Concert Review: When the Typewriters Talk....

Lincoln Center Festival does Naked Lunch.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Liquid courage: Peter Weller drinks up in Naked Lunch.
Image Copyright 1991 201th Century Fox.

Ornette Coleman carved his own path as a composer. As he burst upon the scene, he epitomized the atonal explorations of free jazz and then developing his own musical system of “harmolodics” to express himself with saxophone and pen. On Tuesday night, the Lincoln Center Festival kicked off its week-long Coleman tribute with a screening of Naked Lunch, the surreal, disturbing and very funny David Cronenberg film for which Coleman supplied part of the soundtrack.

Superconductor 2016 Summer Festival Preview Part IV: Lincoln Center Festival

Steve Reich, Chinese opera and (as usual) serious fun.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

He's cooler than you: Steve Reich.
Photo © Nonesuch Records.

The Lincoln Center Festival is the most fluid of the major summer events that fall under the loose umbrella of "classical music festivals" in New York City. One year, it might be presenting the symphonies of Anton Bruckner, another a slew of Russian operas rarely seen and heard at Lincoln Center. This year, it's changed again, with a focus on the music of Steve Reich, the rare art of Chinese opera and...wedding music from the Balkans. Why? Read on.

The Year In Reviews: New Music in 2015

The music of the future--today on Superconductor.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The amazing instruments of Harry Partch (seated.)
Photo from Partch.org

From the appointment of Esa-Pekka Salonen as Composer-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic to the astonishing return of Peter Schickele and P.D.Q. Bach (with a new Schickele work on the horizon, more on that later) this was an interesting year for new music. Pierre Boulez celebrated an important birthday and quietly retired from conducting.

Concert Review: It Takes a Village...of Percussionists

Lincoln Center presents Harry Partch's Delusion of the Fury.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Ensemble Musikfabrik stages Delusion of the Fury.
Photo by Klaus Rudolph courtesy Lincoln Center Festival.

Every summer, the Lincoln Center Festival can always be counted on for at least one "maverick" performance, something that falls outside the mainstream and proves to be artistically important. This year's offering Delusion of the Fury is a 100-minute stage play/opera by maverick American composer Harry Partch, mounted by the Germany-based Ensemble Musikfabrik on the stage at City Center. This was a touring version of the production premiered by the Ensemble at the Ruhrentrienialle in 2013.

Concert Review: The Private Lives of the Great Composers

Beethoven and Strauss at the Lincoln Center Festival.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Dr. Richard Strauss at the piano in 1903.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

The concept of the "program symphony," where multiple movements tell some kind of coherent story or evoke a time and place originated with Ludwig van Beethoven and the Symphony No. 6, known as the Pastorale. On Friday night, the Cleveland Orchestra played the third of four concerts this week at the Lincoln Center Festival. Music director Franz Welser-Möst paired the Pastorale with the Symphonia Domestica, a stellar example of the genre written a century later by Richard Strauss.

Concert Review: The Birds are the Word

The Cleveland Orchestra plays Messiaen and Dvořák.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Franz Welser-Möst conducting the Cleveland Orchestra.
Photo by Stephanie Berger © 2015 Lincoln Center Festival.

At first glance, there is no existing connection between the music of French twentieth century mystic Olivier Messiaen and the nineteenth century Bohemian rhapsodies of Antonín Dvořák. But, as was so ably demonstrated Thursday night by the Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of music director Franz Welser-Möst, the music of these two very different men has a number of common points.

Concert Review: The Rightful Pumpkin King

Danny Elfman opens the Lincoln Center Festival.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Danny Elfman in full flight.
Photo by Beatrize Creative © 2015 Lincoln Center Festival

The gulf between "serious" composers and those who write music for Hollywood films is an unfortunate and artificial one, enforced by a music community that refuses to consider the film score as a legitimate means of creative expression. This summer, the Lincoln Center Festival seeks to breach that gap with Danny Elfman: Music from the Films of Tim Burton, a career-spanning retrospective concert program that chronicles a creative partnership that has lasted for fifteen films and thirty years.

Soundtrack Review: It's Wayne's World

Lincoln Center screens Tim Burton and Danny Elfman's Batman.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Batman (Michael Keaton, l) confronts the Joker (Jack Nicholson, right) atop
Gotham City Cathedral at the climax of Batman. 
Image for promotional purposes only © 1989 Warner Bros.

In 1989, the Hollywood superhero film was born with Tim Burton's Batman, a dark, Gothic and deadly serious adaptation of the classic DC hero. And with it came the score by Danny Elfman, the self-trained composer and former frontman of the Los Angeles art-collective-turned-new-wave band Oingo Boingo. Mr. Elfman is the subject of a six-concert retrospective at this summer's Lincoln Center Festival, focusing on his many collaborations on Mr. Burton's films.

Festival Preview: Red Bicycles, Tree-Women and Handmade Instruments

We look at the upcoming 2015 Lincoln Center Festival.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

He's ba-ack: Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice.
The film's score is part of a six-day Danny Elfman retrospective at this year's Lincoln Center Festival.
Photo © 1988 Warner Brothers Entertainment/Geffen Films.

Since its inception in 1996, the Lincoln Center Festival has this mammoth venue's laboratory: its chance to experiment and offer new experiences in the appreciation of Western art music. The 2015 festival offers a compelling mix of German opera, Hollywood illusion and a long overdue re-assessment of a true American master, Harry Partch.

2014 In Review: The Five Best Opera Performances

Severed heads and demonic visitors made for an entertaining year.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Depravity: Salome (Camilla Nylund) with the head of Jokanaan (Alan Held)

at the climax of Salome at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.

Photo by  Dominic M. Mercier © 2014 Opera Philadelphia/The Philadelphia Orchestra

Opera may be the trickiest of all art forms but it nonetheless remains the beating and sometimes bleeding heart of this blog. And this year, there haven't been quite as many opera reviews...but there have been some most impressive performances. Here's a look at 2014 in opera with the five best things I saw appearing below in chronological order.

Opera Review: Murder by Numbers

The Bolshoi Opera uncorks The Tsar's Bride.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The composer of The Tsar's Bride,Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in a portrait by Valentin Serov.

In Russia, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's 1898 opera The Tsar's Bride is one of his most popular works. However, it is a relative rarity in the United States, and has never been mounted by the Metropolitan Opera. Upon hearing the score, this is a surprise, because this opera, retelling a heavily fictionalized episode in the tumultuous love life of Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible combines the romantic sweep and Russian folk-colorization of Rimsky's best music with a libretto that might have appealed to Giuseppe Verdi.

On July 13, the Bolshoi Opera gave the second of two weekend concert performances of The Tsar's Bride as part of this summer's Lincoln Center Festival. The concert, led by veteran Russian conductor Gennadi Rozhdestvensky drew a large and enthusiastic audience of Russian opera lovers, but lacked certain elements of energy and theatrical excitement. It didn't help that this vivid and bloody story was confined to the concert stage, with the drab wooden walls of Avery Fisher Hall a poor substitute for the color and pageantry that are integral to this work.

Opera Review: Hell is Below Decks

The Lincoln Center Festival sends out The Passenger.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The final tableau of The Passenger showing the split-level set.
Photo by Stephanie Berger for the Lincoln Center Festival © 2014.

Mieczyslaw Weinberg was a minor 20th century composer, best remembered for his association with Dmitri Shostakovich, his large output of string quartets and symphonies, and for his film score to Vinnie-Pukh, a distinctly Russian take on the children's story Winnie The Pooh. The Passenger may be his crowning achievement, a searing, intense opera that finds a German diplomat's wife having to confront her past as an overseer in the S.S. assigned to the concentration camp Auschwitz.

Summer Marches On: The 2014 Superconductor Festival Guide Part II

Three big festivals make New York more bearable in the summer.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Lincoln Center becomes a cultural oasis in the summer months.
Unfortunately that's not a real palm tree. Photo alteration by the author.

The Rolling Stones once said "you can't always get what you want." For New Yorkers sweltering through summer heat, that might translate to "you can't always get out of town." For those city-bound urbanites or visitors to this great metropolis, Mostly Mozart is the ideal cure, a shelter of musical marvels in the helter-skelter of a summer swelter. (And yes, readers, I know that's from an entirely different song.)

Opera Review: Twisting, Turning Through the Never

Lincoln Center Festival presents Michaels Reise um die Erde.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Archangel Michael (trumpeter Marco Blaauw) solos over New York in Michaels Reise um die Erde.
Image © 2013 La Fura dels Baus.

It was Saturday night, and  Avery Fisher Hall was in darkness, apart from a black-light glow illuminating a curtain concealing the massive stage. This was the setting for the North American premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Michaels Reise um die Erde ("Michael's Journey Around the World.") This was the third and final performance of the work (itself a component of Stockhausen's week-long mega-opera Licht) at this year's Lincoln Center Festival. The music was by Ensemble musikFabrik, and the staging by Carlus Padrissa from Catalan theater group La Fura dels Baus.

The Superconductor Summer Festival Preview Part II

The Lincoln Center Festival, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic and Mostly Mozart.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

In the summer months, Lincoln Center transforms into a bustling hub of social activity for music-loving New Yorkers. We break down the avant-garde offerings of the Lincoln Center Festival, New York Philharmonic's summer concerts, the Metropolitan Opera's summer screening program and the venerable Mostly Mozart Festival, transforming this Upper West Side plaza into a sort of Salzburg on the Hudson.

Concert Review: Broadway At Last

Nielsen and Stravinsky mark RDO's overdue debut

Royal Danish Orchestra's Music Director Michael Schønwandt.

The art of programming symphony concerts is a tricky one. Finding the links between disparate pieces, by different composers, in different genres is hard. And some music directors settle for the fact that the two or three scheduled works are from the same historic period, or refer to the same book, or something equally esoteric.

Michael Schønwandt, music director of the Royal Danish Orchestra, displayed his mastery of this art on Thursday night, as the RDO made its long-awaited debut at Alice Tully Hall as part of this summer's Lincoln Center Festival. The Copenhagen-based orchestra was founded in 1448, and ranks as Europe's oldest performing orchestra. For this concert, Mr. Schønwandt offered a pairing of works by Carl Nielsen and Igor Stravinsky.

This skillfully chosen program made the connection readily apparent. The Russian and the Dane were innovative orchestrators, skilled in the use of rhythm. Both sprinkled their compositions with welcome doses of humor. That was evident in Nielsen's brief Pan and Syrinx, a tone poem that pushes the woodwinds of the orchestra to the fore in an entertaining dialogue. Exceptional playing from the clarinet, English horn and bassoon was the order of the day, underpinned by a swift current of harmonies in the strings.

The clarinet moved to the front of the stage for the next work, Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto with RDO principal John Kruse. Mr. Kruse demonstrated the full expressive range of his instrument in the difficult solo part. He drew different voices from the clarinet, from a series of sad, minor-key groans to the instrument's more familiar, sunny register, racing up and down the instrument's range to thrilling effect.

The 27-minute single-movement work offered considerable challenge, including a long solo cadenza that spiralled gracefully downward before being caught on an updraft of orchestral sound. The piece opens with a fugal, almost baroque feel. Nielsen then veers into modern territory, developing a long conversation between soloist and orchestra.


The concert concluded with Pulcinella, a work firmly in the neo-classical mode that defines the middle period of Stravinsky's career. Although the dance movements and allegros recall the writing of Handel and Mozart, Stravinsky throws the occasional orchestral curve-ball at the listener. He has the musicians stop on a dime, or play an ostinato rhythm that is characteristically Russian underneath the instrumental filigree.

Mr. Schønwandt conducted with flair, lip-synching along as he directed the three singers in their solo arias and brief ensembles. Mezzo Tuva Semmingsen brought intelligence and pointed meaning to her arias. Tenor Peter Lodahl sang with sweet, plaintive tone. Baritone Jochen Kupfer sang Stravinsky's bass part with a dark, warm tone that fit beautifully with the other two soloists.

As Pulcinella develops, more and more of Stravinsky's unique voice comes through. Most notable: the emphatic trombone solo in the latter third of the work that recalls the early recordings of New Orleans jazzman Kid Ory. This rambunctious part was a breath of fresh air, played with gusto by soloist Torbjørn Kroon. As the work concluded with another trio and a fast Allegro, the orchestra's long-overdue New York debut came to a triumphant close.

Concert Review: Revelation Calling

Bruckner's Ninth Brings Cleveland Residency to a Mystic Close.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Anton Bruckner: Master of the Mystic Arts. He composed, too.

The final installment of Bruckner (r)Evolution, the Cleveland Orchestra's four-concert residency at the 2011 Lincoln Center Festival, paired Anton Bruckner's Ninth (and final) Symphony with the Doctor Atomic Symphony by contemporary minimalist composer John Adams. Franz Welser-Möst conducted. His intent: to show Bruckner's influence on modern music.

Concert Review: The Age of Apocalypse

Franz Welser-Möst conducts Bruckner's Eighth Symphony at Lincoln Center.

Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Möst.
Photo by Mark Alan Lee © 2011 The Cleveland Orchestra.

On Saturday night, Franz Welser-Möst led the Cleveland Orchestra in the penultimate performance of Bruckner (r)Evolution. This was the penultimate concert of the ensemble's four-night stand at Avery Fisher Hall. The concert featured Bruckner's massive Eighth Symphony, which is simply too long to pair with any minimalist work by John Adams.

The Eighth was the last major work completed by Anton Bruckner, a 90-minute symphony in C minor, presented in four massive movements. Like the composer's other late symphonies, it consists of ever-ascending slow builds, rising spires of sound built from blocks of brass, wind, and strings. The symphony has no programme or nickname (some refer to it as the "Apocalyptic") but its intent is clear: Bruckner is trying to touch the face of God.

With these performances, Mr. Welser-Möst's stated goal is to express a new understanding of the composer he idolizes. To that end, Saturday night featured a rarity: the unrevised "original cut" of the work from 1887. This infrequently performed version is slightly longer and contains some unfamiliar passages in its first two movments. Bruckner revised the work in 1890. But on Saturday night, the earthy power of Bruckner's score stood revealed.

Mr. Welser-Möst took a surprising, fast tempo for the opening movement, creating driving figures in the strings that moved the work forward and opened vast sonic vistas for the listener. This enabled the full 18-piece Cleveland brass section to cut loose with massive, block chords, voiced in stately, organ-like tones by horns, trombones and Wagner tubas. The scherzo was taken at a slower pace, with the rustic peasants' dance steps of the Ländler moving with the tread of giants striding over the mountains of Bruckner's (and Mr. Welser-Möst's) native Austria.


The transcendent moment of this symphony is in its third movement, as Bruckner reveals his intent. It is a simple, descending figure in the horns and Wagner tubas. This theme, which stands at the crux of the whole work, is never repeated, though later variations and progressions allude to its beauty. It is as if the heavens open, and mere mortals listening are allowed a corner-of-the eye glimpse of the perfect design of the heavenly Empyrean.

The Cleveland forces played this important passage with care and beauty, led by the exceptional horn section. The whole Adagio, from its opening strings and horns to the final cymbal clashes, built slowly into a gorgeous structure, rising heavenward in anticipation of the massive finale.

Depending on who you ask, following a movement like that with a 30-minute finale may seem like an afterthought, or overkill. But under Mr. Welser-Möst's sure leadership, this robust finale seemed entirely appropriate to what came before. Here, Bruckner shows unexpected mastery of the art of transition, moving from one thematic block to the next, without the pauses that mark his earlier works. The result: a thrilling celestial journey through Bruckner's own imagination. As the trumpets rang out and the horns rose for the final, unision chords, one thought arose: this could be the soundtrack to a beautiful, serene Apocalypse.

The 2011 Superconductor Summer Preview

Mozart: ready for the beach

As the temperatures rise and power grids strain, it's good to know that there's quality music to be found in New York this summer. Here's the guide to summer music, from the frosty, lofty halls of Lincoln Center to the rolling green lawns of Tanglewood. And be sure to read Superconductor this summer for all the latest in concert reviews, news, opinion and the occasional parody. Plus there's pictures of composers in sunglasses. See, you feel cooler already.

The Return of the Philharmonic

Johannes Brahms: modeling the ZZ Top look.

The New York Philharmonic are back from a two week European tour, and there are four exciting concert series planned for June. On tap: appearances by resident artist Anne-Sophie Mutter, soprano Deborah Voigt and violinist Gil Shaham.

The season ends with four performances of Janacek's charming "nature opera" The Cunning Little Vixen, produced by the same team that mounted last year's staging of Györgi Ligeti's Le grand macabre.

In late June and early July, the New York Philharmonic continues its tradition of summertime concerts at Avery Fisher Hall. This year's programs feature the music of Tchaikovsky and John Philip Sousa, conducted by Bramwell Tovey. 

This year's multi-disciplinary Lincoln Center Festival features a four-concert residency by the Cleveland Orchestra pairing the massive symphonies of Bruckner with the minimalist music of John Adams. Also offered: A Magic Flute, a stripped-down version of the Mozart classic for 11 singers and a piano.


Mostly Mozart takes over Lincoln Center in August, with a season including complete concert performances of Don Giovanni (by the Budapest Festival Orchestra) and Handel's Orlando. This year's schedule offers a focus on Stravinsky, Beethoven, and of course, Mozart.

The Metropolitan Opera offers opera lovers a chance to cool off with six encore screenings of their Live in HD series. The Met also continues its series of recitals in place of the traditional free operas in the parks. At the end of the summer, the Met again offers a ten-day festival of Live in HD broadcasts, free of charge in Lincoln Center Plaza.

Finally, the small (but mighty) New York Grand Opera offers Puccini this summer, with free performances of La bohéme (July 20) and Madama Butterfly (Aug. 3) scheduled at the Band Shell in Central Park.

Johann Sebastian "Big Daddy" Bach, with Ray-Bans.

North of New York:
Caramoor, Katonah, NY
Caramoor opens its doors in June with a performance of H.M.S. Pinafore. Also on tap: two eagerly awaited performances of Giaochino Rossini's final opera, William Tell. All performances feature the Orchestra of St. Luke's. The summer schedule also includes appearances by the Emerson String Quartet and a program of songs celebrating the legacy of Gustav Mahler.

Bard Festival, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
The Bard Festival has a long tradtion of presenting experimental and rare opera. This year, one of the rarest: the first New York performances of Richard Strauss' penultimate opera, Die Liebe der Danae. Expect to read more about this as the performance approaches on July 29. In August, cool off with two weekend of major works by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown, NY
Cooperstown proves it's about more than baseball with four operas at Glimmerglass, the marvelous little opera house on the north shore of Lake Otsego. Full details on the festival are here.

SPAC Festival, Saratoga, NY
At SPAC (the Saratoga Performing Arts Center), the Philadelphia Orchestra plays a two-week summer residency. The newly renamed Opera Saratoga offers a summer schedule featuring Mozart's Cosí fan tutte and Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus, and there's a chamber music offering too.


Tanglewood, Lenox, MA
The historic Tanglewood Festival, the summer residence of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will not include outgoing BSO music director James Levine. Earlier this year, Mr. Levine announced his decision to step down as music director in Boston. In April, he added that he was taking a five-month hiatus from conducting for health reasons, and would thus have no involvement with Tanglewood for the second year in a row.

With James Levine out of the picture,  the BSO remains one of America's finest orchestras. There is no there is no festival venue more beautiful than Tanglewood, set on the rolling green hills of the Tappan Estate in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts. Due to the late nature of the Levine announcement, the final schedule is not available yet, but a full preview will appear on the site once that information is published by the BSO.

2011 Lincoln Center Festival Preview

Franz Welser-Möst brings the music of Bruckner and John Adams to the Lincoln Center Festival
Photo © 2009 The Cleveland Orchestra.

This summer's Lincoln Center Festival offer innovative approaches to familiar repertory, from the operas of Mozart to the massive symphonic structures of Anton Bruckner.

The Cleveland Orchestra begins its residency at the Festival with Bruckner (R)evolution, pairing the music of Anton Bruckner and John Adams. Franz Welser-Möst conducts. Mr. Welser-Möst has garnered praise for his Vienna and Cleveland performances of the Bruckner symphonies, and has shown himself at home in the music of the 20th and 21st centuries.


These four concerts will focus on the "Big Four": the Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, and the unfinished Ninth. In an unconventional move, Mr. Welser-Möst will conduct the original, unrevised versions of the symphonies which are rarely heard on the New York concert stage.

With the exception of the Eighth, which is Bruckner's biggest symphonic work, each piece will be paired with a composition by minimalist superstar John Adams. Although it seems odd at first, this programming idea makes a lot of sense. It helps if you remember that Bruckner's music, with its stops, starts and repetitions, is in a way, minimalist.

The Danish maestro will also be on the podium for a rare New York appearance by the Royal Danish Orchestra, one of the oldest symphonic ensembles in Europe. Mr. Schønwandt will lead a program of works by Stravinsky and Carl Nielsen, the Danish composer whose symphonic music is finally gaining a foothold in the concert halls of New York.

The operatic offerings this July include A Magic Flute, a stripped-down adaptation of the Mozart classic, directed by Peter Brook. The Flute will be performed by just seven singers, with piano accompaniment, at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater in the nearby John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Also, the Royal Danish Opera presents the New York premiere of Selma Jezková, an opera by Poul Ruders based on the film Dancer in the Dark. Michael Schønwandt conducts.

As usual, the Lincoln Center Festival offers dance, theater, and world music. But for coverage of those, you'll have to read a different blog.