Monotonous Forest

The genteel powerhouse

It takes real guts (among other things) to program Pierre Boulez's Second Piano Sonata at the end of a concert, but Maurizio Pollini has guts and much more at his disposal.  At yesterday's astonishing Carnegie Hall recital, he seemed even more vibrant than when I last saw him, in October of 2004.  And after the Boulez, with a clamorous audience raining down whistles, bravos and applause, he had the stamina for five encores -- not bad for someone who turned sixty-five last January.

Sad news from Russia

Hearing of his death today, I am so grateful I got to hear Mstislav Rostropovich conduct one last time, almost exactly a year ago, with Maxim Vengerov and the New York Philharmonic in an all-Shostakovich program.  If not quite as memorable as his Shostakovich Eleventh Symphony a few years back with the London Symphony Orchestra, it was nevertheless an evening I will treasure.

From Time Europe in 2004, here is an appreciation in Vengerov's own words. 

[Drawing by Sol Schwartz, via photographer Norman Koren.]

Time out for Tchaikovsky (again)

Tonight at 9:00pm here, PBS will be showing the Met's extraordinary Eugene Onegin, originally aired live on February 24.  I've seen the filmed version twice, in addition to a couple of performances in the Met house, and am happy to report that broadcast director Brian Large captured what will probably go down in history as one of the best Met afternoons ever. 

Dmitri Hvorostovsky is astonishingly good in the title role, even though much of the attention was focused on Renée Fleming, who also gives a spine-tingling performance.  Even some of her detractors (not your writer) confessed they found her breathtaking as Tatiana.  And then there is Ramón Vargas, whose portrayal of Lenski might be worth the entire three hours. 

Robert Carsen's gorgeously spare, evocative production was understandably tinkered with for video, yet retains much of its impact, elegantly framing the dramatic intensity onstage.  And the electrifying work by Valery Gergiev and the Met Orchestra, particularly in the dances in the last half, is as memorable as the vocal fireworks.  Let's hope this is released on DVD at some point.

Spring hailstorm

The next two weeks or so will present difficult choices for New York's new music fans, and the International Contemporary Ensemble isn't making things any easier by presenting (gulp) nine concerts here, starting tonight at Galapagos.  Claire Chase, the group's flutist and co-founder, will be featured in recent works for flute and electronics by young composers, along with Vermont Counterpoint (1982) by Steve Reich.

[Photo: All-Storm Repairs, Inc.]

Hakola, at last

Tomorrow night at Miller Theatre, Milwaukee-based Present Music will give New Yorkers their first substantial taste of the music of Kimmo Hakola.  I became acquainted with Hakola last year thanks to Ondine's fantastic recording of his Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (2001), a wild, unconventional ride that made me want to hear more.  Kevin Stalheim will conduct four works including the Chamber Concerto (also from 2001), commissioned by Present Music.

[Photo of Kimmo Hakola by Saara Vuorjoki, Finnish Music Information Centre]

Karita's encores

The unusual Carnegie Hall program by Karita Mattila may have kept some listeners away, alas.  They missed some fine songs by Barber, Wolf and Granados, and a Turina set that ended with a few well-placed tango steps in front of the piano of her superb collaborator, Martin Katz.  Most unusual were Finnish songs by Kuula, Melartin, Merikanto and Madetoja, many of which I'd never heard before and (as usual) there is much to be said for unearthing rarities. 

Meanwhile, those who ducked out at the end missed Dvořák's "Songs My Mother Taught Me" from Gypsy Songs, "Våren flyktar hastigt" ("Spring Is Flying") by Sibelius, and a blazingly theatrical "The Man I Love," that made me wonder how this extraordinary singer might fare in an entire evening of Gershwin.

At the end of the alphabet

Iconoclast and poet Emily XYZ will be performing tonight at Bowery Poetry Club.  Her delivery often blurs the boundary between speech and music, and her texts are often stark, soul-baring and wrenchingly funny. 

But if you're a Bush supporter (or a Pottery Barn employee) you might want to make other plans.

Update: here's a link to an article in Salon, with an MP3 file of one of Emily's greatest hits, Sinatra Walks Out.

[Photo: Emily XYZ in a restroom on the way to Brisbane, Australia.]

A Narucki weekend

Last Friday soprano Susan Narucki was at her glowing, gently moving best in Oliver Knussen's Requiem--Songs for Sue, Op. 33 (2005-06), written as a memorial to his wife.  The final poem, by Rilke, was particularly heartbreaking: "Bist du noch da?  In welcher Ecke bist du?" ("Are you still there?  In what corner are you?)

On Saturday afternoon a friend introduced me to portions of Rêves d’un Marco Polo, a theater piece using music of Claude Vivier, the Canadian composer whose tragic death is often the sole detail anyone remembers about him -- a shame, given the raw, expressive power of his music.  Narucki gives a white-hot version of Lonely Child (1980), and other works, with tightly focused help from the ASKO and Schönberg Ensembles conducted by new music expert Reinbert de Leeuw.  Just as compelling is a sixty-minute documentary on Vivier by Cherry Duyns, who combines comments from friends with footage of de Leeuw rehearsing, on this two-DVD set from Opus Arte that is well worth investigating.

Nostalgic program note fragment of the day

"The two large parts [of the work] are quite different in character and harmony, as will be immediately apparent, I hope.  However, they start with the same music -- except that in Part Two the opening of Part One is played as if heard on a scratchy, poorly pressed LP (perhaps from the former eastern bloc: I have strong memories of buying such records from Collet's in London, in order to hear the latest new music from Poland, Russia, or Romania)."

[From notes for Book of Hours (2004) by Julian Anderson, performed last night by The Zankel Band conducted by Oliver Knussen.]

With bells on

I’ve heard cellist Madeleine Shapiro play Salvatore Sciarrino’s Ai limiti della notte (1979) several times in the last few years.  At last night's ModernWorks concert at Christ and St. Stephen's Church, she reiterated how much she loves the piece, roughly seven minutes of tremolos, creakings and other quiet sounds.  (Sciarrino is not a composer for those who like it loud.)  This time she followed it, after the briefest of pauses, with his Appendice alla perfezione (1995), for a set of fourteen tuned bells, beautifully chosen, arranged and played by Michael Dobson. The unusual juxtaposition worked especially well in the acoustic of the church.