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Snack-sized reviews--Young, Lortie, Vienna Symphony

Snack-sized reviews from recent travels

All seats were sold out for Simone Young, the exciting Australian conductor, and the Vienna Symphony on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2015. No wonder: the Wunderfrau of the podium was leading one of Vienna’s top-flight ensembles in the rarely heard Dante Symphony by Franz Liszt. I managed to buy a ticket from an elderly woman who arrived at Vienna's Konzerthaus, rosy as Homer’s dawn, at the last moment.

The program began with an energetic performance of the Schrumpf-Symphonie by Austrian composer Kurt Schwertsik, but all was quickly overshadowed by the brilliance of Liszt’s transcription of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy, eloquently interpreted by Louis Lortie, a pianist who deserves to be more widely known in the States. European audiences truly crave encores, more than do their American counterparts, and Lortie provided a beautiful short work by Liszt, a world of subtlety, variety, depth in a few minutes that passed like a delightful dream.

The Dante Symphony? Meh. This work begins promisingly enough, but drones on and on until it remembers where it is and concludes in a captivating sweep of sound. A great concert overall, though, and while Young has conducted major operatic and symphonic orchestras for decades, I still am amazed every time I see a woman wield the baton. Hurrah for Simone, Marin, Joann, and all the women who now lead orchestras. For women of my generation, it is a miracle, but one long overdue.

Princeton Symphony Orchestra and Koh Soar in Stunning New Work & a Rachmaninoff Favorite

Women’s creativity in music—the theme of the new Princeton Symphony Orchestra season—knows no limits to judge by the concert series’ opener, “Graceful Pairings,” Sept. 27, 2015, in Alexander Hall on the Princeton University campus.

Rossen Milanov, music director, led what many call New Jersey’s finest symphonic ensemble in a remarkable new work by composer Anna Clyne, featuring a stand-out solo performance by the incredible Jennifer Koh, violinist. The Seamstress is basically a two-movement concerto for violin and what I call a “loaded” orchestra: four horns, harp, contrabassoon, and all the regulars.

I usually shy away from programmatic interpretations of music (“It sounds like a train!” and other banal comments come to mind), but this profound work, rich in modulations, textures, rhythmic variety, reminded me of nothing so much as Debussy’s La Mer, impressions of the sea.

This should not surprise, since the first three letters of Clyne’s masterful work are S-E-A. Yes, we can wax programmatic a bit, since the rhythms and patterns of a woman’s needlework wizardry recall the ebb and flow of ocean tides, the rhythm of waves that Matthew Arnold said “Begin, and cease, and then again begin/With tremulous cadence slow.”

Clyne (born in 1980) explains that she wanted to retain an organic sound, but her music says all this with immediacy and eloquence. There is the labor of the seamstress, there is the rhythm, rush, and roar of the sea, and there is also something else, something timeless, organic, but not to be named.

Structurally, the first section of this work sounded to me like a chaconne, a musical form that intersperses variations with a return to the main thematic material. Koh begins the work solo, with a riveting line of pure sonority. Violins sound so wonderful in Richardson Auditorium; you can almost smell the rosin and the fruity oils of the wood. The orchestra then steps in and both instruments (orchestra and solo violin) blend their distinctive sounds through a cascade of variations.

Clyne’s symphonic writing is truly gripping; instead of mild modulations, entire sections of the orchestra seem to drop, like tectonic plates falling in sheets during an earthquake. It is startling, almost like a blow to the chest, but the music rises, and there are healing glissandos that always land on precisely the right note.

Koh’s physical presence also contributed to the beauty of a work which is sometimes serene, other times agitated and uneasy. She wore a pale champagne tinted gown, strapless to reveal muscular shoulders. Her black hair, short, was frequently tossed a la Beatles.

Milanov cut a commanding, but elegant figure at the podium, an image of dignity and grace, with reserved motions and a controlled approach quite different from his stance in the second work on the program, Rachmaninoff’s sumptuous Second Symphony. What a luxurious indulgence it is for audiences to surrender to the power and almost overwhelming beauty of its melodies and sonorities. In this work, Milanov melted into sweeping gestures, embracing and letting go, as though releasing the music from his heart into the pit. A pit is a kind of heart, isn’t it. It’s a long work, almost an hour, but a lively one, with patches of frenzy to offset the lyricism, some splendid percussion work providing the skeleton on which all the lushness drapes.

The last hushed whispers of the end of the third movement: have they ever been captured so eloquently? I thought of the sobs ending the funeral movement of Beethoven’s Eroica, but these final notes were more austere and visceral, a series of fading heart beats culminating in silence.

The fourth movement, in contrast, is almost raucous, wildly captivating, fast and racy. I have seldom seen a conductor enjoy himself and have so much fun as Milanov did in the extended cymbal crash sequence that leads to the conclusion of a highly satisfactory symphony splendidly performed.

The next concert in the series will be “Heartfelt Virtuosity” at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8, preceded by a 3 p.m. talk for ticket holders. See www.PrincetonSymphony.org for more details. (Photo of Maestro Milanov and the orchestra at the conclusion of the concert.)

Czech quartet to perform in Princeton on Oct. 15, 2015

The Pavel Haas String Quartet from the Czech Republic will perform works by Martinu, Dvorak, and Beethoven in concert 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, in Alexander Hall on the Princeton University campus.

The program will feature Martinu’s String Quartet No. 3, Dvorak’s String Quartet No. 9 Op. 34, and Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 59, No., 2, one of the Razumovsky quartets. Princeton University Professor Scott Burnham will offer a pre-concert talk, free to all ticketholders, at 7 p.m.

Tickets are available online at princetonuniversityconcerts.org, by phone at 609-258-9220, or in person two hours prior to the concert at the Richardson Auditorium Box Office. (Photo by Marco Borggreve)

Innovation, tradition with a twist of Limón: American Repertory Ballet sails into 2015-16 season

by Linda Holt

Wanted: Performance partners, no experience necessary. Without leaving your seats, engage with professional dance and have an in-person conversation with the arts.

So might a classified ad read for the new season of the American Repertory Ballet (ARB), a community-based professional dance company with an international influence. The Season Premiere is 7:30 p.m. Sept. 25 and 26 in Rider University’s Bart Luedeke Student Center.
“Dance…this art…is really about participation,” explains Douglas Martin, now in his sixth year as artistic director of an organization that includes a professional dance company (also called ARB), a world-class dance school (the Princeton Ballet School), and an educational outreach component (DANCE POWER and On Pointe).

“The audience is in fact 50 percent of the performance,” said Martin. “This is live, exciting art at its best, where the performers draw energy and encouragement from the responses of the audience, while viewers are themselves transported by the creation of living works of art.”

Martin began dancing with the Princeton group 22 years ago, rising to ballet master, and eventually joining the renowned Joffrey Ballet in New York City. In his early years, Martin studied with Dmitri Romanoff at the San Jose Ballet School. Romanoff was the “dharma heir” of greats such as Michel Fokine, who choreographed Petrushka for Stravinsky, Léonide Massine, who choreographed the Rite of Spring.

This season Martin has brought in Sarah Stackhouse, long-time dancer and assistant with José Limón (1908-1972), to stage There is a Time, one of Limón’s most famous choreographies. Stackhouse studied with Limón, who in turn studied with the great Doris Humphrey (1895-1958), providing another example of the importance of lineage and legacy in the creative world. “Our dancers in this major performance are just two dancers away from Doris Humphrey,” Martin noted. During her three week residency with ARB, Stackhouse is coaching today’s ARB dancers to recreate the nuances of Limón’s unique choreography, which was often customized to fit the physical and psychological nature of individual dancers.

There is a Time expresses the themes of a section of the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes which begins, “To everything there is a season… A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted…”

ARB will perform this acclaimed modern dance production, rich with moving images of birth, life, death, and renewal, October 20 through 22 as part of the José Limón Festival at the Joyce Theater in New York City. Even more exciting, the dancers will repeat this performance April 8 in Princeton’s McCarter Theatre.


From the light-hearted to the sublime

An integral part of Princeton and surrounding communities for 61 years, the American Repertory Ballet is launching its Season Premiere Sept. 25 and 26 with a fresh program that embraces three forms of dance: classical, neo-classical, and modern.

“The three ballets in the Season Premiere are in different styles,” Martin noted during an interview at APB’s spacious studios at the Princeton Shopping Center. “One of the things I did in the Joffrey Ballet was to the show the audience the diversity of the company. It’s quite impressive that we do such varied, diverse repertoire whether it’s classical, 20th century, or very contemporary. Our company prides itself in being able to represent those three styles in a very true fashion. It’s not like we’re a modern company trying to do ballet. We want you to see the ballet and feel like you are seeing a top-notch ballet company, and same for the other styles.”

The Season Premiere program features:
• Martin’s lyrical choreography, Ephemeral Possessions, set to Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings (“Dance is ephemeral, fleeting,” noted Martin. “When it is over, all we have are memories”);
• Kirk Peterson’s Glazunov Variations, set to the music of Glazunov for the classical ballet, Raymonda; and
• ARB Resident Choreographer Mary Barton’s light-hearted Straight Up with a Twist, set to music by contemporary folk music composer Kaila Flexer.

“It’s wonderful music,” said Martin. “Three years ago, she came over and performed it with her band. It has Klezmer, gypsy airs, all sorts of things..lots of fun.”

By design, ARB will perform the same program 10 days later at the Union County Performing Arts Center’s Hamilton Stage in Rahway. “We’re truly a repertory company, and that’s a dying breed because companies can’t tour anymore,” Martin said. “The community concert series money (that once sustained these groups) is now gone. Fortunately, our ‘misfortune’ in not having a home theater to live in allows us to perform all over and to offer our ballets in different settings over the years.”

And then there’s Nutcracker

The ballet most associated with ARB and the Princeton Ballet School is Nutcracker. “We’re talking about a real five-week season of Nutcrackers during November and December,” Martin said. “It’s such a wonderful family tradition that has been embraced by people of many diverse cultures and religious backgrounds. In fact, it’s so widely loved and part of the winter holidays, many people don’t even realize it’s a ballet, and that’s fine: just enjoy!”
Choreographed by Martin, this year’s production also will include the original party scene, choreographed by company founder Audrée Estey. Nutcracker will be offered at McCarter Theatre in Princeton on Wednesday, Nov. 25, at 7 p.m.; Friday , Nov. 27, at 2 and 5:30 p.m.; and Saturday, Nov. 28, at 1 and 4:30 p.m. The company also will offer its first Sensory Friendly performance of Nutcracker for children and adults with special needs on Sunday, Nov. 22 at 1 p.m., at UCPAC in Newark. Additional ARB performances of Nutcracker will be held in other New Jersey locations between Nov. 21 and Dec. 20.

ARB’s ambitious program continues in the New Year with A Midsummer Night’s Dream March 18 and 19 in Branchburg; Spring into Dance, April 1, in Rahway; Masters of Dance and Music, featuring There is a Time choreographed by José Limón, April 8, in McCarter Theatre; and Echoes of Russian Ballet, April 15, in the State Theatre in New Brunswick.


Dancing for life and to be alive

Concurrent with the professional dance company, the Princeton Ballet School continues to offer classes to children and adults of all ages, “from morning to night,” Martin said. “Don’t be surprised to hear that a 70-year-old friend is taking classes here, either for enjoyment or to experience the thrill of a walk-on part in one of our productions.” Classes include classical ballet but also modern and contemporary forms, all celebrating the ABS philosophy of art as a face-to-face conversation among people.

“Involved audiences are half the equation,” said Martin. “When we are here, the dancers are simply working and taking direction. But when the audience is present, it’s quite extraordinary. There’s that moment when the audience gasps or breaks into applause: then, there is a communication with the dancers that is pure magic.

“Television is fine,” he said, “it will be there. But turn it off. Go out and participate in other people’s lives. Help make this living art happen. It’s about communicating your relationship in person to people. The world is getting so computerized, people think they are communicating on Facebook! You need live conversation. With the performing arts, you know you are alive and living in the moment.”

Additional opening events include “Meet the Dancers” as part of the On Pointe series, 5:15 p.m. Sept. 23; an Open House Dress Rehearsal, 4:30 p.m. Sept. 24; and the State of the Art Address, 6 p.m. Sept. 24, all at Rider University’s Bart Luedeke Center in Lawrenceville, N.J., free of charge and open to the public.

Further information on the ARB Fall and Winter Season, including Nutcracker ticket information, may be obtained at www.ARBallet.org .

Princeton Festival triumphs with dazzling production of The Marriage of Figaro

Review in 6/18/15 issue of TimeOff, the cultural magazine of the Princeton Packet newspaper:

'The Marriage of Figaro' The Princeton Festival marries slapstick with the sublime with Mozart’s opera

By Linda Holt

Laugh, cry, laugh until you cry: The Princeton Festival is ringing in summer with The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Mozart’s great comic opera, in a dazzling and delightful production at McCarter Theatre.

Under the baton of conductor and the festival’s artistic director Richard Tang Yuk, and with direction by Steven LaCosse, some of Mozart’s most beloved music takes flight thanks to spirited performances by a cast of world-class singers and an orchestra to match. The scandalous escapades of an assortment of characters, lovable rascals all, unfold seamlessly, as though the performers had worked as an ensemble for many years. This production looks as gorgeous as it sounds thanks to elegant sets by Peter Dean Beck, evocative lighting by Norman Coates, and eye-appealing costumes, works of art in themselves, managed by Marie Miller.

Last year, McCarter Theatre presented the play by Beaumarchais upon which Mozart’s opera is based. Both versions were highly controversial in their day (the 1780s) for, among other things, depicting the triumph of wily servants over their master, something perceived as a threat to the social order. A somewhat risqué subtext gives the tale a modern sensibility. There are no ecclesiastical or government authorities weighing in on moral decisions. Love itself and basic human decency, grounded in reason, ultimately prevail over the darker forces of lust and domination.

The twists and turns of an increasingly hilarious plot involve the lecherous Count (Sean Anderson) who hopes to bed his wife’s chambermaid Susanna (Haeran Hong) on the eve of her marriage to his servant, Figaro (Jonathan Lasch). Susanna and the Countess (Katherine Whyte) plot to out the Count’s plan, embarrass him, and return him to the arms of his beautiful, long-suffering wife, allowing Susanna and Figaro to marry without incident.

Other characters adding spunk and richness to this nuanced drama include the love-besotted page, Cherubino, played by a soprano in male costume (Cassandra Zoé Velasco). Things take a more contemporary turn as in one scene, the Countess and Susanna attempt to pass off the protesting lad as a member of the female staff, resulting in some Victor Victoria-esque humor.

All well and good for a fun-filled tale of intrigue, slapstick, and wit. But it’s the music that makes The Marriage, a work still fresh and bright after more than 200 years. Mozart seems to have breathed out the entire score in one celestial breath. Exciting overture to duet to aria to quartet and beyond: the solos, ensembles, and even the graceful recitatives flood the listener in one harmonious inundation of sound and feeling. Even novice opera goers whisper, “Ah, I know that song,” or “Where have I heard that before?” much as people on the streets of Vienna in 1786 hummed and whistled the tunes on their way to work. And, indeed, I challenge anyone attending this production not to be humming the tunes the next day.

Fortunately, in this production, all the singers are up to the challenge of articulating these melodies in the most expressive, enjoyable, and memorable style. But in opera, the singing cannot be separated from acting and dance (using the broad sense of dance as moving purposefully and expressively on stage).

As Figaro, Mr. Lasch expresses all the character’s qualities convincingly: humor, strength, determination, wit, deviousness, devotion. His resonant baritone voice can be brash, graceful, insinuating, as it is in the Act I aria, “Se vuol ballare, Signor Contino.” (If, dear Count, you feel like dancing). With a clever touch, Act III moves directly to Act IV against a black curtain, as Figaro tiptoes into the garden, bewailing the fickleness of women. “Don’t you agree?” he asks the male members of the audience. “These fickle ladies are all about you!” And at this the theater lights rise briefly so gentlemen in the audience can look around and see for themselves.

Figaro is sometimes portrayed as a scamp, but Mr. Lasch offers a much richer interpretation, lifting him above the role of vaudeville protagonist into a higher level of understanding, without sacrificing humor or wit. Like other members of this cast, Mr. Lasch is master of the stage, striding confidently, cowering behind a chair, or engaging in a few graceful dance steps as called for.

As Susanna, Ms. Hong conveys the freshness of youth, with a clear, silvery voice, especially evident in the haunting aria, “Deh vieni” in Act IV. There is a warm physicality in the way she and the other characters move and relate to each other that brings authenticity and — above and beyond the farcical elements of the opera — wins our empathy and trust.

One of the great ovations on opening night went to Katherine Whyte as the dignified Countess following her breathtaking interpretation of “Dove sono i bei moment” (Where are the lovely moments of sweetness and pleasure?) in Act IV (for the dramatic lead into the aria, the orchestra deserves kudos as well). Her husband is seducing her chambermaid, they are setting a trap to ensnare him, but will it have the effect the two women desire? Where indeed have the lovely moments gone in their storybook romance?

Sean Anderson is imposing, overbearing, and ultimately contrite as the Count, a role with great demands on the singer as a musician and performer. It seems cruel not to single out each singer and the vibrant chorus for special mention. Zoé Velasco’s Cherubino was especially noteworthy, a spritely, nimble, and charming performance, physically as well as vocally. This opera has a superabundance of baritones and sopranos, making it interesting to compare the different qualities of voices in each category. Zoé Velasco’s voice has a beguiling warmth conducive to boyish declarations of love.

Other major players, who join together in the final great ensemble of Act IV, include Kathryn Kasovec as Marcellina, an older servant who wishes to steal Figaro from Susanna; Ricardo Lugo as Bartolo; David Kellett as Don Basilio, two scheming professionals; Paul An as the troublemaker Antonio, played with spot-on vaudeville élan; Vincent DiPeri as Don Curzio. And let me mention a small but significant contribution: a bright young operatic star, Jessica Beebe, as Barbarina, Antonio’s daughter, who stole hearts with the only aria in the minor mode, L’ho perduta, me meschina — (I’ve lost it, poor me). To bring such authenticity and expression to a small part signifies a great talent. Hoping to hear more good things about this soprano in the years ahead. There is, of course, one glaring negative to this production of The Marriage of Figaro: only two more performances remain. Those will be held on consecutive Sundays, at 3 p.m. on June 21 and 28 in McCarter Theatre as part of the Festival’s program of summertime concerts. This has been an opera well worth waiting for, and not to be missed.

Photo by Jessi Franko: Jonathan Lasch in The Princeton Festival’s production of The Marriage of Figaro.

The Marriage of Figaro continues at McCarter Theatre, June 21 and June 28, 3 p.m. For tickets and information, go to www.princetonfestival.com or call 609-258-2787.

International Journal publishes "Beethoven the Philosopher"

My paper, "Beethoven the Philosopher: A Reflection," appears in the June 2015 edition of Philosophy Pathways electronic newsletter: http://www.philosophypathways.com/newsletter/issue194.html As summarized by editor, Richard Grego,
"The first essay on 'Beethoven the Philosopher' by Dr Linda Brown Holt
looks at the little-known but surprisingly pervasive influence of
German Enlightenment and Idealist philosophies on the artistic
development of Ludwig Von Beethoven's work at the turn of the 18th/
19th centuries. While Beethoven's musical transition from exemplar of
classicism to pioneer of the romantic style is well known, the
possible role that contemporaneous philosophical themes like freedom
and potentiality ---- characteristic of the romantic era ethos -- may
have played in inspiring this transition is little-examined and
largely unappreciated in the history of ideas. The essay establishes
a philosophical genealogy suggesting that this philosophical trend,
through the legacy of prominent professors at the university where
Beethoven studied philosophy, may have exerted a significant
formative influence on Beethoven's psychology and work.

Part II: Stephan Möller reveals spirit of Beethoven, and indeed, of life itself in 32 sonata cycle

It was with great pleasure and no little awe that I attended each of the eight recitals in the Freehold, N.J., Downtown Concert Series (DCS) presentation of the 32 Piano Sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven. The concerts ran from May 16 through 23, 2015, with one evening free, at least for the audience. (On that evening, the pianist, Stephan Möller, performed Beethoven’s monumental Hammerklavier - Sonata #29 in Carnegie Hall.) WWFM the Classical Network is occasionally broadcasting sonata movements from the DCS cycle on radio and at www.wwfm.org .

My first “review” of this series appeared on this blog last week (see below), covering Sonatas #1 through 11. Today’s blog entry reflects on the performance of Sonatas #12 through 32.

We hear about expression in music; but what is being expressed? For many, it is a musician’s idea of the music and frequently the musician’s own self image and ego, tightly packed with a lifetime of conditioning and assumptions.

There is nothing wrong with musicians proactively expressing themselves through their music. Music is one of the greatest avenues for expression of the ego. But rare is the musician who steps back, completely at the service of the composer, and allows the creative genius to shine through. Such a musician is Stephan Möller.

In an off-hand remark during the reception following the concert, the German pianist, now based in Vienna, mentioned that he had not previously played all 32 sonatas within a single week as a continuous cycle. This is truly extraordinary. For there is an irrepressible, interconnected momentum linking his performances, an organic force permeating each individual sonata and its relationship to those that precede and follow it. At the same time, the musician developed an intimate connection with the audience, a phenomenon that emerges in only the finest chamber ensembles and recitals.

Truly, something rare and unique was unfolding on a simple church stage on the edge of a New Jersey farm community: Möller was allowing us to glimpse the mind and soul of Beethoven, as few musicians have revealed it.

Throughout the series, Möller cut a dignified but accessible figure at the piano. There were none of the excessive theatrics some artists employ to mask their own lack of insight. Yes, here was a man who played music with his entire being, from thoughtful expression to abrupt gesture in concluding an agitated section, a portrait of absorption and service to the music, head to toe. Overall, Möller played with deep feeling and a kind of abandon that just borders on frenzy, then is softened with deliberation and poise. Surely, church acoustics and not exactly the world’s best piano were formidable challenges, but frankly, I never once thought about them until later, as an after-thought.

Möller and Mark Hyczko, DCS Artistic Director, provided welcome commentary before and between sets each evening. Sonatas #12 through #32 include some of Beethoven’s most well-known works, those which we think of by name, including the Moonlight, the Hunt, the Waldstein, Appassionata, the Farewell, and the massive Hammerklavier. These 21 sonatas evolve from the emotional conflicts of the composer’s stormy middle period, including his Herculean struggle with the onset of deafness, to a period of dryness, legal disputes, and disinterest, and finally into the sublime revelation of the last sonatas, one might call them Enlightenment sonatas, named not for the political era which had ended, but after the awakening which is the goal of the world’s great spiritual traditions.

As Möller pointed out in his short lecture on the last sonatas, they are life itself, emerging from stillness, existing for a brief while, and then returning to silence. There is nothing to add, he said: they are perfect. These are the closest to Beethoven we ever get, he continued, and while they are playing, “they lift us up to the sky.”

While Möller performed from memory with fire, spirit, and a commanding tone, he was most communicative in Beethoven’s richly eloquent pauses and ritardandi. Many of the listeners filling the pews will take with them forever the final image of the pianist, a tear glistening on his cheek, his head bowed in silence long after the last note in the sonata series faded like the distant echo of a dream.

The Downtown Concert Series of Freehold, N.J., is to be commended for its courage and passion for excellence in bringing this epic event to the eastern United States. Future offerings are listed at the DCS Web site, www.downtownconcertseries.org . The historic St. Peter’s Church is easy to find, and there are many good hotels, inns, and restaurants facilitating travel and comfort--Linda Holt

Photo below, taken at the Freehold series, by Mark Lamhut:

Möller Brings Passion, Power, and Sensitivity to Beethoven Piano Sonatas

I woke up this morning with sections of the first 11 piano sonatas by Beethoven romping in my brain. What an earworm! But hardly surprising. After all, I am close to halfway through the Beethoven Complete 32 Piano Sonata Cycle, with Stephan Möller, a pianist of breathtaking vision, energy, and sensitivity, thanks to the Downtown Concert Series (DCS) in Freehold, N.J.

The highly regarded German pianist, who also conducts, records, teaches, and leads the Vienna International Pianists Association and Academy, has been enthralling large audiences each night in St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, founded in 1702 (quite a bit before Beethoven). At this writing, Professor Möller has completed the first 11—including the driving Pathétique—since Saturday, May 16. The seven-night series (no concert Friday) will end with two complete recitals on Saturday, May 23, featuring what many consider the greatest works composed for the piano, Beethoven’s Late Sonatas.

In brief remarks after an intermission, Möller warmly described the 32 sonatas as unique personalities, each having a distinctive character, moving the development of Western art music far along a trajectory that leaves classicism behind and forges new pathways into the future of music. Under Möller’s touch, each sonata speaks in its own voice. His style may be brisk and dynamic for some tastes, but there is no doubt, he knows exactly how to present these sonatas—works of three or four movements—in a way that newcomers to classical music as well as seasoned scholars can appreciate and enjoy. It is a joy to see and hear a pianist who plays with such relish and abandon. He understands the great shape and forms of these works, and because of this, is free to express and interpret with impunity, with the assurance that form is the servant of art, not its master.

Performing a Beethoven Cycle is the ultimate accomplishment for a great virtuoso, and a challenge of unimaginable proportions. To translate this into the art of drama, imagine an actor playing the lead in each of Shakespeare’s 37 plays in sequence over, say, a month in time. And of course, Shakespeare is in English, not the complex language of musical notation.

I hope to write more about this remarkable event, enthusiastically received by music-lovers from far beyond the Freehold city limits. But now I must prepare to hear the 14th sonata and enjoy some of the greatest music that ever issued from an individual intelligence. Great work DCS and Professor Möller! --Linda Holt

Remaining concerts are 7:30 p.m. May 19, 20, 21, and at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. May 23. Tickets at the door are $15 per concert, with a special rate of $25 for the two Saturday performances. St. Peter's Church is located at 33 Throckmorton St., Freehold, N.J. http://downtownconcertseries.org/#beethoven-the-complete-sonatas

Chamber Orchestra Celebrates 50 Years With Modern Flourishes & Classic LvB

Time flies when you’re playing great music. That new kid on the block, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The season concluded with a celebratory concert on Mother’s Day featuring two lively short works from the modern era and two Beethoven classics.

Although Beethoven composed the Triple Concerto Op. 56 and the Fifth Symphony Op. 67 just a few years apart in the dawn of the 19th century, both works have completely different temperatures. The Triple (for violin, cello, piano, and orchestra) is still redolent with the classical heritage of Mozart and Haydn, the Fifth forging new pathways of musical logic and sustained expressive power.

The program had an unusual shape and flow to it in terms of sound and energy. The explosive opening salvo was Brossé’s own composition, The Philadelphia Overture, dating from 2010, bright with chimes and brass. The work shows influences by Elmer Bernstein and John Williams, but the message is entirely Brossé’s own.

Following in contrast, the Triple unfolded with calm deliberation. Orchestrally, this was a performance muted to let the standout trio take center stage. The three soloists—violinist Soovin Kim, cellist Marie Elisabeth Hecker, and appropriately commanding pianist Ignat Solzhenitsyn—engaged in a true musical conversation, a tête-à-tête among their instruments which never faltered and showcased impeccable technique and deep understanding of this largely underappreciated work.

This attempt to showcase the trio, however, sometimes led to a quietist effect in the orchestra, where upper tones occasionally seemed to evaporate before they reached the ear. The overall effect, however, was a pleasing one, a long (30-minutes-plus), satisfying reverie between the attention-grabbing overture and the piquant Barber Toccata Festiva to follow. While all three soloists were superb, special note must be made of Hecker’s heavenly tone, especially evident at the beginning of the second movement.

The pitch of the program rose again after intermission as Alan Morrison, one of the great American organists and Haas Charitable Trust Chair in Organ Studies at Curtis Institute, joined the orchestra in Barber’s Toccata. What a strange, engaging work this is, complex in its structure and orchestration, alternating between organ and orchestra, gripping the attention of listeners at various levels of sophistication. This is a relentless, driving short work, with no let-up. Brossé and Morrison were certainly enjoying themselves, the tall organist’s fingers and feet flying over keys and pedals, creating a sensibility both modern and gothic. A little loud for me and perhaps for a Chamber orchestra, but Barber’s vision was well served in a rousing exposition.

For the last celebratory work, Brossé conducted Beethoven’s Fifth in all its familiar but still exultant glory. He took the orchestra lickety-split in a high-velocity whirl through the first movement. It was a little fast, but then, speed adds a kind of celebratory zest to a performance, and so it worked well for this occasion, if not for others.

Most of us never weary of this work, as strong a statement of hope and triumph as ever issued from a creative mind. In Beethoven’s case, that mind had no reason to hope at all, as he sank into the dark night of deafness and despair. His ascension out of that despair in the Fifth Symphony is what makes us keeping come back to it time and again. I suppose that inexhaustibility is what makes a classic, not only in symphonic music, but in other forms, like Jazz. Every time I hear a great performance of “Green Dolphin Street” or “I Remember Clifford,” it’s as though I am hearing it for the first time. O magnum mysterium.

Now five years at the helm of the Orchestra, Brossé truly is a wonderful conductor, and Philadelphia is lucky to have him. He provides a broad overview of a work, brings out compelling solo lines, sometimes in ways that surprise (such as the drawn-out oboe solo in the otherwise breath-taking celerity of the first movement). The orchestra is the right size with the ideal dynamic range for this work, though I admit, on occasion, I do love to hear that famous transition from the third to the fourth movement conducted by a latter-day Stokowski with a double-sized orchestra in the Hollywood Bowl!

Before the concert got underway, the Orchestra’s board members offered some affable congratulatory statements and introduced the group’s three conductors over a half century of music making: the founder, Mark Mostovoy, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, and Dirk Brossé. One of the Orchestra’s original musicians still plays in the first violin section: Igor Szwec. The audience cheered, and seldom have musicians and an ensemble deserved such a round of gratitude and praise. --Linda Holt

What, When, Where

The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, 50th Anniversary Concert, Dirk Brossé, conductor. Soovin Kim, violin; Marie Elisabeth Hecker, cello; Ignat Solzhenitsyn, piano; Alan Morrison, organ. Brossé, The Philadelphia Overture; Beethoven, The Triple Concerto in C Major Op. 56; Barber, Toccata Festiva; Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67. May 10, 2015, Verizon, the Kimmel Center, Broad and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia. http://www.chamberorchestra.org/ Below: Dirk Brossé conducting the Chamber Orchestra.

Möller to perform complete Beethoven Sonatas in New Jersey May 16-23, 2015

Tickets at a New Jersey venue are still available for the COMPLETE Beethoven piano sonatas featuring the gifted German pianist, Stephan Möller, starting May 16, 2015. If you have any interest in great, passionate music, you won't want to miss this rare and exciting opportunity in a venue easily accessible to music lovers in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania! There are plenty of good hotels in the area (Freehold, N.J., USA) for those who plan to attend the entire cycle May 16 through May 23. https://www.facebook.com/events/874027479305366/

Art before Breakfast...just don't do it in public!

Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are by Danny Gregory

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Cheerful little book, impossible to dislike. However, I have the impression the artist had all these sketches sitting around and didn't know what to do with them, so he put them together in this book, with the title and intent as afterthoughts. I enjoyed listening to his interview on NPR and hope to sketch more as a result.

There is still a stigma, though, of people drawing in public. Our culture, regardless of what our leaders say, is hostile to the arts and views them as a waste of time and money, showing off, even a threat. Adults who take music or art lessons are viewed as self-centered and selfish, although children are still encouraged to take lessons as long as it doesn't interfere with sports and passing exams.

I think a subversive, revolutionary approach to drawing would be more effective.



View all my reviews

Stamitz's Viola Concerto, treasures by Mozart and Beethoven

Although titled “Beethoven and Mozart,” three composers from the Classical Era, who knew each other in a sense, headlined an exciting Philadelphia Orchestra concert April 10, 2015, under the masterful direction of Paul Goodwin.

The Third Man in this trilogy of music masters is Carl Stamitz (1745 to 1801), whose lilting Viola Concerto in D received a rare performance by the Philadelphians, with Choong-Jin Chang, principal violist, playing spectacularly and sfrom the heart.

While in his late 30s, Stamitz, a virtuoso violist celebrated throughout Europe, shared billing with a scruffy 12-year-old piano prodigy during a concert in the Hague at the end of 1783. To further the sting of performing on the same bill as a Wunderkind, the boy was paid four times Stamitz’s fee.

Yet, possibly inspired by Stamitz, the child went on to become a professional violist in two Bonn orchestras before leaving for Vienna at age 21. There, he composed a number of symphonies, including the Fourth featured in Friday’s program. Yes, the child prodigy turned violist turned master composer was none other than Beethoven.

Mozart, on the other hand, may not have met the elder violist, though he shared a few choice words in a letter to his father in 1778 about the Stamitz brothers Carl and Anton: “…(they) are indeed two wretched scribblers, gamblers, swillers and adulterers—not the kind of people for me.” Historians think Mozart was simply having a bad day in Paris when he wrote those words, but it was assuredly a great day in Salzburg when he composed the tuneful Symphony in D major (the “Posthorn”) K. 320.

The Symphony is, in fact, essentially the same work (with fewer movements) as the beloved Serenade Number 9, the “Posthorn,” dating from 1779. Goodwin is the man to conduct this refined but spirited work, hitting exactly the right tone in terms of speed, lightness, control, melodic emphasis, and dynamics. Director of the Carmel Bach Festival and associate conductor with the Academy of Ancient Music, Goodwin brought poise and energy to the podium, an attractive music conjurer, and not surprisingly, his experience with earlier music gives him a profound but appealing insight into classical forms.

The orchestra shed its brass and percussion for the intimate Stamitz Viola Concerto, a work some dismiss as pedantic, but in the hands of Goodwin, the Orchestra, and Chang, a delightful work. How seldom we hear the viola cast as a solo instrument. I’ve often thought the only problem with a viola is that listeners want it to sound like a violin. That was not the case in this concert, where Chang played warmly, from the heart, with deep feeling. A brilliant cadenza, and some noteworthy solo work in the second movement, made this a memorable performance. Very moving, and a cautionary tale for those who expect music from the late 1700s to sound cool and detached.

Intermission separated these two masterworks of classical refinement from Big Bad Beethoven, an overture and a symphony from the man who took music to a new level of power, energy, and insight. Goodwin chose the seldom-performed Overture to the Consecration of the House (the house being a rebuilt theater in Vienna). Beethoven had a knack for weaving military band effects into some of his most noteworthy creations, and this work is no exception, with a choir of four French horns, three trombones, two trumpets, timpani, and strings and woodwinds. Animated, alternating between crouches and leaps, his three-quarter frock coat flapping, Goodwin drew out a bombastic sound just right for a work of public celebration. There is a fugue toward the end which is truly soul-satisfying to hear, Beethoven having mastered fugal writing around this time (1822) as witness the spectacular fugue of the Missa Solemnis, also from this period.

The concert concluded with the Fourth Symphony in B-flat, another of those complex, evolving works that Beethoven was able to spin from the bones of a few rhythmic patterns. The Fourth tends to get lost between the two giants: the Eroica which revolutionized the symphony and the Fifth which every grade school child can identify. Too bad, for it’s a treasure trove of musical ideas, driven by a pulsing energy and sense of urgency that’s rare even for Beethoven. Again, Goodwin is spot-on throughout, capturing every twitch and tingle in a relentless torrent of sound.

This concert was exhilarating and enlightening throughout. Let’s see and hear more of Paul Goodwin in Philadelphia, and come to think of it, more violas, please!

Film "Woman in Gold": How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Cast adrift in a sea of gold, Adele Bloch-Bauer gazes at the viewer with doe-like eyes, her sensuous red lips on the verge of speech, her right hand unnaturally bent at the wrist (you can almost hear it crack). Mosaic golden tissue flutters across the surface, a wedge of green carpet below its only anchor. Created by Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862–1918), son of a gold engraver and a leader of the Viennese Secessionist movement, the painting, “Woman in Gold,” continues to mesmerize admirers since its creation in 1907.

To Maria Altmann, however, the 54 x 54-inch canvas was simply a portrait of beloved Aunt Adele, who died at age 44 long before the Nazis ripped it from the wall of the family home. Maria and her husband made a harrowing flight from Vienna not long after, shown in flashbacks in Simon Curtis’s Woman in Gold. The film itself is a glittering mosaic, flashes of the life that Maria, by this time a widow residing in Pasadena, lived until her death in 2006, snatches of the past, memories steeped in Viennese culture, beauty, and family, the devastation wrought by German anti-Semitism, and an unlikely intersection with the path of a young lawyer, E. Randol Schoenberg, who just happened to be the grandson of the composer who developed the 12-tone row. (The actual E. Randol Schoenberg co-wrote the script.)

Complicated, right? Yet much of the film is a delicately choreographed pas de deux between Maria (Helen Mirren) and Randol (Ryan Reynolds) as they alternately pursue and withdraw from a chase for legal documents and justice that takes them to archives and courtrooms over a 10-year period.

Can Maria claim rightful ownership of the Klimt portrait, which after the war was mounted at Vienna’s Belvidere Museum? What are the rights of families whose art treasures were plundered 50 years before? How long and at what expense should those families persist in their quest for restitution, and is there a point when the struggle should be given up? Is “Austria’s Mona Lisa,” as the Klimt has been called, part of the Austrian people’s heritage?
The issue of art restitution is a thorny one. Woman in Gold takes the position that art taken from families should be restored to families. Others argue that great art belongs to humanity, and efforts to wrest it from safekeeping in museums and public collections represent elitism and, at worst, could result in damage or loss during the transportation and restitution process.

Curtis’s film addresses these issues deftly, though not definitively, through his actors, who are impeccable, with standout performances by Mirren and Reynolds, to cameos by Elizabeth McGovern (Curtis’s wife) as a judge and the incomparable Charles Dance, who can play a cold-hearted attorney like no other actor, as Schoenberg’s inflexible employer.

And what more can be said about Dame Helen? Her uncanny ability to channel her characters illuminates Maria, a frail but indomitable survivor, charming, but not someone you’d want to work for. There is a wistful tenderness to her performance, as though she were adept at juggling eggs on the tip of a pen. There are no false moves or inflection in an accent which is subtle and always right, never bordering on parody as with some well-known performers. Similarly, Reynolds merges with the far less complicated character of the naïve young lawyer who increasingly finds himself pulled into a maelstrom of international proportions. The characters evolve throughout the film, slipping into new understandings, new memories, little epiphanies that flicker like fireworks across faces genuinely surprised by a sense of shared purpose. It is this subtle interplay between the lead actors that most captivates the viewer.

There is a cliché frequently voiced about accounts of World War II: “We must never forget.” But we do, no matter how eloquent the statements of Spielberg, Polanski, and others. Films like Woman in Gold remind us that at the center of history are individual people with stories of breathtaking power, courage, and insight, and relationships of delicate complexity. The stories must be told over and over, an unending source of great art and the deepest sort of collective self-awareness. --Linda Holt



Photo courtesy of www.Klimt.com

Beethoven's Sunny Sixth, not quite a Perfect Storm - March 13, 2015

The following is an excerpt of a review, to be published, of the Philadelphia Orchestra's March 13, 2015, concert.

There’s a little suburb just north of Vienna, Austria, where Ludwig van Beethoven, going deaf and considering suicide, retreated in 1802 to write his last will and testament. To the relief of the human race, the composer largely got over his dark slump, and in the same neighborhood, filled with white-washed cottages, golden vineyards, and near a little brook about the size of a drainage ditch, he later worked on his Sixth Symphony, the Pastoral.

The Sixth was premiered in the famous “monster concert” of the composer’s works in the Theater an der Wien on December 22, 1808, when Beethoven was 38. It was the first work on the four-hour-plus program, which also featured the debut of the Fifth Symphony. Often called the sunniest of the master’s nine symphonies, the Sixth formed part of an elegant pre-Spring program March 13, 2015, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cristian Macelaru, conductor-in-residence, at the podium.

The young conductor, winner of the Solti Award and considered a rising star in the symphonic firmament, led the orchestra in a huge, gushing, no-holds-barred performance. Nothing wrong with that; it does justice to Beethoven and brings smiles of delight to winter-weary audiences.

However. Beethoven’s sunniest symphony is also one of his airiest and most transparent. If ever a work cried out for original instruments, scaled down forces, subtle innuendos, and a lighter touch, it is the radiant Sixth. I don’t think it was my location in the Kimmel Center (in Philadelphia, Pa.), since I had the same seat the previous week with no ill effects, but the work at times seemed to slog through the heavy weight of cellos and violas, especially in the opening two movements. As close to program music as a Beethoven symphony gets, these sections seemed less reminiscent of a gurgling brook and more like Thor heaving lightning bolts down the Rhine.

Yet, there were crystalline moments, including some elegant woodwind playing at the end of the second movement, poignant when we recall that by this time, Beethoven could no longer hear birdsongs in the natural world he loved so well. Just as Shakespeare can withstand endless variations and settings, from Italian medieval to American Mafia, Beethoven’s symphonies thrive on a rich variety of interpretations. While not my preferred reading of the Sixth, Macelaru’s version is compelling, exciting, and should keep audiences who value thrills over nuance coming back for more.

November 2014 Organ Blast at Kimmel Center

The new organ on stage at the Kimmel Center, notes my son-in-law, looks like a crustacean. How appropriate for the instrument of Bach (“brook” in German) I thought as Paul Jacobs, organist extraordinaire, stepped briskly onto the stage, conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin in hot pursuit.

It was the November 7th matinee with the Philadelphia Orchestra, some of the finest instrumentalists in the nation, performing an exciting program of Buxtehude/Chavez, Guilmant (who? more of that later), and Sir Edward Elgar (familiar, yes; stuffy, no). The Orchestra did something a little unusual this past weekend, by presenting the same program at three different times (the rule), but switching organists and the middle composition so each program offered a different piece (the exception). Why hadn’t I thought of that!

We matinee-goers lucked out with the Symphony #1 by 19th century French master, Alexandre Guilmant, who apparently was the chat’s meow in his day, but largely neglected now (this work sadly overshadowed by Saint-Saens’ grand Organ Symphony). Quelle tragédie! This was a big, lush, plush, emotional, intelligent work, all three movements of it, with lots of spectacular organ fireworks. Jacobs, who has a very amiable smile and physical presence, performed spectacularly, teasing out tender phrases, or stomping out those rich deep undertones as his feet, in those cute little Cuban heels organists wear, flew across the pedalboard. Seriously, pipe organists should rule the world, there is no doubt about it.

Jacobs’ encore, Bach’s C Major fugue BWV 564.3, whipped up the crowd to organistic-orgiastic fervor (ok, it was a matinee, I know; there were lots of seniors, but not to be underestimated!). But all this—-Guilmant, Bach—-was preceded by another gem I for one did not know: the Carlos Chávez orchestration of a chaconne by Bach’s predecessor and sort-of contemporary, Dieterich Buxtehude. Yes, you read that correctly: Carlos Chávez, the dean of 20th century Mexican composers! What a huge sound this orchestra can make, and Yannick really draws out the lyricism without sacrificing the power.

The orchestration was richly textured, with some brilliant trumpet work. Very nice, let’s hear it more often. After the break, a chestnut of sorts: Elgar’s Enigma Variations. But even this was fresh and snappy under Yannick’s touch. Though I had enough of the main theme by the 14th section, in between Movement I and XIV, oh, what loveliness. Many fine solo tidbits in this work, with special note to the Orchestra’s principal tympanist Don S. Liuzzi.

Emanuel Ax Enthralls, Yannick & Phil Orch in Top Form March 6, 2015

The day after what may have been winter’s worst storm, the Kimmel Center rocked with high spirits March 6 as Emanuel Ax performed in a stunning Philadelphia Orchestra program.

Ax, one of America’s finest classical pianists, presented a compelling Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, the only one of the five in the moody minor mode. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, in top form, led the full orchestra in the powerhouse concerto, full of Beethoven’s riveting Middle Period bombastics, but also infused with a lyricism and yearning seldom heard in music before his time.

Ax’s robust performance married perfectly with the new Philadelphia sound, with a richness of tone, a firm attack, and a melting delicacy when called upon in the second movement. In the third and final movement, I noticed that Ax, who looked a bit like Roger Ebert in the peak of his health and waggishness, was so involved in the music in between his solo parts that he seemed to be co-conducting with Yannick. There was a big, sincere smile on his face as he relished each enthusiastic phrase teased out of the orchestra by its young, persuasive leader.

Perhaps Yannick was even more buoyant than usual during the matinee as he had just received a 40th birthday cake on stage as the orchestra played “Happy Birthday,” sung-along by the near-capacity audience. Lots of fun, and I saw helpers in the lobby wearing “Yannick 40” athletic shirts, a fun touch for those of us happy to see the “stodgy” removed from the local classical music scene.

The Beethoven came after what may have been the most thrilling performance of a Haydn symphony I’ve ever heard. It was the Oxford Symphony, and again, there was no tip of the hat to original instruments and small-scale performance theory here: the full orchestra ripped into Haydn, and Haydn reciprocated splendidly. This is Haydn’s 92nd symphony, full of imagination, vitality, and surprises that astonish and delight. Haydn composed this perfectly balanced, almost edgy symphony in 1789 when he was 57 (in contrast, Beethoven died at the age of 56). Clearly, there is a lot more to Haydn than we’ve been led to believe by sleepy performances.

The concert concluded with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ startling Fourth Symphony, quite a brash departure for the English composer famed for his pastoral diversions. The Fourth is on this season’s 40/40 list (inspired by Yannick’s 40th birthday), a list of works rarely or never performed locally. It’s a huge, challenging work, and one that invites repeated hearings.

All in all, a memorable program and, for Yannick Nézet-Séguin, one helluva birthday party. (Photo of setting up before concert.)