PERFORMANCE

Merkin Hall
Tuesday Matinées

Manhattan Chamber Players

Mendelssohn - Octet in E flat major, Op. 20 (1825)
Shostakovich -Two Pieces for String Octet, Op. 11 (1925)
Chris Rogerson - Shadows Lengthen (2015)
Ernest Chausson - Concert for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet in D major, Op. 21 (1891)

“Absolutely stunning performances – luminous, probing, deeply personal” (Washington Post)

Manhattan Chamber Players is a collective of top Prize Winners at the Banff, Concert Artists Guild, Fischoff, Melbourne, Naumburg, Osaka, Primrose, Queen Elisabeth, Rubenstein, Tchaikovsky, Tertis and Young Concert Artists Competitions. Formed by Artistic Director Luke Fleming, MCP is comprised of an impressive roster of musicians who all come from the tradition of great music making at the Marlboro Music Festival, Steans Institute at Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Yellow Barn and Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festivals and Perlman Music Program, and are former students of the Curtis Institute, Juilliard School, Colburn School, New England Conservatory, and Yale School of Music.

Hear part of the Chausson they played...

LINCOLN CENTER

Alice Tully Hall
Solo Bach

Paul Jacobs - Organ

Anne-Marie McDermott - Piano
Ani Kavafian - Violin
Colin Carr - Cello
Jason Vieaux - Guitar
Tara Helen O'Connor - Flute


Bach - Partita in A minor for Flute, BWV 1013 (after 1723)

Bach - Suite No. 3 in A major for Cello, BMV 1009 (c. 1720)
Bach - Prelude and Fugue in D major for Organ, BMV 532
Bach - Suite in E minor for Guitar, BMV 996 (after 1712)
Bach - Sonata in G manor for Violin, BMV 1001 (1720)
Bach - English Suite in A minor for Keyboard, BMV 807 (before 1720)

"How can it be that in almost 300 years, no one has surpassed Johann Sebastian Bach as a composer of music for solo instruments?

While it is true that Bach was the greatest keyboard artist of his
day, his level of violin playing is unknown beyond his ability to lead orchestras from the concertmaster’s chair. It is additionally reported that Bach played brass instruments, the contrabass, cello, oboe, bassoon, horn, and most likely flute and recorder. While we expect his works for organ and cembalo to be of lofty heights, you will soon hear that Bach’s ability to compose for the violin, cello, lute, and flute was also truly beyond comparison.

What is equally astounding is how long Bach’s solo works remained in relative obscurity. Most of this music was not published until the mid-19th century. His suites for solo cello were regarded as instrumental exercises until the great Catalan cellist Pablo Casals discovered them in a music shop in Barcelona in 1889. It was not until 1901 that he performed one of them, and not until 1930 that he felt ready to record the cycle. Such was the reverence Casals had for Bach’s solo suites, and history has proven that profound respect justified beyond doubt.

Bach’s works for solo instruments serve as lasting confirmation of his incomparable skill and artistry. The works we perform today, and
the sets from which they are selected, hold little chance of ever being surpassed or equaled. CMS is immensely proud to present this first-of- its-kind performance by a cast of artists who bring profound dedication, long experience, and instrumental mastery to our stage.

The power of Bach is felt as deeply in his solo works as in his music for large ensemble. CMS presents a rare opportunity to hear six extraordinary artists performing works of astounding ingenuity, revealing Bach at the height of his compositional skill as he mines each instrument’s unique expressive potential."

LINCOLN CENTER

David Geffen Hall
New York Philharmonic

Mozart - Symphony No. 31, Paris
Mozart - Flute Concerto No. 2
Mozart - Exsultate, jubilate
Mozart - Symphony No. 39

Bernard Labadie - Conductor
Robert Langevin - Flute
Ying Fang - Soprano

Listen to the flutist discuss the Mozart piece...

"This all-Mozart concert is bookended with the Paris Symphony, as popular today as when Parisians heard and raved about it for the first time, and the Symphony No. 39, a beautiful mix of grandeur and intimacy, seriousness and sunshine. In between: the enchanting Second Flute Concerto, with Philharmonic Principal Flute Robert Langevin as soloist, plus one of Mozart’s most delightful vocal works."

LINCOLN CENTER

Alice Tully Hall
Great Performers - Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra

Matthew Halls - Conductor
Radovan Vlatković - Horn

Beethoven - Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus

Mozart - Horn Concerto No. 3

Mozart - Symphony No. 41 ("Jupiter")

A program worthy of the gods: Beginning with Beethoven’s fiery Prometheus Overture, Austria’s beloved Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra—founded by the widow and sons of the composer himself—makes its 175th anniversary appearance in New York’s pristine Alice Tully Hall. The ensemble continues with its namesake’s rarely performed E-flat major Horn Concerto, followed by his soaring “Jupiter” Symphony.

Here is the artist several years ago playing the Mozart horn piece in this concert...

The soloist were perfection!  Judging much of his performance is subjective but I can objectively tell you he never craved or splattered a note during the concerto and two encores.  His attack was perfect throughout his performance.  Subjectively, I thought he was great.

THEATER

St. James Theater
Something's Rotten!

Visit the Renaissance in this hilarious musical about the Bottom Brothers, who are desperate to write a hit play in the shadow of "The Bard."

Set in the 1590s, brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom are desperate to write a hit play but are stuck in the shadow of that Renaissance rockstar known as “The Bard.” When a local soothsayer foretells that the future of theater involves singing, dancing and acting at the same time, Nick and Nigel set out to write the world’s very first musical. But amidst the scandalous excitement of opening night, the Bottom Brothers realize that reaching the top means being true to thine own self...and all that jazz.

Ingenious, outrageous and irresistible!

Review by Marilyn Stasio from Variety

Yep, this is a blockbuster! A deliriously entertaining new musical comedy that brings down the house!

Review by Joe Dziemianowicz from New York Post

THEATER

Theater for a New Audience
The Servant of Two Masters - Carlo Goldoni

“★★★★ Elegant… Energetic… Broadly colorful…
masks, songs and snatches of anachronistic improvisation.” – Adam Feldman, Time Out New York

“Mr. Epp’s frenetic, knockabout performance is IMPECCABLE.” – Charles Isherwood, The New York Times

“Christopher Bayes’s much-lauded ‘Servant,’ had its premiere in 2010 at Yale Repertory Theater and has played across the country since then. The critic Peter Marks, in The Washington Post,
described the show as ‘deliriously happy-making,’ taking pains to note that it is not the sort of ‘calcified frivolity’ that so often gives commedia a bad name.” – Laura Collins-Hughes, The New York Times

“The Servant of Two Masters is a wondrous thing, a campy, happy romp.” – Joel Benjamin, TheaterPizzazz

“Hilarious, rowdy…Raucous entertainment.” – Lore Croghan, Brooklyn Daily Eagle

“Delightful… Screamingly funny… A comic masterpiece! The Servant of Two Masters is thoroughly enjoyable and deliriously well-performed.” – The Brooklyn Paper


The Servant of Two Masters is a timeless 18th century Italian comic masterpiece by Carlo Goldoni about a servant so hungry he takes on two jobs to survive. In this contemporary American adaptation, no two performances are the same. The actors improvise along with the written text in the style of commedia dell’arte. Masks, playful costumes, and original music by Aaron Halva and Christopher Curtis create a fresh, bold, surprising event.

Theatre for a New Audience is thrilled to present the New York Premiere of this award-winning Servant, first produced in 2010 by Yale Repertory Theatre and toured nationally. Goldoni’s classic inspired the 2012 Broadway hit, One Man, Two Guvnors.

The heart of this Servant is its acting and staging. Steven Epp, who plays the title role, and director Christopher Bayes, have honed a “brilliant, new-vaudeville style” that is “smart” and “unhinged” (The New York Times). The entire cast displays fresh and vibrant comedic talents and includes TFANA veterans Liam Craig, (The Killer), Andy Grotelueschen (The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew,Cymbeline), and Emily Young (The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Cymbeline), as well as Allen Gilmore, Eugene Ma, Orlando Pabotoy, Adina Verson, and Liz Wisan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_of_Two_Masters

Servant of Two Masters

Servant of Two Masters

"I'd like to see how I'll manage to serve two masters." Illustration from The Complete Comedies of Carlo Goldoni (1830)
Written by Carlo Goldoni
Date premiered 1746
Original language Italian
Genre Commedia dell'Arte


Servant of Two Masters (Italian: Il servitore di due padroni) is a comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1746. Goldoni originally wrote the play at the request of actor Antonio Sacco, one of the great Truffaldinos in history. His earliest drafts had large sections that were reserved for improvisation, but he revised it in 1753 in the version that exists today. The play draws on the tradition of the earlier Italian Commedia dell'arte.

Plot

The play opens with the introduction of Beatrice, a woman who has traveled to Venice disguised as her dead brother in search of the man who killed him, Florindo, who is also her lover. Her brother forbade her to marry Florindo, and died defending his sister's honor. Beatrice disguises herself as Federigo, (her dead brother), so that he can collect dowry money from Pantaloon (also spelled Pantalone), the father of Clarice, her brother's betrothed. She wants to use this money to help her lover escape, and to allow them to finally wed. But thinking that Beatrice's brother was dead, Clarice has fallen in love with another man, Silvio, and the two have become engaged. Interested in keeping up appearances, Pantalone tries to conceal the existence of each from the other.

Beatrice's servant, the exceptionally quirky and comical Truffaldino, is the central figure of this play. He is always complaining of an empty stomach, and always trying to satisfy his hunger by eating everything and anything in sight. When the opportunity presents itself to be servant to another master (Florindo, as it happens) he sees the opportunity for an extra dinner.

As Truffaldino runs around Venice trying to fill the orders of two masters, he is almost uncovered several times, especially because other characters repeatedly hand him letters, money, etc. and say simply "this is for your master" without specifying which one. To make matters worse, the stress causes him to develop a temporary stutter, which only arouses more problems and suspicion among his masters. To further complicate matters, Beatrice and Florindo are staying in the same hotel, and are searching for each other.

In the end, with the help of Clarice and Smeraldina (Pantalone's feisty servant, who is smitten with Truffaldino) Beatrice and Florindo finally find each other, and with Beatrice exposed as a woman, Clarice is allowed to marry Silvio. The last matter up for discussion is whether Truffaldino and Smeraldina can get married, which at last exposes Truffaldino's having played both sides all along. However, as everyone has just decided to get married, Truffaldino is forgiven. Truffaldino asks Smeraldina to marry him.

The most famous set-piece of the play is the scene in which the starving Truffaldino tries to serve a banquet to the entourages of both his masters without either group becoming aware of the other, while desperately trying to satisfy his own hunger at the same time.

Themes

One of the main themes of this play is found in the character development of Truffaldino. As mentioned above, he is always hungry. That is his action: it is what he wants in the play. Yet, the play does not end when he finally gets a meal and a full belly; it ends with a kiss shared between him and Smeraldina. Truffaldino, it is implied, was hungry for love. Themes of confrontation between young and old are presented through confrontations between Dr Lombardi and his son, Silvio, as well as Pantalone with his daughter, Clarice.

Characterization

The characters of the play are taken from the Italian Renaissance theatre style Commedia dell'arte. In classic commedia tradition, an actor learns a stock character (usually accentuated by a mask) and plays it to perfection throughout his career. The actors had a list of possible scenarios, each with a very basic plot, called a canovaccio, and throughout would perform physical-comedy acts known as lazzi (Italian lazzo, a joke or witticism) and the dialogue was improvised.

This was our artistic bonus as we rode the subway home from Brooklyn.  

RECITAL

Carnegie Hall
Behzod Abduraimov - Piano

Bach - "Siciliano" from Concerto in D Minor, BWV 596 (after Vivaldi, Op. 3, No. 11; arr. Cortot)
Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565 (arr. Busoni)
Schubert - Moment musical in A-flat Major, D. 780, No. 2
Schubert - Moment musical in F Minor, D. 780, No. 3
Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57, "Appassionata"
Prokofiev - Piano Sonata No. 6 in A Major, Op. 82
Balakirev - Islamey

A video of the artist playing the Beethoven heard this evening...

An interview with the artist...

Striking arrangements of Baroque music, poetic miniatures, tempestuous sonatas, and an exotic showpiece are performed by an exciting young pianist who is taking the world’s stages by storm. Behzod Abduraimov has been praised by The New York Timesfor his “fluid finger work … dash and appealing impetuosity.” Cortot’s arrangement of Bach’s "Siciliano" from the Concerto in D Minor, BWV 596, has a stately beauty, while Schubert’s Moments musicaux are understated gems with gorgeous melodies. Beethoven’s “Appassionata” is famous for its stormy outer movements, but the theme and variations that comprise its central movement also fascinate. There are also exciting showpieces by two Russian composers, Balkakirev and Prokofiev.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/arts/music/review-no-blood-spilled-at-concert-though-it-seemed-so.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0

Review: No Blood Spilled at This Concert (Though It Seemed So)

By CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM•NOV. 18, 2016

Behzod Abduraimov performing in his solo piano recital at Carnegie Hall. Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times 

Before he played the first encore to his brilliant solo piano recital at Carnegie Hall, Behzod Abduraimov pulled out a handkerchief and wiped down the keys.

It was just sweat, his publicist told me later. I’m glad I checked, though. Because at that point, after a finger-twisting, knuckle-shredding performance of bravura pieces, including Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 6 and Balakirev’s “Islamey,” I feared that this 26-year-old whiz from Uzbekistan might have actually shed blood.

I don’t mean to give the wrong impression: There’s nothing gratuitously gladiatorial about Mr. Abduraimov’s playing. Yes, he dispatched “Islamey” faster than anyone I’ve heard, his forearms a hummingbird blur in the grueling passagework. But his swift rise on the concert scene — this appearance on the main Stern Auditorium stage here came less than two years after his recital debut at the intimate Weill Recital Hall — is due as much to his profound musicality as to his power and speed.

Mr. Abduraimov also knows how to build a good program. He opened with Bach, but in rarely heard arrangements: a dreamy Siciliano from the Concerto in D minor (arranged by Alfred Cortot) and Busoni’s transcription of the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, which, in its original organ version, has entered popular culture as a shorthand for Halloween horror. In his playing Mr. Abduraimov conjured some of the qualities of the organ’s sound, building up block-like dynamics and allowing notes to blur just a little.

The “Moment Musical” in A flat (D. 780) by Schubert, which followed, picked up the lilting dotted rhythm of the Siciliano, but with vulnerability and doubt in place of Bach’s soothing equanimity. Another “Moment Musical,” in F Minor, its momentum chirpy and steady like a windup toy, showed that Mr. Abduraimov knows how to get out of the way of the music, imposing his will in just one brief tease of the tempo.

Behzod Abduraimov - Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, "Appassionata"- Beethoven: Verbier Festival 2016 Video by medici.tv

His maturity was evident in his reading of Beethoven’s “Appassionata” Sonata, which balanced dramatic thrust with a wonderful sense of flow. His sound has an appealing warmth even in the most testosterone-fueled outbursts. And stark dynamic contrasts still feel part of the same epic canvas. Prokofiev’s thorny Piano Sonata No. 6 — in many ways an “Appassionata” updated to reflect the horrors of the 20th century — also became a vehicle for Mr. Abduraimov’s purposeful storytelling and sense of space.

Two encores, Tchaikovsky’s Nocturne in C sharp minor and Liszt’s “La Campanella” étude, were gratefully received by the enthusiastic audience.

Watching Mr. Abduraimov play, I was struck by his undulating torso movements, which look a bit like the chaturanga push-ups in yoga, and seem to make visual his unshaking sense of pulse. His playing reminded me of a conversation I recently had with a musician who offered this definition of talent: open channels. Mr. Abduraimov’s music-making fits that description.