Oberon's Glade

Tag: Leonard Bernstein

  • Berio Sinfonia@NY Phil

    Author: ~Scoresby

    Thursday May 24 2018 – “The unexpected is always upon us. Well, I must have said this before since I say it now” says Berio’s sprawling five movement work for orchestra and microphoned vocal octet: Sinfonia. 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of Berio’s opus magnum. It was commissioned by the NY Philharmonic for its 125th anniversary (Berio delivered the score a year late) and the work, more than most, feels like a stamp of its time. Written for Leonard Bernstein and the jazzy pop group the Swingle Singers originally, the music has a wide range references, from Mahler to Boulez. The text draws from Beckett, Lévi-Strauss, and Berio’s own writings. Some of the words are purposely difficult to hear, moving in and out of focus at Berio’s will. With music that is both funny and saturated with anxiety of events of 1968, the meaning of this piece is purposely obscured. 

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    From the Archives: Composer Luciano Berio

    It is a commentary both in a universal sense and a musical sense (the performers even narrate the music in real time, almost like a sports commentator in the third movement). 50 years later, it feels both relevant and a glimpse into a specific period. Philosopher Walter Benjamin wrote in his Thesis on the Philosophy of History: 

              This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past . . . The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward.  

    I never thought I’d hear a musical representation of Benjamin’s words, but Berio is able to so in this piece.

    Each of the first four movements (the fifth was added a few years later) has its own feel and exists in a completely different sound world then the others. The fifth ties the disparate entities together in a sort of amalgam of the movements. This evening, the New York Philharmonic presented the work with Seymon Bychkov conducting his second week in a row and the young new music ensemble Roomful of Teeth in its New York Philharmonic debut. It should be said, because this work has such a textual importance it was surprising that the NY Philharmonic opted to not use either supertitles or issue a libretto – particularly for the third movement of the piece. While in English, Berio’s tricky text is important and purposely difficult to hear at times. 

    In the mysterious opening of first movement, Mr. Bychkov managed to guide the orchestra with an incisive sound while blending with the organ-like Roomful of Teeth. Speech is incredibly important to Berio, in his works he always mimics it. Here, the Philharmonic took this to heart. As a singer would finish a line, the instrumentalists would pick up the melody imitating the singer’s timbre and speech pattern. It was an impressive transformation from speech to music and vice versa, making the weaving textures of the piece wonderful to hear. This magical effect reminded me a lot of Boulez’s Répons, composed nearly twelve years later. This is the only performance of the work I’ve heard where I could clearly hear all of the singers – the Philharmonic’s sensitive accompaniment surely the reason. The second movement comprises of a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. The precise and pouncing brass/percussion outbursts balanced the more Gregorian chant-like singing texture that sits below – at once given the impression of being static and lurching forward. Mr. Bychkov drew a wide range of color from the orchestra, balancing the many textures while still making the outbursts sound percussive. The music briefly devolves into a march near the end before dissipating and here the orchestra seemed to blend into quietness of the hall.

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    Above: Some of the members of vocal group Roomful of Teeth; Photo Credit: Bonica Ayala of BONICA AYALA PHOTOGRAPHY

    The third movement is the most experimental music Berio wrote. It has the third movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 underlying it (which is in itself a setting of Mahler’s St. Anthony’s Sermon to the Fish from Das Knaben Wunderhorn) with many additions. Berio makes sure that the Mahler is never lost through the entire movement, but it comes in out of focus while the singers do everything from congratulating the conductor to singing about the anxiety of the role of art in politics. Mr. Bychkov managed to untangle the chaos of the music by making each texture transparent and audible, even in the most cacophonous sections. Whether through melody or rhythm, the Mahler was easily heard as were the slew of extra-musical references. Roomful of Teeth for their part, made the movement at once entertaining and somber, even getting laughs from some audience members. During the serious moments, such as questioning the point of art, they took a dedicated tone. This is incredibly difficult music to perform, but I can’t imagine it being rendered better. 

    In the fourth movement which has many short outbursts and feels comparatively sparse and calm, Mr. Bychkov’s precise conducting and the orchestra’s sharp sound provided a respite. The fifth movement’s recollections brought in bits of each of the other movements, almost like a summary of the entire work. It was wonderful to hear because it felt like a retrospective that tied everything together. The much younger looking crowd than usual (many hipster looking men in their late 20’s/early 30’s, likely do to Roomful of Teeth’s dedicated following) gave a well-deserved enthusiastic applause. Mr. Bychkov, Roomful of Teeth, and the NY Philharmonic couldn’t have performed the piece better, showing why at 50 this remains one of the most important symphonic works composed.

    Returning from intermission, the New York Philharmonic did its annual Milestones speeches, honoring members of the New York Philharmonic who are retiring and who have been a part of the orchestra for a certain number of years. This year, they honored the 25th anniversaries of Oboist Robert Botti, Principal Violist Cynthia Phelps, violist Robert Rinehart, and horn player R. Allen Spanjer. They also retiring members Mark Schmoockler (44 years), Vladimir Tsypin (35 years), and Archivist Barbara Haws (34 years). Ms. Haws gave a stirring speech about the importance of history and the connections that occur from a true institution like the New York Philharmonic. Her speech dovetailed perfectly with the Sinfonia, “The present honors the past. 100 years ago, seems like today.” 

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    Above: Conductor Semyon Bychkov; Photo credit: Chris Christodoulou

    After, the group performed Strauss’s last tone poem: An Alpine Symphony. The pairing of these two seemingly unrelated works comes from a line in the Sinfonia when the main narrator in the third movement makes a sarcastic jibe about the Alpine Symphony, saying something the effect of maybe a grand work like the Alpine Symphony will grow flowers (while discussing the lack of political potency music has). Mr. Bychkov and the Philharmonic were in top form. While this is personally my least favorite Strauss piece, Mr. Bychkov gave one of the best interpretations one could want. He made the strings sound vigorous, the brass warm, and the music layered. The orchestra crafted a round, gentle, and rolling sound – which contrasted the first half’s incisiveness well. During the exciting stormy sections, it was fun watching the percussionist get up to play the Thunder Sheet for its brief appearance. It was clear after this performance that Mr. Bychkov can get this orchestra to sound its best – I look forward to hearing him again soon.

  • Golden Age of the Violin @ CMS

    Violin

    Following the senseless horror of the terrorist attacks in Paris this past Friday, we turn yet again to music as a source of consolation. These words from Leonard Bernstein have echoed thru my mind over this weekend since the appalling news from France reached us: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”

    Sunday November 15, 2015 – A trio of superb young violinists were featured at this evening’s concert given by at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall. Paul Neubauer and David Finckel – masters of the viola and cello respectively – joined their young colleagues in celebrating the expressive violin style epitomized by the legendary Fritz Kreisler.

    Kreisler was in fact the first violinist I ever heard; my parents had some of his recordings and by the age or eight or nine I was already preferring these – and Horowitz, Flagstad, and Toscanini – to my mom’s favorites: Lawrence Welk and the McGuire Sisters.

    The first music we heard this evening was also oldest music on the programme: a sonata for two violins by Jean-Marie Leclair. Leclair may be the only violinist/composer in history to have had a highly successful career as a ballet dancer prior to turning to composing full-time around 1723. Today’s sonata dates from 1730 and was played with lively charm by Danbi Um and Sean Lee. Passing the melodies back and forth, the duo were well-matched, nuance for nuance. The tender sadness of the sonata’s Andante graziosa maintained a forward momentum, and then our two violinists sailed confidently thru the swirls of notes than make up the concluding Presto.

    Mr. Lee returned to the stage immediately with Benjamin Beilman and Paul Neubauer for Anton Dvorak’s C-major terzetto, composed in 1887. It opens with a tranquil theme, becomes more animated, then gently shifts between moods. After a passage of hesitations, as if unsure where to go next, the composer gives us a warm lullabye-like melody with a genial ending. A feeling of propulsive dance – and a touch of Mendelssohnian sparkle – fills the Scherzo; a central song with the flavour of a country waltz is most attractive, followed by a da capo which sweeps forward in alternating currents of lyrical breadth and teasing delicacy. In the final movement, Mr. Neubauer’s viola had a shivering motif, followed by an impassioned theme from Mr. Beilman; then there’s a brisk rush to the finish. 

    David Finckel’s name in my Playbill is now triple-underlined and festooned with exclamations marks for his marvelous playing in the Alexander Borodin 1881 D-major quartet. The cello sets the pace for the opening Allegro moderato and is given some heartfelt melodies in the later movements; these were relished by Mr. Finckel whose tone has an intimate, romantic glow.

    A Spring-like feeling pervades the opening of the Scherzo: Allegro, and then a familiar tune is heard: my mother would have recognized it as the melody of the 1950s pop song “Baubles, Bangles & Beads” (from the musical KISMET) which was recorded – seemingly – by everyone, including Marlene Dietrich and Frank Sinatra. For all the tune’s appeal, it still sounds best in its original Borodin setting. The second movement then rushes ahead, only to withdraw to a pizzicato fadeout at the end.

    Borodin sets the third movement as a Nocturne and Mr. Finckel sets the mood to perfection. Danbi Um, in the first violin chair, then takes up a sweet, high theme. Mssrs. Lee and Neubauer make the middle voices sing, the latter in a lovely melodic exchange with Mr. Finckel’s cello (“Gorgeous blends!” I scrawled in my Playbill.) Ms. Um takes up a shining theme, passing it to Mr. Finckel who descends with it into the cello’s depths. This Nocturne, with all four players deeply immersed in the music, made a particularly satisfying impression. In the concluding movement, the quartet summarized the work in recurrent themes, playing with such conviction that the audience were swept along and responded with especially warm applause, summoning the musicians out for a second bow. 

    After the interval, Ben Beilman stood alone on the stage and delivered a stunning performance of Eugene Ysaÿe’s E-minor sonata (1924). The work is a virtuosic test piece for which Mr. Beilman gets top marks. This young artist displays thorough technical assurance as well as a masterful control of dynamics. He took the strenuous demands Ysaÿe places on the player in stride, and an appealing aspect of modesty in his delivery endeared him to the crowd. This is a serious musician with something to say to us. The applause that enveloped Mr. Beilman at the end of his dazzling performance was amply deserved, bringing him out for a double curtain call. 

    No one could blame Fritz Kreisler for featuring the violin in his A-minor quartet: it was, after all, his instrument. Mr. Beilman, fresh from the demands of the Ysaÿe, was at his most lyrically persuasive here, regaling us with the melodic treats Kreisler has laid out for him. Danbi Um seconded Ben’s beautiful playing with many graceful turns of phrase, while Mssrs. Neubauer and Finckel brought Olde World warmth and expressiveness to their playing.

    Though rife with melodic felicities, including a waltz tune “mit schlag” and a gorgeously-sustained Ben Beilman high fade-away at the conclusion of the Romanze, the Kreisler quartet is one of those perfectly pleasant works that falls short of being truly memorable. But I can’t imagine it being better-played than it was this evening.

    In her welcoming remarks tonight, Chamber Music Society co-artistic director Wu Han had spoken of the distress we have all been feeling after the horrible events in Paris. She said that from Friday night til Sunday morning she had been so consumed with sadness that she couldn’t play the piano, but that at last she sat down to practice and found solace at the keyboard. She promised us that the evening’s programme would be uplifting, and she was right. 

    The Repertory:

     The Participating Artists: