Housewarming at Bluebeard's Castle

Bartók, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, C. Ludwig, W. Berry, London Symphony Orchestra, I. Kertész (1965) Bartók, Duke Bluebeard's Castle (inter alia), M. Székely, O. Szönyi, London Symphony Orchestra, A. Doráti Bartók, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, London Symphony Orchestra, E. Zhidkova, W. White, V. Gergiev (2009)

The second season of Christoph Eschenbach's tenure as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, after a slow start last fall, has been consistently rewarding since January. The programming reached its apogee this month, with an intense series of performances for the Music of Prague, Budapest, and Vienna festival this month. After Eschenbach's work at the keyboard with Matthias Goerne, in an expressive Winterreise earlier this week, he took the podium of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall to lead the first NSO performance of Béla Bartók's masterful opera A Kékszakkallú Herceg Vára since Antal Doráti gave the first NSO performance of the work in 1972. The piece has not been absent in Washington altogether, since both the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (concert version, in 2005) and Washington National Opera (2006, staging directed by William Friedkin) have performed it in the last decade, but the sense of an epoch-making event was palpable. The Christoph Eschenbach era at the NSO will be one to remember.

Courageously, Eschenbach paired the opera with yet more Bartók, which may have kept some of the subscriber base away, although the house was not empty by any means -- at the same time, the pile-up of music critics, and not only local ones, encountered in the house was impressive. The suite of music for the pantomime The Miraculous Mandarin, last conducted by Xian Zhang in 2010, kept the emphasis on exotic fairy tales steeped in blood and violence. (This rounds out the Bartók triple play of stage works, since the score of The Wooden Prince was performed by the NSO in 2009.) Eschenbach and the musicians played this evocative music to the hilt, a depiction of the seduction and robbing of three victims, culminating in the murder of the wealthy mandarin. There were a few ensemble uncertainties in the calamitous chaos of the opening section, depicting the urban tumult of the Chinese setting, which had a delightfully riotous quality to it. Many evocative solos for clarinet, bassoon, and English horn, all played beautifully, showed off the composer's skill at orchestration and idiomatic instrumental writing. It is a startlingly sensuous score, with sighs of pleasure emitted by portamenti strings and brass glissandi, its motoric drive making it an ideal companion study for Stravinky's Rite of Spring. Eschenbach led with admirable energy, encouraging a flexible sense of rubato, so the performance was not overly mechanical, but also lashing the frantic final section to a cold, steely conclusion.

The Bartók anniversary last year, honoring the 130th anniversary of his birth, also occasioned more wonderful Bartók from Iván Fischer and András Schiff with Budapest Festival Orchestra and at the Library of Congress, but this performance of the composer's opera felt like the crowning event. This was due in no small part to Eschenbach's choice of soloists, Goerne as the bloody Bluebeard and, in her NSO debut, the mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung as Judith. (DeYoung will be back in the city to make her role debut as Dalila in Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila with Washington Concert Opera on May 13.) As she expressed in an AfterWords audience talk after the performance, DeYoung feels strongly that Judith really does love Bluebeard and does think that everything will be alright once she has opened all the doors -- of his castle or his past, depending on how you interpret the libretto. She sang with a smiling face, with perhaps just a hint of a perverse thrill at the horrors that unfolded before her. Her buttery legato and vocal power gave a surge of ecstasy to her expressions of love as she coaxed the keys to the doors from her new husband. Although her conservation of energy and the excess of orchestral sound meant she was covered at times, DeYoung unleashed a blazing high C at the opening of the fifth door, riding a huge blossoming wave of sound from the orchestra, all those planing parallel major triads, complete with a squad of heraldic brass players joining from an upper balcony.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, Christoph Eschenbach, Matthias Goerne, Michelle DeYoung take on Bartok (Washington Post, March 9) Tim Smith, Eschenbach digging into Kennedy Center's Music of Budapest, Prague and Vienna (Baltimore Sun, March 7)

Goerne had his moments of glory, too, although with a more compressed tone in general, a contained, smoldering presence in the title role. The stage was set by the engaging Eörs Kisfaludy, who recited the Hungarian introduction to the opera (a corrected version of the prologue, approved by the composer's son Peter), dramatically standing in the chorister section above the stage, his voice amplified. Eschenbach kept the score moving but did not hurry through crucial moments, allowing the orchestral expressions of what Judith sees -- the beauty of Bluebeard's gardens (marked with nationalistic fervor in the score), the vista of his territory (given zing by the Kennedy Center organ, which thankfully did not malfunction) -- to fill the room with amplitude. The many seductive orchestral colors -- the jarring semitones that creep into the score as Judith notices blood spotting everything in the castle, the creepy wash of celesta, the whisper and moan of winds and the groaning castle itself (via recording) -- were all shiver-inducing. Christoph Eschenbach has done it again.

This concert will be repeated only once more, on Saturday night (March 10, 8 pm). Tonight's concert by the NSO (March 9, 8 pm) will feature a different program, repeating the suite from The Miraculous Mandarin, but paired instead with Bartók's Romanian Dances, Kodály's Dances of Galánta, and arrangements of music by Liszt and Brahms.

Beckett and Koston Celebrated

Pianist Dina Koston was a leading cultural force in Washington through her leadership of the Theater Chamber Players, an ensemble she founded with Leon Fleisher that gave performances of contemporary and older music at the Smithsonian and the Kennedy Center for many years. She also composed music, although it was more of an occasional dalliance than something for which she will be principally remembered. A bequest that followed her death in 2009 established the Dina Koston and Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music, which will underwrite commissions and performance of new music at the Library of Congress, beginning with a concert of new music by Koston and others last night.

This event opened with a performance of Samuel Beckett's short play Ohio Impromptu, written for a celebration of the playwright's 75th birthday, hosted at Ohio State University in Columbus. In a framing halo of lighting elements (designed by Michael Gianniti), Joy Zinoman, founding artistic director of the Studio Theater, directed Ted van Greithuysen and Steve Nixon in this austere production. The two men, as indicated by Beckett appeared as doubles of one another, in black coat and long white hair (like some depictions of the older Abbé Liszt), seated at a table. The Reader narrates memories, heavily autobiographical in content -- with references to Beckett's memories of working with James Joyce in Paris (a wide-brimmed hat like the one Joyce used to wear rested on the end of the table) and to the "dear face" and "dear name," never specified or actually spoken (like the name of Adonai in the Jewish tradition), of Beckett's wife, Suzanne -- while the Listener listens to them. With the same intense nostalgia as seen in Beckett's character Krapp listening to his birthday tapes, the Listener sometimes strikes his hand on the table, causing the Reader to go back over something just read so that the Listener can savor it.

The Beckett was work was performed because of the piece of music that followed it, Distant Intervals, Koston's last composition, which was inspired by Ohio Impromptu, down to the knocking sounds made on the wooden bodies of some of the instruments. As performed by the Cygnus Ensemble, again with the inestimable help of conductor James Baker, it was an amassing of many unusual sounds and instrumental effects, performed beautifully, but without much to recommend it for further listening. Koston's quirky scene for voice and piano, A Short Tale, from 2005, was much more interesting, a series of enthusiastic words and expressions set to vocal melodic gestures, realized with hysterical fervor by versatile soprano Elizabeth Farnum. On the basis of these contributions, the impression of Koston as a less substantial composer remained.

Other selection were just as variable, from the inconsequential to the intriguing. In the former category was Chester Biscardi's Resisting Stillness, an atmospheric dialogue for two guitars, with some interesting harmonic effects, and Frank Brickle's arrangement of Ferruccio Busoni's Berceuse élégiaque, a melancholy but repetitive lullaby. Four excerpts from David Claman's Gone for Foreign left me at least interested to hear more, instrumental expressions of faux-English expressions the composer heard on his travels in India. In "Gone for Foreign," the movement of a train was suggested by chuffing sounds blown through the flute and the whistle-like bends of the shrill oboe. Claman continued to find countless ways of using and combining the instruments for a maximal range of ensemble tone color.

Other Reviews: Stephen Brookes, Library of Congress and Cygnus Ensemble honor Dina Koston (Washington Post, March 9)

Most striking of all were two more pieces that featured the uncanny precision of Elizabeth Farnum's voice -- she must have perfect pitch to be able to sing this music with such accuracy. Farai un vers, Frank Brickle's setting of a troubadour poem, by Guillaume IX, Duke of Aquitaine, had loosely tonal, even jazzy elements in the harmony, with a pleasingly active rhythmic style. The concert ended with the most interesting piece, a new song cycle by Mario Davidovsky, whose work in electronic music won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1971. Ladino Songs was commissioned by the new Koston-Shapiro Fund, and the story of Davidovsky's life -- born in Argentina to Jewish émigré parents -- as well as the texts -- taken from folk poetry in Ladino, the mixture of Spanish, Hebrew, and other languages spoken by Spanish Jews -- recall another composer much in the news right now, Osvaldo Golijov. So, while many people are bending over backwards to explain away the lack of originality in Golijov's music, it is also good to remember that there are other, more talented composers who do not benefit from a commissioning project sucking up resources from thirty-five orchestras. Ladino Songs was a diverting work, with some catchy rhythmic moments, some folksy vocal effects, and lots of modernistic influences in dissonant harmony and an often Webernesque spareness -- it felt like music that had absorbed many of the same influences as Golijov but had arrived at a distillation of those influences that caught the attention.

The tribute to Dina Koston continues tonight, with a concert led by Leon Fleisher and featuring his wife, Katherine Jacobson Fleisher, and musicians from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University (March 8, 8 pm), at the Library of Congress. Admission is free and open to the public.


Jeremy Irons in Ohio Impromptu (film adaptation)

'Tis the Season for Season Announcements

The Kennedy Center announced the line-up for its 2012-2013 season, which now includes the Washington National Opera as well as the National Symphony Orchestra and dance and chamber music events. What is in the air for Washington next year? That sound you hear is the angels weeping at the area's leading opera company selling out its cultural patrimony.

WASHINGTON NATIONAL OPERA:
The bad news is that WNO's season has been reduced to four main stage opera productions -- although there are some exciting all-Italian choices, that is the lowest it has ever been in the history of Ionarts. The company returns to Donizetti's Anna Bolena after an absence of two decades, with Sondra Radvanovsky making her debut in the title role; another role debut will be Patricia Racette in the title role of Puccini's Manon Lescaut; best of all, the delightful Angela Meade will make her stage debut in the title role of Bellini's Norma. In less exciting news, the 2007 production of Don Giovanni, which was kind of a dud, will be revived. Now that the company does not have to rent space from the Kennedy Center, WNO will take advantage of the Terrace Theater, with four Christmas week performances of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel and a recital by Angela Meade (with piano), and the Concert Hall, for the long-awaited company debut of soprano Diana Damrau, sadly not in a staged production but in a celebrity concert.

Shamefully, some of the company's precious budget will be squandered on non-operatic performances: a recital by baritone Nathan Gunn (with Broadway conductor Ted Sperling) and Zambello's production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's musical Show Boat, scheduled for 15 performances -- by far the longest run of any production on the season. The world has been turned upside down.

NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA:
Christoph Eschenbach's third season continues to offer worthy programming. The 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner's birth, in May 2013, will be marked with performances by mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor and contralto Nathalie Stutzmann; violinist Pekka Kuusisto will play Magnus Lindberg's violin concerto; soprano Anne Schwanewilms will lead the soloists in Beethoven's gargantuan Missa Solemnis; there will be a a week-long residency by Lang Lang, in recital and with the orchestra, who can only benefit from the mentorship of a veteran like Eschenbach; mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter will be featured in a program of Mahler, Schubert, and Mozart; John Adams will conduct his piece City Noir; and a pairing of symphonies by Schnittke and Shostakovich will be part of the NSO's spring trip to Carnegie Hall. In other interesting news, the NSO's highest ticket price is going up to $85, but the lowest is going down to $10.

KENNEDY CENTER:
At the top of the list of other performances we will definitely want to see is the new staged concert work Love Fail by David Lang, inspired by the medieval Lais of Marie de France, to be performed by the vocal quartet Anonymous 4. In ballet -- the Mariinsky Ballet's performance of Cinderella, the American Ballet Theater's Le Corsaire, and visits by the San Francisco Ballet and the New York City Ballet. In theater -- the play War Horse, with its life-size equine puppet; and, just to show I don't have anything against musicals (just opera companies wasting money on them), productions of Cole Porter's Anything Goes and the new musical The Book of Mormon. The Nordic Cool Festival, in spite of its absurd name, holds promise: Anne Sofie von Otter in recital with Bengt Forsberg, plus visits from Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theater and Norway's National Theater, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Iceland Symphony, and much more.

BALTIMORE SYMPHONY:
While Eschenbach's honeymoon with the NSO continues, Marin Alsop's tenure in Baltimore appears to have stagnated. She has put together a series of concerts for next season that recapitulates much that she has already done -- in some cases, quite literally recycling pieces from her first few seasons in Charm City. This makes me sad, as someone who has lauded the work of this orchestra -- and indeed, someone who praised the first couple of very promising seasons from Alsop. Many of the same humdrum soloists return -- Gil Shaham, Garrick Ohlsson, Orion Weiss, Colin Currie, Midori, and some of the orchestra's own principal musicians. Many of the same composer tropes are revisited -- Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Dvořák, and Bernstein (most regrettably, since all of Alsop's championship has only confirmed my low opinion of his symphonic music) -- and none of it has impressed much as Alsop conducted it in past seasons. Wagner gets his due, with Eric Owens featured in concert excerpts of Die Walküre; Hannu Lintu returns, this time with Sibelius's second symphony; the live musical score for film screening idea gets reused -- three times! -- for Alexander Nevsky, more Chaplin (Modern Times this time around), and West Side Story; the only contemporary composer really showcased by Alsop is Christopher Rouse, if we do not count John Adams's Short Ride in a Fast Machine and Shaker Loops (both repeated from earlier seasons) and Concerto 4-3, a crossover travesty from Jennifer Higdon.

Marin Alsop's current contract extends through August 2015.

SVILUPPO:
The National Philharmonic also announced its 2012-2013 season.

Winter Not Over Yet

Schubert, Winterreise, M. Goerne, G. Johnson (1997) Schubert, Winterreise (Live, Wigmore Hall), M. Goerne, A. Brendel (2004) S. Youens, Retracing a Winter's Journey: Schubert's "Winterreise" (1991)

It is Budapest, Prague, and Vienna time at the Kennedy Center this month, and Matthias Goerne is in town to help Christoph Eschenbach celebrate. On Monday night, Goerne and Eschenbach performed Schubert's song cycle Winterreise in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, in advance of Goerne's equally awaited performance, with Michelle DeYoung, in Duke Bluebeard's Castle with the National Symphony Orchestra later this week (March 8 and 10). Matthias Goerne has already recorded Schubert's gloomiest song cycle twice, once with Graham Johnson for the Hyperion Schubert Edition and a second time, live at the Wigmore Hall, with Alfred Brendel -- both quite good. In the past few years, he has been recording the Schubert song cycles with Eschenbach, too -- Die schöne Müllerin (2009), Schwanengesang (to be released next month). They have also reportedly already recorded Winterreise, too, and based on this performance, it will be a version of interest but not likely to replace either of Goerne's earlier discs.

Goerne has tended to emphasize the deranged character of the narrator of this cycle, although there are ways to understand the story that do not involve the protagonist being mentally unbalanced. It was much the same here, with Eschenbach's willingness to push the envelope of rubato and musical individuality encouraging Goerne to take more time with each line, to give a broad range of dynamics and tone color to each song. His diction, of course, his love of the poetry was as clear and fervent as ever, and even without any break at the mid-point of the cycle, the intensity of both performers held one's attention unfailingly. Unpredictability was often the most important quality of some songs, like "Wasserflut," which had some almost crazed outbursts at the end, and the howl of rage at the end of "Auf dem Flusse." At the same time, in songs where the narrator turns nostalgically to memories of the past, Goerne tempered his voice toward a lighter, more tenor-like sound, a voice of happy youth. Only once did the range of the transposition used not sit comfortably in Goerne's voice, at the high notes on the refrain "Mein Herz!" in "Die Post."

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, From Matthias Goerne, phenomenal control in Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’ (Washington Post, March 7) Tim Smith, An affecting journey to the soul of 'Winterreise' from Goerne, Eschenbach (Baltimore Sun, March 6)

The weak point in this version is with Christoph Eschenbach at the keyboard -- not his ideas, which were often brilliant, but his hands. His variations of touch and voicing from stanza to stanza in the strophic songs, like "Gute Nacht" and especially in the haunting final song, "Der Leiermann," were striking. Technically, however, the songs with more challenging accompaniments were hesitant, slightly fudged, or a little sloppy -- the triplets of "Erstarrung," the fast movement of "Rückblick," the runs in "Mut" -- not enough to make one forget this version's achievements, but it did tarnish it. Still, there were moments of intense poignancy from the combination of Goerne and Eschenbach, none more than the fifth song, "Der Lindenbaum," performed with such nostalgic freedom, a haunting mixture of remembered happiness and the whisper of suicidal longing. Quibbles aside, this was rewarding listening, another indication of the greatness of this quintessential Romantic song cycle, which can be interpreted so many ways. Susan Youens has written an exhaustive book on the cycle -- the poet and his poetic sources, the resonances with Schubert's life. Always willing to read new ideas, I came across one of the most outlandish: Roger Neighbour has even gone so far as to speculate -- quite wildly -- that Schubert was the surviving half of a "blighted twin" pregnancy, and that fetal memories explained his sense of alienation from the world, as in Winterreise. Think of that what you will!

Matthias Goerne and Michelle DeYoung join Christoph Eschenbach for a performance of Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle, with the National Symphony Orchestra, paired with the suite from The Miraculous Mandarin (March 8 and 10), in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

Ionarts-at-Large: Henze to RunAway From

Since Beethoven’s Eroica, politics-as-inspiration for music seems to have taken a steady downhill trajectory. I wouldn’t claim that Hans Werner Henze’s 1970 chamber opera El Cimarrón (“A Recital for Four Musicians”) is the nadir, but I know I’d rather sit through Der Friedenstag than Hans Magnus Enzensberger’s Marxist tripe put to modestly musical plink-plank-plunk again. Lars Kaalund’s production of the first-person account of Cuban runaway slave Esteban and the story of his escape, endurance, and exploits, was apt and budget friendly, with mobile modules for the performers, an empty box, a suspended tree trunk, and a few bed sheets.

H.W.Henze, El Cimarrón , N.Isherwood, M.Anderson, M.Caroli, R.Rossi Stradivarius

Written for baritone (Gregg Baker in an impassioned, tenacious performance), guitarist (Per Pålsson), flute (Kerstin Thiele), and percussion (Mathias Friis-Hansen—though all musicians are called upon percussive duties to some degree), Henze’s music rises between the sung and spoken words like bubbles rising between fish, but it never presents an actual accompaniment for the exposed narration. Outstanding moments are few: Henze’s writing for Guitar (with hints of his Royal Winter Music permeating the soupçon of Cuban flavor) briefly shines through. And there is some compelling percussive force to the ‘chapter’ “Women”, in which Esteban gives an account of his proto-Wilt-Chamberlain-like appreciation of the other sex (and the occasional horse). The rest vacillates between well-intentioned demeanor, busy-ness, and unintended camp. Song rarely takes flight, the flute works its grating, tedious magic, and at best the story is playfully crude. Nothing of the fantastic grand post-romantic Henze operas, like The Bassarids or Elegy for Young Lovers, can be found here. Instead, you get animated social-consciousness theater that has aged badly in every way.

Photo courtesy Oslo Opera, © Jörg Wiesner

Trouble at the Opéra de Nice

Philippe Auguin, the recently appointed music director of Washington National Opera, hails from the Mediterranean city of Nice. Around the same time that he was appointed to that position in Washington, in the fall of 2010, Auguin began a contract to serve as the music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, the ensemble that plays for performances of the Opéra de Nice. He may or may not have known that he was entering a political minefield by doing so. His appointment was an indirect result of a shakeup at the Opéra de Nice, a shift in the management of the company that reportedly brought trouble in the sometimes murky political world of Nice, as a powerful city government figure sought to undermine the recently appointed general director of the company. An article by Raphaël de Gubernatis (Intrigues en coulisses à l'Opéra de Nice, February 2) in Le Nouvel Observateur describes the trouble, and here are a few excerpts (my translation):

Only Nice, where one lives according to the rhythm of cabals, dark maneuvers, and low blows, could survive an affair like this. With the laudable goal to pull the Opéra de Nice out of the morass into which it was plunged from the mismanagement of the preceding city administrations, the current government decided to entrust the establishment to a real professional. The choice fell in 2009 on Jacques Hédouin, longtime associate of Jean-Pierre Brossmann at the head of the Opéra National de Lyon, then leading the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Under Jacques Hédouin, director of the Opéra de Nice, Alain Lanceron was engaged as artistic adviser, and this duo had as its mission restoring to this musical theater, among the most beautiful in France, the luster that it still had when it was directed by Pierre Médecin, the brother -- alas! -- of a former, disastrous mayor of Nice. A new era was beginning. The Opéra de Nice was awarded the Music Critics Prize for its production of Les Dialogues des Carmélites, conducted by Michel Plasson and in a staging by Robert Carsen.

Anywhere else, people would be overjoyed at this rebirth. In Nice, it apparently elicited only hatred and pettiness. One year after hiring him, the artistic adviser was fired, under pretext of discovering that he had been president of the recording company Virgin Classics, something everyone knew, claiming possible conflicts of interest one could have foreseen earlier.

This far-right opponent of the mayor went even further, attacking the way that Jacques Hédouin himself was hired, saying that the nature of his contract was not in line with how another city functionary would have been hired. After filing many complaints about the appointment, he managed to have an administrative tribunal take up the request to rescind the order naming Jacques Hédouin to his post. He had effectively lost his authority over the Opéra de Nice.

Jacques Hédouin was now forced into a partnership with the very person attacking his position and who would end up forcing him to resign. Quite an ambiance!

Because in this city there is always worst following worse, there were also the ambitions of the music director of the Opéra de Nice, brought in by Jacques Hédouin. Philippe Auguin, orchestra conductor and already music director of Washington National Opera, allegedly plotted to become the caliph replacing the caliph, taking the position of the man who had brought him in to the Opéra, hoping to direct a theater in Nice when he already has a post in Washington. One asks the question, unless there is not even any need to ask it.

The tone of the article is more than a little gossipy, so we asked Philippe Auguin, in town to conduct the WNO's production of Così fan tutte, for his side of the story. In the midst of a busy travel and work schedule, he was kind enough to respond to a few questions by e-mail. He began by explaining the terms of his appointment in Nice: "On the same day that my contract as Music Director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Nice began (September 6, 2010), the one-year contract of Mr. Lanceron as Artistic Advisor ended," Auguin said. "His departure had nothing to do with me, directly or indirectly. I was extremely sad about his departure since he, together with the General Director and the orchestra, wanted me to come to Nice."

The sudden departure of Lanceron left a void in terms of artistic oversight. "In the absence of anyone else able to plan and cast a season, General Director M. Hédouin asked me to take over this challenge," Auguin said. Shortly after his appointment as music director, the city government offered to name Auguin as Artistic Director of the Opera de facto, since some of the planning of the opera season, as well as the symphonic season, was falling to him. "I declined this honor in November 2010 and again in January 2011," Auguin specified, "because I had no ambition to take this position in Nice. I have no contract either as an Artistic Director or as an Artistic Advisor. Further, I have not received and do not receive any type of compensation or fee or advantage for the substantial planning work I undertook in this emergency situation."

As Auguin saw it, the company needed his help and he offered it, without ever wanting to take on the official responsibility. It was the fall of 2010, and the 2011-12 season still needed to be planned, scheduled, and cast. "The choice for me was either serve as Music Director of a theater that would remain dark for two years," he said, "or to accept their request for help in mounting the season and risk the resulting criticism." The decision was obvious to him, he said, adding, "I will always choose the music and work for the good of my institution."

Now that the General Director has also stepped down in response to pressure from the city government, Auguin is in a sense the last man standing. "To be clear, the departure of the General Director in January 2012 had nothing to do with me," he said emphatically. As he sees it, he is still just trying to help the company through a difficult time. Speaking of his decisions to assist with artistic planning, he says: "I do not overcast myself as a conductor. I do not conduct more performances than allowed by the original agreement with the City. I do not earn one cent more nor have any type of benefit. In the process of casting, no artist’s agency is being privileged nor preferred. The choice of guest singers or conductors is unrelated to my own professional activity as a guest conductor."

In the end, Auguin says that he is trying to make the best of "a situation loaded with resentment and bitterness." For now he is content that the company is running a balanced budget and that its productions are of high quality and successful with the public, which all vindicates, according to Auguin, "the confidence that the General Director, the City, and everyone at the theater put in me."

One might wish that Auguin had more influence over the direction of artistic planning at Washington National Opera. The current season of the Opéra de Nice includes three operas, including Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Alessandro Scarlatti's La Tigrane (with the Ensemble Baroque de Nice in the pit). By contrast, WNO's new artistic adviser Francesca Zambello has -- as feared -- brought her predilection for music theater to her new position. Next season at Washington National Opera will conclude with Zambello's production of Show Boat, which at fifteen performances will be the longest run of the season. O tempora! o mores!

For Winter’s Rains and Ruins Are Over

Music in celebration of springtime

Alexander Pope tells us that hope springs eternal in the human breast, and if he isn’t referring to the eternal hope for spring, he really missed out on something. It’s just the thing after a long winter to find that spring has sprung, the grass has ’riz, and to wonder where the birdies is — as the anonymous bard so eloquently put it in “Spring In The Bronx.” Beethoven felt the same way.

So did Schumann, Mendelssohn, Stravinsky and just about every other composer who ever wielded his or her seasoned pen. They all wrote about spring in some way or other — famously or forgottenly, parenthetically or prominently. From Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck’s 1595 two-voice chanson Voicy du gay printemps l’heureux advenement to Benoit Mernier’s 2008 opera on Frank Wedekind’s play Fruhlings Erwachen, the theme of spring has served as inspiration, picturesque expression and thematic link for composers...

Full article in the current issue of LISTEN Magazine & on their website at: http://www.listenmusicmag.com/feature/for-winters-rains-and-ruins-are-over.php

La Gheorghiu Hams It Up

When Angela Gheorghiu makes her Washington National Opera debut, it should be a big deal. So it seemed to be, when a capacity crowd turned up at the Kennedy Center Opera House to hear the capricious Romanian soprano. They had paid extravagant prices ($50 to $190) for tickets to the latest in the Plácido Domingo Celebrity Series, one of the final legacies of the company's former (celebrity) artistic director. Gheorghiu is a diva in every sense of the word, and she upheld the title by taking the stage in three different gowns to sing a total of eight arias on the official program. She even sang some of them relatively well.

Some things one expects La Gheorghiu to do well, music that benefits from the power of her projection and the dramatic zing of her presence, sometimes a little over the top but with sizzle. A recital's worth of such pieces are brought together on her recent "Homage to Callas" disc for EMI, released last year, and in those pieces -- like "Pleurez, mes yeux" from Massenet's Le Cid and "Ebben?...Ne andrò lontana" from Catalani's La Wally (music used to such memorable effect in Jean-Jacques Beineix's crazy 80s film Diva) -- and others like them, Gheorghiu soared. She could spin out an alluring cantabile line, too, as in the melancholy "O nume tutelar" from Gaspare Spontini's La Vestale and the other Massenet piece, "Adieu, notre petite table" from Manon.

Homage to Maria Callas, A. Gheorghiu, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, M. Armiliato

Most of the music on the first half, on the other hand, did not suit her voice, and she often seemed to have had little preparation on either the diction or the musical line. "Vive amour," from Massenet's Chérubin, was a fluffy trifle of a piece with harp and pizzicato strings (the text could have been in Romanian, though), and the "Song to the Moon" from Dvořák's Rusalka did not really sit comfortably in the sense of ensemble with the orchestra. Whoever told Gheorghiu it would be a good idea to sing Handel (a disastrously uncoordinated "Ombra mai fu," from Serse) and Mozart (an undistinguished "Deh vieni" from Le Nozze di Figaro) should have his head examined. Gheorghiu's insecurities were only made worse by the ham-handed conducting of Eugene Kohn (an opera accompanist turned conductor, he is apparently another parting gift from Plácido Domingo, who has worked with Kohn on many occasions). His swirled gestures, lunging cues, and bizarre beat were largely ignored by the musicians of the Opera House Orchestra. This meant that when Gheorghiu dropped a beat, which happened most obviously in the Handel but in other places too, or moved the tempo ahead without much warning, the orchestra usually fumbled to get back on track.

Other Articles: Anne Midgette, Gheorghiu, Washington National Opera put on a less-than-coordinated performance (Washington Post, March 5) Terry Ponick, Angela Gheorghiu dazzles in Washington National Opera debut (Washington Times, March 4) Patrick McCoy, A Diva's Debut: Glamorous soprano enraptures audience in DC (Washington Examiner, March 4) [Also see the commentary on the above at Parterrebox]

Kohn did little to sharpen the scatter-shot renditions of opera overtures covering Gheorghiu's wardrobe changes either. The "Dance of the Hours" from Ponchielli's La Gioconda held together the best. Mozart's overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio almost came apart at the seams due to a breathless tempo choice: Ferdinand Hérold's Zampa and Berlioz's Le Corsaire also had misalignments across the orchestra, with some lovely solos along the way. Gheorghiu decided to postpone the beloved aria "O mio babbino caro," from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, making it instead the second of her encores, and the only interesting one at that. The less said about the other encores -- Jerome Kern's "All the Things You Are" (with microphone in hand!), Frederick Loewe's "I Could Have Danced All Night," and Agustín Lara's "Granada" (a perennial Domingo favorite) -- the better.

For an even less substantial concert than this one, the Plácido Domingo Celebrity Series will inflict Deborah Voigt on its audience, singing nothing but Broadway songs. We do not recommend it.

Benjamin Grosvenor, Prodigy Grown Up

Charles T. Downey, Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor offers depth at Kennedy Center
Washington Post, March 5, 2012

Chopin / Liszt / Ravel, B. Grosvenor (released on February 28, 2012) Decca 478 3206 | 75'15" [REVIEW] This and That (encore pieces), B. Grosvenor (2011, MP3)

When Benjamin Grosvenor won the keyboard award at the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 2004, he was all of 11 years old. Grosvenor has gone on to give recitals and concerto appearances, and he had the distinction of opening the Proms in London last summer. Local listeners had their chance to hear him Saturday afternoon, when he became one of the youngest performers on Washington Performing Arts Society’s Hayes Piano Series, at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

It was a prodigious debut, marked in equal parts by Grosvenor’s outstanding technical accomplishment and his interpretive depth. One could quibble about his approach, but he had strong ideas and he stuck to them. Bach’s Fourth Partita was exhilarating in the fast movements, especially the rushed contrapuntal section of the overture and a precise, even fussy gigue. The allemande oozed along, with a heavy foot on the pedal and little wisps of pastel in the fast-note decoration, while the sarabande did not seem as slow.

Chopin’s Third Sonata seemed the most empty, the vivacious scherzo movement produced as if on a demonic player piano with the tempo dial at maximum but lacking a luscious legato touch in the largo. Scriabin’s Second Sonata had much the same sound, just on a smaller scale, and a Rachmaninoff set showed Grosvenor’s theatrical side, in the dazzling triplet chords of the Op. 39, No. 5 etude-tableau; the tooth-rotting treacle of “Lilacs”; and the circus-act dazzle of “Polka de W. R.” [Continue reading]

Benjamin Grosvenor, piano
Washington Performing Arts Society
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

Other performances of Bach's Partita No. 4: Murray Perahia, András Schiff, Glenn Gould, Grigory Sokolov -- Perahia is my favorite in the fast movements, so clean and unmannered, but Schiff wins in the Sarabande, for capturing its enigmatic nature without overdoing it, especially how he pedals the little flourish in the second measure of each section, making this little misty cloud of harmony hanging in the air; Schiff also wins in the Menuet movement

OTHER REVIEW:
Dorothy Hindman, Teen pianist Grosvenor requires artistic seasoning (South Florida Classical Review, March 2)

Jerusalem Quartet at the Barns

Charles T. Downey, Jerusalem String Quartet exhibits dazzling coordination
Washington Post, March 5, 2012

Shostakovich, String Quartets 1/4/9, Jerusalem Quartet

Political protests have dogged the Jerusalem String Quartet because of its association with the armed forces of its native Israel, including at a 2007 concert at the Library of Congress. Perhaps by going outside Washington, to the partially filled Barns at Wolf Trap on Friday night, the group avoided such trouble. Foreign policy grumblings, if there were any, vanished when the group played quartets by Beethoven, Debussy and Shostakovich.

This fine quartet, formed in 1993 when the members were conservatory students in Jerusalem, has made a series of recordings for Harmonia Mundi, none better than a pair of discs of Shostakovich quartets. No surprise, then, that Shostakovich’s eighth quartet stood out on this program, too, for the vigor of the interpretation, which kept one on the edge of one’s seat, and the overall quality of playing from all four musicians in dazzling coordination. [Continue reading]

Jerusalem String Quartet
Barns at Wolf Trap

• Beethoven, Quartet in G Major Op. 18, No. 2 (played by the Talich Quartet)
• Debussy, String Quartet in G Major (Michael Strasser on the origins of Debussy's string quartet)
• Shostakovich, ninth string quartet (played by the Borodin Quartet), E-flat major, op. 117

PREVIOUSLY:
- 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, Shostakovich
- Anti-Zionist protests, as recently as last year

Yefim Bronfman at Strathmore

Brahms / Saint-Saëns, Piano Concertos, Y. Bronfman, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Z. Mehta

Friday evening in the Music Center at Strathmore, pianist Yefim Bronfman made his fifteenth appearance under the auspices of the Washington Performing Arts Society. Bronfman's personalized solo program of Haydn, Brahms, and Prokofiev was most welcome, as he is often heard in the region as chamber musician or concerto soloist.

The first movement (Allegro) of Haydn's bright Sonata in C, Hob. XVI:50, contains quite short figures and thoughts reminiscent of the Italian baroque sonatas of Scarlatti. Bronfman approached the second movement (Adagio) in a simple way by following the articulations given by the composer and adding lyrical direction. Not overplayed, the brief third movement (Allegro molto) was as tight and refreshing as first movement.

Brahms's five-movement Sonata No. 3 in F minor begins quite victoriously for Brahms, with hands intensely at the extreme ends of the keyboard. The kaleidoscope of singing lines of the second movement (Andante expressivo) of this young work, composed when Brahms was only twenty, was beautifully voiced and always in motion, and most of the time floating softly in the upper registers of the instrument. The third-movement Scherzo was earthy, gruff, and even angry. Bronfman was able to express the manic multitude of affections from Brahms's adolescent soul, all while performing with a stunning technical accuracy.

Other Reviews: Joe Banno, Bronfman puts on a virtuosic performance at Strathmore (Washington Post, March 5)

The second half of the program turned to the 20th century, with Prokofiev's Sonata No. 8 in B-flat. Eric Bromberger states in his program notes that this sonata, written during the same period, in 1944, as Prokofiev's victorious Fifth Symphony heard in this hall just a week ago, is perhaps Prokofiev's private "reaction" to the Second World War. The mysterious first movement (Andante dolce) contained moments of incredible dissonance, with an overall rudderless uncertainty. The short, bittersweet second movement was followed by the final movement, building from playful humor into chaos, with a simple three-note motif midway through that is insanely repeated, until it is transformed into something momentarily beautiful. Within the powerful final chaos, Bronfman, the master of conveying complex, contradictory emotions, was able to derive glimpses of order, hope, and remembrance.

The next recital presented by WPAS will feature violinist Vadim Repin and pianist Itamar Golan, in the Music Center at Strathmore (March 16, 8 pm).

In Brief: In Like a Lion Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to good things in Blogville and Beyond.

• This week, you can watch a series of performances with Bernard Haitink leading the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, starting with Beethoven's sixth symphony, Egmont Overture, and Triple Concerto (embedded here), and more of the Beethoven series. [ARTE Live Web]


• Christian Thielemann conducts the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden in Brahms's enigmatic Tragic Overture, Reger's Eine romantische Suite, op. 125 (which is something you simply must hear), and the first piano concerto of Brahms, with Maurizio Pollini as soloist. [Österreichischer Rundfunk]


• From the Opéra de Lyon's Festival Puccini, a performance of Suor Angelica, with Csilla Boross in the title role -- she will take the role of Abigaille in Nabucco this spring at Washington National Opera. [France Musique]


• Boross also sings Giorgetta in Lyon's performance of Il Tabarro. [France Musique]


• More news on Natalie Dessay's new Debussy recording, given a live outing at the Salle Pleyel with pianist Philippe Cassard: some online videos of a couple of the songs and comments by the performers go with this article. Dessay has also been saying that she will take a sabbatical year from performing next year. [Le Monde]


• Jérémie Rhorer leads his period instrument ensemble Le Cercle de l'Harmonie in a survey of the symphony and overture in the 18th century (music by Mondonville, Leduc, Gossec, Rigel, Hérold, Cherubini, plus the usual suspects). [France Musique]


• Speaking of recovering lost music, Austrian musicologist Hildegard Herrmann-Schneider, in the course of research for the RISM project, has identified an unknown piano work by Mozart. Austrian pianist Florian Birsak will play the piece on March 23, on Mozart's pianoforte in the Mozart house in Salzburg. The usual warnings about "discoveries of new pieces" apply here, but one has fewer doubts if the RISM project is involved. [Le Monde]


• From the Théâtre du Châtelet, Philippe Jordan leads the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta. [France Musique]


• Catalan viola da gambist Jordi Savall is releasing a disc of music in tribute to his late wife, soprano Montserrat Figueras. After forty-seven years of marriage, "Montserrat will remain my muse," he told Thierry Hillériteau in an interview about the project. "She understood things about singers from their behavior, their appearance, toward which repertories their taste could lead them. This was more than a musical gift: she was interested in other people, for their humanity above all. I was surprised by the number of people who shared their sadness with me after she died: musicians, yes, but also everyday people, taxi drivers or gardeners who had crossed paths with her." [Le Figaro]


• A pairing of Bartók's Sonata for two pianos and percussion with a recent work by Martin Matalon, La Makina, for two pianos, percussion, and electronics. [France Musique]


• Embarking on a new tour to celebrate the 25th year of his solo career, the rock musician Sting gave an interview to François Délétraz, in which he spoke of his love for classical music: "Deliberately, I listen only to classical music. Most recently, my friend Katia Labèque sent me her new CD of Ravel piano pieces. I have a weakness for French piano music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, like Ravel, Debussy, Théodore Dubois, Erik Satie... Working with a symphony orchestra opened up new territory for me as a singer. I had the impression of having more room to develop my voice, like another way of breathing. An orchestra is very organic, very powerful, and one must be dedicated to it. Oddly, with a rock band, you are much more limited, but I love them both. [Le Figaro]


• Susanna Mälkki leads the Ensemble Intercontemporain in new pieces by Sean Shepherd, Texu Kim, Unsuk Chin, and Michael Jarrell, at the Cité de la Musique. [France Musique]


• Sad news this week of the death of French trumpeter Maurice André. [Le Point]


• Brass and percussion players from the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France perform unusual pieces by Sibelius and other Finnish composers. [France Musique]


• French novelist Georges Perec, who loved incorporating puzzles, games, and math into his works, died 30 years ago this year. Guillaume Sbalchiero marks the event with an acrostic poem in Perec's honor. [L'Express]


• Speaking of Perec, an early novel written by him in the late 1950s, Le Condottière, has been discovered and published this year by Seuil (Gallimard). It is a sort of detective mystery, following Gaspard Winckler, a painting forger who is unable to make a copy of Antonello da Messina's 1475 portrait known as Il Condottiero and kills the client who ordered it. [Le Nouvel Observateur]


• Leon Fleisher, François-Frédéric Guy, and Alon Goldstein join the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France for Mozart's concerto for three pianos, K. 242, and other music by Mozart, from the Opéra Comique. [France Musique]

Ionarts-at-Large: Berlioz' Damnation

La Damnation de Faust should not feel as long as Les Troyens. Now, Stéphane Denève knows more about conducting Berlioz than I know listening to the composer, and therefore I should seek faults on my part first. I’m a troubled Berlioz-listener. In abstract I admire his phenomenal skill in orchestration, or the innovative use of instrumentation. But when I listen to the undisputable master of episodic phantasmorgasm, I often feel like I have ADD. Appropriate for the Will-o-the-Wisp Minuet, granted. But I look with some desperation to a conductor to take me by the ear and pull me from beginning to end, without the mind beginning to wander.

When the Munich Philharmonic performed La Damnation, it had plenty to wander and wonder. Did Berlioz need to be so decorous, so de-clawed, so serene? My ear strained for gunpowder, sulfur, and explosions; in short: cheap excitement. Denève strolled about and smelled all the beautiful flowers on the way. He did that with indubitable skill and very palpable enjoyment, and the orchestra was with him, most of the way. But the way he caressed every bloody detail—in any case easier to appreciate with a score than in concert—he reminded me of Levine in Wagner: “E.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g is marvelous!” and never an end in sight. And the one bit that I would actually have enjoyed taken with some leisure—Mephistopheles’ very catchy serenade (“Maintenant chantons à cette belle”)—was taken so fast and rushed, that the participants were all over the place and slurred it to the point where it was hard to recognize an old favorite.

H.Berlioz, La Damnation de Faust, K.Nagano / Lyon / J.v.Dam, S.Graham, T.Moser Erato

A dash of vim was added, at last, by Béatrice Uria-Monzon’s Marguerite. Next to José van Dam (no longer the baritone he used to be), Jean-Marie Frémeau (with a voice like an empty oil barrel), and the young-but-tired-sounding Jean-Noël Briend (last minute replacement for Eric Cutler), she brought much needed élan into the geriatric singer’s line-up. By some measure the least innocent character on stage (very easy to believe that the rôles in her repertoire include Venus and Judith), Béatrice Uria-Monzon had a voice easily twice as penetrating as any of her colleagues, and a slight hardness in the upper regions was a small price to pay for the much needed dose of terse excitement. The highlight of the evening (and greatest benefactor of Denève’s insistence on beauty) was Marguerite’s Romance, which is really a love duet for soprano and English horn, with both of them in absolute top form.

For all the chorus members’ families as potential attendees (the fine amateur Munich Philharmonic Chorus and the Tölz Boys’ Choir—which Berlioz wastefully employs only in the last two minutes), the Philharmonic Hall offered surprisingly many empty seats, and the applause was warm, which is to say, hardly enthusiastic. Perhaps mine weren’t the only ears that struggled.

Benjamin Grosvenor Hits the Big Time

Chopin / Liszt / Ravel, B. Grosvenor (released on February 28, 2012) Decca 478 3206 | 75'15"

When Benjamin Grosvenor won the keyboard award at the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 2004, the British pianist was all of 11 years old. His performance then was so striking, so composed for someone so young, that it added force to gripes about the overall award going to violinist Nicola Benedetti. Since then, Grosvenor has been the darling of the British press, and his story certainly has appeal: the son of a piano teacher mother, he started piano only when he was six and is now completing studies at the Royal Academy of Music. He also gives recitals and concerto appearances all over the world, including opening the Proms last year, quite an honor for someone his age -- and, this afternoon, his debut on Washington Performing Arts Society's Hayes Piano Series with a recital at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Grosvenor signed a recording deal with Decca last year, too, and his first disc, a recital of Chopin, Liszt, and Ravel, has just been released, to go along with an album of encore favorites made earlier. It's a clever bit of programming, alternating all four of Chopin's scherzos, to show off his technical prowess, with four of the nocturnes, for finesse. The scherzos are certainly fast, with the outer sections of no. 1, placed first, sounding almost like a player piano with the tempo juiced to the max. There is at times almost not enough time for the ear to register anything, the notes go by so fast. The slow section of that scherzo is milked for maximum contrast, but at times it is almost too soft and slow. Similarly, the first nocturne he plays (op. 15/2) has a wan tonal quality, a wilting softness that is somewhat affected. All of the scherzo-nocturne pairings are presented in much the same way, but the program gets more interesting, followed by two of Liszt arrangements of Chopin's songs and a Liszt nocturne. The selection is then crowned by Ravel's notoriously difficult Gaspard de la nuit, also the climax of his Kennedy Center recital. It is the sort of piece we hear so many young pianists using to show off their technical bona fides. Grosvenor has the technique, although perhaps not yet the sense to know how far is too far to push the effect of finger-smashing speed, and interpretative depth, heard in the Ravel and in the dissonant bagatelles of Carl Vine, played at the BBC competition and embedded in the video below. It remains to be seen how far he takes the promise of his youth when he reaches full maturity.


(See also his Scarlatti)

Vienna Philharmonic Grinds It Out

The last time that the Vienna Philharmonic came to Washington was in 2003, presented by Washington Performing Arts Society, as that organization had done regularly since 1956. The Austrian ensemble's long-awaited return, again sponsored by WPAS last night in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, was both welcome and, perhaps inevitably, disappointing. As noted by Washington Post critic Tim Page of the 2003 concert, the problem with the orchestra's previous visit came down to the choice of conductor (Nikolaus Harnoncourt), and that seemed to be the cause of the less satisfying aspects of last night's concert, too. Lorin Maazel has been able to work magic in recent concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra and the young musicians of his Castleton Festival, but the musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic proved resistant.

The high point of this program was a roiling performance of Sibelius's seventh symphony (heard several times in the last few years), which Maazel shaped in beautiful ways, crafting those blossoming crescendos to build just the right frisson of exultation. These moments are often crowned by the appearance of the triumphant trombone motif that Sibelius once marked with the name of his wife, Aino, but later claimed was not in any way programmatic. The score shows Sibelius being quite adventurous with dissonant structures, which Maazel made shimmer rather than clash, just as they should. The sound of this orchestra is distinguished by its rather transparent, glowing violin sound: the violins often hover warmly rather than always dominating the texture with an impenetrable wall of more strident sound as in so many other orchestras. This allowed many interesting sounds, well worth hearing, to come out of the texture from the low strings (the lush section for violas, cellos, and basses near the beginning of the single movement, for example) and woodwinds especially. Here Maazel sounded truly in his element, his beat allowing a free rubato that made the music more expressive, less about anxious tension, except in the scherzo-like section in the middle, which still never felt forced. This performance seethed in this way, down to the final ardent yearning of the upward-slicing semitone of the final resolution.

This concert was co-sponsored by the Kennedy Center because it happened to fall at the start of its Music of Prague, Budapest, and Vienna festival. Sadly, as a result, the orchestra did not play its all-Sibelius program (symphonies 1, 5, and 7 -- heard via online radio from Vienna a couple weeks ago). We had to have a Mozart first half, which unfortunately sounded like the neglected B side of the orchestra's touring program. Maazel did nothing particularly remarkable with either the overture to Le Nozze di Figaro or the overplayed Symphony No. 40 (G minor, K. 550), except insist on taking some of the fast tempos rather slow. These tempi were apparently slower than what the musicians may have liked, as the orchestra seemed to bridle against them like an impatient thoroughbred. Maazel, whose intensive, weighted gestures were translated into a slightly stodgy, cumbersome sound, may over-think or over-weight his Mozart -- the only moment of lightness really was in the trio of the menuetto, where his gestures relaxed. It was all played well, with a watchmaker's precision, but it felt lifeless and often plodding.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, Lorin Maazel and Vienna Philharmonic offer some surprises (Washington Post, March 2) Tim Smith, Lorin Maazel, Vienna Philharmonic reach impressive heights in DC visit (Baltimore Sun, March 2)

Strauss's suite from Der Rosenkavalier is obviously the bread and butter of the Vienna Philharmonic, but here too Maazel's interpretation seemed a little affected and mannered, almost comically so in the waltz sections. Chalk some of this up to Maazel feeling indisposed: the illness that caused him to cancel the VPO concerts in Scandinavia still had him a bit under the weather. The rich sound of the orchestra was nonetheless a pleasure to hear, especially that charming solo group section led by solo violin, and it is an ensemble that can turn on a dime, a sports car with a stage-filling number of working parts. The roster, albeit now actually featuring a smattering of musicians who do not wear tuxedos, still strikes one as so predominantly male. As if to underscore the importance of traditions with this orchestra, Maazel launched into a long encore, the name of which he jokingly said he could not recall, An der schönen blauen Donau, by Johann Strauss, Jr.

The Vienna Philharmonic's concert at Carnegie Hall on Saturday night (March 3, 8 pm) will be broadcast live on NPR. The next visiting orchestra on the WPAS schedule is the European Union Youth Orchestra (April 15, 4 pm), in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, with conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy and violinist Pinchas Zukerman.

2012 Whitney Biennial... meh

After a winter of spring and a political primary that feels like a replay of the Scopes trial, I was looking forward to this year's episode of the Whitney Biennial. When it comes around every other year, I dive into it whole-hearted, open-minded, and try real hard to like it.

I really do look forward to this show, and of course there are many things each round to like. The year long run-up, choosing the curators, rumors of whose studio got a visit, and finally the announcement of the chosen -- it's fun. I don't think it will make or break a career as it once may have, but it certainly can't hurt. However, if this year's assemblage is what the curators feel is the pulse of the art world right now, we may have to call a code, because this patient is weak.

Works by the 2012 Biennial's fifty-one artists, selected by Elisabeth Sussman, Sondra Gilman (Curator of Photography at the Whitney), and Jay Sanders, take over most of the Whitney's floor space. The fourth floor has become a 6,000-square-foot, all-white performance space for music, dance, theater, and other events. That wedge of a window jutting out onto Madison Ave. has also been exposed -- new to me. It's very dramatic: I'd like to see it stay uncovered. Oddly, we weren't allowed to take pictures there.

So what did I like? The most striking piece for me is Werner Herzog's Hearsay of the Soul, an installation of projected etchings by Hercules Segers with music by Ernst Reijseger (Requiem for a Dying Planet and Cave of Forgotten Dreams). An excerpt from Herzog's film Ode to the Dawn of Man features the cellist Ernst Reijseger and Harmen Fraanje on the organ -- it's a stunning, emotional piece.

I could stop here, as nothing else in this biennial can compare with the quality and depth of Herzog's presentation. It's Hollywood-grade and he's not even an American artist. I make this judgment, of course, without seeing the performances that will take place in the fourth floor in the months to come, and as regular readers know, I don't have the patience to sit and watch too many video installations. That said, this biennial is weighted heavily toward film and video, with ongoing performances and screenings over the run of the show. Wu Tsang's environment Green Room -- part bar, part underground hang-out -- actually brought back memories of my shadowy past, it's true. Baltimore filmmaker Matt Porterfield's Putty Hill screens on May 9 to 13.

I did like Tom Thayer's mixed-media assemblages -- he shows with the Derek Eller Gallery -- and the outsider-ish artist, the late Forrest Bess. You may know Bess's paintings and constructions, but he also performed surgeries on his man-parts and documented the process with photographs -- I know. He always wanted to exhibit the documentation next to his paintings, and his gallerist, the great Betty Parsons, always politely declined. Well, this is your chance, along with a letter to President Eisenhower and other archival curiosities. I do enjoy his paintings.

Add Nicole Eisenman's paintings to my also-likes. The Breakup (by Blackberry) is a hoot, and also an arrangement of forty-five monotypes, nice work. Andrew Masullo's colorful canvases reminded me of Tom Nozkowski paintings. Kai Althoff makes a dramatic statement as you enter the fourth-floor galleries, with paintings hanging from a woven silk drape.

See, I did find goodness. It's impossible to have such a large gathering of artists and not find something to like, hopefully love and be inspired by. I'm fortunate enough to see many art exhibits, many great ones -- all over the country -- lots of inspired, knee-weakening, heart-throbbing art being produced. If you don't find it at this edition of the biennial, there's always Baltimore, D.C., Philly, Boston, St. Louis -- pssst, the Museum of Modern Art has a pretty nice Cindy Sherman retro, Diego Rivera, and a very inspiring print exhibit.

The 2012 Whitney Biennial runs through May 27th. More pictures here.