Ben Hausmann, who joined the Seattle Symphony in 2005, has been named Principal Oboe. He had been filling the role when Nathan Hughes left to join the Met Opera. In addition to being an instrumentalist, Hausmann is an active composer as well.
Author: Zach Carstensen
Perlman has the goods but doesn’t know where to go with them in concert with the Oregon Symphony
World-famous violinists typically draw big crowds and buckets of adulation, and that was case when Itzhak Perlman stepped on stage to perform with the Oregon Symphony on Saturday (February 28). A standing ovation greeted Perlman, who had appeared in the national broadcast at President Obama’s inauguration just a month ago, but his performance as violinist and conductor with the Oregon Symphony, though it had some fine moments, didn’t have enough shape and verve to make the evening memorable.
The program featured Bach’s Concerto No 1 for violin and string orchestra, Schubert’s Symphony No 3, and Brahms Symphony No. 2. A first-rate conductor would bring out all sorts of nuances in each work and place a personal stamp on it, but Perlman seemed not to have a clue about what he wanted the music to say. The volume for each piece was medium loud, most movements, once underway, cruised along at the same speed that they started with, and, outside of a soaring horn solo by John Cox in the Brahms – which almost startled the audience out of the doldrums – the entire affair was boring.
As a result, the standing ovations that Perlman and the orchestra received were perfunctory. It was sort of like, hey, we’ve got this great artist in our midst and we’re really happy that he stopped by our little town, so let’s shower him with affection. If anyone should receive extra helpings of applause, it should be concertmaster Jun Iwasaki, who used his entire body to help keep the violins together. There were times, especially in the Brahms, when the violins laid down a silky smooth and golden sound that is just pure pleasure, but these pieces needed more than just some beautiful phrases. Even the Bach Violin Concerto, with Perlman sitting on a raised platform where the concertmaster usually sits, didn’t go anywhere in particular despite the gorgeous tones from his Strad. When the ensemble reached the last note, the piece just ended, but nobody was elevated.
One little interesting point in the performance of the Bach was hearing Janet Guggenheim play the harpsichord. Guggenheim was Perlman’s accompanist for many years, but even her presence didn’t alter the final score, so to speak.
Several years ago, Oregon Symphony violinist and Third Angle director Ron Blessinger (who wasn’t playing in the Perlman concert series) told me (and I’m paraphrasing here) that it’s always best when a conductor comes to the orchestra with good ideas for the music, but a conductor with bad ideas is better than a conductor with no ideas, because a conductor with no ideas makes the concert dull as hell.
Opus 7: Mendelssohn, Purcell and Handel
Opus 7’s enticing program of Mendelssohn, Purcell and Handel, while planned months ago, was the perfect antidote to today’s unremittingly bad news, what you might call comfort food for the mind.
Not that it was all familiar. The group’s artistic director, Loren Ponten, chose less commonly performed works by all these composers, including one of eleven anthems written for the future Duke of Chandos by Handel (some phrases of which he clearly borrowed later for “Messiah”). Singing this glorious work, “As pants the hart for cooling streams,” Opus 7 made a truly uplifting and joyful noise with which to end its concert at St James Cathedral Saturday night.
However, not all of the works sung came off so successfully, particularly at the start of the program. Mendelssohn’s early “Kyrie in C Minor” is a gentle piece and the chorus would have sounded less draggy, less tentative if the performance had had more bite. The tempo seemed a tad slow, but had the performance taken off floating, I think this unhurried beat would have worked fine. It didn’t feel a really good choice to begin the program with, despite good work from the soloists, soprano Lisa Cardwell Ponten, mezzo-sorano Kathryn Weld, tenor Howard Fankhauser and bass Charles Robert Stephens. Something more decisive was called for.
Consonants are always hard to hear at St. James, and this night was no exception. The first Purcell work with its evocative chromaticisms, “Remember not, O Lord, our offences,” had similar problems to the “Kyrie,” plus occasional slightly off-note intonation by the sopranos.
The cathedral’s acoustics have a long reverberation time which tends to blur sound. It was hard sometimes to tell whether the singers were not exactly together or it was the way sound reached my aisle seat in the fifth row on the northwest side. I wondered if performers on the right of the chorus and orchestra could always hear performers on the left.
Performances became more satisfactory after this beginning, with the serene “Cor dulce, cor amabile” of Villa-Lobos and Mendelssohn’s dramatic motet “Mitten wir im Leben sind,” plus his gorgeous cantata “Jesu, meine Freude,” clearly influenced by Bach.
From the early Kyrie, written at age 14, to the much more mature “Christe, du Lamm Gottes” written only four years later, (and the above-mentioned cantata which comes from the year after that), it’s fascinating to trace Mendelssohn’s development; the ideas, the influences and the genius which propelled him into his own secure musical place even at such a young age. The “Christe” is a rich tapestry of sound, gorgeous to hear, and Opus 7 gave it a thrilling performance. From my seat the bass orchestral line gave prominence to the important musical grounding of the work, strongly but not obtrusively so, showing its role as anchor for the whole piece.
I would have liked to hear this program somewhere with just a little less reverberation. Having a great admiration for Opus 7 and its quality, I felt this time that the acoustics sabotaged the performance a bit.
Pinchas Zukerman at 60
The following is a paragraph from Zukerman’s official biography
for this year, outlining his ambitious plans in celebration of his 60th birthday:
“Pinchas Zukerman turned 60 on July 16, 2008 and celebrates with a schedule which comprises more than 112 concert engagements and travel to 17 countries including France, India, Israel, China, Turkey, Peru, New Zealand, Austria, Russia and the United Arab Emirates. He performs orchestra, solo recital and chamber music repertoire in more than 34 cities. He spends 10 weeks teaching in his role as Director of the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music, and as Artistic Director of the National Arts Centre Summer Music Institute in Ottawa, which includes the Young Artist Programme, Conductor’s Programme and Composer’s Programme. Currently in his 10th season as Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Mr. Zukerman conducts London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Moscow, Italy and Spain as well as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra on tour in the United States. He performs with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra and joins the Israel Philharmonic in New York’s Carnegie Hall, Bombay and Israel, the Orchestra Philharmonique de Radio France and the Gulbenkian Orchestra. Mr. Zukerman and pianist Marc Neikrug give recitals in Vienna, Philadelphia, New York and Chicago.”
It is an astounding world tour to say the least, and I was in attendance at the last concert mentioned – a recital with pianist/composer Marc Neikrug in Chicago’s Harris Theater. He performed a healthy variety of pieces, mostly for violin. With that slight instrument, Pinchas performed Mozart’s sonata, K.454, Franck’s Sonata in A, and Takemitsu’s From Far Beyond Chrysanthemums and November Fog. With his viola Zukerman brought forth the brooding and pensive viola sonata of Dmitri Shostakovich. As a gentleman in front of me uttered to his wife, Zukerman made it all “look effortless.” The problem was that I wished there were a little more effort put into connecting with the audience.
For this recital, the violinist/violist wore what looked like pajamas – a flowing black shirt, like from a Chinese restaurant, some black pants and the most comfortable shoes he could find. They looked like structured socks. His accompanist, bald with a long ponytail, was a little more dressed up. The Mozart was first, and as the notes stated, the piece is to start with a grand and forceful statement in unison, as befits a piece of music written for the emperor. What I heard was a lot less forceful, almost anemic. Zukerman barely moved as he played, eyes locked onto his music stand. There was barely any communication between Zukerman and Neikrug either. Don’t get me wrong, Zukerman’s playing is flawless. As a musician who has to muscle a sweet tone out of the grouchy viola, his violin tone is rich and full, effortless. He commands a treasure-trove of skills on the violin, brought out in full measure when necessary. The only reservation is that he seems to make no connection to the music or the audience when he plays. After the Mozart was over, he immediately took off his glasses, bowed once and walked off, Neikrug right behind him, and the page turner behind him.
He bolts right out with his viola and sends us into a world we are not prepared for: Shostakovich’s Sonata for Viola and Piano, the composer’s last musical utterances. The piece opens with pizzicato of yet another melancholy melody. Zukerman plays with a little more passion and commitment. This music fits his performance style perfectly: constrained and inhibited. During the work’s middle movement, with all of its folksy tunes and flourishes, Pinchas lets go. It is a very convincing reading. The last movement is fascinating, and if you don’t know this piece of Shostakovich, go out and listen to it. It is an homage to Beethoven, even taking the basic outline of the composer’s “Moonlight” sonata as this sonata’s foundation. It is an eery piece and ends quietly, effectively played by Zukerman and Neikrug. The stunning contrast between the sweet violin sonata of Mozart and the brooding viola of Shostakovich left me cold. They were strange bedfellows to say the least, and really didn’t complement each other well. Again, the performers flew off the stage.
The audience was duly impressed by whatever Zukerman was giving as they proceeded to talk and chat. I was sitting behind a large contingent of Russians who waved to others and spoke softly during the performance. They were having lots of fun, although listening intently to the music wasn’t part of that fun. Twenty minutes for intermission having passed, Zukerman et al. burst forth back on stage. The house lights gave no indication that it was time to return, so everyone was still standing around as the violinist was ready to go. Takemitsu’s piece was short, as they all are, and spare. It evidenced Zukerman’s commitment to bringing a panoply of music to the audience. Unfortunately, the audience seemed disconcerted by the intermission, and so it passed without much notice.
The program concluded with Franck’s Romantic sonata for violin. In four movements, it was described in the notes as being “large.” The playing was beautiful, the violin in his hands seemed small, almost like a toy fiddle, but the sound was smooth and effortless. The playing was also uniform. The performers moved from the first to the second without notice, the break almost non-existent. The same for the third and fourth movements. Of course, this may be a matter of interpretation, creating two related movements instead of four, but it just made the piece seem rushed. The ending flourish was played hastily and off they went again. There may have been an encore, but I didn’t stay.
Pinchas Zukerman is a world-reknown musician with due fame for his various musical gifts. I just don’t think that one of those gifts is being a live performer. I have also seen him with the CSO, and he just seems bothered by having to perform in front of others. It makes the whole affair seem condescending. His recordings play up his exceptional performing ability, whereas live performance detracts from it, as you look at this man who appears put-upon. This concert gave me that impression, and although it had a lot of variety and beautiful music making, a performance without connection is a pretty dull performance. Listen to him on CD or MP3 instead.
The search
Sound Magazine ran one of my posts from January where I observed the comparisons between the San Francisco Symphony and the Seattle Symphony. The conclusion I made in that post was the SSO is sitting a similar place as the SFS was when they hired Michael TilsonThomas. Who is chosen to replace Schwarz is vital to the growth of the orchestra and the musical health of Seattle.
Officially, there is no search committee. Crosscut reported a few days ago the orchestra will announce its search plans next month. Still, the search process is coming together painfully slow. Schwarz steps down after the 2010/2011 season. When he announced he would not seek a contract extension last September, next season was being finalized. Next season will be interesting for what it’s not – a season built around finding Schwarz’s replacement. This leaves one season to air out the podium skills of anyone else who is interested in becoming music director.
Henry Fogel, CSO alum and orchestra Yoda, allegedly said the opening in Seattle is the most exciting opportunity in the United States right now. Really? Philadelphia is looking for a new conductor. I would say that is at least marginally more interesting. But Seattle is an exciting opportunity because of where we are. The Northwest has been a musical playground for many years. The right music director can help connect Seattle’s orchestra to the rest of musical life in the city. If Seattle is as exciting as reported, then all the more reason for the board to get moving. If the board goes too slow we could very well have to settle and that wouldn’t be good for the orchestra or music.
Being too deliberate might also mean a long period without leadership at the top. The Chicago Symphony got away with this because they had Pierre Boulez and Bernard Haitink. If Seattle does it, I fear it will just mean a few more years of Schwarz leading the orchestra, but not in an official capacity as music director.
Next season has a number of fine guest conductors, but I would be satisfied by only a few of them. This season’s guest conductor list is better, and I hope people like David Robertson, JoAnn Falletta, and others are seriously considered. Also, where is Stephane Deneve? He would be a wonderful choice for Seattle. Young, vibrant, engaging, French. He is also being bandied about as a possibility to lead the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Not only do I hope the SSO board gets moving to find a new music director, I also hope they open the process up and involve the community in the search. Why not have college students, musicians, arts critics (are there any left?), bloggers (I would gladly serve), and average Seattleites involved in the search? I probably love the Seattle Symphony more than the folks who snooze through concerts. The Seattle Symphony doesn’t have to carry an air of exclusivity. And, from a marketing perspective, it might make more sense to push the process now, before a successor is chosen, as a way to build interest in the candidates and ultimate choice. Seattle is a process heavy city anyway, and opening up the selection process can only be good for the health of the orchestra.
In any case, time is wasting. The Seattle Symphony board may want to get the process right, but getting it right also means actually finding a conductor who can help the orchestra grow, enrich the musical life of Seattle, and be an ambassador for the orchestra and serious music.
Road Report
Last year’s Theater of Needless Talents, a dance production set to the music of Erwin Schulhoff, is on tour. James Garlick a friend of the Gathering Note and violinist will be blogging from the road. You can find his dispatches from the midwest and elsewhere here under Road Report. Thanks James!
Upcoming
Piffaro, the Renaissance Band, plays Town Hall on February 28th. You like sackbuts, shawms, and krumhorns then Piffaro is for you. The LA Guitar Quartet comes to town on Tuesday, March 3rd, and will play with the Seattle Symphony. March 7th is the date the Puget Sound Symphony plays their winter concert. Alan Shen and his volunteer band will bite off Rachmaninov’s 2nd Symphony and Grieg’s Piano Concerto. The Seattle Philharmonic plays their “America Sings” concert on March 8th. Adam Stern has programmed an interesting alignment of familiar composers and new names. Gershwin and Copland frame pieces by Peaslee and Levant. The Cascade Symphony delves into Verdi’s operatic Requiem March 9th.
Xu Zhong delivers fine concert in his Portland Piano International debut
Portland Piano International has operated in Presto mode for its last two concerts, finding replacements for last minute cancellations. Last month Conrad Tao gave a terrific performance in place of an ailing Polina Leschenko. This time around, Xu Zhong came to the relief of Olga Kern, who had to attend to a family emergency. (I have heard that her father is extremely ill.) Zhong had just performed a solo recital at Willamette University as well as conducted and played two Mozart concertos with the Salem Chamber Orchestra the week before his engagement with PPI. Fortunately, Zhong was able to extend his stay in the United States and rescue PPI with an exceptional performance on Sunday afternoon (February 22) in a program that featured works by Debussy, Liszt, and Stravinsky.
The first half of the concert was devoted to Book I of Debussy’s Preludes, which consists of 12 impressionistic pieces that the composer wrote in 1909 and 1910. Zhong played these evocative preludes with finely honed sensitivity. From the soft, diaphanous sounds in “Danseuses de Delphes” (“Delphic Dancers”) to the flighty and spirited atmosphere of “La danse de Puck” (“Puck’s Dance”) and the jaunty “Minstrels,” Zhong found all sorts of tonal colors. Perhaps he slowed down a bit too much now and then, but the shape of each piece remained vibrant.
After intermission, Zhong performed Liszt’s “Sonetto 104 del Petrarca” from “Années de Pèlerinage II” (“Years of Pilgrimage”) and “Vallée d’Obermann” (“Obermann’s Valley”) from “Années de Pèlerinage I.” Zhong excelled with the subtle and warm nature of the first work and contrasted it well with the demonstrative style of the second. The grand arpeggios and the filigree work in the “Vallée d’Obermann” were impressively clean and crisp in Zhong’s hands.
The concert ended in uptempo fashion with Stravinsky’s “Trois Mouvements de Petrouchka.” (“Three Movements from Petrouchka”), which dates back to 1921 when the composer converted three portions from this ballet score into a work for solo piano. Zhong really got into this piece, combining precision and artistry to capture the varied emotions of the music in all of its wild, primitive, and shimmering glory.
The audience responded to Zhong’s playing of the Stravinsky with an extended standing ovation, and Zhong returned to the Steinway to perform Brahm’s Intermezzo in A major as an encore. Maybe Zhong was just getting warmed up, because this piece came across with more heart and seemed to flow more freely than any of the other works on the program.
Schoenberg and Bartok examine the human condition
The faux, brick frame used to set off Robert LePage’s production of Bela Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Arnold Schoenberg’s Ewartung did more than house a stage within a stage. Profoundly, the arrangement literally and figuratively created a window into the human condition. Seattle Opera’s success with these two difficult, 20th Century operas, depends on the visceral impact the sets had with me and likely will have with others. But, it also depends on strong singing from the cast of three and adroit playing by the orchestra, both of which were achieved.
Bluebeard’s Castle
and Ewartung are separated by a few years in time but are stylistically different. Bartok relies on his love of Hungarian folk music and Schoenberg his zeal to change the musical paradigm of the 20th Century. Both operas, however, provide a glimpse into the minds of two composers essential to the classical music of the time. Seemingly, they both preconceive the tortured, loneliness that would consume people, countries, continents, and the muse of the world’s artists as the result of economic collapse and two world wars. Bluebeard seems to analyze the loneliness of the individual, while Ewartung examines the tug of war between conscious and unconscious. Schoenberg spends twenty-five minutes in the company of the madness of the Woman’s stream of conscious externalized internal meanderings. Its not hard to imagine the Woman’s anxiety as Schoenberg’s own.
Schoenberg’s music has always carried the stigma of being difficult to listen to. The composer had bouts of insecurity but, like most artists, longed to be accepted while he challenged the established order of music. During the time he lived in the United States, he wanted to write film music. For him, it wasn’t necessarily about money, but about becoming part of popular culture through movies. Schoenberg’s prospects weren’t good and he died never composing music for the big-screen. Schoenberg’s name and music have been so maligned, the City of Birmingham Symphony offered a money back guarantee if listeners didn’t enjoy a recent performance of the composer’s hyper=romantic Gurrelieder .
Both operas are difficult to hear, Schoenberg’s especially so. The material of Erwartung jumps around, scattering and coalescing, a perfect match for the Woman’s eerie tale. Bluebeard is a little easier on the ears. Bartok avoided Wagnerian leit-motifs, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t reuse material to remind us of moods and moments. Bartok’s sound world is sustained by glumness, even as light and love penetrate the cracks of the castle. Bartok’s rhythms, especially when sung, gallop and give the back and forth between Bluebeard and his fourth wife, Judith, a determined forward motion leading to an inevitable conclusion – Judith taking her place among Bluebeard’s other disappeared wives. Lead by Evan Rogister, the orchestra was in top form. These complex scores came to life under his baton. They emerged naturally, even a little softer around the edges than I have heard on recordings.
On the vocal side of things, Susan Marie Pierson was spectacular as the Woman in Ewartung. Whatever you think about the twisting madness of the libretto or Schoenberg’s gnarled music, Ewartung requires a soprano of unimpeachable skill to sing almost uninterrupted for nearly thirty minutes. John Relyea who sang Bluebeard and Malgorzata Walewska who sang Judith did well too. These two, however, seemed unable to project at times. Maybe it was the limitations of the sets and staging? Maybe it was the limitations of these two singers? I am not sure.
The real star of the evening were the sets and stage direction. Spartan but versatile, the set was a visual feast. In Ewartung the fake brick wall gave way to creeping, physically able actors. They moved with dream-like elegance fueled by the gripping madness of the Woman. Props – a bed, scythe, chair, trees, and other devices – floated and shifted on stage with the help of The Mistress, The Lover, and The Psychiatrist. The set was basically the same for Bluebeard’s Castle. In this opera, however, the illusion of depth, light, and projections onto a gauzy screen haunted Judith and Bluebeard as the seven locked doors were opened.
Ewartung and Bluebeard’s Castle run until March 7th. The operas aren’t easy. There is little hummable music, yet it will still leave you breathless and with a better sense of the human condition. Bartok and Schoenberg understand better than most the conflict within the self. With the help of the Seattle Opera these examinations were well worth my time and attention.
Chicago’s 09/10 season can’t get any better
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra recently released its next season, and I believe it is probably the most dynamic and varied season we have seen in recent memory. The season is focusing on the three conductors that make up the universe of excellence at the CSO: Bernard Haitink, who will be leaving us after this season, Riccardo Muti, who will take over in the 2010/2011 season, and Pierre Boulez, the symphony’s conductor emeritus who will be celebrating his 85th birthday. Surrounding these three gentlemen are no less than 23 guest conductors, representing virtually every conductor of note in the world. Combine that with exceptional soloists, new commissions and interesting repertoire choices, I am pretty excited about the new year in Chicago.
First things first. It must be stated that Chicago likes its music on the conservative side. We certainly are no slouch in promoting new music, and the CSO has a whole series of concerts called MusicNOW that are led by the two composers-in-residence, Osvaldo Golijov and Mark-Anthony Turnage, but you won’t find a lot of it on the main stage. It should come as no surprise then that Haitink will be focusing on the Germans in his final stint here, and Muti is presenting his version of the German canon as well. Haitink has always been known as a great interpreter of the Germanic tradition, whether Bruckner, Mahler, Brahms or Beethoven. During the course of his tenure here, he has conducted all of them, and so it is fitting that Haitink’s leadership in Chicago will culminate with a three-week celebration of Haitink and Ludwig van Beethoven. He will conduct all nine symphonies during the course of three weeks, together with the Leonore
overtures and Calm Sea & Prosperous Voyage. Muti is here for a short while and will conduct a Bruckner symphony (I’m sure to allay the fears of conservative Chicagoans who question his chops) and four performances of Brahms’ A German Requiem. He had a runaway success with the Verdi Requiem this season, so it seems fitting to continue with the Brahms. Taken together, you can see that the orchestra isn’t breaking new ground with our principal conductors. Fortunately, Boulez and our guests will scratch that itch nicely.
Pierre Boulez will be celebrated in a month-long series of concerts, some led by him, others in honor of him. He will conduct performances of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle and his concerto for two pianos, percussion and orchestra. He will also lead performances of his own composition, Livre pour cordes, as well as a flute concerto by Marc-André Dalbavie. David Robertson will conduct a concert in honor of the composer/conductor, featuring works by composers associated with Boulez: Stravinsky, Berg and Messiaen. The Symphony has also commissioned two new works for the season: James Primosch’s Songs for Adam
with baritone Brian Mulligan and Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky’s Cello Concerto performed by Yo-Yo Ma. In another example of old and new, Passion Week at Orchestra Hall will feature performances of Bach’s St. John Passion with Golijov’s St. Mark Passion, a sensational double-header.
The list of guest conductors is stunning for this season. Here they all are: Roberto Abbado, Semyon Bychkov, Sir Andrew Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Charles Dutoit, Sir Mark Elder, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Paavo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Nicholas Kraemer, Bernard Labadie, Ludovic Morlot, Gianandrea Noseda, Peter Oundjian, Trevor Pinnock, Alexander Polianichko, Carlos Miguel Prieto, David Robertson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, Markus Stenz, Michael Tilson Thomas, Mitsuko Uchida and John Williams. These conductors are mostly responsible for introducing the symphony to works they have never played, like Harrison Birtwistle’s Night’s Black Bird; Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Andante for Strings; Kaija Saariaho’s Orion; Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending; Ligeti’s Violin Concerto; and Martinů’s Frescoes of Piero della Francesca. Igor Stravinsky is especially well represented, with performances of his Rite of Spring, Dumbarton Oaks Concerto, Concerto for Piano & Wind Instruments, the ballet Agon, and his rarely performed oratorio Oedipus Rex. The ballet and oratorio are both led by Michael Tilson Thomas, and that is truly a highlight for me.
Taken all together, the 2009/2010 season is one of the greatest we have had in recent memory and one of the most interesting and compelling of any orchestra in the United States. Feel free to take a trip to Chicago. Come for the orchestra, stay for the opera. The Lyric Opera has a nice, well-rounded season planned as well.
Gathering Note 