Concert Review: Waking Up From History

Jaap van Zweden leads the Leningrad Symphony.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

City fire marshal Dmitri Shostakovich, Leningrad 1942.
Photographed by a Russian news agency during the siege.

The extraordinary history of the Second World War casts a long shadow on any art music written in Europe in the 1930s and '40s. This week, the New York Philharmonic paired two of these works in a program of extraordinary intensity under music director Jaap van Zweden: a program that seemed to ask the following. Can art music, created under the shadow of extraordinary political and human event, somehow manage to transcend its origins and remain relevant to the audiences of today?

Concert Review: A Pair of Aces

Two debuts spark Mostly Mozart.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Dynamic debut: Sol Gabetta.
Photo by Marco Borggreve.

The Mostly Mozart Festival's adherence to familiar composers and repertories makes the month-long festival invaluable: not just as a summer retreat for the music lover but as a working laboratory for New Yorkers to hear new artists and new conductors, some of whom are making their first appearances at Lincoln Center.

Concert Review: Every Breaking Wave

The New York Philharmonic makes CONTACT! with Japanese music.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The torii gate at Miyajima, inspiration for Olivier Messiaen's Sept haïkaï.
Photo © 2015 from Wikimedia Commons.

Since its inception in 2009, the CONTACT! series has been the New York Philharmonic laboratory for performing modern music. Staged in more intimate venues than Avery Fisher Hall around New York, the players are liberated from the typical subscription format and the compulsion of symphony orchestras to pair the avant-garde with Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner. On Friday evening, members of the orchestra gathered at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for New Music in Japan, a program celebrating the classic and cutting edge of contemporary art music in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Opera Review: Taking the Apple

Opera company bows at Carnegie Hall with Gugliemo Tell
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Revolutionary conductor Gianandrea Noseda brought William Tell
to Carnegie Hall on Dec. 7.

Presenting William Tell, the four-act grand opera that prematurely ended the compositional career of Gioachino Rossini in 1829 is no easy task. The opera is huge, with four epic acts that try an audience's patience even when conductors make judicious (and sometimes deep) cuts. The opera marks an important transition between Italian bel canto and the grand opera of the French stage. Its libretto recounts the feats of the title character and his role as a farmer turned crossbow-wielding revolutionary and Swiss folk hero. For an opera company making both its Carnegie Hall and New York debuts, Tell is an unlikely choice.

Concert Review: The Easy Life in Garmisch

Leon Botstein explores the home life of Richard Strauss.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Symphonia Domestica: the Strauss family (Richard, Pauline, Franz) in the year 1910.
Photo © 1910 the Estate of Richard Strauss.

The American Symphony Orchestra's yearly Vanguard series is an opportunity for music director Leon Botstein to shine a flashlight into the dark corners of the repertory, unearthing rare (or in some cases, unheard) treasures for the pleasure of its Carnegie Hall audience. Wednesday night was Dr. Botstein's yearly excursion into the lesser-known repertory of Richard Strauss, the composer of tone poems and operas whose 150th birthday was celebrated earlier this year.

Opera Review: Burn This

Merry Mount at Spring For Music.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor Michael Christie made his Carnegie Hall debut with Merry Mount.
Photo by Chris Lee.

Howard Hanson's Merry Mount belongs to that large category of operas that were beloved upon their premiere but were quickly forgotten following its opening run.  It premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1934, receiving a still-standing record of 50 curtain calls on opening night. On Wednesday night, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra brought this bold and ultimately fascinating work to Carnegie Hall as their offering for Night Three of this year's Spring For Music Festival. The results were...incendiary.

Opera Review: Old Money, New Voices

The Met revives Richard Strauss' nostalgic Arabella.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Half empty, or half full? Malin Byström in Arabella.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2014 The Metropolitan Opera.

Richard Strauss' Arabella is a girl with a bad reputation.

This is the last of the composer's collaborations with his favorite librettist Hugo von Hoffmannsthal. Arabella was planned to be a second raid on the mix of romantic comedy and Viennese nostalgia that made Der Rosenkavalier the duo's biggest success. Hoffmansthal died leaving only Act I as a finished work. (Strauss worked from his drafts of the second and third acts.) When Arabella premiered (in 1934) the Great Depression was still on. The Nazis were in power. The opera, a sentimental love story set around a grand evening out in Vienna, was destined to join the ranks of Strauss' lesser stage works.

Concert Review: The Modern Orpheus

Jonas Kaufmann enthralls Carnegie Hall in his recital debut.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Take him to your Lieder: Jonas Kaufmann.
Photo © 2013 Sony Classical.

The German tenor Jonas Kaufmann is among the most popular artists currently appearing at the Metropolitan Opera. His potent, versatile voice and dark good looks appeal in roles like Don José, Parsifal and Werther. For Thursday night's concert, the singer's recital debut at Carnegie Hall, Mr. Kaufmann turned his attention to lieder, offering a carefully curated program that instructed as it enthralled.

Concert Review: Mysticism, Monologue and Monoliths

The St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Yuri Temirkanov. Image © Medici.TV.

The Russian city of St. Petersburg is invariably associated with Mariinsky Orchestra and its mercurial leader Valery Gergiev. However, the St. Petersburg  Philharmonic Orchestra is an even older organization (founded in 1882) with its own rich history and distinctive Russian sound. Last Thursday night, this splendid ensemble returned to Carnegie Hall for the first of two concerts under the baton of music director Yuri Temirkanov.

Opera Review: The Opera Formerly Known as Prince

The Metropolitan Opera unveils Dmitri Tcherniakov's Prince Igor.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Ildar Abdrazakov wanders through the poppies in the title role of Prince Igor.
Photo by Cory Weaver © 2014 The Metropolitan Opera.

At the Metropolitan Opera, the 2013-14 season has been one of fearless experimentation. The traditional favorites by Wagner and Verdi have been pushed aside for the welcome return of Russian opera to the big New York stage. The latest of those experiments, and one of this season's most eagerly anticipated new productions was unveiled on Thursday night: Alexander Borodin's problematic opera Prince Igor. This new staging by Dmitri Tcherniakov marks the first Met performance of the score since 1917, and the first to be sung in Russian. Although traditional in some respects, the director chose to make this unfinished, pageant-like opera a commentary on the foolishness of militarism and its horrific aftermath.

Concert Review: The Godzilla Concerto

Spring For Music continues, with Marc-Andre Hamelin playing Busoni.
by Paul Pelkonen

If the Busoni concerto were a Japanese movie monster, this is who it would be.
Image of Godzilla (Gojira) © 1954 Toho Studios. Character of Godzilla is the property of Toho Studios.

The Spring For Music festival reached its midway point on Wednesday night at Carnegie Hall. Since the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra travelled the shortest distance to participate in this week of modern music, it was fitting that they chose the toughest program on the schedule: Nocturnal by Edgar Varese, Kurt Weill's obscure Symphony No. 1 (Berliner), and Ferruccio Busoni's gigantic Piano Concerto. The concert was music director Jacques Lacombe's Carnegie Hall debut

Among German composers of the early 20th century, Busoni (a German, despite the Italian name) is looked at as something of an evolutionary dead end, with few followers of his footsteps or much interest in his difficult ideas of a new musical language. With this concert, Mr. Lacombe sought to disprove that thesis: programming the Concerto with works by his students Kurt Weill and Edgar Varèse, composers who took very different musical paths.

Concert Review: From Y to Z

Jaap van Zweden and Yuja Wang debut with the Philharmonic.

Conductor Jaap van Zweden.
Photo by Bert Hulselmans © 2012 IMG Artists.

by Paul J. Pelkonen
On Thursday night, the New York Philharmonic returned to Avery Fisher Hall. This concert was a double debut: the first Philharmonic performance conducted by Jaap von Zweden and the subscription debut of star pianist Yuja Wang. A former concert violinist, Mr. van Zweden is now the music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Concert Review: She Wore Blue Velvet

Yuja Wang makes her Carnegie Hall debut.

Fingers that can hammer or sing: the astounding Yuja Wang.
Photo by Felix Broede © 2011 Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music.

Thursday night at Carnegie Hall saw the New York debut of Yuja Wang, the 24 Beijing-born sensation and darling of the Deutsche Grammophon label. Judging from this flawlessly played recital and its long string of encores, the hype surrounding this 24-year-old pianist is (so far) entirely justified.

For her debut, Ms. Wang chose a challenging program: five short pieces by Scriabin, Prokoviev's Sixth Piano Sonata, and the Liszt Sonata in B Minor. Taking the stage in four-inch platform heels and a long, body-hugging gown with a slit down one leg, Ms. Wang sat down at the Steinway, adjusted her shoes to the pedals, and went to work.

The five Scriabin pieces are not well known to listeners. One, the Prelude in B Minor (Op. 13, No. 6) made its Carnegie debut along with Ms. Wang. These are early examples of this composer's work, without the tonal weirdness and "mystic chords." That came later.

She played these works as a suite, alternating slow, diaphanous movements with dark, hard-charging movements that snarled like hell-hounds straining at the leash. Alternating between playing from the wrist and driving from the shoulders, she seemed to pour her personal energy into the three Preludes, the Etude and the Poeme, making them function as a unit.

Prokofiev's Sixth Sonata was next, a piece written in 1940 as World War II raged. Although it was composed and premiered before the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, the first movement opens with a staccato alarm call that jolts the listener and prepares them for the sonic battle to come. 

Prokofiev's industrial-strength writing, with its grim, creaking waltz and apocalyptic finish (with a return of that alarm call) places considerable demands on the pianist. Ms. Wang took a gutsy approach to this rock-ribbed music, meeting the work's challenges head-on and playing with steely resolve.

Ms. Wang returned, (this time in a blue velvet gown) to play Franz Liszt's mammoth one-movement Sonata in B Minor, a composition that turned the very form on its head and showed the way forward to the chromaticism of Wagner. In fact, you can hear themes later borrowed for the Ring in the pages of this thirty-minute work, including the 12-step descending scale that indicated the power of Wotan's spear.

Liszt's Sonata draws its inspiration from Goethe. Ms. Wang dived into the opening theme (a representation of Mephistopheles) and brought the wild energy of Faust's ill-fated adventures out in the early pages. The plunge into the abyss was chilling, ending in grim, matter-of-fact low notes. But that set the stage for redemption and a heavenly ascent, played as a shifting, soothing balm by this brilliant artist. 

With the audience roaring its approval, it was time for encores. Ms. Wang obliged with four. She started with more Liszt: the Hungarian's transcription of Schubert's Gretchen am spinnerade. The centerpiece was her own transcription of Paul Dukas' famous tone poem The Sorcerer's Apprentice. She made the brooms march with astonishing speed, bringing out Dukas' rich tone paintings in this unconventional, but brilliant transcription. She followed with the Melodie from Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. Friedrich Cziffra's jaw-dropping take on Johann Strauss' Trisch-Trasch Polka, ended the evening with both substance and flash.