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Oberlin Orchestra in Review

Oberlin Orchestra

Raphael Jimenez, conductor

Jeremy Denk, piano

Carnegie Hall

January 19, 2013

Oberlin Orchestra; Photo Credit: Chris Lee

The Oberlin Orchestra sounded polished and impressive in their Carnegie Hall Concert on January 19th. The music was challenging, including Ravel’s “La Valse” and Stravinsky’s “Firebird” (1919), and the young players rose to the occasion, sounding highly professional–especially in the execution of complex rhythms. The percussion nailed those complexities with ease and solidity of sound, the brass and winds were expressive and noble–even during tricky sections, and the strings were clear and energetic at all times. In Ravel’s “La Valse”, for example, the violins employed every bow stroke, vibrato and portamento with precision and unity.

One could quibble with the lack of sheer tonal strength in the strings, but this may have been due to the brass and percussion overpowering them at times. Or it may have been due to the inferior quality of some of the string instruments (after all, not every student can afford something top-notch yet). Here is something a little esoteric: the influence of the major orchestra in town could enter the attitudes of the major conservatory in town. In other words, it may be that the sound of the pristine, elegant Cleveland Orchestra is in the air.The Oberlin Orchestra in many ways sounded like a young Cleveland Orchestra: polished and elegant, but not necessarily powerfully robust–and that is not a negative, but simply a tradmark characteristic. Conductor Raphael Jimenez did a wonderful job of balancing the sections of the Ravel and Stravinsky, and bringing out the various colors in Christopher Rouse’s “Iscariot”, a dissonant work reminiscent of Ives, from 1989. All these works require an excellent navigator for the heavy orchestration, and Jimenez made these textures transparent. He also deserves credit for preparing the ensemble so well. Most of these young musicians have never played in Carnegie Hall, and any nerves were tempered by Jimenez’s controlled, collected podium style. That said, Jimenez might have allowed for more abandonment and chaos in certain sections of the Ravel. This is a not an effervescent, ebullient Johann Strauss Jr. Waltz, but rather a parody of it–music that gets more and more out of control.

Rouse, an outstanding composer who is Composer-in-Residence of the New York Philharmonic and an Oberlin alumnus (graduating class of 1971), made a welcome onstage appearance. A younger alumnus, the accomplished Jeremy Denk (a 1990 graduate), performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467. Denk gave an impressively speedy and facile performance, but one that still found time to be sensitive to all the music’s phrasing and harmonic shifts. The ensemble between orchestra and soloist was superbly homogenius. The quality of the strings and winds was very high, imbued with clarity of rhythm and excellent intonation.

This evening at Carnegie Hall was a wonderful celebration of Oberlin’s depth of talent and the school’s and students’ accomplishments. Oberlin is no doubt a great place to be if you want to make a deep impact as a musician.

by Anthony Aibel for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

Mostly Mozart Festival

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra

Louis Langrée, conductor

Joshua Bell, violin

Jeremy Denk, piano

Pre-Concert Recital: Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk

Avery Fisher Hall, New York, NY

August 18, 2010

Joshua Bell-Photo credit: Bill Phelps

This No-Mozart, all-Romantic program was one of the Festival’s best. It opened with Weber’s Overture to the opera Der Freischütz and closed with Schumann’s Symphony in D minor No. 4, Op. 120, in the revised 1851 version. In between, Joshua Bell, Jeremy Denk and the Orchestra’s string section played Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings in D minor, the second Festival program featuring two major works in the same tonality. Written when the composer was 14 years old, the Concerto is not top-notch Mendelssohn and is only infrequently performed, but it is full of youthful romanticism, exuberance, and the promise of future greatness. The soloists reveled in the brilliant passage-work, alone and together, tossing off the long runs in parallel thirds with easy virtuosity and perfect coordination; Bell’s pure, expressive tone cast a silvery radiance over the lovely melodies. The Orchestra, under-employed except for the Introduction, offered discreet support, and everybody had a grand time.

The performance of the Weber and Schumann indicated that Langrée harbors a romantic soul under his penchant for cool, speedy, almost vibratoless Mozart. He encouraged the musicians to surrender to the passionate ardor of the music using their warmest, most intense sound, and they responded whole-heartedly. The Overture overflowed with vigorous energy without getting hectic; the strings sang out, the wind solos were wonderful (those Freischütz horns!).

Schumann cast his fourth Symphony in his favorite “Fantasy” form, with its four contrasting movements melting into each other. Originally composed in 1841, it was actually his second symphony, but its negative reception caused him to put it aside. Ten years later, having written two more symphonies, he revised it, refining the transitions between the movements and adding a lot of doubling to the orchestration – a decision that has remained controversial: the texture gains substance but loses transparency. Langrée used the second version; while he could not save the sound from becoming murky at times, its richness made up for the lack of clarity, and he brought out the character and changing moods of the music: the vitality of the fast sections, the poetry and romanticism of the slow ones, the assertive robustness of the Scherzo.

Mozart visited his Festival at the Pre-Concert recital, when Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk played his “big” B-flat Major Sonata K.454, written in 1784, the first of his last three great violin and piano sonatas. Though Avery Fisher Hall is hardly the best place for intimate chamber music, the performance was admirable. Frequent partners, the two players have achieved an extraordinarily high level of ensemble; they took over each others’ lines, calibrating the sound for relative prominence, built on each others’ dynamics, tonal and expressive intensity, and created a true “conversation between friends.” Their subtle interplay was even more impressive than their dazzling collaborative virtuosity in the Mendelssohn Concerto.

by Edith Eisler for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

New York Concert Review Round-Up for 2009-10

Even the best-intentioned reporter cannot cover all the concerts of the New York season. Here are some highlights that got left behind

Two violinists presented spectacular recitals: Joshua Bell with his frequent partner Jeremy Denk, and Augustin Hadelich with the esteemed collaborative artist Rohan De Silva. Hadelich, making his New York debut, played in the Frick Collection’s intimate auditorium; Bell played in Carnegie Hall, whose size hardly suited his program of sonatas by Bach, Saint-Saëns, Schumann and Ravel. But his brilliant technique and glorious, intense tone came through, as did his elegance, romantic ardor, and passionate involvement. Hadelich, winner of the 2006 Indianapolis Violin Competition, is every inch a virtuoso. He reveled in the fireworks of Ysaÿe’s “Ballade” and Saraste’s “Carmen Fantasy,” and filled Prokofiev’s second Sonata with sunshine and charm.

The American String Quartet played Beethoven’s daunting Op. 127 with admirable technical and tonal control, poise and expressiveness. With violist Michael Tree, Brahms’ G major Quintet sounded rich, romantic and exuberant; the Finale had true Gypsy abandon. The Orion Quartet also performed Brahms in G-major (the Sextet, with violist Hsin-Yun Huang and cellist Barbara Mallow), along with Beethoven, Bartók, Mozart and Smetana. Perhaps influenced by the prevailing fashion, they have been over-projecting recently, but their playing is always deeply felt and beautiful.

The Tokyo Quartet continued its Beethoven cycle with a warm, serene performance of Op. 59 No. 2, notable for the seamless continuity of its lines. Formed 20 years ago, the Leipzig Quartet displayed remarkable transparency in Haydn’s “Sunrise” Quartet; wrenching grief in Mendelssohn’s F-minor Quartet; longing and passion in Janácek’s “Intimate Letters.” The Panocha Quartet, founded in 1968 at the Prague Conservatory, is distinguished by its limpid tone, simplicity, and unaffected eloquence. An early Mozart Quartet was lovely; Martinu’s cheerful No. 7 (1947) incorporated both his native Czech and jazzy American idioms. In Dvorák’s great Op. 106, the players relished the luscious melodies and spiky Slavic rhythms while weaving a tapestry of independent voices.

Festival Chamber Music, a rotating group of freelance musicians, presented an unusual program in delightful performances: Milhaud’s humorous Suite for clarinet, violin and piano; Beethoven’s lyrical, exuberant Trio for clarinet, cello and piano Op. 38, transcribed from his Septet; songs by Amy Beach with violin and cello obbligatos, and Schubert’s “Shepherd on the Rock.” Cellist/director Ruth Sommers, violinist Theodore Arm and soprano Amy Cofield Williamson were excellent; pianist Hélène Jeanney and clarinetist Charles Neidich, the program’s busiest participants, captured the music’s diverse moods and styles with soloistic brilliance and collaborative sensitivity.

To celebrate his 85th birthday, Pierre Boulez conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in two concerts featuring Béla Bartók: the Concerto for two pianos and percussion, splendidly performed by Pierre–Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich, and “Bluebeard’s Castle,” sung with mesmerizing impact (in Hungarian) by Michelle DeYoung and Falk Struckmann. The orchestra’s principal flutist Mathieu Dufour played Marc-André Dalbavie’s Concerto brilliantly; the orchestra showed its virtuosity and wonderful sound in works by Ravel, Boulez, and Stravinsky’s “Firebird.”

Boulez shared conducting duties with Daniel Barenboim when Carnegie Hall invited the Vienna Philharmonic to open its season with three concerts. The orchestra sounded glorious; intonation and balance were perfect; the playing was rich and homogeneous, yet clear. Except for two Beethoven symphonies, the programs departed from the orchestra’s usual fare with substantial works by Schoenberg, Webern and Boulez. In the first concert, Barenboim’s “Pastoral” Symphony was expansively lyrical; juxtaposing the lush, sensuous finale of Wagner’s “Tristan” with Schoenberg’s Variations demonstrated the birth of a new style from the ashes of the old one. A noisy exodus of disgruntled listeners midway caused Barenboim to announce an encore “for those who stayed” – a fast and furious Johann Strauss Polka.