Concert Review: A Genuine Crossover

Erykah Badu and the Brooklyn Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Soul diva Erykah Badu emotes as Alan Pierson conducts the Brooklyn Philharmonic.
Photo by Alvina Lai © 2013 The Brooklyn Philharmonic.

The classical crossover, combining a traditional symphony orchestra with popular music can be a difficult proposition. Do it wrong and you're accused of trivializing the skills of the players. Hit the wrong pitch and critics will say you're pandering to the masses. On Saturday night, the Alan Pierson and the Brooklyn Philharmonic did neither in the first of two concerts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, with neo-soul diva (and this year's artist-in-residence) Erykah Badu.

There was a lot of publicity leading up to Saturday night's concert. And there were some important questions:

•  Would the leggy singer's brew of jazz, funk, soul and rap mesh or clash with the orchestra? 
• Would the complex messages of her songs (drawn from the album New Amerykah Pt. 1: Fourth World War) get lost in a soup of orchestration? 
• Finally, what would Ms. Badu (known for head wraps and exotic Afro-centric fashion statements) be wearing?

Strings on a Plane

The Philadelphia Orchestra play Dvořák in close quarters.

Just up on YouTube, footage of the Fabulous Philadelphians coping with a long plane delay in the middle of their tour of China. They're playing the last movement of Dvořák's American Quartet.
Enjoy.

Opera Review: The Lockdown

The New York Philharmonic exercises Il Prigioniero.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Alan Gilbert. Photo by Chris Lee © 2011 The New York Philharmonic.

It is a universal conceit that no worthy Italian operas were written after Turandot, the last (and unfinished) opera of Giacomo Puccini. The development of so-called "serial" or modern music and the rise of Fascism in Italy conspired to put an end to four centuries of that country's most famous art form.

Concert Review: Jazz Odyssey, Part II

Gilbert's Playlist opens with Wynton Marsalis' Swing Symphony.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Meeting of the minds: Wynton Marsalis (left) and Alan Gilbert share a moment.
Photo by Chris Lee for nyphil.tumblr.com © 2013 The New York Philharmonic

The New York Philharmonic are back for a month-long stand at Avery Fisher Hall. On Saturday night, the orchestra played the final concert in the first weekend of Gilbert's Playlist, the month-long festival centered around the contents of music director Alan Gilbert's hard drive. The concert explored the amorphous territory between jazz and 20th century classical music, and featured the first subscription performances of Wynton Marsalis' Symphony No. 3, dubbed the Swing Symphony by the trumpeter turned composer.