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Haunting & Beautiful Orchestration of the Juilliard Orchestra

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Monday, 06 December 2021 17:38; Written by Jack Angstreich

At Alice Tully Hall on the evening of Monday, November 15th, I attended a rewarding concert given by the fine Juilliard Orchestra under the distinguished direction of a guest conductor, the eminent Antonio Pappano. The program opened memorably with the remarkable, rarely heard Ballade in A minor, Op.33, of the underrated 19th-century British composer—whose father was West African—Samuel-Coleridege-Taylor, which begins thrillingly before taking a more introspective—if exalted—turn followed by a highly dramatic interlude, succeeded by other compelling elaborations, and concluding on a triumphant note.

Nicholas Swensen then took the stage as the effective solo performer in a confident account of William Walton’s exceptional Viola Concerto, a work within the mainstream of musical modernism and that bears the influence of Paul Hindemith who premiered the piece as soloist. The initialAndante comodocontained numerous beautiful passages; the ensuingVivowas brisk, often breathless, while the Allegro served as a satisfying—indeed wonderful—and at times lyrical finale. The second half of the evening was devoted to an excellent rendition of Richard Strauss’s outstanding tone-poem,Ein Heldenleben,which achieved maybe its most glorious expression in the “Des Helden Gefährtin” section and concluded marvelously.

At the same venue and night the following week, I saw this ensemble in another splendid event, conducted by the celebrated American composer, John Adams, which opened with a well-executed reading of Three Movements, a characteristic opus by fellow minimalist, Steve Reich. The piece is somewhat austere—eschewing the lushness of many of the compositions of the parallel figure of Philip Glass—and is consistently propulsive even in the slower second movement. Notably, Reich was able to receive the audience’s acclaim in person.

Even better was Bela Bartok’s famous Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, which begins with an eerie Andante tranquillo that grows in power before diminishing in intensity. More dramatic was theAllegrothat followed, although its inspiration in Hungarian and other regional folk music is not obvious, while theAdagiowas also uncanny in effect, but the amazingAllegro moltofinale was most exciting of all.

Before the final work in the program, Adams received the Columbia University Distinguished Conducting Award. The evening concluded magnificently with a lovely realization of the fabulous First Symphony of Jean Sibelius. The opening movement was grand and stirring, its ardent Romanticism starkly contrasting with the first two works in the concert, and was succeeded by a gorgeous Andante. The Scherzo was vibrant, with a more subdued Trio section, while the extraordinary Finale (quasi una fantasia) featured some of the most haunting passages. I hope to attend more performances by these accomplished musicians in the coming year.

Broadway Play Review—“Trouble in Mind” with LaChanze

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Saturday, 04 December 2021 21:32; Written by Kevin Filipski

Trouble in Mind

Written by Alice Childress

Directed by Charles Randolph-Wright

Performances through January 9, 2022

American Airlines Theatre, 227 West 42nd Street, NYC

roundabouttheatre.org

LaChanze, Chuck Cooper and Michael Zegen in Trouble in Mind

Alice Childress’ angry theatrical satire, Trouble in Mind—just now receiving its belated Broadway debut 66 years after its off-Broadway premiere—was an immediate critical success and was supposed to transfer uptown. But producers, skittish about its pointed swipes at racial stereotyping backstage and onstage, told Childress to tamp things down. To her credit, Childress refused to make any changes to dull the play’s edge, although this meant that, despite occasional revivals—like the Negro Ensemble Company’s in 1998—her magnum opus wouldn’t see Broadway until now, 27 years after her death.

Childress began as an actress, but without many good, meaty roles for Black performers she started writing plays (and novels) herself, and Trouble in Mind has several such parts, especially the lead, Wiletta, who’s starring in a new play—written by a white man—about a lynch mob in North Carolina that intends to explain prejudice to its mainly white audience in a comforting way.

A half-dozen actors and the director gather backstage for run-throughs of the play, trying out different scenes while discussing and arguing about how to stage situations and dialogue that, however well-meaning, doesn’t reflect the lived experiences of the Black performers (two men—a young newcomer, John, and a grizzled veteran, Sheldon—and two women—Wiletta and Millie, who’s of similar age).

The white performers, young newcomer Judy and grizzled veteran Bill, and the white director, Al, are sympathetic but clumsy in their pronouncements. Things come to a head time and again, finally in Wiletta’s frustration over a scene where her character acts in a way she feels is completely foreign to her own reality as a Black American in the mid-1950s boils over and she tells Al that she cannot perform it as written.

Although quite schematic—humorous small talk gives way to rehearsals that keep halting over mushy liberal sentiments that the Black actors balk at and the whites gloss over—Trouble in Mind remains a potent and caustic play, with a wonderfully full-bodied character at its center: Wiletta is a wounded, vulnerable but proudly forthright woman who cannot bend her knee to supposed superiors like white actors, directors, producers and playwrights.

Childress smartly keeps the writer and producers offstage, instead finding the focus on the standoffs between Wiletta and Al, a well-meaning but condescending white liberal who believes he’s fighting the good fight. He is, to a point, but his white privilege enrages Wiletta even more.

Director Charles Randolph-Wright smartly knits his nonet into a cohesive ensemble, never tipping Childress’ play into becoming a lopsided two-character piece. There’s a nice blend of both accomplished and new blood in the cast, from Chuck Cooper’s humorously self-effacing Sheldon and Danielle Campbell’s perky but mercurial Judy.

Michael Zegen perfectly plays Al, a tricky role since he must balance the condescension in his resentful silences with his bleeding artist’s heart. And Wiletta is beautifully embodied by the great LaChanze, whose gloriously glamorous turn stops short of overkill: her theatrical flourishes, whether bantering, emoting or singing—gorgeously, of course—make her the explosive beating heart of Childress’ uncomfortable but entertaining expose that’s as relevant today as when it was written.

December '21 Digital Week I

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 01 December 2021 23:57; Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

Citizen Kane

(Criterion)

Rightly celebrated as The Great American Movie, Orson Welles’ towering debut remains a remarkable achievement, with an innovative narrative structure that still works as strongly 80 years later. And this new release—unfortunately hampered by a new hi-def transfer that’s botched 30 minutes in, so if you have a copy, send the movie disc back to Criterion for a replacement—displays Gregg Toland’s lustrous B&W compositions and throws Welles’ youthful genius into sharp relief: although he came close, he never topped himself in the next 40-plus years of making (or trying to make) movies.

The three-disc Criterion set is packed inside a ridiculously overcomplicated design that probably won’t last, along with many extras, including the rarely-seen BBC documentary The Complete Citizen Kane; Welles’ 1934 short, The Hearts of Age; interviews and video essays; TV appearances by Welles, producer John Houseman and actor Joseph Cotten; and three commentaries: by Roger Ebert, by Peter Bogdanovich, and by Welles scholars James Naremore and Jonathan Rosenbaum.

Deep Blues

(Film Movement)

Director Robert Mugge’s seminal 1991 documentary, which explores the vital and active rural blues artists, hidden in plain sight deep in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, has as its guide music journalist Robert Palmer, who’s accompanied by Eurythmic Dave Stewart.

Among the many memorable musical moments in this consistently surprising and satisfying journey are performances by Jessie Mae Hemphil, Big Jack Johnson and Lonnie Pitchford. The film has been given a superior new hi-def transfer; extras are Mugge’s commentary and a behind-the-scenes featurette.

Eric Clapton—The Lady in the Balcony: Lockdown Sessions

(Mercury Studios)

Notwithstanding his bizarre and unhinged response to pandemic lockdowns—in his awful new song, “This Has Gotta Stop,” he compares lockdowns to slavery, of all things—Eric Clapton can still sizzle with the best of them on his six-string, as this acoustic performance from this past spring demonstrates. In a 17-song set, Clapton and his terrific band—bassist Nathan East, drummer Steve Gadd and keyboardist Chris Stainton—run through sparkling versions of “Peter Green’s “Black Magic Woman,” Derek and the Dominos’ “Bell Bottom Blues” and solo Clapton tunes “Tears in Heaven” and “Believe in Life” (written for Clapton’s current wife, the lady of the concert’s title).

I’ll even forgive him for continuing to play his stultifying unplugged “Layla.” The concert has been handsomely photographed and nicely recorded in hi-def, and the entire concert is included on an accompanying CD.

Lullaby of Broadway

(Warner Archive)

In director David Butler’s cute if inessential 1951 musical, Doris Day and Gene Nelson sing and tap-dance their way into each others’ hearts as a couple of performers looking for their big break—both professionally and personally—on the Great White Way.

Highlights are several musical numbers staged by Al White and Eddie Prinz, including the Oscar-winning title tune and Cole Porter’s “Just One of Those Things.” The colorful visuals look splendid on Blu.

The Thin Man Goes Home

(Warner Archive)

In the fifth go-round for the classic husband-and-wife sleuthing team, Nick and Nora Charles, the couple (along with their dog Asta) returns to Nick’s hometown, where—of course—they get caught up in a murder: soon, Nick has the chance to prove himself before his always skeptical father.

Richard Thorpe directed this 1944 sequel, which is a little flabby but still fun. The B&W images look crisp on Blu-ray; vintage extras are a Robert Benchley short, Why Daddy? and a classic Tex Avery cartoon, Screwball Squirrel.

In-Theater Release of the Week

Like a Rolling Stone—The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres

(Studio LA)

The career of music journalist Ben Fong-Torres makes for a lively and informative documentary by director Suzanne Joe Kai, who follows him from his beginnings in San Francisco in the ‘60s through his celebrated cover stories and interviews for Rolling Stone magazine and his very personal political and local journalism about the Chinese-American community, like the still unsolved murder of his brother many years ago.

Kai not only talks at length with Fong-Torres but also with family members, former colleagues and performers like photographer Annie Liebowitz, fellow staffer turned filmmaker Cameron Crowe, the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, the Doors’ Ray Manzarek, Carlos Santana, Steve Martin (Ben’s last Rolling Stone cover story subject) and Elton John, all of whom discuss the man’s talent, influence and taste in a manner that’s quite touching.

CD Release of the Week

Malcolm Arnold—Complete Symphonies and Dances

(Naxos)

One of the most grievously underrated composers of the 20th—or any—century, Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006) was best known for memorable film scores such as The Bridge on the River Kwai, for which he won an Oscar. But his wide-ranging concert music—chamber works, concertos, dances, symphonies—showed Arnold as a formidable, original composer of music probing his own variable emotional states.

This boxed set, for the centenary of Arnold’s birth, collects the excellent complete recordings by conductor Andrew Penny and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland of Arnold’s extraordinary cycle of nine symphonies, along with Penny’s CD of Arnold’s dances with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Arnold’s symphonic cycle runs a staggering psychological gamut, culminating with his breathtaking ninth symphony, as towering a personal statement as Beethoven’s celebrated “Choral” Symphony, but Arnold’s final Lento movement is as naked and bleak a musical summation ever composed.

Ballet & Pride On Display at Lincoln Center

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 01 December 2021 18:29; Written by Jack Angstreich

Scene from Bernstein in a Bubble. Photo: Rosalie O’Connor.

After a first week featuring performances of the beloved repertory staple, Giselle, the second week of the Fall Season at American Ballet Theater at the David H. Koch Theater was devoted to several mixed programs, including the Fall Gala. On Wednesday, October 27th, I had the privilege to attend an excellent evening—celebrating Gay Pride—of four dance pieces, beginning with the most extraordinary of all, the witty Bernstein in a Bubble, by Artist in Residence, Alexei Ratmansky, probably the greatest living choreographer, at least among those that employ a classical vocabulary. Set to the jazz-inflected Divertimento, one of Leonard Bernstein’s strongest orchestral scores, Ratmansky here seems to have devised a delightful hommage to the composer’s brilliant collaborator, Jerome Robbins. The work featured an impressive cast, including Skylar Brandt, Chloe Misseldine, Cassandra Trenary, Aran Bell, Patrick Frenette, Blane Hoven, and Tyler Maloney.

Touché by Christopher Rudd and set to music by Woodkid and the magnificent film composer, Ennio Morricone, was an ultimately moving gay love duet, elegantly executed by Calvin Royal III and João Menegussi. Even better was a second duet, by Clark Tippet, Some, choreographed to the Second Sonata for Violin and Piano by William Bolcom, and effectively performed by Brandt and Gabe Stone Shayer.

The dance portion of the program concluded strongly with Indestructible Light by Darrell Grand Moultrie, set to jazz pieces by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Neal Hefti, Billy Strayhorn, and Chuck Harmony, again with a remarkable cast including Jacob Clerico, Michael De La Nuez, Annabel Katsnelson, Kanon Kimura, Melvin Lawovi, Hannah Marshall, Betsy McBride, and Duncan McIlwaine. A fabulous bonus to the evening was the appearance of the dazzling Lypsinka performing her famous act answering telephones while lip-syncing to classic Hollywood actresses, like Elizabeth Taylor and Faye Dunaway, speaking in old films. The event ended with a talkback about Touché with Rudd, Royal, and Menegussi, along with Sarah Lozoff, the consulting Intimacy Director for Ballet Theater’s Fall 2021 Season.

A second program on the following night was even more outstanding, beginning with the exquisite La Follia Variations by Lauren Lovette, set to wonderful Baroque music by Francesco Geminiani, “re-imagined and arranged” by Michi Wiancko, featuring Scott Forsythe, Jonathan Klein, Emily Hayes, Lawovi, Kimura, Clerico, Fangqi Li, and Joseph Markey. Most exciting though was the opportunity to see the compelling Pillar of Fire—set to Arnold Schoenberg’s early, glorious Verklärte Nacht—by Antony Tudor who, after George Balanchine and Frederick Ashton, was one of the premier choreographers of the twentieth century that worked in the classical idiom and whose creations are now sadly undervalued. The primary cast was superb, featuring above all the astonishing Gillian Murphy—who was exceptional in the eponymous role in Giselle the previous week—as Hagar, ably complemented by Stephanie Petersen as the Eldest Sister, Zimmi Coker as the Youngest Sister, Thomas Forster as the Friend, and Cory Stearns as the man from the House Opposite, with characteristically accomplished support from the corps de ballet.

The evening ended delightfully with the brilliant ZigZag—by the admirable Jessica Lang—choreographed to a marvelous selection of songs sung by the inimitable Tony Bennett, including: “What the World Needs Now” by Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David; the signature “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”; "Fascinating Rhythm" by George and Ira Gershwin; “Spring in Manhattan”; Cole Porter’s “It's De-Lovely,” a duet with Lady Gaga; "Just One of Those Things,” also by Porter; “Smile” by Charlie Chaplin, from his classic late feature, Limelight; “Blue Moon” by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart; Duke Ellington’s "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)”; and "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" with music by Michel Legrand and lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. The enchanting cast included Isabella Boylston, Katherine Williams, Erica Hall, Bell, Hoven, and Royal, with exemplary assistance from members of the corps. I look forward to the return of this terrific company to Lincoln Center in the spring.

Reviews

Haunting & Beautiful Orchestration of the Juilliard Orchestra

Broadway Play Review—“Trouble in Mind” with LaChanze

December '21 Digital Week I

Ballet & Pride On Display at Lincoln Center

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