Master Chorale of Washington

Master Chorale of Washington at National Presbyterian Church
Washington Post, February 23, 2009

American A Cappella
Master Chorale of Washington
National Presbyterian Church

On the Radio

Tune your radio dial to 90.9 FM on Mondays at 9 pm to hear Front Row Washington, broadcasts of recent concerts in the area's concert halls. Here is the program of this evening's installment:

February 23, 9 pm
Musicians from Marlboro I
Freer Gallery of Art

Janáček, String Quartet No. 1 ("Kreutzer Sonata")
Mozart, String Quintet in E-flat Major, K. 614
Mendelssohn, Octet in E-flat Major, op. 20

A snippet of what to expect from someone who was there:

The annual “Musicians from Marlboro” concerts at the Freer Gallery are among the most invigorating events of the classical season. Dozens of astoundingly gifted young virtuosos, all hand-picked from the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, blow into the gallery’s Meyer Auditorium every winter for three performances that radiate vitality and freshness – qualities sometimes missing from their more seasoned elders.

And so it was on Wednesday night, when the first installment of Marlborians opened the series with Leos Janacek’s String Quartet No. 1 ("Kreutzer Sonata"). It’s an almost brutally passionate work that, played well, will take the skin off your ears, and the players turned in a suitably hot-blooded performance. It was, perhaps, a bit too hot-blooded at times -- its emotions spelled out in capital letters, then underlined, then italicized. But even if the excesses swept away the subtleties here and there, this was playing of daring, conviction and real insight. You could do worse.

Stephen Brookes, Musicians from Marlboro at the Freer (Most of the Shebang, December 12, 2008)

Van Dongen in Montreal

Who knew that all we have to do is cross the border into Canada's Quebec province and we'd be in France, almost? It's been a long time since I was last here and the one thing that hasn't changed is, it feels a world away and very cold in February! Especially standing in the ever-present line at Schwartz's Deli...but well worth the wait.

My trip across the border luckily coincided with the exhibit Van Dongen: Painting the Town Fauve, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art. It brings together some 200 works, including over a hundred paintings, drawings, prints, sketch books, examples of his prolific graphic work, and for the first time a dozen Fauvist ceramics.

Van Dongen, a Dutch born-painter, studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam, later moved to Paris, and became part of Les Fauves (The Wild Beasts), the group led by Matisse and André Derain known for their use of strong, bright colors. Van Dongen gained a reputation for his erotic, flamboyant portraits of high and low society and celebrated personalities of the Roaring Twenties. His themes were much different from the landscape Fauvists such as Raoul Dufy, Georges Braque, and one of my favorites, Maurice de Vlaminck.

The essential thing is to elongate the women and especially to make them slim. After that it just remains to enlarge their jewels. They are ravished.

Van Dongen was truly an artist of his time -- the glitz, lavish parties -- associating with Picasso and Matisse (apparently he and Matisse were not on friendly terms) and a free flow of wealth that as we know has its limit. He was the consummate entertainer and crowd-pleaser -- that is no criticism. He was quite passionate and dedicated to his craft, which is what makes this rare exhibit so good, the passion, the flair -- the parties.

There is a blunt directness to Van Dogen's nudes which reminded me of Philip Pearlstein or Lucian Freud's work. I wish I had more images to share, however much of the artwork is in private collections and photographs were not permitted. One of my favorite pieces in the show is not flashy at all, but of an older seated woman, with a small dog in her lap, a simple light blue house dress with a blue patterned apron titled The Concierge At The Villa Said. It's Van Dogen at his simplest, most restrained and most memorable.

The exhibit runs through April 19th, and there are more images on my Flickr site.

Dutoit Towers over the NSO

It is clear from the recent appearances of pianist Yuja Wang -- in Prokofiev's first concerto with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and her Terrace Theater recital, both in 2008 -- that the young Chinese sensation has a showman's heart. As a result, her debut with the National Symphony Orchestra this weekend, playing one of the showiest concertos in the repertoire, Prokofiev's second, was an event not to be missed. No one at Friday night's performance could have been disappointed in the fireworks department, as Wang shredded and diced the pages of this daunting score with ferocious technique, expertly unraveling the clotted knot of voices in the first movement's cadenza, for example (YouTube video). She must have spent the better part of each day before these concerts fine-tuning the most demanding passages.

In fact, this rebarbative work, in which Prokofiev seems to delight in enigmatic dead ends, unexpected volleys of dissonance, and hammered, manic gestures, may be a perfect match for Wang, who projects an armored, I'll-take-your-dare confrontation in her playing. (This comes through in her daring choice of encores -- see video below -- which an apparently not enthusiastic enough ovation kept from happening on Friday night.) At the premiere of this concerto, in 1913 in Pavlovsk, Prokofiev reportedly beamed at the umbrage taken by shocked listeners, even mockingly playing an encore as the audience streamed out of the hall. At the moment, Wang is roughly the same age Prokofiev was when he composed the second concerto, for himself to play as a 20-something show-off conservatory student, although the score we now have is a later reconstruction, recreated (and surely reworked) from memory to replace the original, lost during the 1917 revolution. Less satisfying In Wang's performance was the second movement, a scherzo of constantly streaming notes, played with fiery drive by Wang (YouTube video) but in a pulse that was at times less than rock-steady. A few places in the fourth movement had a similar wildness (YouTube video), but the guest conductor for the evening, the authoritative Charles Dutoit, kept his forces all together.

Dutoit and Wang have been performing the work together around the world (see also the YouTube video of the third movement), and they appear comfortable with one another. In fact, Dutoit was the real star of this particular show. With a minimal beat in his right hand and a few evocative swirls of his left to show phrasing or dynamic swells, he was imperious but gracefully so at the rostrum. Born in Switzerland and having made his name with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Dutoit brought a certain Gallic coolness to the evening, a detachment which paid off in the opening work, Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin, marked by an elegant simplicity. The Prélude bubbled away, never rushed but also not waning in energy, the Forlane never crossed the line from dopey to buffoonish, and the Menuet remained stately while proceeding in a broad, balletic one. When the sense of ensemble did not cohere, as at the start of the Rigaudon, Dutoit righted matters with a few small gestures. Heaviness never overwhelmed, even as the work concluded, without fanfare -- Dutoit was shaking hands with concertmaster Nurit Bar-Josef before the applause began.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, From Dutoit And the NSO, A Full Palette Of Possibility (Washington Post, February 20) Mark Swed, Yuja Wang, the next Chinese sensation (Culture Monster, February 6)

Even better was the second half, a complete performance of Stravinsky's original score for the ballet The Firebird, like the Prokofiev not heard from the NSO in almost a decade. Like the Ravel, this music is Dutoit's specialty, and in his hands it quivered, beamed, and dazzled. The many instrumental effects, flutter-tonguing flutes, harp swoops, raspy violin chords, col legno cello strikes, celesta and metallic percussion twinkling, and chthonic contrabassoon growls mixed colorfully on Dutoit's palette. It is truly one of Stravinsky's most evocative scores, not as adventurously dissonant as the more notorious Rite of Spring three years later. As he did in the Ravel, Dutoit allowed the playing to unfold as naturally as possible, always making sure of the initial tempo in each section, and many elements of the performance were impressive -- splendid horn solos for the entrance of the Tsarevich, as well as fine contributions from principal oboe, viola, and bassoon. It remains to be seen if Philadelphia's gain will be Washington's loss, as Dutoit is now replacing Christoph Eschenbach at the Philadelphia Orchestra (well, sort of, as Chief Conductor). Philadelphia is likely to enjoy Dutoit's four years very much.

Gil Shaham will join the National Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of up-and-coming Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, in a program of Adès, Weill, and Stravinsky (February 26 to 28).


Yuja Wang, playing Rimsky-Korsakov, Vol du Bourdon, arr. Cziffra, 2008 Verbier Festival

Oscars Night 2009

My gut feeling about the Academy Awards is that they are irrelevant, since they reward such crap many years (honestly, they should just give the awards based on box office receipts), but here we are again, liveblogging the Oscar ceremony (the folks at LAist are doing it, too) and giggling with delight to see Penélope Cruz and Meryl Streep on the red carpet at the Kodak Theater.

[8:34 pm]
Oh. My. God. Hugh Jackman is making an ass of himself on national television.

[8:36 pm]
And Anne Hathaway, too.

[8:39 pm]
Jackman can sing -- not a bad A-flat either.

[8:41 pm]
Meryl Streep is La Diva Assoluta.

[8:42 pm]
About that "rewarding crap" thing I wrote above -- Whoopi Goldberg for Ghost. Q.E.D.

[8:48 pm]
Holy crap. They actually got the Best Supporting Actress award right, and not only because I picked La Cruz. Plus a shout-out to Pedro Almodóvar, a real director to whom some of the hacks nominated tonight (*cough* Ron Howard *cough*) cannot hold a candle.

[8:54 pm]
Original Screenplay goes to Dustin Lance Black for Milk. I expect Milk to win big because the lefty issue surely guarantees lots of votes. To wit, the acceptance speech.

[9:02 pm]
Adapted Screenplay goes to Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire, which will likely also do well in categories where Milk is not nominated. Haha -- the clip showed some of the most egregious dialogue from Benjamin Button ("Sleep with me." -- "Absolutely"). Of course, they also picked one of the least memorable moments from Doubt, a screenplay that was practically flawless. I picked it, of course, because it is an astounding film, but it has no traction in a godless place like Hollywood.

[9:09 pm]
This show is going so fast that it is almost impossible to liveblog.

[9:17 pm]
Art Direction goes to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Picked it. This was really about the only good thing in this dog of a movie.

[9:22 pm]
Costume design goes to the costume drama (big surprise), The Duchess. Ooh, nice -- shout-out to composer Rachel Portman for the score to the movie, noting that it was not the music played during the intro to the movie (hah!).

[9:25 pm]
Yes, of course, Benjamin Button gets Makeup Design, too. All is going according to plan -- it will hopefully not win any of the big awards.

[9:53 pm]
It's official -- it's no longer any fun to make fun of the Oscar show. It's just too easy a target.

[10:09 pm]
If you picked anyone other than Heath Ledger to win Best Supporting Actor, you were a fool. That being said, the movie was, really, pretty awful, and Ledger's performance in it, sorry to say, was not even all that special, although he was certainly a talented actor.

[10:14 pm]
Bill Maher is a pompous ass, and he plays one on TV. I have to laugh that his stupid Religulous joke got no laugh (cue crickets chirping). Bill, your movie did not get nominated because it sucked. Who would have thought that you could actually be more sanctimonious than the religious fundamentalists you were trying to belittle? *sound of one person clapping*

[10:54 pm]
Picked it! A. R. Rahman wins Best Original Score for Slumdog Millionaire. Truth be told, all of the nominees were dull as dust. Even the excerpts selected to be played could barely hold one's interest. In other news, I'm falling asleep.

[11:49 pm]
It's still not over? Danny Boyle wins Best Director for Slumdog Millionaire. Kate Winslet wins Best Actress for The Reader. Sean Penn wins Best Actor for Milk, thanking all the "commie, homo-loving sons of guns" in the Academy. Slumdog Millionaire wins Best Film. I can't say that I agree with any of these choices, but none is an embarrassment. Good night!

In Brief: Mardi Gras Edition

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

• The Hilliard Ensemble, whom we just heard on their U.S. tour, makes a stop in Chicago to work with eighth blackbird on a program of music by Stephen Hartke. See behind the scenes. We so wish we could be there. [Thirteen Ways]


• Itzhak Perlman lets down cat owner. [The Onion]


• With hat tip to ArtsJournal, conclusive evidence that parents should never force children to take music lessons. [ANSA]


• Tesla coils singing the theme to Doctor Who. Yes, Tesla coils singing -- just click the link. [Boing Boing]


• A friend pointed out an entry in The Onion's review of the 20th century, titled Hungarians Escalate War with Terrifying 'Bartok Assault' and dated April 13, 1916. [Our Dumb Century]

  NEAR THE EASTERN FRONT, Apr. 12 -- Hungarian soldiers unleashed the intense, bombastic compositions of Bela Bartok in the Battle of Bansag, an assault that had great effect against emotionally impacted Allied forces. Bartok's new collection of works emphasizing strings, percussion, and celestas is being hailed by war officials as the most fearful weapon in Austro-Hungarian history. Soldiers, in tandem with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, lulled Italy's 3rd Infantry Battalion with soothing passages inspired by Hungarian folk melodies, then shook them with sudden outbursts of French horn, timpani, and tuba. Allied troops were filled with awe and trepidation at the sheer magnitude of the new military possession, which was developed in conjunction with German symphonic strategists and the Royal Academy of War Music in Budapest. Allied tacticians predict Austro-Hungary will utilize violent shifts in rhythm and startling harmonic abstraction, employing volumes never before experienced in land combat. And some caution that their use of an interpolated 12-tone celesta may violate the rules of warfare. Allied commanders believe the Hungarians have "a flair for tonality which could revolutionize 20th-century fighting music. There has not been such a leap in Hungary's strength since 1911, when the army engaged the formidable men of the Budapest Flying Circus.

  
  
• I would love the chance to see a staging of Massenet's Don Quichotte, like the one at San Diego Opera, even if the casting leaves something to be desired. [Out West Arts]

Musicians from Marlboro

Vermont Festival's Southern Exposure
Washington Post, February 21, 2009

Musicians from Marlboro II
Augustin Hadelich and Karina Canellakis, violins; Sebastian Krunnies, viola; Peter Stumpf, cello; Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet
Freer Gallery of Art

Haydn, String Quartet in E-flat, op. 64, no. 6 (.PDF file)
The first movement's sonata-allegro form is more or less monothematic, with the first (m. 1) and second themes (m. 25) beginning alike. In the development (m. 46), Haydn turns to quasi-Baroque devices to develop the thematic idea, layering the instruments on top of one another, blending it with suspensions. Dicing up the little dotted-note tag from the end of the first theme, passed around among the instruments, he sets up a false recapitulation, bringing back the theme in the flat VI (m. 84). Swirling back through other keys, Haydn then prepares a big cadence on G major, as if he were going to recapitulate in C major, only to abruptly shift back to the home key (m. 98).

For some reason, the musicians in this performance treated the eighth notes in the rewrite, starting in m. 103, as dotted notes inégales. They also did something unusual in the third movement, lengthening it by making an additional repeat from m. 52 back to the beginning of the Trio, then repeating the Menuetto, and then performing the entire Trio and Menuetto again. These differences may be due to a different edition: I have not checked to see how the work appears in the Haydn-Institut Werke.

Kodály, Duo for Violin and Cello, op. 7
Brahms, Clarinet Quintet, op. 115

Trio con Brio Copenhagen

Trio con Brio Copenhagen at Library of Congress
Washington Post, February 20, 2009

Trio con Brio Copenhagen with James Dunham, viola
Library of Congress
Mendelssohn, Piano Quartet No. 3; Song without Words, op. 109
Beethoven, "Archduke" Trio

Washington-area readers should bookmark the URL for classical music reviews that are appearing only on the Washington Post Web site -- visit it now and often! The best way for classical music lovers to tell newspaper editors that they want to read about classical music in the paper is to click through to articles on classical music and -- this is key -- leave online comments, positive or negative, on those articles.

Professor R. Larry Todd, the preeminent Mendelssohn scholar who teaches at Duke University, gave an excellent pre-concert lecture, some of which I quoted in my review for the Post. He spoke about Mendelssohn as prodigy, noting that the young man played the piano and organ, but also the violin and viola, at least well enough to participate in performances of his own string octet. Mendelssohn was a polylinguist, who spoke French and English fluently (the Library of Congress displayed one of the composer's letters in English at the concert) and read Latin and Greek. He also had great talent at drawing and painting, leaving behind many watercolors from his travels around Europe (the display case also contained two of the composer's drawings, of the town of Amalfi and a view of St. Paul's in London). With sound examples from Mendelssohn's early string symphonies, Prof. Todd traced the main compositional influences on the young composer, the heavily chromatic fugues reminiscent of Bach and the crisp Classical forms that sound like Mozart.

Prof. Todd also spoke about Beethoven and the "Archduke" Trio, the last piece that Beethoven played in public, with disastrous results due to his increasing deafness. He presented a convincing portrait of Beethoven as a "frustrated opera composer," pouring his dramatic aspirations into his instrumental music, marked as it is by stories of conflict and resolution. Like the opening of the fifth symphony, conflict is created in the first movement through interruption, as the piano's introduction of the theme is halted by the violin and cello. Perhaps because of focusing on Schubert's last piano sonata recently, due to the concert by Radu Lupu, the similarity between the first movements of that work and the "Archduke" is worth noting: same meter, same key, similar melody, same kind of figuration, interrupted by a trill.

In response to my question about the existence of documents proving a torrid love affair between Mendelssohn and the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, a story broken by Jessica Duchen in The Independent, Todd was circumspect. He has written to the Royal Academy of Music but had no specific knowledge of the documents, saying that a committee would meet in May to decide the question of public access. He professed amazement that "it would take a scandal to get people interested in Mendelssohn," but said that ultimately the attention would be good for the composer. The description of the supposed letter seems to fit with Mendelssohn's psychological state, consistent with his other letters, and seems especially plausible if it occurred in the last few months of his life, after the death of his sister, which was mentally devastating to the composer. If it is true, he noted with a sigh, it will mean a serious reconsideration of the last few years of Mendelssohn's biography. Stay tuned.