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New York Philharmonic Presents "Fate Now Conquers"

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Tuesday, 14 November 2023 14:32; Written by Jack Angstreich

Stéphane Denève leads the New York Philharmonic with Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider Beethoven Violin Concerto. Photo by Chris Lee.

At Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, on the evening of Thursday, November 9th, I had the considerable privilege to attend an outstanding concert presented by the New York Philharmonic—continuing a strong season of orchestral music—under the impressive direction of Stéphane Denève.

The program began brilliantly with a sterling rendition of the excellent Fate Now Conquers from 2019 by Carlos Simon, which appears to be one of the most frequently performed contemporary works in the classical idiom. About it, the composer has commented, “This piece was inspired by a journal entry from Ludwig van Beethoven’s notebook written in 1815.” The passage reads:

Iliad. The Twenty-Second Book
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 added:

Using the beautifully fluid harmonic structure of the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, I have composed musical gestures that are representative of the unpredictable ways of fate. Jolting stabs, coupled with an agitated groove with every persona. Frenzied arpeggios in the strings that morph into an ambiguous cloud of free-flowing running passages depict the uncertainty of life that hovers over us. 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 to fate. Fate now conquers.

The admirable virtuoso, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, then joined the musicians for a marvelous account of Beethoven’s extraordinary Violin Concerto. The elaborate and ambitious initial movement, marked Allegro ma non troppo, opens dramatically but quickly becomes melodious and joyous in mood—and with a somewhat proto-Mendelssohnian quality—but the composer sustains a compelling sense of suspense throughout it. The ensuing Larghetto is lyrical, reflective and relatively subdued but also affirmative—it is the most Mozartean of the three movements—while theRondofinale—with a tempo of Allegro—is dance-like, ebullient and dynamic, and elicited an enthusiastic ovation. The violinist rewarded the audience with a wonderful encore: the Sarabande from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004.

The second half of the event was at least equally memorable, consisting of a stunning realization of the awesome Symphony No. 3 of Camille Saint-Saëns—it is dedicated to the memory of Franz Liszt—featuring the celebrated Kent Tritle on the organ. The complex first movement begins as a quiet Adagio but rapidly transforms into an exciting Allegro moderato, which also, maybe surprisingly, evokes the orchestral work of Felix Mendelssohn as well as the opening movement of Franz Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony; the music acquires an elevated character when the organ enters in the closing Poco adagio section. The imposing second movement starts turbulently but then becomes more playful, finally building to a thrilling, propulsive, fugue-like conclusion, which drew vigorous applause.

Off-Broadway Play Review—“Sabbath’s Theater” with John Turturro

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Monday, 13 November 2023 20:48; Written by Kevin Filipski

Sabbath’s Theater

Written by John Turturro and Ariel Levy; directed by Jo Bonney

Performances through December 17, 2023

The New Group @ Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street, New York, NY

thenewgroup.org

Elizabeth Marvel and John Turturro in Sabbath's Theater (photo: Monique Carboni)

Even more so than his other novels, Sabbath’s Theater was Philip Roth at his most sardonic and scatological. His hero of sorts, Mickey Sabbath, is a 64-year-old former puppeteer who is, by his own admission, a dirty old man: seemingly all he thinks about is having sex when he’s not actually having sex. After his insatiable Croatian mistress Drenka dies of cancer, he is thrown for a loop, which causes him reevaluate his life choices, including his marriages, other relationships with available women, and family memories, notably his beloved brother Morty’s death while flying planes against the Japanese in World War II.

Can a 105-minute play hope to distill the essence of Roth’s masturbatory fantasy of self-abasement? Based on the evidence of John Turturro and Ariel Levy’s stage adaptation, in which Turturro stars in a tour de force as Sabbath, the answer is: not really. Although the adapters have plucked certain incidents and scenes out of the book into their version, it has a scattershot feel, since most of it is pruriently sexual, which makes Mickey Sabbath far more one-dimensional than in the novel.

The play begins with the sounds of a sexual encounter between Mickey and Drenka, then the lights come up to the pair wrapped up on the floor as she coos sweet nothings in his ear about cooking him the best Eastern European dishes. The scenes between Mickey and Drenka have a spirited frission, helped by Turturro and Elizabeth Marvel (despite a bizarre accent), whose terrific rapport extends from the physical to the intellectual.

But when Mickey deals with men—like Norman, whom he repays for letting him stay at his Manhattan apartment after the funeral of Norman’s former producing partner Linc by attempting to seduce Norman’s wife and steal his daughter’s panties from her bedroom—the results are a comedy of embarrassment, but Roth does this queasy sort of thing better on the page.

Then there’s the story’s nadir, when Mickey visits Drenka’s grave and masturbates—it’s here that the otherwise adroit director Jo Bonney succumbs to the cheap scatology by showing his shadowy ejaculation—only to find another man also performing the same act. Such a blunt comedy of debasement keeps Mickey at arm’s length, however charmingly garrulous is Turturro’s performance.

Turturro and Levy smartly end their adaptation with the poignant meeting between Mickey and a 100-year-old cousin, Fish (touchingly played by Jason Kravits), in which Mickey finally decides that his wasted life is worth living. Notwithstanding Turturro’s gratuitous nudity as he drapes himself in the flag that Mickey’s mother received after his brother died in action, it provides a satisfying way out of a too often enervating take on Philip Roth’s most scathing self-depiction.

Concert Review—Lea Michele at Carnegie Hall

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Friday, 10 November 2023 11:52; Written by Kevin Filipski

Lea Michele

October 30, 2023

Carnegie Hall, New York City

carnegiehall.org

Lea Michele at Carnegie Hall (photo: Richard Termine)

Lea Michele opened her first Carnegie Hall concert with a flourish, strutting and beaming as she made her way down the aisle to the stage in her sheer black dress belting out the first of many showstoppers, “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” a highlight from her recent Broadway run headlining the recent Funny Girl revival.

For the next 90 minutes, Michele treated her adoring audience to more Funny Girl numbers, other show tunes and pop tunes from the TV series Glee, all delivered with her effortlessly powerhouse voice. Her between-songs patter, though charming, was a mite excessive—I heard people grumbling afterward that she talked too much—but obviously the bigness of the moment contributed to some nerves while she spoke about her life and career.

Michele remembered being in this very hall at a young age watching other Broadway greats, hoping she would follow them one day. She obviously did—and on the journey through her early career, she resurrected “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables, her first Broadway show; followed by “Gliding” from Ragtime, which she starred in alongside Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell and her beloved Marin Mazzie.

Michele also told the story of her audition for Spring Awakening, at which she was asked to sing a pop song. The naïve 14-year-old could only think of “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” prostitute Mary Magdalene’s Jesus Christ Superstar power ballad. The grownup Michele sang it winkingly, knowingly and, of course, beautifully.

For this special night, Michele’s special guests were her good friends and costars in Spring Awakening and Glee, respectively. First, Jonathan Groff joined her for a wonderful duet on “Word of Your Body” that segued into a thrilling bit of Sondheim’s “Somewhere,” then Darren Criss joined Lea for a spectacular “Suddenly Seymour” and, with Criss strumming an acoustic guitar, a touching take on Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love.”

After those dynamic duos, Michele kept the Broadway hits coming: "Papa Can You Hear Me" was followed by "Maybe This Time" and then a terrific Funny Girl medley of “I’m the Greatest Star,” “People” and “Music That Makes Me Dance.” She followed that with a boisterous “My Man,” a song the real Fanny Brice sang in concert but that wasn’t in the stage musical of Funny Girl—although Barbra Streisand sang it in the movie. Pianist and music director Steven Jamail and his taut, tight band provided strong accompaniment throughout.

For her lone encore, Michele sang a tearfully reflective "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," showcasing a voice of passionate restraint. She promised the cheering fansthat she would return to Broadway soon—which was music to everyone’s ears.

New York Philharmonic Present "Pictures at an Exhibition"

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Monday, 06 November 2023 19:30; Written by Jack Angstreich

Susanna Mälkki conducts the New York Philharmonic with Pierre-Laurent Aimard performing Ligeti Piano Concert. Photo by Chris Lee

At Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, on the evening of Saturday, November 4th, I had the exhilarating pleasure of attending a marvelous concert featuring the New York Philharmonic under the exceptionally impressive direction of the Finnish conductor, Susanna Mälkki.

The first half of the program was devoted to music by Hungarian composers, opening with a charming diversion—a performance of the immensely famous Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 of Franz Liszt, transcribed here for the cimbalom by the admirable soloist, Jenő Lisztes. Encountering this work played on this somewhat exotic instrument foregrounded its affinities with Central and Eastern European folk music but it would have been more enchanting in an orchestral version or even in its original form for the piano. Nonetheless, the audience was apparently delighted, responding with an enthusiastic ovation.

More remarkable was the ensemble’s superb account of Béla Bartók’s splendid Romanian Folk Dances, BB 76, which vary across a range of moods and styles—plaintive, ebullient, lyrical, and so forth—although, surprisingly, these exquisite pieces are maybe equally haunting when presented on the piano. The renowned virtuoso—surely one of the greatest of our time—Pierre-Laurent Aimard, then entered the stage to perform the perplexing Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by the celebrated avant-gardist, György Ligeti, whose centennial is being celebrated this year. I am not really competent to evaluate the merits of this intractable score but the initial movement, marked Vivace molto ritmico e preciso, is vigorous and arresting while the ensuing Lento is enigmatic, meditative, and eccentric, becoming highly dramatic. The scherzo that follows—with a tempo of Vivace cantabile—is not especially playful in tone despite its genre. The penultimate movement—Allegro risoluto, molto ritmico—is forbidding in its inaccessibility while thePresto luminousfinale is ludic if also inscrutable.

The summit of the evening, however, was achieved in the event’s second half—a stunning realization of Maurice Ravel’s brilliant orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky magnificent Pictures at an Exhibition. The “Gnomus” episode—the first of the “pictures”—is uncanny and arresting and the succeeding “Il Vecchio Castelo” is elegiac and mysterious. The “Tuileries” section is brief but effervescent and the “Bydlo” movement—“Polish Ox-Cart”—is strangely ominous. It precedes the jocular “Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks” and the solemn “Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle.” Next is the lively “The Marketplace at Limoges” and the lugubrious, portentous “Catacombs: Roman Burial Place.” Eerie but serene was “With the Dead in a Dead Language” while “The Hut on Chicken Feet: Baba-Yaga” was exciting, sinister and dynamic. The panoply concludes thrillingly with the majestic and triumphant “The Great Gate of Kiev.” The artists deservedly received abundant applause, closing a memorable concert.

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