Concert Review: A Substitute of Substance

Edo de Waart leads the New York Philharmonic.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Edo de Waart.
Photo from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra © 2017 by Jesse Willems.

A cancellation by a major international conductor is never an occasion for happiness. However, attendees at Thursday nights concert by the New York Philharmonic may have felt fortunate in that that august orchestra's choice of substitute. Stepping in for the indisposed Christopher von Dohnányi, Dutch conductor Edo de Waart proved to be an able and welcome substitute. To be fair, this change was announced several months ago.

Concert Review: The Priest of Beethoven

The BSO plays Schuller, Mozart and Beethoven's Eroica.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Andris Nelsons in flight.
Photo by Marco Borggreve for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Night Two of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's three concerts at Carnegie Hall this week featured music from three centuries, as music director Andris Nelsons showed his ease with different eras and styles of classical music.

Concert Review: No Funny Business

The New York Philharmonic premieres H.K. Gruber's Piano Concerto.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Emanuel Ax (left) Alan Gilbert (right) and the New York Philharmonic.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2017 The New York Philharmonic.

It's a new year at the New York Philharmonic, and the orchestra has wasted no time giving the first big premiere of 2017. Thursday night's concert featured the world premiere of a Piano Concerto by Austrian composer H.K. Gruber, with frequent visitor Emanuel Ax at the piano and music director Alan Gilbert back in his familiar place on the podium.

Concert Review: Hey Now, They Wear All-Stars

The National Youth Orchestra of the U.S.A. plays Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The young artists of the National Youth Orchestra, rehearsing at SUNY Purchase.
Phoo by Chris Lee © 2016 Carnegie Hall.

Carnegie Hall is usually quiet in the summer months, its hallowed stage bereft of the pianists, orchestras and conductors that parade across its boards in the other three seasons of the year. And yet on July 14, that venue was abuzz with the activity normally associated with a big symphonic concert. The risers were installed. The instruments were arranged. The piano was brought in. The reason: the second annual appearance of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach.

Spring Breakdown 2016: The Recitals

We look at the best solo performance of the year so far.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Lisette Oropesa (right) in recital at the Park Avenue Armory.
Photo by Da Peng Nuo.

It takes nerve to go out on stage by yourself, or to take the stage with just your voice and a hopefully friendly pianist providing accompaniment. That's the premise of this look at five great recitals for piano and voice that Superconductor was witness to in the spring of 2016. Presented in just-about-chronological order.

Concert Review: The Mechanics of the Heart

Emanuel Ax plays Beethoven at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Emanuel Ax and friend. Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco for Sony Classical.

There is something beatific about Emanuel Ax. He is a familiar figure on the concert stages of New York, gray haired, bespectacled and often beaming at his applauding audience.  And yet, behind that façade is a fiery artist, capable of great interpretations of standard repertory, offering insight on well-loved works. On Wednesday night, Mr. Ax offered a program of works by Ludwig van Beethoven at Carnegie Hall.

Concert Review: A Covey of Concertos

The New York Philharmonic plays Brahms and Marc Neikrug.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A man and his instrument: Emanuel Ax at the piano.

The early weeks of this young New York Philharmonic season are heavily focused on the concerto, that peculiar yet popular form that pits a solo artist against an orchestra in a struggle of will and ability. This week’s program featured two pieces by Johannes Brahms (the Tragic Overture and the Second Piano Concerto) flanking the world premiere of a new work (commissioned by the Philharmonic in 2014) by contemporary composer Marc Neikrug.

Concert Review: His Back Pages

Mostly Mozart 2015 opens with rarities from the composer’s catalogue.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Louis Langrée (center) leads the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.
Photo © 2015 by Richard Termine for the Mostly Mozart Festival.

Although Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died at 37, he left a catalogue of music that is staggering in its size and artistic breath. Mozart was five years old when he wrote his first three keyboard pieces, and 14 when his first successful opera (Mitridate) premiered. On Tuesday night, Mostly Mozart offered a look into the dark corners of Mozart’s fast catalogue, playing a program of realities rarities to open its 49th festival season.

Concert Review: Back on Track

The Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Parler à la main: Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Image © 2015 Fondation Jasmin Roy from a YouTube video. 

It hasn't been an easy week for the Philadelphia Orchestra. That city is still grieving in the wake of an Amtrak derailment that resulted in seven dead and hundreds of injuries. Despite the travel issues, the ensemble and its irrepressible music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin commuted to Carnegie Hall on Thursday for their final New York concert of the 2015 season. This program featured two works premiered by the orchestra (one old, one new) and pianist Emanuel Ax playing Beethoven.

Concert Review: The Everlasting Showstoppers

David Robertson conducts the New York Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Pianist Emanuel Ax returned to the New York Philharmonic this week.
Photo by  Lisamarie Mazzucco © 2013 Sony Classical.

The winter tempest that hit New York last Monday night forced the New York Phulharmonic to shrink its planned rehearsal schedule for this week's round of concerts under the baton of David Robertson. That resulted in a change of program and a concert that featured not one, not two, but three show-stopping works.

Concert Review: It's a Bird...it's a Plane...

It's Valery Gergiev, swooping into Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Valery Gergiev saves the day.
Original photo element of Mr. Gergiev © 2014 by photographer David Shankbone.
Image of Henry Cavill as Superman from the 2013 Warner Brothers film Man of Steel.
© 2013 Warner Brothers Pictures. Character of "Superman" © Detective Comics.

The life of a jet-setting conductor is sometimes like that of a comic book hero, called in as a last minute emergency stopgap to rescue an orchestra in distress. That was the case this week at Carnegie Hall, where Valery Gergiev and Fabio Luisi were called in as eleventh-hour replacements for Munich Philharmonic chief conductor Lorin Maazel in a pair of scheduled concerts.

Mr. Gergiev (who is scheduled to take over for Mr. Maazel in Munich next year) stepped off a plane at 11am Friday and conducted an orchestra rehearsal earlier that afternoon. On Friday night, he conducted the Munich Philharmonic in three works by Richard Strauss, a native of that city and a composer whose 150th birthday is being celebrated this year. The program featured two of Strauss' most successful tone poems: Also Sprach Zarathustra and Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, flanking the Burleske a one-movement piano concerto that is only occasionally performed.

The Three Strauss-keteers

Fabio Luisi and Valery Gergiev step in with the Munich Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Juggling batons: With Lorin Maazel (left) ill,Valery Gergiev (center) and Fabio Luisi (right) will step in to

conduct major Strauss tone poems with the Munich Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall.

Photo of Mr. Maazel from his website. Photo of Mr. Luisi © 2014 Opernhaus Zurich.

Photo of Mr. Gergiev by Laura Luostarinen © 2006 the Polar Music Awards. Photo alteration by the author.

New Yorkers have lost their chance to hear Lorin Maazel conduct major works by Richard Strauss this weekend.

Concert Review: The Start of Something Big

The London Symphony Orchestra returns to Lincoln Center.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Bernard Haitink returned to Lincoln Center with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Photo by Todd Rosenberg, courtesy Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

The meteoric rise of Dmitri Shostakovich as one of Soviet Russia's most brilliant composers came to a screeching halt in 1936, when the dictator Josef Stalin attended one of his operas, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. The fall-out from Stalin's displeasure (which included an infamous Pravda editorial) led Shostakovich to quietly withdraw his Fourth Symphony from rehearsals. Locked away in a desk drawer, the work would not be heard until 1961.

On Sunday afternoon at Avery Fisher Hall, Bernard Haitink and the London Symphony Orchestra made a good case for the long, difficult Fourth as one of the composer's finest compositional achievements--and its composer's first important statement as a symphonist. (The First is a student piece, while the Second and Third are examples of Party propaganda.) It was fitting that this work was paired with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9--that composer's first mature statement in a genre that he would come to master. This concert was the first of this year's Great Performers at Lincoln Center, an annual series of orchestral concerts and chamber works.

Concert Review: The Bucolic Beethoven

It's mostly--make that all Beethoven as Mostly Mozart continues.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Emanuel Ax. Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco for EmanuelAx.com and Sony Classical.

The second concert series of this year's Mostly Mozart Festival showed total focus on Ludwig van Beethoven, presenting a program that consisted exclusively of that composer's work. On Friday night, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 and the Sixth Symphony, representing two cheerful highlights from this popular composer's vast catalogue.

Festival Preview: Gilbert's Playlist

The New York Philharmonic goes inside the mind of its Music Director.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

What is on Alan Gilbert's playlist?
Original photo by Chris Lee © 2013 The New York Philharmonic.
Photo alteration by the author.

The June schedule of the New York Philharmonic is the last major event of the 2013 spring concert season in New York. This year, for its final run of concerts, the orchestra is building its programming around a new concept: the personal listening habits of music director Alan Gilbert.

Concert Review: The Bad Boys of Vienna

Alan Gilbert Conducts Mozart and Bruckner.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Emanuel Ax onstage with the New York Philharmonic.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2012 The New York Philharmonic.

For most of the 18th and 19th centuries (not to mention the 20th), the press and public of Vienna, Austria were taste-makers in classical music. Even today, a successful premiere in that city can ensure a long and prosperous composing career. Conversely, a fiasco could ensure a major artistic setback, or even penury for the artist.

On Thursday night, Alan Gilbert led the New York Philharmonic in the second of three concerts featuring works by Mozart and Bruckner. Both Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 (played here by Emanuel Ax, in his last concerts as this year's Philharmonic Artist in Residence) and Anton Bruckner's Third ("Wagner") Symphony failed at their at their premieres. Both works have survived to gain footholds in the standard symphonic repertory. Programmed together, they form a fascinating study of Viennese musical history.

Concert Review: The High Ground

Emanuel Ax and Mahler at the White Light Festival.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Emanuel Ax played at this year's White Light Festival.

On Sunday afternoon, as their city staggered along its path to recovery from Hurricane Sandy, New Yorkers gathered at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater to hear an unusual hybrid of solo recital and concert featuring New York Philharmonic Artist-in-Residence Emanuel Ax and members of that same orchestra in a program billed as Song of the Earth.

The concert (part of this year's White Light Festival)  featured that penultimate work by Gustav Mahler was present , in its currently en vogue chamber arrangement by Schoenberg. This concert was really about establishing connections by placing music in proximity: the Mahler piece was preceded by piano works by Schoenberg and before that, Johann Sebastian Bach.

The Bach work was the E♭ minor Prelude and Fugue (No. 8) from Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier. Mr. Ax has only started playing Bach in public this year, and still uses the sheet music. Nevertheless, the slow, ascending steps of the Prelude led to a climax, followed by the descending, spiraling figures of this complex, fascinating fugue. As always with this artist, there was a beauty of tone and clarity of expression which held the attention rapt in the darkened theater.

Concert Review: Ax Breaks New Ground

The Philharmonic's new Artist-in-Residence plays Bach and Schoenberg.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Emanuel Ax. Photo from medici.tv.

Thursday night at the New York Philharmonic marked two milestones for pianist Emanuel Ax. It was the soloist's first concert as the orchestra's newest Artist-in-Residence. It was also the first time that this veteran pianist played the music of Johann Sebastian Bach in front of an audience. Music director Alan Gilbert conducted.

The program opened with Bach's Keyboard Concerto in D minor. Mr. Ax is an adept, fluid artist. But in the opening  of the Allegro his playing gave the feeling that he was also finding his comfort zone in this piece. The performance began to jell with the introduction of a second thematic subject as soloist and conductor began the long game of call-and-response.

The central Adagio was more assured. Mr. Ax sounded more assured in these slow passages, playing the cadenzas with a light, controlled touch that allowed the notes to flow smoothly together. The finale, with its distinctive, descending theme featured tight interplay between Mr. Ax and Mr. Gilbert. Orchestra and piano chased each other through the descending theme, finally ending the chase on a harmonious cadence.

The Superconductor 2012-2013 Season Preview: New York Philharmonic

Starting and ending with Stravinsky, an exciting year at the Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Music director Alan Gilbert. Photo by Chris Lee © 2010 The New York Philharmonic

The 2012-2013 season promises some big changes at the Philharmonic. Emanuel Ax, the pianist who has played 100 concerts with the ensemble over the years, joins the orchestra as Artist-in-Residence. Also, Christopher Rouse is the new Composer-in-Residence, replacing Magnus Lindberg. With a new orchestra contract in place and music director Alan Gilbert at the helm, this should be an exciting year for New York's hometown orchestra.

Here's twelve things that we're excited about seeing next season.

• In an egalitarian gesture, the 2012 season opens on Sept. 19 with an "ordinary" subscription concert conducted by Alan Gilbert. György Kurtág's ...quasi una fantasia... starts the year off, followed by Leif Ove Andsnes playing Beethoven's third Piano Concerto. The concert ends with Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring conducted by Mr. Gilbert. (There will be a gala opening too on Sept. 27, but that's probably not as exciting.)
• On Oct. 4, new Artist-in-Residence Emanuel Ax pairs Bach's D minor Keyboard Concerto with the Schoenberg Piano Concerto, followed by Mozart's Linz Symphony. Alan Gilbert conducts.
• The Nielsen Project continues Oct. 10, as Alan Gilbert conducts four concerts featuring the Danish composer's concertos for flute, violin and clarinet, paired with Tchaikovsky's Little Russian Symphony.

• The Philharmonic is working with Lincoln Center's White Light Festival this year. On Nov. 4 at the Rose Theater, Emanuel Ax will lead a chamber-sized performance of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde in a reduced orchestration by Arnold Schoenberg.
• Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel return to the Philharmonic this season. Mr. Masur offers two weeks of Brahms starting on Nov. 8. Mr. Maazel will lead works by Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Lutoslawski and Shostakovich, starting Jan. 16, 2013.
• The first concerts of 2013 (starting Jan. 3)  feature French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, playing the Grieg Piano Concerto. Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra maestro Manfred Honeck conducts the program, which also includes Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.
• The Philharmonic continues its tradition of performing great Broadway musicals with Carousel. Rodgers and Hammerstein's operatic show will be staged at Avery Fisher Hall and directed by James Brennan. Carousel runs for five performances and will open Feb. 27.
• March has become the time of the season when the Philharmonic focuses on a single composer in a spring festival. This year, they offer The Bach Variations. The month-long festival, mounted in collaboration with the 92nd St. Y kicks off with a March 3 symposium. March 6 marks the first concert. The series will feature choral works (the Magnificat, the Mass in B minor) orchestral works and a collaboration with Hungarian pianist András Schiff. Mr Schiff will also make his debut as a conductor on April 3.
• Christopher Rouse's presence as the orchestra's new Composer in Residence will be felt (and heard) throughout the season, especially at a series of four concerts featuring soloist Joshua Bell and Charles Ives' daunting Symphony No. 4, a massive work that requires two conductors.
• This year's free Memorial Day Concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (May 27) features Bruckner's Third Symphony, as Alan Gilbert continues his survey of the major works by this heavyweight Austrian composer. For those wishing for better acoustics, the Bruckner Third will also be played in subscription concerts starting April 24, 2013.
• June 6 is D-Day, as in Luigi Dallapiccola. The Philharmonic presents his one-act opera Il Prigionero, a 1948 work that offers a powerful statement about political oppression. This concert is presented as part of June Journey: Gilbert's Playlist, a season-ending series of concerts highlighting the many influences and personal musical taste of the New York Philharmonic's music director. 
• The season ends with the welcome return of visionary designer Doug Fitch (Le Grand Macabre, The Cunning Little Vixen.) This time, the Brooklyn-based artist will mount Stravinsky's Petrushka, a ballet score about a love-struck puppet that meets a violent end.

Concert Review: Wind, Weather and Beethoven

Pablo Heras-Casado's stormy debut Caramoor debut.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Stormy skies: conductor Pablo Heras-Casado faced the elements at Caramoor on Sunday.
 Photoshop by the author. 

Sunday afternoon's concert at Caramoor featuring the Orchestra of St. Luke's with pianist Emanuel Ax was supposed to be a coming-out party for  Pablo Heras-Casado: his first concert as the orchestra's new Principal Conductor since taking over the post in December of 2011.

However, the weather had other ideas.

We arried at Caramoor about 3:30pm, driving up from Brooklyn, through muggy heat under overcast skies. Sitting at the picnic tables, we were finishing our meal when I looked up. "Storm's coming," I said, finishing my last bite of chicken. I was looking at the huge grey stratus cloud looming through the trees.

"How soon?" said Emily, my significant other and provider of said meal.

"About five minutes." (I have a "barometer" in my right leg thanks to an old knee injury. It was starting to throb gently.) We packed up qucickly. I refilled the water bottles, and we got to our seats in the Venetian Theater (an outdoor amphitheater covered by a large tent) as the rain started.

This was a full-fledged storm, an hour of drenching rain that thrashed the trees and drummed on the canopy overhead. Finally, there was an announcement: the concert would go forward, but with the Beethoven symphony (the Seventh) moved to the opening half. It would, in any case be easier to hear than the other works on the program.