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Reviews
"Catamorphosis" is The Music of Catastrophe
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 24 January 2023 14:53
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts New York Philharmoinc performing US Premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdottir's "Catamorphosis" and also with violinist Nemanja Radulović. Photo by Chris Lee
At Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, on the evening of Friday, January 14th, I had the enormous privilege to attend an outstanding concert—continuing an exceptionally strong season—presented by the New York Philharmonic, under the superb direction of the brilliant Finnish conductor, Santtu-Matias Rouvali.
The program opened marvelously with a stunning performance of the U.S. premiere of celebrated Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s avant-garde, mysterious, and haunting Catamorphosis, co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic—as part of Project 19—with the Berlin Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Thorvaldsdottir—who was present and entered the stage to receive the audience’s acclaim—provided the following note on the work:
The core inspiration behind Catamorphosis is the fragile relationship we have to our planet. The aura of the piece is characterized by the orbiting vortex of emotions and the intensity that comes with the fact that if things do not change it is going to be too late, risking utter destruction — catastrophe. The core of the work revolves around a distinct sense of urgency, driven by the shift and pull between various polar forces — power and fragility, hope and despair, preservation and destruction.
The relationship between inspiration and the pure musical feeling and methods, for me, tends to shift at a certain point in the creative process of every work. The core inspiration provides the initial energy and structural elements to a piece and then the music starts to breathe on its own and expand. InCatamorphosisthis point in the process became more apparent and tangible as it aligned with an event that has had such dramatic impact on our lives and reality. The notion of emergency was already integrated into the music and, to counterbalance that, a sense of hope and belief. The meditative state of being needed to gain focus, in order to sustain and maintain the globally important elements in life, also became increasingly important and provided another layer to the inspiration.
Catamorphosis is quite a dramatic piece, but it is also full of hope — perhaps somewhere between the natural and the unnatural, between utopia and dystopia, we can gain perspective and find balance within and with the world around us.
The amazing, Serbian-French soloist, Nemanja Radulović, then joined the musicians for a sterling account of Sergei Prokofiev’s extraordinary Violin Concerto No. 2, which begins with a solemn theme that recurs throughout the initial Allegro moderato,with lyrical passages alternating with more playful ones. The glorious second movement starts in a neoclassical mode, eventually increasing in tempo, and then recapitulates the music at its outset. The concluding Allegro ben marcato is the most animated of the three movements and ends excitingly. An enthusiastic ovation was rewarded by Radulović with a delightful and dazzling encore: Niccolò Paganini’s famous Caprice No. 24 for solo violin.
The second half of the event was even more splendid: an unusually memorable reading—all the more remarkable since it is one of the most frequently played works in the orchestral repertory—of Igor Stravinsky’s magnificent ballet score,The Rite of Spring.
The next set of subscription concerts, which take place from January 20th through the 22nd, feature the beautiful Symphony No. 2 of Jean Sibelius and the wonderful Violin Concerto of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, performed by the astonishing Lisa Batiashvili.
Juilliard Orchestra Takes a Trip to The "Pines of Rome"
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 18 January 2023 16:26
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Conductor Speranza Scappucci
At Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, on the evening of Monday, December 5th, I had the great pleasure to attend a superb concert featuring the Juilliard Orchestra under the estimable direction of Italian conductor Speranza Scappucci.
Appropriately, the emphasis of the program was on Italian music and it opened magnificently with a beautiful rendition of Giuseppe Martucci’s gorgeous Notturno. An impressively precocious soloist, Zhouhui Shen—who wore a lovely sparkling gown—then joined the artists for a highly accomplished account of the powerful Piano Concerto No. 1—an epitome of Romantic music—by Johannes Brahms, who was Martucci’s “idol,” according to the informative program notes of Thomas May. The ambitious, opening Maestoso movement, which defies brief description, is forceful and grave, with some introspective passages, but eventually becomes sunnier in character. The ensuing Adagio is more inward and song-like, while the finale is impassioned, vivacious and dynamic.
The highlight of the event, however, was its second half: a sterling realization of the glorious Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi, who had been one of Martucci’s students. The first movement, “The Pines of the Villa Borghese,” is sparkling and busy; “Pines Near a Catacomb,” which follows, creates a hushed atmosphere that continues into the third movement, “The Pines of the Janiculum,” which is enchanted and more lyrical. The closing movement, “The Pines of the Appian Way,” is propulsive and builds to a dazzling conclusion. The musicians received an enthusiastic ovation.
Juilliard Orchestra Unleashes (Dance of) Vengeance Upon Lincoln Center
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 17 January 2023 14:50
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Jeffrey Milarsky Conducts Juilliard Orchestra
At Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, on the evening of Monday, November 21st, I had the pleasure to attend an excellent concert featuring the musicians of the Juilliard Orchestra—playing at their near best—under the direction of Jeffrey Milarsky.
The program opened brilliantly with a marvelous performance of Samuel Barber’s outstanding, rarely heard Medea’s Dance of Vengeance from 1953. A very promising young soloist, Amelia Krinke, then entered the stage for an admirable rendition of the late Juilliard faculty member Michael White’s underrated Concerto for Viola and Orchestra of 1994. The first movement is—after an Adagio introduction—playful and energetic if somewhat spiky and even unsettling. The ensuing Adagio is highly introspective and solemn, even disquieting, while thefinaleis dynamic with some quieter passages.
The highlight of the event, however, was the second half of the concert: a superb reading of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s glorious “Pathétique” Symphony, possibly the composer’s most personal work. The first movement—after a despondentAdagiointroduction—is exciting and passionate and then longingly ardent and turbulent and the Allegro con grazia that follows is charming and waltz-like but not without Romantic intensity. The ultimately thrilling third movement is a captivating march while the concluding, extraordinary Finale is powerfully tragic. The artists received an enthusiastic ovation.
The Sounds of Fate at Lincoln Center & Carnegie Hall
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 16 January 2023 16:03
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Manfred Honeck
At Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, on the evening of Monday, October 17th, I had the privilege of attending an excellent concert featuring the remarkable Juilliard Orchestra under the admirable direction of Manfred Honeck.
The event’s beginning was auspicious with a confident account of the impressive Fate Now Conquers from 2020 by Carlos Simon who, according to the program notes, is “now in his second year as composer in residence at the Kennedy Center.” About this work he has said, “I wanted to pay homage to Beethoven but yet remain true to my artistic voice.” The annotator, Thomas May, provided some valuable background:
Gabriela Lena Frank, whose new opera about Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera will be premiered at the end of this month, served as Simon’s mentor while she was composer in residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra and asked him to write a piece responding to Beethoven’s seventh symphony (composed in 1811-12) for a survey of the cycle to be presented during the 250th anniversary season. Because those performances could not take place as the pandemic unfolded, Yannick Nézet-Séguin led the Philadelphia Orchestra in a virtual premiere in October 2020.
Simon chose his title from an entry in one of Beethoven’s notebooks dated 1815, which quotes a passage from Book 22 of the Iliad: “But Fate now conquers; I am hers; and yet not she shall share/In my renown; that life is left to every noble spirit/ And that some great deed shall beget that all lives shall inherit.”
Simon’s musical ideas suggest what he described as “the unpredictable ways of fate: jolting stabs along with frenzied arpeggios in the strings that morph into an ambiguous cloud of free-flowing running passages depicting the uncertainty of life that hovers over us.” He commented:
We know that Beethoven strived to overcome many obstacles in his life and documented his aspirations to prevail, despite his ailments. Whatever the specific reason for including this particularly profound passage from theIliad,in the end, it seems that Beethoven relinquished himself to fate. Fate now conquers.
An adept, highly promising young soloist, William Lee, then entered the stage for an admirable performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s wonderful Violin Concerto No. 4. The opening Allegro was joyous while the ensuingAndante cantabilewas lyrical and more serious. The finale was witty and spirited, the most inventive of the three movements.
The highlight of the evening, however, was its second half: an uncommonly strong presentation of Gustav Mahler’s magnificent, enthralling First Symphony, which Honeck conducted from memory. After a mystical opening, one is led into an enchanted pastoral world with the first movement. The second is an ebullient Ländler with a charming, dancelike trio. The celebrated, haunting third movement is for much of its length grimly sardonic and eccentric but ascends to an unearthly realm. The suspenseful finale opens intensely dramatically and is exuberant with quieter passages and builds ultimately to a triumphant conclusion at which the musicians arose for the final bars—they received a very enthusiastic standing ovation.
At Carnegie Hall, on the evening of Monday, October 24th, the musicians returned under the estimable direction of David Robertson for another terrific concert.
The program opened with a New York premiere, a compelling version of Claude Vivier’s intriguing, ambitious, powerfully orchestrated Siddhartha—inspired by Hermann Hesse’s classic, eponymous novel—which proved to be unexpectedly accessible. In her program notes, Noémie Chemali commented on the work’s background: “In the early 1970s, Vivier’s voracious musical appetite drew him towards Asia, as he embarked on a musicological expedition of Thailand, Japan, and Bali, whose musical influences can be heard in his first and only orchestral suite,Siddhartha.” She added that:
[it] was commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Company for the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, which shelved it due to its difficulty. Its premiere would not come until years later—after Vivier’s death—by L’Orchestre Métropolitain led by Walter Boudreau, one of Vivier’s classmates at [the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal].
But the second half of the event was even more memorable, with a marvelous realization of Igor Stravinsky’s extraordinary ballet score,The Firebird.The opening was sinister and mysterious but with the appearance of the Firebird, the music became even more fantastical. One of the most beautiful sections was “The Princesses’ Khorovod” while one of the most thrilling was the “Infernal Dance of Katschei and His Subjects.” Nothing could have been more beguiling, however, than the thoroughly enchanting “The Firebird’s Lullaby,” which was followed by a glorious, stunning finale.
I look forward to the next appearance of these remarkable artists.
