The Kit-Kat Conductor: Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 13 )

Nestlé Young Conductors Award • Round Table

Nestlé, the oldest corporate sponsor of the Salzburg Festival, has as of late focused its attention (worth €700,000 or $1M) on the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award. “An award, not a competition!” (Artistic Director Markus Hinterhäuser), the YCA—in its second year—tries to find a worthy young conductor every year and boost his career by means of prize money and, more importantly, international exposure: A proper Festival-concert in the Felsenreitschule with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. A CD release down the road on Orfeo’s line of Festival concert recordings. And of course plenty press coverage through a whole lot of journalists flown in from the US and Asia and pampered with lovely dinners† and Macbeth-tickets—all courtesy Nestlé, evidently eager to get the word out.

A round table discussion on August the 12th preceded the YCA concert: The lofty topic was “Can culture and arts create identity and peace or is economic prosperity more decisive?” It got poked at by Markus Hinterhäuser, the chairmen of Roche and Nestlé, Franz Humer and Peter Brabeck, Ann Veneman (who has held the jobs of executive director of UNICEF and US Secretary of Agriculture) and Catherine David who has been curator of several French museums in the 80s and 90s, and has focused on Arab and middle eastern art for over a decade. Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler presided graciously over the event that veered close to becoming a farce.

With a topic like that, vague to the point of meaningless and throwing in a false dichotomy for good measure, it wasn’t too surprising that the discussion descended into an unbroken string of platitudes (courtesy Mme. Veneman) and finally got stuck in the utterly incomprehensible inane prattling of Mme. (“My-theory-is-that-sugar-is-even-more-dangerous-than-tobacco”) LangDavid. The latter referenced every name-dropped Middle-Eastern or French artist-philosopher-philologist-politician with a whole family tree, got endlessly entangled in obscure asides, and muttered heavy-accented, half-digested anecdotes masquerading as insight until she was finally interrupted and silenced to general relief.

The only useful contributions came from the three, mercifully level-headed, men; no-nonsense business-like attitudes of the two chairmen, unsullied by corporate-speak. In between came the devastatingly pithy comments from Markus Hinterhäuser who couldn’t quite hide his mild annoyance with the errant superciliousness of the topic. He boiled it down to a cut-and-dry: “A Schubert Symphony will not help people in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.” Or “Refugees on Lampedusa don’t need a Beethoven Sonata.” And finally: “We’re so intellectual about art, putting contemporary art galleries into social problem zones and find it very chic to be part of that [‘enlightened’] community. But people who struggle decidedly do not care about modern art galleries”. Those were crisp and refreshing comments sufficient—if they hadn’t been half lost on the audience—to expose the idea of burdening of music with extra-musical tasks, whether creating (cultural) identity or peace, as absurd. Neither Tottenham riots nor Rwandan genocide can be traced to a Mozart-deficiency, yet the dictatorships of this world have always marched along to a nice and steady beat of state-supported music. Music accompanies more than it creates. Dancing and singing, pace Mme. Veneman, might just not be particularly “important instruments to create awareness amongst local communities about issues that have an adverse effect on their lives, such as malnutrition, access to water or poor sanitation.” It doesn’t take a drum circle to realize the well has dried up.

Between Humer and Brabeck, attempts were made to bring perspective back into the discussion, which was particularly refreshing since both chair companies generously sponsor culture and might have been thought to have an interest in exalted ideas about what the thus-sponsored culture can actually achieve. Humer railed against imposing Western (management styles and) culture on companies in foreign countries, suggested that “our Chinese management couldn’t care less about our sponsorship of the Salzburg Festival ‘Kontinente’ series”, and then dryly referenced Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: food, security, shelter coming well before art. Brabeck meanwhile agreed that music is an expression, not the origin of culture; not inherently good (or bad), but merely a good, which at best enriches the lives of individuals who then can either make something out of that personal improvement, or not.

The Venezuelan El Sistema horse was very nearly flogged to death—especially by Ann Veneman—as the epitome of all that is good and wonderful as far as peace- and identity-building music programs go. Comments that a similar project is missing in Europe, not the least due to the lack of local political support were restrained by Brabeck who pointed out that El Sistema’s origins were precisely not political; that the project had even been opposed by the political powers-that-were. The fact that the current regime makes good use of the orchestra as a propaganda tool was largely ignored, although a snide audience comment remarked that the orchestra’s outreach to Venezuelan prisons was “very gratifying, because it finally gave opposition politicians and independent journalists the opportunity to learn the clarinet.” In strange comparison to the tune of “Venezuela-wonderful”, the politically correct China-bashing was just about to set in when Franz Humer calmly suggested that lifting 400+ million people out of poverty in just a couple of decades, with as many projected to leave poverty behind in the next two decades again, was something worth checking one’s condescending, however–accurate, remarks about human rights abuses.

An apropos aside: As the roundtable the convened, AP sent out the news item that Daniel Barenboim was being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the East-West Divan Orchestra (to perform at the Festival just a week later). A whole different can of worms about culture and its pretensions for peace that was—fortunately—not opened.

† Disclosure: I, too, have partaken in the enjoyment of said lovely dinners.

The YCA Winner - The Kit-Kat‡ Conductor

A press conference the day before, with some of the same principal members (Brabeck, Hinterhäuser, Rabl-Stadler), had announced the 2011 winner of the Young Conductor’s Award that Nestlé sponsors. ‘Supporting young talent and honoring outstanding performance in an appropriate way’ are surely all among the reasons why Nestlé sponsors this event; a simpler explanation might be that the company’s chairman and former CEO, Brabeck, once wanted to be a conductor himself. (That he went on to feed the world instead of leading orchestras strikes as a prudent decision.)

A jury of nine musicians and arts administrators (including Mitsuko Uchida and Frans Welser-Möst) decided—after screening video tapes, whittling the applicants down to three, then sending them through ropes (a rehearsal- and ‘concert-like performance’) with the Gulbenkian Orchestra (dir. Lawrence Foster) in Lisbon—on a winner. At the end—after the second of Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra (for everyone) and Brahms’ Tragic Overture (in the case of the would-be-winner), the process spat out Ainārs Rubiķis, a soft-spoken 33-year old Latvian who doesn’t look a day older than 19. With that bit of news out of the way, the conference moved on to the apparent highlight, the ceremonial cutting of a 20th Anniversary Nestlé-Salzburg cooperation cake.

The next day Rubiķis would get to perform with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra (“Monsters – in a good way” so Rubiķis), a program he, Hinteräuser, and the Alexander Meraviglia-Crivelli (General Secretary of the GMYO and member of the YCA jury) put on the back of a napkin, with Rubiķis’ repertoire in front of them.

The YCA Concert

The resulting program on the 13th, in trying to cover all the bases, offered bland aimlessness in the form of Debussy’s Prelude á l’apres-midi d’un faune, Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto, Britten’s Four Sea Interludes, and Stravinsky’s Firebird; by and large pieces in which conductors can lose more than gain. Even though the promise of Ainārs Rubiķis exceeds—so the unofficial opinion of the jury members—that of last year’s winner David Afkham, the latter’s concert program (Ligeti Atmosphères and Shostakovich 10th Symphoy) was much stronger in conception and—as the just-issued recording of the concert suggests—execution. (And Afkham is six years younger...)

Ligeti, Shostakovich, Atmosphères, Sy.10, David Afkham, GMYO Orfeo C797

The first thing Rubiķis displayed was that he has all the pompous conductor-poses down pat: Starting with ostentatiously shaking the concert master’s hand, then generously-portentously gesturing the orchestra to sit (an elongated, studied circular wave) and finally going for the obnoxious applause-prevention-conclusion-pose that fakes rapt post-performance audience-silence when the music (or performance) itself wasn’t sufficient to do so. Once invented to keep the early eager clappers in check, it’s become a bad habit that has spread to almost every conductor in every piece that ends with anything less than a triple-fortissimo chord.

It certainly followed the Debussy, which had an unchallengeable, unorganized prettiness about it. It followed the horsey percussion tic-toc and quiet cello pizzicato of the Shostkovich Concerto—with soloist Alisa Weilerstein. I cherish Weilerstein as a very competent cellist, certainly enough for a nicely buzzing Eastern seaboard career. But I am amazed at her continually growing international track record that suggests super-stardom where I hear mere pleasantness. So in the Shostakovich, which showcased a gorgeous tone in the opening before descending into something slightly whiney in a first movement that felt slower than it was. She is subtle (a plus, generally) without being quietly-understatedly overwhelming. Incidentally, she strongly reminds me of one of my favorite Muppet characters, except gripping, not chasing the frog.

The Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra—given the gender distribution on this tour being almost the inverse of the Vienna Philharmonic’s a friend suggested “Alma Mahler Youth Orchestra” a more appropriate moniker for the band*—is not a typical youth orchestra. It’s basically a professional orchestra working in the finest concert halls with the best and most reputable conductors, minus the pay. As an educational institution, the players just get room and board. Or as the GMYO website flips the statement around: “The musicians’ participation in the tour projects of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER is free of charge.” Perhaps that contributes to the excitement of performing in a professional setting not being audible at all times, as it would be with a youth orchestra that has at best one high profile outings a year. Or perhaps the orchestra’s edge was dulled by the foot of felt that covers the stage of the Felsenreitschule, courtesy Peter Stein’s Macbeth.

The Four Sea Interludes are great, exciting music that work well just with great dynamic extremes and gradations (of which the GMYO has many) even when color and nuance are in short supply (as they were). The conducting itself was an array of symmetric, soothing arm extensions which didn’t seem to much affect the orchestra one way or the other. During “Moonlight” orchestra and band were in sync; in “Storm” Rubiķis was at his most precise. The concluding Firebird (one of the orchestral Salzburg-highlights with the RCO last year) was monochrome and loud with self-conscious moments… very accurately played but neither on fire or quite taking flight, as it were. It was a good concert, without being a special moment, and it offered no insights as to the future or even quality of the 2011 Kit-Kat Conductor.


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Picture courtesy Salzburg Festival, © Silvia Lelli

*One wonders how such a name might manifest itself… would the orchestra immediately start to cheat on the Salzburg Festival with any number of other, fine art and architecture festivals?)

‡ Temporarily forgetting about US American audiences I punned without taking notice that in the US Kit Kat is produced (under license) by Hershey, not Nestlé

What to Hear Next Season: Other Small Series

See my preview of more concerts for the 2011-2012 season, at the Freer and elsewhere:

What to Hear Next Season: More Chamber Music, August 23):

Another museum that hosts a free concert series is the Freer Gallery of Art, with occasional but always intriguing concerts in the Meyer Auditorium, an intimate venue with a lovely acoustic. As for the Library of Congress series, one needs a ticket for the Freer concerts, which can be ordered in advance through Ticketmaster, for a small processing fee. A limit of two tickets per person can be picked up at the auditorium, starting one hour before the concert (which generally begin at 7:30 PM), so early arrival is encouraged.

Because of the focus of the Freer’s collection, on Asian art, the concerts featured at the museum often, but not always, have a similar orientation toward the non-Western, and especially Asian, world. Some of their concerts are performances of traditional Asian music, like the concert of Indian classical music featuring Partha Chatterjee (sitar), Rajeev Taranath (sarod), and Nitin Mitta (tabla) on October 29. Others combine Western and Eastern, like a new concerto for Japanese koto and string quartet, by American composer Daron Hagen and drawn from Tale of Genji. The Lark Quartet will perform the work, with koto player Yumi Kurosawa, on October 13. On September 22, the Four Nations Ensemble will join with soprano Rosa Lamoreaux for a concert of 18th-century European music written in China and the Americas. More concerts on the Freer series will be announced later in the season, and some music from past concerts can be heard through the museum’s podcast series. [Continue reading]

What Else to Hear Next Season
Washington Performing Arts Society | Opera | National Symphony Orchestra
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra | Vocal Music | Chamber Music | Early Music
Phillips Collection | Washington Ballet | Dance | Library of Congress | National Gallery of Art

Artful Fugue

J. S. Bach, Die Kunst der Fuge, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (released on January 11, 2011) HMC 902064 | 77'41" J. Kerman, The Art of Fugue: Bach Fugues for Keyboard, 1715-1750 D. R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

One would have thought that Bach had said enough about the art of writing a fugue -- in the Well-Tempered Clavier and his encyclopedic works for organ. Still, Bach came back to the fugue in his final decade, creating extensive contrapuntal elaborations of a single theme in both The Musical Offering and The Art of the Fugue. A first draft of the latter work, BWV 1080, shows that Bach had begun work on it in the early 1740s, but it is generally performed in a longer, but still incomplete, version published in the year after the composer's death. There is evidence that the posthumous published version has been altered and "finished" by others than Bach, which complicates matters.

Bach notated the score with each voice on its own individual staff, seemingly to encourage the study of the parts and their contrapuntal interweaving. Nevertheless, Joseph Kerman stands by the assessment of most specialists that Bach conceived the work -- and intended its performance -- for the harpsichord. As Kerman puts it quite wisely, "for this composer learned display was inseparable from practical performance" (p. 34). Many of the recordings we have enjoyed have been for keyboard instruments, like those by Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano), André Isoir (organ), and Gustav Leonhardt (harpsichord). In this recent recording by the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the instrumentation changes with each movement, ranging from solo harpsichord or organ, to small chamber groups (string quartet, combinations of winds with brass or harpsichord), to the full ensemble. This is in line with some irresistible transcriptions of other Bach keyboard works, for various sizes of instrumental ensemble.

The results are rather idiosyncratic and quite wonderful listening. The group spreads out the four canons among the contrapunctus movements, which are performed more or less in order (the "correct" ordering of the movements, which differs significantly from source to source, is a matter of speculation). Cues in the music seem to have inspired the choices of instrumentation: for example, the explicitly written-out notes inégales of Contrapunctus II are played on solo harpsichord. The instrumentation also often illuminates the formal structures, as in Contrapunctus VI, the French overture, where stronger or softer instruments are used to differentiate fugal entrances from episodes of filigree notes, and in Contrapunctus VII, where the harpsichord plays most of the figuration and string quartet reinforces entrances of the subject and answer.

Since the interpretation is not trying to hew to the musicologically "correct" (thank heavens), it would have been great to have some more ornamentation and flights of improvisatory fancy (for example, the final cadence of the Canon at the 10th, marked "cadenza," gets only a few notes from violinist Bernhard Forck). The two mirror fugues (XII and XIII) receive two performances each, the rectus and inversus forms mirroring each other in different instrumentations. The best decision of all is how the players treat the fragmentary Contrapunctus XIV, the possibly quadruple fugue left unfinished by Bach, weaving in the theme of his own last name: eschewing any of the completions -- the attempts are legion -- the group just plays it until the final notes of what Bach finished trail off into silence.

Kerman's book is about a vast assortment of Bach's fugues, not only Die Kunst der Fuge, and he notes that "most of the fugues [in the work] differ significantly from any Bach had composed earlier," adding that "some are contrapuntally much more complex" and "some are simpler." As Kerman sees it, Contrapunctus I, the first fugue in The Art of Fugue is an "elemental fugue" stripped of all (or most) contrapuntal devices, never even modulating beyond the tonic and dominant keys.

Also extraordinary, and paradoxical, is Bach's decision to open a work like The Art of Fugue with a fugue that evokes improvisation. There is actually a written-out cadenza at the end. Paradoxical, because if one improvises a fugue with a simple subject tailor-made for strettos -- as this subject is -- it is almost perverse to eschew them.

As if to make the point about the plainness, the rudimentary quality, of the first fugue, Bach weaves in a near-complete statement of the answer form of the subject in the final measures, hidden in the tenor line as the other voices ornament it in a cadenza-like way. As Kerman notes in his study, Bach added these final four measures, not found in the manuscript first draft, only in the version published after his death, and it seems to make a circular gesture.

Kerman labels the first subject of Contrapunctus X the "Enigmatic Subject," opening as it does on the seventh scale degree and immediately launching this fugue into strange harmonic territory, leading to an "utterly improbable contrapuntal feat that throws up new expressive chords on almost every beat" (p. 40). The "singular rhetoric of the first subject," he notes, "fascinates and mystifies. [...] What matters is not the truth but the multifariousness of fugue." Kerman also takes note that much of what makes this fugue so striking was part of the revisions published in the 1751 version; many editions include both versions as variants for comparison.

Douglas R. Hofstadter, in his fascinating book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, uses the example of the Bach fugue (mostly focusing on Das Musikalische Opfer) and the enigmatic art of M. C. Escher as comparisons to very complicated mathematical theories (explained for the layman). The uncompleted quadruple fugue of Contrapunctus XIV appears memorably in his explanation of Gödel's theories about incompleteness: was the incompleteness of the final movement "caused by Bach’s attainment of self-reference?" The appearance of the B-A-C-H theme right before the manuscript runs out generally makes me think that Bach intended that final fugue to be incomplete just as he left it, a gesture to the infinite, to the circularity of the form that is implied by the end of Contrapunctus I. About Die Kunst der Fuge, Charles Rosen stated that the work "must, indeed, be played many times before its deceptive lucidity can be penetrated." The fugue, after all, is a process rather than a defined form, strictly speaking, and perhaps the ideal fugue is endless.

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 11 )

Recital • Mullova & Bezuidenhout

J.S.Bach, Sonatas & Partitas, Viktoria Mullova Onyx 4040 W.G.Mozart, Keyboard Music vol.2, Kristian Bezuidenhout Harmonia Mundi

The many variables of music-performance mean that it is difficult to predict the success of a concert. Some fulfill or exceed low expectations, others meet or exceed high ones, some merely disappoint mildly. And then there are absolutely tantalizing programs that fall flat on their face. On paper, Viktoria Mullova performing Beethoven sonatas together with Kristian Bezuidenhout, was such a tantalizing proposition. The latter is one of my favorite forte-pianists (on record). Mullova, known for her exacting standards and as of late with an interesting approach to historical performance, would usually be a treat, also. Her 2009 Bach on the Onyx label, after initially failing to raise my eyebrows, turned on closer inspection (review here) out to be one of the most compelling recordings of the Sonatas and Partitas.

Alas, it wasn’t to be. Performing Beethoven’s fourth and third sonatas, opp.23 and 12/3, in the first half, the feeling was one of befuddlement. Either I was missing something crucial, or it really was only a so-so performance. Exaggeratedly shortened phrases purposely, intriguingly matched the quick decay Bezuidenhout’s 1820’s Conrad Graf fortepiano, but sounded awfully harsh, with a dull edge. With Mullova’s instrument’s tangy and dark tone—squeezed and boxy in the frantically fast first movement of op.12/3—all three Beethoven sonatas were utterly de-sentimentalized, which might have been interesting but was marred by pitch and intonation problems, most of it on the considerably flat side.

Bezuidenhout, sensitive and witty, tickled wonderful facets of the music out of his instrument: here a phrase in a new light, there a quick melody one isn’t used to hearing like that. If true joy never settled in—despite a very considerably improved Kreutzer Sonata (op.47) in the second half—it wasn’t his fault. The way he played a virtual duet with her pizzicatos and his trills was a brief moment of utter delight. Just not enough in a program that felt like Mullova and Bezuidenhout are still at the very beginning of their partnership in exploring Beethoven.

In Brief: Return to Dirty Looks Edition

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

• 
  Alex Ross has more praise for the Mark Morris Dance Group's latest performance, especially Morris's penchant for underscoring musical form with movement: "I seriously believe that all conservatory students should be required to see Morris's work: they will learn to play more intelligently and more vividly." Yes. My piano teachers over the years often told me that a piece I was playing "needed to dance": when you see a Mark Morris dance in action, you get a visual explanation of what that means. [The Rest Is Noise]


• Online listening this week: from the Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, soprano Karine Deshayes with La Chambre Philharmonique and Emmanuel Krivine, and pianist Claire-Marie Le Guay with the Orchestre National de Lyon; the Sixteen with Tudor-era motets from the Festival de l’Abbaye de Lessay; Arabella Steinbacher with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo from the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon; from Bayreuth, Parsifal with Daniele Gatti at the podium and Lohengrin with Klaus Florian Vogt, plus Andris Nelsons conducting; Andreas Staier and Alexander Melnikov from the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence; Jordi Savall's Istanbul concert from the Festival de Fontfroide; plainchant from the Journée Diabolus in Musica in Tours; Gergiev's Swan Lake from the Proms; Turkish musicians performing Xenakis's Oresteia; Concerto Italiano performing Vivaldi at the Chapelle Royale in Versailles; and music of Berg and Hans Rott from the Salzburg Festival. [France Musique]


• From London, Emmanuel Pahud and Eric Le Sage in recital, Thomas Dausgaard leading the BBC Symphony Orchestra, violinist Leonidas Kavakos, Susan Graham with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, Marc-Andre Hamelin playing Liszt, Glyndebourne's performance of Handel's Rinaldo, a Mahler sixth from the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Semyon Bychkov, Hildegard of Bingen paired with Birtwistle (!) from the BBC Singers, Maria João Pires with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and David Zinman, and Paul McCreesh leading a gargantuan performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah. Remember that there are only seven days of streaming after each performance. [BBC Proms]


• In online video, Claudio Abbado at the Lucerne Festival, with symphonies of Mozart (no. 35) and Bruckner (no. 5). [ARTE Live Web]


• You can also watch the closing concerts of the Festival de La Roque d'Anthéron. [Part 1 | Part 2]


• On Friday night an unexpected Twitter hashtag back-and-forth erupted, revising song titles to make songs for or about classical music critics. Good ones came from Ladyloughridge ("Like a Virgil"), @BrianKUSC ("When All is Swed and Done"), and @MMmusing ("Lebrecht of the Edmund Fitzgerald"). My two best contributions, I think, were "I Knock You Down (But You Get Up Again)" and "Danke Schonberg." It was fun, but it was over before you knew it. [#songsaboutclassicalcritics]


• The live stream of Britten's The Turn of the Screw at Glyndebourne is scheduled for this afternoon, 6 pm BST. The staging is by Jonathan Kent, whose work we have admired at Santa Fe Opera. [The Guardian]

Classical Month in Washington (November)

Last month | Next month
Classical Month in Washington is a monthly feature. If there are concerts you would like to see included on our schedule, send your suggestions by e-mail (ionarts at gmail dot com). Happy listening!

November 1, 2011 (Tue)
12:10 pm
Die Himmel erzahlen die Ehre Gottes, BWV 76 [FREE]
Washington Bach Consort
Church of the Epiphany

November 1, 2011 (Tue)
7 pm
Ran Dank, piano
Embassy Series
Venue TBA

November 1, 2011 (Tue)
7:30 pm
Orion String Quartet
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

November 2, 2011 (Wed)
12:10 pm
Monadnock Music Trio [FREE]
National Gallery of Art (West Building Lecture Hall)

November 2, 2011 (Wed)
12:10 pm
Michael Lodico, organ [FREE]
St. John's, Lafayette Square

November 2, 2011 (Wed)
7:30 pm
Avanti Orchestra
Friday Morning Music Club
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

November 2, 2011 (Wed)
8 pm
The Great Gatsby
Washington Ballet
Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

November 3, 2011 (Thu)
5:30 pm
Ives Project: Ives Playing Ives [FREE]
Lecture with Jeremy Denk, Joseph Horowitz
Mansion at Strathmore

November 3, 2011 (Thu)
7 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
With Oliver Knussen (conductor), Peter Serkin (piano)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

November 3, 2011 (Thu)
7:30 pm
Jascha Nemtsov and Friends
Pro Musica Hebraica
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

November 3, 2011 (Thu)
8 pm
Post-Classical Ensemble: Ives Project
With Jeremy Denk, piano
Music Center at Strathmore

November 3, 2011 (Thu)
8 pm
The Great Gatsby
Washington Ballet
Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

November 4, 2011 (Fri)
8 pm
Jeremy Denk, piano
Music by Ives, Beethoven
Music Center at Strathmore

November 4, 2011 (Fri)
8 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
With Oliver Knussen (conductor), Peter Serkin (piano)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

November 4, 2011 (Fri)
8 pm
Mozart Piano Quartet [FREE]
Library of Congress

November 4, 2011 (Fri)
8 pm
UMD Wind Orchestra
Clarice Smith Center

November 4, 2011 (Fri)
8 pm
Verdi, La Traviata
Lyric Opera of Baltimore
Modell Lyric Opera House (Baltimore, Md.)

November 4, 2011 (Fri)
8 pm
The Great Gatsby
Washington Ballet
Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

November 5, 2011 (Sat)
11 am and 1:30 pm
NSO Teddy Bear Concert: Tunes 'n' (Pig) Tales
Kennedy Center Family Theater

November 5, 2011 (Sat)
2 pm
Roberto Diaz (viola) and Kwan Yi (piano) [FREE]
Franz Liszt Bicentenary Project
Library of Congress

November 5, 2011 (Sat)
2 pm
Marouan Benabdallah, piano
WPAS
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

November 5, 2011 (Sat)
2:30 and 8 pm
The Great Gatsby
Washington Ballet
Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

November 5, 2011 (Sat)
5 pm
21st Century Consort
Smithsonian American Art Museum

November 5, 2011 (Sat)
7:30 pm
JACK Quartet
Ives Project
Mansion at Strathmore

November 5, 2011 (Sat)
8 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
With Oliver Knussen (conductor), Peter Serkin (piano)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

November 5, 2011 (Sat)
8 pm
National Philharmonic
With Piotr Paleczny, piano
Music Center at Strathmore

November 5, 2011 (Sat)
8 pm
Berta Rojas, guitar
Dumbarton Concerts

November 6, 2011 (Sun)
1:30 and 6:30 pm
The Great Gatsby
Washington Ballet
Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

November 6, 2011 (Sun)
2 pm
Kennedy Center Chamber Players
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

November 6, 2011 (Sun)
2 pm
Verdi, La Traviata
Lyric Opera of Baltimore
Modell Lyric Opera House (Baltimore, Md.)

November 6, 2011 (Sun)
3 pm
Washington Bach Consort: Pergolesi
With Agnes Zsigovics (soprano), Daniel Taylor (countertenor)
National Presbyterian Church

November 6, 2011 (Sun)
3 pm
National Philharmonic
With Piotr Paleczny, piano
Music Center at Strathmore

November 6, 2011 (Sun)
4 pm
Haeran Hong (soprano) and Ken Noda (piano)
Phillips Collection

November 6, 2011 (Sun)
4 pm
Chamber Orchestra Kremlin
GMU Center for the Arts

November 6, 2011 (Sun)
6:30 pm
Talich String Quartet [FREE]
National Gallery of Art (West Garden Court)

November 6, 2011 (Sun)
7 pm
Amit Peled (cello) and Noreen Cassidy-Polera (piano)
Dumbarton Oaks

November 7, 2011 (Mon)
8 pm
Amit Peled (cello) and Noreen Cassidy-Polera (piano)
Dumbarton Oaks

November 8, 2011 (Tue)
8 pm
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
WPAS
Music Center at Strathmore

November 9, 2011 (Wed)
12:10 pm
National Gallery of Art New Music Ensemble [FREE]
National Gallery of Art (East Building Auditorium)

November 9, 2011 (Wed)
7:30 pm
Ádám György, piano
Embassy Series
Embassy of Hungary

November 9, 2011 (Wed)
8 pm
Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble
Mobtown Modern
2640 Space (Baltimore, Md.)

November 10, 2011 (Thu)
7 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
With Leonard Slatkin (conductor), Gautier Capuçon (cello)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

November 10, 2011 (Thu)
7:30 pm
Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

November 10, 2011 (Thu)
7:30 pm
Ádám György, piano
Embassy Series
Embassy of Hungary

November 10, 2011 (Thu)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Music by Copland et al.
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

November 11, 2011 (Fri)
8 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
With Leonard Slatkin (conductor), Gautier Capuçon (cello)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

November 11, 2011 (Fri)
8 pm
Robert Belinić, guitar
Barns at Wolf Trap

November 11, 2011 (Fri)
8:15 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Off the Cuff (Copland), with Marin Alsop
Music Center at Strathmore

November 12, 2011 (Sat)
3 pm
Johannes String Quartet [FREE]
Baltimore Museum of Art

November 12, 2011 (Sat)
7 pm
Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

November 12, 2011 (Sat)
7 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Off the Cuff (Copland), with Marin Alsop
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

November 12, 2011 (Sat)
7:30 pm
Taiwanese American Charity and Education Association: Annual Concert
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

November 12, 2011 (Sat)
7:30 pm
Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra
With Amy Beth Horman, violin
Vienna Presbyterian Church

November 12, 2011 (Sat)
8 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
With Leonard Slatkin (conductor), Gautier Capuçon (cello)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

November 12, 2011 (Sat)
8 pm
National Philharmonic
Beach, Grand Mass in E-flat Major
Music Center at Strathmore

November 12, 2011 (Sat)
8 pm
Takács Quartet
Clarice Smith Center

November 12, 2011 (Sat)
8 pm
Fairfax Symphony Orchestra
GMU Center for the Arts

November 13, 2011 (Sun)
2 pm
Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

November 13, 2011 (Sun)
3 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Music by Copland et al.
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

November 13, 2011 (Sun)
3 pm
UMD Men's and Women's Choruses [FREE]
Clarice Smith Center

November 13, 2011 (Sun)
3 pm
Capital Wind Symphony
Vienna Presbyterian Church (Vienna, Va.)

November 13, 2011 (Sun)
4 pm
Kelly Hall-Tompkins (violin) and Bridget Kibbey (harp)
Phillips Collection

November 13, 2011 (Sun)
4 pm
Vivaldi Project: Trio Sonatas
National Presbyterian Church

November 13, 2011 (Sun)
4 pm
Homage to Modern Classics
Choral Arts Society of Washington
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

November 13, 2011 (Sun)
6:30 pm
Alexander Markov, violin [FREE]
National Gallery of Art (West Garden Court)

November 14, 2011 (Mon)
7 pm
Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

November 14, 2011 (Mon)
7 pm
Chamber Music Student Recital [FREE]
Clarice Smith Center

November 14, 2011 (Mon)
7:30 pm
Ivo Kaltchev (piano) and Lilia Donkova (violin)
CUA School of Music

November 15, 2011 (Tue)
7:30 pm
Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

November 15, 2011 (Tue)
8 pm
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra
Cabell Hall (Charlottesville, Va.)

November 15, 2011 (Tue)
8 pm
Manning the Canon: Songs of Gay Life
New York Festival of Song
Clarice Smith Center

November 16, 2011 (Wed)
12:10 pm
Alexandre Dossin, pianist and Stephen Ackert, organist [FREE]
Music by Liszt
National Gallery of Art (East Building Auditorium)

November 16, 2011 (Wed)
5:30 pm
Chamber Music Student Recital [FREE]
Clarice Smith Center

November 16, 2011 (Wed)
7:30 pm
Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

November 17, 2011 (Thu)
7 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
With Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

November 17, 2011 (Thu)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Honegger, Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

November 18, 2011 (Fri)
1:30 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
With Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

November 18, 2011 (Fri)
7:30 pm
Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

November 18, 2011 (Fri)
7:30 pm
Puccini, Suor Angelica / Poulenc, La voix humaine
CUA School of Music

November 18, 2011 (Fri)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Honegger, Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

November 18, 2011 (Fri)
8 pm
Stravinsky, The Rake's Progress
Peabody Opera
Modell Lyric Opera House (Baltimore, Md.)

November 18, 2011 (Fri)
8 pm
Annapolis Symphony Orchestra
With Roberto Diaz, viola
Maryland Hall (Annapolis, Md.)

November 18, 2011 (Fri)
8 pm
Washington Chorus
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

November 19, 2011 (Sat)
11 am and 1:30 pm
NSO Kinderkonzert: Follow That Fiddle
Kennedy Center Family Theater

November 19, 2011 (Sat)
3 pm
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
WPAS
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

November 19, 2011 (Sat)
6 pm
Emerson String Quartet
National Museum of Natural History

November 19, 2011 (Sat)
7 pm
Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

November 19, 2011 (Sat)
7:30 pm
Amelia al Ballo / Il Tabarro
Maryland Opera Studio (with piano)
Clarice Smith Center

November 19, 2011 (Sat)
7:30 pm
Puccini, Suor Angelica / Poulenc, La voix humaine
CUA School of Music

November 19, 2011 (Sat)
8 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
With Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

November 19, 2011 (Sat)
8 pm
Annapolis Symphony Orchestra
With Roberto Diaz, viola
Maryland Hall (Annapolis, Md.)

November 19, 2011 (Sat)
8 pm
Jason Vieaux (guitar), with Escher Quartet
Candlelight Concert Society
Smith Theater, Howard Community College (Columbia, Md.)

November 20, 2011 (Sun)
2 pm
Stravinsky, The Rake's Progress
Peabody Opera
Modell Lyric Opera House (Baltimore, Md.)

November 20, 2011 (Sun)
2 pm
Puccini, Suor Angelica / Poulenc, La voix humaine
CUA School of Music

November 20, 2011 (Sun)
2:30 and 4:30 pm
The Sleeping Beauty
National Marionette Theater
Candlelight Concert Society
Smith Theater, Howard Community College (Columbia, Md.)

November 20, 2011 (Sun)
2:30 and 4:30 pm
Capital City Symphony: Family Concert
Atlas Performing Arts Center

November 20, 2011 (Sun)
3 pm
Amelia al Ballo / Il Tabarro
Maryland Opera Studio (with piano)
Clarice Smith Center

November 20, 2011 (Sun)
4 pm
NGA Wind Quintet
Phillips Collection

November 20, 2011 (Sun)
6:30 pm
National Gallery of Art Orchestra [FREE]
Leshnoff, Double Concerto
National Gallery of Art (West Garden Court)

November 20, 2011 (Sun)
7:30 pm
Smithsonian Chamber Players
Music by Schumann
National Museum of American History

November 20, 2011 (Sun)
7:30 pm
UMD Chamber Singers and University Chorale
Clarice Smith Center

November 22, 2011 (Tue)
7:30 pm
Amelia al Ballo / Il Tabarro
Maryland Opera Studio (with piano)
Clarice Smith Center

November 23, 2011 (Wed)
12:10 pm
Verdehr Trio [FREE]
National Gallery of Art (West Building Lecture Hall)

November 26, 2011 (Sat)
8 pm
Chanticleer Christmas
GMU Center for the Arts

November 27, 2011 (Sun)
4 pm
Kate Liu, piano
Phillips Collection

November 27, 2011 (Sun)
6:30 pm
Steven Spooner, piano [FREE]
Music by Liszt
National Gallery of Art (West Garden Court)

À mon chevet: Apollo's Angels

À mon chevet is a series of posts featuring a quote from whatever book is on my nightstand at the moment.

[Empress] Maria Theresa's son Joseph had become co-regent and taken charge of theatrical life in the capital city. Joseph was upright and serious, even severe, and he scorned the etiquette and trappings of the monarchy and aristocracy. He despised the ceremony and obligatory social activities of his mother's court, preferring instead the rigors of military discipline and the intimacy of a private domestic existence. Determined to reform the empire in the interests of his people, he hoped to create an accessible German-language theater -- a people's theater -- free of aristocratic control. He thus had little but disdain for [Jean-Georges] Noverre and his "French" ballets.

[Wenzel Anton] Kaunitz argued tirelessly for continued royal support for the French Burgtheater, but Joseph cut its funding, explaining that the state regarded its productions as "trifles." The theater limped along on the patronage of high-ranking aristocrats but could not recover. Kaunitz protested angrily at Joseph's callous treatment of Noverre, to no effect, and in 1774 the ballet master finally accepted a new position in Milan. A noisy group of supporters gathered at the theater to protest his departure, and although Noverre returned briefly two years later with a troupe of dancers, Joseph remained unmoved. That same year, he turned the Burgtheater into a national theater devoted to performances in the (German) vernacular. Noverre was thus cast out from Vienna for the same reason he had originally been brought there: because he was French. As one observer later noted, Joseph "will certainly employ no Frenchman until German plays are performed in Versailles."

* * *

The opera house lay at the heart of Milan's social life and the city's elite gathered there almost nightly. [...] There was another attraction too: gambling. The opera house held a monopoly on all gambling in the city, and the income from its tables largely financed the performances. Maria Theresa disapproved on moral grounds, but she grudgingly allowed the games to continue as a way of appeasing the urban elite (the lower classes were not permitted to play). Tables were placed at various locations throughout the theater, including one on the fourth tier in the auditorium, where merchants were encouraged to play while they watched the performance. This was not as distracting as it might seem. Because opera was a nightly affair, audiences quickly became familiar with a production and felt free to pick and choose their favorite parts, turning their attention to the stage between meals, games, and visiting. This did not mean they were not attentive, however, and the Milanese freely expressed their opinions, shouting and chanting at the stage, and the artistry of each performance was vigorously discussed and debated.

-- Jennifer Homans, Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet, pp. 88-90

Just as government support of the arts has always been a part of history, the political views of government leaders have also been known to interfere with what artists are trying to do. Perhaps history can also provide a lesson for arts organizations today, struggling with the matter of finding enough revenue to stay afloat -- gambling. Can't you see a small, elegant casino on the top floor of the Kennedy Center, with some blackjack, poker, and baccarat tables? Slot machines at the Meyerhoff or roulette at the Kimmel Center? Perhaps Mobtown Modern could partner up with Pimlico? I am only half-joking.

Sydney Theater Company's 'Uncle Vanya'

Richard Roxburgh (Vanya) and Cate Blanchett (Yelena) in Uncle Vanya, Sydney Theater Company (photo by Lisa Tomasetti)

The Sydney Theater Company returned to the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater this month, bringing its 2010 production of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, seen on Wednesday night. The group, run by Cate Blanchett and her husband, Andrew Upton, came here with their production of A Streetcar Named Desire two years ago, to rave reviews, and the actors' love for the Eisenhower Theater, according to Peter Marks, made it an easy decision to make Washington the only stop for the STC's next American visit.

The cast was outstanding, an ensemble that had movie stars in it, but they did not draw attention to themselves. Indeed, they were often outshone by their less famous counterparts, especially Richard Roxburgh's Vanya, filled with both heart-crushing regret and biting resentment. This Vanya was likely to switch emotional gears on a dime, including bursting into tears, but the play was never swamped by these occasional bouts of emotional anguish. As Roxburgh told PBS in an interview, all too often Chekhov is done with "too many leaden silences, like Noël Coward, but without the jokes." This production was an excellent reminder of the humor in Chekhov, without crossing that boundary into farce, and also of just how much can be contained in between Chekhov's spoken lines, the glances, the pauses, the movements, and gestures. A great example was the awkward final kiss between Yelena (Cate Blanchett, all platinum hair and out-of-place stylishness) and the country doctor Astrov (played with loose-limbed swagger and whimsical humor by Hugo Weaving), in which barely suppressed passion is mis-coordinated to the point of embarrassment. This was an ingenious decision since Astrov is a man so incapable of human attachment that the most heartfelt relationship he has in the play is with the family's old nurse, played with disarming simplicity by veteran actress Jacki Weaver.

Other Articles: Jeffrey Brown, Cate Blanchett on Reviving Theater Classic 'Uncle Vanya' for Modern Stage (PBS News Hour, August 15) Brian Holt, Mon Oncle (Out West Arts, August 12) Jeremy Gerard, Cate Blanchett Seduces in Furious D.C. 'Vanya' (Bloomberg News, August 10) Peter Marks, A magnetic new vision for ‘Uncle Vanya’ at Kennedy Center (Washington Post, August 8) ---, Australian actors and a Hungarian director roll Chekhov’s ‘Uncle Vanya’ to D.C. (Washington Post, August 4) Ben Brantley, Chekhov’s Slugfest, With Pratfalls (New York Times, August 8) Brendan Lemon, Uncle Vanya, Eisenhower Theater, Washington (Financial Times, August 8) Paul Harria, Uncle Vanya (Variety, August 8) Tim Smith, 'Uncle Vanya' a welcome Kennedy Center guest with Cate Blanchett, Sydney Theatre Co. (Baltimore Sun, August 8) Sriram Gopal, Family Dysfunction Becomes High Art in Uncle Vanya (DCist, August 8) Sophie Gilbert, "Uncle Vanya" at the Kennedy Center (Washingtonian, August 8) Elysa Gardner, Cate Blanchett happy to share the spotlight (USA Today, August 5)

Hungarian director Tamás Ascher has updated the story to an unspecified Soviet-era time, let's say the 1930s. The country house is a grimy Communist shack (sets by Zsolt Khell), with recordings of buzzing flies punctuating the silence in the early acts (sound and music by Paul Charlier), a drab and grim setting into which the snooty, complaining Professor Serebryakoff (a self-absorbed patrician John Bell) and his gorgeous young wife intrude. The country doctor rides around on a battered motorcycle instead of a horse, and the iconic watchman's rattle of the play's final scene -- the periodic noise to let the manor's owners know that he was still awake and on watch -- becomes the crackle and squeal of a transistor radio being tuned. (Period-appropriate music also fills the intermissions, jazz-tinged songs that are sentimental and zany -- think Shostakovich's The Golden Age.) As often happens, the Soviet-era updating played havoc, just slightly, with the relationships that lead to the plot's crisis: peasants, land owners, intelligentsia. Concerns over how profitable the estate can be seem not to fit with mid-20th century Russia, but then neither do the Australian accents. The strongest accent came with the other standout performance, from Hayley McElhinney, whose Sonya was so emotionally needy and neglected: seemingly trapped in childhood, she insisted on sitting on a toddler-sized chair more than once. As her father departed with Yelena, her stepmother, Serebryakoff finally seemed aware of his daughter's need for his love and still ignored it.

The updating goes hand in hand with a new edition of the play by Andrew Upton, which adds some four-letter words and some modern turns of phrase, simplifies some of the complexity of the Russian character names (Vanya is called so many other names by the other characters in the original), and removes some of the more complicated allusions in favor of (ill-placed) quotations from Shakespeare. Professor Serebryakoff keeps his pretentious Latin quotation, "omnis una manet nox," from Horace's Odes, I/28 (English translation -- roughly, "But one night awaits everyone / and each, in turn, treads the path of death"), but not all of the artistic and literary references survive. In Act IV, the servants' conversation about the Act III fight, includes the lines "What a storm they have raised!" / "A scene worthy of the brush of Aivazovsky." The latter line is changed to "a scene worthy of the stage," assuming that audiences would not get the reference to Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, a 19th-century Armenian-Russian painter whose style is similar to Turner, specializing in stormy seascapes and other scenes with swirling color in a watercolor-like wash.

Most of the allusions to Turgenev remain, whose evocation of nature and the Russian countryside in A Sportsman's Sketches (Vol. 1 | Vol. 2), Turgenev's observations of peasant life while hunting around his country estate, was an inspiration to Chekhov and so many other writers (also known for his novel Fathers and Sons). He and his brother, Nikolai, who wrote The Emancipation of the Russian Serfs, were sons of a wealthy landed family. A Russian couple behind me clucked their tongues at some of the changes, seeming to confirm with each other what had just been said in English and trying to line it up with the Russian text they had probably heard since they were children. One line from the play includes a Russian proverb, "È finita la commedia," a mangling of the phrase "La commedia è finita," used to signal the end of commedia dell'arte performances and perhaps best known from the conclusion of Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci. The STC version is perhaps not Chekhov, but it is compelling theater.

This production continues through August 27, but it is already sold out.