Monotonous Forest

A coup for Seattle

Anyone who can jump in on short notice and conduct Elliott Carter's challenging Allegro scorrevole (1996) is worth paying attention to, and apparently the Seattle Symphony Orchestra agreed: Ludovic Morlot will become the group's Music Director, starting in 2011-2012.  In 2006 he received rave notices tackling the Carter with the New York Philharmonic after Christoph von Dohnányi fell ill.  I was completely sold after his 2009 appearance with the Philharmonic in Tristan Murail's Gondwana (1980), a milestone for the orchestra, on a program that also featured excellent readings of Mozart, Messiaen and Debussy.

Death, drunkenness, and Ligeti

Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic in Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre.  MusicWeb International, June 29, 2010.

[Photo: Avery Fisher Hall interior during "Le Grand Macabre," by Chris Lee for the New York Philharmonic]

Contemporary solo piano at (Le) Poisson Rouge

Keys to the Future, Concerts I and III.  MusicWeb International, June 29, 2010.

Glancing back at one of the best of the year

Somehow I neglected to write about the astounding recital last April at Weill Recital Hall by Claire Chase, who won the 2008 competition sponsored by Concert Artists Guild.  It is a fine candidate for “Best Concert of 2010.”  For those unacquainted with her, Chase not only manages a performing career, but has been the powerhouse behind the rapid rise of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).  Demonstrating equal expertise as an administrator and artistic catalyst, she has helped ICE flourish in a time when economic pressures are causing new music groups to scale back or fold altogether.

But back to the concert, which began somewhat innocently, with Chase and guitarist Daniel Lippel in Bach’s Sonata in E Major, BWV 1035.  The two musicians showed marvelous rapport, but the works appearing later all but buried it in my memory, such as Franco Donatoni’s Fili (1981), an extended study on what program annotator Whit Bernard described as a “non-theme.”  Tiny motifs, no more than cells, are passed back and forth in increasing amounts of tension, with silences playing a crucial role, and Chase and pianist Jacob Greenberg showed the expertise of a duo which had played this dozens of times. 

Terrestre (2002) by Kaija Saariaho made a dramatic change.  Opening with a bird call, the composer adds four musicians to unleash her subtle microtonal washes, and here Chase enlisted stunningly alert ICE colleagues: Erik Carlson (violin), Kivie Cahn-Lipman (cello), Nuiko Wadden (harp) and Nathan Davis (percussion).  And in the evening’s most direct nod to Impressionism, the brilliant harpist Bridget Kibbey was on hand to help paint Toward the Sea (also from 1981) by Toru Takemitsu.  

Before launching the Boulez Sonatine (1946), Chase recalled rehearsing with Greenberg in a very quiet house in Chicago, and as a result the police were called—not once, but twice—on account of a “domestic disturbance.”  Not all flutists can tell a story like that and get belly laughs—and the humor only highlighted the fearsomely adept performance that followed.  

She closed with the first United States performance of Salvatore Sciarrino’s 1993 arrangement of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor.  All but draining the performer of oxygen, Sciarrino has created a thicket of breath control and rapid runs, and it’s easy to see why it isn’t played often: it’s too damn hard.  At several points Chase seemed to flag, ever-so-slightly, perhaps tacitly acknowledging the stamina required in this superhuman program.  But never mind: this was an heroic achievement, capped by an all-but-mandatory standing ovation mixed with whoops and cheers as she came onstage again and again, grinning with obvious pleasure.

Yet there was still more, an encore: Chase’s own virtuoso transcription of Paganini’s Caprice No. 24.  Its considerable demands, which posed no threats to either her technique or her calm demeanor, made a firm case for recalling this concert as one of the year’s Olympian feats.

Boulez in his MET Orchestra debut

Deborah Polaski burns through Schoenberg's Erwartung.  MusicWeb International, June 22, 2010.

Looking back—at looking and listening

Look and Listen Festival (Concerts I and II).  MusicWeb International, June 22, 2010.

Q: How many concerts tomorrow? A: Over 1,000.

On Monday, June 21, the fourth annual Make Music New York will explode all over the five boroughs, with something for everyone, seemingly everywhere in town.  Among the many offerings, British artist Luke Jerram has created Play Me, I'm Yours, with 60 pianos installed in unlikely locales, available to anyone, 24 hours a day for two weeks. [UPDATE: Sorry, I was mistaken, the pianos are available from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. each day.]

Three events in Central Park will celebrate Iannis Xenakis: Luca Veggetti is directing a puppet version of Oresteia at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater, and the Yale Percussion Group will perform at the Naumberg Bandshell.  Perhaps most ambitious, six percussionists will give the first American open-air performance of Persephassa (1969), in which the audience is invited to listen from rowboats on the lake, with the musicians performing on the shore.

And who could resist a group called The Really Terrible Orchestra of Westchester?  (It's patterned after the original one, in Edinburgh.)

[Photo: piano by the Jackson Heights Post Office, by Luke Jerram]

Never thought I'd see the day

Heartiest congratulations to the New York Philharmonic, which today receives ASCAP's 2009-2010 First Place Award for Programming of Contemporary Music.  Recent winners have been the orchestras of Saint Louis (2008), Boston (2007), Los Angeles (2006), San Francisco (2005) and Chicago (2004), and those and other ensembles have also placed second or third, but as far as I can tell, snagging the top award is a first for the New York Philharmonic. 

This is yet another testament to the vision of Alan Gilbert, who has engineered a startlingly successful first year, climaxing with three sold-out performances of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre.  Next week Gilbert ends the season with Beethoven's Missa solemnis and another premiere, Al largo by Magnus Lindberg, whose EXPO opened the season.  Judging from recent comments, many people are newly proud of their hometown band, and I am happy to join in a huge round of applause for Gilbert and of course, the orchestra's incomparable musicians.

A refined "Lulu" Suite

The Cleveland Orchestra in Beethoven and Berg.  MusicWeb International, June 11, 2010.

Enthralled by Andriessen's "De Staat"

John Adams and Ensemble ACJW.  MusicWeb International, June 11, 2010.