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Film and the Arts
The Sound of "Surge"
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 26 January 2023 15:19
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Dalia Stasevska conducts the New York Philharmonic performing world premiere of Wang Lu's "Surge". Photo by Chris Lee
At Lincoln Center’s superb David Geffen Hall, on the evening of Saturday, January 21st, I had the great privilege to attend a terrific concert presented by the New York Philharmonic—continuing an unusually strong season—under the splendid direction of Ukrainian conductor Dalia Stasevska, who leads the Lahti Symphony Orchestra.
The program began auspiciously with contemporary Chinese composer Wang Lu’s impressively orchestrated, compelling Surge, heard here in a fully realized account, and receiving its world premiere with these performances. Wang, in a program note in the score, wrote:
With alarming new environmental and political challenges emerging all the time, there is an overwhelming sense of unforeseen surges of the unknown that permeate our lives. Yet there is also an irresistible sense of collective urgency to build on more complex perspectives that, though sometimes tumultuous, would tolerate bold and unique innovations.
With these thoughts in mind,Surgefrequently features full orchestral tutti moments, transforming them into colossal textures, shifting and mixing tone colors while amplifying a single theme throughout. Momentous rhythmic motives insistently drive the inexorable waves of orchestral layers forward towards abrupt shifts.
Program annotator Rebecca Winzenried provides some useful background on the work:
Surge was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commission Program, a consortium of 30 orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra to the Quad City Symphony in Iowa and the Portland Columbia Symphony in Oregon. Works by the six women composers engaged to contribute (who also include Anna Clyne, Sarah Gibson, Angel Lam, Gity Razaz, and Arlene Sierra) will each be performed by four consortium member orchestras, repeat performances that guarantee greater exposure than is often afforded to new works. Following the World Premiere by the NY Phil, Surge will be performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Des Moines Symphony, and at the Aspen Music Festival.
The beautiful and brilliant Georgian soloist, Lisa Batiashvili—who wore a fabulous, lacy, black gown—then entered the stage for a dazzling rendition of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s amazing Violin Concerto, which was inspired by Edouard Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole.The first movement is tuneful, bewitching and song-like but acquires a more dramatic character, although with incredibly stirring passages, reaching an exhilarating conclusion that elicited the audience’s applause. The ensuing slow movement is even more Russian in its melodies and it too is lyrical but with more melancholy inflections while the ebullient and dance-likefinaleis especially virtuosic, although with some subdued moments, but also closes thrillingly.
The second half of the evening was even stronger, consisting in a fully assured performance of Jean Sibelius’s magnificent Symphony No. 2. The suspenseful and turbulent initial movement is thoroughly Romantic with majestic climaxes. The evocative and mysterious slow movement is more restrained but ends forcefully and the third movement opens excitingly but its propulsion is arrested by quieter passages. The complex and moodyfinalebuilds to an exalting conclusion. The musicians received an enthusiastic ovation.
Cleveland Orchestra Presents the Music of Vienna
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 25 January 2023 15:22
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Franz Welser-Möst conducts Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. Photo by Chris Lee
At Carnegie Hall, on the evening of Wednesday, January 18th, I had the enormous privilege to attend a magnificent concert of Viennese music—continuing an unusually strong season at this venue—performed by the extraordinary musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra, under the exceptional direction of Franz Welser-Möst, one of the finest contemporary conductors.
The marvelous first half of the program interwove movements from two outstanding works masterfully played: Alban Berg’s indelible Three Pieces from the Lyric Suite—originally scored for string quartet and rearranged for string orchestra—and Franz Schubert’s incomparable Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, D. 759, the “Unfinished.” (Playing movements of works out of sequence is a violation of their artistic integrity but as the music was consistently thrilling, it was not difficult to overlook this.) The opening Andante amoroso from the Lyric Suite was compelling and intricate while the ensuing, brief, less accessible Allegro misterioso functions structurally as ascherzo—replete with a Trio section—but is not especially playful in character. The piece concluded arrestingly with the Adagio appassionata.The Allegro moderato from the Symphony No. 8 was enchanting, although also solemn and dramatic, even with several portentous moments; the often charming Andante con moto is strangely Mendelssohnian at times—lyrical passages alternate with both majestic and more serious ones.
Also exhilarating was a brilliant realization of Schubert’s too infrequently heard but awe-inspiring Mass No. 6 in E-flat Major which featured the wonderful Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and a slate of superb soloists: soprano Joélle Harvey, mezzo-soprano Daryl Freedman, tenors Julian Prégardien and Martin Mitterrutzner, and bass Dashon Burton. The Kyrie was exalting while the Gloria that followed was intensely joyous with the Domine Deus section in a more subdued register, although with some overpowering moments; the movement concludes with an astonishing fugue. The Credo was more introspective—its Et Incarnatus was especially moving. After a forceful Sanctus and an ineffably beautiful Benedictus, the Agnus Dei is deeply emotional but acquires a more affirmative character in the amazing Dona Nobis section. The artists deservedly received an enthusiastic ovation.
January '23 Digital Week III
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 25 January 2023 13:45
- Written by Kevin Filipski
"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.
