both composers side by side.

In 1838, Schumann composed Kinderszenen and Kreisleriana as short character studies for the solo piano. The thirteen sections of Kinderszenen were inspired by Schumann's reminisces of childhood. Goode played them with a suitably nostalgic and wistful air, and his Traumerei (Dreaming) was gorgeous, especially in the final measures.

Kreisleriana, inspired by a character from E. T. A. Hoffmann, has a greater emotional range with eight sections ranging from tempestuous to introspective. And yet Goode reigned in any showiness and instead delivered the essential character of each movement with deep thoughtfulness and clarity.

In the second half of the program, Goode evoked 19th century Paris with Chopin. His sound was silken and otherwordly, particularly in the waltzes, amd the final ballade was a showpiece of glittering virtuosity.

Goode played three encores: Chopin's Mazurka in C Major, Op. 24, No. 2, Beethoven's Scherzo from Sonata No. 18 in E-flat Major, Op. 31, No. 3, and Leoš Janáček's On the Overgrown Path, Book I.

I enjoyed Goode's understated yet profoundly sensitive style and am looking forward to hearing him again next season.

Garrick Ohlsson plays Mozart

Last night the New York Philharmonic presented Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 (1777) and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 (1888) with pianist Garrick Ohlsson and conductor Herbert Blomstedt.

Mozart wrote the concerto at the age of 21 for Louise Victoire Jenamy whose last name perhaps accounts for the nickname Jeunehomme.  Even though many consider it to be Mozart's first masterpiece, this work is rather hard to find in concert programs (the Philharmonic last played it in 1997). It is also Mozart's longest concerto for piano.

Ohlsson played with bright, lapidary style with judicious pedalling and ornamentation. His forthright tone and complete lack of sentimentality, even in the Andantino, somehow threw the concerto's melancholy undercurrents into sharp relief and even made them heartbreaking. He gave a ravishing account, one that will stay with me for a long time.

Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 is more frequently performed and Blomstedt, now 84, kept the piece fresh, immediate, and exciting. He even managed to prevent endless repetition of the "Fate" theme from becoming exasperating, which is a miracle of sorts. The second and third movements were especially fine.

The program will be repeated tonight and on Saturday.