Keep Calm and Blog On

On Shutdowns, Closures, Crises and Coping: 
Some words from the Superconductor editorial desk.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Just do what the sign says. Photoshop by the author.

It's been a tumultuous week for the classical music business. The New York City Opera shut its doors after seventy years of operations. The opening night of Carnegie Hall (with the Philadelphia Orchestra and violinist Joshua Bell) was kyboshed by an 11th hour strike by the stagehands' Local One. Finally, the Minnesota Orchestra continuing its year-long self-asphyxiation by lockout. The latest blow: the resignation of Osmo Vänskä from the post of Music Director following the Orchestra's withdrawal from its planned November concerts at Carnegie Hall.

Bach Against the Storm

Trinity Wall Street presents free Bach concert. 
Event to raise money for Hurricane Sandy relief.

The Choir of Trinity Wall Street.
Photo by Leah Reddy © 2010 Trinity Church.

This just in: on Saturday night at 7:30pm, Trinity Church and the Trinity Choir will present a free performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B Minor as part of an effort to raise funding to relieve the suffering of victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Attendees at this concert are encouraged to donate to the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City, a non-profit which will in turn disperse funding to relief organizations helping the 40,000 New Yorkers left homeless by the storm.

Trinity's rector, Dr. James Cooper had the following comment: "Trinity Church has served New Yorkers in need for more than three centuries. There is no greater honor or privilege than to stand with our neighbors in this great city and to say, 'we are here to help.' I invite all to this concert to be uplifted by the music and by the spirit of your giving."

Concert Review: Have Piano, Will Travel

Murray Perahia in recital at Car...er...Avery Fisher Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Hometown hero: the pianist Murray Perahia. Photo provided by Sony Classical.

A recital in New York by Murray Perahia is always a major event. The pianist's preference for traditional repertory makes him a favorite among more conservative music lovers, and his Bronx birth makes him a hometown hero. In a city clobbered by Hurricane Sandy, that kind of heroism is what was needed as patrons gathered for a concert that was supposed to happen three nights before.

You see, this Sunday night recital was originally scheduled for Friday night at Carnegie Hall. This change was necessitated by the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which left enormous, damaged construction crane dangling over W. 57th St. across the street from that historic venue, shutting down the venue, its attendant subway stops and all the local businesses for a two block radius.

The program selected by Mr. Perahia for this recital may have had therapeutic qualities for his traumatized audience. It opened with the solemn, sylvan dances of Haydn's D Major Sonata, which went through a series of stormy passages before emerging in an optimistic conclusion. Mr. Perahia displayed a lightness of touch, making a coherent argument that this composer's superb, underrated piano music needs to be heard more frequently.

Awareness: Beethoven and Sandy

Some music for the storm recovery.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Ludwig Was Here.

Last night at the New York Philharmonic concert, I got a little card in my Playbill, helpfully reminding me that November in New York City is Beethoven Awareness Month. As far as I am um...aware, this is the second year in a row that our city has celebrated the music of the great man. 

In light of recent events, I wanted to share the following clip, from Beethoven's only opera Fidelio, which ranks as my favorite piece that the composer ever wrote. It is a quartet in canon form, from the first act of the opera, and can hopefully serve as some kind of psychological balm in these chaotic days that have followed the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. 

Things are (slowly) getting back to normal here at the Superconductor desk, but that doesn't mean they are for the rest of the city. Whole sections of Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island remain devastated, with enormous, unrepairable damage to lives, homes and property. So I urge you, after listening to this (or even before, to join the effort to help people in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere recover from the hurricane's impact. Here's a list of ways you can help:

The American Red Cross fund for Hurricane Relief. They need money. And if you can, visit a Red Cross blood drive and donate some of what flows in your veins.

Occupy Sandy Our friends at the movement for social change have set up kitchens and distribution of relief centers in Brooklyn. They have a list of donation requirements.

AmeriCares has set up its own disaster relief fund.

The Salvation Army is also doing disaster relief. I don't agree with this organization's policies on sexual discrimination but will post this if you want to help their relief efforts.

The Knights of Columbus, another organization I don't agree with but they are also out there organizing and donating.

New York's food trucks are working to provide food for people displaced. 

Food Bank New York is trying to feed the people who are out of their homes.

Finally, you can donate to the Mayor's Fund in four easy ways:

1. Online – visit www.nyc.gov/fund.

2. Mail – checks can be made payable to Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, with “hurricane relief” in the memo line, and sent to:

Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City,

253 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10007. 

3. Call – donations can be made over the phone at 212-788-7794.
4. Text – text NYCFUND to 50555 to donate $10 to the Mayor’s Fund to support hurricane relief. (Message and data rates may apply.)

100 percent of donations are being dispersed to relief efforts and organizations to meet the short- and long-term needs of New York City and its residents. This includes immediate aid such as the supply and transport of water, food, toiletries, baby supplies, blankets and cleaning materials to distribution sites, as well as longer term restoration and recovery efforts.

To volunteer or for in-kind donations, visit www.nycservice.org.

Concert Review: Before God Showed Up

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen
(Ed. Note: Here's the review of last Saturday night at Carnegie Hall with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. I know it's a little late in coming but things haven't been exactly normal around here.)

Before the storm: Robert Spano (right) conducts countertenor John Holiday
and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus  in Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms
at Carnegie Hall. (Photo by Chris Lee © 2012 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.)

On Saturday night at Carnegie Hall, New Yorkers attending this year's appearance by Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus knew that a storm was coming. They didn't know that Hurricane Sandy would create the greatest natural disaster that this city has seen in a century, or that the venue itself would remain closed, due to the danger of a collapsed crane that has hovered over 57th Street this week like the anvil in the Metropolitan Opera's current production of The Barber of Seville.

Concert programs for touring orchestras are determined well in advance of a performance. There was no way of predicting that the three works on this program (Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and William Walton's 20th century cantata Belshazzar's Feast) would share the common thread of depicting the interference of the Almighty on people's everyday lives, even as Hurricane Sandy barrelled towards New York.

The concert opened with the Suite from Appalachian Spring, one of Copland's most enduring compositions. Mr. Spano displayed the rich, dulcet tones of the Atlanta cellos and basses to full advantage here, creating a rich, woven texture shot through with the homespun authenticity of Copland's folk melodies. The sonorous climax (featuring the full statement of the Shaker hymn Simple Gifts created Copland's frontier idyll for the listener in rich, glowing detail.