Concert Review: A Warrior For Her Art

Joyce DiDonato sings of war and peace.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Joyce DiDonato sings of war and peace at Carnegie Hall, with dancer Manuel Palazzo (right.)
Photo by Chris Lee © 2016 courtesy Carnegie Hall press department.

The Carnegie Hall Perspectives series provides artists with a blank slate, a freedom to mount dream projects upon the hallowed boards of the Perelman Stage. On Thursday night, it was Joyce DiDonato's turn. The mezzo-soprano offered In War & Peace, a program of baroque arias with period ensemble Il Pomo D'Oro. To it, she added back projections, rock concert lighting and interpretive dance, all elements as foreign to this staid environment as the cutting ring of a cell phone.

Concert Review: To Seek a Newer World

The New World Symphony plays Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Anne-Sophie Mutter.
Photo by Lillian Birnbaum for DG/UMG

Tuesday night at Carnegie Hall featured a rare New York appearance by the New World Symphony, the Miami-based training orchestra that has given that Florida city fresh musical life. Led by founder and artistic director Michael Tilson Thomas, the NWO played an eclectic program centered around solo violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. The German violinist, celebrating 35 years as an international touring virtuoso is one of this season's Perspectives artists at Carnegie.

Opera Review: Next Stop, Carnegie Hall

André Previn’s Streetcar finally arrives in New York.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Renée Fleming as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire,
Thursday night at Carnegie Hall. Photo by Richard Termine © Richard Termine,
courtesy Carnegie Hall Public Relations Department.

Sometimes public transportation can be slow to arrive. Take Andre Previn's first opera: A Streetcar Named Desire which rolled into New York last night, fifteen years after its premiere at the San Francisco Opera. Here, the score was played by the ever-reliable Orchestra of St. Luke’s under the baton of Ms. Fleming’s regular collaborator Patrick Summers. This was a "semi-staged" production, directed by Brad Dalton.

Concert Review: Attack of the Killer B's

András Schiff at Carnegie Hall

Marathon man: András Schiff played Bach, Bartók and Beethoven at Carnegie Hall.
Photo © 2010 ECM Classics.

In New York City, Halloween is a night when kids put on silly costumes and parade door-to-door under careful parental supervision. Older kids hide in the bushes and "bomb" each other with eggs and shaving cream. Overgrown kids gather on Sixth Avenue and parade down it in a big, gaudy Halloween parade through Greenwich Village.

The Hungarian pianist András Schiff did none of those things last night. But he did offer a carefully planned program of Bach, Bartók and Beethoven as part of his Carnegie Hall Perspectives series. The marathon recital was designed to demonstrate the musicological connections between these three composers.

The concert opened with Bach's Three-Part Inventions, exercises for the keyboard meant to teach Bach's pupils (including his children) the art of writing fugues. These pieces move in a tonal cycle, exploring different aspects of the various keys. Mr. Schiff displayed a gentle, smooth touch, playing the complex phrases with very little pedal.

The pianist unleashed his full fury on the Piano Sonata by Bela Bartók. Mr. Schiff's countryman is at the center of the Perspectives series this season, and this performance presented a good argument for his lone Sonata. Echoes of modern Russian music can be heard here as well, the unforgiving rhythms of The Rite of Spring and the steely pianism of Serge Prokofiev.  

Mr. Schiff dug into the difficult opening movement, playing the staccato figures with tenacity and guts. The second movement was more eloquent, almost singing as it moved through its slow passage. The third was a manic dance of fingers upon the keys, a stirring example of the composer's characteristic folk-inspired rhythms. 

The presence of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations on a recital program is an anachronism. This set of 33 variations on a waltz by an Italian publisher was not conceived as "recital music." Beethoven, asked in 1819 to write one simple variation, pounded out 33, finishing them in 1823. Why? It wasn't to give them in recital. At this point, Beethoven was too deaf to play in public, and the solo piano recital (as we know it) would not be invented (by Liszt) until 1839. 

Never mind. Beethoven summed up everything he knew about piano playing in these pages, barely changing keys as he . Almost all of the first 28 are in C major, from the stately Andante to a galloping Allegro. He tips the hat to Bach (No. 24 and 32) and Mozart, (No. 22) when the reconfigured waltz transforms into a version of "Notte e giorno faticar" from Don Giovanni.  The last four movements shift keys to the minor, leading to a heaven-storming fugue. 

Mr. Schiff approached most of the variations as individual pieces, although he did let certain ones flow into each other when it seemed fitting. Listening to a record of any pianist  play this cycle straight through forces the listener to exercise both patience and concentration. Seeing the Diabelli Variations played live, by an artist of Mr. Schiff's caliber, is nothing short of a miracle.

For his encore, Mr. Schiff treated the audience to another major work: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 30. One of the composer's last, it is itself equipped with a mighty set of variations in the final movement. With exquisite playing, Mr. Schiff held the audience rapt.