Classical Musings

Berlin Philharmonic free webcast

Andrew Druckenbrod — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:44:00 GMT

For those of you on the fence about the Berlin Philharmonic virtual concert hall experience, Deutsche Bank is offering a free webcast of Simon Rattle conducting Brahms Symphonies Nos. 3-4
Monday, 9 November at 8 p.m.

Jason Yoder at the White House

Andrew Druckenbrod — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:39:00 GMT

In addition to our fine story on Jason Yoder yesterday comes this Associated Press story on his visit to the White House. See the bold below

Classical Music at the White House -- Update
By Nancy Benac
Associated Press with links elsewhere
November 5, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — Classical music took over the White House on Wednesday as Barack and Michelle Obama used two concerts and a series of workshops for young musicians to send a clear message that the music of the masters isn't just for stuffed shirts.

The president told the audience at an evening concert in the East Room that classical music is "lifting hearts and spurring imaginations" all across the nation, and is something to be enjoyed by aficionados and the uninitiated alike.

The concert featured some of today's most important young and vibrant classical musicians: violinist Joshua Bell, classical guitarist Sharon Isbin, cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Awadagin Pratt. And the superstars teamed with some youngsters of uncanny ability.

Pratt plunked himself down on a piano bench next to 14-year-old Lucy Hattemer of Cincinnati to perform a Schubert duet on the East Room's Steinway during the afternoon concert. Weilerstein, 27, was upstaged by her 8-year-old partner, Sujari Britt, a student at New York's Manhattan School of Music, on a duet by Italian composer Luigi Boccherini.

Bell, performing in shirt sleeves and jeans, introduced a Paganini duet with Isbin at the afternoon concert by telling the audience that the Italian violinist was "sort of like the Beatles of his time." He also showed that not even the pros are immune to the occasional flub. During his duet with Isbin, Bell inadvertently skipped a couple of lines, and jokingly pronounced it "the abridged version."

At the evening concert, Obama tried to put the audience at ease by telling the crowd that even President Kennedy wasn't always sure when to clap during classical performances and had to get a signal from his social secretary on when to applaud.

"Fortunately, I have Michelle to tell me when to applaud," he joked. "The rest of you are on your own."

At the afternoon performance, Mrs. Obama gave the youngsters a big shout-out for practicing even when they don't feel like it, lugging around heavy instruments and laboring to perfect tough pieces.

"It's through that struggle that you find what you truly have to offer to your instrument or to anything in life," she said. "You'll learn that if you believe in yourself and put in your best effort, that there's nothing that you can't achieve. And those aren't just lessons about music. These are really lessons about life."

Sixteen-year-old percussionist Jason Yoder, who performed both in the afternoon and evening concerts, pronounced it "a very good day for classical music." A student at Pittsburgh's Creative and Performing Arts School, he performed a duet of Saint-Saens' "The Swan" with Weilerstein.

"In my generation, classical music is kind of looked down upon," Yoder said, adding that the White House spotlight could help change that.

The day's events were part of a White House Music Series that also has featured concerts of jazz, Latin and country music.

Earlier Wednesday, Mrs. Obama showcased after-school programs in the arts and humanities by hosting an awards ceremony for more than a dozen recipients of the Coming Up Taller awards. The awards recognize programs outside of the schools that encourage young people to express themselves through the arts.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press

Lisa Pegher in Lousiana

Andrew Druckenbrod — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:27:00 GMT

Here is a quick update on percussionist Lisa Pegher from the Baton Rouge-based Advocate newspaper. Good to hear that the career of former Pittsburgher and Duquesene University is still ascending. She is quite a talent.

The Big Rip

Andrew Druckenbrod — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:13:00 GMT

Pitt composer Mat Rosenblum just returned from Leipzig where his new piece, "The Big Rip (A Science Fiction Cantata)" was performed by the Calmus Ensemble (a vocal group) and the Rascher Saxophone Quartet at the Gewandhaus. That's the amazing historical hall that once heard Felix M conduct JS Bach. Rosenblum says the mayor of Leipzig was there with about 900 audience members.

The photo at left is actually of the earlier premiere of the work at Hameln, Germany, on September 10.

Here is his description of the piece. I love the last sentence:

"The Big Rip (A Science Fiction Cantata)"
saxophone quartet (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone), and vocal ensemble (soprano, countertenor, tenor, baritone and bass)

The Big Rip uses the basic theme of “Night,” the theme of the 2009 Niedersächsische Musiktage, as its core idea. Instead of night as we experience it at the end of each day, I decided to use the concept of “Dark Energy,” the theory of the expansion of the universe that will ultimately rip our galaxy completely apart, the “ultimate night,” as the metaphorical starting point. Texts are excerpted from Paul Celan’s poem “Engführung,” a science book called The Runaway Universe by Don Goldsmith, a science fiction short story entitled “Last Contact” by Stephen Baxter, Isaiah chapter 51 verse 6, and an internet chat room conversation about the 2009 global economic situation [!].

Illegal downloaders keeping music industry afloat

Andrew Druckenbrod — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:23:00 GMT

A new study in England finds what many of us have known for some time, that illegal downloaders of music actually spend the most on music. While there are those who do nothing but get free music, I have always thought that most who get some for free are doing so becuase they really love music and can't afford to buy all they would want. But they are willing to buy some tracks or discs. It's the same formula for success that Radiohead and other bands have followed by releaseing their free music. If you download "In Rainbows" you might still pay something for it if you wish, but you might want some older albums and would have to pay for them. I know I am no expert on the whole illegal downloading crisis, but I have always felt this to be true, so punishe these folks at your own risk, music biz!

Pittsburgh Symphony reviews arrive from Europe

Andrew Druckenbrod — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:38:00 GMT

The Pittsburgh Symphony's recent short festival tour to Europe garnered the fewest amount of reviews I have ever seen on a European trek. They have been translated, and I thought instead of interpreting them with excerpts, I would use the virtual endless space of the Web to let you look at them in their entirety

As you can see, the first two are of the PSO's concerts closing the Lucerne Festival and they contain some sharp criticisms. I was wondering myself about using the same encores each night. I didn't write about it because I thought Honeck and the venue (KKL) might have known something I didn't about the audience make-up. I heard the same good response both nights, so I might not be wrong here. But as for the rest, some of what the critics have written is just their opinion. Not how one doesn't like the sound quality of "Der Freischutz" and the other in Bonn praised it. What are you gonna do -- critics are people. But what I don't like is the constant reiteration of the fraudulent Big Five bias. That is simply lazy journalism as the landscape is changing and those European critics need stop using it as a crutch to "explain" the US landscape:

Lucerne

September 21st, 2009
Neue Züricher Zeitung, Zürich, Switzerland
Worthy Finale
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with Manfred Honeck
By Thomas Schacher

It may not be one of the “Big Five” American orchestras, but the quality of the Pittsburgh Symphony hardly ranks behind any of those legends. This is in part due to the fact that over the last 50 years the ensemble has been lead by such outstanding conductors as William Steinberg, Andre Previn, Lorin Maazen, and Mariss Jansons. For one year now, Manfred Honeck, who is also the General Music Director of the Stuttgart Staatsoper, has served as Principal Conductor of the PSO.

Tested and Proven
Honeck has taken his first European tour with the Pittsburgh Symphony. After two “dress rehearsals” in Essen and Bonn, the orchestra gave guest performances for both of the closing concerts of the Lucerne Festival. Their program, with Beethoven’s violin concerto and Dvorak’s 8th on the first night, in addition to Strauss’ Four Last Songs and Bruckner’s 4th on the second night, was not exactly notable for its originality. Additionally, there seemed of a lack of imagination as the same encore was played on both nights.

One’s lasting impression is that from the performances of the two outstanding soloists. The Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova, who played the solo part in the D-Major violin concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven, stuck to a cool interpretation of the piece. However, to assume that she fit the stereotype would not do her justice. Certainly she didn’t flamboyantly wave her bow through the air in attempt to win over the audience; instead she stood upright in concentration: she had the posture of one listening carefully. And what one heard was something fantastic. Mullova presented the work not with a theme of heroicism, nor with one of romanticism, but in a way which one can only describe as calm emotionality. It was a tightrope-walk between rational control and poignant letting-go. For example, in the slow movement she played tenderly, but not overly so. This approach was not one-hundred percent in-line with that of the conductor, but surprisingly this led to a productive tension.

Songs of Parting
A challenge of an entirely different sort is that of the “Four Last Songs” of Richard Strauss, the final opus of the composer. These richly orchestrated songs with text by Hermann Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff focus on the theme of farewell, with images taken from days, years, and entire lifetimes. The soprano Christine Schäffer vocally shaped the piece in a way that was artistically very impressive. Her voice was light, even radiant in “Frühling”, and dark and withdrawn in “September”. This mixture of piece of mind and foreshadowing of death that this piece brought to mind was, like the soprano’s voice in “Im Abendrot”, simply stirring. The orchestra, even when tutti, was able to bring out ominously quiet tones.

Manfred Honeck is a conductor who loves surprise and dramatic effect. This was already apparent in the “Freischutz” Overture by Carl Maria von Weber, which opens the floodgates when such an approach is taken. Dvorak’s 8th Symphony also gives hints as to his style. The piece can be played in a “romantic” style that accentuates the soft, the pastoral, the quasi-Bohemian. This certainly came out in the Pittsburgh Symphony’s performance, but it served primarily as a contrast foil to dramatic outbursts. This can be seen through the development and coda of the first movement. That the coda would take on such a militaristic steak could not have been envisioned by the composer. The rapid and overly-loud end of the finale can also only be taken as grandstanding. The orchestra played both the lyrical and the striking with great ease, and brought out fantastic tone colors, particularly in the woodwinds.

If Dvorak focused on contrast, the focus of the interpretation of the 4th Symphony by Anton Bruckner was on development. For example, take the start of the first movement: from out of nothing comes the flickering of the strings, and from that soars the soft and gentle signal of the solo horn. Gradually, the symphonic events unfold from these beginnings. Honeck understood Bruckner’s denotation of the 4th as “romantic” to mean a naturalistic blooming and fading. The result of this was that he didn’t overemphasize the stark or the heroic, as he certainly had the right to do, but instead placed emphasis on the organic. The highpoints, even if they sounded very loud, were never ends in themselves, but instead always the result of the proceeding development. Here the brass executed first-rate work.

September 21st, 2009
Stuttgarter Zeitung, Stuttgart, Germany
Lightning-fast Orchestra Machine
Lucerne The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck close the Lucerne Festival. By Götz Thieme
Among summertime music festivals, the Lucerne Festival boasts one of the most exclusive gatherings of influential orchestras and conductors. This year there were 32 orchestra performances given by the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics; the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam; orchestras from London, Chicago, Leipzig, Dresden, and Oslo; with conductors such as Abbado, Boulez, Chailly, Mehta, Salonen, Haitink, Rattle, Hannoncourt, and the much-sought-after Andris Nelson, born in 1978, who came as a guest with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
A Short Trip to Europe
Once again the season closing draws attention, this time with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, in the place of the San Francisco Symphony, which cancelled due to financial difficulties. Their last time at Lucerne was under chief conductor Mariss Jansons in 2003. For his successor Manfred Honeck, who in 1996 and 2000 was still only a B-lister, the concert on Friday night in the Kultur- und Kongresszentrum was his local debut with his new orchestra. Last year the Stuttgart general music director took up his post in Pittsburgh.
A few days before the trip to Europe, in which the musicians from the America’s Steel City also went to Essen and Bonn, before they gave two concerts on the Vierwaldstätter See, Honeck’s contract was extended until 2016. This relationship promises to be a lasting one. The relationship between Honeck and intendant Lawrence Tamburri appears relaxed, professional, and full of confidence that Honeck will bring Pittsburgh into the league of America’s best orchestras and close to the famous Big Five (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago).
As the baton was raised for Weber’s “Freischutz” Oveture, none of that was yet apparent, despite the discipline of the musicians and their quick reactions to their director—sound-wise it seemed more fatigued, more thin forest light than thick forest green; the excellent clarinet solo didn’t make up for this somewhat unpoetic version. In the Beethoven violin concerto, Viktoria Mullova, often senza vibrato, in the spirit of the performance style, joined two musical worlds together. According to reports, at the rehearsals in Bonn there was a clash: the abrasive tone in which the exiled Russian conveyed her musical ideas to the orchestra might have agitated some musicians—Honeck was able to smooth things out.
Even so, the unsentimental, dry interpretation did the oft-mishandled work good; that Mullova occasionally played too deep was excusable, even more so after her introspective and flawless Bach performance.
In Antonin Dvorak’s 8th Symphony, it was like a whole new orchestra, bursting with vitality (despite two empty seats in the strings due to the Jewish new-year celebration Rosh Hashanah), a steel-powered, impressive orchestra machine. In the strings (with first-class cello and bass sections) and woodwinds, one could start to make out the first traces of Honeck’s work on his musical ideal; the strings had a shimmering tone, tight and musical when needed. The brass, however, often cut in too boldly, and the horns were enormously showy in their trills during the Finale—they can afford it: that’s a real group of virtuosos.

Rosy Future in Stuttgart is Possible
Honeck is crazy about this group of highly-motivated musicians—despite this, Stuttgart has not lost its importance for him. He would also like to continue through 2011; the choir and orchestra stand behind him, and the music theater didn’t want to let him go, he said. His collaboration with Stefan Herheim in “Rosenkavelier” (premier on November 1st) has turned out to be a positive one. The future with Stuttgart could be rosy; Honeck has received requests from China for a guest-performance with the State Opera—though the timetable worries him. For a long while he has been penciling dates into his calendar even after 2011. He can’t wait until the end of the year. Whoever is nominated tomorrow as opera intendant should speak to Honeck soon.

Bonn

September 18th, 2009
General-Anzeiger, Bonn, Germany
World-Class Orchestra Wows Audience in Bonn
Under the baton of Manfred Honeck, the Pittsburgh Symphony enchants listeners with pieces from Weber, Beethoven, and Dvorak
By Fritz Herzog
Bonn. There are orchestras that one can recognize just from their sound. When one hears the silky-soft strings, warm woodwinds, and flawless but never martially blustering brass of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, he has no doubt about which orchestra he is listening to.
The orchestra was founded in the last decade of the 19th century in the capital city of the US state of Pennsylvania [translator’s note: No, Pittsburgh is not the capital of Pennsylvania], and while it may not number among the legendary “Big Five”, it formed a strong affinity to the German repertoire, not least because of orchestra-builders Otto Kleperer and Fritz Reiner, who both had roots in the “Old World” but fled the Nazi regime.
This hardly changed under later conductors such as André Previn and Lorin Maazel. After Mariss Jansons and Marek Janowski, the Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck has stood on the rostrum before the elite ensemble of the former steel-metropolis Pittsburgh since 2007.
Honeck, who is concurrently the general music director of the Stuttgart Staatsoper, places the emphasis on Viennese tradition in his work with the Pittsburgh musicians.
As a former member of the Vienna Philharmonic, he has a veritable wealth of experience to draw upon. What’s more, from his gestures and the intensity of his musical expressiveness, one is reminded of Carlos Kleiber, but without the attitude of an eccentric, as Kleiber himself was.
Of the musicians on the program, which included Weber’s “Freischütz” Overture, the Beethoven violin concerto, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8, not one was at all unfamiliar with the repertoire. However, the exceptional presence that was brought to each of these pieces was due not least to the German seating arrangement, which among other details includes the second violins sitting across from the first.
This gave the scores a remarkable plasticity which made this evening in the almost-sold-out Beethoven Festival Hall a true experience. During the course of the “Freischütz"-Ouvertüre the orchestra had already given out their calling card as a highly-cultivated, exceedingly subtle ensemble: When out of almost complete silence a pianissimo is articulated just as in-time as it is in-tune, it is breathtaking.
The soloist for Beethoven’s op.61, Viktoria Mullova, was no less exceptional. The piece opened significantly with timpani, seconded by woodwinds. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind about Mullova’s extensive training in Bach.
Despite an aristocratic severity, her interpretation was highly musical. With pizzicato that was almost tender, the soloist was picked up out of the cadenza by the strings. The result of the Larghetto was an intimate dialogue, which was particularly intense between the bassoon and solo violin.
Dvorak’s opulent op. 88 is marked with idioms borrowed from Slavic tradition and Tchaikovsky’s emotionality, and by its closeness with “Rusalka”-romanticism. The end brings to mind images of Bohemian folklore. The musical ideas come across almost in high-definition, clear down to the smallest detail. Dreamlike, the Scherzo seamlessly flows into the fury of the final movement.
As encores, Honeck and his Pittsburghers sprung for “Morgenstimmung” from Grieg’s “Peer Gynt” and a razor-sharp Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Brahms.

How Sweet the Sound: Pittsburgh's Mount Ararat Gospel Choir Sensation

Andrew Druckenbrod — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:25:00 GMT

Please give a read to my piece on the amazing Remnant Choir from Mount Ararat Baptist Church, which will soon be traveling to Detroit to compete in the finals of the Verizon How Sweet the Sound gospel choir, a national compitition. No telling how conductor Trini Massie (left) and the choir will do, but we do know how well Pittsburghers tend to do in Detroit (Superbowl XL, Stanley Cup Final 2009...!). A link to a video of them singing is attached to the story...

Pittsburgh Symphony scary good on Halloween weekend

Andrew Druckenbrod — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:08:00 GMT

Here is the word from Heinz Hall this past weekend. The PSO put on a fine show with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet playing Camille Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No. 2, and the band playing Hector Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique" conducted by Marek Janowski.

Alan Fletcher out in Aspen

Andrew Druckenbrod — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:04:00 GMT

Just saw this on the wire: According to a report in the Aspen Daily News, Alan Fletcher is out as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Aspen Music Festival and School. As you might remember, Fletcher was head of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music for years. I will look into this, but the report cites a lot of tension over the summer. On the other hand, I always figured Fletcher for landing something else in the east that would surpass Aspen in prestige (and that would be saying something since Aspen is a great school and festival nestled in a community of very wealthy donors). Stay posted.

This Falstaff hilarious before he even hits the stage

Andrew Druckenbrod — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:05:00 GMT

UPDATE: Mark Delavan was plenty funny in the opera itself. Here is my review of opening night at the Pittsburgh Opera's "Falstaff."

Please check out my article and video (attached to the page) for the Pittsburgh Opera's upcoming production of "Falstaff," please do. Mark Delavan is positively hilarious in our video of him getting on the makeup to become Verdi's (Shakespeare's) old knight.