Review: Jeremy Denk

March 23, Virginia Commonwealth University

Jeremy Denk has performed in Richmond and environs six times in the past nine years, exploring most every corner of the piano’s solo, chamber and concerto repertory. His first solo recital, in 2010 at the University of Richmond, memorably paired Charles Ives’ First Piano Sonata with Bach’s “Goldberg Variations.” His second solo date, in VCU’s Rennolds Chamber Concerts series, looked to be another such cultural collision, with Bartók’s Piano Sonata abutting a selection of pieces by Liszt, followed by Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in B minor and Beethoven’s last piano sonata, the C minor, Op. 111.

The performance turned out to be less about disparate musics than about Denk’s engagement with each selection. Each piece offered, in very different ways, an opportunity for the pianist to dive in to the music – rhythmically, expresssively, colorfully, as an intellectual or a tactile experience. Even understatement in these pieces requires an active interpreter to pull off.

Denk dove in from the start, driving the already intense rhythmic figures of the outer movements of the Bartók sonata, and rarely let up through the program. Even the relatively serene encore, the 13th variation from the “Goldbergs,” conveyed the energy and tension of music being made up on the spot.

Denk’s energy and spontaneity sold the Bartók to listeners, many of whom had probably dreaded hearing it. Phrasing and deft application of color were the prime attractions of the Liszt set, which used the composer’s piano arrangements of the Bach Prelude “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen” and the “Liebestod” from Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” to bracket two pieces from the Italian book of Liszt’s “Années de pèlerinage,” Petrarch’s Sonata 123 and “Après une lecture du Dante.”

The second half of the program, Beethoven bracketed by Bach, was introduced verbally, then played, by Denk as a study in contrasts of the dissimilar – notably in the long set of variations that conclude the Beethoven. Temperament occasionally overcame technique in the Beethoven, especially in the more densely scored variations.

Risë Stevens (1913-2013)

Risë Stevens, a fixture at the Metropolitan Opera in Carmen and other mezzo-soprano roles in the 1940s and ’50s, and a popular singer in Hollywood films (notably, co-starring with Bing Crosby in “Going My Way”), has died at 99.

An obituary by Margalit Fox in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/arts/music/rise-stevens-opera-singer-dies-at-99.html?hpw&_r=0

Tallis Scholars reviewed

While I was attending the eighth blackbird-Nico Muhly show at the University of Richmond, The Tallis Scholars were performing at St. James’s Episcopal Church. Here’s Gene Harris’ review for the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

http://www.timesdispatch.com/entertainment-life/music-movies-tv/music/music-review-the-tallis-scholars/article_461e0e98-7d78-56d0-afcb-892c0bc46da8.html

Review: eighth blackbird

with Nico Muhly, composer & keyboards
March 20, University of Richmond

Has any American composer risen as far as fast as Nico Muhly? Nine years ago, Muhly was studying at the Juilliard School. Since then, he has written an opera, “Two Boys,” for the Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera; orchestral works for the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Seattle Symphony and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; a film score, for “The Reader,” nominated for an Oscar; and arrangements for albums by Björk, Usher and Rufus Wainwright.

The 31-year-old composer joined eighth blackbird for a sampler of his works, two of them written for the ’birds, and pieces by composers he counts as mentors and influences – Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Tristan Perich.

Glass specifically – Muhly worked for him as a copyist, arranger and conductor – and minimalism generally figure prominently in Muhly’s compositional style; but repeated figures and rhythms are only the foundation of his compositions. His instrumental and electronic writing is as elaborate and decorous as Renaissance polyphony, and his repetition builds into a genuine groove.

Among the four works of his played in this program, “Doublespeak,” introduced last year by eighth blackbird in a concert marking Glass’ 75th birthday, was the most elaborately and playfully voiced, contrapuntal and colorful, the colors especially vivid in sections highlighting woodwinds and mallet percussion. The most orchestral of the lot, curiously, was “A Long Line” (2003), a quasi-fanfare scored for an almost romantically expressive violin and electronica.

“How Soon” (2010) was a sample of Muhly’s long fascination with choral writing (he was a boy chorister) and English literature (his major at Columbia University). The piece is a setting of “Mortification,” by the 17th-century poet George Herbert, sung by a chorus of sopranos and altos – here, members of the University of Richmond Schola Cantorum, directed by Jeffrey Riehl – with moody yet rhythmically pointed instrumentation.

“It Goes Without Saying” (2005), described by the composer as “a slow transition from one thing to essentially the same thing,” is a colorfully sonorous soliloquy for clarinet with electronica combining a harmonium drone, clicking sounds (mimicking the mechanics of the clarinet) and recorded clarinet.

Clarinetist Michael J. Maccaferri and violinist Yvonne Lam played deftly and expressively in their duets with electronica; the full sextet (pianist Lisa Kaplan, cellist Nicholas Photionos, flutist Tim Munro and percussionist Matthew Duvall, Lam and Maccaferri) audibly and visibly relished Muhly’s energetic intricacies.

The composer joined Kaplan and Lam to play Perich’s “qsqsqsqsqqqqqqqqq” (2009), a perky canon for three toy pianos and electronca. Muhly played celesta in a rendition of Glass’ early (1968) “Two Pages.”

Another early minimalist opus, Reich’s “Four Organs” (1970), an extended deconstruction of a single chord, featured Kaplan, Lam, Maccaferri and Photinos on computerized keyboards (whose master unit malfunctioned, requiring a restart) and Duvall on maracas, whose unchanging rhythm tested the percussionist’s stamina, and probably his patience.

The tainted philharmonic

Justin Davidson of New York magazine outlines new disclosures from long-suppressed archives of the Vienna Philharmonic on its collaboration with the Nazis before and during World War II:

http://www.vulture.com/2013/03/davidson-on-the-vienna-philharmonics-nazi-era.html

Headline findings: During the period of Nazi rule in Austria (1938-45), nearly half the members of the orchestra were party members, including an SS officer who spied on colleagues and after the war became the chief administrator of the orchestra. . . . The popular New Year Strauss concerts were introduced under Nazi auspices; Joseph Goebbels, the party propaganda chief, ordered suppression of the fact that the Strausses had Jewish ancestors.

The report by a group of historians, in German only (English version to follow), is here:

http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/index.php?set_language=en&cccpage=history_ns

Richmond Symphony 2013-14

A concert starring mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey, the most prominent singer to have come out of Richmond in the past generation, and a recent work by Mason Bates, the Richmond-bred composer who has become a leading figure in contemporary classical music, highlight the 2013-14 season of the Richmond Symphony.

Lindsey, who has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and other leading opera companies and orchestras in the U.S. and Europe, will sing a French program with the symphony on Nov. 9.

Bates’ Violin Concerto, introduced in December 2012 by Anne Akiko Meyers with the Pittsburgh Symphony, will be played here by Meyers on March 1-2. Unlike many of Bates’ recent works, the concerto does not incorporate electronic sounds.

The coming symphony season also will feature another collaboration between the Richmond Symphony and Virginia Symphony choruses, Berlioz’s “The Damnation of Faust,” on May 17-18 in Richmond as well as dates to be announced in the Virginia Arts Festival in Norfolk. The chorus also will perform in Verdi’s Requiem on Oct. 19-20, Handel’s “Messiah” on Dec. 6 and “Let It Snow!” pops concerts on Dec. 7-8. The Richmond Symphony Chamber Chorus will sing Handel’s four “Coronation Anthems” in a Metro Collection program on Feb. 23.

The season will open on Sept. 21-22 with an all-Beethoven program, including the Fourth Piano Concerto played by William Wolfram and the “Eroica” Symphony (No. 3). Other major works on the 2013-14 Masterworks schedule are Richard Strauss’ “Don Quixote,” featuring two symphony principals, violist Molly Sharp and cellist Neal Cary (Jan. 11); Grieg’s Piano Concerto, played by George Li, and Schumann’s Second Symphony (Feb. 1); and Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony (March 1-2).

Steven Smith, the symphony’s music director, will conduct all those programs, except the Feb. 1 date, which will be led by Mei-Ann Chen, music director of the Memphis Symphony and winner of the 2012 Helen M. Thompson Award from the League of American Orchestras.

Erin R. Freeman, associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony and director of the Symphony Chorus, will lead the Feb. 23 Metro Collection concert with the Handel anthems and Mozart’s Symphony No. 34, as well as “Messiah,” three of the season’s four pops concerts including “Let It Snow!” and three programs in the LolliPops family series.

The Metro Collection series, in addition to the Mozart-Handel concert, include a program with a rare performance of the original chamber version of Samuel Barber’s music for “Medea,” a performance of Copland’s Clarinet Concerto by symphony principal Ralph Skiano, and a French program featuring the orchestra’s concertmaster, Daisuke Yamamoto, playing violin showpieces by Ravel and Saint-Saëns.

The Pops series will feature, in addition to “Let It Snow!” a concert with Rex Richardson, the Virginia Commonwealth University-based jazz trumpeter; a return engagement for the acrobatic dance troupe Cirque de la Symphonie; and “Classical Mystery Tour,” a 50th-anniversary celebration of The Beatles’ first U.S. tour.

LolliPops programs include “Carnivals and Clowns,” with Drew Allison & Grey Seal Puppets; performances of Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” and Michael Abels’ “Dance for Martin’s Dream,” a piece celebrating Martin Luther King Jr., with The School of Richmond Ballet Ensembles; and “The Remarkable Farkle McBride,” with actor Michael Boudewyns.

The symphony also will play host to the Windborne troupe in “The Music of Michael Jackson,” a special concert on April 12 at the Landmark Theater.

As in the current season, the symphony will stage seven Masterworks programs, three of them on Saturday nights only; four in the Metro Collection chamber-orchestra series; four in the Pops series, with “Let It Snow!” reprised in a Sunday matinee; and three in the LolliPops series. Masterworks, Pops and LolliPops programs will be staged in the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage, Metro Collection concerts in Blackwell Auditorium of Randolph-Macon College in Ashland.

To obtain a season brochure or subscription information, call the symphony’s patron services desk at (804) 788-1212.

Concert dates, artists and programs for the symphony’s 2013-14 season:


MASTERWORKS
8 p.m. Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays, Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage.
Saturday subscriptions: $35-$448.
Sunday subscriptions: $20-$256.

Sept. 21-22 – Steven Smith conducting. Beethoven: “Fidelio” Overture, Piano Concerto No. 4 (William Wolfram, piano), Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”).

Oct. 19-20 – Steven Smith conducting. Verdi: Requiem (Kelley Nassief, soprano; Jennifer Feinstein, mezzo-soprano; Michael Fabiano, tenor; Kevin Deas, bass; Richmond Symphony Chorus).

Nov. 9 – Steven Smith conducting. Bizet: “Carmen” Prelude; Canteloube: selections from “Songs of the Auvergne;” Massenet: “Enfin, ju sis ici (Cendrillon);” Berlioz: “La mort d'Ophelie;” Chabrier: “Je suis Lazuli;” Offenbach: Overture and arias from “The Grand Duchess of Gérolstein” (Kate Lindsey, mezzo-soprano); Debussy: “Ibéria;” Ravel: “Alborada del grazioso.”

Jan. 11 – Steven Smith conducting. Wagner: orchestral excerpts from “Lohengrin;” George Walker: “Foils for Orchestra (Homage à Saint-Georges);” Richard Strauss: “Don Quixote” (Molly Sharp, viola; Neal Cary, cello).

Feb. 1 – Mei-Ann Chen conducting. Osvaldo Golijov: “Last Round;” Grieg: Piano Concerto (George Li, piano); Schumann: Symphony No. 2.

March 1-2 – Steven Smith conducting. Liadov: “Enchanted Lake;” Mason Bates: Violin Concerto (Anne Akiko Meyers, violin); Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10.

May 17-18 – Steven Smith conducting. Berlioz: “The Damnation of Faust” (Elizabeth Bishop, mezzo-soprano; Vale Rideout, tenor; Kyle Ketelsen, bass-baritone; Jason Hardy, bass, Richmond Symphony Chorus; Virginia Symphony Chorus).


METRO COLLECTION
3 p.m. Sundays, Blackwell Auditorium, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland
Subscriptions: $20-$68.

Oct. 13 – Steven Smith conducting. Barber: “Medea” (original chamber version); Bernard Rands: Madrigal; Brahms: Serenade No. 2.

Nov. 24 – Steven Smith conducting. Joseph Martin Kraus: Symphony in E minor; Copland: Clarinet Concerto (Ralph Skiano, clarinet); Ives: Symphony No. 3 (“Camp Meeting”); Dvořák: “Czech Suite.”

Feb. 23 – Erin R. Freeman conducting. Mozart: Symphony No. 34; Handel: “Coronation Anthems” (Richmond Symphony Chamber Chorus).

May 4 – Steven Smith conducting. Fauré: “Masques et bergamasques;” Ravel: “Tzigane;” Saint-Saëns: “Introduction and Rondo capriccioso” (Daisuke Yamamoto, violin); Roussel: “The Spider’s Feast” Symphonic Fragments; Ravel: “Le Tombeau de Couperin.”


POPS
8 p.m. Saturdays, 3 p.m. Dec. 8, Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage
Subscriptions: $20-$256.

Sept. 28 – Erin R. Freeman conducting. “Classical Mystery Tour – Music of The Beatles 50th Anniversary Tour.”

Dec. 7-8 – Erin R. Freeman conducting. “Let It Snow!” holiday program (Lisa Edwards-Burrs, soprano, Richmond Symphony Chorus).

Feb. 8 – Steven Smith conducting. Rex Richardson, trumpet, and friends in jazz program.

March 8 – Erin R. Freeman conducting. Cirque de la Symphonie, dance and acrobatic troupe.


LOLLIPOPS
11 a.m. Saturdays, Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage
Subscriptions: $15-$24.

Oct. 26 – Erin R. Freeman conducting. “Carnivals and Clowns,” with Drew Allison & Grey Seal Puppets.

Jan. 25 – Erin R. Freeman conducting. Gershwin: “An American in Paris;” Michael Abels: “Dance for Martin’s Dream” (The School of Richmond Ballet Ensembles).

March 15 – Erin R. Freeman conducting. “The Remarkable Farkle McBride” (Michael Boudewyns, actor).


SPECIALS

Dec. 6 (7:30 p.m., Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage) – Erin R. Freeman conducting. Handel: “Messiah” (soloists TBA, Richmond Symphony Chorus).
Tickets: $12-$45.

April 12 (8 p.m., Landmark Theater) – conductor TBA. “The Music of Michael Jackson” (Windborne).
Tickets: $25-$60.

Review: 'A Streetcar Named Desire'

Virginia Opera
Ari Pelto conducting
March 8, Richmond CenterStage

After Act 1 of the first of two Richmond performances concluding Virginia Opera’s run of André Previn’s “A Streetcar Named Desire,” one patron remarked, “It ain’t Mozart.” Nor is it Bizet, Puccini, Gershwin, Lloyd Webber, or the Elia Kazan stage production or movie set to music.

It is a richly expressive, dramatically intense translation to music of Tennessee Williams’ story and characterizations, and both a showcase for and challenge to singing actors. Its demands on vocal technique are formidable, especially for the singer portraying Blanche DuBois.

All four of its principals – Blanche, the aging Southern belle with a sordid past to conceal; her younger sister, Stella, whose passion trumps genteel pretense; Stella’s husband, Stanley Kowalski, a virile brute with no time for either gentility or pretense; and Mitch Mitchell, an awkward romantic who falls for Blanche – introduce their characters in a first act that’s basically all recitative, and subsequently flesh out those characters in solos and duets that are more like soliloquies than traditional opera arias.

Kelly Cae Hogan (Blanche), Julia Ebner (Stella), David Adam Moore (Stanley) and Scott Ramsay (Mitch) very ably, at times brilliantly, negotiate Previn’s continuous musical dialogue. While vocalization often overrides diction in the text (by Philip Littell, closely following Williams’ script), and Southern dialect is a sometime thing, the foursome proves remarkably adept at acting in song – a tribute to the singers, and to stage director Sam Helfrich.

Hogan is in consistently strong voice as Blanche, a role that requires as much stamina as Tosca, and conveys her character’s emotional disintegration with great cumulative impact. Moore stakes a gritty and convincingly personal claim on the character of Stanley Kowalski; he’s never a shadow of Marlon Brando, even when crying “Stella!” Ramsay as Mitch, and Drew Duncan in his small role as a newspaper boy, both capture the naiveté of their characters as manipulated by Blanche. Ebner’s Stella strikingly shrinks emotionally as she swells with pregnancy.

Supporting characters, notably Duncan and Margaret Gawrysiak as the Kowalski’s neighbor, Eunice, make strong impressions.

The drama unfolds on a set (by Andromache Chalfant) that’s sparsely appointed but serviceable, with plenty of empty space for the singers to move around in.

Previn’s score, with its many theatrically charged effects, is rendered assertively and edgily by the orchestra, drawn from Hampton Roads’ Virginia Symphony and led by Ari Pelto, whose experience as an opera conductor is evident from start to finish.

For those willing to suspend expectations of romantic aria-singing, 19th-century melodrama and grand-opera spectacle, this “Streetcar” offers music-drama that packs a wallop and characterizations to savor and remember.

The final performance of Virginia Opera’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” will be staged at 2:30 p.m. March 10 at the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets. Tickets: $31-$119. Details: (800) 514-3849 (ETIX); www.vaopera.org

MARCH 17 UPDATE: The New York Times’ Anthony Tommasini reviews Renée Fleming as Blanche DuBois in a Carnegie Hall preview of a Chicago Lyric Opera production opening next month:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/16/arts/music/renee-fleming-in-streetcar-named-desire-at-carnegie-hall.html?ref=music&_r=0