May '24 Digital Week I

Details

Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Wednesday, 01 May 2024 12:41

Written by Kevin Filipski

In-Theater Releases of the Week 

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed 

Terrestrial Verses 

Uncropped 

4K Release of the Week 

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

Stigmata 

Tormented 

CD Release of the Week 

Bamberg Symphony Play Carnegie Hall

Details

Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Monday, 29 April 2024 14:22

Written by Jack Angstreich

Photo by Chris Lee.

At Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium on the evening of Wednesday, April 24th, I had the privilege to attend a fine concert of 19th-century Germanic music presented by the admirable Bamberg Symphony under the distinguished direction of its Chief Conductor, Jakub Hrůša.

The program began auspiciously with one of its highlights, a marvelous account of Richard Wagner’s magnificent Prelude to his beautiful 1848 opera, Lohengrin, about which Franz Liszt said, “With Lohengrin,the old world of opera has come to an end.” Also rewarding was an accomplished reading of the superb Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90, from 1883 of Johannes Brahms, about which the eminent critic Eduard Hanslick wrote:

Many music lovers may prefer the titanic force of the First, others the untroubled charm of the Second. But the Third strikes me as artistically the most perfect. It is more compactly made, more transparent in detail, more plastic in the main themes. The orchestration is richer in novel and charming combinations.

The initial Allegro con brio movement opens passionately but then swiftly becomes song-like—even pastoral—in character before recovering its original intensity and finishing quietly, while the Andante that follows is more inward in orientation although at times dramatic, also ending gently. The succeeding, extraordinary, melodious Poco allegretto that concludes softly too—the primary theme of which was the basis for the haunting Serge Gainsbourg song, “Baby Alone in Babylone,” which was originally recorded by Jane Birkin—was another of the night’s most memorable experiences, and the work’s finale begins tentatively but rapidly acquires an urgency but amidst some turbulence soon turns affirmative on the whole—even exuberantly so—before another subdued close.

The second half of the evening was also impressive, starting with a brilliant, even dazzling performance of Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54, completed in 1845, played by the wonderful soloist, Hélène Grimaud. Annotator Jack Sullivan reports that:

The first movement, composed in 1841, was originally labeled a “Phantasy for Piano and Orchestra.” Clara Schumann—who earlier had composed her own piano concerto—played it in two private run-throughs, writing at the time, “Carefully studied, it must give the greatest pleasure to those who hear it. The piano is most skillfully interwoven with the orchestra; it is impossible to think of one without the other.” Schumann tried to publish it as a separate piece, but no one would buy it.

Rather than abandoning the Phantasy, Robert revised it four years later as the first movement of a piano concerto, adding two more movements. Clara finally premiered the entire work in 1845, with Felix Mendelssohn conducting.

About it, the esteemed critic, Sir Donald Francis Tovey, averred, “It attains a beauty and depth quite transcendent of any mere prettiness, though the whole concerto, like all Schumann’s deepest music, is recklessly pretty.” The first movement, marked Allegro affettuoso, is exciting at its outset but abruptly becomes lyrical and Romantic with tempestuous episodes, and concludes forcefully; in the development section, a brief interlude for the piano, clarinet and strings is particularly exquisite. The ensuing, largely reflective Intermezzo—an Andantino grazioso—is elegantand enchanting; it seamlessly transitions into the animated, often propulsive, ultimately triumphant finale, an Allegro vivace with a dynamic close.

Another pinnacle of the concert was what completed the program proper, a thrilling realization of Wagner’s ambitious, glorious Overture to Tannhäuser from 1845. The composer described its middle section thus: 

As night falls, magic visions show themselves. A rosy mist swirls upward, sensuously exultant sounds reach our ears, and the blurred motions of a fearsomely voluptuous dance are revealed. This is the seductive magic of the Venusberg, which appears by night to those whose souls are fired by bold, sensuous longings.

Enthusiastic applause elicited two short but delightful encores: Brahms’s Hungarian Dances Nos. 18 and 21, both orchestrated by Antonín Dvořák.

New York Philharmonic Perform Olga Neuwirth

Details

Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Friday, 26 April 2024 19:01

Written by Jack Angstreich

Thomas Søndergård conducts the New York Philharmonic. Photo by Chris Lee.

At Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall on the evening of Saturday, April 20th, I had the great pleasure to attend a superb concert played by the New York Philharmonic under the brilliant direction of Thomas Søndergård in his debut performances with this ensemble. 

The event began splendidly with an elegant account of Lili Boulanger’s exquisite Of a Spring Morning from 1918, one of her last works and one with strong affinities to what has often been described as Impressionism. Less satisfying to me was an admirably realized US Premiere presentation of Olga Neuwirth’s ambitious and challenging Keyframes for a Hippogriff — Musical Calligrams in memoriam Hester Diamond, for Countertenor, Children's Choir, and Orchestra, the final version of which was completed in 2021, and which featured the excellent Brooklyn Youth Chorus led by Artistic Director, Dianne Berkun Menaker as well as—in another debut appearance with this ensemble—the outstanding soloist Andre Watts. According to the program note by Dirk Wieschollek, “The piece is a tribute to Neuwirth's friend Hester Diamond (1928– 2020), an American art collector and interior designer who brought together traditional art and modern design in a unique way.” The program also records that:

Olga Neuwirth's Keyframes for a Hippogriff was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic through Project 19, the multi-season initiative to commission and premiere 19 new works by 19 women composers — the largest women-only commissioning initiative in history — to mark the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which established American women's right to vote. The project's goal was to give women composers a platform and catalyze representation in classical music and beyond. The planned World Premiere by the NY Phil was made impossible by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the second of three premieres of Project 19 works this season; the others are by Melinda Wagner (which was premiered April 7) and Mary Kouyoumdjian (being unveiled May 10). 

This is not the first time that the NY Phil has performed Neuwirth's music. In May 2014 the Philharmonic gave the US Premiere of her Piazza dei Numeri on Mario Merz's Ziffern im Wald, conducted by Matthias Pintscher and featuring soprano Jennifer Zetlan, at The Museum of Modern Art.

Wieschollek adds:

This extensively scored vocal work is based on a collage of texts from a wide range of eras and styles. Fragments from the writings of Ariosto, Blake, Dickinson, Zinaida Gippius, Edward Lear, Nietzsche, Melville, Stein, Whitman, Neuwirth herself, and graffiti are interwoven into a dialogue between countertenor and children's chorus, the latter representing hope, the former the futility and loneliness of the individual in a dystopian world. Neuwirth describes the underlying idea thus: “We try to tell the diverse stories of our small lives against the white noise of information, in which technology already seems to have overtaken human interaction.”

Impressively orchestrated throughout—and containing some demotic elements—the composition has some powerful and rewarding passages, but much of it is beyond my competence to evaluate, especially much of the vocal writing.

The second half of the evening was even more memorable, a sterling version of Sergei Prokofiev’s magnificent Symphony No. 5. After the work’s premiere, the composer wrote:

I regard the Fifth Symphony as the culmination of a long period of my creative life. I conceived of it as glorifying the grandeur of the human spirit … praising the free and happy man — his strength, his generosity, and the purity of his soul. 

The remarkable opening of the initial Andante movement has a spacious, almost leisurely quality; the music steadily builds in intensity, concluding forcefully. The scherzo that follows—marked Allegro marcato—is brisk, playful and ebullient, ending abruptly. The succeeding Adagio is solemn, if at times impassioned, with some reflective, if also song-like moments; it finishes quietly. The predominantly energetic and affirmative Allegro giocoso finale—after a brief, slow, serious introduction that recycles material from the first movement—also has a ludic character as well as some lyricism and a few dramatic episodes; it closes triumphantly and exuberantly.

The artists were enthusiastically applauded.