Concert Review: Inspiration, Persperation and Adaptation

The Chamber Music Society offers a series of "farewell" works.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Seven from twenty-three: the musicians of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
play Strauss' Metamorphosen. Photo by Tristan Cook for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Even the best music is often borrowed from somewhere else. Composers throughout history often draw their melodic inspiration from somewhere else, be it folk song, a medieval church mode or in some cases, other composers. It is always a moment of minor joy when one first hears a most memorable musical idea. Chagrin follows when one figures out the source material, or realizes where a thematic idea has been re-used.

Concert Review: Mahler's Bones

Christian Gerhaher sings Gustav Mahler's lieder.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Gerold Hubner (left) and Christian Gerhaher in recital at Wigmore Hall.
Photo by Simon Jay Price © 2014 Wigmore Hall.

The name Gustav Mahler conjures up mighty images. Enormous choral forces, battling huge orchestras as they shouti in terror or triumph. A giant hammer, slamming out a crushing blow of fate at the close of his Sixth Symphony. Or the terrors of the nursery and the grave, present in equal proportion in his Fourth. None of those elements were present on Saturday night, as the longtime pair of baritone Christian Gerhaher and pianist Gerold Huber played a program of Mahler's lieder for a rapt audience at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.

Concert Review: Brothers From the Same Quartet

The Emerson String Quartet celebrates forty years.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

The members of the Emerson String Quartet, past and present: Philip Setzer, Paul Watkins
former cellist David Finckel, Eugene Drucker, Lawrence Dutton.
Original photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco, © Sony Classical. Photoshop by the author.

The Emerson String Quartet is among the most storied of American Chamber music ensembles, having thrilled listeners for four decades with their clean, bright-edged sound and a preference for brisk and efficient music making. On Sunday afternoon, the Emersons played the second of two concerts at Alice Tully Hall this weekend. The occasion: to celebrate the beginning of the 2016-17 season of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and to celebrate four decades of music-making with the release of a mammoth 53-disc box chronicling the ensembles' complete recorded catalogue for Deutsche Grammophon.

Concert Preview: The Men Who Invented Fire

The Emerson String Quartet is Passing the Torch at Lincoln Center.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

This German card from 1932 depicts Beethoven (left) taking music lessons with Haydn.
The caption reads: "Beethoven and his master, Haydn." © 1932 Homann Factory.

The string quartet has enjoyed over 300 years as one of the sturdiest and most perfect vehicles for musical expression. Quartets can be bold and heroic, as four players join forces to conquer the Everest-like works of Beethoven, or anguished like Schubert's Death and the Maiden. In the 20th century, Shostakovich famously used his late quartets as a kind of intimate diary, inserting hidden codes into the music, and Mozart wrote both joy and heartbreak into the fabric of his mature quartets.

Opera Review: Those Pesky Invisible Pirates

American Classical Orchestra mounts Haydn's L'Isola disabitata.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The cast share a tender moment in a scene from L'isola disabitata.
Photo © 2015 American Classical Orchestra.

Unlike his symphonies and string quartets, the thirteen operas written by Franz Josef Haydn have gotten comparatively short shrift. On Tuesday night, the American Classical Orchestra under the leadership of Thomas Crawford made an effort to correct that oversight with a performance of  L'Isola disabitata, Haydn's tenth opera. This rarely staged work dates from 1779.

Concert Review: The Slow Journey Into Silence

The Jerusalem String Quartet plays Beethoven.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Jerusalem String Quartet: Alexander Pavlovsky, Sergei Bresler, Kyril Zlotnitov and
Ori Kam. Photo © 2015 harmonia mundi usa.

This week, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center embarked on a six-concert survey of the complete string quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven. It fell to the Jerusalem String Quartet to open the cycle with the six works of Op. 18 over two nights. Tuesday night's concert at Alice Tully Hall featured the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Quartets, key works in examining Beethoven's transition from able craftsman to an inspired, heroic figure.

Concert Review: Crooks and Wires

Anima Eterna Brugge arrives at Lincoln Center.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Crooked: the horns of Anima Eterna Brugge.
Photo © 2015 Sydney Festival

The practice of performing classical music on instruments either built or designed in the 18th century is not a new one. It is refreshing to hear familiar music on unfamiliar instruments: wood-and-ivory flutes, cat-gut violins and natural brass horns, which require the players to manually switch between different-lengthed tubes of brass (called "crooks") in order to alter the range of available notes. On Thursday night, one such specialist orchestra made its U.S. debut: Anima Eterna Brugge.

Concert Review: The 19-ton Orchestra

Christine Brewer and Paul Jacobs at Alice Tully Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

In recital: soprano Christine Brewer sang at Alice Tully Hall on Sunday.
Photo courtesy Lincoln Center.

Of the keyboard instruments, the pipe organ is the one that can approximate not only the sound of a full symphony orchestra, but the unique tone of the human voice as well. On Sunday afternoon, dramatic soprano Christine Brewer and organist Paul Jacobs gave a concert in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. This performance, part of the 2015 White Light Festival, paired Ms. Brewer's big, potent instrument with the Alice Tully Hall Organ.

Concert Review: It's Gotta Be the Shoes

Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the Emerson String Quartet at Mostly Mozart.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Steve Madden Caviarr Rhinestone Slip-On. In Men's Sizes.

The annual visit to Mostly Mozart by the Emerson String Quartet is a joyous occasion, a cnahnce for New Yokrkers trapped in the sweltering and ever deepening canyons of  gotham to hear one of the best chamber music ensembles in the country without leaving the fortress of Manhattan. On Monday night at Alice Tully Hall, the eminent Emersons were joined by French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet for a program of Mozart, Beethoven and Fauré at Alice Tully Hall.

Concert Review: That '70s Show

The Emerson String Quartet plays Britten and Shostakovich.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The new boy: the Emerson String Quartet (Eugene Drucker, Lawrence Dutton,
Philip Setzer) welcome cellist Paul Watkins.
Photo courtesy the Emerson String Quartet.

The average classical music lover is wary of anything written in the last century. However, Wednesday night's concert at Alice Tully Hall by the Emerson String Quartet featured three late works by two composers who survived into this unlikely decade: Dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten. The program explored the connection between the two composers, who were on friendly terms, with Shostakovich even visiting Britten's home base of Aldeburgh while on a rare visit to England.

Concert Review: The Gifts of Prometheus

Yannick Nézet-Séguin brings Beethoven to Mostly Mozart.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Photo by Chris Alonso.

On Thursday night, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe gave the first of two Mostly Mozart concerts this year under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The fiery young Québécois (who is about to start his first season as Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra) led energetic accounts of two Beethoven war-horses: the Violin Concerto (with soloist Lisa Biatishvili) and the Eroica Symphony.

Both pieces (staged on the modest, acoustically crisp stage of Alice Tully Hall) were exceptionally well played by this fine London ensemble, which recorded the complete symphonies 20 years ago under period specialist Nikolaus Harnoncourt. The modest orchestra has some instrumental quirks: small copper-kettle timpanis and a penchant for slide trumpets. This was epic Beethoven: a performance that attendees can annoy their friends (by bragging about) it a decade from now.

Concert Review: Child Is Father...to the Symphony

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at TullyScope.

Sir Roger Norrington.

Johann Sebastian Bach had twenty children, if you don't count P.D.Q. Bach. Ten of them survived into adulthood. Of them, four of his sons grew up to be famous composers. Wednesday evening's concert at Alice Tully Hall offered argument for the reappraisal of Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach, whose work serves as an important bridge between the music of his father and the classical style as developed by Haydn and Mozart in the latter half of the 18th century.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is an acclaimed period performance ensemble from the United Kingdom, under the direction of Sir Roger Norrington. Sir Roger is now 77, and has had a long career leading period performance ensembles. Although he has met with wide criticism for his dry-toned, unromantic accounts of Beethoven, Wagner and even Mahler, these four symphonies and two concertos were ideally suited to his plain-spoken approach. They were played by the small orchestra (about two dozen, all told) with melodic drive and energy throughout.

The highlight of the performance was the C Major harpsichord concerto. It is difficult to play with lyricism on the harpsichord, but soloist Steven Devine overcame the limitations of that instrument. His cadenzas were played with beauty and skill, an impressive blend of dexterity and phrasing as he made the harpsichord sing.

C.P.E. Bach. Image © Naxos.

The same could not be said for the A Major cello concerto, with Richard Lester playing the solo part. Mr. Lester played with passion but hit some number of wrong notes in the first movement. Although he settled in and played the next two movements with singing tone and skilled bow-work, the errant opening undermined the whole performance.

When Haydn referred to Bach as the "father of us all", he was referring not to Johann Sebastianm but to C.P.E. Bach. This was proved by the four string symphonies on this program, which were written for a patron (Baron Gottfired von Swieten) who wanted Bach to push the envelope of instrumental writing farther than it had ever been pushed before. Using only strings and harpsichord, the younger Bach creates a riot of emotional color in the course of three movements each. Impressive, since each symphony is an average of just ten minutes in length.

Opera Review: No Bunnies, Just Talent

Les Arts Florissants at Alice Tully Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Less is more: Les Arts Florissants music director William Christie.

As part of their 2010 BAM appearance, Les Arts Florissants staged Henry Purcell's The Fairy Queen with elaborate costumes, sets, and bunny suits. For 2011, the French period ensemble offered two performances at Alice Tully Hall, as part of the TullyScope Festival designed to highlight the versatility of Lincoln Center's mid-sized concert hall.

Concert Review: A Journey Into Mystery

Louis Lortie Plays Liszt

Louis Lortie and friend.

The three books of Franz Liszt's Anneés de la pèlerinage constitute a musical autobiography, chronicling the composer's busy life as a travelling virtuoso. Played together, the three volumes (or "years") comprise two hours and 45 minutes of difficult, virtuso pianism. Playing them all in the course one evening was an unheard-of feat, even in Liszt's day when programs could run for four hours.

On Thursday night, as part of Lincoln Center's TullyScope Festival, (designed to demonstrate the versatility of the newly refurbished Alice Tully Hall) French-Canadian virtuoso Louis Lortie did just that. Mr. Lortie has enjoyed a long steady climb into the elite echelon of virtuoso touring pianists, a profession created by Liszt himself.

Liszt's so-called "recitals" (he invented the term) were the rage during the composer's career as a touring virtuoso. His playing inspired women to throw undergarments, jewels, and even house keys as part of the peculiar syndrome that became known as "Liszt-o-mania." Everywhere he went, Liszt was the first rock star, a reputation that remained secure as he retired (at 35) to teach a whole new generation of pianists his secrets.


In this modern age, playing like Mr. Lortie's might inspire both genders to engage in such behavior. While no objects (intimate or otherwise) were flung on Thursday night, Mr. Lortie played at a very high level indeed. His performance, in two acts with a 30-minute break, was a fearsome show of prodigious memory and manual dexterity.

From the opening bars of the La chapelle de Guillaume Tell, the pianist took his audience on a detailed tour of Liszt's travels in Switzerland, the focus of the first Année. Mr. Lortie played with careful amounts of rubato, stretching and elongating the notes. He drove the piano, playing from his shoulders, crossing hands for the most difficult passages and ranging across his instrument as Liszt traversed the Alps, stopping at mountain lakes, weathering a fierce storm and celebrating the bells of Geneva at night.

The next stop was a visit to Liszt's last years, depicted in the third volume of the Années. Published in 1883 near the end of Liszt's life, these works are far more experimental in character and reflect the black depressions that afflicted the composer in his old age. By splitting the program in this way, Mr. Lortie was able to conclude the first half of his recital with the shimmering, rippling Les jeux d'eaux a la Villa d'Este, a composition in which Liszt practically invented musical impressionism, inspiring both Debussy and Ravel.

Mr. Lortie's visit to Italy in the Deuxième annéee seemed to fly by. He led off with a sweetly phrased, intimate account of Sposializio, inspired by a Raphael painting. The three Petrarch Sonnets, (re-workings of earlier songs) impressed. But the real gem was the crowd-pleasing Dante Sonata, played by Mr. Lortie with hell-fire in his fingers and delicate use of pedal. There was a definite whiff of sulphur coming from the Steinway.

The travels of Liszt did not exhaust the enthusiastic, piano-loving audience. They clapped hard for an encore, and Mr. Lortie obliged with a shimmering, rippling account of Die Forelle ("The Trout"), Liszt's piano-only version of the Schubert lied. The concert was followed by an engaging onstage dialogue between Mr. Lortie and Dr. Alan Walker, the Liszt scholar and author of the definitive three-volume biography of the composer-pianist.