Page-turner to the rescue

Page-turners, the folks who sit on the pianist’s left and try to stay minimally visible during recitals, occasionally are called upon to do more than turn pages and not get in the pianist’s way.

On very rare occasions, they have to do a lot more.

Here’s a spectacular example of page-turner heroics, from a recent recital in Bremen by violinist Christian Tetzlaff and pianist Lars Vogt, when Anna Reszniak nimbly retrieved and reordered scores that went airborne during an encore, Brahms’ scherzo from the “F.A.E. Sonata:”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TprYVxTDro

“The wonderful Anna Reszniak,” as Vogt hails her in his YouTube posting, is concertmaster of the Nürnberg Symphony Orchestra – and now, no doubt, the page-turner all performers wish they had.

(via www.slippedisc.com)

Letter V Classical Radio this week

Sampling the fall’s new releases, from cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Alisa Weilerstein, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, tenor Jonas Kaufmann and pianists Alexander Paley, Yuja Wang, Lang Lang and Alessio Bax, plus William Lyons’ adaptation of the medieval English “Alysoun” with his Dufay Collective & Voice and mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirschschlager singing “Songs to the Moon,” Jake Heggie’s settings of poems by Vachel Lindsay.

Oct. 8
10 a.m.-1 p.m. EDT
1400-1700 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Chopin: Scherzo in B flat minor, Op. 31
Lang Lang, piano (Sony Classical)

Bernstein: Serenade
“after Plato’s Symposium”
Anne Akiko Meyers, violin
London Symphony Orchestra/Keith Lockhart (eOne)

Elgar: “Salut d’amour”
Delius: Romance for
cello and piano
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Kathryn Stott, piano
(Sony Classical)

Puccini: “Turandot” – “Nessun dorma”
Jonas Kaufmann, tenor
Orchestra dell’Academia Nationale di Santa Cecilia/Antonio Pappano (Sony Classical)

Lyons: “Alysoun”
The Dufay Collective & Voice/William Lyons (Avie)

Rameau: Suite in E major
Alexander Paley, piano
(La Música)

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
Yuja Wang, piano
Tonhalle Orchestra, Zürich/
Lionel Bringuier
(Deutsche Grammophon)

Jake Heggie:
“Songs to the Moon”
Angelika Kirschschlager, mezzo-soprano
Maurice Lammerts van Bueren, piano (Avie)

Mussorgsky:
“Pictures at an Exhibition”
Alessio Bax, piano
(Signum Classics)

Rachmaninoff: Vocalise
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Inon Barnatan, piano (Decca)

The South falls again, musically

A newly published study of music that people dislike indicates growing alienation from genres “that appeal to disproportionately white, rural, Southern audiences,” Tom Jacobs reports in Pacific Standard:

http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/what-the-music-you-hate-says-about-you

The study, by University of Notre Dame sociologists Omar Lizardo and Sara Skiles, published in the journal Poetics (not accessible online), found that 2,250 participants, asked in 2012 about 18 different styles of music, expressed greater dislike of country, bluegrass, folk and religious or gospel music, than that found in a comparable survey conducted in 1993.

“Fairly or not, many Americans associate these genres with racism, religiosity, and a nationalistic mindset. It’s likely that in expressing their distaste for those genres, people outside the South and rural West are symbolically rejecting the belief systems they represent,” Jacobs writes.

The 2012 survey results found less dislike of classical music, opera, jazz, Latin, rap, rock, and heavy metal than in the 1993 survey. Results for show tunes, blues, rhythm and blues and reggae were about the same in the two surveys.

Young respondents with high educational levels “were more likely than their counterparts of 20 years ago to declare their distaste for classical music and jazz, as well as rock ’n’ roll” and were more receptive to rap and hip-hop musics, Jacobs writes. “This suggests they are using rap and hip-hop to differentiate themselves from the older generation of well-to-do Americans.”

(via www.artsjournal.com)

Play it again

Given the linear quality of music – here in one instant, gone in the next – a piece can be very difficult to understand and appreciate in a single hearing.

It’s hard enough in any unfamiliar music. I can remember listening for the first time to some especially meandering work of a tuneful romantic composer, wondering where it was headed, and ultimately unsure as to how it got from beginning to end.

Grasping advanced modern and contemporary music that isn’t traditionally tonal and doesn’t employ conventional forms of structure and expression can be almost impossible in a first hearing. For even the most willing listener, it often strikes the ear as a succession of random sounds.

Musicians typically try to get past this perceptual barrier with explanation, verbally introducing the piece and playing key themes and other samples before giving a complete performance.

There’s a simpler way, and I’m amazed that more performers don’t use it more often: Play the piece twice.

That’s what The Knights did with Anton Webern’s “Three Little Pieces,” Op. 11, for cello and piano in a concert at Dumbartan Oaks in Washington, Stephen Brookes reports for The Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/the-knights-charge-into-dumbarton-oaks/2015/10/05/ee9f8148-6b6e-11e5-9bfe-e59f5e244f92_story.html

An instant encore of the Webern pieces – “so perfectly concise that they barely exist,” Brookes observes in his review – added all of 2½ minutes to the program’s length.

Repetition can be harder to accommodate with longer works, but it can reap rewards. My favorite example dates from 1904, when Gustav Mahler conducted the (now-Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam in his Fourth Symphony, twice in a single concert. The Concertgebouw and its chief conductor, Willem Mengelberg, were soon known as the preeminent exponents of Mahler, and for generations Amsterdam was the music center most receptive to this composer’s music – perhaps because they had been properly introduced.

Most compositions fall between the extremes of Webern’s brevity and Mahler’s length. Still, fitting two performances of a work onto a single program might require omission of one or more other selections. That might rob the program of some musical variety; but it also would give the performers more time to rehearse the unfamiliar piece and give a more convincing performance of it.

Thereby reaping another reward: When musicians play a work (known or unknown) like true believers, with audible concentration, commitment and fluency, they are far more likely to make true believers of listeners.

Symphony's new associate conductor

Chia-Hsuan Lin, assistant conductor of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic since 2014, has been named associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony.

Lin will begin work here in January, as Keitaro Harada reduces his schedule in Richmond. Harada, who recently became associate conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, will remain on the Richmond Symphony roster until May.

Born in Taiwan, Lin began as a percussionist, performing for seven years with the Taipei Percussion Group, and earned degrees in percussion and conducting from National Taiwan Normal University. She earned a graduate degree from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and in 2012 began doctoral studies at Northwestern University.

Lin was a semi-finalist in the 2013 Jeunesses Musicales International Conducting Competition in Bucharest, Romania, and the following year was one of three artists chosen for the Emerging Conductor Program, working with the orchestra of the Peninsula Music Festival in Wisconsin.

The 29-year-old conductor also serves as music director of the South Loop Symphony Orchestra in Chicago.

The Richmond Symphony’s associate conductor is primarily responsible for leading programs in the Symphony Pops and LolliPops series, conducting community concerts, directing the orchestra’s Young Performers Program, and substituting as needed for music director Steven Smith and guest conductors on other dates.

Chamber music dates postponed

Because of weather conditions, the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia has postponed a lecture-recital it was to have presented on Oct. 3 at the Richmond Public Library and an Oct. 4 concert at First Unitarian Universalist Church.

New dates will be announced later.

For more information, call (804) 519-2098 or visit www.cmscva.org

Letter V Classical Radio this week

A sampler of the music on tap in the 2015-16 season of the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, scheduled (weather permitting) to get under way with a lecture-recital on Oct. 3 at the Richmond Public Library and a concert on Oct. 4 at First Unitarian Universalist Church. The CMSCVA season continues with six more programs in December, February and April.

Cellist James Wilson, the society’s founder, artistic director and intrepid musical explorer, joins me in the second hour of the show to discuss this season’s mix of favorite pieces and discoveries.

Oct. 1
10 a.m.-1 p.m. EDT
1400-1700 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Schubert: Quintet in C major, D.956
Janine Jansen & Boris Brovtsyn, violins
Amihai Grosz, viola
Torleif Thedéen & Jens Peter Maintz, cellos
(Decca)

Past Masters:
Corelli: Variations on “La Follia” in G minor, Op. 5, No. 12
Frans Brüggen, recorder
Anner Bylsma, cello
Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord
(Warner Classics)
(recorded 1967)

Fanny Mendelssohn Henselt: Piano Trio in D minor – Andante espressivo
Stefan Mickisch, piano
Fanny Mendelssohn Quartet members (Troubadisc)

Erwin Schulhoff: Duo for violin and cello – Zingaresca
Gernot Sussmuth, violin
Hans-Jakob Eschenburg, cello (Capriccio)

J.S. Bach: “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047
Janos Rolla, violin & director
Maurice André, trumpet
Maxence Larrieu, flute
Bernard Schenkel, oboe
Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (Capitol)

Beethoven: Sonata in
C major, Op. 102, No. 2
Matt Haimovitz, cello
Christopher O’Riley, fortepiano (Pentatone/Oxingale)

George Onslow: Quintet in
C minor, Op. 38 (“Bullet”)
Oxford String Quartet
Merry Peckham, cello (Carlton Classics)

Boccherini: “La Musica nottuna della Strada di Madrid” (excerpt)
Le Concert des Nations members (AliaVox)