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Reviews
Mozart & Shostakovich With The Cleveland Orchestra
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 17 February 2026 14:26
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Photo by Chris Lee
At the wonderful Stern Auditorium, on the night of Wednesday, January 21st, I had the privilege to attend an excellent concert—the second of two on consecutive days—presented by Carnegie Hall and performed by the superior Cleveland Orchestra, led with exceptional skill by Franz Welser-Möst.
The first half of the event consisted of an impeccable account of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s extraordinary final symphony, the No. 41 in C Major, K. 551, the “Jupiter,” from 1788. The initial, Allegro vivace movement begins majestically although the music acquires an urgent quality, but there are passages of contrasting gracefulness—it closes affirmatively. The succeeding Andante cantabile is elegant but not without a certain intensity at times, if nonetheless sunny in outlook; it ends softly. The Menuetto, marked Allegretto, is appropriately dance-like and sometimes playful, with a charming Trio. The Molto allegro finale is exhilarating and glorious in its fugal complexity, ending triumphantly.
The second part of the evening was at least equally memorable: a sterling realization of Dmitri Shostakovich’s imposing, undervalued Symphony No. 11 in G Minor, Op 103, “The Year 1905,” completed in 1957. About it, the scholar and program annotator Harlow Robinson has commented as follows:
“I have great affection for this period in our national history, so vividly expressed in revolutionary workers’ songs of the time,” wrote Shostakovich. In the Symphony No. 11, he incorporated the tunes of seven different revolutionary folk songs, tunes from his own Ten Poems (1951), and a quote from Soviet composer Georgy Sviridov’s 1951 operetta Bright Lights. This use of imported material was a notable departure from Shostakovich’s usual practice.
He added:
The first movement (“Palace Square”) portrays the merciless inhumanity of autocracy. Its powerful opening casts a hypnotic spell, evocative of autocracy, the cold, and the austere expanse of stone around the Winter Palace. This episode returns throughout the symphony as a kind of refrain. Then the movement introduces two prison songs (“Listen” and “The Convict”). The second movement (“The Ninth of January”) depicts the Cossacks’ assault, using two marching songs (“O Tsar, Our Father” and “Bare Your Heads!”). Meditative and requiem-like, the third movement (“In Memoriam”) unfolds variations of a well-known tribute to fallen heroes (“You’ve Fallen Victim”) over a slow ostinato foundation. Four different fast marching tunes (“Rage, O Tyrants”; “The Varsovienne”; “Comrades, the Bugles Are Sounding”; and Sviridov’s tune) combine in the raucous, percussive finale (“The Tocsin”). Several of the songs appear in multiple movements. Adding to the overall sense of unity, the four movements are played attacca, without pause.
The Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova, was asked about the song quotations and said, “They were like white birds flying against a terrible black sky.”
The opening Adagio has a hushed, mysterious beginning that precedes a series of fanfares—the movement is programmatic and largely subdued but portentous, while much of the ensuing Allegro has a tense, driving rhythm. The Adagio third movement is elegiac and gentle for an extended period but becomes more passionate. In the finale, an insistent, solemn and powerful march builds to a climax before the music from the first movement returns overlain with a poignant English horn solo; the closing section is turbulent, drawing on music from the second movement, concluding forcefully.
The artists deservedly received a standing ovation.
Cleveland Orchestra Perform at Carnegie Hall
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 16 February 2026 16:07
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Photo by Chris Lee
At the wonderful Stern Auditorium, on the night of Tuesday, January 20th, I had the pleasure of attending a magnificent concert—the first of two on consecutive days—presented by Carnegie Hall and performed by the outstanding Cleveland Orchestra, magisterially led by Franz Welser-Möst. The work on the program was Giuseppe Verdi’s incomparable Requiem completed in 1874. The event featured a superb slate of soloists—including soprano Asmik Grigorian, mezzo-soprano Deniz Uzun, tenor Joshua Guerrero, and basso Tareq Nazmi—along with the excellent Cleveland Orchestra Chorus directed by Lisa Wong.
About this piece, which was composed in honor of the towering figure of novelist Alessandro Manzoni, Verdi stated that “This Mass is not to be sung in the way one sings an opera.” The initial Requiem section of the first movement is relatively subdued while the ensuing Kyrie is more expressionistic. The Sequence (Dies Irae) movement that follows begins with an exuberant and arresting Chorus that prefigures Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana; the basso then enters with a powerful, contrasting statement while the next section, for mezzo-soprano and chorus is more operatic as well as dramatic in character. As the movement unfolds, it reaches a kind of climax with the soloists and chorus which precedes an exceedingly beautiful duet for the soprano and mezzo-soprano. The Dies Irae chorus is recapitulated before another highly lyrical passage for the soloists and chorus.
The third movement, Offertorio (Domine Jesu Christe) is exalting, and the succeeding Sanctus is exhilarating, while the Agnus Dei is more austere on the whole but with some lush sonorities. The Lux aeterna has a gloomier ethos before its affirmative finish. The last movement, Libera me, opens quietly and then becomes suspenseful before a second recurrence of the Dies Irae. Thesetting of the verse, “Requiem aeternam dona eis, Donmine, et lux perpetua luceat eis,” has exquisite writing for the soprano. The final verse is the vehicle for a glorious and rousing fugue although it ends very softly.
The artists deservedly received a standing ovation.
February '26 Digital Week I
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 12 February 2026 19:22
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Isabel Leonard Performs the Greats at Carnegie Hall
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 12 February 2026 15:52
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Isabel Leonard (R) and accompanist John Arida. Photo by Chris Lee
At the wonderful Stern Auditorium, on the night of Thursday, January 15th, I had the privilege to attend a splendid concert—presented by Carnegie Hall—of mostly popular songs performed by the incomparably beautiful mezzo-soprano, Isabel Leonard, with accompanist John Arida on piano.
The singer—who entered the stage wearing a fabulous, sparkling, golden gown—started with Aaron Copland’s “Why Do They Shut Me Out of Heaven?” from the 1950 collection, Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson. Her next selection was one of the highlights of the evening: “I’ll Be Seeing You,” from 1938, with music composed by Sammy Fain. Another classic was the following song, “My Ship,” with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Ira Gershwin, from the 1941 musical, Lady in the Dark. She performed another from the Copland and Dickinson set—“Heart, We Will Forget Him!”—before one more of the most memorable from the recital: “The Way You Look Tonight,” composed by Jerome Kern and with lyrics by Dorothy Fields, which is from the unforgettable 1936 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical film, Swing Time, which was directed by George Stevens in the strongest and most consistent phase of his long career.
The bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green then joined Leonard onstage for a delightful duet: Irving Berlin’s “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)” from his 1946 musical, Annie Get Your Gun. Green went on to perform several songs on his own: Copland’s “The Boatmen’s Dance” from Old American Songs, Set I, from 1950; “I, Too” from Three Dream Portraits (1950) by Margaret Bonds, to a text by Langston Hughes; two more from Copland’s Old American Songs, Set 1, including “The Dodger” as well as the exquisite Shaker hymn, “Simple Gifts,” which the composer immortally employed in his great ballet score for Martha Graham, Appalachian Spring; and, finally, another Hughes setting, the 1942 “Songs to the Dark Virgin” by Florence Price. Another vocalist, the Broadway star Jordan Donica—who played Freddy Eynsford-Hill in Lincoln Center Theater’s stellar production of My Fair Lady with Laura Benanti—joined the pair to perform “New York, New York” from Leonard Bernstein’s 1944 On the Town, with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
The second half of the event was stronger, beginning with another highlight of the evening: “Many a New Day” by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, from their 1943 musical, Oklahoma!, here beautifully sung by Leonard, who wore a shimmering red gown for this part of the program. Another of the best moments was the next selection, the Rodgers & Hammerstein duet, “If I Loved You,” from the 1945 Carousel, sung by Leonard and Danica. The latter went on to effectively perform several excellent songs on his own: “Dis Flower” from the 1943 show Carmen Jones, with music by Georges Bizet from his great opera, Carmen, arranged by Robert Russell Bennett, and lyrics by Hammerstein; “Come to Me, Bend to Me,” from the 1947 Brigadoon, with a score by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner; “Where Is the Life That Late I Led?” from Cole Porter’s 1948 Kiss Me, Kate; and, lastly, “Some Enchanted Evening” by Rodgers & Hammerstein from their 1949 musical, South Pacific.
Leonard then returned for the remainder of the program proper and started with two Bernstein numbers: “I’m a Person Too,” from his 1943 I Hate Music: A Cycle of Five Kid Songs, and another song from On the Town, “Lonely Town.” She then performed “I’m a Stranger Here Myself,” with music by Weill and lyrics by Ogden Nash, from their 1943 One Touch of Venus. She concluded her set with another sterling rendition: “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” by Mack David, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston, from the 1949 film, Cinderella. Donica and Green then joined her for another pleasure: “Some Other Time” from On the Town. Enthusiastic applause elicited three encores from the artists, beginning with “Sisters” from Berlin’s White Christmas, sung by Donica and Green. Leonard then gloriously sang “When You Wish Upon a Star” from the film Pinocchio and Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow,” with lyrics by Yip Harburg, from the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, concluding a marvelous evening.
