{"id":4355,"date":"2012-03-28T14:04:44","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T18:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=4355"},"modified":"2012-04-18T23:54:44","modified_gmt":"2012-04-19T03:54:44","slug":"short-takes-on-a-busy-week-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=4355","title":{"rendered":"Short Takes on a Busy Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sedgwick Clark<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three Operas <\/strong><\/p>\n

Far be it for this occasional operagoer to butt heads with Peter G. Davis in a work I barely know. \u201cWhat are you doing at an Italian opera performance?\u201d he asked me in feigned horror on opening night of the Met\u2019s revival of Verdi\u2019s Macbeth <\/em>(3\/15). \u201cI\u2019m here for the conducting\u2014why else?\u201d I replied, and was pleased to read in his Musicalamerica.com <\/em>review LINK that we agreed on Gianandrea Noseda\u2019s \u201cmaximum of lyrical intensity and dramatic energy\u2014Verdi conducting doesn’t come much better than this.\u201d (Why isn\u2019t Noseda conducting regularly at the New York Philharmonic???) On the other hand, Peter also praised Adrian Noble\u2019s \u201cbold and fearless\u201d 2007 updating of Shakespeare\u2019s Scotland to \u201ca fantasy world that suggests a period roughly around the end of World War II.\u201d Such concepts alienate me; I believe that an intelligent audience will have no difficulty apprehending the composer\u2019s intention in a traditional staging. Most of the time, therefore, my eyes were glommed onto the MetTitles. Thomas Hampson conveyed the weak-willed Macbeth well, if a bit reticently. Verdi said that vocal beauty was not important for Lady M, and Nadja Michael filled the bill; but she emanates sex and temperament aplenty, and I look forward to hearing her in a more refined role\u2014say, Salome or Wozzeck<\/em>\u2019s Marie. On CD my preference remains Leinsdorf\u2019s 1959 Met recording on RCA with Leonard Warren, Leonie Rysanek, and Carlo Bergonzi.<\/p>\n

No problems with the next evening at the Met (3\/16)\u2014a superbly sung L\u2019Elisir d\u2019Amore <\/em>with Juan Diego Fl\u00f3rez (whose shenanigans when he drank the elixir were hilarious) and Mariusz Kwiecien in hot pursuit of Diana Damrau. Peter and I were equally charmed by the 1991 production\u2019s pastel candied sets, but this Saturday matinee is their last hurrah. Catch it if you can!<\/p>\n

Leon Botstein may look like a mortician when he takes his bows, but he was at his salesman best in extolling the virtues of the late-Romantic Austrian composer Franz Schmidt in a pre-concert lecture. Franz Who? \u201cHe was a fabulous composer.\u201d The occasion was LB\u2019s American Symphony unearthing of the composer\u2019s Notre Dame<\/em>\u2014which, presumably for marketing reasons, was called \u201cThe Hunchback of Notre Dame\u201d in the advertisements\u2014at Carnegie Hall (3\/18). \u201cThis is a terrific opera. . . . The music is spectacular. . . . It deserves a production.\u201d To an audience member who asked why he was drawn to forgotten music, he said, wryly, \u201cI like slow starters and also-rans. I hate prodigies and competition winners.\u201d This was the personal Botstein we wish for on the podium, and darned if the opera didn\u2019t deserve it. While I can\u2019t agree that Notre Dame <\/em>is \u201cthe equal of any opera on the stage today,\u201d its Wagner-Bruckner-Strauss-Mahler harmonic impasto is a consistent pleasure to hear (\u201clovely\u201d was the word most bandied around at intermission), and of course it has a compelling story. Let me add my vote to the reviews of Leslie Kandell in Musicalamerica.com<\/em> LINK and Vivien Schweitzer in the Times<\/em> that it does deserve a production and Botstein is the man to do it. His conducting and the orchestra\u2019s playing had passion, commitment, and precision, and the singers were uniformly capable, with the leads more so: bass Burak Bilgili as Quasimodo, soprano Lori Guilbeau as Esmeralda, and baritone Stephen Powell as the Archdeacon. The Collegiate Chorale Singers were fine, although it would be nice if they could stand up in unison at curtain time.<\/p>\n

Paganini Caprices Humanized<\/strong><\/p>\n

The prospect of hearing all 24 of Paganini\u2019s devilishly difficult Caprices in a single evening, rat-a-tat-tat, seemed rather a chore on the face of it. But Chicago violinist Rachel Barton Pine invested the music with warmth and ease, without stinting an iota on the composer\u2019s fabled virtuosity. Moreover, at suitable intervals she interspersed engaging, often witty comments about the works and the composer that kept the evening moving agreeably. For an encore she performed her own Introduction and Variations on \u201cGod Defend New Zealand.\u201d <\/em>The nearly full house at Rockefeller University\u2019s acoustically attractive Caspary Auditorium (3\/21), on the far easterly reaches of Manhattan, caused one to wonder why this talented artist\u2014praised by Harris Goldsmith as a notable up and comer in the 2004 Musical America <\/em>Directory\u2014isn\u2019t heard regularly at Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center? Listen to her new \u00c7edille CD \u201cCapricho Latino\u201d and see if you agree.<\/p>\n

Murray Perahia, an \u201cOld Master\u201d at His Best<\/strong><\/p>\n

Few are the artists who can lure me back from the country prematurely to hear a Sunday afternoon concert of standards. Murray Perahia is one. Where many attend concerts to hear cherished artists, I\u2019ve always been a repertoire man. My favorites mostly reside in the 20th century. But someone has to carry on tradition, and for my money no one can touch Perahia, as exemplified on Sunday afternoon at Avery Fisher Hall (3\/25) in works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, and Chopin. Moreover, I much prefer solo piano in Fisher over Carnegie\u2019s wetter acoustic, and at this concert Perahia\u2019s American Steinway glowed with the tonal beauty and digital dexterity of the old masters at their best.<\/p>\n

A Master Clarinetist at 27<\/strong><\/p>\n

Remember the name: Moran Katz. She\u2019s terrific\u2014a young Israeli clarinetist hailed by Harris Goldsmith in the 2011 Musical America <\/em>Directory. <\/em>He wrote of her \u201cmagnificent color, agility, and breath control\u201d being \u201cmagically persuasive in the early Romantics,\u201d and also of her devotion to contemporary music\u2014all of which she demonstrated vividly in John Adams\u2019s clarinet concerto, Gnarly Buttons<\/em>, at Zankel Hall soon after the Perahia recital. It\u2019s one of Adams\u2019s most attractive works, witty, virtuosic, but also verging on profundity in the final movement, which Katz rendered movingly. There\u2019s star quality here, waiting for the right management.<\/p>\n

The admirable Ensemble ACJW, directed on this occasion by David Robertson, also impressed in Ligeti\u2019s Chamber Concerto for 13 Instruments.<\/p>\n

Looking Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

My week\u2019s scheduled concerts:<\/p>\n

3\/28 Carnegie Hall. San Francisco Symphony\/Michael Tilson Thomas; Emanuel Ax, piano. Ruggles: Sun-Treader<\/em>. Feldman: Piano and Orchestra<\/em>. Ives: A Concord Symphony <\/em>(orch. Brant).<\/p>\n

3\/29 Zankel Hall. Members of the San Francisco Symphony\/Michael Tilson Thomas; Kiera Duffy, soprano; Paul Jacobs, organ; Mason Bates, electronics; Newband; Young People\u2019s Chorus of New York City. Partch: Daphne of the Dunes<\/em>. Mason Bates: Mass Transmission<\/em>. Harrison: Concerto for Organ and Percussion Orchestra. Del Tredici: Syzygy.<\/em><\/p>\n

3\/30 Zankel Hall. Members of the San Francisco Symphony\/Michael Tilson Thomas, host; Jeffrey Milarsky, conductor; Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble; Joan La Barbara, vocalist; Jeremy Denk, piano. Monk: Realm Variations. <\/em>Reich: Music for Pieces of Wood. <\/em>Foss: Echoi<\/em>. Subotnick: Jacob\u2019s Room: Monodrama<\/em>.<\/p>\n

4\/2 Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space. Cutting Edge Concerts\/Victoria Bond, host. Danjam Orchestra, with Peter McNeely, piano; Rufus M\u00fcller, tenor; Jenny Lin, piano. Paul Barnes, piano. Daniel Jamieson: Phantasm<\/em>; A Desperate Act<\/em>. Jim McNeely: Tod und Feuer<\/em>; Der Seilt\u00e4nzer<\/em>. Victoria Bond: Leopold Bloom\u2019s Homecoming<\/em>. N. Lincoln Hanks: Monstre Sacr\u00e9<\/em>.<\/p>\n

4\/3 Alice Tully Hall. Juilliard Orchestra\/Esa-Pekka Salonen. Sibelius: Pohjola\u2019s Daughter<\/em>. Beethoven: Symphony No. 7.<\/p>\n