Concert Review: The Young Magician's Guide to the Piano

Seong-Jin Cho plays Pictures at an Exhibition.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho returned to Carnegie Hall on Tuesday night.
Photo by Harald Hartmann.

The pianist Seong-Jin Cho is a fast-rising star on the international virtuoso circuit. On Tuesday night, regular programming at Carnegie Hall resumed with Mr. Cho's second recital at that venue. He came to play, armed with a formidable program of works by Schubert, Debussy and Mussorgsky.

Concert Review: Music That Goes Over Easy

The New York Philharmonic offers a three course holiday meal.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Chick Bal-Á: Detail from Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks by Natasha Turovsky,
inspired by Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky. Image © 2005 Natasha Turovsky

This week, the New York Philharmonic offered two decidedly (and welcomely) secular concerts to warm a very frigid holiday week in New York City. Since the orchestra is at present without a music director, this program was entrusted to Bramwell Tovey, a conductor usually engaged for lighter fare.

Obituary: Keith Emerson (1944-2016)

The rock keyboard legend found dead at 71.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

He was a lucky man: Keith Emerson. Photo by Michael Tweed.

Keyboardist Keith Emerson, founding member of the supergroup Emerson, Lake and Palmer and a pioneer in bridging the gulf between rock and roll and classical music, was found dead at his home in Santa Monica, California yesterday. The cause of death has been confirmed by Santa Monica police as a self-inflicted single gunshot wound to the head.

Concert Review: Fountains, Poems and Pictures

The New York Philharmonic plays Carnegie Hall.
by Ellen Fishbein

Renée Fleming appeared with the New York Philharmonic on Friday night.
Photo © Decca Classics.

On Friday night, the New York Philharmonic made a rare appearance on the stage of Carnegie Hall, with a short program that was rich and engaging despite its brevity. Alan Gilbert conducted two orchestral favorites, framing the world premiere of Swedish composer Anders Hillborg's The Strand Settings. The new work featured soprano Renée Fleming in her only appearance with the orchestra this season.

Concert Review: The Last Pictures Show

Stucky, Berlioz and Mussorgsky at the New York Philharmonic.
by Paul Pelkonen.

The Hut of Baba Yaga: Clock designed by Vladimir Hartmann
for the original art show that inspired Pictures at an Exhibition.

Normally, a Superconductor review of a New York Philharmonic concert is based on the first or second nights of a run of concerts. Due to scheduling issues (chiefly caused by the presence of the Berlin Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, Tuesday night presented the rare opportunity to review the last of a set of subscription concerts.

This program, curated by Alan Gilbert, brought together works that are preoccupied primarily with visual imagery. Son et Lumiere by Steven Stucky evokes the grand sound-and-light displays that entertain visitors to the Egyptian pyramids. Berlioz' Nuits d'Eté evoke the richness of "Summer Nights." And Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (with orchestration by Maurice Ravel) chronicles a visit to an art exhibition by the composer's friend Vladimir Hartmann.

The concert opened with a new work from composer and Cornell professor Stephen Stucky. Son et lumiere is written in Mr. Stucky's ne-minimalist style. Sharp stabs of brass interact with complex percussion rhythms. At first harsh and unwelcoming, the sound-world blossoms into brief aural pleasure in the very last pages.

Although she is known for cross-dressing turns in Le Nozze di Figaro, Le Comte Ory and Ariadne Auf Naxos, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato was a powerful and decidedly feminine presence in Berlioz' six-song cycle Nuits d'Eté.. This set--one of the few works that Berlioz wrote for piano and voice, were presented here in the luxurious orchestration of 1856, which seems to drip with nostalgia and old-world decadence.

Flowers and water imagery are central to Berlioz' imagery. Ms. DiDonato brightened these already rich tonal colors with her quicksilver mezzo--bringing out the deep emotions that are written into each of these songs and singing with a lyrical flow that was glorious for sounding entirely natural. Mr. Gilbert's leadership brightened these colors further, conveying the rich complexity of Berlioz' orchestration.

Pictures at an Exhibition remains a Philharmonic war-horse. Alan Gilbert brought some new colors to this famous gallery visit, with some jarring tempo ideas to liven up Gnomus,and a moody, evocative The Old Castle featured evocative bassoon playing and the famous saxophone solo. A thunderous Bydlo set the table for the last pictures on the program, with some rock-solid tuba playing from Alan Baer.

The Catacombs were appropriately mysterious. The Hut of Baba Yaga shuddered and screamed. The Great Gate of Kiev, dominated by the percussion and brass, was an uplifting portrayal, working the original Promenade theme back into the orchestration and letting the concert end on a mighty chord.
Contact the author: E-mail Superconductor editor Paul Pelkonen.

Concert Review: The Redemption of Gil Shaham

Gil Shaham in the park

The Walton Concerto, with the New York Philharmonic

It is not often that one gets to hear the same soloist play the same concerto in the course of a month, with a different orchestra and conductor. Friday's matinee performance by the New York Philharmonic featured Gil Shaham playing William Walton's lone Violin Concerto, a 20th century composition which blends post-Romanticism and jazz influences to create one of the composer's most enduring works.

Here, Mr. Shaham played with firm, robust tone, soaring where he previously skittered, and racing through the complex solo passages with robust tone and an intimate warmth. The intonation problems and reediness that plagued last month's Philadelphia Orchestra concert had disappeared. The soloist was smoothly accompanied by conductor Ludovic Morlot.

Mr. Morlot is a French conductor on the rise, with a brisk style that brought out clarity and depth throughout the complex textures of the orchestra. These qualities extended to the rest of the program, which explored the deep connection between the Russian compositions of Modest Mussorgsky and the music of Maurice Ravel

The concert opened with the prelude to Mussorgsky's unfinished opera Khovanschinha, a brief, evocative tone poem also known as "Dawn over the Moscow River." Khovanschinha tells the story of the rise of Tsar Peter the Great by showing the effect of Russia's political struggles across all levels of society.

This performance used Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestration, and Mr. Morlot brought out the shimmering, impressionistic textures in strings and woodwinds, firmly supported by the Philharmonic horns. If it seemed a little light in weight for such a serious piece, the fault may lie with Rimsky, who made a posthumous effort to "brighten" his friend's often gloomy music.

The second half of the program started with Ravel's Pavane pour un Infante Defunte, played at a brisk pace, as if Mr. Morlot wanted to get the funeral proceedings over quickly. It was followed by that composer's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, a work that always brings out the best in this orchestra.

Pictures was originally a piano composition, ad Mr. Morlot's leading of the piece brought out some of the work's original, rugged qualities through Ravel's elaborate orchestration. Fine playing from a number of Philharmonic soloists, including tubist Alan Baer, the trumpets and horns, and of course the woodwinds, made for an invigorating stroll through Mussorgsky's imaginary gallery. The final Great Gate of Kiev was played with power and authority, in a resonant affirmation of Mussorgsky's genius.

Art as Music: Five Recordings of Pictures at an Exhibition

Mussorgsky wrote the ten works that make up Pictures at an Exhibition as a tribute to his late friend, the artist Viktor Hartmann. Hartmann's works were immortalized in a series of pieces (originally written for piano) that depict his art-work: paintings, drawings, and even architectural sketches on display. The work, published after Mussorgsky's death, became a concert favorite when it was orchestrated by Maurice Ravel. Here's a look at five very different recordings of Pictures at an Exhibition.

Philadelphia Orchestra cond. Eugene Ormandy
A classic recording displaying the warm Philadelphia sound under Ormandy. The reissue bundles an excellent set excerpts from the opera Boris Godunov, featuring George London in the title role. Thomas Schippers conducts the Columbia Symphony Orchestra.

Ivo Pogorelich, Piano
Pictures was originally written as a piano suite. It was published after Mussorgsky's death in a version edited by his friend Rimsky-Korsakov. The unedited version of the score (played here) gives a better sense of the composer's original intentions. Ivo Pogolerich gives a slow, thoughtful performance, stretching the work by about ten minutes. If you want to hear how Mussorgsky originally concieved the piece, this is a good place to start.

Philharmonia Orchestra, cond. Vladimir Ashkenazy; Vladimir Ashkenazy, Piano
This Decca reissue combines Ashkenazy's piano recording of the original version with his own orchestration of Mussorgsky's score. Ashkenazy is a fine pianist, although he makes some odd decisions: his "Old Castle" is much faster than Pogolerich and he plays the opening of "Bydlo" at full volume. The orchestral transcription gives the listener a slightly different take on the score than the "standard" Ravel version that might be closer to what Mussorgsky intended.


Berlin Philharmonic cond. Claudio Abbado
Well-played, thunderous version from Abbado's tenure with the Berliners. This was Abbado's second recording of the cycle. If you want the Ravel orchestration, this is a well-played recording, with the crack Berlin brass at their very best. You also get a harrowing Night on Bald Mountain and some rare Mussorgsky choral works. The original CD is currently out of the catalogue, but it shows up in used shops from time to time.

Emerson Lake and Palmer
The progressive rock trio (keyboards, bass, drums) started playing a shortened version of the suite at their early concerts. Designed to showcase the virtuosity of ELP, this is even more bombastic than the Ravel version, with liberal use of Hammond organ and Moog synthesizer. Also, in this version. "The Great Gate of Kiev" has lyrics! The original live version was recorded in Newcastle in 1971. In 2003, a reunited ELP recorded a studio rendition for their box set, The Return of the Manticore.