Concert Review: Storm Home

Charles Dutoit conducts the New York Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor Charles Dutoit. Photo provided by the New York Philharmonic.

The announcement came on Halloween Night, as Hurricane Sandy made her exit from our city, continuing the northwest course that forced the 500-mile-wide swirl of wind and rain smack straight on into New York Harbor:

November 1–3 Concert Program Changed Due To Impact Of Hurricane Sandy 

New Program To Include Works by Glinka, Elgar, and Rachmaninoff 

Soloist Nikolai Lugansky To Make Philharmonic Debut, Charles Dutoit To Conduct.

On Saturday night, with one subway line providing access into Manhattan, this writer was able to see the New York Philharmonic perform this altered program under the sure baton of veteran Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit. The whole program sparkled. It seemed that New York's hometown orchestra wanted to please and soothe with these great works, and provide some measure of healing to an audience still suffering shell shock from the storm.

The performance opened with a brisk, jaunty account of the Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla, Mikhail Glinka's escapist fantasy based on a surreal drama by Pushkin. Mr. Dutoit and the orchestra produced the overture's Rossini-like rhythms with bold vigor, alternating with rich, Oriental colors from the double reeds.

Awareness: Beethoven and Sandy

Some music for the storm recovery.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Ludwig Was Here.

Last night at the New York Philharmonic concert, I got a little card in my Playbill, helpfully reminding me that November in New York City is Beethoven Awareness Month. As far as I am um...aware, this is the second year in a row that our city has celebrated the music of the great man. 

In light of recent events, I wanted to share the following clip, from Beethoven's only opera Fidelio, which ranks as my favorite piece that the composer ever wrote. It is a quartet in canon form, from the first act of the opera, and can hopefully serve as some kind of psychological balm in these chaotic days that have followed the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. 

Things are (slowly) getting back to normal here at the Superconductor desk, but that doesn't mean they are for the rest of the city. Whole sections of Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island remain devastated, with enormous, unrepairable damage to lives, homes and property. So I urge you, after listening to this (or even before, to join the effort to help people in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere recover from the hurricane's impact. Here's a list of ways you can help:

The American Red Cross fund for Hurricane Relief. They need money. And if you can, visit a Red Cross blood drive and donate some of what flows in your veins.

Occupy Sandy Our friends at the movement for social change have set up kitchens and distribution of relief centers in Brooklyn. They have a list of donation requirements.

AmeriCares has set up its own disaster relief fund.

The Salvation Army is also doing disaster relief. I don't agree with this organization's policies on sexual discrimination but will post this if you want to help their relief efforts.

The Knights of Columbus, another organization I don't agree with but they are also out there organizing and donating.

New York's food trucks are working to provide food for people displaced. 

Food Bank New York is trying to feed the people who are out of their homes.

Finally, you can donate to the Mayor's Fund in four easy ways:

1. Online – visit www.nyc.gov/fund.

2. Mail – checks can be made payable to Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, with “hurricane relief” in the memo line, and sent to:

Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City,

253 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10007. 

3. Call – donations can be made over the phone at 212-788-7794.
4. Text – text NYCFUND to 50555 to donate $10 to the Mayor’s Fund to support hurricane relief. (Message and data rates may apply.)

100 percent of donations are being dispersed to relief efforts and organizations to meet the short- and long-term needs of New York City and its residents. This includes immediate aid such as the supply and transport of water, food, toiletries, baby supplies, blankets and cleaning materials to distribution sites, as well as longer term restoration and recovery efforts.

To volunteer or for in-kind donations, visit www.nycservice.org.

Crane Business Weekly

Performances are scheduled though Carnegie Hall is still dark.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

This dangling crane on W. 57th Street has closed Carnegie Hall.
Photo from JoeMyGod.

A sunny, if cold weekend is upon us, and as New York continues to struggle back from the devastating hammer-blow of Hurricane Sandy, here's an update on what's going on.

In some good news for Brooklynites, subway service has resumed along the 4, 5, 6 between Brooklyn and Manhattan. The MTA and Con Ed are still working on draining the subway tunnels for the R and A trains, hard hit by the flooding.

Carnegie Hall is unable to open its doors due to the damaged construction crane dangling over W. 57th St. The entire block (and the 57th St. N, Q, R train station) remains closed. The Friday evening recital with Murray Perahia has been moved to Avery Fisher Hall. The crane is scheduled for removal this weekend.

The New York Philharmonic is open, with concerts tonight at Avery Fisher and a 5pm Sunday chamber performance of the Arnold Schoenberg arrangement of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. The concert, at the Lincoln Center Rose Theater (located in the Time Warner Center) features piano soloist and Philharmonic Artist-in-Residence Emanuel Ax.

The Metropolitan Opera is proceeding with business "as usual." Today there's a matinee performance of Thomas Àdes' The Tempest and an evening show of Le Nozze di Figaro. Next week, look for more news about the company's new production of Un Ballo in Maschera which opens next Thursday.

Here's some classical comfort food to get you through this difficult time. I know it helps me.

Concert Review: Before God Showed Up

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen
(Ed. Note: Here's the review of last Saturday night at Carnegie Hall with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. I know it's a little late in coming but things haven't been exactly normal around here.)

Before the storm: Robert Spano (right) conducts countertenor John Holiday
and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus  in Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms
at Carnegie Hall. (Photo by Chris Lee © 2012 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.)

On Saturday night at Carnegie Hall, New Yorkers attending this year's appearance by Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus knew that a storm was coming. They didn't know that Hurricane Sandy would create the greatest natural disaster that this city has seen in a century, or that the venue itself would remain closed, due to the danger of a collapsed crane that has hovered over 57th Street this week like the anvil in the Metropolitan Opera's current production of The Barber of Seville.

Concert programs for touring orchestras are determined well in advance of a performance. There was no way of predicting that the three works on this program (Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and William Walton's 20th century cantata Belshazzar's Feast) would share the common thread of depicting the interference of the Almighty on people's everyday lives, even as Hurricane Sandy barrelled towards New York.

The concert opened with the Suite from Appalachian Spring, one of Copland's most enduring compositions. Mr. Spano displayed the rich, dulcet tones of the Atlanta cellos and basses to full advantage here, creating a rich, woven texture shot through with the homespun authenticity of Copland's folk melodies. The sonorous climax (featuring the full statement of the Shaker hymn Simple Gifts created Copland's frontier idyll for the listener in rich, glowing detail.