Archive for January, 2013

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Starting a Concert Series? Begin With a Great Idea

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

By: Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

I am frequently asked what it takes to start a concert series. Having spoken to a good number of artists who have done so, I would say that the main basic ingredients are passion, determination, hard work, resourcefulness, excellent networking skills and perhaps, most importantly, a great idea or anticipation of a need. Anyone who has started their own series has literally thrown themselves into it, believing that the community they are targeting, and possibly even the world beyond, will be richer as a result of it. In this column, I have chosen to highlight the Cypress String Quartet, architects of the Call and Response and the Salon Series in San Francisco, and pianist Orli Shaham, founder of Baby Got Bach in New York City, designed for three to six year olds.

The Cypress String Quartet, now in its seventeenth season, has adopted an entrepreneurial approach to the development of their career since the very beginning. Early on, they shared a passion for commissioning new music but were drawn to the idea of linking the commissions to great works of the past. This led to their annual Call and Response concert, conceived as the commissioned composer responding to the call of the older work. To date, the Quartet has commissioned 14 works for the series. This year’s concert features the World Premiere of a new work for String Quartet and Voice by the Pulitzer prizewinning composer Jennifer Higdon, based on poetry of former American Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin, heard alongside Dvorak’s The Cypresses, twelve Moravian poems set by the composer as love songs for string quartet. The Cypress Quartet’s annual Call and Response concert at the Herbst Theatre is the culmination of dozens of outreach presentations in area schools which are prepared in advance with lesson plans and listening guides supplied by the Quartet, aided by an intern. Students who attend the concert are given tickets free of charge. A typical concert finds as much as half the audience under the age of eighteen, seated next to regular subscribers and listening to a program that might pair Beethoven’s Op. 131 with George Tsontakis’s String Quartet #5 (commissioned by the Cypress String Quartet). The educational component is relatively new for the Quartet, a result of successful fundraising stimulated by a very dedicated Board of Directors. However, before the Quartet obtained 501(c)3 status, contributions and grants were received via the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music, which acted as a fiscal sponsor. Subsequent to that, but before becoming non-profit, the Quartet became a legal partnership. All concert income was split five ways so that even a modest sum could be set aside to defray expenses, which included the cost of a part-time assistant. Sometimes the Quartet had to be flexible about their share. The Quartet’s current Board initially started out as just friends, who followed and encouraged the ensemble since the beginning. It is the current Board chairman who encouraged the Quartet to give a series of salon concerts in New York 2 ½ years ago (which included three New York premieres),  and who was the source of inspiration for the Quartet’s nine self-presented salon concerts in San Francisco this year, taking place in unusual, intimate venues and followed by (donated) wine and chocolate receptions. While the Quartet no longer sets up chairs for their own concerts, and the venues are generally donated, they tell me that they still may pick up programs from the printer from time to time. What advice do they give to emerging artists? Dream really big and then figure out how to get there, asking for help and advice all along the way.

Pianist Orli Shaham credits her publicist, Gail Wein, with the idea of a concert series for 3-6 year olds, launched three years ago at Le Poisson Rouge in New York. Ms. Wein was attending a concert at LPR one night, together with friends who had children the same age as Ms. Shaham’s three year old twins, and thought why not have concerts here for kids? Ms. Shaham, who had already been contemplating the lack of musical activities for the 3-6 year old set, loved the idea. So did LPR, who already had a Sunday afternoon pop music series called “Baby Loves Disco”. Ronen Givony came up with the name for the new series and LPR hosted the first two seasons, which featured Ms. Shaham performing together with guest artists and young musicians from the Carnegie Hall/Weill Institute Academy program. Each “Baby Got Bach” concert begins with thirty minutes of musical activities from which the young participants can choose, such as composing and performing a song or playing a musical instrument. The youngsters are actually given a colorful booklet called a Passport, which they get stamped when they visit a particular music station. Once they are sufficiently tired out (Executive Director Gail Wein’s words!), they listen attentively to a 40 minute concert of short selections which always begin with Bach and often include specialy commissioned music that may involve audience participation.

Like the Cypress Quartet, Orli Shaham launched “Baby Got Bach” with fiscal sponsorship, in her case from Fractured Atlas. (She is now working on obtaining 501(c)3 status.) The Centene Charitable Foundation helped launch the series in New York and inaugurate a new series in St. Louis. (“Baby Got Bach” has also taken root at the Aspen Music Festival, which Ms. Shaham visits each summer.) In New York, the series has now moved to the 92nd Street Y, which provides an infrastructure (and subscription base) that enables Ms. Shaham, its Artistic Director, to spend less time on logistics and more time on expanding the number and artistic quality of the programs, often involving faculty members of its School of Music. In reflecting on the past three years, she told me: “When you start something like this, passion is critical. It still sustains me today. For the hour or so that the children are with us, I can’t imagine them doing anything more meaningful. The programs also enrich time spent with my own children, who sometimes assist in preparing concert materials.” It is not important to her whether any of the children who participate in “Baby Got Bach” become musicians, but she feels confident that this early musical experience stands a good chance of creating in them a lifelong love of music.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2013

Posted in Ask Edna, Managing Your Own Career | Comments Closed

Responsibility…Its Not Just About Visas

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.

Dear Law & Disorder:

We are facing a visa problem for one of our Russian singers.  She is supposed to sing in the United States at the end of February with a US Orchestra. Now it turns out that the orchestra is neither willing to apply nor to pay for the visa fees that would be a total of $1800 ($250 for the AGMA union consultation, plus $325 to USCIS, plus another $1,225 to USCIS to have the approval notice expedited) and the artist does not want to pay this big fee for just one engagement of 8 days. The visa petition is ready to be mailed, but now we are wondering if there is a way of reducing the costs. The singer has been to the US many times to perform, and is a member of AGMA. On the top of the visa petition, she will also have to pay $190 for an interview at the US Embassy in Moscow. Would there be a way of getting her a visa without having to pay all these costs (or at least pay less?) Help!

If the singer is a current AGMA member, AGMA may waive its $250 consult fee, but you’ll need to contact AGMA directly to confirm their current policy. Otherwise, sadly, there is no way to reduce the costs you have listed.

USCIS charges a basic filing fee of $325 for standard processing. USCIS standard processing times can vary wildly, and change without notice. USCIS has recently been processing petitions within 3 – 4 weeks of filing, sometimes even sooner. However, if you can’t take the risk, you will, indeed, need to pay an additional fee of $1225 for premium processing in exchange for which USCIS will guarantee to review the visa petition within 15 days of filing. (Remember, “review” does not guarantee “approval.” USCIS can always review the petition and still return it, asking for more evidence or supporting materials.) While there is a process by which you can ask for an “emergency expedite” and waive the premium processing fee, this is reserved for instances of true “emergencies” (ie: an ill performer requires a last minute replacement). Financial hardship won’t qualify as an “emergency.” There is also no mechanism by which to avoid the $190 visa application fee required to be paid to the consulate. (Some consulates charge even more.)

What makes this situation truly unfortunate is that all of this could have been avoided. When a non-US artist is engaged to perform in the US, who will bear the artist’s visa costs, along with who will take responsibility for preparing and filing the artist’s visa petition, is something that can and should be negotiated at the time of the engagement. I encounter far too many situations where artists are booked and, while fees and travel arrangements are discussed at length, no one discusses any of the other details that are critical to a successful engagement—such as visas and tax withholding. Managers too often assume the opera companies, orchestras, or presenters will handle it, the opera companies, orchestras, and presenters assume the managers will handle it, and the artists assume that they are paying a 20% commission for “someone” to handle it so they don’t have to. Remember, there are no industry standards!

While it won’t necessarily help your current dilemma, the solution in the future is quite simple: if you are a manager or agent, no matter how badly you want to book an engagement for your foreign artist, before you do so, confirm with the presenter or venue whether or not the artist already has a visa, will require a visa, and/or who will pay and petition for the visa. If you are an opera company, orchestra, or presenter, no matter how badly you want to book a particular foreign artist, always ask their manager or agent whether or not the artist already has a visa, will require a visa, and/or who will pay and petition for the visa. While you’re at it, you might as well negotiate and confirm everything else, too: licensing, cancellation terms, recording rights, etc. A lot of angst could be avoided if each party in an engagement contract makes it their responsibility to discuss with the other party all contingencies and potential problems that could arise. Avoiding an empty stage and an unhappy artist is everyone’s responsibility.

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WE WILL BE TAKING A BREAK THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 4 AS WE RELOCATE OUR OFFICES.

OUR NEXT BLOG POST WILL BE ON FEBRUARY 13.

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For additional information and resources on this and other legal and business issues for the performing arts, visit ggartslaw.com

To ask your own question, write to lawanddisorder@musicalamerica.org.

All questions on any topic related to legal and business issues will be welcome. However, please post only general questions or hypotheticals. GG Arts Law reserves the right to alter, edit or, amend questions to focus on specific issues or to avoid names, circumstances, or any information that could be used to identify or embarrass a specific individual or organization. All questions will be posted anonymously.

__________________________________________________________________

THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

The purpose of this blog is to provide general advice and guidance, not legal advice. Please consult with an attorney familiar with your specific circumstances, facts, challenges, medications, psychiatric disorders, past-lives, karmic debt, and anything else that may impact your situation before drawing any conclusions, deciding upon a course of action, sending a nasty email, filing a lawsuit, or doing anything rash!

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Posted in Agents, Artist Management, Arts Management, Contracts, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Presenters, Taxes, Touring, Venues, Visas | Comments Closed

The Ultraschall Adventure Continues

Friday, January 25th, 2013

By Rebecca Schmid

It hardly needs to be said that contemporary music enjoys a privileged status in Germany. Even with the heavily protested merger of the SWR (Southwest German Radio) Orchestras currently in effect, the support of public broadcasting for cutting-edge programming everywhere from Donaueschingen to ‘poor but sexy’ Berlin creates an atmosphere of seemingly boundless experimentation. The annual Ultraschall Festival, co-presented by Berlin’s two major classical radio stations, Deutschlandradio and Kulturradio RBB, sets out to provide a glimpse into the wide spectrum of developments, consciously elevating adventure above dramaturgical unity.

The event, whose moderated concerts often strike a decidedly academic tone, moved into clubs for the first time this year, hosting the Ensemble Modern at the FritzClub on January 24. Despite the dark, underground aesthetic of the brick-walled space, the atmosphere departed little from that of a traditional concert save for the occasional clink of a wine glass. Most of the audience sat nearly motionless in rapt attention. The turn-out was also not particularly young, debunking theories that orchestras’ core subscribers have an aversion to anything after Stravinsky. But then again, this is Berlin.

The evening included the German premiere of Warm-up for horn and percussion by Vito Žuraj, one of many successful Wolfgang Rihm students on the scene. The work had its world premiere for the composer’s 60th birthday in Ljubljana last year and, true to its title, is intended as a prelude to Žuraj’s Horn Concerto which will have its premiere in 2014 under the baton of Matthias Pintscher. Žuraj exploits a breadth of muted, often ghostly timbres on the solo instrument to expressive effect, underscored by whirring, overlapping percussion rhythms that require coordination by a conductor (Erik Charles Nielsen). Hornist Saar Berger, with whom the composer collaborated in writing the piece, imbued every attack and line with meaning.

The solo flute work Aura by the late Emmanuel Nunes, here performed by Dietmar Wiesner, is a more introspective soliloquy but similarly exploits extreme ranges of the instrument, from fluttering to abrasive lip stops, while following a limited harmonic scheme. The most gripping work of the evening for this listener was the solo piano work Kaspars Tanz by Hanspeter Kyburz, a reflection on the life of Kaspar Hauser, an 19th century legend whose tragic existence following his upbringing in a cell has inspired poetry, opera and film. The composer juxtaposes exultant runs of freedom with dark clusters evoking his isolation, achieving a structured outpouring of emotion. Ueli Wiget brought the drama to life through an energetic, insightful performance.

An important tenet of Ultraschall is also the championing of young composers. In tribute to this year’s focus on Franco-German exchange, a concert at the Volksbühne at Rosa-Luxemburg Platz on January 24 featured the ensemble mosaik in winning compositions from a competition launched by the Lyon-based initiative ‘New Forum—Jeune Création.’ Inventive uses of live and electronic sound ranged from Christopher Trapani’s dreamscape of samples and lyrical textures in Five out of Six, set to conceptual video by Things Happen, to the alternation of a visceral, techno-derived pulse and a violin-cello duo that desperately bowed to the same heartbeat-like rhythm in Aurélio Edler-Copes’ For Malevich.

The star of the evening from the audience’s view and in terms of pure shock value was Johannes Kreidler. The young German composer, winner of last year’s coveted Kranichsteiner Prize, has earned the standing of an ‘Aktionskünstler,’ making headlines in The New Yorker when he smashed a pair of model string instruments in protest against the merger of the SWR orchestras last fall. His work Fremdarbeit¸ originally performed in 2009 at Klangwerkstatt Berlin, sets out to take issue with exploitation and copyright in a globalized, digital age. The composer commissioned a Chinese composer and Indian programmer to remix, or ‘plagiarize,’ his pre-existing composition windowed 1 that itself integrates samples.

The composer moderates the work with a mix of cutting social criticism and detached irony. ‘Most of Xiang’s music is commissioned for weddings and funerals by U.S.-Americans,’ he says. ‘But he agreed to this for $30.’ The result of programmer Murrabay’s computer manipulation yields a pointillist version out of which he provided Kreidler with an exact break-down of volume ratios and musical patterns. It is impossible to restrain laughs when the composer narrates this back to the audience in utter seriousness, although one can’t help but wonder to what extent Kreidler is unaware of the exploitation in which he is himself indulging. His activism stays as close to the surface as the saccharine pop music he quotes, an illusion of human progress that is ultimately absorbed in its own vain post-modernist conquest.

rebeccaschmid.info

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Posted in Berlin Times | Comments Closed

When the Right Things Happen at the Right Time

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

by Edna Landau

Having lived in New York all my life, I have been a big fan of the Mostly Mozart Festival since its inception. I enjoyed many concerts under the direction of Gerard Schwarz and was surprised that when the festival announced a new music director in late 2002, Louis Langrée, it was someone totally unfamiliar to me. Ten years later, the festival thrives with consistently excellent playing by the Mostly Mozart Orchestra and visiting orchestras, as well as expanded imaginative programming. Also ten years later, Mr. Langrée has been named music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at the age of 52. As things go these days, Mr. Langrée is earning major recognition, at least in America, at a later stage of his career than many of his colleagues. I was curious to know whether he had wished at any point that his career would develop more quickly. A phone conversation with him revealed a degree of wisdom, patience and acceptance that can serve as a model for some of today’s young conductors.

Louis Langrée told me that he is actually happy that things didn’t come faster for him. His early years as a vocal coach and assistant at the Opéra National de Lyon in the mid 1980’s (of which he later became music director) and his subsequent music directorship with Glyndebourne Touring Opera over a decade later laid the foundation for his distinguished work today at the Paris Opera, the Vienna State Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera. His early symphonic experience was gained over the course of a decade as assistant conductor with l’Orchestre de Paris, music director of the Orchestre de Picardie, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège. In speaking of those years, Mr. Langrée cited a quote from Nietzsche: “Deviens  ce que tu es” (become who you are). He knew he needed time to become who he was already and to achieve the greater depth that comes with age and experience. As offers began to multiply, he felt fortunate to have the services of an excellent agent, Charles Fabius, who knew his strengths and weaknesses and helped him to say no when he might have been tempted to say yes. He also remembered the words of his music analysis teacher who said: “Always be careful to take your time. If you neglect time, it will have its revenge.” He pointed out to me that instrumentalists, such as pianists, learn technique in a way that is similar from one artist to the next but conductors benefit from taking the time to find the language of their own body. He never took conducting lessons but gained invaluable guidance and insight from two very different conductors—John Eliot Gardiner at the Opéra de Lyon and Semyon Bychkov in Lyon and at the Opéra de Paris. The time he spent with them became especially meaningful years later when Jane Moss, vice president for programming at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, was seeking a new music director for the Mostly Mozart Festival. She was very eager to develop a classical style for the orchestra that integrated a period instrument and modern instrument approach and he had experience in both. Mr. Langrée credits his special chemistry with the musicians as the source of his success at the festival over the past ten years. Ms. Moss underscored that when she told me that “his total dedication to the music at hand has, in turn, earned him the complete dedication of every member of the orchestra.” She also mentioned his ability to communicate his love of everything he conducts, which has endeared him to festival audiences.

I asked Mr. Langrée whether conductors benefit from assistant conductorships with high level orchestras or whether they would benefit more from having their own orchestra and getting their feet wet as early as possible. He felt that both were of great importance. Ultimately, it is essential to have the experience of helping an orchestra improve its level of playing. However, it is also of paramount importance to have the sound of great orchestras in your ear, to remind you of what is possible. I also asked if his door is open to conductors seeking advice and was not surprised by his very positive answer. He closed our conversation by telling me how he went to Kurt Sanderling’s hotel when he was over 80 to ask him some questions about Brahms. They spent hours together during which Maestro Sanderling said: “When you conduct this piece someday, try this bowing.” He proceeded to put the bowings, as well as some other markings and phrasing, right in Mr. Langrée’s score. What a thrill it must be, even today, to conduct from that score and to remember that special moment.

© Edna Landau 2013

Posted in Ask Edna | Comments Closed

Jansons! Petrenko! Gergiev!

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

Munich Frauenkirche and view toward the Alps

By ANDREW POWELL
Published: January 23, 2013

MUNICH — With the city council’s blessing today of Valery Gergiev’s hire as the next Chefdirigent of the Munich Philharmonic, all three of the Bavarian capital’s globally renowned orchestras will be in Soviet-born hands by late 2015. This September, 40-year-old Kirill Petrenko of Omsk, Siberia, finally takes over the theater-based Bavarian State Orchestra; his appointment was announced in 2010. Riga-born Mariss Jansons, 70, has been Chefdirigent of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2003; his present contract is expected to be lengthened, reflecting a collegial tenure. (Munich’s three other professional orchestras, the Münchener Kammerorchester, the Münchner Rundfunk-Orchester and the Münchner Symphoniker, have German conductors.)

The when and who of Gergiev’s appointment, leaked last week by the Abendzeitung newspaper, are a surprise. It was only four months ago that Lorin Maazel began his leadership of the MPhil. Contrary to one London report, Maazel was never announced as “temporary” Chefdirigent. His main contract covers the period 2012–15, and he additionally helped during the sudden gap that followed predecessor Christian Thielemann’s deeply lamented exit. It is not clear whether the 82-year-old French-born Pittsburgher would have preferred to retain the position. Anyway, recent Munich concerts led by him have lacked spark.

Moscow-born Gergiev, 59, is another prominent name for Munich but hardly one associated with the Beethoven-Brahms-Bruckner repertory that has defined the MPhil in its finest seasons, under Ferdinand Löwe (1908–14), Rudolf Kempe (1967–76) and Thielemann (2004–11). He is not known for Mozart or Schubert and is no Mahlerian either. A 2010 Verdi Requiem at the MPhil’s acoustically appalling Gasteig home suffered from misshapen phrases and apparent under-rehearsal. Not even a 2011–12 Shostakovich cycle, divided between the MPhil and the Mariinsky Orchestra, brought consistently probing and satisfactory results. But Gergiev’s finger-wiggling, turn-the-page spontaneity can work wonders in coloristic music or in episodic works, or in passages laden with irony or humor. His Mussorgsky and Prokofiev are unsurpassed, his Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky much admired. The conductor is surprisingly adept, too, in certain scores by Berlioz and Wagner.

Gergiev will relinquish his job as principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, it seems, near the time his new duties start, which the Abendzeitung gives as 2015. The MPhil job has an undisclosed contract length; it paid a reported €800,000 annually during the last Thielemann years.

Photo © Landeshauptstadt München

Related posts:
Gergiev, Munich’s Mistake
Berlin’s Dark Horse
MPhil Vacuum: Maazel Out
Maazel: ’Twas Always Thus
Gergiev Undissuaded

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Posted in Munich Times | Comments Closed

Commissioners Beware!

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.

Dear Law & Disorder:

When a composer/songwriter is commissioned to write a song, who owns the copyright to the song? The commissioner or the writer? And for either party, when the other owns the copyright, what kind of controls and/or royalties does the holder have?

As with just about everything in the arts and entertainment industry, these are issues that should be negotiated between the parties. As there are no industry standards (I know I say that a lot, but its worth repeating…there are NO industry standards!), everything is up for grabs in terms of royalties, controls, ownership, etc.

Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for the parties either not to have a commissioning agreement or for one party merely to “assume” that commissioning a work automatically conveys certain rights. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the absence of a written agreement, copyright law determines ownership and, in such cases, the law is quite simple: the mere act of payment does not convey any rights or ownership. The only exception would be if an employee is paid to create or write something for their employer or if there is a written “work-for-hire” agreement between the parties. Otherwise, the commissioning fee only pays for the artist’s services. Ownership of the underlying work, including all rights, remains with the author.

So, for example, if a commissioner agrees to pay a composer $10,000 to write a concerto, unless there is a specific agreement between the parties that the commission fee includes performance or recording rights, the commissioner is entitled to nothing other than the joy of knowing he or she has paid for beautiful music. If the commissioner also wants to own the song, or record or perform it, then those terms need to be specifically negotiated and agreed to between the parties. This does not necessarily mean that the commissioner is required to pay extra for such rights. Everything is negotiable. It’s perfectly acceptable, and quite common, to include certain performance or recording rights as part of the commission fee. Its also just as common for the composer to be entitled to royalties or other payments in addition to the commission fee. Even in a case where the commission fee includes an assignment of full ownership, the composer can still ask for royalties as well as reserve performance and recordings rights of their own.

In short, all rights must be specified. If you are commissioning music, know what you are paying for. If you are being commissioned, know what you are selling. Never assume!

________________________________________________________________

For additional information and resources on this and other legal and business issues for the performing arts, visit ggartslaw.com

To ask your own question, write to lawanddisorder@musicalamerica.org.

All questions on any topic related to legal and business issues will be welcome. However, please post only general questions or hypotheticals. GG Arts Law reserves the right to alter, edit or, amend questions to focus on specific issues or to avoid names, circumstances, or any information that could be used to identify or embarrass a specific individual or organization. All questions will be posted anonymously.

__________________________________________________________________

THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

The purpose of this blog is to provide general advice and guidance, not legal advice. Please consult with an attorney familiar with your specific circumstances, facts, challenges, medications, psychiatric disorders, past-lives, karmic debt, and anything else that may impact your situation before drawing any conclusions, deciding upon a course of action, sending a nasty email, filing a lawsuit, or doing anything rash!

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Posted in Artist Management, Arts Management, Contracts, Copyrights, Employees, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Licensing, Music Rights, Publishing | Comments Closed

The Female Balanchine Body

Monday, January 21st, 2013

By Rachel Straus

Last week at The Juilliard School, my dance history students and I were looking at the Slaughter on Tenth Avenue number by Balanchine from the 1939 film “On Your Toes.” Our subject for the day was Balanchine in Hollywood. After watching the back-bending, jazz-inflected, bravura performance of Vera Zorina in “Slaughter,” I asked the students a question: Does a particular image come to mind when you think of a female Balanchine dancer? Surely, I thought Zorina fits the bill: she had legs for days, a short torso, and was slim as a cigarette. To my question, the students answered with similar descriptions about the Balanchine female body. Yet one female student raised her hand and protested:

“What about Sara Mearns? And Ashley Bouder, and Teresa Reichlen?” said Amelia Sturt-Dilley. “They have very different body types, and they are stars!”

Indeed, Amelia was right. Today’s New York City Ballet’s principal dancers don’t come in one shape and size (they rarely did). This fact was driven home during the New York City Ballet triple-bill performance at the former New York State Theater on January 19. Sara Mearns, Ashley Bouder, and Teresa Reichlen graced the stage in an all-Balanchine evening, which is part of the company’s ambitious “Tchaikovsky Celebration.”

Mearns and Bouder performed in Balanchine’s “Serenade” (1935). Bouder’s ability to dance a hair’s breath ahead of the beat, with dynamo power, couldn’t be achieved without her muscular, compact physique. This ballerina picks the notes with her pointes. Her dare devil personality comes to the fore in her petite allegro. If Bouder weren’t a ballerina, she might have made a great racecar driver. Her hairpin turns look effortless.

Mearns, in contrast, is a lyrical dancer. In the second movement of “Serenade,” she slowly lowered her out-stretched hand to her forehead. The gesture resembled an anointment: The ritual transformation of a woman into a dancing muse. When Mearns flourished her arms in a circle, as she came out of a turn, audience members in my vicinity sighed with delight. Mearns’ arm appeared to push the string section to a higher octave with her raised arms. Music made visible, yes. That’s Mearns. She also dances with her whole body. It is a body that is as voluptuous as her dancing. Mearns has breasts and thighs. Isadora Duncan would have trumpeted her physique. Legions of New York City Ballet regulars regularly do so, thus establishing a new paradigm for the female ballet dancing body.

As for Teresa Reichlen, her performance in “Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2” (1941), was equally inspiring. Reichlen’s height enhances her ability to embody the ballerina assoluta, a role that pays homage to the late 19th century Russian Imperial ballet dancers. Reichlen commanded attention through her virtuoso phrase work and calm demeanor. Her long torso gives her dancing a hyper-attenuated quality. Yet the speed of her footwork puts her in a unique category. Like a great jazz dancer, she can cut sharp and wax lyrical. When she ran from one upper corner of the stage to another, her diagonal crossings suggested a narrative. It looked as she was searching for the entry point into Tchaikovsky’s next movement, whose concerto is renowned for its emotional-shifting grandeur.

**

This three-part bill, which includes “Mozartiana,” will be performed again on February 26 at 2 p.m.

The New York City Ballet Tchaikovsky Celebration runs from January 15-27 and from February 13-24

For more information:

www.nycballet.com

Posted in The Torn Tutu | Comments Closed

Ultraschall as pan-New Music Haven

Sunday, January 20th, 2013

By Rebecca Schmid

Berlin may be the capital residence for young composers today, and no other time of year makes this more apparent than the Ultraschall Festival for New Music. They gathered in strong numbers during freezing temperatures for a concert on January 19 at the Haus des Rundfunks, where Brad Lubman led the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester in works by Johannes Maria Staud, Michael Jarell, Chaya Chernowin and Georg Friedrich Haas—only the last of whom was not present because he is moving to New York. The concert was moderated by Co-Intendant Magarete Zander, a broadcaster with Kulturradio RBB which co-hosts with the festival with the former West Berlin station Deutschlandradiokultur.

Staud, a young Austrian composer and former student of Jarell whose commissions include works for both the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic, mentioned in onstage discussion how unusual it was to be programmed back-to-back with one’s teacher. His work Contrebande (On Comparative Meterology II), which premiered with the Cleveland Orchestra in 2010, reveals the influence of Jarell in its non-conformist language and ability to narrate through intricate orchestration. Staud takes the listener’s hand through this approximately 18-minute series of miniatures based on excerpts from a Der andere Herbst by the Polish-Jewish writer Bruno Schulz, exploiting the full orchestra with melodies that are tossed organically between sections and textures from piano clusters to hollow blows that do not exist for their own sake but to build an inner drama.

Jarell, when asked about mentoring his students, said that a composer has no choice but to be an honest with himself—a precept that is more obvious in theory than practice. The Swiss native’s Sillages—Congruences II for flute, oboe and clarinet and orchestra (2005), originally conceived for flutist Emmanuel Pahud, clarinettist Paul Meyer and oboist François Leleux, undertakes a sonic exploration of rippling water that draws inspiration from the artist Alberto Giacometti. With this in mind, the first section of the approximately 26-minute work moves mystically through space like the sculptor’s signature figures that stretch their bodies inexorably toward heaven. The trio, performed by ensemble recherche, twitters above an atmospheric orchestra, breaking still surfaces. The second part recalls Jarell’s Flute Concerto for Pahud in its frenzied dialogue, creating tremendous tension that is resolved in the leading winds.

Chernowin’s The Quiet (2010) similarly moves from whispering, creaking and muted percussion that evoke the beginning of a snowstorm until the bassoons and double bassoons break through the surface and usher in an ominous swarm of musical ideas—an avalanche turned upside down, in the composer’s words. The most haunting work of the evening was Haas’ …sodaß ich’s hernach mit einem Blick gleichsam wie ein schönes Bild…im Geist übersehe for chamber string ensemble (1990/91), inspired by a W.A. Mozart letter about the act of transforming an idea into a finished work. Fragments from the Sonata for Violin and Piano in B-Major (KV 454) emerge like ghosts out of an extended stretch of subdued squeals, pizzicato, and col legno strokes before receding again into emptiness. One could almost see the glow of the melodies as they unfurled—so fleeting that one could not catch them—before the strings resumed their relentless search.

Lubman, asked by Zander if one could find such a program in the U.S., could only laugh. “In the U.S.?” he asked rhetorically, explaining that smaller ensembles dominate the scene. A concert of purely contemporary orchestra music was a non-existent breed, he said, praising Germany for the value it places on culture. Of course, the history is not so simple. The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, founded in 1946 by Radio in the American Sector (RIAS), is one of several broadcast orchestras erected under American reconstruction after World War Two. The many composers who flock over the pond are, depending on one’s view, returning to their roots.

As it happens, Ultraschall’s official motto this year is to celebrate the exchange of ideas between France and Germany, once warring nations who signed the Elysée Treaty fifty years ago this month. The narrative of ‘internationality’ having come to dominate many artists’ identities, the theme can be stretched to showcase a wide range of composers—which is exactly what the festival does best. I just wonder how the Geneva-born Jarell fits into the spectrum of Franco-Allemand fraternity (Vive la Neutralité)…

Stay tuned for more on the Ultraschall Festival (January 17-27).

rebeccaschmid.info

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The Trials of Rattle and Muti

Thursday, January 17th, 2013

by Sedgwick Clark

A couple of Musical America’s former Musicians of the Year took a drubbing last week. Rebecca Schmid, MA’s Berlin correspondent, reported on our Web site (1/11) that Simon Rattle (2002) announced he would not renew his Berlin Philharmonic contract as music director in 2018 after 16 years. She wrote that “Rattle’s popularity within the orchestra . . . and with the German public is mixed. The conductor’s artistic direction . . . has taken the orchestra far afield from Brahms and Beethoven . . . .”

Well, the self-governing BPO asked for it. When it signed Rattle, it pointedly stated its desire for a conductor who would lead it into 21st-century music and also teach it the joys of authentic period music-making. The British conductor’s biographer, Nicholas Kenyon, laid out the possible pitfalls clearly in his Musician of the Year tribute to Rattle in the 2002 Directory, calling his succession to Claudio Abbado, Herbert von Karajan, and Wilhelm Furtwängler “a daring risk and a massive leap of faith.” Man, was he right! You can read Nick’s insightful tribute by clicking “MORE” and “archives” on the Web site desktop.

Rattle’s detractors didn’t take long to materialize, reported Anthony Tommasini in the Times on November 16, 2007, disdaining the contemporary music and bemoaning the reduction of the German classics. My guess is that orchestra and audience also became no less disenchanted with Rattle’s wayward performances of the basic repertory. Several years ago he led the BPO at Carnegie in the most aimless Beethoven Pastoral I’ve ever heard; in the same hall on May 17 he’ll have another go at the symphony with the Philadelphians. Perhaps I’ll check to see if either of us has changed. At any rate, I’ll want to hear the concert’s first half of works by Webern, Berg, and Ligeti.

A lot can happen in the next five years, but I’ll bet that some youngish German conductor committed to tradition, like Christian Thielemann (if he can keep his questionable political notions to himself), will ascend to the BPO throne. Rebecca suggested Daniel Barenboim as a possibility, but he’ll be 75 by Rattle’s final season, and the Boston Symphony’s experience with James Levine’s health has undoubtedly given orchestras the jitters.

Which may be occurring at the Chicago Symphony right now. Its choice of Riccardo Muti (MA’s 2010 Musician of the Year), who became music director in fall 2010, seemed a match made in heaven. But he missed most of his first season due to what his doctor called extreme exhaustion and later fell off the podium, fracturing his jaw. He now has a pacemaker.

Muti’s latest malady is a bout of the worldwide flu epidemic, which caused him to cancel two weeks of concerts prior to the CSO’s Asian tour at the end of this month through early February. He has reportedly recovered in time to lead the tour, with Dvořák’s Fifth Symphony replacing works by Stravinsky and Busoni.  Still, once again a Muti health problem undoubtedly disappointed thousands of hometown subscribers and scared the bejesus out of the administrators.

Joyce Is Maria

I like to think I’m open to new discoveries, and my second brush with Donizetti appears to be one of them. On the heels of the Met’s old production of L’Elisir d’amore (I loved the deliciously sorbet sets so much on its closing night that I’m afraid to venture to the new one), comes the company’s first Maria Stuarda. Donizetti wrote two of the most heart-breaking arias in the repertory for his title character, and Musical America’s 2013 Vocalist of the year, Joyce DiDonato, sang them exquisitely. I’ll go to hear her sing anything.

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A Circle of Friends

Thursday, January 17th, 2013

By: Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

What is one of the most valuable assets for any performing artist today? A loyal circle of friends with whom they have maintained contact through the years. Why do I say that?

In late November of 2012, I received a press release announcing the appointment of Tito Munoz as Music Director of Ensemble LPR. The release also announced the upcoming U.S. debut performance of British composer/performer Max Richter’s “Vivaldi Recomposed: The Four Seasons” with violinist Daniel Hope. Having never realized that there was an Ensemble LPR, my curiosity was piqued. I contacted Tito Munoz, who I had met a few years earlier, to find out more. I learned that composer/violinist David Handler, a co-founder of the very successful Le Poisson Rouge in New York’s Greenwich Village, had long envisioned an ensemble growing out of LPR’s eclectic programming. As it turns out, he and LPR’s other founder, cellist Justin Kantor, met at Manhattan School of Music in 1998 while they were getting undergraduate degrees. They formed a piano trio during their second year at school with Cuban born pianist and conductor Orlando Alonso, now co-Artistic Director of Ensemble LPR. Orlando Alonso and Tito Munoz went to the same high school and forged a friendship that they have maintained ever sense. Munoz always wanted to have an affiliation with an ensemble to expand his artistic opportunities beyond the scope of his orchestral conducting. Formerly a freelance violinist in New York, he performed all kinds of music in a variety of venues. His roots in New York City, his versatility in a variety of musical styles, and his burgeoning conducting career made him an attractive candidate for music director of the ensemble. The only “outsider” in all of this was Ronen Givony, whom Kantor and Handler happened to meet socially. His vast knowledge of music and specific business skills seemed perfectly complementary to their own. In addition, his flair for putting together unusual and fascinating programs for the Wordless Music Series, which he founded, made him an ideal artistic partner both for Le Poisson Rouge and its ensemble, of which he is now co-Artistic Director. When all of these gentlemen met together for the first time in August of 2012, old friends found themselves bonding in a new way, filled with inspiration and excitement over what they might create together going forward.

The future for Ensemble LPR looks very bright indeed. Their roster of musicians consists largely of New York’s finest players and can expand and contract according to the nature of the repertoire. They have already secured representation with Opus 3 Artists whose national booking director, Erik Martin, is busy planning tours for the next few seasons. Such tours might include residencies designed jointly with a music school’s composition and conducting departments and even entrepreneurship classes arranged through the business school. The recent performance by Ensemble LPR of Richter’s re-imagining of the Vivaldi Seasons and this past Monday night’s tribute to the late Elliott Carter with Fred Sherry and Ursula Oppens certainly whet one’s appetite to learn what they are planning for their inaugural season, to be announced this June. Their activities are likely to reflect the same unbounded curiosity, imagination and openness that have contributed to making Le Poisson Rouge one of the most vital concert spaces in New York City.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2013

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