a virtual journal and blog of the classical music scene in Boston
Robert Levin, editor; Bettina A. Norton, executive editor; Lee Eiseman, publisher
Reviews
March 10, 2010
Musica Viva’s “Ocean Crossings”
by Mary Wallace Davidson
Richard Pittman’s disparate but ultimately organic program for the Boston Musica Viva performance in the Tsai Performance Center on March 5 was the last before the group leaves to perform American music in Kings Place, London. California composers Donald Crockett and Rand Steiger crossed the country from the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans to speak briefly about their works.
Crockett’s The Cinnamon Peeler is a powerful setting of the sensual poem by Michael Ondaatje (author of The English Patient) for mezzo-soprano, piano, viola, violoncello, flute, and clarinet. Pamela Dellal sang beautifully, standing in the same semi-circle as the instruments; it emphasized that the voice part is on equal footing with them but caused the text to be almost unintelligible until the last two verses.
Steiger’s Elliott’s Instruments (2010), a world première honoring Elliott Carter on his 100th birthday, was commissioned by the Musica Viva with support from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. Steiger draws on all of the solo and chamber music that Elliott wrote for these six instruments since 1948. The work emphasizes the individuality of each instrument in turn and in ensemble, using hocket-like techniques to sustain long “melodic” lines; it builds to a fortissimo climax and ends on a beautiful chord you wish to hear a little longer.
The concert also included Twilight Colors (2007) by Chou Wen Chung, for a string trio and two wind trios (flute, oboe, clarinet — the second formed by the same players doubling on different instruments), and the British composer Nicholas Maw’s Ghost Dances (1988), for violin, violoncello, flute, clarinets, and piano, all doubling on folk instruments.
Performers included Ann Bobo, flute, Nancy Dimock, oboe, Bayla Keyes, violin, Peter Sulski, viola, and Robert Schulz, percussion. all superb musicians. [Click title for full review.]
March 9, 2010
Beethoven’s Humor, Despair from Artemis String Quartet
by Larry Phillips
The Artemis String Quartet had a triumphant debut when they played in Jordan Hall on March 5 as part of the Celebrity Series of Boston. They presented a nearly ideal program, quartets from the early, middle and late periods of Beethoven, to a near capacity house. With the cello seated on a platform and the others standing, forming a semi-circle in the middle of the stage, the quartet sounded better and more balanced than other similar ensembles in this acoustic. Although they are German, they played in the Viennese fashion — less severe, say, than the Julliard approach
First up was the second quartet of Op. 18 (actually the third to be composed in this set.) The finale, “Allegro molto quasi Presto,” is a rondo in which humor is predominant. The Quartet in F-Minor, Op. 95 offered an extreme contrast to this exuberance. By then Beethoven was experiencing deafness, financial difficulties and an unhappy love life.
A late quartet, the A Minor, Op. 132, sounds very fragmented at first, but Beethoven manages to keep it organic by motivic ornamentation. The long slow movement is the emotional heart of this quartet. The score is fascinating with Beethoven’s markings, not only the Heiliger Dankgesang but also in the Lydian mode reference. This is key to the movement’s religious tone.
Although Celebrity Series audiences expect encores, Artemis wisely resisted. [Click title for full review.]
Mostly Magnificent Music Making from Perlman
by Mark Kroll
Itzhak Perlman is considered one of the great violinists of this or any era, and his recital before a packed house at Symphony Hall as part of the Celebrity Series of Boston last Sunday, March 7 reminded us exactly why.
Mozart’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in F major, K. 376. Mozart’s violin sonatas, which come out of the 18th-century tradition of “keyboard sonatas with violin accompaniment,” were conceived as small-scale works, and they may be just a bit too small for Perlman’s big style of playing. Perlman played Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major with all the intensity of an excited groom, a romantic-era one at that. There were some delicious 19th-century slides in the second movement, and the superb communication and ensemble between the violinist and his pianist de Silva made this performance of the Franck as good as it gets.
Perlman gave a virtuoso performance of the Sonata, but like in the Mozart, he was sometimes too rough for this elegant French confection. For example, some passages in the first movement were taken at such a fast tempo that much detail got lost and the intonation suffered. Quibbles aside, this was a masterful performance given by two masters of their instruments, both perfectly attuned to each other. [Click title for full review.]
March 8, 2010
Ambrosial Perfection, Simmering Fury from Borromeo
by Michael Rocha
The Borromeo String Quartet, faculty quartet-in-residence at the New England Conservatory, shared the Jordan Hall stage Sunday evening, March 7, with three 2010 student Guest Artist Award recipients. The concert also was the Borromeos’ third of an eight-part series featuring the complete string quartet cycle of local contemporary composer Gunther Schuller.
String players Kristopher Tong, violin, Mai Motobuchi, viola, and Yeesun Kim, cello played Mozart’s Oboe Quartet in F Major, K. 370 delicately and expressively, providing a perfectly balanced accompaniment. The overall effect was one of gentle precision. Schuller’s powerful String Quartet No. 3 (1986) was a jarring and riveting musical antithesis of the Mozart, an emphatic yang to Wolfgang’s yin; we had definitely entered film noir territory. Passion and gravitas were dripping all over the stage, tensions built and erupted. This music was dark, sinister, low-pH, and high-energy, and the Borromeo members played with a simmering fury.
From the shimmering tones and soothing triple meter of first movement to the busy, urgent phrases of the final Poco Allegro, Johannes Brahms’s Sextet in G Major, Op. was performed with ambrosial perfection. It featured three Borromeo members juxtaposed with their Guest Artist Award winner/special guest counterparts (Nicholas Kitchen and winner Audrey Wright, violins; Mai Motobuchi and guest Dimitri Murrath, violas; Yeesun Kim and winner Holgen Gjoni, cellos); the round, full-bodied tones of guest cellist Holgen Gjoni were especially notable. In the inordinately rich and vibrant musical scene of Boston, the Borromeo String Quartet is a true stand-out. Is [Click title for full review.]
Concord Chamber Players with Dicterow, Barker Offer Treats and Trifles
by Vance R. Koven
Concord Chamber Music Society closed its season on March 7 with a program at Concord Academy’s Performing Arts Center, featuring guests Glenn Dicterow, violin, and Edwin Barker, contrabass, with members of the Concord Chamber Players.
Michael Reynolds, cello, and Edwin Barker, BSO principal bass, played Rossini’s Duo for Cello and Double Bass, written, it is said, for a bibulous dinner party in London, for laughs, but this was high-class clowning on the order of the Harlem Globetrotters: the technical challenges were real enough, at any rate, to put some apparent stress on Mr. Reynolds’s articulation.
The second “little” piece, the Miniatures, of Dvorák, were charming, beautifully played by Dicterow—for 30 years and still counting the New York Philharmonic’s concertmaster, adeptly supported by CCP members Wendy Putnam, violin and Karen Dreyfus, viola. Granted, the D major Duo for two violins by Spohr, op. 67 no. 2, does not plumb vast depths, but it more than justifies its place on a program. Dicterow and Putnam brought it off with style and grace.
The main event on the program was the Dvorák G major Quintet for string quartet and bass. We are happy to take issue with Mr. Ledbetter’s program notes; written in 1875, when the composer was 34, this is not juvenilia, even assuming Dvorák was something of a late bloomer. The performance was spirited, cohesive, and persuasive, though—could this have been an acoustic artifact, since we had the same sense in the Rossini?—the cello, especially in the high range, seemed a few cents short. [Click title for full review.]
Boston Modern Orchestra Project: Strings Attached
by Peter Van Zandt Lane
The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) presented its third full concert of the season at Jordan Hall on March 6 in an extensive, fairly eclectic program of music for string orchestra. Nathan Ball’s Stained Glass, a world premiere, an amalgam of American post-minimalist and European spiritual minimalist styles, was quite enjoyable, though limited by a rather strict, at times uninventive harmonic language; it developed musical ideas successfully despite being on the short side.
Israeli composer Betty Olivero’s Neharót, Neharót was beautiful, disturbing, comforting, mystifying, and alien all at once– and without doubt the most impassioned performance of the evening. The most effective moments of Scott Wheeler’s Crazy Weather came in the more freely composed Adagio, as the music slowly and mysteriously gained a sense of motion from its suspended, frozen beginning. The third movement, “Steadily Driving,” at times seemed lacking in the motivation and intensity that the piece required – a very rare symptom for an ensemble with the versatility and performance standards of BMOP.
Hartke’s Alvorada, Three Madrigals seemed to press some of its most intriguing moments into the second movement, with overt melodiousness both strange and familiar. The third movement, “Bailada,” developed a wonderfully elaborate dance out of very simple materials, culminating in a surprising and pleasantly awkward coda reminiscent of Hindemith.
No easy feat, Gil Rose and BMOP were able to breathe life into Milton Babbitt’s Correspondences, among some of the most difficult (both practically and conceptually) music written in the 20th century and a piece that is most often interpreted with cold precision. The program closed with a fantastic performance of Bartók’s Divertimento, one of the finest compositions of the period. [Click title for full review.]
Spectrum Singers, Comfortable in Any Century, Live Up to Their Name
by Tom Schnauber
On March 6, in the First Church Congregational, Cambridge, the Spectrum Singers, a remarkable ensemble of “amateur singers” founded and led by John Ehrlich, presented music by three composers, each from a different country and time period. The Singers were at their finest with four Latin motets by Anton Bruckner: “Locus iste,” “Os justi,” “Ave Maria,” and “Virga Jesse.” They are works that reveal his depth without suffering from his often overbearing sense of timing and radiated the wide and seemingly contradictory emotional range in these works with stunning power and sensitivity.
The Singers presented a solid and colorful performance of Benjamin Britten’s fascinating and technically challenging work, Rejoice in the Lamb, for choir, soloists, and organ, despite the occasional stumble over mouthfuls of words in some faster phrases.
In the “Gloria” portion of Latin Mass by Vivaldi with the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music, Ehrlich seemed reticent to indulge in the more deliberate tempi needed in some of the pieces, resulting in a slightly cut-up, hurried feel overall. “Laudamus te” was sung with light, sprightly verve by sopranos Susan Consoli and Kathi Tighe, whose vocal character and sonorities were well matched. Consoli’s sweet, clear voice also blended beautifully with the solo oboe in the lovely “Domine Deus.” Alto Elaine Bresnick’s steely, slightly husky voice gave the intense “Qui sedes” a strange and dramatic flair. And in all cases, the melodic lines were creatively ornamented in the best Baroque tradition, hardly surprising from an ensemble that is so clearly comfortable in any century. [Click title for full review.]
Thrilling Tchaikovsky from Boston Civic Symphony
by David Patterson
The Finale of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony performed by the Boston Civic Symphony at Jordan Hall on Sunday March 7 thrilled—simply put, it was a spine-tingler all the way. Conductor Max Hobart encouraged a full symphonic orchestra of players representing a range of experience to play full-out at the right time, sweeping gestures at the right moment, dialogues with natural expressivity, and a terrific palette of color. It is very rare for me to be carried away as I was with these musicians who should not at all be thought of as amateurs, semi-professionals, and the like.
Boston-based violinist Irina Muresanu puts forward a sound and a style altogether sumptuous and smart. Had some of the expressive moves she so brilliantly shaped in a lovely performance of Paganini’s Cantabile for Violin and Orchestra taken just an ounce of spontaneity, her interpretation would have taken us over the top.
The Boston Civic Symphony gave the world premiere of Violin Concerto, op 129 (2009) composed for Irina Muresanu by Boston composer Thomas Oboe Lee. If there was anything redeeming about it, it was Muresanu’s virtuosity and sensitivity, though at one point in the second of two movements she seemed to have been forgotten by the composer for minutes on end.
Oboist Andrew Price, clarinetist Kristian Baverstam, and bassoonist George Mueller were outstanding as soloists in Rossini’s light and playful Overture to L’Italiana in Algiers. [Click title for full review.]
Emmanuel Music as a Church Choir: An Appreciation
by Lee Eiseman
Emmanuel Church’s Sunday morning service on March 7 was the 7,696th in their distinguished history, according to Senior Warden, Peter Johnson. For perhaps the 1,400th time the service music was provided by the estimable Emmanuel Music, which has become renowned for including a Bach Cantata at the end of each service. In a city of great choirs, Emmanuel Music’s contingent of 15 on Sunday was doing its quotidian best to provide inspiration in a variety of idioms. That they have done so since 1970 is a cause for rejoicing and amazement, for from their ranks have issued some of the world’s most important artists, such as Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Sanford Sylvan, James Madelena, etc. The group’s versatility is one of their most notable qualities. At home in music of perhaps a 400-year span, they perform without any agenda. Thus, their Bach Cantata no. 163 was performed at A-440 with singers unafraid of vibrato and six modern string players who might have offered a Brahms sextet at their next outing. [Click title for full review]
March 6, 2010
Mary in the Middle Ages in Glowing Program by Boston Camerata
by Rebecca Marchand
Anne Azéma and the Boston Camerata presented a diverse and fascinating program Friday night, March 5th, at First Lutheran Church. With the church’s draped Lenten cross as a backdrop, Azéma, with mezzo-soprano Deborah Rentz-Moore, soprano Lydia Brotherton, and Robert Mealy (on harp and vielle), presented “The Maria Monologues”—an exploration of the many faces and dimensions of “Mary” in the Middle Ages.
Azéma, Brotherton and Rentz-Moore all have distinctive styles as singers and performers, and it was both their individuality as well as their ability to blend magically into a sort of amalgamated Mary that made the evening’s performance so successful.
The program was divided into three parts. The first explored the Annunciation and ensuing Magnificat, as the Virgin Mary grapples with the extraordinary news that she will give birth to the Savior. The second section of the program, “The Dawn Approaching” placed the two Marys (Magadalene and the Blessed Virgin) at the foot of the Cross. The closing section was given over to the ambiguous and multi-dimensional figure of Mary Magdalene. Both Brotherton and Rentz-Moore shone in the dialogue between Mary Magdalene and the angel at the tomb, excerpted from the 13th century Origny Mystery Play. [Click title for full review.]