Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) presents a cappella NEXT in Review

Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) presents a cappella NEXT in Review

Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) presents a cappella NEXT
Harmonia Chamber Singers, Robert Pacillo, director; Choeur de Chambre du Québec, Robert Ingari, director; Elore Festival Singers, Noel Edison, director
Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
March 13, 2015

For the superstitious, the idea of a concert on Friday the 13th might be considered to be an ill-advised undertaking to be avoided at all costs. While those with paraskevidekatriaphobia stayed home, the hall was filled with those intrepid souls who refuse to subscribe to such beliefs, and they were rewarded with a truly outstanding concert. On March 13, 2015, Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) presented a concert entitled a cappella NEXT, an evening dedicated to contemporary choral chamber music. Featuring the talents of three choruses, one from New York and two from Canada, it was a night filled with the sounds of some old classics and exciting new works.

I had the privilege of reviewing the 2014 a cappella NEXT concert ( a cappella NEXT 2014 review), so I was looking forward to this year’s edition. Without taking anything away from the talented ensembles that sang so well in 2014, the three ensembles this year not only met the high standards of their predecessors, but moved the bar up several levels.

The Harmonia Chamber singers opened the concert. Led by Robert Pacillo, this New York based ensemble got the night off to a fine start with a rock-solid performance of My Soul, There is a Country, an anthem by the composer best known for Jerusalem, Hubert Parry. Eulogy, by Rob Deemer, with text by Brian Turner, followed. Eulogy is a written account of a solider’s suicide in Iraq. With pitch bends and near bi-tonality at times, suggestive of the waves of heat on the battefield, the pause after the solider shoots himself, and the tight harmonies as the work ends in almost a whisper, Eulogy is hauntingly moving. Mr. Deemer was present in the audience and must have been pleased by the superb performance of his piece. The next work, She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron, was skillfully set by Jeffrey Trenchard, a member of the ensemble. Mr. Trenchard was visibly moved to tears when he stepped forward to acknowledge the audience after a lovely performance. Goin’ Home, using the Largo movement from Dvořák’s Symphony No.9 “From the New World” and a playful Nelly Bly by Stephen Foster brought the Harmonia Chamber Singers’ portion of the program to a close. An appreciative audience loudly cheered for this fine ensemble.

After a short break, Choeur de Chambre du Québec took the stage. As one would expect from an ensemble from Québec, their entire portion (dix chansons) of the program was sung in French. The details of their entire set, plus translations, can be viewed by clicking the following link: a cappella NEXT program 2015. Conductor Robert Ingari not only led his ensemble with careful attention to details of timbre, but proved to be an accomplished composer as well. His settings of the poetry of Paul Verlaine in Chanson d’automne and Soleils Couchants were compelling. Not to be overshadowed by their maître, ensemble members Guillaume Boulay and Jean-Charles Côté contributed fine works as well, all performed with flawless intonation, balance, and style. French, and French-Canadian composers (Debussy, Poulenc, Lionel Daunais, and Mark Sirett) rounded out their program. Choeur de Chambre du Québec sang these works with the native flair that a non-francophone would be hard pressed to emulate. After the last sounds of Sirett’s ravishing Ce beau printemps faded away, the audience reacted with a standing ovation for this first-rate ensemble. Bien joué, Choeur de Chambre du Québec!

After another short break, the Elora Fesitval Singers took the stage for the last set. Based in Elora, Canada, they are led by the able Noel Edison. Their opening piece, Immortality, by Timothy Corlis, was for this listener, the highlight of the evening. A crowd-pleaser from start to finish, it is a work with something for everyone- driving energy, brilliance, spine-tingling moments, sublime beauty, and a build-up to a climax that explodes before fading away. It was a great lead-off work, but I believe this placement was a tactical error- it should have been the last work on their program. Two well-known and popular works from Eric Whitacre followed- Sleep and Her Spirit Soars. The close harmonies that are so characteristic of Whitacre, were delivered precisely by the ensemble, making for a truly wonderful performance. Gloria Deo per immensa Saecula, by Healey Willan, closed the concert. This motet was the product of a challenge from a colleague about the lack of new five-part works (two other examples of similar challenges readily come to mind J.S. Bach’s Musical Offering and Thomas Tallis’s Spem in alium). It is a remarkable work and was given a remarkable performance- a real tour-de-force that might be better appreciated by choral specialists than by the average lay listener. In any case, my reservations about sequence are a matter of preference, and in no way detract anything from the fine performances. The audience gave the Elora Festival Singers a well-earned standing ovation.

Congratulations to all three ensembles. It was a lucky Friday the 13th indeed!

 

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by Jeffrey Williams  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY
New York Concert Artists & Associates Present Sergey Kuznetsov, 2014 Carnegie Debut Recital Winner in Review

New York Concert Artists & Associates Present Sergey Kuznetsov, 2014 Carnegie Debut Recital Winner in Review

New York Concert Artists & Associates Present the 2014 Carnegie Debut Recital Winner
Sergey Kuznetsov, Piano
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
Wednesday, March 11, 2015

A barn-storming firepower Russian virtuoso of the “old school” variety swept into town on Wednesday night in the person of Sergey Kuznetsov. I should qualify that by saying that in addition to absolute technical command and big line, Mr. Kuznetsov adds the virtues of a steely concentration, fierce intellect, and a great deal of lyrical intimacy. I’d say overall for me he was at his best in precisely those lyrical moments—however he generated the greatest audience excitement when giving full vent to what are his obviously huge passions about the music he is playing and what it is expressing. He took risks, and they paid off.

He began with a searching account of Schubert’s Impromptu No. 1 in C minor, D. 899, one that emphasized the implacable march-like nature of the material, but then dissolved into moments of heartbreaking lyricism, with a perfect singing legato and voicing. Mr. Kuzetsov then launched into the true curiosity of the program: his own transcription for solo piano of the great Schubert F minor Fantasie, D. 940, originally for piano four-hands. This is one of Schubert’s final compositions, and arguably the most profound work ever written for the medium of two players at one keyboard. I confess to being worried that the essential intimacy of the chamber-music genre would be lost, but my worries were unfounded. Due to Mr. Kuznetsov’s unlimited technique and total understanding of each gesture, I quickly and happily surrendered to this version. Interestingly, the unavoidable need for him to leave out at least some of the notes led to an increase in transparency for the piece as a whole. I only missed some of the massive climactic sonority in the final fugal section, which needed deeper basses.

He then turned to his fellow Russian, the deeply mystical, often misunderstood Scriabin. First he teased out the brief, evanescent mini-dramas of the Three Pieces, Op. 45, from Scriabin’s fully-formed mysterious late-style period. They progress backwards, with the final short piece called Prelude. Perfectly rendered, as they were here, their enigmas remain unsolvable. Mr. Kuznetsov then played Scriabin’s Third Sonata, which still relates to the Chopinesque romantic style of Scriabin’s youth, but expands the rhythmic ambiguity greatly, on the way to the later sonatas. Here Mr. Kuznetsov’s tempestuous emotions added immensely to the success of the work. I’d like to add also, that he understands something very important abut Scriabin: if you merely do literally what is on the page, often the music just “lies there.” Mr. Kuznetsov possesses the secret of what I call the “Scriabin rubato,” which knows when to surge forward, pull back, and group certain notes and rhythms together in a slightly (!) altered fashion, so that the true gesture emerges. An exciting performance.

After intermission, Chopin was the subject, starting with the rarely performed Rondo à la Mazur, an early work. I had only heard it once live, at a Horowitz recital. Mr. Kuznetsov brought so much authentic mazurka characterization to the main theme that it became a dancing joy. His sparkle and glitter were in abundance too. The 24 Preludes, Op. 28, followed. This work is far from rare, even though Chopin himself didn’t perform all of them at one sitting; this only became popular in the twentieth century. Mr. Kuznetsov seemed to have an overall plan to make these mostly brief character pieces into one arching statement. To that end, he de-sentimentalized many of them, not in itself a bad thing. I felt an indefinable need for less aggression though, only at times, and just when I was beginning to get uncomfortable with it, he redeemed it with a moment or two of stunning intimacy. A very individual approach, completely admirable in such an iconic, even overplayed, work. [A note to Martha Argerich . . . I’ve finally found someone who can play Chopin’s Prelude No. 16 faster than you, with no dropped notes, musically, and live!]

He favored his enthusiastic audience with two encores: the Chopin Berceuse, Op. 57, which contained all the delicacy I craved in the Preludes. Then the monstrously difficult Godowsky/Strauss: Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes from Die Fledermaus. This piece contains enough notes for six hands, or, if you’re lucky enough to have him: one Kuznetsov.

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by Frank Daykin  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY
Mirror Visions Ensemble presents Journeys in Review

Mirror Visions Ensemble presents Journeys in Review

Mirror Visions Ensemble presents Journeys
Mirror Visions Ensemble- Vira Slywotzky, soprano
Scott Murphree, tenor
Jesse Blumberg, baritone
Grant Wenaus, piano
SubCulture, New York, NY
March 10, 2015

 

To celebrate the upcoming release of their CD entitled The Three-Paneled Mirror (Centaur Records CRC 3381/3382), comprised entirely of commissioned works, Mirror Visions Ensemble presented a program called Journeys at SubCulture in New York City. Featuring works from the standard repertoire paired with premiered commissioned works from contemporary composers (not included on their CD), it proved to be a trip filled with wonder and whimsy.

Mirror Visions Ensemble, directed by Tobé Malawista, has stated their mission as “performing and commissioning musical ‘mirror images’- multiple settings of the same text by one or more composers,” and presenting programs that are “built around themes and always include new works commissioned by the ensemble.” Each member of Mirror Visions has an impressive list of accomplishments and credentials as soloist and was featured as such in at least one work in the program.

Journeys included works about exploring the sea, islands, and forests, letters from friends, as well as visits to churches and several hotels. There were sixteen works total on the program with the earlier being songs from Hugo Wolf, Hector Berlioz, Joseph Haydn, Felice Blangini, Henri Duparc, 20th century masters Samuel Barber and Francis Poulenc, and popular composers Cole Porter and Stephen Schwartz. The newer were commissioned works by Gilda Lyons, Scott Wheeler, Deborah Fischer Teason, Tom Cipullo, and William Ryden.

As much as I would like to give a detailed account of all the songs, I will concentrate mostly on the commissioned works. For the older works, I will mention three highlights: Baritone Jesse Blumberg dynamic, full-bodied performance of Hugo Wolf’s Auf einer Wanderung, tenor Scott Murphree’s hilarious take on Cole Porter’s Tale of the Oyster, which had the audience roaring with laughter, and Samuel Barber’s setting of James Joyce in Solitary Hotel performed in Film Noir style, with soprano Vira Slywotzky taking the part of the femme fatale as she slinked to the front of the stage – it was campy to be sure, but how very effective it was!

Moving on to the commissioned works, Great Barrier Reef by Gilda Lyons, from “recent studies, adapted by the composer,” featured swirling sounds of the waves, as the music “flowed” from one performer to the next in rapid sequence, and with some added sound effects. It was an ingenious work given a polished performance.

Letters to Isabella, by Scott Wheeler, uses the texts of three letters written to art collector and museum founder Isabella Stewart Gardner. The first from Henry James (for tenor), the second from Paul Bourget (for soprano), and the last (for baritone) from Kakuzo Okakura, ostensibly written to his cat, who was “visiting” with Ms. Gardner. Mr. Wheeler expertly captured the tone of each letter, from the longing sighs of James, to the world-weary Bourget (who found Florida especially odious), and the playful teasing of Okakura, and the performers projected those qualities with consummate grace.

The Bells at Saint-Aignan by Deborah Fischer Teason, using text from Jeffrey Greene, was to this listener the highlight of the commissioned works. As told in the program, each bell at this church has three names, the first the name of a noble woman, the second after bees or wasps, and the third for the notes they sounded. This commemorative piece was conveyed with haunting tonal ambiguity in both the vocal and piano writing, never straying too far toward atonality, but remaining unsettled throughout. It was a mesmerizing effect, given an equally mesmerizing performance.

At the Windermere Hotel, by Tom Cipullo, with text from Nightmare at the Windermere Hotel by Edna St. Vincent Millay, was a sure-fire crowd pleaser. The audience was in stitches as the quest for an elusive cup of coffee from room service took an absurdly comic route. Even pianist Grant Wenaus got into the act – when he called out “Kitchen Speaking,” the audience howled in laughter. This was just pure fun and Mirror Visions played it for all it was worth.

William Ryden’s The Owl and the Pussy-Cat, using Edward Lear’s verses, was a delight and brought the program to a successful finish.

It was gratifying that all the composers of the commissioned works were in attendance and able to be acknowledged for their compositions by the appreciative audience.

The Ghost of Madame de Sévigné at the Carnavalet, by Christopher Berg, was offered as an encore, after which the Ensemble greeted the many people who wished to see them. Mirror Visions Ensemble is not only highly accomplished musically, but also pulls in their listeners with their winning personalities on both the individual and group level. Add those qualities to the great service they do for contemporary composers by their continual commissioning and performing of new works, and the end result is a win for everyone. I look forward to hearing more from and about Mirror Visions Ensemble.

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by Jeffrey Williams  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY
Cameron Carpenter in Review

Cameron Carpenter in Review

Cameron Carpenter, organ
Orchestra Hall, Detroit
February 23, 2015

Organist Cameron Carpenter walked out on the stage of a sparsely populated Orchestra Hall in Detroit Monday evening (Feb. 23rd) to play the International Touring Organ, an electronic instrument he designed to liberate himself from aging and often badly maintained pipe organs. He’s like a kid with a new toy (I use the word he used himself) and his joy in exploiting its possibilities sometimes got the better of him, but it was an infectious joy that he shared with the five hundred or so folks in the hall who responded with whistling and stomping standing ovations.

His instrument, built by Marshall & Ogletree in Massachusetts and completed last year, contains sampled stops from organs of different periods and styles all over the world — baroque, romantic, theater organs of the “mighty Wurlitzer” type, there’s probably even a Hammond in there someplace. It can all be disassembled and packed into a van, albeit a pretty big van, for transport to anyplace with an electrical outlet to plug it into. It’s a novel concept, and really the only way to allow for the career as a touring virtuoso that Carpenter has embarked upon.

Mr. Carpenter takes a good deal of abuse from the traditional-minded in the organ world, though rarely from its most accomplished players. Some of it stems from his punk-radical dress and hairstyle which, incidentally, does not interfere with his articulate and intellectual way of explaining to the audience what he does. Other criticism is directed against his taste for flashy virtuosity in performance, which drives serious practitioners of historically informed styles crazy.

What is beyond dispute is that Cameron Carpenter is a performer of nearly superhuman technical accomplishment. He does things with his hands, feet and brain that ought to be impossible, juggling five or six independent musical lines among them, sometimes playing on four keyboards at a time with his two hands and thanks to a pedal divide feature, two more with his feet, all without a flinch or a bobble. He’s the Horowitz of the present generation, and incidentally, the grand old man was criticized for historical inappropriateness and bad taste too. People with skills on that level make their own rules, as they should.

His program, announced from the stage with some good humored commentary, covered a big stretch from J. S. Bach — the Prelude in A Major and the big Toccata in F Major taken at a quick clip and with enough colorful registrations to stoke the purists ire — to an encore of Gordon Lightfoot’s If You Could Read My Mind that shimmered like a gamelan orchestra. In between there were Marcel Dupré’s Variations on a Christmas Carol, and Carpenter’s own spectacular transcriptions of Shostakovich’s Festival Overture, Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to Candide and Alexander Scriabin’s 4th Piano Sonata. Only in the last did I miss the original, the piano’s sustain pedal gives a hazy perfume that is simply not available on the organ but badly needed in this work. I also thought that throughout the program Carpenter was a little too enamored with the battery of super-low bass stops at his disposal, but then if you’ve spent a couple of million to be comprehensive, I suppose you feel like you ought to use them.

Really, it’s pointless to criticize Mr. Carpenter as a classical organist. What he’s doing with — and to — his innovative, purpose-built instrument hasn’t been done before. Love him or hate him, he’s an astonishing, and astonishingly original, artist.

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by Timothy Gilligan  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY
Musica Sacra in Review

Musica Sacra in Review

Musica Sacra
Kent Tritle, Music Director; Michael Sheetz, Assistant Music Director
Lianne Coble, soprano; John Turanno, tenor; Malcolm J. Merriweather, baritone; Arthur Fiacco, Jr., cellist; Walter Hilse and Raymond Nagem, organists
Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York, NY
March 4, 2015

 

It is not often that one hears three world premieres all in one evening, with the notable exception of sacred concert music, a sphere that continues to thrive due to the dedication of organists, choir directors, choral singers, and their supporters and patrons. This wouldn’t be the usual volunteer church choir music, rehearsed but once on a Thursday evening prior to the Sunday service; rather it is intended for professional choirs with appearances both in and out of the liturgical setting.

Continuing its commitment to expanding the choral repertoire, Musica Sacra dedicated its final concert of the season to three world premieres, including The Wisdom of the Wise Old Man by Juraj Filas, Returning by Michael Gilbertson, Lux Aeterna by Robert Paterson, as well as Parable, A Tale of Abram and Isaac by Judith Lang Zaimont. [Reviewer’s note: This review will concern itself primarily with the Juraj Filas premiere.]

Briefly stated: What is there that Kent Tritle can’t do? His presence in the New York organ and choral scene is dominant, and always excellent. Since his taking over the group Musica Sacra, its already first-rate reputation has been sharpened and focused even more. His conducting is lyrical, energetic, and, for lack of a better word, mystical. He draws forth the entire scope of dynamics and color variety from the lean choir, composed of just twenty-eight singers.

Mary B. Davidson, a board member of Musica Sacra, and Arthur Fiacco, Jr., a fine New York cellist (and long-time collaborator with Maestro Tritle), were both so moved by a recent trip to the Nazi show-camp of Terezín (better known by the German name Theresienstadt), in what today is the Czech Republic, that they commissioned the prolific Slovak composer Juraj Filas to create a suitable memorial to mark the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of the camp, and all the extermination camps (of which Terezín wasn’t one, offically), and the end of WWII in the European theater.

What do I mean by the term show-camp? Terezín was used by the Nazis as propaganda to show how they were tolerant and not cruel. Red Cross groups were regularly paraded through Terezín to see for themselves the orchestra, chamber music, theater, poets, etc. Of course, all this was but the thinnest of masks to the real horror. Most of Terezín’s inmates were transported to one of the extermination facilities, if they didn’t die of disease first.

Mr. Filas can be considered the ‘composer-grandsonʼ of one of Terezín’s inmates: Rudolf Karel, who was his teacher’s teacher.

We tend to think of horror as zombies, chainsaw massacres, and the like, but the real horror is when man inflicts humiliation, torture, and death upon his fellow-man. Mr. Filas seized upon this realization to craft a dramatic cantata for soloists, chorus, cello solo, and organ, that uses one section of Dante’s Inferno, and some lines from a fairy tale by Czech author Karel Jaromír Erben.

While the Dante dwells on the terrors of the damned as they descend to their various punishments (“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here” sung in Italian, as were all the Dante lines), the Erben urges its hearers to carry on, that “We will cross the threshold of wisdom and leave for the place, which knows no joy or sorrow, where there’s neither delight or death, where there’s eternal peace and paradise.”

Mr. Filasʼ compositional style (in this piece, anyway) tends to the portentous and bombastic, although, I must say he acheived an almost Mahler-like transcendence in the consoling words of Erben heard at the end. There are at least two ways of looking at originality: (1) is the composer creating a new vocabulary of music or adding something never before done?, and (2) is he expressing himself as only he can, thus original and authentic? Mr. Filas is certainly a (2), and if I knew more of his music, perhaps I’d be inclined to add (1).

Mr. Fiacco played his yearning cello part with all the commitment and soul one could ever wish for, and it’s only a shame that it was audible only during his solos and when he was with organ; but not when the full choir was singing. At those times he looked very busy but one wasn’t hearing his contribution. The chorus and solists were magnificent, their diction was crisp and intelligible even in the cavernous acoustic of the cathedral, with its many seconds of reverb.

“Love is the truest elixir. . . This is the wisdom of the wise old man.”

 

 

 

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by Frank Daykin  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY
Community High School District 99 and Bob Rogers Travel Present “New York Nouveau” in Review

Community High School District 99 and Bob Rogers Travel Present “New York Nouveau” in Review

Community High School District 99 and Bob Rogers Travel Present “New York Nouveau”
Downers Grove North High School Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble: William S. Miller, Jennifer Mullen, Brayer Teague, conductors
Downers Grove South High School Wind Symphony and Wind Ensemble: Greg Hensel, Craig Roselieb, Glenn Williams, conductors
Guest Artists: Gaudete Brass Quintet; Don Owens, composer/conductor; Peter Wilson, violin
Distinguished Alumni Guest Artists: Kristin A. Bowers, clarinet; Ian Williams, piano; Lauren Wood, saxophone; Hannah Young, harp
Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
March 2, 2015

 

There’s an old saying in show business: “Always leave them wanting more.” It would be hard to imagine any “more” after the three-and-a-half hour epic concert presented by the symphonic bands and wind ensembles of the two high schools in Downers Grove, Illinois. There were twenty-one pieces (some quite lengthy), seven conductors, and six soloists.

I deeply admire and respect the commitment of the school board to music education, as represented by these enthusiastic young players, as well as the parent, teacher, and community support that keeps them going. A concert in legendary Carnegie Hall is truly a crowning accomplishment that many will remember for the rest of their lives.

That said, the program was not well-structured, and was way too long—it could easily have been pared down by at least an hour-and-a-half, with more selectivity. “New York Nouveau” celebrated music with unique ties to the Big Apple. Highlights included a world premiere of a commissioned work by American composer Don Owens (Concerto for Brass Quintet and Wind Ensemble), a New York premiere of Black Dog, featuring Kristin Bowers of the United States Air Force Band of Washington, D.C., and the original version of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, as premiered in New York by the Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra in 1924.

The school ensembles were led by their respective conductors (three from each high school), who excelled in bringing dynamic nuance and contrast to marches that are often just raced through. Other matters, such as bloopers, and fuzzy rhythm plagued the symphonic-sized groups more than the leaner wind ensembles, particularly in arrangements like that of the Finale from Dvořak’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World.” Moving one of these bands around, musically, must be like turning a large ocean liner: it doesn’t happen swiftly. The excellent violin soloist, Peter Wilson, had trouble getting group and conductor to follow his impetuous tempi in Henri Vieuxtemp’s old chestnut, Souvenir d’Amérique, which is really a set of virtuoso variations on “Yankee Doodle.”

The French word for the musical off-beat is contretemps, which is also the word for an argument. The off-beats in many of the arrangements may have caused many an argument, as they furnished the principal locus for coming-to-grief in otherwise energetic interpretations.

Saxophonist Lauren Wood showed great flair in the celebrated Harlem Nocturne by Earle Hagen. The Gaudete (Latin for rejoice) Brass Quintet was gleaming and precise in the most “modern sounding” work of the evening, the world premiere of Don Owens’ Concerto. They performed the aptly-titled first movement: Rejoice! A New York premiere of Scott McAllister’s Black Dog for clarinet (the superb Kristin A. Bowers) and harp and wind ensemble revealed a really good piece based on the Led Zeppelin song.

 

The Music Faculty of Downers Grove North High School

The Music Faculty of Downers Grove North High School

Other highlights were the “classic” marches, whether by Sousa ( Manhattan Beach March from 1893) or Sousa-followers—Karl King’s Torch of Liberty (1942), Thomas Allen’s Whip and Spur March (1902), and Otto H. Jacobs The Aviation Cadet March (1944).

The concert concluded with a war-horse that should have been more enjoyable than it turned out to be, perhaps because of the extreme length of the preceding concert: Gershwin’s evergreen Rhapsody in Blue in its original jazz band instrumentation, with piano soloist Ian Williams and players made up of students, alumni, and every member of the music faculty. Maybe it should have been called the Gershwin/Williams Rhapsody, for Mr. Williams exhibited immense rhythmic and tempo waywardness that went far beyond rubato, and he embellished many of Gershwin’s lines with jazz-inspired improvisatory filigree that didn’t really enhance the strong clean lines of the original. Let us recall that Gershwin himself made a piano roll of the part, and it is very swingy, but quite classically restrained in style. On the positive side, Mr. Williams did make the work sound very personal, his own, difficult to do with such iconic music. Nevertheless, Mr. Williams successfully performed on the main stage of Carnegie Hall, as did all these young musicians.

May their achievement be multiplied many times over, all across America. It is so important to present and hear such inspiring success stories when the “voices of doom” continually renew their prophecies of cuts in the arts, decline of interest in art music, and the like. Bravo.

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by Frank Daykin  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY
Cincinnati World Piano Competition presents the 2013 Gold Medal winner: Marianna Prjevalskaya in Review

Cincinnati World Piano Competition presents the 2013 Gold Medal winner: Marianna Prjevalskaya in Review

Cincinnati World Piano Competition presents the 2013 Gold Medal winner
Marianna Prjevalskaya, piano
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
February 23, 2015

A miracle happened on one of the coldest nights in a seemingly endless New York City winter- a stunning debut piano recital by a young competition winner. It was one of the finest piano recitals that I have heard in many years.

Marianna Prjevalskaya won the Gold Medal at the Cincinnati World Piano Competition in 2013, and since then has been scooping up prizes in other competitions at a great rate, while continuing her Doctoral studies at Peabody.

She chose a daunting program that would cause many a more famous, seasoned pianist to quake in their concert shoes. The entire first half consisted of the Debussy Préludes, Deuxième livre, which is heard much less often than the first book, and is much more elusive, not to mention technically challenging. I’ll admit I was skeptical: Would there be sufficient control of the soft dynamic ranges, and the sophisticated pedaling required? I had no cause for concern, from the very first note I knew Ms. Prjevalskaya was in complete command and control of the material. Her Brouillards were as mysterious as her Feuilles mortes were properly mélancolique. Each prelude went from rapture to rapture, there was no downside. The deceptively simple single melodic line that opens Bruyères was heartbreakingly beautiful. The alternating thirds (Les tierces alternées) in the eleventh Prélude , which I regard as the “thirteenth” Debussy Étude, were marvels of clarity and speed.

Absolutely every note, articulation, blend, layer of sonority, had been completely thought through, yet never sounded premeditated, qualities that extended to the rest of the evening’s program. This was a stunning display of mature pianism, and was probably too “good,” too subtle for the audience to fully appreciate.

After intermission, Ms. Prjevalskaya favored the hall with masterworks by Chopin and Rachmaninoff; surely these would be crowd pleasing. The Chopin was his Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49, a large work with a funeral march introduction, three repeated allegro passionate sections in different keys (between the second and third is a hymn-like meditation), and then a coda. Her sensitivity to harmonic color and her natural romantic rubato was glorious. She varied the second passionate material to make it more intimate and delicate, and then varied the third appearance to exult in a triumphant way.

The final work was Rachmaninoff’s massive Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22. The theme is the famous Prelude No. 20 in C minor, unfortunately known to many only by its presence in “Could It Be Magic,” a Barry Manilow song. This work is much less often performed than Rachmaninoff’s Corelli Variations, and it is easy to see why. The complexities are staggering and the technical demands enormous. The entire work is like an encyclopedia of Rachmaninoff gestures from many of his other works, notably the Piano Concerto No. 2 (in the same key, C minor), and his Preludes and Études-Tableaux. Ms. Prjevalskaya conjured everything from piano sonority to a metaphor for full orchestra without once making a harsh sound or playing an unmusical note. Her ability to clarify the densest textures was absolute. And through all this, one sensed her fierce commitment to each and every note and phrase, all dispatched with a relatively sober demeanor—no grimacing or grandstanding. All her energy went into the notes themselves.

At the end of the Variations, I leapt to my feet (which I rarely do, because I feel standing ovations are overdone), and found to my non-amusement that I was the only one doing so. Not to worry, she will find her audiences, and they will hang on her every note.

I would love to hear that pianism brought to bear on an unorthodox idea: a complete Well-Tempered Clavier of Bach. (Just a suggestion, Marianna!) She favored the audience with one richly deserved encore: Chopin’s Nocturne, Op. 27 No. 1 in C-sharp Minor, which was redolent with dark visions of (perhaps) Venice at night.

[A word to presenters and recitalists: If you are giving a recital in a major New York hall, a 4” x 6” piece of card stock is NOT a sufficient “program.” Also, artists: PLEASE have written program notes (your own), or, if you are not comfortable doing so, hire someone who is. Of course, it is better if you do it yourself—it adds a whole layer to the audience’s understanding of your involvement with the music before you have even played a note.]

The preceding paragraph is only addressing a distressing trend I see in these debut recitals, and is in no way meant to take away from what was one of the major piano recitals of the season. I look forward to much more from Marianna Prjevalskaya.

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by Frank Daykin  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY
Mason Gross School of the Arts presents “The Unknown Diabelli Variations” in Review

Mason Gross School of the Arts presents “The Unknown Diabelli Variations” in Review

Mason Gross School of the Arts presents “The Unknown Diabelli Variations”
With pianists from the Mason Gross School of the Arts
Min Kwon, artistic director
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
February 17, 2015

Mardi Gras is a day for excess before the penitential season of Lent. There certainly was an excess of variations on a waltz by Diabelli at Weill Recital Hall last night, and an excess of pianists and composers, all under the watchful, charmingly humorous eye of their mistress of ceremonies, Min Kwon. Call it “50 Shades of Diabelli,” if you will.

Nearly everyone knows of the great Beethoven set of 33 variations (Op. 120) on what he termed a “Schusterpfleck” (cobbler’s patch), the inane waltz by Anton Diabelli, with its square, symmetrical phrasing and obvious sequences. There was even a Broadway play (2009) called 33 Variations, starring Jane Fonda as a musicologist on the trail of secrets about the piece.

The mission of the Mason Gross piano department was to correct the imbalance, and to present the other fifty composers’ responses to Diabelli’s vanity request. Diabelli was an important Viennese music publisher, and I imagine you wouldn’t want to get on his bad side. He published Beethoven’s monumental set by itself as Volume I, and all the others as Volume II.

Nearly all of these other composers, with the notable exceptions of Schubert and Liszt, are nearly or completely forgotten today, so much so that even the enterprising Ms. Kwon, who read interesting facts about each before their variation (and introduced each pianist), had nothing to say about a few of them.

Twenty-five (!) pianists divided the set among them, each taking one, two, or three of the variations, some of which presented nightmarish problems of digital dexterity, in the best tradition of early-nineteenth century Viennese pianistic showmanship. Sadly, the inspiration level of the variations was, at least 95% of the time, as banal as the generating tune that gave rise to the whole thing, but the inspiration level of the performers, including their commitment, joy, and technical ability, was much higher.

Beethoven immediately set about pulling apart the theme, teasing out every motivic implication as only he could. Given a waltz, he turned Variation I into a march in 4/4 time, and so on. By the time this metaphysical journey is over, the lowly waltz “caterpillar” has been transformed into a courtly minuet “butterfly.”

Mason Gross School of the Arts presents “The Unknown Diabelli Variations”

Mason Gross School of the Arts presents
“The Unknown Diabelli Variations”

The fifty composers’ primary approach was for the “ornamental” variation, in which the main features of the original are very much on the surface. I counted only four who even dared venture into the minor mode, including the haunting Schubert contribution, a waltz that managed to say more about Schubert than the source material. It was gorgeously rendered by Nathaniel Francis. The variation by C.M. von Bocklet, a friend of and interpreter of Beethoven, sounded like he had heard Beethoven’s own Variation XXI, perhaps in private in Beethoven’s quarters. Others chose fugal imitation as a response, there was even a Polonaise. A particularly lovely variation was by one Joseph Kerzowsky, about whom nothing was known other than his participation in this set. That was played meltingly by another of my favorite pianists of the evening, Di Wang. Liszt could be forgiven for his tempestuous C-Minor rant, buried in rushing figuration—it was, after all the product of an eleven-year old, who had only been studying with Czerny for three years. W.A. Mozart’s second son, Franz Xaver, contributed a rather dull variation, and Beethoven’s own Archduke Rudolph reveled in displaying his understanding of counterpoint with a largely fugal variation that didn’t really “arrive” anywhere.

I couldn’t tell whether all of the composers were being absolutely serious, or if they were trying to “out-trivialize” their given theme. By the second half of the concert, the signature features of Diabelli’s tune: the turn, the five-one “thump,” the sequence, were so distressingly familiar that one could have probably held a sing-along.

One very innovative facet of the evening was the presence of seven contemporary composers (also from Mason Gross School), and their own takes on Diabelli’s fling. These were offered as a sort of pianistic “sorbet,” placed after every seven or so of the older variations. These were mainly clever, but the standouts were: Chung Eun Kim’s jazzy flirt; and then the “encore” by Matt Anderson—a frenetic 7/8 romp, with the added interest of being scored for piano four-hands.

Overall, this was an interesting presentation, perhaps a bit too didactic for a real evening of “entertainment,” but I do salute and appreciate the talent and hard work involved, and the seriousness of intent. There’s something really good going on in the piano (and composition) department of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at nearby Rutgers University.

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by Frank Daykin  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY
Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) presents Two Cultures, One Dream in Review

Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) presents Two Cultures, One Dream in Review

Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) presents Two Cultures, One Dream
Jonathan Griffith, DCINY Artistic Director and principal conductor; Jie Yi, Debut Conductor
Earnestine Rodgers Robinson, visiting composer; Heather Sorenson, arranger, orchestrator and accompanist
Ana Isabel Lazo, soprano; Ting Li, tenor; Tshombe Selby, tenor; Chai-Lun Yueh, baritone; Brian Wahlstrom, baritone and narrator; James T. Meeks and Michelle R. McKissack, narrators; Jiaju Shen, pipa
Distinguished Concerts Orchestra; Distinguished Concerts Singers International
Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
February 16, 2015

 

Two Cultures, One Dream was the title of the concert presented by Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) on February 16, 2015. While the “two cultures” were only implied as East and West, the “one dream” was explicit – freedom from oppression and the triumph of the people against their oppressors. With singers from Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Washington, Canada, China, New Zealand, Taiwan, and “individuals from around the globe,” the stage was set for that at which DCINY excels – the “big show.”

The first half of the program was the Yellow River Cantata (which was reworked in 1969 at the instigation of Madame Mao into the well-known Yellow River Piano Concerto, by a “committee” of five Chinese composers) by Xian Xinghai (1905-1945). Xian was one of the first Chinese composers to have adopted western influences, having studied composition with Vincent D’Indy and Paul Dukas in Paris, and no doubt with Soviet composers during his time in the Soviet Union in the 1940s. Given the honorific “The People’s Composer” by Mao Zedong, Xian’s legacy rests largely his with his more “populist” works, the Yellow River Cantata being his best-known work with western influences.

 

Act-2_Exodus_2

Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) presents Two Cultures, One Dream

 

The “original” Yellow River Cantata was written in 1939, which, according to Xian’s daughter, took only six days to complete. Using the poetry of Guang Weiran as the text, there are four performed versions, with seven to nine movements. The version performed on this occasion is the most frequently played, with seven movements. The writing is tonal and bears the influences of Mr. Xian’s western studies, sometimes in a derivative way. The melodic material is largely folk-influenced and uncomplicated. The work is to exhort the Chinese people to resist and repel the Japanese invaders who were occupying China at the time (1939). The idea of a musical work to rally the people is not unique (Shostakovich’s Symphony No.7 “Leningrad” being one of the most obvious examples), but it is chiefly this context that makes Yellow River Cantata effective. Each movement begins with a male narrator exhorting the people to action, using the Yellow River as a symbol of Chinese identity.

Now, after all this background, it is time to talk about the actual performance. This was one of the most energetic performances of any work I have seen in many years! There were no half-measures at any time; it was full tilt from start to finish by all. It was especially interesting to see how involved the chorus was in performance. It was obvious they were giving it their all, with evident pride, as if to say “This is our music, and we are proud to share it with you.” Conductor Jie Yi was a force of nature, with boundless energy and enthusiasm that won the day. Mr. Jie has star potential and charisma that reminds one of Gustavo Dudamel and the young Leonard Bernstein. The soloists were outstanding as well. Baritone Chai-Lun Yueh was confident and projected with both strength and dignity, tenor Ting Li and baritone Brian Wahlstrom in duet were well matched as Jiaju Shen set the mood with accompaniment on the pipa, while soprano Ana Isabel Lazo captured the heartbreak in “Lament of the Yellow River” with perfection. Finally, Mr. Wahlstrom’s narration was excellent, in both English and Chinese, as his voice filled the hall. The net result was, to this listener, a rare occasion where the quality of the performance exceeded the actual intrinsic value of the work itself.

After intermission, it was time for the world premiere of Exodus, a four-part oratorio depicting the story of the Israelites being held in captivity in Egypt, their ultimate escape, and their triumph in reaching the Promised Land. The story is so well known that I will not recount it here. The composer, Earnestine Rodgers Robinson, has written two other critically acclaimed oratorios, The Crucifixion and The Nativity. It is highly likely that Exodus will join these two works in similar esteem, as it is a piece of great power, worthy of the subject matter and never losing its hold on the listener in its nearly one-hour length. The vocal writing is highly effective and the first-rate orchestrations by Heather Sorenson serve to strengthen the work even more. I would like to make special mention of the setting of Psalm 23 in Part IV, which has been set by some “heavy hitters” in musical history. Ms. Robinson’s version can hold its own with any of them.

With the dynamic narrations from Pastor James T. Meeks and Michelle R. McKissack (a daughter of Ms. Robinson), the talented tenor Tshombe Selby, the return of Ms. Lazo with the hard-working Mr. Wohlstrom, and the passionate and well-prepared chorus, it was a winning performance. Led by the supremely able Jonathan Griffith, who has made an art form of leading forces of several hundred, and the fine Distinguished Concerts Orchestra, it was a great end to the evening. The audience obviously found this to be so, given the ovation and the cheers for Ms. Robinson when she came to the stage. Congratulations to all for a great concert.

 

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by Jeffrey Williams  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY
Pianist Carlo Grante in Review

Pianist Carlo Grante in Review

Carlo Grante, Pianist
Masters of High Romanticism, Program III: Johannes Brahms
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
February 10, 2015

 

The sheer bravery of structuring a recital devoted wholly to Brahms and his many themes and variations was enough to earn my respect for Carlo Grante even before he sat down at the Bösendorfer piano. His detailed and cogent program notes revealed a musician of intellect, erudition, and passion for the composer and the compositional process. His playing, borne of courage and intelligence, supported my initial impressions, though the execution of his ideas was not consistently polished.

What is immediately apparent from Mr. Grante’s playing is his facility in surmounting every type of pianistic challenge. His technique is a big one, characterized by a massive sound and an unusually extreme dynamic spectrum. For the most part, though not always, this worked to his advantage. It may have been due to the acoustics of Alice Tully Hall, or simply a misjudgment in pedaling, but much of the left hand bass figuration in forte and fortissimo passages did not always read cleanly- but that is a small matter in the context of a program marked by such high ambition.

Brahms’s Variations on a Hungarian Song, Op. 21, No. 2, though it contains the least permutations of the four works on this program, is still dense with invention in its comparatively short span. Mr. Grante’s performance of this early work proved to be a template for the rest of the evening. The theme was stated briskly and forcefully, and the variations seemed almost freely improvised, as if an incidental detail of one provided the impetus for the next. Without so much as a brief departure from the stage, the pianist then launched into both books of the Paganini Variations, Op. 35. By this point in the recital, I was convinced of his enormous strengths and puzzling inconsistencies. Some variations, such as the third and fourth of Book I, and the tender waltz variation of Book II, were voiced and balanced exquisitely. Others were dispatched with less care, both rhythmically and coloristically. His strongest playing came in the finale of the second book, driven by a powerful left hand, and brilliant pacing.

With the amount of material to memorize in this daunting survey, it is no surprise that the pianist chose to play both the Variations on a Theme of Schumann in F-sharp minor, Op. 9, and Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel, Op. 24, using the score. Oddly though, the presence of the printed page did not always allow Mr. Grante the sense of security he may have anticipated. In fact, the more difficult passages (which require much practice) were often more confidently rendered than the slower, lyrical music, which seemed tentatively played as if it were truly being read.

Of all the works in this concert, the Schumann Variations, because of their fragility and quirkiness, require the most care. This care was evident in Mr. Grante’s rendering of the theme, with its woodwind chorale voicing, and also in two pristine variations, the fourth and fifth, in which dynamics and tone were perfectly calibrated. Elsewhere in this piece, and in the Handel Variations, which followed, there were frequent miscalculations in attack and pedaling. Forte passages often sounded forced, while softer music lacked depth and solidity. Despite all this, the pianist ended the evening strongly, delivering the Handel fugue with remarkable clarity and aplomb.

Mr. Grante is an artist of abundant gifts. In his effort to share with the audience his knowledge and affection for this music, he set goals that were unattainable in one concert. I look forward to hearing him under better circumstances in future recitals.

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by David La Marche  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY