By Sedgwick Clark<\/b><\/p>\n
Leon Botstein just ended his 20th season as music director of the American Symphony Orchestra, during which he led an opera-in-concert performance of Richard Strauss\u2019s Feuersnot<\/i>, Bruch\u2019s oratorio Moses<\/i>, a concert of English music that included Walton\u2019s Symphony No. 2, which Botstein called \u201cone of the great symphonies of the twentieth century\u201d (I\u2019d say that about his First, myself), an impressively conducted retrospective of the late Elliott Carter\u2019s music, and an equally impressively conducted program of 1920s avant-garde music by Antheil, Griffes (hardly modern, but a lovely respite in a challenging evening), Ruggles, Copland, and Var\u00e8se. The latter two\u2019s Organ Symphony and Am\u00e9riques<\/i>, respectively, were masterful. Need one add \u201crarely played\u201d to modify any of these works?<\/p>\n
His final concert of this season, on May 30, was downright exhilarating. The ASO is shipshape these days, the program featured neglected works by Reger, Bloch, Ives, and Szymanowski during World War I, and performances were largely successful. As always, Botstein\u2019s program essay was enlightening. He still resists taking the bull by the horns and interpreting<\/i> the music, apparently believing that an accurate presentation of the notes is sufficient. Max Reger\u2019s hymn to German supremacy, A Patriotic Overture <\/i>(1914), <\/i>complete with nods to Bach, Haydn, Bruckner, and Brahms, was properly broad in tempo and solemn in demeanor. I might have welcomed a touch more vigor and variation, but for all I know the performance was right on the metronome mark.<\/p>\n
Whatever happened to the music of Ernest Bloch? Perhaps his attempt to capture what Botstein calls \u201cJewish national aspirations\u201d in his music has caused conductors to think that it lacks universal appeal. Not even the once-popular cello concerto, Schelomo<\/i>, <\/i>gets played with any frequency these days. Well, I\u2019m as W.A.S.P. as they come, and I enjoyed Bloch\u2019s seldom-played Israel <\/i>Symphony (1912-16)\u2014and Botstein\u2019s performance\u2014immensely. Okay, the second movement (Allegro agitato<\/i>, \u201cYom Kippur\u201d) lacked atonement to my goyish ears. But in the outer movements, Botstein proved the Israel<\/i> a moving experience.<\/p>\n
Charles Ives composed his knotty Orchestral Set No. 2 in horrified response to the sinking of the British liner Lusitania by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,200 passengers and led to the U.S. entrance into World War I. However noble its aspirations, I\u2019ve always found it less engaging than the sensuous, pictorial First Orchestral Set, better known as Three Places in New England<\/i>, or the wild mish-mash of the Fourth Symphony. Botstein calls No. 2 \u201ca startlingly courageous essay in musical form, one that in its third movement highlights America\u2019s exceptional status and dramatic entrance into a transformative historical event.\u201d This Ives fan remains unconvinced, but not even Stokowski made much sense out of the piece.<\/p>\n
Szymanowski\u2019s steamy Symphony No. 3 (\u201cThe Song of the Night\u201d) made for a resounding finale. Suffused with Scriabin, Ravel\u2019s Daphnis et Chlo\u00e9<\/i>, and Szymanowski\u2019s own personal brand of sensual orientalism, the Third is one of his most alluring works. The composer\u2019s advocates have been predicting imminent acceptance for decades. Performances of this caliber are certainly in the right direction.<\/p>\n
Glenn Dicterow\u2019s NYPhil Heritage<\/strong><\/p>\n How well I recall Glenn Dicterow\u2019s initial concert in 1980 as the New York Philharmonic\u2019s new concertmaster. I weaseled my way backstage, where I found him, shook his hand, and exclaimed, \u201cAt last we have a concertmaster!\u201d<\/p>\n The Phil had had 14 years of six concertmasters or acting concertmasters since the retirement of John Corigliano, Sr., in 1966 after 23 years. His successor, David Nadien, who died only six weeks ago at age 88, had lasted for four years before returning to his previous, more lucrative pastures of recording studio commercials. I used to see him walking near Lincoln Center; he was the unhappiest looking man I\u2019ve ever seen. Three of his successors were at the tail end of distinguished careers, one had very suspect pitch, and another hated playing in the Phil so much that he quit midterm to become concertmaster in Dallas and, later, a highly praised teacher.<\/p>\n The 31-year-old Dicterow was already a born leader when appointed to that position by Zubin Mehta. Thirty-four years later he is leaving the Philharmonic to join the faculty of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music as the Robert Mann Chair in Strings and Chamber Music. A lot of West Coast violin students will thank their lucky stars.<\/p>\n The Philharmonic has thoughtfully released three well-chosen albums of Dicterow\u2019s invariably musical solo concerto performances. The first, available on CD and download, contains Bruch\u2019s No. 1 (Maazel, 2009), Bart\u00f3k\u2019s No. 1 (Gilbert, 2012), the Korngold (Robertson, 2008), and John Williams\u2019s Theme from Schindler\u2019s List <\/i>(Williams, 2006).<\/p>\n The second and third albums are available on download only. The second contains Aaron Jay Kernis\u2019s Lament and Prayer<\/i> (Maazel, 2005), Bernstein\u2019s Serenade <\/i>(Bernstein, 1986), the Barber (Masur, 1996), and Waxman\u2019s Carmen Fantasie <\/i>(Mehta, 1990). The third album contains Prokofiev\u2019s No. 2 (Mehta, 1985), Szymanowski\u2019s No. 1 (Masur, 2004), and Shostakovich\u2019s No. 1 (M. Shostakovich, 1982).<\/p>\n Superb Chamber Music at ERC<\/strong><\/p>\n ERC? That\u2019s the Ensemble for the Romantic Century, which has been mounting \u201ctheatrical concerts\u201d since 2001 under the artistic direction of pianists Eve Wolf and Max Barros. The concerts \u201cinterweave dramatic scripts based on letters, memoirs, diaries, and other literature with music, reinforcing the music\u2019s historical context through its connections with history, politics, philosophy, and the other arts.\u201d Purists may sniff at such conflation, but the company\u2019s thoroughly entertaining \u201cThe Trial of Oscar Wilde,\u201d heard at Symphony Space on June 20, was also one of the best chamber-music concerts I heard this season.<\/p>\n Chausson\u2019s Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet was the main work, its four movements spaced out throughout the evening among well-chosen pieces and movements by Satie, Faur\u00e9, Franck, Vaughan Williams. Interspersed between the musical selections, Oscar Wilde (Michael Halling) pleads innocent of his indiscretions with many of the famous witticisms for which he was famous, all for naught against the supercilious prosecutor, Lord Queensbury (Robert Ian Mackenzie), and Britain\u2019s strict laws against \u201cthe love that dare not speak its name.\u201d<\/p>\n One would think that the ERC\u2019s young musicians had performed together for years. Violinist Susie Park, veteran of the group, hails from Australia and has many credits to her career; she was violinist of the Eroica Trio from 2006-12 and becomes concertmaster of the Kalamazoo Symphony next season. Russian pianist Daria Rabotkina has a Masters from Mannes and a Doctorate from Eastman, but such gorgeous tone and natural rubato doesn\u2019t come from teaching alone.<\/p>\n ERC\u2019s next program is entitled \u201cBeethoven\u2019s Love Elegies,\u201d about his search for the perfect wife. It\u2019s in the Berkshires, July 16-August 3, at The Stables Theatre at Edith Wharton\u2019s The Mount<\/i>, 2 Plunkett Street, Lenox, MA.<\/p>\n