CALIFORNIA

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.

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.

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

from Satyagraha (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.

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...

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...

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."

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)

Scarlatti - Fourteen Sonatas for Keyboard

The artist performing...

A site with a video explaining more about the artist...

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.

Bach's Chaconne for left hand alone...

Lipschitz studies under Leon Fleisher who was tragically reduced to playing only with his left hand. I think this was a tribute to Fleisher.

About Leon Fleisher...

Konstantin Lifschitz was 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.

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.

Watch a trailer for the show...

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.  

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...

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."

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...

Playing Mozart...