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An Evening with Daniele Gatti at Carnegie Hall

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Friday, 05 February 2016 17:30; Written by Jack Angstreich

Daniele Gatti

Another terrific experience at Carnegie Hall this month was had by those with the good fortune to attend the mesmeric performance by the magnificent Orchestre National de France under the sterling direction of Daniele Gatti on the evening of Thursday, January 28th. I heard these musicians with this conductor once before in an extraordinary concert at Avery Fischer Hall a few years ago and my high expectations for this event proved entirely justified.

The program opened with a previously unscheduled, although most welcome, addition (performed in memory of the recently deceased Kurt Masur, who led this ensemble for several years): a beautiful rendition of the heavenly Prelude to Act III of Richard Wagner's sublime masterpiece, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Equally thrilling was the gripping account that followed of another supreme monument of the Classical repertory, Claude Debussy's ethereal Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.

Virtuoso violinist Julian Rachlin then took the stage for an arresting performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s challenging and eccentric Violin Concerto No. 1. The soloist was seemingly undaunted by the difficulties of this work and, consequent upon an enthusiastic ovation, then dazzled with a mesmerizing encore, the “Ballade” movement from Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonata for solo violin in D Minor, Op. 27, No. 3.

The second half of the program amazingly surpassed the first, with the strongest account of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s magisterial Symphony No. 5 that I’ve ever heard on the concert stage. The applause was rapturous and the evening was brought to an exquisite close with a splendid encore: a gorgeous rendition of Gabriel Fauré’s lovely Prélude from Pelléas et Mélisande. I eagerly await their next appearance in New York.

Vienna by Way of Philadelphia at Carnegie Hall

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Thursday, 04 February 2016 22:05; Written by Jack Angstreich

On the evening of Thursday, January 14th at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, I attended a wonderful Viennese-themed concert given by the outstanding Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who is perhaps the most exciting young, Classical music conductor working today — and indeed the most entertaining, if only for the comically overt enthusiasm he displays at the podium.

This was the first of two programs given by this ensemble at Carnegie Hall this month — the second, on the evening of Tuesday, January 26th, is reviewed below.

The event began with a beautiful account of Johann Strauss, Jr.’s delightful and ever-popular “Tales from the Vienna Woods” Waltz, a work not heard in the concert hall here as often as one might like. The twenty-year-old Canadian pianist, Jan Lisiecki, then took the stage for a brilliant rendition of Ludwig van Beethoven’s masterful Piano Concerto No. 4, the performance of which could scarcely have been bettered despite this work’s ubiquity on New York concert stages. An enthusiastic ovation elicited a sterling encore, Robert Schumann’s perennially sublime Träumerei from Kinderszenen.

The superb first half of the program was matched by the second, which opened with a stirring reading of Gustav Mahler’s engrossing transcription for string orchestra of Beethoven’s great String Quartet No. 11, the “Serioso”, a highlight of the evening if only for the work’s rarity. This was followed by the closing piece, the Carnegie Hall premiere of Austrian composer H. K. Gruber’s ingenious 1981 Charivari, subtitled “an Austrian Journal for Orchestra”, an exhilaratingly delirious parody of Johann Strauss, Jr.’s “Perpetuum mobile” polka, performed with aplomb here by the ensemble under Nézet-Séguin’s confident direction.

As the applause continued, this adorable conductor invited the audience to stay and hear Strauss’s delightful original as an encore, which unsurprisingly was exquisitely played — as the polka finished, Nézet-Séguin turned to the audience and, with a rising intonation, said, “And life goes on . . .”, concluding an evening that can only be described with superlatives.

The program on the 26th was also extraordinary, opening with an unsurpassably elegant reading, notable for its sensitivity to tempo, of Franz Joseph Haydn’s late masterpiece, the Symphony No. 103, the “Drumroll”, with the eponymous drumroll at the work's start launched, in an another jocularcoup de théâtre, before the conductor had a chance to turn around to face the orchestra.

Amusingly, in the midst of the applause consequent upon the work's conclusion, the timpanist repeated his drumroll, at Nézét-Séguin's prompting.

The second half of the evening was even more impressive, devoted to an awesome exposition of the Robert Haas 1878-1880 version of Anton Bruckner’s majestic Symphony No. 4, the “Romantic” — the orchestral texture characteristically lucid in the conductor's meticulous reading.

At the evening's end, Nézét-Séguin was recalled to the stage four times during an exultant ovation and deservedly so, given the supreme musicianship on offer.

February '16 Digital Week I

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 03 February 2016 04:07; Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week

Bridge of Spies

(Touchstone)

In Steven Spielberg's draggy 2-1/2 hour Cold War drama, Tom Hanks gives an aw-shucks performance as James Donovan, the Brooklyn lawyer who defends a Russian spy and negotiates the release of U2 airplane pilot Gary Powers during a particularly fraught period in U.S.-Russian relations.

Although Janusz Kaminski's sepia-tinged photography is masterly as always, Spielberg rarely brings immediacy or tautness to his story; he's too busy forcing present-day parallels in front of the camera. Memorable portrayals by Mark Rylance as the spy and Amy Ryan as Donovan's wife further compromise matters, since they out-act Hanks at every turn. The hi-def transfer is excellent; extras comprise four featurettes.

Burnt

(Anchor Bay)

John Wells' slight but entertaining drama about a hotshot chef who flamed out in Paris and rebuilds his career in London benefits greatly from the chemistry between Bradley Cooper as the chef and always underrated Sienna Miller as his reluctant British protégée.

Although too cute by half and consisting of scenes that could have been excised—notably a subplot about our hero and some thugs—the result is a pleasant time-filler. The movie looks fine on Blu; extras include Wells' commentary, deleted scenes, featurette and cast and director Q&A.

Earth's Natural Wonders—Living on the Edge

(PBS)

For its entire length, this fascinating three-hour mini-series visits some of the most awe-inspiring and spectacular places on earth, like Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Everest, the Grand Canyon and Victoria Falls, and explores how their inhabitants (both human and animal) find themselves adapting to the often extreme and unforgiving conditions.

From the ocean reefs to the Amazon, from killer bees to man-eating tigers, these programs show off splendid high-definition footage to provide extraordinary views of several amazing locations.

Kansas City Confidential

(The Film Detective)

Phil Karlson's tough-minded 1952 black and white B-movie (which has been raved about by no less a self-involved movie buff as Quentin Tarantino) tracks the fall-out of a daring armored car heist: an innocent driver looks to avenge himself against those who accused him of being in on the theft.

The movie's fast pace as its follows its protagonist to hard-won redemption would work for Karlson's '70s career renaissance with Walking Tall. There's a decent if unspectacular hi-def transfer.

Our Brand Is Crisis

(Warner Bros)

How political operatives work behind the scenes for their candidates, where winning is everything and losing completely unacceptable, is demonstrated in this intriguing but ultimately self-serving dramatization based on a 2005 documentary about a South American election. Director David Gordon Green never strikes the right balance between satire and seriousness, as witness such meaningless moments as a bus chase through hilly roads and a drunken bar scene.

Sandra Bullock seems adrift as Calamity Jane, the professional who helps elect a corrupt politician, and Green's final attempt to inject a moral feels desperate. The movie has a first-class hi-def transfer; lone extra is a Bullock featurette.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs—Disney Signature Edition

(Disney)

Walt Disney's first full-length animated classic, made in 1937, was released on Blu-ray in 2009 in a Diamond edition with a superb hi-def transfer and a plethora of extras; this new Walt Disney Signature series release is unnecessary for anyone with the Diamond disc, but those who don’t have it should pick this up.

Some featurettes here weren't included on the Diamond set, while several others from the original aren't included here. At least the first-rate transfer remains.

DVDs of the Week

Breathe

(Film Movement)

The viciousness of teenage existence is scarifyingly brought to life by director Melanie Laurent in this unsettling adaptation of a book by Anne-Sophie Brasme about two teenagers—wallflower Charlie and boisterous Sarah—who befriend each other, followed by rampant jealousies that change their relationship for good.

Laurent follows the girls' shifting dynamics straightforwardly, while the exemplary acting of Josephine Japy and Lou de Laage points the way toward the predictable but still shattering denouement. Extras are interviews with Laurent, Japy and de Laage, and short film Bonne Esperance by French director Kaspar Schiltknecht.

Night Will Fall

(Warner Archive)

The liberation of WWII concentration camps left those who were there marked for life, not only the soldiers but the camera crews and filmmakers who documented these inhumane monuments to Nazi evil.

Andre Singer's powerful documentary, recounting the making of one such film by Alfred Hitchcock—which wasn't finished for various reasons until 2014—includes emotional testimony from witnesses about the atrocities they saw 70 years earlier. Extras comprise an interview with historian Rainer Schulze; a Soviet propaganda film about the liberation of Auschwitz; and Death Mills, an American film about the camps co-directed by Billy Wilder.

CD of the Week

Barbara Hannigan—Let Me Tell You

(BR Klassik)

Written for luminous Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan, Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen collaborated with librettist Paul Griffiths on this expressive if diffuse 30-minute vocal piece from the viewpoint of Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The words come from the play, although arranged to have a different meaning, and if Abrahamsen's colorful score ultimately lacks depth, Hannigan's brilliant artistry compensates, bringing the character to vividly wise life.

Broadway Review—Linda Lavin in "Our Mother's Brief Affair"

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Thursday, 28 January 2016 23:12; Written by Kevin Filipski

Our Mother's Brief Affair
Written by Richard Greenberg; directed by Lynne Meadow
Performances through March 6, 2016

Greg Keller and Linda Lavin in Our Mother's Brief Affair (photo: Joan Marcus)

For most of its first act, Richard Greenberg's new play Our Mother's Brief Affair ambles along uneventfully as it tells the story of Anna, the 70ish matriarch of a damaged Long Island family, and her two grown (and gay) children, Seth and Abby. Anna, who has been "dying" for years and is once again at death's door, breaks the news to her children that she had a brief but fulfilling affair long ago.

Then comes a bizarre plot twist, yet another example of the shark-jumping that sometimes afflicts plays and movies around their halfway points: Seth and Abby walk to the front of the stage and explain to the audience just who the distinguished gentleman their mom fell for on a Central Park bench one day really is.

A long and winding Cold War history lesson ensues, but the fallout for the family—Abby knew about an affair from their long-deceased father, while Seth had already felt betrayed upon discovering that Mom carried on her affair while he was unhappily studying the viola at Juilliard—is nothing compared to the fallout for the audience, as a relatively undistinguished dysfunctional-family comedy is overwhelmed by a plot reveal from out of the blue that sheds no light on either the family dynamic or the historical personages posthumously dragged into it.

As usual, Greenberg writes some amusing and facile dialogue (mainly shticky one-liners) that never digs as deeply into these relationships as it should; everything stays on the surface, so that none of these characters—not even the acid-tongued Anna, played with boisterous brio by Linda Lavin—comes to anything more than fleeting life. On Santo Loquasto's appropriately shape-shifting set, Lynne Meadow's staging still feels scattershot, hamstrung as it is by Greenberg's faulty dramatics, as if two completely separate plays were welded together in the most unwieldy fashion.

Our Mother's Brief Affair
Gerald Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street, New York, NY
manhattantheatreclub.com

Reviews

An Evening with Daniele Gatti at Carnegie Hall

Vienna by Way of Philadelphia at Carnegie Hall

February '16 Digital Week I

Broadway Review—Linda Lavin in "Our Mother's Brief Affair"

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