Musical America Blogs

By Sedgwick Clark

Just as New York Philharmonic audiences had gotten used to hearing Alec Baldwin’s subdued tones asking them to turn off their cell phones, they were surprised to hear Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson making a Sweeney-themed plea before the orchestra’s five performances of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (3/5-8). And then, before Alan Gilbert conducted an all-Carl Nielsen concert the following week, none other than Whoopi Goldberg urged us to check those noisy cell phones.

These seemingly innocent changes in the Philharmonic’s anti-cell phone crusade made me wonder if Baldwin had become too hot to handle? After all, in a lengthy, testy, scatological tirade in New York magazine (February 24, 2014), he explained in no uncertain terms why he was saying “good-bye to public life” in the city in which he has lived since 1979, citing predatory paparazzi, loathsome, prevaricating, and despicable media, media hounding of his wife, and endangerment of his baby daughter, while also admitting that some of his own comments and behavior may have brought on some of his problems. Los Angeles, with its gated communities to segregate movie stars from their fans and the media, which he once scorned, was looking more attractive than it once did.

Baldwin, an avid classical music lover and supporter of the arts, has been host of the Philharmonic’s national broadcasts for five years, when he was riding high and winning Emmy awards for his role on 30 Rock, but his recent problems made me curious to know if he was including the Philharmonic in the “public life” he was threatening to leave. So I called Katherine E. Johnson, the orchestra’s director of media and public relations, to get the skinny:

“Whoopi Goldberg was elected to the New York Philharmonic’s Board of Directors in January 2013. In addition to recording our new cell phone announcements—which will play in rotation with those recorded by our radio host, Alec Baldwin—we are exploring other ways in which she might be involved with the Philharmonic’s activities that align with her interests, such as in the area of education.”

Why Are Opera Companies Tanking?

Musicalamerica.com reported on March 20 that the San Diego Opera will close its doors on June 30 after 28 consecutive seasons of balanced budgets. The piece continued with other companies that have closed their doors in recent years (and MA.com editor Susan Elliott sent me others that date back further): Opera Hamilton, Ontario (January 2014), the New York City Opera (2013), Opera San Antonio (2012), Opera Boston (2011), Lyric Opera of San Diego (2011), Cleveland Opera (2010), Spokane Opera (2010), Connecticut Opera (Hartford, 2009), the Baltimore Opera (2009) and Opera Pacific (Orange County, 2008). Yesterday’s website (3/26) reports that Indianapolis Opera has just announced cancellation of its fourth and final opera of the season, Britten’s Albert Herring, due to slow sales. Rather ominous.

Undoubtedly, the reasons are complex, including the proliferation of arts organizations such as the National Endowment of the Arts in 1965. Also, opera on video became a contender in the ’80s. One incredible success story shines out, however: The Met in HD, which began in its 2006-07 season. Concurrent with the Met’s HD success is the fall-off of its own live-opera ticket sales. Some opera-aficionado friends in New York tell me they often prefer seeing Met productions in HD—and not just due to higher ticket prices.

Looking Forward

My week’s scheduled concerts (8:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted):

3/28 Carnegie Hall. Kronos Quartet and Friends; Wu Man, pipa; Pannonia Quartet; Face the Music Quartet; Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Additional guest artists tba. Works by Terry Riley, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Philip Glass, Aleksandra Vrebalov, and more. 40th Anniversary Celebration.

3/29 NJPAC at 8:30. Israel Philharmonic/Gianandrea Noseda. Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2; Ma Mère l’oye, suite. Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande, suite. Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique.

4/3 Avery Fisher Hall at 7:30. New York Philharmonic/Pablo Heras-Casado; Peter Serkin, piano. Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10.

By Sedgwick Clark 

I’ve heard nearly every one of Gustavo Dudamel’s New York concerts. At first I had my quibbles, but I always walked out of the hall with a smile. His music-making made me feel good to be alive.

In two concerts at Avery Fisher Hall this past weekend, his Los Angeles Philharmonic played better for him than ever. The strings had greater strength and unanimity, and the conductor unerringly balanced cross rhythms and accompaniment figures in the winds and brass to keep textures moving. The solo horn, Andrew Bain, played with eloquence and warmth in his many solos, and Joseph Pereira, a student of the New York Philharmonic’s late, great timpanist Roland Kohloff, provided dynamism and rhythmic punctuation to passages that in other hands too often turn soggy.

Leading off the LA’s first concert was John Corigliano’s 1988 Symphony No. 1. While not exactly new, its brand of dissonant tonality fits well into today’s current style. It memorializes three of the composer’s friends who succumbed to AIDS and received a slashing, uncompromising performance. It should be played every year. Dudamel’s commitment to contemporary composers is genuine, and he programs new works on nearly all his LA programs. After intermission came Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. I never thought I could love it again, but Dudamel proved me wrong.

In the second concert, wispy, little Yuja Wang played Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto with her usual mind-boggling virtuosity, and she played it uncut, as is usual these days. A curious line on the program page said, “Ms. Wang will perform cadenzas by Rachmaninoff.” Well, of course. But which of the two he composed for the first movement did she play—the lighter, rather mercurial one favored by the composer in his recording or the heavy, chordal alternative? Wang chose the first, lighter version. Dudamel’s accompaniment in the Rachmaninoff was ideal, sticking to her fleet fingerwork like flypaper through every più vivo and meno mosso. Composers usually know best, and I’ve always wondered if all the pianists who indulge in ostentatious “expressive” emphases, rubati, ritards, etc. did so because they couldn’t play the piece as written, in tempo—but Wang can and did, and the performance built naturally, with no eccentricities.

After intermission, Dudamel conducted an affectionate Brahms’s Second Symphony, which in its moderately brisk tempos and lovely singing lines reminded me of the 1945 San Francisco recording by Pierre Monteux, which is how I came to know the work on my parents’ 78s. Dudamel even allowed himself a few subtle tenutos, which he will probably expunge as time goes by but which made me smile on each appearance.

Alan Gilbert’s Nielsen “Inextinguishable”

Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic are in the process of recording the symphony cycle of Denmark’s greatest composer, Carl Nielsen (1865-1931), for the Danish label, DaCapo. So far only one CD, recorded in concert and containing the Second and Third symphonies, has been released, but last week the orchestra performed an all-Nielsen concert that will constitute the second CD: Helios Overture, Op. 17; Symphony No. 1, Op. 7; Symphony No. 4 (“The Inextinguishable”), Op. 29.

It’s hard to beat Nielsen’s Fourth for concert hall drama, with its dueling timpani placed on either sides of the orchestra. This was Gilbert’s and the orchestra’s finest Nielsen performance so far, on Friday afternoon, March 14. Clearly this was a master “take,” and the conductor could take chances on Saturday evening—such as when Nielsen indicates “Glorioso” twice in the score, and Gilbert’s response struck me as cautious.

Leonard Bernstein placed the timpani on the front of the stage when he performed the symphony with the Philharmonic in 1970, but it was disappointingly ponderous interpretively and thin sonically on LP. The CD remix vastly improved the sound, but it still couldn’t compete with the supercharged Martinon/Chicago recording on RCA. Gilbert followed the composer in placing the timp at the back of the stage. Mike placement will take care of any recording concerns. I feel secure in predicting that the Gilbert will be considered one of the best Fourths upon its release.

Gilbert’s performance of the First Symphony, however, seemed less certain—perhaps like the composer, who took four years to write it. Gilbert links the symphony to Brahms, but I hear Bruckner in the final movement.

The third CD, to be recorded at the October 1-3 concerts in the fall, will include Symphony No. 5 and Symphony No. 6, presumably to be released by the anniversary of the composer’s 150th birthday in 2015.

Looking forward

My week’s scheduled concerts (8:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted):

3/26 Zankel Hall at 7:30. Ensemble ACJW. Ives: The Unanswered Question. John Adams: Shaker Loops. David Lang: pierced. Copland: Appalachian Spring.

3/27 Avery Fisher Hall at 7:30. New York Philharmonic/Gustavo Dudamel. Vivier: Orion. Bruckner: Symphony No. 9.