Concert Review: The Fires of Inspiration

Daniil Trifonov unleashes his Piano Concerto at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Valery Gergiev (left) and pianist/composer Daniil Trifonov in Rotterdam, 2016
Photo © Gergiev Festival 2016 Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

One of the questions I get as a music critic (aside from "Do you play an instrument?" and "How do you make money?") goes something like this:

"Is there any new music that you write about?"

Yes. Yes there is.

At Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night, the Mariinsky Orchestra and pianist Daniil Trifonov offered the New York premiere of the artist's first Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. Now 26, Mr. Trifonov has made a name for himself as a young and respected virtuoso, the leading example of a new generation of piano-slingers thrilling listeners around the world. This concerto, which received its New York premiere at this concert, is his shot at a whole new kind of legitimacy.

Concert Review: Swimming Against the Tide of Protest

The Mariinsky Orchestra (with protestors) returns to Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen 

A sea of notes: Valery Gergiev (left) and Denis Matsuev at play.
Photo by Denis Matsuev © 2016 personal collection of the artist. 

A visit from Valery Gergiev is always an occasion for celebration...and for protest. The conductor and his Mariinsky Orchestra were met at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday by applause inside the historic venue, while the sidewalk outside the lobby filled with placard-carrying citizens, objecting the close ties between Mr. Gergiev and Vladimir Putin, the current president of the Russian Federation. However, there were no politics inside the great hall this night, only a program of 20th century Russian music.

Concert Review: A Marathon for the Fingers

The Mariinsky Orchestra plays all five Prokofiev piano concertos.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Directing traffic: Valery Gergiev (standing, right) leads the Mariinsky Orchestra as pianist
Daniil Trifonov labors over the Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto.
Photo by Robert Altman © 2015 Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Although Serge Prokofiev is a master of 20th century music, his five piano concertos suffer undue neglect. It is the current mission of the Mariinsky Orchestra and its music director Valery Gergiev, to correct that oversight. On Wednesday night, the Mariinsky players opened a three-night stand at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The program: all five Prokofiev piano concertos, played in chronological order by five different soloists.

Concert Review: Rushing Into the Stratosphere

The Mariinsky Orchestra with Denis Matsuev at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The pianist Denis Matsuev returned to Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night.
Photo © Matsuev.com

The second of the Mariinsky Orchestra's two concerts this week at Carnegie Hall was in some ways similar to the first.. Outside, a dozen protesters appeared again, chanting slogans about music director Valery Gergiev and his close connection with the current government of Russia. Inside, cameras were mounted in the rear of the parquet and on stage left to capture Mr. Gergiev and his forces, in the first digital broadcast of an orchestral concert from Carnegie Hall on Medici.TV.

Concert Review: From Exile to Silence

The Mariinsky Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Valery Gergiev. Photo by Alexander Shapunov for the Mariinsky Theater.

The Mariinsky Orchestra, currently on tour in North America, returned to New York on Tuesday night. So did the protesters, lining the sidewalk in front of Carnegie Hall. About a dozen in number, they held up placards in English and Cyrillic. They shouted at concert-goers, handed out fliers and chanted slogans. Their issue: the close connection between Mariinsky artistic director Valery Gergiev and Vladimir Putin, the Russian political leader whose 2014 invasion of the Ukraine and anti-homosexual agenda were the twin subjects of the protest.

Opera Review: No God, Only Religion

The Mariinsky Opera brings The Enchanted Wanderer to BAM.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The swing of things: Kristin Kapustinskaya (downstage) as Grusha in The Enchanted Wanderer.
Photo by the Mariinsky Opera © 2015 Brooklyn Academy of Music.

The arrival of the musical forces of the Mariinsky Theater in New York is always a memorable occasion. On Wednesday night, the company unveiled its 2007 production of Rodion Shchedrin's 2002 opera The Enchanted Wanderer at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Outside the theater, a knot of protesters held up pro-Ukraine placards, decrying the 2013 Russian invasion of the Crimea and the  close allegiance of music director Valery Gergiev with political strongman Vladmir Putin. Inside, opera-goers were treated to an opera that despite its recent vintage, recalled the grayish stage works of the late Soviet era.

Concert Review: Life During Wartime

Valery Gergiev conducts Shostakovich at Carnegie Hall
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The effects of war: Stalingrad in 1943 after the battle.
Image © 1943 RIAN Archive, licensed through Wikimedia Commons.

The protesters were absent on Friday night, as the Mariinsky Orchestra offered the second of three concerts at Carnegie Hall under the baton of music director Valery Gergiev. Friday's concert was an all-Shostakovich program, with music director Valery Gergiev choosing to highlight two very different works.

The Concerto for Trumpet, Piano and Strings (also in the catalogue as Piano Concerto No. 1) and the Symphony No. 8 stand ten years apart. (About the only thing they have in common is their key signature: C minor.) The concerto is a youthful, early work with the same manic energy that fills his opera The Nose. The Eighth is a war symphony, written in a safe haven deep in Russia as the Nazis advance was finally halted at the year-long Battle of Stalingrad.

Carnegie Hall Strike Ends

Historic venue open for business as usual.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A mysterious force removed the rat (seen previously) from the Carnegie Hall stage.
Photo provided by Carnegie Hall. Laughably crude photoshop by the author.

In an announcement from Carnegie Hall today, stagehands at New York City's legendary classical concert venue have voted to accept a two-year contract, putting an end to a two-day strike. This was the first strike in the long history of Carnegie Hall.

Recordings Review: A Flying Start

Valery Gergiev starts a new Ring with Die Walküre.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

"And this, children, is how Wotan lost his eye." Valery Gergiev on the podium.
Photo by Alberto Venzagos © 2012 London Symphony Orchestra.

Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra make their case as a premier Wagner ensemble with this new Die Walküre, released on February 12 of this year. With an all-star cast of Wagner singers and the enthusiastic Mariinsky players working under tightly controlled conditions, this may be the finest recording of this opera to  to emerge in this young century. In other words, it's damned good.

Concert Review: Mystic Muddle Mars Mariinsky Mahler Eighth

Valery Gergiev was here.

Valery Gergiev is one of the bravest conductors working in serious music today. His gung-ho style works wonders with most symphonies, adding a fresh dose of energy to familar scores or making unfamiliar works suddenly pleasing to the ear. However, the maestro stumbled with Thursday night's performance of Mahler's Eighth Symphony at Carnegie Hall.

Dubbed the 'Symphony of a Thousand' because of the number of performers packed on the stage at its premiere, the Mahler Eighth is one of the composer's grandest visions and one of his most problematic. It was the first symphony to be sung all the way through. The texts are drawn from the Roman Catholic hymn 'Veni, creator spiritus' and the final scene of Part II of Goethe's Faust. They are not easy to understand or perform. The opening hymn serves as a first movement. The Faust setting divides into several smaller parts. However, it counts as one enormous movement, running nearly an hour in length.


To perform this two-part behemoth, Valery Gergiev brought the Mariinsky Orchestra, three seperate choral groups and eight solo singers from the Mariinsky Opera. But he neglected to bring a sense of command over this sprawling symphony. Mr. Gergiev's go-for-the-throat approach to music making works nine times out of ten. But last night, the rich details that make this symphony a unique, uplifting experience sounded blurred and out of focus.

The first movement was beset by faulty intonation by the Mariinsky horn players, with some ugly notes marring noble, inspiring calls. All eight singers were clumped on the side of the cramped Carnegie stage, wedged between the strings and the organ. The Russian soloists struggled to be heard, and had issues with the Latin and German texts. Backup tenor Avgot Amonov wrestled with his solo as Doctor Marianus. (He lost.) Better work was delivered by bass Evgeny Nikitin (the Pater Profundus) and leading soprano Anastasia Kalagina as the penitent Gretchen. But the second movement wandered until the final ten minutes, when the army of singers and musicians led a successful assault on the Chorus Mysticus.

The evening was plagued by balance issues, with the three choruses constantly drowning out the orchestra. Finally, the members of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy are clearly too old for the part of a boys' chorus. They kept cupping their hands over their mouths while singing, perhaps in an effort to sound younger. One wished that Mephistopheles would slip in from Part I of Faust, and bequeath to them the gift of eternal youth. Barring that, he could at least bring a couple of boy trebles.

Opera Review: Primitive Cool

Four Nights at the Mariinsky Ring.

Brunnhilde in Act II of Die Walküre.
Photo by Valentin Baronovsky © 2006 The Mariinsky Opera.

Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Opera brought their innovative, iconoclastic approach to Wagner's Ring cycle to the Metropolitan Opera House in July. This production presented the Ring as a combination of proto-civilized pagan ritual and multifaceted family drama, set against the backdrop of primitive standing menhirs and gigantic, mummified figures suspended, god-like over the mostly bare stage.

The whole was bathed in Gleb Filshtinsky's creative, polychromatic lighting design that recalled the "color organ" ideas of Russian composer Aleksandr Scriabin. This four year old production, by Gergiev and designer George Tsypin, both enthralled and befuddled the Lincoln Center audience.

Throughout the cycle (I chose the Friday-Saturday/Friday-Saturday option) Gergiev led his  forces in compelling readings of the four massive scores. But the performances were marred by an odd orchestral balance, a few flubbed solos and strange editorial decisions made during the conductor's preparation of the score. Wagner's Ring does not benefit from editing, and it benefits even less from editorial enhancements to the music.

The quality of the soloists varied from night to night. The kudos start with Brunnhilde, sung by Olga Sergeeva. Following a shrill opening "Hojotoho!", she settled down into a gorgeous, lyrical performance, not a knock-em-dead powerhouse but a singer who valued tone and placement of notes over stentorian blasts of sound. That sometimes made it a little hard for Brunnhilde to get over Gergiev's orchestra, but led to some lovely singing in the score's lyrical moments.

She was well complemented by Mikhail Kit's Wotan, who anchored Die Walküre. As Siegmund and Sieglinde, Avgust Amonov and Mlada Khudoley were a compelling pair of Walsung lovers. Amonov brought heroic tone to the role of the doomed Siegmund, Khudoley sang Sieglinde with sexual intensity.

Wotan enters Mime's cave in Act I of Siegfried.Photo by Valentin Baronovsky © 2006 The Mariinsky Opera.

Kit's Rheingold/Siegfried counterpart, Alexei Tanovitsky was a little shaky in the first opera, but rebounded as The Wanderer in the latter opera. He sounds more comfortable with the lower-ranged role. His riddle scene was a highlight, as was the confrontation with Erda (Zlata Bulycheva) at the start of that opera's third act.


Sergeeva was well matched on the third night of the cycle by Leonid Zakhozhaev, a magnetic and ringing Siegfried that only faltered (for one moment) in the final bars of his tenor-killing duet with Brunnhilde at the end of this five-hour marathon opera. Unfortunately, he was replaced for Götterdämmerung by Victor Lutsuk, who had plenty of energy but a voice that grated. However, Lutsuk plled it together to deliver a powerful death scene, singing Siegfried's final vision of Brunnhilde with lyric grace.

Brunnhilde's final scene in Götterdämmerung--a half-mad solo piece sung alone on the stage to Siegfried's corpse--made the whole cycle worth the price of admission. That said, the decision to keep her in boots, black leather gloves and a goth-style Valkyrie dress throughout the cycle undermined her appearance as a captured bride in Act II of Götterdämmerung. I half-expected Gunther (Evgeny Nikitin) to announce: "Fellow Gibichungs! I have brought home the dominatrix!"

And then there's Mikhail Petrenko's highly original take on Hagen. Possessed of a smaller bass voice than most Hagens, Petrenko skulked across the stage, whispering his plans and plotting Siegfried's death. He revealed his true nature in the murder scene, opening up his voice and meeting the score's vocal demands. This singer's focused acting and intelligent performance brought a fresh approach to Wagner's most famous bad guy, making him a worthy opponent for Siegfried and a fascinating character in his own right.


Other vocal standouts included:

• Vasily Gorshkov's baritonal Mime in Siegfried, less shrill than most character tenors who tackle this part. He was also a terrific Loge.
  
• Kirov veteran Nikolai Putilin's put-upon Alberich.
  
• Evgeny Nikitin's regal Gunther who does a great job of falling apart under stress. He also sang a gorgeous Fasolt, complimented by Mikhail Petrenko's Fafner.
  
• Anistasia Kalagina's Forest Bird, helped by the fact that the character actually appears onstage for once.