Concert Review: The Ignition Sequence

Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

There comes a time in the career of an opera singer where, through either good fortune or exceptional skill, they rise from the ranks of the roster and ignite as a genuine operatic star. For the  Isabel Leonard, 2018-19 at the Metropolitan Opera was that year, where the mezzo-soprano rose to the occasion in three major roles: Marnie, Melisande and Sister Blanche in Dialogues des Carmelites. On Monday night, Ms. Leonard capped a season which featured performances as Marnie, Melisande and Sister Blanche with a performance at Carnegie Hall, accompanied by the MET Orchestra under music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Exit: Major Winchester

Some words for actor and conductor David Ogden Stiers.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

As Major Charles Emerson Winchester III, David Ogden Stiers (right)
torments his tentmates (Alan Alda and Mike Farrell) in the M*A*S*H episode The Smell of Music.
Image © 1970 20th Century FOX/CBS

We interrupt tonight's regularly scheduled Superconductor post for some sad news in the television community and the classical music world. Actor David Ogden Stiers died this morning at his Oregon home. He was 75. Mr. Stiers died peacefully in his sleep after a battle with bladder cancer, according to a report in Entertainment Weekly.

Concert Review: The Pointillist Procedure

Pianist Ian Hobson continues his Debussy and Ravel series at SubCulture.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The pianist Ian Hobson is giving a six recital series at SubCulture this season.
Photo from the artist's website, courtesy Hemsing Associates.

The pianist and academic Ian Hobson may not be as well known as the flashy virtuosos who pack the schedule of major concert venues. However, sometimes the best recitals are those that are on a more intimate scale. On Wednesday night, Mr. Hobson, a veteran soloist and conductor and recording artist who also teaches music at Florida State came back to New York for the third of six recitals this season at SubCulture. Tucked downstairs on Bleecker Street, this funky downtown performance space is currently in a struggle to reclaim its spot at the front of the cutting edge of Gotham performance venues.

Concert Review: The Kids Are Alright (though one is a brat)

The Juilliard Orchestra plays Debusssy and Ravel.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor Emmanuel Villaume led the Juilliard Orchestra on Monday night.
Photo by Paul Leclaire.

The combined forces of Juilliard Orchestra and Juilliard Opera students came together on Monday night to give an evening of Debussy and Ravel, a set of performances that offered a much needed beacon of musical hope in what is a particularly dark and troubled time for the arts community around Lincoln Center. The program, under the direction of French conductor Emmanuel Villaume offered a major work by each composer and a Ravel rarity to boot.

Concert Review: Dionysius Rampant

Valery Gergiev conducts Beethoven and Ravel.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Valery Gergiev at the helm of his Munich forces.
Photo by Chris Christodoulou at the BBC proms © 2016 The British Broadcasting Company.

An evening with Valery Gergiev on the podium is never dull. The Russian maestro returned to Carnegie Hall on Monday night with his new orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, and a conservative but lucid program pairing the works of Ravel and Beethoven. This concert marked the first appearance of Mr. Gergiev as the music director of the Munich forces, although he did substitute duty for an ailing Lorin Maazel two years ago.

Concert Review: He's Only Just Begun

Berlioz, George Benjamin and Ravel with the BSO at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Hector Berlioz (center) and his muse Harriet Smithson as depicted on the poster for
the 1942 French film Symphonie-fantastique.

Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra concluded their three-concert stand at Carnegie Hall on Thursday night with a concert featuring the New York premiere of a major work by George Benjamin, flanked by the French music of Maurice Ravel and Hector Berlioz. Although this concert used smaller orchestral forces than Tuesday's all-out assault, this was by far the most expansive and ambitious of the three subscription programs that they had chosen to import from their 2016-17 offerings at their Huntington Avenue home.

Concert Review: Dynamite from Fairyland

Yannick Nézet-Séguin returns to Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Yannick Nézet-Séguin brought the Philadelphia Orchestra back to Carnegie Hall.
Photo by Jan Regan for the Philadelphia Orchestra.

The Philadelphia Orchestra are regular visitors to the great stage of Carnegie Hall. Tuesday night saw the band's first New York appearance this season with music director Yannick Nézet-Seguin at the helm. The dynamic young Quebeçois conductor is one of the genuine podium stars of this new century, drawing the focus of New Yorkers since he accepted the job of successor to James Levine (starting in 2020) at the Metropolitan Opera. His loyal troops were given a solid program that played to their strengths: a Prokofiev concerto bookended by two major works from Maurice Ravel.

Concert Review: An Unexpected Party

Renée Fleming premieres Letters from Georgia by Kevin Puts.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Petunias by Georgia O'Keeffe © 1924 The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.

Most concerts at Alice Tully Hall are pretty staid affairs. Refreshments are usually limited to the occasional output of the American Table Restaurant and a standard Lincoln Center refreshment bar offering hot coffee and maybe the occasional little sandwich. So it was a welcome surprise to this reviewer to show up for Monday night's concert featuring the Eastman Philharmonia and soprano Renée Fleming and to find the glass lobby on the corner of W. 65th and Broadway the site of an elegant and catered soirée.

Concert Review: When Invisible Pirates Attack

Mozart and Ravel at the New York Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Pianist Danil Trifonov (center) plays Mozart with conductor Vladimir Jurowski (upper right)
and members of the New York Philharmonic. Photo by Chris Lee © 2016 The New York Philharmonic.

The conductor Vladimir  Jurowski is the music director of the London Philharmonic and an occasional visitor at the Met, where he is called on to untangle knotty operas like Richard Strauss' Die Frau Ohne Schatten. This week at the New York Philharmonic, he faced a program requiring precision in all of its aspects, from the arch accompaniment written in the Mozart Concerto No. 25 to the vast mythic landscapes of the Ravel ballet Daphnis et Chlöe, itself that composer's most ambitious work and a miracle of orchestration written on a grand and encompassing scale.

Concert Review: Their Business is Rejoicing

The London Symphony Orchestra at NJPAC.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Miracle man: conductor Gianandrea Noseda in action.
Photo © 2016 Teatro Regio di Torino.

The London Symphony Orchestra are in transition. Valery Gergiev left for a post in Munich, and the orchestra awaits the arrival of its next chosen leader, Sir Simon Rattle, in 2017. Their current North American tour (which stopped at Prudential Hall in Newark on Saturday night) is lead by associate principal conductor Gianandrea Noseda, an Italian maestro who has worked operatic miracles in the pit at the Metropolitan Opera in recent years, and will soon be known to American audiences as the newly minted leader of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C.

Concert Review: The Insider's Guide to the Orchestra

InSight Concerts offer a unique listening perspective.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor Roger Nierenberg led the InSight Orchestra concerts this weekend at the DiMenna Center.
Photo © 2015 The Music Paradigm.

You learn more sitting in the orchestra.

That's the theory anyway behind the work of conductor Roger Nierenberg. Mr. Nierenberg leads The Music Paradigm, which offers team-building and training seminars to executives looking to improve their leadership skills by working with a classical orchestra. On Saturday night, Mr. Nierenberg applied his principles to a regular classical music concert, leading the first of two InSight concerts in Mary Flagler Cary Hall, the downstairs performance and rehearsal space in the DiMenna Center for Classical Music.

Concert Review: "And it was bye-bye New Jersey..."

Jacques Lacombe ends his tenure with the NJSO.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

It can be argued that the six year tenure of conductor Jacques Lacombe has been a general success for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. On Sunday afternoon at NJPAC, Mr. Lacombe ended his term as music director with a stylish concert that played to his passions and strengths: new music, Romantic repertory and French music the early 20th century, here represented by a pair of pieces by Maurice Ravel.

Opera Review: Après de La Belle Epoque

The Manhattan School of Music offers a French double bill.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Images related to L'Enfant et les Sortilèges (left) and Persée et Andromède
presented as a double bill this week by the Manhattan School of Music.

French opera in the 1920s was marked by a spirit of wild experimentation. Composers, shocked by the destruction of the First World War, explored subjects from childhood or Greek mythology in an attempt to reach some sort of musical truth. This week, the Manhattan School of Music presented a pair of these works from 1924: Jacques Ibert's Persée et Andromède and Maurice Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortileges, in the conservatory's final opera production of this current season.

Concert Review: Taking Twin Peaks (by strategy)

Marc-André Hamelin returns to Carnegie Hall.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Marc-André Hamelin grabs a slice of the piano.
Photo © Marc-André Hamelin courtesy Hemsing Associates.

When Canadian virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin visits Carnegie Hall, he usually plays downstairs in the sleek subterranean confines of Zankel Hall. However, Wednesday night's concert was on the big stage of Stern Auditorium. He offered a carefully curated program that explored many aspects of his art, including composition. Each half started simply and increased in difficulty, climaxing in works by Ravel and Liszt. 

Opera Review: Early Child Development

Bare Opera takes its first steps with Ravel and Debussy.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Véronique Rapin as the Child in L'Enfant et les Sortileges.

Photo credit: Jose Lara © 2015 Bare Opera.

It is quite something to be attendant at the birth of an opera company. On Monday night, in the airy Robert Miller Gallery on the extreme west of 26th St. in Chelsea, the Bare Opera mounted the third and final performance of its inaugural production: an ambitious double bill of Debussy's L'Enfant Prodigue and Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortileges. This young company is one of many determined to present an alternative to the large corporate-backed opera house, enriching and enlivening the New York opera scene and providing much-needed opportunity for young singers.

Concert Review: He's Ready for the World

Behzod Abduraimov at Weill Recital Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Bezhod Abduraimov.
Photo by Ben Ealavega © 2015 Decca Classics.

The first Carnegie Hall recital by a promising young pianist is an important occasion. When that artist is Behzod Abduraimov, the young powerhouse playing a musically conservative (but pianistically ambitious) program of Chopin, Schubert and Ravel, that occasion becomes a hot ticket, especially when that recital is held in the cozy (268 seats) elegance of Weill Recital Hall, located upstairs from the more famous Hall that Music Built.

Concert Review: Providence, Prokofiev and Pirates

The San Francisco Symphony at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Michael Tilson Thomas.
Photo © 2013 San Francisco Symphony.

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra closed their two-night 2014 stand at Carnegie Hall on Thursday night. The evening offered pretty much everything this ensemble does well. There was new music. There was a surprisingly gentle 20th century concerto. And there was an almost obligatory Big Work: the unexpurgated score of Maurice Ravel's ballet Daphnis et Chloë.

Concert Review: Perennials and Premieres

The New York Philharmonic plays Copeland, Rouse and Ravel.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

New York Philharmonic first chair flute Robert Langevin.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2014 The New York Philharmonic.

In terms of the long marathon that is the New York classical music season, this week;s set of concerts at the New York Philharmonic should have been nothing out of the ordinary. There were two New York premieres on the slate.  Guest conductor Leonard Slatkin was a familiar face. Thursday night's concert, the first of three this week at Avery Fisher Hall, was one of the more interesting programs of this young season, focusing entirely on music of the last century.

Concert Review: Against the Gathering Darkness

Jeffrey Kahane returns to the New York Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The pianist Jeffrey Kahane returned to the New York Philharmonic this week.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2014 The New York Philharmonic.

In the years between the two World Wars, the last, dying gasps of tonal music and the rise in popularity of American jazz created a climate where composers engaged in fearless and sometimes furious experimentation. It was as if they knew disaster was coming, and that it was time to get all their good ideas down on paper before the world plunged back into darkness.

This week, the New York Philharmonic offered a carefully curated program of lesser-known major orchestral works from Maurice Ravel, Kurt Weill and George Gershwin. The program, conducted by Jeffery Kahane (who also served as piano soloist) searched for common ground between these three composers, offering listeners Ravel's flashy post-Impressionist virtuosity, Weill's  post-Mahlerian sturm und drang view of Wiemar Germany, and the jazzy sounds of Gershwin's New York.

Concert Review: The Composer on the Podium

Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to the New York Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Esa-Pekka Salonen in action. © 2013 The Philharmonia Orchestra.

Ever since he stepped in, Bernstein-like to lead the Philharmonia Orchestra in a performance of Mahler's Third Symphony, Esa-Pekka Salonen has led the double existence of composer and conductor. Happily, he has succeeded in both endeavors, leading crisp, hospital-corner performances of orchestral music from the last three centuries, while breaking new musical ground with his own eclectic compositional style.