The plan was to get out of NYC and away from the cold and snow. Amazingly, NYC is expecting temperatures in the mid-70s on Christmas Day. There's a very good chance it'll be colder in Southern California!
Anyway, for 12 days.
Friday, December 18, 2015
PERFORMANCE
Ballet Class
Tonight we went to a ballet class for young ballerinas. It is a school that prepares ballerinas to be "company ready" for positions around the world. All are already accomplished, must audition for acceptance, and then train for several years. As they graduate, they are prepared to dance anywhere.
What we saw was a solid two hour lesson in which they never stopped. This is just a part of what they do every day. These ballerinas are both hardened and softened. They become quite strong with the endurance and strength of a world athlete. They are trained in technique and style to make it all look graceful, easy, and beautiful. It was two hours of hard work for them. Amusingly and appropriately, the teacher's gift to each of the girls was an embroidered towel!
Carolyn and I have surprised ourselves at how much we enjoy ballet. We did not attend much ballet prior to moving to NYC. However, we now find it one of our most pleasant evenings here. There is theater, dance, music, entertainment, and occasionally, provocation (The Green Table). We subscribe and support both New York companies, New York City Ballet (NYCB) and American Ballet Theater (ABT). We knew ballet was hard work in preparation and visiting a class confirmed that.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
RECITAL
Symphony Space Steinway Salon: Lisa Moore
Works by Alexander Scriabin
Prelude, op.74 no.3 (1914)
Etude, op.2 no.1 (1887)
Prelude, op.11 no.5 (1896)
Prelude, op.27 no.2 (1900)
Prelude, op.33 no.3 (1903)
Prelude, op.48 no.2 (1905)
Prelude, op.51 no.2 (1906)
Prelude, op.74 no.3 (1914)
Sonata - 1.x.1905, From the Street(1905) by Leoš Janáček
I. The Premonition
II. The Death
Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm (1926-1939) by Béla Bartók
fromSatyagraha (1980) by Philip Glass, arr. Reisman
Conclusion, Act III
Ishi's Song (2012) by Martin Bresnick
Piano Piece no. 4 (1977) by Frederic Rzewski
Hear a Philip Glass piece... The New York Times described Lisa Moore as “a natural, compelling storyteller” and The New Yorkercrowned her “New York's queen of avant-garde piano."
Lisa Moore has collaborated with a large and diverse range of musicians, ensembles and artists – groups such as the London Sinfonietta, Bang on a Can, Steve Reich Ensemble, New York City Ballet, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra and So Percussion. She is a member of Ensemble Signal, TwoSense, Grand Band and the Paul Dresher Double Duo. Lisa was the founding pianist for the Bang On A Can All-Stars and winner of Musical America's 2005 Ensemble of the Year Award. Lisa has worked with composers ranging from Iannis Xenakis, Elliot Carter, Philip Glass and Frederic Rzewski to Ornette Coleman, Meredith Monk, Thurston Moore, Hannah Lash and Martin Bresnick. Lisa’s festival guest appearances include Lincoln Center, BAM Next Wave, Crash Dublin, Graz, Aspen, Tanglewood, Huddersfield, Paris d'Automne, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Uzbekistan, Leningrad, Moscow, Lithuania, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Israel and Warsaw.
Lisa Moore has released 8 solo discs (on Cantaloupe, Orange Mountain Music and Tall Poppies) and over 30 collaborative discs (Sony, Nonesuch, DG, BMG, New World, ABC Classics, Albany, New Albion, Starkland and Harmonia Mundi). Her most recent solo Philip Glass disc Mad Rush (OMM) was released in January 2015. The Stone People (Cantaloupe) featuring solo works by John Luther Adams, Martin Bresnick, Missy Mazzoli, Kate Moore, and Julia Wolfe will be released this coming January.
Lisa Moore grew up in Australia and London. She studied piano at the Sydney Conservatorium, the University of Illinois, Eastman School of Music, and SUNY Stonybrook. Lisa won the silver medal in the 1981 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition and moved to New York City in 1985. Lisa teaches at Wesleyan University and at Yale’s summer Norfolk New Music Workshop. She is also a regular guest at the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
LINCOLN CENTER
Alice Tully Hall
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Bach - Brandenberg Concertos
"Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos stand at the pinnacle of Baroque musical art. Year after year, audiences welcome the holiday season with these festive performances, called a “New York holiday staple” by The New York Times." A previous performance by CMS with some of the same players we heard...
Monday, December 14, 2015
PERFORMANCE
Merkin Hall
What Makes it Great?
"All artists are influenced by their predecessors, says critic Harold Bloom; weak artists imitate their heroes while strong artists creatively misread them. Host Rob Kapilow shows how Schumann’s struggle with Beethoven’s overwhelming influence helped him find his own voice, and produce his greatest work." Please, watch this video...
Saturday, December 12, 2015
LINCOLN CENTER
David Geffen Hall
New York Philharmonic
James Gaffigan - Conductor
Jeffrey Kahane - Piano
Beethoven - Symphony No. 4
R. Strauss - Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks Andrew Norman - Split (World Premiere–New York Philharmonic Commission)
"You’ll begin the evening on the edge of your seat with the mysterious opening of Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony — which soon gives way to a spunky Allegro vivace. Also on the program: Richard Strauss’s tone poem that’s so fun it has “merry pranks” in the title, and a new piano concerto by Andrew Norman (Pulitzer Prize finalist), capturing what the composer calls the “wit, vigor, and soul” of soloist Jeffrey Kahane."
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
LINCOLN CENTER
Alice Tully Hall
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Konstantin Lifschitz - Piano
Frescobaldi - Toccatas Nos. 1 and 2 in G minor from Primo libro di toccate
for Keyboard (1615)
Frescobaldi - Toccata No. 5 in G major from Secondo libra for Keyboard (1627)
L. Couperin - Chaconne et Passacaille in C major for Keyboard
Rameau - Six Selections for Keyboard
J.S. Bach - Partita No. 2 in C minor for Keyboard (1731)
F. Couperin - Ordre No. 7 in G major for Keyboard (1716-17)
Well, tonight was a moment. The pianist was truly gifted. Every time we think we've climbed the mountain of hearing the best the world has to offer, a new artist (to us) presents and raises the altitude of the mountain a little higher.
After two hours of recital he played the Bach Chaconne for the left hand alone and amazed everyone attending.
Below is another artist playing this piece. What we heard this evening was as good or better.
Konstantin Lifschitzwas born in 1976 in Kharkov. Already at the age of 5 he began his studies at the Gnessin Special Music School in Moscow, where Tatiana Zelikman was his teacher. He furthered his studies in Russia, England and Italy under such musicians as Alfred Brendel, Leon Fleisher or Charles Rosen.
Since his debut in Moscow, Lifschitz has performed with famous orchestras e.g. the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra or the London Symphony under conductors including Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Neville Marriner, Bernard Haitink, Sir Roger Norrington, Mikhail Yurovsky, Marek Janowski, Andrey Boreyko, Vladimir Spivakov, Yury Temirkanov, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Alexander Rudin. He also performs solo recitals at major festivals and in the most important concert halls worldwide.
As a passionate chamber musician, Konstantin Lifschitz has collaborated with such artists as Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Gidon Kremer, Maxim Vengerov, Leila Josefowicz, Misha Maisky, Mstislav Rostropovich, Lynn Harrell, Carolin Widmann, Natalia Gutman, Jörg Widmann, Sol Gabetta, Vadim Repin, Eugene Ugorski, Alexander Rudin, Dmitry Sitkovetsky.
His recording of Ludwig van Beethoven complete Violin Sonatas with Daishin Kashimoto, the concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker, was released by Warner Classics in January 2014.
Konstantin Lifschitz's diverse repertoire is reflected through his numerous discography, which includes Bach Musical Offering, Gottfried von Einem Piano Concerto with the ORF- Symphony Orchestra (Vienna Radio) under Cornelius Meister, Brahms Second Piano Concerto and Mozart Piano Concerto KV 456 under Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, as well as Bach Art of Fugue, which has been an important focus of his work over the years. Konstantin won the German award Echo Klassik already with his debut recording, featuring Music by Bach, Schumann, Medtner and Scriabin.
In 2008, a live recording of Lifschitz's performance of Bach Well-Tempered Clavier (Books I and II) at the Miami International Piano Festival was released on DVD by VAI. Many of his CDs have reaped exceptional reviews. He has recorded all seven keyboard concertos of J.S. Bach with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, leading from the piano; he also appears more and more as a conductor with such ensembles as the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra Wernigerode, St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra Vilnius, Musica Viva Moscow, Lux Aeterna and Gabreli Choir Budapest, Moscow Virtuosi, Solisti di Napoli Naples, Dalarna Sinfonietta Falun or Chamber Orchestra Arpeggione Hohenems. In February 2015, he will be collaborating with the Century Orchestra Osaka on an all-Mozart program, to be performed in Osaka Izumi Hall. Konstantin Lifschitz is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London and has been appointed a professor of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts since 2008.
Monday, December 7, 2015
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
Carolyn and I went to Princeton NJ to see "A Christmas Carol" being presented at McCarter Theater.
The transportation was via New Jersey Transit. We walked the one block from our apartment to Penn Station NYC and boarded the 10:14 AM Sunday morning train to Princeton, NJ. Interestingly, we found ourselves packed onto the same train that was taking fans to the New York Giants and the New York Jets game at Met Stadium. Everyone was carrying lots of beer and all were in the jerseys of their respective teams. Lots going on. An adventure in travel.
A member of our Sunday morning church/brunch group was performing in "A Christmas Carol." The show and our friend were spectacular.
While in Princeton we searched out sites related to Einstein.
At the back of a clothing store across the street from Princeton University is the small museum of Einstein memorabilia.
The owner is Mr. Landau who is Jewish and his grandfather was a physicist with Einstein.
I ask if this is the only Einstein museum in Princeton and he responded it's the only Einstein museum in the United States!
When the city was offered the bust of Einstein that you see above in the video, the city said they would "donate" the site for $15,000.
A visitor cannot see the office where Einstein worked nor can you visit his house. There is nothing other than this small museum at the back of a clothing store!
That is Mr. Landau standing next to me and a doll of Albert Einstein in my lap. This is all there is for Einstein in the United States of America. Please, correct me if I'm wrong.
Amazing.
Saturday, December 5, 2015
LINCOLN CENTER
Metropolitan Opera
La Boheme - Puccini "Puccini’s unforgettable tale of love, youth, and tragic loss returns in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic production, perhaps his most beloved staging of all. Barbara Frittoli, Maria Agresta, Ramón Vargas, and Bryan Hymel are among the artists appearing as the young Parisian lovers in the bohemian setting that brings the Latin Quarter to life on the stage of the Met. Paolo Carignani and Dan Ettinger conduct." "World premiere: Teatro Regio, Turin, 1896. Met company premiere: Los Angeles (on tour), November 9, 1900. La Bohème, the passionate, timeless, and indelible story of love among young artists in Paris, can stake its claim as the world’s most popular opera. It has a marvelous ability to make a powerful first impression and to reveal unsuspected treasures after dozens of hearings. At first glance, La Bohème is the definitive depiction of the joys and sorrows of love and loss; on closer inspection, it reveals the deep emotional significance hidden in the trivial things—a bonnet, an old overcoat, a chance meeting with a neighbor—that make up our everyday lives." Listen to Che gelida manina... Watch the scene changes for La Boheme...
Thursday, December 3, 2015
THEATER
Symphony Space
Hamlet - Shakespeare
"As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father's death but paralysed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state."
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
RECITAL
Merkin Hall
Fei-Fei Dong - Piano
CHOPIN - Rondo in E-flat major, Op. 16 CHOPIN - 24 Preludes, Op. 28 MOZART - Piano Sonata No. 18 in D major K.576 LISZT - Réminiscences de Don Juan Praised for her ”bountiful gifts and passionate immersion into the music she touches” (The Plain Dealer), Chinese pianist Fei-Fei Dong Dong is a winner of the 2014 CAG Victor Elmaleh Competition and a top six finalist at the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Hailed as “one of the most engaging and promising rising stars in the musical firmament” (Times Herald-Record), she continues to build a reputation for her poetic interpretations, charming audiences with her “passion, piquancy and tenderness” and “winning stage presence” (Dallas Morning News). Recent highlights include her solo recital debut at Alice Tully Hall as winner of Juilliard’s 33rd Annual William Petscheck Recital Award, and her trio debut at the Kennedy Center. Conversation with Fei-Fei...
Philippe Cossard and Cedric Pescia - Piano Mozart - Sonata in F Major, K. 497 Debussy - Epigraphes Antiques Brahms - Ten Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 52 Schubert - Fantasie in F Minor, D. 940 A pleasant Sunday afternoon at The Frick.
Saturday, November 28, 2015
THEATER
New Ohio Theater
New York Animals
Author - Steven Sater
Director - Eric Tucker
We love following Eric Tucker! He's creative and interesting. ‘New York Animals’ (in previews; opens on Sunday) Bedlam Theater made its name with its stripped-down, amped-up versions of the classics, with too few actors somehow managing too many roles. This time Bedlam is taking on a new play by Steven Sater, though still with its signature mini cast. Mr. Sater’s script follows 21 New Yorkers over the course of a rainy afternoon, with new songs by Burt Bacharach. "Set in present-day Manhattan, this Bedlam world premiere is by two-time Tony Award-winner Steven Sater, best known for “Spring Awakening,” with songs by Mr. Sater and multi Grammy Award-winning songwriter Burt Bacharach. Artistic Director Eric Tucker is at the helm. His young and prolific company has been winning abundant acclaim in recent years, particularly for their smart and spare adaptations of “Hamlet,” “Saint Joan” and “Sense & Sensibility,” which will be reprised in the spring." BEDLAM will open their 2015/2016 season with the world premiere of NEW YORK ANIMALS, a new play by two-time Tony Award winner Steven Sater (Spring Awakening) with songs by six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner Burt Bacharach and Steven Sater, and directed by Eric Tucker.
NEW YORK ANIMALS will begin previews tonight, November 14, 2015, at 8pm, at New Ohio Theater (154 Christopher Street), open Sunday, November 29, 2015, and end a strictly limited engagement on Sunday, December 20, 2015.
From an East Village diner to a Park Avenue penthouse -- four actors -- twenty-one characters -- love, sex, money, impossible relationships -- just another rainy day in New York City, played to a live new soundtrack by Bacharach and Steven Sater.
A workshop production of NEW YORK ANIMALS directed by John Flynn played Los Angeles' Rogue Machine Theatre in the summer of 2010.
Tickets range from $30 to $49 and are available at www.newohiotheatre.org or www.theatrebedlam.org. NEW YORK ANIMALS plays Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7pm, Fridays and Saturday at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm, and Sundays at 3pm. Please note there will be no performance Thursday, December 17.
Committed to the immediacy of the relationship between the actor and the audience BEDLAM creates theatre in a flexible, raw space and is interested in contemporary reappraisals of the classics, new writing and small-scale musical theatre. The theatre we make always includes the audience. Storytelling is paramount to us. We believe that innovative use of space can collapse aesthetic distance and bring the audience into direct contact with the dangers and delicacies of life. For more information, visit www.TheatreBedlam.org or follow on Twitter @TheatreBedlam, Facebook: www.Facebook.com/Bedlam, or Instagram @theatrebedlam.
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
THEATER
The Pearl Theater
The Great Divorce - C. S. Lewis
"Based on C.S. Lewis’ classic theological fantasy about Heaven and Hell, C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorcetakes you to the outskirts of Heaven where the decision to stay or return to the familiar “Grey Town” below proves to be harder than imagined. Now making its New York debut, three brilliant actors bring this mesmerizing adaptation to life in an exciting theatrical experience."
Stage Adaptation of C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce to Make New York Debut
Fellowship for Performing Arts will present a theatrical adaptation of C.S. Lewis' celebrated theological fantasy book, "The Great Divorce."
Helmed by Bill Castellino, performances of C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce will run Nov. 13-Jan. 3, 2016, at The Pearl Theatre. The Off-Broadway engagement features a cast made up of Christa Scott-Reed, Joel Rainwater and Michael Frederic.
Ludovic Morlot - Conductor
Daniil Trifonov - Piano
Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 3
Rachmaninoff - Symphonic Dances
"A pianist ahead of his time" (The Washington Post), Daniil Trifonov tackles Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto — considered one of the most virtuosic works of its kind. As emotionally expansive as it is electrifying, the concerto is central to the Oscar-winning film Shine. Then the Orchestra brings Rachmaninoff: A Philharmonic Festival to a close with the beloved Symphonic Dances, a virtuosic tour-de-force. This young pianist is 24 years of age! The breathe and scope of what he has performed in the past two weeks is astonishing. We've heard him play 3 of the 4 Rachmaninoff piano concertos with 3 different conductors. And through it all, his technique and mastery has been at the very highest level.
We attended one of the rehearsals and watched him work with the conductor. He was able to stop, tell of a police of concern for the orchestra, describe it to the conductor, and then start at any chosen place in the piece. He had mastered the Rachmaninoff. He wasn't just barely getting through it.
Saturday, November 21, 2015
LINCOLN CENTER
David Geffen Hall
New York Philharmonic
Daniil Trifonov - Piano
Neeme Jarvi - Conductor
Rachmaninoff:A Philharmonic Festival continues with the dramatic First Symphony and the Russian master’s take on jazz through his Fourth Piano Concerto, composed mostly in New York. Daniil Trifonov — “a superpianist, one of those rare performers for whom no technical hurdle is too difficult, and who can tease captivating music out of the densest jumble of notes” (Musical Toronto) — is the soloist. Rachmaninoff - Russian Song, Op. 11, No. 3 Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 4 Rachmaninoff - Symphony No. 1 This 24 year old pianist is in complete control and has technique that dazzles. He is amazingly different from all the rest.
Järvi, Trifonov and Philharmonic make first-rate case for Rachmaninoff rarities
Neeme Järvi conducted the New York Philharmonic in music of Rachmaninoff Thursday night.
In the New York Philharmonic’s three-week fling with Rachmaninoff, the second series, which had its first hearing on Thursday night, is a strange exception. The first and third weeks are packed with a lineup of greatest hits: last week featured the celebrated Second Piano Concerto and the beloved Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Next Friday we’ll hear the Symphonic Dances and the Third Piano Concerto, the piece that vaulted Van Cliburn to stardom and won Geoffrey Rush an Oscar.
The two anchors of this week’s program have long been orphans in Rachmaninoff’s oeuvre, and the opening item was an orchestral transcription receiving its New York Philharmonic premiere. All three seemed thoroughly deserving of further consideration, buoyed by first-rate playing under the baton of the veteran Neeme Järvi.
The “Russian Theme,” originally from the Op. 11 set of six pieces for four hands, is a simple, sighing folk melody, and Arkady Leytush’s 2011 orchestration beautifully fleshes out the subject into a sonorous mass while retaining its essential wistfulness. One might have wished for Järvi to differentiate a little more clearly to bring more interest to repeated gestures, but on the whole, this was a nuanced reading, full of color.
Daniil Trifonov is joining the Philharmonic as star soloist for all three Rachmaninoff programs, and on Thursday he played the Piano Concerto No. 4, a sort of forgotten sibling in the composer’s most celebrated genre. Disappointed by the piece’s cold initial reception, Rachmaninoff revised it substantially in response to criticism that it strayed too far from the successes of the earlier concerti; nonetheless, it remains markedly different from its predecessors in its final form.
The first three bars, with their open progression and clean orchestration, could nearly be mistaken for Mendelssohn, but Rachmaninoff quickly makes his voice heard through a combination of tart chromaticism and spacious writing for the piano. Trifonov displayed superb technique, tossing off the passagework with ease. His touch is precise, and he is able to vary it in order to facilitate his subtle colorations and gorgeous, breathing phrases.
He plays rather quietly, which frequently makes it difficult to hear him over the orchestra at climactic moments. This did not hurt him so much in the Largo, where he showed a keen dramatic sense in some of the stormier passages, but in the finale it was hard to discern the direction of the piece, even as he spun silk in some of his gossamer arpeggios. The music itself is admittedly a bit of a mystery: when hearing a Rachmaninoff piano concerto, one expects to walk home with fistfuls of melodies, but this final movement employs jagged rhythms and never quite catches the listener with a sympathetic theme.
The Symphony No. 1, too, has historically been an ugly duckling, its disastrous premiere causing a major hiccup in the young composer’s career. Had that performance been as strong as the one Järvi led on Thursday, the symphony might well have had a very different reputation.
Järvi brought fresh, moving energy to the first movement. His baton technique at this stage is slightly awkward, a stiff, full-arm motion that nonetheless seems to communicate his intentions clearly. He brought cinematic size and richly colored playing out of the Philharmonic, who showed more than usual precision, giving a tight, shimmering account of the fugato section. In the bubbling, lively second movement, Järvi seemed to know precisely what he wanted to pull from each section of the orchestra, and executed his plan impeccably, as though pressing buttons.
The Philharmonic showed its warmest playing of the night in the lovely, dreaming Larghetto, featuring a sorrowful oboe solo, and fading out with mesmerizing coos from the clarinets. The exploding militaristic bombast could not have been any more Russian, conjuring up shades of Tchaikovsky with its crashing cymbals and hissing snares. This was the New York Philharmonic at their most focused and forceful, straight through the closing bars, which, crawling though they were, just about defined “majestic.”
Thursday, November 19, 2015
RECITAL
Marble Collegiate Church
Lunchtime Organ Series
Claudia Dumschat - Organ
Schober - Veni Emmanuel
Vierne - Symphony #3
We rushed from symphony rehearsal to Marble Collegiate to hear the lunchtime organ recital.
LINCOLN CENTER
David Geffen Hall
New York Philharmonic
Neeme Jarvi - Conductor
Daniil Trifonov - Piano
Rehearsal "All Open Rehearsals are “working” rehearsals and therefore the program may not be played in its entirety. Additionally, we cannot guarantee the appearance of any soloist at an Open Rehearsal." Rachmaninoff - Russian Song, Op. 11, No. 3 Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 4 Rachmaninoff - Symphony No. 1
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
RECITAL
Morgan Library
Angel Romero and the Aeolus Quartet Vivaldi - Concerto in D Major; RV 93 Boccherini - Quintet No. 9 in C Major G. 453 "La Retirata di Madrid" Celedonio Romero - Malagueñas Caledonia Romero - Fantasia from Suite Andaluza Boccherini - Quintet No. 4 in D Major G. 448 "Fandango"
An evening featuring works for solo guitar and guitar with string quartet arrangements is performed by the renowned Angel Romero and compelling Aeolus Quartet. Cosponsored by the New York City Classical Guitar Society.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
PERFORMANCE
Merkin Concert Hall
An die Musik
An uncommon combo.
Mark Peskanov, violin Nicholas Mann, viola Edward Arron, cello Daniel Rothmuller, cello Robert Ingliss, oboe Constance Emmerich, piano Jeewon Park, piano Lucy Mann, narrator
Works by Mozart, Haydn, Mendelssohn and Robert Mann's musicalization of "How the Rhinocerous Got His Skin" with narrator Lucy Mann.
Don't mis this Grammy-nominated ensemble in their 39th season! An die Musik has inspired audiences with their ardent impetuosity, musical integrity and fiery instrumental brilliance (New York TImes), attaining a place in the foremost rank of world-class chamber music ensembles today.
Saturday, November 14, 2015
LINCOLN CENTER
David Geffen Hall
New York Philharmonic
Cristian Măcelaru - Conductor
Daniil Trifonov - Piano
Rachmaninoff - The Isle of the Dead
Rachmaninoff - Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 2
This is a much sought after ticket. Both of these artists are young superstars at the top of their game. Trifonov, age 24 years, is remarkably different from all the rest. He's spectacular.
Review: Daniil Trifonov Brings Subtlety to Rachmaninoff
For three weeks, on behalf of Rachmaninoff, the New York Philharmonic is putting itself at the disposal of the dazzling 24-year-old Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov. On Wednesday night at David Geffen Hall, Mr. Trifonov was a brilliant, uncommonly poetic soloist in that composer’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Piano Concerto No. 2. Given the familiarity of these pieces, you might wonder why a Rachmaninoff festival was called for.
But this one does have Mr. Trifonov, who is playing three of the four concertos, as well as the Rhapsody, with three different conductors. There are also two substantial orchestra works in store, including the Symphonic Dances, Rachmaninoff’s final composition. Wednesday’s first installment offered the impressive Romanian-born conductor Cristian Macelaru in an auspicious Philharmonic debut, beginning the program with a weighty, surging account of the 1909 tone poem “The Isle of the Dead.”
Yet the festival is built around the slender, mop-haired Mr. Trifonov, whose career has been zooming since 2011, when he took first prize in the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv, then weeks later won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
Though he brought astounding technique to his performance here, Mr. Trifonov favored subtlety and clarity over sensationalism. In the Rhapsody, when the pianist has a first go at the Paganini theme that Rachmaninoff puts through endlessly inventive variations, Mr. Trifonov played with subdued sound and seductive mystery. Even when the music broke into intricate passagework and brilliant flourishes, Mr. Trifonov demonstrated crisp brio and an ear for detail, though there was plenty of fiery virtuosity as well.
His account of the Second Concerto was also unusual for its transparency and sensitivity. There was not one bombastic moment, hard to avoid in this piece, which is at times dense with repeated chords and bursts of octaves. In passage after passage, Mr. Trifonov seemed swept up in the moment, even if it meant slowing down considerably to explore some wondrous touch in the music. The result was a performance that lacked some measure of overall structure. Still, Mr. Trifonov took us on a bracing walk through the work, and it was a joy to pause with him as he pondered something beautiful.
To his credit, Mr. Trifonov will not just play orchestral programs but will also take part in a Rachmaninoff chamber music concert on Nov. 22 presented by the Philharmonic and the 92nd Street Y. And to kick off this Rachmaninoff festival, on Tuesday night at Merkin Concert Hall, the New York Festival of Song presented “From Russia to Riverside Drive,” a program mostly devoted to his songs. The pianists Steven Blier and Michael Barrett accompanied two fine singers — the soprano Dina Kuznetsova and the baritone Shea Owens — in both classics and rarities.
Mr. Trifonov’s one miscalculation, so far, was his solo encore on Wednesday. After playing such admirably tasteful Rachmaninoff, he offered his own shamelessly flashy arrangement of Strauss’s Overture to “Die Fledermaus.” Why not a Rachmaninoff prelude or étude?
RACHMANINOFF: A PHILHARMONIC FESTIVAL, Featuring Daniil Trifonov, Begins Tonight
Daniil Trifonov made his Philharmonic debut in the 2012-13 season performing Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, led by Alan Gilbert. He returned in the 2014-15 season to perform Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1, led by Juanjo Mena. The New York Times wrote of that performance: "His sound bright and lean at the start, he brought out the work's focus, even as he gave the impression of flexibility. In the first movement, confidently varying the pulse, he wove his lines around the orchestra's. The great solo melody near the start of the slow second movement had a wandering if attentive feel, as if it were an impromptu, and Mr. Trifonov's sound took on a calm lucidity but without a hint of chill. In the finale, he gave his tone silky diaphanousness, keeping a quality of roundedness even in Rachmaninoff's most pounding runs."
"Daniil Trifonov plays with a technical ability that is jaw-dropping: he can do anything he wants, and his playing can be mysterious and captivating," said Music Director Alan Gilbert. "He wraps you around his finger and brings you along on a wild, fantastic, and sometimes terrifying journey. Exploring Rachmaninoff's breathtakingly difficult but beautifully expressive repertoire through Daniil's performances is sure to be an adventure."
"My Philharmonic debut was a special experience and a great honor. I was captivated by the energy, and it was really enjoyable music-making," said Daniil Trifonov. "The Rachmaninoff cycle will be an exciting adventure. Each of his concertos has a particular atmosphere: in the Second Concerto, his suffering gave birth to amazing music; the first movement of the Third Concerto is one of the most substantial works he ever wrote; the harmonic courage of the Fourth Concerto, where he searches for a new language, is captivating; and in the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini there is a sense of something lost and a sense of perfection."
Rachmaninoff himself appeared as a soloist with either the New York Philharmonic or the New York Symphony (the two orchestras that merged in 1928 to form the modern Philharmonic) in 41 performances between 1909 and 1942, including numerous performances of his concertos.
In the festival's opening orchestral program, Daniil Trifonov is spotlighted in both Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Piano Concerto No. 2, and the Orchestra performs The Isle of the Dead, conducted by Cristian Macelaru in his Philharmonic debut. Rachmaninoff was soloist with the Philharmonic for the New York Premiere of Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in 1934. The composer was also the soloist for the 1901 World Premiere, in Moscow, of his Piano Concerto No. 2.
Artists
Combining consummate technique with rare sensitivity, Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov has made a spectacular ascent to classical stardom. Since taking First Prize at both the Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein competitions in 2011 at the age of 20, he has appeared with most of the world's foremost orchestras and given solo recitals at many of its most prestigious venues. Following the release of Rachmaninov Variations, recorded for Deutsche Grammophon with The Philadelphia Orchestra, in the 2015-16 season Mr. Trifonov is spotlighted in both the New York Philharmonic's Rachmaninoff: A Philharmonic Festival and the Philharmonia Orchestra's Rachmaninov Piano Concerto Cycle. He also plays Rachmaninoff concertos in debuts with the Berlin Staatskapelle, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic (where he anchors the Nobel Prize Concert), Philadelphia Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, and Orchestre National de Lyon, and on the Czech Philharmonic's tour of Asia. He is performing Prokofiev in his Montreal Symphony debut and returns to the Orchestre National de France and London Symphony Orchestra, and Chopin with the San Francisco Symphony, Tchaikovsky with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Milan's Teatro alla Scala, and Liszt with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at home and on a North European tour. An accomplished composer, Mr. Trifonov reprises his own acclaimed piano concerto with the Pittsburgh Symphony. In addition to making his Los Angeles recital debut, he undertakes a European recital tour and residencies in Lugano and at London's Wigmore Hall. Last season saw the release of Trifonov: The Carnegie Recital, the pianist's first recording as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, which scored a Grammy nomination and an ECHO Klassik Award. His discography also features a Chopin album for Decca and Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra. Born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1991, Daniil Trifonov studied at Moscow's Gnessin School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 2013 he won Italy's Franco Abbiati Prize for Best Instrumental Soloist. Daniil Trifonov made his New York Philharmonic debut in September 2012 performing Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, led by Music Director Alan Gilbert. During the 2014-15 season he returned to perform Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Philharmonic, led by Juanjo Mena.
Winner of the 2014 Solti Conducting Award, Cristian Ma?celaru is conductor-in-residence of The Philadelphia Orchestra, with which he made his unexpected subscription debut in April 2013. He has since conducted four of its subscription programs, and leads another in the 2015- 16 season. Other season highlights include his Lincoln Center debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival, as well as this New York Philharmonic debut. He returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and National Symphony Orchestra. Internationally, he makes debuts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Scottish National, Dublin's RTE National Symphony, and Tokyo's Metropolitan Symphony orchestras. In North America, his debuts include the Atlanta, Cincinnati, New World, and San Diego symphony orchestras, Minnesota Orchestra, and National Arts Centre Orchestra. Cristian Ma?celaru made his first appearance at Carnegie Hall in 2012, leading a work alongside Valery Gergiev in a Georg Solti Centennial Celebration, and in 2015 he made his full Carnegie debut leading the Danish National Symphony Orchestra with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. In June 2015 he made his Cincinnati Opera debut in highly acclaimed performances of Verdi's Il Trovatore. An accomplished violinist from an early age, Christian Ma?celaru was the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Miami Symphony Orchestra, and played in the first violin section of the Houston Symphony for two seasons. After participating in the conducting programs of the Tanglewood Music Center and the Aspen Music Festival and School, he received the Sir Georg Solti Emerging Conductor Award in 2012. He completed undergraduate studies in violin performance at the University of Miami and subsequently studied with Larry Rachleff at Rice University, where he received master's degrees in conducting and violin performance.
Repertoire, November 14
Rachmaninoff composed The Isle of the Dead in 1909, inspired by Arnold Bocklin's famous symbolist painting of the same name. The painting depicts a mysterious, dreamlike island with high rock cliffs containing burial chambers, where a boat navigated by a black-clad helmsman is conveying an enshrouded passenger to the shore. Rachmaninoff's symphonic poem creates a similarly ominous atmosphere. The score is built on a slowly rocking motif that suggests the quiet lapping of the water and the inexorable progression of the boat. The composer also quotes the somber motivic theme of the Dies irae, the melody used in the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead. The New York Philharmonic first performed the work in January 1919, led by Joseph Stransky; it was most recently performed in June 2011, conducted by David Robertson.
In 1934 Rachmaninoff used the last of Niccolo Paganini's notoriously difficult 24 Caprices for Solo Violin (1805) as the basis for his 24 variations for piano and orchestra, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Rachmaninoff premiered the work with The Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski shortly after its completion, and it became his signature piece, which he performed often and to great acclaim. A pianist known for his long, slender fingers and formidable hand span (which reached a 13-note interval), even he admitted this work was a challenge: "The composition is very difficult, and I should start practicing it." The 24 variations fall into roughly three movement-like groups: Variations 1-11, 12-18, and the final 19-24. Highlights include the 7th, with its echoes of the medieval chant Dies irae (Day of Wrath); the ultra-romantic 18th, which is Paganini's theme turned upside down; and the conclusion, which wraps up a bombastic finale with a sly, soft "curlicue." Rachmaninoff himself was the soloist for the Philharmonic's first performance of the Rhapsody for its 1934 New York Premiere, led by Bruno Walter. Most recently, Bramwell Tovey conducted the work with the Philharmonic featuring Anne-Marie McDermott as soloist in July 2015 during the Orchestra's annual Bravo! Vail summer residency.
After the dismal reception received by his Symphony No. 1 in 1897, Rachmaninoff (still in his early 20s) began to give more emphasis to his career as a concert pianist and conductor. For a few years we would attempt a return to composition, but with mixed results. Then, in 1901, he finally produced the Piano Concerto No. 2, which has become one of the most celebrated piano concertos of the 20th century. Asked about this sudden reversal of fortune, the composer said he had undergone hypnotherapy. The work was the first in a string of triumphs that continued with the Symphony No. 2 and the Piano Concerto No. 3. The Piano Concerto No. 2 was first performed by the New York Symphony (which would merge with the New York Philharmonic in 1928 to form today's New York Philharmonic) in December 1914, led by Walter Damrosch, with Ossip Gabrilowitsch as soloist; the Philharmonic most recently performed it in December 2012, led by Juraj Valc?uha and featuring Andre? Watts as soloist.
Daniil Trifonov, the 24-Year-Old Wunderkind, Comes to the New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is devoting the last half of November to the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943), and the star chosen for this special festival isDaniil Trifonov,the 24-year-old, mop-headed Russian pianist-composer who sprang to international recognition in 2011, when he won both the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition, in Moscow, and first prize at the Rubinstein Competition, in Tel Aviv. Since then, he has been a guest artist with most of the leading orchestras in America and Europe; the Deutsche Grammophon recording of his 2014 Carnegie Hall recital was nominated for a Grammy; and his virtuosic technique has been compared routinely with that of Vladimir Horowitz and Franz Liszt.
Between November 11 and 28, Trifonov will give multiple performances of Rachmaninoff’s second, third, and fourth piano concertos as well as his “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for Piano and Orchestra.” (He played the first piano concerto last year with the Philharmonic.) He will also present a program of chamber music by the composer with members of the orchestra at the 92nd Street Y. The day before the festival began, at the WQXR Greene Space in Hudson Square, Trifonov played Rachmaninoff’s “Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos” with Sergei Babayan, his teacher at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where Trifonov has spent the last seven years earning his undergraduate and graduate degrees. Trifonov concluded that program with a composition of his own called “Rachmaniana.” In the past year he has performed all four Rachmaninoff concertos in London, and he is now in the process of recording them for Deutsche Grammophon with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, following their release, in August, of Rachmaninov Variations.
Trifonov talked informally with me at the Gramercy Tavern the day before his first concert with the Philharmonic. He started performing professionally when he was 8, and at 17 he left Moscow, at the suggestion of his teacher there, to study with Babayan in Cleveland. Up to then he had never played the music of Rachmaninoff, but Babayan considered him perfect for it. Rachmaninoff left Russia after the 1917 revolution, and he lived for many years in the United States, where he developed a close friendship with Horowitz. The composer was also a virtuoso pianist, and his recordings from as early as 1924 are still available. Trifonov described Rachmaninoff’s keyboard artistry as being extremely focused on finding the dramatic center of a piece. Trifonov’s technical mastery of such difficult composers as Liszt, for example, is well known. He explained that playing Rachmaninoff requires a certain emotional preparation from deep inside. Liszt is about the hands and fingers, he said. But for Rachmanifoff he has to feel the energy come all the way from the spine, through the shoulders. “I can almost compare it to swimming,” he said.
How about stage fright? Questioned on the subject at WQXR, Babayon said that every performer has it before every performance: the fear of forgetting, of going blank. I asked Trifonov if he ever uses scores in performance. “Only with chamber music,” he said.
Does he ever relax? “I like hiking, wherever I am,” he said. He also apparently likes movies. He said that he and his girlfriend, who is also a pianist, were going that evening—the evening before his first performance—to see Spectre.
Combining consummate technique with rare sensitivity, Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov has made a spectacular ascent to classical stardom. Since taking First Prize at both the Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein competitions in 2011 at the age of 20, he has appeared with most of the world’s foremost orchestras and given solo recitals at many of its most prestigious venues.
Following the release of Rachmaninov Variations, recorded for Deutsche Grammophon with The Philadelphia Orchestra, in the 2015–16 season Mr. Trifonov is spotlighted in both the New York Philharmonic’s Rachmaninoff: A Philharmonic Festival and the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Rachmaninov Piano Concerto Cycle. He also plays Rachmaninoff concertos in debuts with the Berlin Staatskapelle, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic (where he anchors the Nobel Prize Concert), Philadelphia Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, and Orchestre National de Lyon, and on the Czech Philharmonic’s tour of Asia. He is performing Prokofiev in his Montreal Symphony debut and returns to the Orchestre National de France and London Symphony Orchestra, and Chopin with the San Francisco Symphony, Tchaikovsky with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, and Liszt with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at home and on a North European tour. An accomplished composer, Mr. Trifonov reprises his own acclaimed piano concerto with the Pittsburgh Symphony. In addition to making his Los Angeles recital debut, he undertakes a European recital tour and residencies in Lugano and at London’s Wigmore Hall.
Last season saw the release of Trifonov: The Carnegie Recital, the pianist’s first recording as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, which scored a Grammy nomination and an ECHO Klassik Award. His discography also features a Chopin album for Decca and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra.
Born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1991, Daniil Trifonov studied at Moscow’s Gnessin School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 2013 he won Italy’s Franco Abbiati Prize for Best Instrumental Soloist.
Winner of the 2014 Solti Conducting Award, Cristian Măcelaru is conductor-in-residence of The Philadelphia Orchestra, with which he made his unexpected subscription debut in April 2013. He has since conducted four of its subscription programs, and leads another in the 2015–16 season. Other season highlights include his Lincoln Center debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival, as well as this New York Philharmonic debut. He returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and National Symphony Orchestra. Internationally, he makes debuts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Scottish National, Dublin’s RTE National Symphony, and Tokyo’s Metropolitan Symphony orchestras. In North America, his debuts include the Atlanta, Cincinnati, New World, and San Diego symphony orchestras, Minnesota Orchestra, and National Arts Centre Orchestra.
Cristian Măcelaru made his first appearance at Carnegie Hall in 2012, leading a work alongside Valery Gergiev in a Georg Solti Centennial Celebration, and in 2015 he made his full Carnegie debut leading the Danish National Symphony Orchestra with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. In June 2015 he made his Cincinnati Opera debut in highly acclaimed performances of Verdi’s Il Trovatore.
An accomplished violinist from an early age, Christian Măcelaru was the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Miami Symphony Orchestra, and played in the first violin section of the Houston Symphony for two seasons. After participating in the conducting programs of the Tanglewood Music Center and the Aspen Music Festival and School, he received the Sir Georg Solti Emerging Conductor Award in 2012. He completed undergraduate studies in violin performance at the University of Miami and subsequently studied with Larry Rachleff at Rice University, where he received master’s degrees in conducting and violin performance.
