Concert Review: An Apocalyptic Anniversary

The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony turns 15.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

David Bernard (center) at the helm of the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony.
Photo provided by Hemsing Associates.

The great city of New York is home to a vibrant community of amateur musicians, players with training and experience who do not necessarily perform full-time. One of the more eminent ensembles of the last decade has been the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony. On Sunday afternoon, the PACS celebrated its 15th anniversary Sunday with a concert at Lincoln Center's medium-sized Rose Theater, located in the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle

Obituary: Lorin Maazel (1930-2014)

An international conductor with an intellectual bent.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Lorin Maazel conducting the New York Philharmonic.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2013 The New York Philharmonic.

Lorin Maazel, the child prodigy who later became music director of the Vienna State Opera and the New York Philharmonic, died Sunday from complications due to pneumonia. The conductor was 84.

The Three Strauss-keteers

Fabio Luisi and Valery Gergiev step in with the Munich Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Juggling batons: With Lorin Maazel (left) ill,Valery Gergiev (center) and Fabio Luisi (right) will step in to

conduct major Strauss tone poems with the Munich Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall.

Photo of Mr. Maazel from his website. Photo of Mr. Luisi © 2014 Opernhaus Zurich.

Photo of Mr. Gergiev by Laura Luostarinen © 2006 the Polar Music Awards. Photo alteration by the author.

New Yorkers have lost their chance to hear Lorin Maazel conduct major works by Richard Strauss this weekend.

Opera Review: Five Hours, No Energy

The Met revives Verdi's Don Carlo.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Ferruccio Furlanetto (in red) as Philip II in Act III of Verdi's Don Carlo.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

Don Carlo, seen Monday night at the Metropolitan Opera is a behemoth among Verdi operas. The story of the Spanish prince and his unlikely struggle for personal (and sexual) freedom in the court of his father, King Philip II of Spain, clocks in at around four and a half hours, and that's with thirty minutes of music removed from the score. (The Met presents Verdi's final five-act revision from 1886 with some cuts.)

Concert Review: The Road to Utopia

Lorin Maazel returns to the New York Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Once more, with feeling. Lorin Maazel conducts the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2009 The New York Philharmonic.

Lorin Maazel has been entertaining music lovers for 75 years. Think about that for a minute. The American, Paris-born conductor, composer and former Music Director of the New York Philharmonic  will turn 83 on March 6. He started violin lessons at age 5. Conducting lessons began two years later. He appeared before an audience, baton in hand, when he was just 8 years old.

All that experience was brought to bear Thursday night in a concert that saw Mr. Maazel offer his last program with his former orchestra...at least for a little while. (He is not on the schedule for 2013-2014.)

The concert opened with one of Mr. Maazel's trademarks, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy that was also the first success of Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. In this performance, conductor and orchestra showed that there is more here than just the famous "love theme"--it is an effective retelling of the play that boils Shakespeare's tragedy down to a lean 20 minutes.

Concert Review: The Nibelung Express

The Vienna Philharmonic plays Mozart and Wagner.
by Paul Pelkonen

Mighty re-arranger: Lorin Maazel conducted his version of The Ring Without Words.
Photo by Silvia Lelli.

On Saturday night, Lorin Maazel and the Vienna Philharmonic played their second concert of their current tour at Carnegie Hall. This performance, featuring the music of Mozart and Wagner, was a vast improvement on the Friday night set of Sibelius symphonies.

Maybe it was the repertory chosen: a pairing of Mozart's familiar Symphony No. 40 in G minor with Mr. Maazel's own arrangement of The Ring Without Words, 70 minutes of highlights from Wagner's operatic masterwork. Or maybe it was the presence of WQXR, which carried a live feed of the performance to their radio and Internet listeners.

The Mozart was played in a stately, precise manner. The famous themes developed smoothly, with the woodwind playing balanced right alongside the strings. The second movement was taken at a slow, almost crawling tempo, and would have benefited from more energy. The Minuet and Finale crackled, showing the close ties of history and tradition between this orchestra and composer.

Lorin Maazel is not the first conductor to re-configure music from Wagner's Ring as an orchestral showpiece. His version, (which he premiered in 1987 with the Berlin Philharmonic) makes some unusual editorial choices. It follows the plot of the Ring sequentially, but some of the traditional showpieces (notably, the Magic Fire Music) are skipped, in favor of re-telling the story in an organic, musical way.

Like its operatic parent, The Ring Without Words opens with the E♭ Major chord that starts Das Rheingold. This was followed by two of the orchestral interludes from that opera: the statement of the "Valhalla" theme by four Wagner tubas and the pell-mell "Journey into Nibelheim", with three Vienna Philharmonic percussion players manning the anvils on stage right. Donner's brief aria (played on the trombone) and thunder-strike were included, but the expected, and familiar Entrance of the Gods was omitted in favor of a direct transition to the opening of Act I of Die Walküre.

This is an express-train version of that long opera. Donner's storm music gives way to the lyric cello solo for Sieglinde and the final triumphant notes of Act I, chronicling the steamy, incestuous love affair of Siegfried's parents. The Act II and III statements of The Ride of the Valkyries quicken the pace. This Ride had wings of steel, and nobody fell off their horses. Welcome attention was paid to Wotan's Farewell, with the cellos singing right along with the absent bass-baritone.

From there, Mr. Maazel's arrangement plunged straight into Siegfried, depicting Mime's nightmare music, the forging of (the sword) Nothung, the Forest Murmurs and the forest brawl between the titular hero and the dragon Fafner. Suddenly: Götterdämmerung with the familiar Dawn and Rhine Journey. The orchestra were getting tired at this point, with a few fluffed chords in the brass and a notorious "fish" (the old Vienna term for a bad note) in the off-stage horn-call. They soldiered on, roaring out the "Summoning of the Vassals" (from Act II) and playing lyrically in the Prelude to Act III, which depicts re-appearance of the Rhine-maidens.

This led directly into the moments after Siegfried's assassination, and a statement of "Brunnhilde's Awakening" as the tenor dies. The funeral music followed, played with searing power by the Vienna forces, biting fiercely into the great, dissonant chords and playing a parade of "Siegfried" themes led by principal trombone Ian Bousfield. From the funeral, it was a quick transition to the Immolation scene, presented here as pure music without the distractions of soprano, horse, or large, potentially malfunctioning sets. As the final D♭ Major chords of the Ring resounded in Carnegie Hall, the audience was allowed to bask in the luxuriant waters of the Rhine, perfectly played by the orchestra from the Danube.

Contact the author: E-mail Superconductor editor Paul Pelkonen.

Concert Review: The Empty Podium

The Vienna Philharmonic plays Sibelius at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul Pelkonen.

The Vienna Philharmonic at a concert in Berkeley, California in 2011.
Photo by Terry Linke © University of California at Berkeley.

The Vienna Philharmonic played the first of three New York concerts on Friday night. The venerable orchestra is currently touring with conductor Lorin Maazel, who, at 82, is celebrating a 50-year association with the orchestra that started with a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio in 1962.

Friday's program was one of Mr. Maazel's specialties: three symphonies by Jean Sibelius. Mr. Maazel has been conducting the symphonies of Finland's national composer for over half a century. He's also recorded the cycle twice: once with the Vienna forces and again with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. So it was somewhat surprising that these interpretations were missing the qualities of fire and emotion that are needed in the performance of these great works.

The program went chronologically backward, starting with the Seventh Symphony. This was the last of the composer's completed symphonies (an Eighth may have existed, but was probably destroyed), a condensedwork that packs all the development and ideas of four movements into a concise twenty minutes. Although the Vienna players brought warm string tone, searching woodwinds and their trademark horn sound to its pages, the Seventh sounded curiously workmanlike and uninspired.

The same problems plagued the first two movements of the Fifth: gorgeous playing that suffered from uninspiring leadership. This was particularly apparent in the central Andante. Matters improved considerably in the finale, driven by a bell-like, tolling figure in the horns that alternates with a sprightly woodwind melody. The best part: an eloquent, emotional statement in the cellos that was played with sentiment and warmth.

The second half of the concert featured the First Symphony, one of Sibelius' longest and most challenging pieces. It opens with a long clarinet cadenza, where the conductor stands with his arms down, mute before bringing in the whole orchestra. Mr. Maazel stood there, at rest, waiting for the solo to wind to its end. 

Then, his arms lifted. The white baton came up. And then the weird thing happened: the orchestra made its entry, but their timing had little to do with Mr. Maazel's. The principals of the four main string sections (first and second violins, violas and cellos), were working off each other, making eye contact and giving silent cues as they played through the piece. Nobody was looking at the conductor.

The phenomenon extended to other sections of the orchestra. Eyes fixed on their sheet music, the tuxedoed Vienna players were playing on orchestral auto-pilot, making use of their experience and ability to get through the four movements of the symphony. And for the most part, this trick (if it was one) worked.  . The orchestra's sound quality was gorgeous, worthy of their stellar reputation and world-wide fame. But throughout the First Symphony, it felt like the concert was being led from the first chairs, and not by Mr. Maazel.

Contact the author: E-mail Superconductor editor Paul Pelkonen.

Concert Review: Oh, What a Mountain!

Lorin Maazel ascends the Alpine Symphony.

The happy wanderer: former Philharmonic Music Director Lorin Maazel.
Photo by Chris Lee, © 2009 New York Philharmonic.

On Friday morning, former New York Philharmonic music director led the orchestra in an assault on Richard Strauss' Eine Alpensinfonie, as part of an all-Strauss program at Avery Fisher Hall. This is the second week of concerts featuring Mr. Maazel, marking the first time he has returned to the orchestra since stepping down in 2009.

The Alpine Symphony is Strauss' final tone poem, and one of his more obscure large-scale works. It is a huge composition, built in 22 miniature movements, spanning an hour and played without pause. Strauss wrote for a giant orchestra: eight horns, quadruple wind, two timpanists, 12 offstage brasses and exotic percussion. The subject: the vigorous ascent and descent of a formidable Bavarian alp. Like Strauss' earlier Also Sprach Zarathustra, this work was inspired by the writings of Nietzsche. It quotes Zarathustra several times, and also recycles a theme from Der Rosenkavalier.

Mr. Maazel took a leisurely approach to the lower slopes, leading the orchestra through sun-dappled forests, aurally visiting a waterfall and a meadow occupied by cows. The offstage brass (representing a hunting party) played from up in the third tier. Their horn-calls were at a surprisingly slow tempo, which made the cinematic effect  proved more distracting than anything else.

As the climbers traversed a glacier and approached the peak, the pace quickened. The climax of this piece takes place halfway through, a thrilling moment on the summit marked by a gigantic surge of the main theme, accompanied by a clash of cymbals. A lone, stammering oboe solo followed: the aural equivalent of a tiny red arrow stating "You are here."

Now that he was at the peak of the composition Mr. Maazel slowed down again to take in the view. A spectacular storm in the last sections of the work brought the full fury of the orchestra, complete with whooshing wind machine, droning organ and a sixteen-foot-long thunder sheet shaken by percussionist Christopher Lamb. The ending was far more quiet, a symmetrical return to the opening pages without the offstage horns.

After a pause at base camp (presumably for oxygen) the concert resumed with principal horn Philip Myers playing Strauss' First Horn concerto. Mr. Myers brought noble tone and delivery to this potent, proto-Mozartean concerto, written for Strauss' father when the budding composer was just 18. This is one of the young Strauss' first mature works, and a concert favorite of Mr. Myers.

Mr. Myers returned to his usual chair for Till Eulenspiegel, the famous Strauss tone poem about the cheeky rogue whose mischief inspired memorable orchestral writing. Represented by the horn and clarinet, Till ran roughshod over the orchestra. Mr. Maazel seemed to fence the air with his baton as the band played this evergreen work with their usual élan. The hanging of Till was brought off with drama and power, with the clarinet blowing a last raspberry.

Concert Review: The Return of Lorin Maazel

Former Philharmonic maestro returns with cheerful Mozart and Debussy.

Lorin Maazel and the wooden railing. Photo by Chris Lee © New York Philharmonic.

One of the highlights of the 2011-2012 New York Philharmonic schedule is the return of the three "M's": former Philharmonic music directors Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, and Zubin Mehta to the podium in Avery Fisher Hall. Mr. Maazel is the first of these. On Friday afternoon, the conductor appeared at Avery Fisher Hall for the first time in three years. This was his second concert of the weekend, a pleasant, if unadventurous program of works by Mozart and Debussy.

The concert opened with a broad reading of Mozart's Prague Symphony, the composer's 38th. Mr. Maazel and the orchestra sounded relaxed and genial in the opening movement, following the stirring slow introduction with a joyful leap into the main theme of the Allegro. Mr. Maazel was loose on the podium, sometimes using minimal movements of his long white baton, sometimes leading with one hand on the wooden railing behind him.

The conductor seemed happy to be back. The orchestra offered the same genial impression. The central slow movement was played with lush, almost hypnotic textures from the orchestra's wind section. The strings sounded crisp, but never stiff or hurried in the final movement, as the band flew through the pages of the Rondo, driven with a steady tick of the white baton.

The rarely heard Concerto for Flute and Harp followed. Mozart wrote this double concerto when he was 21, for a French nobleman (and flautist) whose harp-playing daughter was one of his music students. Pairing it with the "Prague" established contrast between the composer's more familiar, mature style and the galant music expected by his French clients. 

Flautist Robert Langevin and harpist Nancy Allen created a unique sound as they played together, using cadenzas that were written, not by Mozart but by Karl Hermann Pillney. The flute-and-harp combination wove melodic lines together creating a celestial texture against the expertly played orchestral accompaniment.

The second half of the program featured two contrasting works by Debussy. Jeux is one of the French composer's most demanding scores, an abstract ballet that has an almost total absence of melody. It's all little fragments of sound, arranged artfully in an aural shimmer.  Little stabs of struck cymbal and tambourine penetrate the complex fabric, alternating with short lines for winds and horns. Mr. Maazel led this difficult music in an engaging manner, opening up the sound-world of the piece and letting Debussy's inspired writing speak for itself.

Iberia is ten years older, a colorful work found in the larger collection Images.. This work, originally conceived as a piano duet finds Debussy in "tour guide" mode with sound-pictures of France's southern neighbor. (Ironically, the composer had not visited Spain before writing the piece!)

The work offers impressions of scenes in Spanish city life. Portraits of a street scene and a nocturne gave plenty of opportunity for orchestral color and shape. The Philharmonic responded admirably in these movements. The festive finale was dominated by the brass and percussion, in the manner of many past concerts under Mr. Maazel's baton.

Carnegie Hall 2011-2012 Season Preview

View from the top. Photo from the balcony of Carnegie Hall by Melissa Kunz.

Trying to pack eight months of Carnegie Hall programming into one preview article is like trying to write instant bios of every character to ever appear on The Simpsons. There's too many concerts, too many events, and too much exciting programming to cram into one article. So this is just an overview, mentioning some of the most exciting programs on the slate for the 2011-2012 season. It's broken down according to the subscription brochure.

The Heavy Hitters: International Orchestras
The Berlin Philharmonic returns to New York under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, offering a weighty program that pairs Mahler's massive Resurrection Symphony with works by Hugo Wolf. If that's not enough, he's leading the unfinished Bruckner Ninth Symphony, in a rarely-heard completion by Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs.

Valery Gergiev brings St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Orchestra back for a run of Tchaikovsky symphonies, and Lorin Maazel offers his Ring Without Words, an orchestral version of the Wagner epic, as played by the Vienna Philharmonic. Other concerts include appearances by the London Philharmonic and the acclaimed Budapest Festival Orchestra.


The Home Teams: American Orchestras
The Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Minnesota Orchestras are coming to the Hall this year. The Boston Symphony Orchestra is scheduled as well, although there's some question as to whether James Levine (who steps down as music director this September) will conduct the performances. However, Mr. Levine will lead three programs with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Michael Tilson Thomas brings the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra to town for a slate of 'American Mavericks' featuring the music of Charles Ives, John Cage, and other modernists. The New York Philharmonic will also make a rare appearance at Carnegie Hall, playing the Mahler Sixth under the baton of music director Alan Gilbert.

Recital Debut: Anna Netrebko. Photo by Clive Arrowsmith © 2010 Camera Press

Across the Stage: Piano and Vocal Recitals
Lovers of piano music have reason to celebrate this year. In addition to veteran keyboard wizards Maurizio Pollini, Leif Ove Andsnes, Andras Schiff, Evgeny Kissin and Mitsuko Uchida, next season features the first Hall recitals by Yuja Wang and Christian Zacharias. Downstairs at Zankel Hall, pianists Juho Pohjonen and Simon Trpčeski will offer the music of Debussy and Liszt. Vocal recitals include appearances by Susan Graham, Matthias Goerne, Ian Bostridge, and for the first time in a New York recital, Anna Netrebko.

From the Baroque to the Modern Age
Carnegie Hall continues to offer a balance of baroque music and modern works with performances at the smaller Zankel Hall and the still more intimate Weill Recital Hall. The American Composers Orchestra will pay tribute to the music of Philip Glass and Arvo Pärt.

The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique offers their unique interpretations of Beethoven symphonies under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner. And baroque groups like Tafelmusik and The English Concert explore the continuing fascination with early instruments and the sounds of the 17th and 18th centuries.

These little paragraphs barely scratch the surface of next year's season at the Hall. The Orchestra of St. Luke's, the American Symphony Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and other independent organizations rent the Hall on a regular basis, creating a rich tapestry of concert programming. For more information, keep an eye on the Carnegie Hall Official Website.

The New York Philharmonic 2011-2012 Season Preview

Alan Gilbert is starting his third season at the helm of the New York Philharmonic.
Photo by Chris Lee, © 2010 The New York Philharmonic

The oldest professional orchestra in the United States (founded in 1842) returns for the 2011-2012 their, third under the baton of music director Alan Gilbert. Mr. Gilbert's leadership has seen the orchestra break new, exciting ground in the last two seasons. While the planned schedule lacks the operatic flair of Le Grand Macabre or this year's Hungarian Echoes festival, this should still be an exciting season at Avery Fisher Hall.

Here are, as well as we can determine it, the themes of the season:

Mahler Milestones
The Philharmonic continues celebrating the 150th birthday and 100th anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler, the composer, symphonist and conductor. Mahler served as the Philharmonic's music director from 1909-1911, and the Philharmonic has been at the forefront of internatonal orchestras celebrating his work. Performances of the 1st, 2nd, 9th and 10th are scheduled for next year, with conductors including Mr. Gilbert, Daniel Harding and Jaap van Zweden.

The Return of the Three M's
Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur, and Lorin Maazel, (who happen to be the three music directors who preceded Mr. Gilbert at the Philharmonic) are all conducting at Avery Fisher Hall next season. Mr. Mehta will conduct Bruckner's Eighth Symphony in January. Mr. Masur will lead a program featuring Shostakovich's "Babi Yar" symphony. And Mr. Maazel is offering Mozart and Debussy, one week, followed by the Strauss showpiece Ein Alpensinfonie the next. The latter piece required 150 musicians, including a full complement of horn players offstage.

Conductor David Zinman leads a program of Beethoven paired with modern music.
© DavidZinman.Org

The Modern Beethoven
David Zinman offers the start of a Beethoven cycle (well, six symphonies, anyway) in this three-week festival. Here's the catch: Each pair of Beethoven symphonies is programmed alongside 20th century music by Stravinsky, Samuel Barber, and Karl Amadeus Hartmann. Sadly, there's no Ninth planned for this year. Bernard Haitink makes an appearance leading the Sixth. And in June, Alan Gilbert offers Beethoven overtures in June, alongside works by Korngold and Carl Nielsen.

New Season, New Music
Alan Gilbert continues his initiative of offering New Yorkers the very best in contemporary music alongside traditional servings of Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Dvorak. This year, the Philharmonic offers the New York premieres of new music by John Corigliano and composer-in-residence Magnus Lindberg. The season ends with a "spatial" performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen, a difficult work which requires three separate orchestras, playing simultaneously in different parts of the hall.

Opera Review: The Siegmund Exit

In which illness defeats our intrepid correspondent.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Act III of the Met's Die Walküre.

The much-ballyhooed experiment of having Lorin Maazel conduct Walküre at the Metropolitan Opera House proved most interesting at the January 28 performance. This run of the opera marks the conductor's return to the Met podium after a 45-year absence. Maazel seems to prefer lyrical flow and feel over big dramatic moments. His opening storm scene left something to be desired--there was no sense of angst or terror in the music. However, he found his groove with the introduction of the singers.

Clifton Forbis sang a fine Siegmund, with thrilling tenor notes and a sweet, romantic tone for the love-music of the first act. Act II complmented the first, with some notable baritonal notes that most Siegmunds have a problem reaching down for.

 Deborah Voigt's Sieglinde is something of a Met institution and a signature role for this great soprano. She went from timid housewife to ardent lover to terrified fugitive, expertly acted and beautifully sung. Both twins had good chemistry together onstage. Mikhail Petrenko gave a new take on Hunding, resonant and intimidating with fine bass pitch.