Last Thursday and Friday, Gustavo Dudamel gave tri-staters the opportunity to see him conduct for the first time since his inauguration as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. At Avery Fisher Hall on Thursday, Dudamel and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet performed Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 “The Age of Anxiety.” Times critic Anthony Tommasini called the performance “arresting” and said the work “if sometimes wild and brassy, was basically wonderful.” However, he was not as enamored with the LA rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 “Pathetique.”
Tommasini felt that technical faults in the performance hinted at under-preparation despite Dudamel’s emotive and carefully executed direction. While the lush, expressive lyricism lent itself to a poignant interpretation from the maestro, The NY Times thought the orchestra’s inability to deliver resulted in a performance that was “rough and unfocused.”
But on Friday, The Sound Post was able to see Dudamel continue his east coast performances with a similar program in Prudential Hall at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Dudamel and Thibaudet began the performance by repeating the same pristine execution of Bernstein’s 2nd Symphony “The Age of Anxiety” from the night before. View Full Article »
Posts Tagged ‘New York’
Dudamel and LA Phil Come to East Coast
Bring West Coast Glam
Levine Returns to BSO After Spinal Surgery
Conducting Still Pain in the Neck
James Levine led the Boston Symphony Orchestra last week for the first time since his back surgery in the Fall. While Levine has been in New York for assorted performances at Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera, his leadership at the BSO was absent for most of the season’s Fall performances. He presented his returning program, featuring works by Berlioz, Ravel, and Carter, in both Boston and New York. Perhaps fortuitously, the night before the BSO’s Carnegie Hall performance, Levine and the BSO won a Grammy for their recording of Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloé.” For a complete review of the performance and a clip of the Grammy winning recording, see the NYT article here.
Mark O’Connor Crosses Over
Again
Violinist Mark O’Connor will team up with bassist John Patitucci and guitarist Julian Lage at New York City’s Blue Note next weekend, bringing his classical, folk, and flamenco backgrounds to a new, jazzier venture. The trio will debut at the Blue Note on January 7, 8, and 9, with each member contributing his individual background, style, and compositional elements.
Widely known for his folk performances and compositions, O’Connor is a classically trained musician whose influences have led him through many genres, including jazz. More recently, he has generated buzz for his new violin method, The Mark O’Connor Violin Method. The method bears ideological similarities to the time-tested Suzuki Method, but guides its students through a repertoire of American folk music.
As O’Connor begins his foray with the trio, listeners can probably count on him crossing into the jazz realm regularly, even as he continues to release more installments of his folk-based method book.
Baldwin Dedicated to Classical Music
Big Mahler Fan
Alec Baldwin loves classical music. According to the NY Times, Baldwin is not only invested in his role as announcer for the New York Philharmonic’s weekly radio broadcasts, but he is also a die-hard classical music fan. Daniel Wakin writes that Baldwin was offered the position after the Phil took notice of his patronage. The NY Phil regularly keeps tabs on its celebrity concert-goers, offering them tickets in exchange for publicity.
The Phil first booked Baldwin as narrator for an “Inside the Music” series in 2008—a program where a work is first explained and then performed. Then, after Baldwin joked that he’d like to quit acting and become a classical music radio presenter, the Phil pounced on his apparent interest and made an offer.
Now, as Baldwin records radio announcements between acting commitments like this winter’s “It’s Complicated” and NBC’s “30 Rock,” he sets his schedule around musical events he refuses to miss. Last May, he contracted time off to see Daniel Barenboim conduct Mahler’s ninth symphony. Baldwin’s interest in classical music began on a soap opera set when he was 24, when a staging director chided him for not recognizing Berlioz’s “March to the Scaffold” from Symphony Fantastique. Now, Baldwin listens to classical everywhere from his home to his car, and has a constantly expanding library of works.
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Perlman to Play Polio Benefit Concert With NY Phil
World renown violinist Itzhak Perlman will give a one-night-only performance with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall this evening to raise money for Rotary International’s campaign against polio. Perlman, who lost the ability to walk to polio, will play a selection of works including Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, and John Williams’ Theme from Schindler’s List.
Tickets start between $70.00 and $90.00, with a special premium package available for $500.00. These premium tickets grant concertgoers prime seat location as well as admittance to a private reception with Mr. Perlman following the event. As stated on the NY Phil website, “Net ticket proceeds will benefit Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign.” For info and tickets, see the event’s page at nyphil.com.
Classical Newcomer Writes Book On Bach Cello Suites
Head Yet To Implode
Eric Siblin, a pop music critic whose classical education is wanting at best, shares his take on Bach’s six cello suites in his book “The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece.” The book is the result of Siblin’s pseudo-obsessive exploration into the six suites, despite an overall unfamiliarity with Bach and classical music in general.
Siblin was inspired by the same Casals recording that brought the suites into the spotlight of cello literature, and he begins the book with an attempt to shed light on what NY Times writer Janet Maslin identifies as the suites’ “elusiveness.” Bach’s intentions are still murky, as the alternate tuning required by some movements suggests the works may not have been written for cello. Or if they were, that the outliers among the suites do not belong in the same collection that modern musicians have come to accept as an indisputable volume.
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Unfinished Debussy Operas Based On Poe Stories are Premiered
Opera comany Opéra Français de New York, in conjunction with the French Institute Alliance Française, presented two single-act operas that were left unfinished by French composer Claude Debussy. The two works are based on the Edgar Allan Poe stories “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Devil in the Belfry.”
According to NY Times writer Anthony Tommasini, the existing music for both operas, incomplete sketches included, was not enough to fill even an hour. So, the program was fleshed out with four songs and a piano prelude. Tommasini says that the show, called “Debussy and Poe,” still captured the dark, macabre exploration that Debussy intended for the works. Of course, listeners were probably unable to avoid the obvious question: what if Debussy had completed them?
For the complete performance review read the NY times here.
British Woman Donates Fortune to the Met, Bird Group
Mona Webster, a British woman living in Edinburgh who passed away at 96 last August, decreed that the majority of her fortune be split between two organizations which represented her greatest interests: the Metropolitan Opera and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.
Webster was born on the Isle of Man in 1913, where her father was a lighthouse keeper. She first discovered her love for birds when she moved to Scotland as a girl, and was later introduced to opera via the Met’s Saturday afternoon broadcasts. The Met’s director of planned and special gifts, Gail Chesler, said that Ms. Webster remembered Saturday broadcasts as far back as 1939.
Webster had been in contact with Met representatives since 2000 when she was invited to New York for an opening night performance following a generous donation. She had attended performances prior to 2000 with opera tour groups however, which established her connection to the organization and prompted her to write the $7.5 million donation into her will. Needless to say, her generosity will not only boost the opera company but also serve to illustrate the boundless audience that art, music, and nature all inspire.
Source: NY Times.
New York City Opera Returns To Renovated Stage
Sets New Extreme Home-Makeover Record at $107 million
The New York City Opera is back! The company returned home last Thursday night to a newly renovated Lincoln Center stage. The opening night concert, entitled “American Voices,” marked a huge step forward for the company, who was rumored to be facing closure during the latter portion of their 2008-09 season.
The New York State Theater has long been considered second-rate. The space was built for the 1964-1965 World’s Fair as a sign of cultural participation from the State of New York. However, a reputation for having sub-par acoustics has been its long-defining feature. So lackluster in fact, that an electronic audio-enhancement system was installed. While this helped, it did not stop declining ticket sales, and a growing deficit which threatened the the New York City Opera’s livelihood in 2009.
Now, it has been renamed the David H. Koch Theater, and a $107 million renovation intended to improve the acoustics has begun. The theater now seats 2,575; two aisles have been added to give the orchestra section greater accessibility at the cost of about 200 seats. The pit has been put on mechanical lifts to allow it to reach stage level for orchestra concerts. The carpeting and seats have all been replaced, and New York Times writer Anthony Tommasini has already declared that the new features make the house “the most comfortable in New York.”
So have the renovations brought the acoustics up to the standard which New Yorkers demand? Only time will tell. I for one am very excited to visit the new home for one of my favorite companies.
City Opera Returns in Its Newly Inviting Home – NY Times
Exclusive: Interview with Susan Waterbury
I had the pleasure of sitting down today with Susan Waterbury, Associate Professor of Violin at Ithaca College. In this Sound Post exclusive interview, Ms. Waterbury talks about the inspiration for her upcoming recital, the experience of collaborating with Jeffery Meyer, and the importance of musicians reaching out into their communities to spread their talent.
Susan Waterbury is Associate Professor of Violin at Ithaca College and a former member of the renowned Cavani Quartet. Waterbury has given masterclasses and recitals in major conservatories both in the US and abroad. She studied with Donald Weilerstein.
Check out her recital on Sunday November 1 at 4pm in Hockett Recital Hall at Ithaca College. Video after the link.
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