Concerts

Chamber Music, Classical Music, Composers, Concert review, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, New York

Takács Quartet Gives Birth to the Universe

Takacs Quartet at 92ny-March 13, 2024 - credit Joseph Sinnott — Takacs Quartet at 92nd Street Y on March 13, 2024 (credit Joseph Sinnott)

How does a composer write music? Whether she pulls interesting sounds out of the air, or creates an elaborate scheme of hieroglyphics – can an uninformed listener tell the difference? Sometimes not, as was the case Wednesday night at the 92nd Street Y where the incomparable Takács Quartet gave the New York premiere of Flow by Nokuthula Endo Ngwenyama.

Flow was backed up by an elaborate set of program notes that described inspiration ranging from the sound of the Big Bang to the breathing discipline “Pranayama”. Even with that knowledge in hand, for the most part I couldn’t detect the connection between concept and sound. Within the four-movement piece, I heard a heartbeat depicted by the viola’s pizzicato, observed sultry pitch slides in the second violin and enjoyed a wacky waltz where every measure seemed purposely just a little bit out of kilter. But the “outburst of energy and matter at the birth of our universe”? Not apparent at all. On the other hand, Flow ingeniously and successfully meshed extended technique with conventional sounds, and overall is a beguiling piece.

I’ve been a fan of the Takács Quartet for at least half of the group’s 49 years of ensemble-hood. This evening was the first time I heard them in their current lineup, with violinist Harumi Rhodes (joined in 2018) and violist Richard O’Neill (came on board in 2019), merging with first violinist Edward Dusinberre who has been with Takács since 1993, and the sole original member, cellist András Fejér.

This long-lived ensemble retained its aesthetic and its tight sound over the years and throughout its personnel changes. The Beethoven String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 59, No. 2 “Razumovsky” which made up the second half of the concert was so captivating that, in that moment, I felt like I would never want to hear any other quartet, ever. The group’s lightness and joie de vivre, dramatic attention to dynamics, and intonation and rhythmic accuracy so good, it might as well be a single instrument, all contributed to the quartet’s breathtaking performance. Their reading of the String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 76, No. 4 “Sunrise” by Franz Josef Haydn which opened the program was equally outstanding.

Flow by Nokuthula Endo Ngwenyama was commissioned for the Takács Quartet by Cal Performances and a consortium including 92NY. They’ll perform the work several more times in March and April 2024, in Philadelphia, Schenectady, Scottsdale, Buffalo, Ann Arbor, and Rochester, NY.

March 14, 2024March 14, 2024 by Gail Wein

Classical Music, Commissions, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Events, Lincoln Center, Music Events, New York, Orchestral, Women composers

NY Philharmonic – Unpacking the Spring 2024 Season for New Music Lovers

A few months ago, I wrote an article that distilled the New York Philharmonic Fall 2023 season into enticing programs for contemporary music lovers.

“When you see New York Philharmonic’s glossy brochures and online ads, you might be hard pressed to spot the new music offerings that are in nearly every program. For instance, “Trifonov Plays Schumann” hides the fact that there is a work for strings by the Lithuanian composer Raminta Šerkšnytė, a composition which Gidon Kremer referred to as ‘the calling card of Baltic music.'”

Here is my annotation of Philharmonic concerts in Spring 2024 for the tiny niche of new music fans.

February 20, 2024 – Lunar New Year Hidden beneath Bruch and Saint-Saëns are two composers who are very much alive. The young Hong Kong-born composer Elliot Leung is making his mark in the Hollywood film scoring world, and the world premiere of his Lunar Overture leads the program. Grammy-nominated Chinese-American composer Zhou Tian is showcased with excerpts from Transcend, which was commissioned by over a dozen orchestras to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad’s completion.

February 22-24 – Emanuel Ax, Hillborg, and Rachmaninoff This one’s right there in the tease: Hillborg. It would be natural to assume that Mr. Ax would be playing Rachmaninoff, and we’d get a five-minute piece by the Swedish composer Anders Hillborg. Nope. Hillborg wrote a 22 minute concerto: Piano Concerto No.2 – the MAX Concerto for Emanuel Ax, and we get to hear the New York premiere of the piece. San Francisco Chronicle’s Joshua Kosman said it was “vivacious, funny, heroic, eloquent, plain-spoken, thoughtful and wholly irresistible”. Now, don’t you want to go hear it?

February 29 – March 1 – Émigré The concert program title “Émigré” could mean just about anything. Here, it is the name of a “semi-staged musical drama” that weaves the true tale of German Jewish brothers who fled Nazi Germany and wound up in Shanghai. It was performed in Shangai in the fall, and the New York Philharmonic and conductor Long Yu give us the first American performances. Music by Aaron Zigman and lyrics by Mark Campbell.

March 7-9 – Sol Gabetta, Elim Chan, and Scheherazade Sure, cellist Sol Gabetta is great, and I’ll look forward to seeing the conductor Elim Chan who is making waves in Europe. The part of the program I am especially excited about is the world premiere by the Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate. Pisachi, Tate’s tribute to Hopi and Pueblo Indian music, was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic. I’ve been a fan of Tate since a National Symphony premiere performance knocked my socks off 20 years ago.

March 21-24 – Mendelssohn, Tan Dun, and Joel Thompson A rare instance in which the new music is all in the program title. Joe Alessi plays the New York premiere of Tan Dun’s Trombone Concerto: Three Muses in Video Game. The thought of hearing it makes my heart go aflutter. Music by the Atlanta composer Joel Thompson seems to be everywhere lately, and the world premiere of To See the Sky (a NY Phil co-commission) is on this program.

April 4-6 – Alice Sara Ott Performs Ravel He’s dead, but you’d probably want to know that Anton Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6 is on this program. With any luck, the orchestra will play these shorties twice. Also dead: Scriabin. But as I recall, his Poem of Ecstasy is pretty trippy.

April 12-14 – Beatrice Rana Plays Rachmaninoff In addition to heavy hitters Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, we get to hear the New York premiere of a new work by Katherine Balch, co-commissioned by the Philharmonic.

April 18-20 – Olga Neuwirth and Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony Okay, Olga Neuwirth’s name is front and center. The US Premiere of Keyframes for a Hippogriff — Musical Calligrams is settings of texts by Ariosto, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Friedrich Nietzsche, graffiti artists, and Neuwirth. Brooklyn Youth Chorus sings. This is one of the NY Phil’s Project 19 commissions.

April 20 – Young People’s Concert: Composing Inclusion Yes, it’s a concert for kids, and the hall will be full of families. Show up to hear world premieres by Andrés Soto and Nicolás Lell Benavides, co-commissioned by the Philharmonic.

May 10 – Sound On This one is probably on your radar already. Another Project 19 commission, the world premiere of an as yet unnamed work by Mary Kouyoumdjian. Kwamé Ryan conducts.

May 23-28 – The Mozart Requiem and Sofia Gubaidulina’s Viola Concerto Finally. The title says it all.

January 26, 2024February 16, 2024 by Gail Wein

Classical Music, Concerts, early music, New York

The Chevalier: New York Premiere

The Chevalier: The Life & Music of Joseph Bologne brings together two concepts that are hot today: music theater (or, theater with music), and recognition of figures in classical music other than white European males (Bologne is two out of three, if you count his place of birth).

The subject is Joseph Bologne, also known by his title Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a Black bon vivant who was born in 1745 on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. Formally educated in France, his talents for violin playing and composition shone (along with fencing and dancing) and he was also a military colonel and an abolitionist. As a composer, the guy was no hack: he wrote at least one hundred works from string quartets to operas.

What was his life as a Black man in courtly 18th century Europe like? We may never know for sure. Bill Barclay’s play dramatizes episodes of his life, with live performances of his music woven into the story. Barclay, by the way, is also the artistic director of Music Before 1800, the New York early music institution. MB1800 co-presents the performance, along with Concert Theatre Works (of which Barclay is also artistic director, and which supplied the actors for this production), and the Harlem Chamber Players (whose instrumental talents will be in full display on stage, along with solo violinist Brendon Elliott).

If you are even the slightest bit piqued by this description, the venue should put you over the top. The United Palace (4140 Broadway in the Washington Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan) is a must-see all by itself. The brilliantly gorgeous and excessively ornate decor of this 1920’s one-time movie theater will take your breath away. It’s one of New York City’s largest theaters, with 3400 seats.

The performance is on January 21, 2024, at 4 pm (get there early so you can gawk at the “eclectic Orientalia with Moorish-Rococo influence” of the hall). Tickets at unitedpalace.org. The performance will be captured on video, and will be available for on-demand streaming in February (tickets via mb1800.org).

January 18, 2024 by Gail Wein

BAM, Classical Music, Composers, Concert review, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, New York, Opera, Strings, viola, Violin, Vocals

“Angel Island” by Huang Ruo at the Prototype Festival

Prototype: “Angel Island” photo credit: Maria Baranova

The special sauce that has made Prototype, the annual opera/theater festival, a success for over a decade is a straightforward formula: socially relevant, edgy vocal works that are high on drama. Angel Island, a theatrical work with music by Huang Ruo, fits that description.

The speck of land in the middle of San Francisco Bay known as Angel Island served as an immigration port in the first half of the 20th century

. Hundreds of thousands of hopeful migrants from Asia were interrogated and detained, some of them for years, in the decades from 1910 to 1940. It’s not a great leap of imagination to relate today to this story of migration, discrimination, prejudice and downright hatred of certain citizens from abroad.

These immigrants came here of their own volition, but did they have any idea of the strife that awaited them as they stepped off the boat? Like so many Americans whose families came from abroad over the past four centuries, they were only looking for a better life. The promise of streets paved with gold (especially after word of the 1849 Gold Rush spread) was tantalizing.

The Chinese-American violist Charlton Lee, a member of the Del Sol Quartet suggested the story to the Chinese-born composer Huang Ruo. In a New York Times article, Lee said that many people “don’t know about the plight of these immigrants who were trying to come here, start a new life and were just stuck.”

The work is in eight movements, alternating between narration and singing. The text for the sung portions were taken from some of the 200 poems that were found in the barracks on Angel Island, etched into the walls by the detainees. Each narrated section consisted of text taken directly from news accounts and other historical texts, depicting the Chinese Massacre of 1871, The Page Act of 1875 (legislation denying Chinese women entry to the United States), and the story of the lone Chinese survivor of the Titanic.

The Del Sol Quartet performed the score on stage, along with members of the Choir of Trinity Wall Street whose acting talents were employed throughout the performance. The instrumental parts were often intensely rhythmic and emphatic chords, which were dramatic but sometimes monotonous. There wasn’t much in the way of melody for the instrumentalists or the singers, but the harmonies were lushly gorgeous and beautifully sung, belying the darkness and trauma of the texts. Bill Morrison’s film, often with images of the ocean, was mesmerizing, especially when the choir huddled together and swayed as if on an undulating boat at sea.

In general, each element of the production on its own wasn’t exciting — but when combined, the hypnotic film, the adagio movements of the singers clustered on stage as directed by Matthew Ozawa, and the rather minimalist music — all worked together to be incredibly effective. This is a work much greater than the sum of its parts. Dramatic peaks, such as sequences with two solo dancers, and the insistent sounding of a gong throughout the final movement were that much more compelling in contrast.

Angel Island brings attention to a story of United States immigration that is much less familiar than the Statue of Liberty-adjacent Ellis Island.

The New York premiere of Angel Island was performed at the Harvey Theater at BAM Strong on January 11-13, 2024 (I attended on January 12). It was produced by Beth Morrison Projects in association with Brooklyn Academy of Music.

January 14, 2024 by Gail Wein

Classical Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Lincoln Center, Music Events, New York, Orchestral

NY Philharmonic: Unpacking the fall season for new music lovers

When you see New York Philharmonic’s glossy brochures and online ads, you might be hard pressed to spot the new music offerings that are in nearly every program. For instance, “Trifonov Plays Schumann” hides the fact that there is a work for strings by the Lithuanian composer Raminta Šerkšnytė, a composition which Gidon Kremer referred to as “the calling card of Baltic music.”

I mentioned this in passing to a staffer at the Philharmonic, and referred to it as a slam on marketing. I immediately regretted uttering that phrase, because it’s not really about that. Marketing managers do what they need to – it’s their job to sell tickets. Schumann sells, Šerkšnytė does not.

Here is my annotation of this fall’s Philharmonic concerts for the tiny niche of new music fans.

September 29-October 1, 2023 “Joshua Bell, Copland, and The Elements”

This program description does in fact put the featured player of the new work front and center. On the other hand, you have to dig deeper to discover the fact that “The Elements” is a US premiere, and is a compilation of new works by five living American composers (Jake Heggie, Jennifer Higdon, Edgar Meyer, Jessie Montgomery, and Kevin Puts).

Footnote: brought to my attention by the illustrious Steve Smith in his Night After Night newsletter, you can watch a video of the world premiere of this work, available til October 1, here (courtesy of The Violin Channel’s VC Live).

October 5-7 “Beethoven’s Emperor, Schubert’s Unfinished, and Steve Reich”

Here we DO get a clue right away about Steve Reich. Yay! Only needs a bit of clicking to learn that it’s a world premiere co-commissioned by the NY Phil.

October 11 -14 “Trifonov Plays Schumann”

The aforementioned “calling card of Baltic music” is on offer: “De profundis” by the Lithuanian composer Raminta Šerkšnytė.

October 19 – 21 “Bronfman, Brahms, and Ligeti”

Ligeti makes it onto the headline, yay! But deeper in the description is the fact that we get to hear Yefim Bronfman plays the New York premiere of a concerto written for him by the Russian-born Elena Firsova.

October 26 “Kravis Nightcap: Apollo’s Fire”

Jeannette Sorrell directs the Philharmonic in the Handel epic, “Israel in Egypt” – – and also brings her great early music band Apollo’s Fire to a late night show. I’m pointing this out because – while its not contemporary music, their unusual program explores music of ancient Jewish and Arabic origin with virtuosos on violin, Middle Eastern flute, oud, zither, and percussion.

October 27 “Sound On: Zorn, Azmeh, Chaker, and Chin”

If you’re hot on new music, you’ve already got this on your calendar. Music by John Zorn and Unsuk Chin, and a NYP co-commission by Kinan Azmeh and Layale Chaker.

November 2-4 “Mälkki Conducts Pictures at an Exhibition”

We can count Ligeti as new music, right? He’s only been gone for 15 years. This year, everyone including NYP is celebrating his centennial. And so now you know you’ll hear his Piano Concerto played by Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

November 4 “Kravis Nightcap: Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Joachim Kühn”

PLA teams with jazz pianist Joachim Kühn, and they’ll use Ligeti’s Études as a jumping off point for improvision.

November 7 “Artist Spotlight: Pierre-Laurent Aimard”

Since we’re counting Ligeti above, here’s PLA playing the Etudes, “juxtaposed with works reflecting their cultural inspirations” (not sure what exactly that means, but I’m sold).

November 9 – 12 “Szeps-Znaider Plays Beethoven’s Violin Concerto”

The thirty-something composer Carlos Simon is one hot item lately, and you’ll get to hear his “Fate Now Conquers”, which was inspired by something Beethoven wrote in his journal.

November 16 – 18 “Paavo Järvi Conducts Britten and Prokofiev”

You’ll get to a chance to determine whether Veljo Tormis (who died in 2017) lives up to the reputation of excellence in Estonian composers, when you hear his Overture No. 2 on this program.

November 22 – 25 “The Planets and Atmosphères”

Though she died 50 years ago, we hardly ever get to hear music by the African-American composer Julia Perry. You will on this program (her Stabat Mater). Also, more Ligeti (I’m not complaining!).

November 30 – December 02 “Strauss, Rachmaninoff, and Bryce Dessner”

Bryce Dessner makes it onto the headline! The NY premiere of his concerto for 2 pianos, written for, and played by the Labèque sisters.

September 28, 2023September 28, 2023 by Gail Wein

Chamber Music, Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Festivals, New York, Strings, Violin

TIME:SPANS Hits Calder and other hard surfaces August 12-26, 2023 at Dimenna Center

*Earle Brown’s* Calder Piece performed at the Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, August 1967

I don’t know when else you’d have a chance to see expert musicians interact with a sculpture by one of the most iconic American artists of the 20th century. This rare event, on August 20 at the Dimenna Center in New York, is part of the annual TIME:SPANS festival.

In Earle Brown’s Calder Piece the artist’s mobile is an essential part of the piece. The artwork will “conduct” the Talujon Percussion Quartet as its sections sway from their pivot points. And, yes, you will also get to see the instrumentalists “play” the sculpture, though the artist himself initially expected a more forceful display. “I thought that you were going to hit it much harder—with hammers,” said Calder after the first performance in the early 1960s.

Calder Piece is “the focal point and central hinge of this year’s festival,” according to the introduction in the festival booklet by Thomas Fichter and Marybeth Sollins, executive director and trustee respectively of The Earle Brown Music Foundation Charitable Trust which produces and presents TIME:SPANS. But it is by no means the only highlight of the dozen concerts in the festival.

Talea Ensemble, JACK Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Argento…..once again, since 2015, some of the most acclaimed contemporary music ensembles in the country descend on the Dimenna Center for this late summer aural spectacle. Performances are nearly every night August 12 – 26, chock full of 21st century concert music in a myriad of styles.

It seems almost impossible to pick out highlights from the dozen performances – there are so many intriguing programs. In addition to the Calder event, here are a few that I am particularly looking forward to:

JACK Quartet playing Helmut Lachenmann (August 13) – my mind was blown the first time I heard Lachenmann’s music performed live. He calls his compositions musique concrète instrumentale, creating other-worldly sounds through extended techniques.

Ekmeles performing Taylor Brook, Hannah Kendall and Christopher Trapani (August 22) – though vocal music isn’t my first choice genre, I am drawn to a cappella ensembles, especially when they are as high quality as Ekmeles. Trapani’s music is always a treat to hear, and his End Words lives alongside music by the equally deserving Kendall and Brook.

Ensemble Signal’s program on August 15 is brought to you by the letter “A”: music by Anahita Abbasi, Augusta Read Thomas. Aida Shirazi, Agata Zubel. I’ve been following Abbasi ever since she won an ASCAP composer award about eight years ago. Her music, though not always easy to listen to, is intense and visceral. I predict it will be a great contrast to Read Thomas’s more tuneful style.

Information and tickets at https://timespans.org/program/

August 11, 2023August 11, 2023 by Gail Wein

Chamber Music, Commissions, Concert review, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Lincoln Center, Strings, Women composers

An Ayre Apparent: Emerson String Quartet / Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Emerson SQ w Sarah K Snider-2. — Emerson String Quartet with Sarah Kirkland Snider (credit Gail Wein)

Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Drink the Wild Ayre for String Quartet is the last work commissioned by the venerable Emerson String Quartet. The group – who plans to disband after 47 years of recitals and recordings – gave the New York premiere at one of their last concerts in New York City. It was a tidy closing of a loop. Early in Snider’s compositional career, two decades ago, performances by the Emerson String Quartet inspired her to write her own first quartet.

The ten minute work led the second half of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center program at Alice Tully Hall on Sunday. It instantly brought to mind a bucolic scene of nature and forest, evoking sounds of birds. The title of the work refers to a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, / Drink the wild air’s salubrity.” Snider’s “Ayre” embraces the clear melodic lines of instrumental airs from the 17^th century. In the program note, she wrote, “The title seemed to be an apt reference not only to the lilting asymmetrical rhythms of the music’s melodic narrative but also to the questioning spirit sense of adventure and full hearted passion with which the Emerson has thrown itself into everything it has done for the past 47 years.” Compositionally, the work was the simplest on this program of 20th century classics – but concert music does not need to be complicated or thorny to be a success, which this clearly was.

The Emerson String Quartet opened the program with what I consider to be one of the best works in the repertoire, Maurice Ravel’s Quartet in F major for Strings. (In fact, the melancholy theme is still running through my head). Ravel’s composition is about as perfect a string quartet as one can get – but maybe it’s that the Emersons make everything they play seem so. At the work’s conclusion, wildly enthusiastic cheers abounded from the audience.

The sleeper hit of the afternoon was Anton Webern’s Six Bagatelles for String Quartet, Op. 9. ESQ gave an exceptionally musical reading of this set, infusing the long phrases of these short works with dramatic nuance and contrast. The quartet’s interpretation gave the music such purpose that it came off almost as a miniature opera, highlighting different characters and moods. A wonderful example: The fifth bagatelle clearly ended in a question, and was followed by a resolute response in the final bagatelle.

Quartet No. 2 for Strings, BB75, Op. 17 by Bela Bartok was written in the 1910s, about 15 years after Ravel’s, and the group played it with the same lush romantic flair. The final work on the printed program was Dmitri Shostakovich’s rousing Quartet No. 12 in D-flat major for Strings, Op. 133, composed in 1968. After a number of ovations, the Emersons offered a generous encore: A luxurious reading of the slow movement of the String Quartet No. 1, Lyric, by George Walker. The beautiful chorale-like music was a rich and sweet dessert.

May 9, 2023 by Gail Wein

Bang on a Can, Brooklyn, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Festivals, Music Events, New York

Long Play Festival 2023

Bang on a Can founders David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon (photo: George Etheredge)

In a culture in which we are constantly reinventing ourselves, any event can be the first annual anything. And so it is with Bang on a Can’s Long Play Festival, whose inaugural edition was launched in Spring 2022.

The organizers clearly found Long Play to be a success: The 2023 edition is May 5, 6 and 7 with events spread over ten venues in downtown Brooklyn: Pioneer Works, Roulette, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Public Records, Littlefield, BRIC, Mark Morris Dance Center, The Center for Fiction, and Fort Greene Park. Over 50 performances are scheduled; most are accessed via a one-day or two-day pass ($89 and $150, respectively). Scores of performing artists include the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Philip Glass Ensemble performing the iconic Glassworks in its entirety for the first time; a reunion concert of Henry Threadgill’s Very Very Circus, the musical collective Harriet Tubman, Alarm Will Sound, JACK Quartet, Momenta Quartet, Sō Percussion, Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble, Bang on a Can All-Stars (of course!), and more. The complete list is here; tickets are here.

The composer David Lang, one of the three founders of Bang on a Can, told me, “Last year we had theorized this would work. We thought it would be good and we thought we would enjoy it – and we did it and it was a blast. Everyone in the organization got fired up by the fact that there was so much music and so many musicians and the audience was so varied and so interested.”

Lang along with the composers Julia Wolfe and Michael Gordon launched Bang on a Can in New York City in 1987 with a 12-hour concert in a downtown art gallery. The organization became known for its annual marathon concerts in New York, and later expanded to include a performance group (the Bang on a Can All-Stars), a commissioning program, education programs and festivals at MASS MoCA in the Berkshires, and a record label (Cantaloupe).

Why after 30-plus years of successful marathon concerts did Bang on a Can decide to stray from its tried and true formula? Lang said, “After a while, we felt like we were inviting people on to the marathon for slots of 15 or 20 minutes that we wished were an hour or two hours. I remember thinking – this is at the last marathon – people would come in and they would go, “That was incredible. Why am I only wanting that for fifteen minutes?”

The aesthetic of the performers, programs and repertoire at Long Play doesn’t really differ from that of the marathons, said Lang. It’s still about performing artists who consider themselves innovators. “They say, ‘there’s a kind of traditional music that’s involved in my world and I’m not doing that.’ That’s always been the way we’ve judged people to come on to the marathon.” Lang continued, “What I’m really hoping will happen is that people will think that the world is full of creativity and wildness and inspiration and that the world is very large.”

“To me, one of the really exciting things about this festival is it shows you people who are taking lots of different attitudes equally seriously. They believe that their music has power. They believe that they’re part of a community which is coming together to do something important and that we as listeners are in fact an essential part of that community. And that music has a lot of powers to heal the problems of the world.”

As music lovers tromp around Brooklyn seeking aural pleasure and revelations from Long Play Festival events, some might need nourishment in a more literal sense. Barry Michael Okun has made it his lifetime passion and now fulltime job to curate a website and weekly newsletter pairing outstanding performing arts experiences with recommendations for culinary delights. I asked him to suggest a few spots from his curated Go Out! The List to re-fuel between performances. Here are his thoughts:

near Public Records: Mediterraneanish New American (or New Americanish Mediterranean) out of the big oven at Victor, 285 Nevins Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn.

near Pioneer Works: Piemontese-leaning Italian pastas and antis at Bar Mario, 365 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn.

near BAM/Mark Morris/BRIC: Exciting pizza at Oma Grassa, 753 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

near Roulette: Superb Palestinian at Al Badawi, 151 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn

Bang on a Can All Stars (photo: Peter Serling)

May 2, 2023May 2, 2023 by Gail Wein

Classical Music, Composers, Concert review, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Lincoln Center, New York, Review

Turangalila at New York Philharmonic / Nightcap with Gamelan Dharma Swara

Just before the NY Philharmonic concert began playing Turangalila by Olivier Messiaen at David Geffen Hall on Saturday, the stranger sitting next to me asked if I thought he would like it. I told him it’s very different and very thrilling. Just keep an open mind.

For classical music enthusiasts of a certain ilk, a performance of Turangalila is a hotly anticipated special occasion. It doesn’t get performed all that often, perhaps because it requires additional personnel on stage (ten percussionists!), it takes up an entire program, AND you have to find an ondes martenot (an early 20^th century electronic instrument) and someone to play it. Although it was written nearly 80 years ago, it still sounds radical.

Hearing the Philharmonic perform the 80 minute piece, led by Jaap van Zweden with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Cynthia Millar playing ondes martenot, was indeed a thrill. The music is full of contrasts, which the Philharmonic’s musicians brought out well. Sweet winds, acerbic brass, sharply staccato percussion and thunderous tympani. And that was just in the Introduction, the first of ten movements. By the end of Turangalila II, the seventh section, the ensemble was whipped into a frenzy, the music resolving into a massive major chord in a flourish of brass, strings and winds. Throughout the work, every section of the orchestra was used to maximum potential, practically a concerto for orchestra.

During the long and wildly enthusiastic ovation, the gentleman next to me turned to me and said he liked it! He described it as Holst fighting against Stravinsky, with Bartok poking at them. That sounded pretty accurate to me.

After the performance, I lingered in Geffen Hall’s lobby, sipping a cappuccino and admiring the sizeable crowd in a post-concert schmooze – a new experience since the recent renovation now boasted a comfortable space with generous seating and a cash bar that was still open after the concert.

*Gamelan Dharma Swara at Lincoln Center (credit Gail Wein)*

Next, I planned to attend the Philharmonic’s “Nightcap” concert, scheduled for 10:30 pm in the Sidewalk Studio, an intimate space created during the 2022 renovation of the building. Performing in this small space was Gamelan Dhamra Swara, a New York-based Balinese gamelan ensemble. The musicians gathered around two dozen gendèr (Indonesian xylophones), with four suling (flute) players and a couple of performers at drums and gongs. From the first rhythmic clanks of metal on metal, I was taken back to 2010, when I travelled with group to Bali (and filed this report on NPR).

It’s a lot of noise for the small space, and the sound of the percussion was loud and visceral. Once I got past the ear-pounding volume, the effect was mesmerizing. Through several selections, some modern, some traditional, the group showed off its musical mettle, along with performances by two dancers clad in ornate traditional costumes. Through the floor to ceiling windows looking out over Broadway, I could see passersby stopping to listen, gaze over the line of taxis on the street and hear the sirens of the inevitable emergency vehicles.

March 19, 2023March 19, 2023 by Gail Wein

Classical Music, Composers, Concert review, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Flute, New York, Strings

Buffalo Philharmonic honors Lukas Foss @ 100 at Carnegie

Buffalo Philharmonic and its music director JoAnn Falletta brought their considerable world class talent downstate to Carnegie Hall on Monday. The hall was full, despite persistent rain and the fact that the program was entirely dedicated to a composer whose name and music are not familiar to the casual music fan.

The celebrated composer and conductor Lukas Foss (1922-2009) put his indelible stamp on Buffalo when he was music director of the Philharmonic, 1963 – 1971. With programming that included a healthy dose of new music, he paved the way for a taste for contemporary works in Buffalo. He made a deep impression on JoAnn Falletta, whose association with him goes back to Milwaukee Symphony where she was his assistant conductor in the 1980s. It’s evident from the way Falletta talks about – and performs – Lukas Foss, that she reveres the man and his music.

This year, the centennial of his birth, brought some of his brilliant and neglected works to the stage, five of which were featured this evening. The ensemble performed the music as if it were in their DNA, although, as I later learned, the works were new to these players.

JoAnn Falletta (credit David Adam Beloff)

The program, while full of collaborative performers, allowed the Buffalo Philharmonic to shine on its own in the first and last pieces on the program. Foss said of the first work on the program, Ode, that it represented “crisis, war and, ultimately, ‘faith.’” It was appropriately heavy and ominous with BPO’s brass shining through with impressively dense chords.

BPO’s concert master, Nikki Chooi, took center stage as soloist for Three American Pieces, a work which seemed to shout “Americana!” Chooi’s warm tone and heartfelt playing were evident throughout. In fast passages, Chooi showed off his virtuosity as his bow bounced rapidly on the strings, a spiccato effect. Elements of jazz and country fiddling were woven into the composition; Chooi made the most of each of these styles, supported by various orchestra soloists, notably William Amsel’s jaunty clarinet.

The flutist Amy Porter was featured in Renaissance Concerto, a composition commissioned by the BPO in 1986 for the flutist Carol Wincenc. Foss called it a “loving handshake across the centuries,” and in the process of writing the work, tapped Falletta to help gather lute songs for his inspiration. The orchestra navigated fast riffs in excellent intonation, supporting the soloist. Foss cleverly plays with rhythms, delaying a beat to create a jagged rhythm in the second movement. In the third movement, the soloist’s portamento pitch slides affirm the work’s modernism; a passage which was echoed by principal flutist Christine Lynn Bailey with a nicely matched tone. Porter navigated the extended techniques with aplomb, generating percussive sounds meshing in duet with tambourine. With a dramatic flair, Porter inched her way off the stage as she played the final measures.

BPO was joined by The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Downtown Voices, for Psalms, a work written in 1956. Tenor Stephen Sands (who is also Downtown Voices director), and soprano Sonya Headlam delivered solos that were spot on and especially moving; beautifully punctuated by harp, tympani and strings. Fugal passages were well-executed, and, with Falletta’s encouragement and direction, never overpowering. The singers had the spotlight to themselves for Alleluia by Foss’s teacher Randall Thompson, an a cappella work that was stunningly gorgeous and reverently performed.

Symphony No. 1, written in 1944, was the earliest work on the program. Textures in the orchestration evoked the sound and style of Copland, mixed with Bernstein, mixed with Hindemith; a sound parallel to the “midcentury modern” style of architecture and furniture. The third movement displayed an appropriate amount of swing, and each of the principal string players were radiant in their respective solo passages in the final movement.

The Lukas Foss Centennial Celebration at Carnegie Hall was a fitting tribute to this under-recognized American composer. Next week, Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic head to the recording studio, and an album of the entire program will be released by Naxos next year.

October 5, 2022 by Gail Wein