Appleby and Hopkins in Sparsely Attended Recital

Charles T. Downey, WNO singers’ pre-‘Magic Flute’ recital is charming but uneven
Washington Post, April 8, 2014

Washington National Opera will perform a new English translation of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” next month. On Sunday evening, the company presented a recital by two of the lead singers from its production, tenor Paul Appleby and baritone Joshua Hopkins, in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello promised that it was the first of a new series of such concerts to introduce audiences to some of its young artists.

Appleby has a pretty, sometimes powerful voice and considerable charm in his stage presence, but previous recitals in the area have showcased a regrettable taste for... [Continue reading]

Paul Appleby (tenor) and Joshua Hopkins (baritone)
With Natalia Katyukova, piano
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

CONCLUDING THOUGHT:
As a response to the idea that an opera company needs more of this kind of thing, the empty seats in the half-filled house hopefully speak louder than anything a critic might write.

Akademie für alte Musik Berlin

C. P. E. Bach, Magnificat / Heilig ist Gott (motet), Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, RIAS Kammerchor, H.-C. Rademann (Harmonia Mundi, 2014) J. Christian Bach, Missa da Requiem / Miserere, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, RIAS Kammerchor, H.-C. Rademann (Harmonia Mundi, 2011) [Review]

Sometimes the attention from an anniversary year does not really change one's opinion about a composer's works. Such has been the case during the two-day concert series devoted to the music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach at the Library of Congress. The most famous Bach son's keyboard music was overshadowed by other works on a recital by American harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani. This was followed on Saturday night, in the performance by Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, by an upstaging of his symphonies by a delightful little barn-burner from the hand of his younger brother, Johann Christian Bach. As has struck me before, it is really C.P.E.'s concertos that are the most deserving of attention. This was borne out by the Akamus performance, their first in the area since their Washington debut at the Library of Congress in 2005, which might have been billed as the Xenia Löffler Show.

Löffler is the group's principal oboist, and as in their 2005 tour, her consummate musicianship and excellent command of a sometimes unruly instrument were featured in a concerto, this time by C.P.E. Bach (E-flat major, H. 468). In the first movement, the oboe is scored mostly with just cello and harpsichord, sometimes with light strings, meaning that Löffler could focus on beauty of sound, rather than volume. Two cadenzas (uncredited), in the first and second movements, were expressive and diverting, and the minor-mode second movement, in particular, featured the soloists's plangent shaping of the piece's beautiful melodies. The third movement featured some flawless passagework, too, with one key malfunction, from which Löffler recovered with graceful ease.

By contrast, C.P.E.'s fifth symphony (B minor, H. 661) seemed like not one of his best efforts, with some very high violin writing that sounded pinched here. Its three compact movements featured lots of rocketing violin doodles, strong bass lines, and violent contrasts of piano and forte -- and not much else. Two horn players came on the tour only to play the final piece on the program, a G minor symphony by Johann Christian Bach, a work that does everything the C.P.E. work does and does it better. The well-played horn parts, always reinforcing full tutti sections, were perhaps an unfair advantage, but the work does get bogged down in its middle movement, which felt like it needed some continuo decoration to liven things up.

Other Reviews: Joan Reinthaler, Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin celebrates C.P.E. Bach with a well-performed program (Washington Post, April 7)

The rest of the program was more familiar, beginning with the same J. S. Bach orchestral suite the group played here in 2005 (C major, BWV 1066). Again, the "trio" group in many of the second dances -- two oboes and bassoon, especially the latter -- distinguished itself, and the Forlane stood out for its whirling motif of very fast notes, as did the second Menuett, for its ultra-soft, legato rendition by strings alone. If the playing felt just a little rough at the start of the Bach, it had definitely smoothed itself out for the F major concerto grosso by Handel (op. 6/2, HWV 320). Two violinists, Georg Kallweit and Gudrun Engelhardt, took the solo parts in a double-treble texture that recalled Corelli, from Handel's time in Rome. The slow transitions, many of them in this piece, seemed a little drab, calling out for some Handelian improvisation at the keyboard, which it did not receive. A spirited encore, the final (fugal) movement of Haydn's third symphony -- composed in the early 1760s, the piece actually predates the music by the Bach sons on this program -- rounded out a fine evening of music.

The Library of Congress concert series shifts from early music to contemporary music this week, with the residency of British composer Oliver Knussen (April 7 to 12).

Mahan Esfahani

Charles T. Downey, Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani’s alternately rousing, bland birthday tribute to C.P.E. Bach (Washington Post, April 7, 2014)

C. P. E. Bach, Württemberg Sonatas, M. Esfahani (Hyperion, 2014)

Mahan Esfahani came home Friday night, in a sense, to play a recital at the Library of Congress. The American harpsichordist, who grew up in Potomac, Md., offered a tribute to C.P.E. Bach, the son of J.S. Bach who was born 300 years ago last month. The program included only two sonatas by the birthday boy, paired with music by other members of his famous family and some unexpected choices, including a piece by Domenico Cimarosa as an encore.

Whenever the music offered fast-moving scales and figuration, as in J.S. Bach’s “Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue,” Esfahani ran with it, his agile fingers making remarkably clean and accurate contact with every key. By the last piece, C.P.E. Bach’s A minor “Württemberg” sonata (Wq. 49/1), though, both his hands and my ears had tired of dazzling runs. [Continue reading]

Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord
Music of C. P. E. Bach, others
Library of Congress

SEE ALSO:
Lloyd Grove, Reliable Source (Washington Post, February 23, 2000)

Mahan Esfahani, Leave us alone (The Iranian, October 11, 2003)

Vienna Postcards: Jaap van Zweden and the Vienna Philharmonic in Bruckner's 8th

A.Bruckner, Symphony No.8 J.v.Zweden, Netherlands RSO Challenge SACD

Vienna, April 6, 2014: Jaap van Zweden’s Bruckner – on record, anyway (Challenge Classics) feels more organic, more settled, more artless than of Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Atma Classique). To have Zweden replace Nézet-Séguin on this occasion might have taken glamor away from the Vienna Philharmonic’s concert of Bruckner’s Eighth at the Vienna Konzerthaus, but any Bruckner aficionado in the know will not have been devastated. The Vienna Philharmonic’s was a routine performance from the start, but not just in the “a couple rehearsals will have to do” way. It was shaped within what might be called ‘conventional parameters’, i.e. nothing willful, nothing that drew attention for the sake of drawing attention. Dynamically nuanced, never timid, and orchestrally homogenous. For the most part. The English horn in the opening Allegro already pre-shadowed the Tristan references of the slow movement. The sense of routine slowly dissipated in the Scherzo, which was firm and jaunty and bolted into the Trio with pluck. The fist violins could have sounded less ungainly in the last pianissimo notes of the Adagio but the climaxes of the finale – like waves lapping ashore – were the bracing, fortifying experience they should bee, of joy-giving vitality. In the fine acoustic of the Konzerthaus – better suited for big Bruckner than the Musikverein’s Golden Hall across the street – the result was a fine, above-average if never quite revelatory orchestral matinée.

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In Brief: Whan That Aprill Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.) Some of these streams become unavailable after a few days.

• For the Whan That Aprille Day celebration, a day to read from texts in ancient languages, which took place on April 1, an excerpt from Chrétien de Troyes, Yvain, ou le Chevalier au Lion (lines 2017-2024): "Dame, fet il, la force vient / de mon cuer, qui a vos se tient; / an ce voloir m'a mes cuers mis. -- Et qui le cuer, biax dolz amis? -- Dame, mi oel. -- Et les ialz, qui? / -- La granz biautez que an vos vi. / Et la biautez qu'i a forfet? / -- Dame, tant que amer me fet." [Yvain et le Lion]


• Translation of the above: "Lady, he said, the power comes / from my heart, which binds itself to you; / in that desire has my heart put me. -- And who did that to your heart, beautiful, sweet friend? -- Lady, my eye. -- And your eyes, who? -- The great beauty that I see in you. And the beauty, in what was its fault? / -- Lady, all that which love does to me." [Project Gutenberg]


• A performance of Francesco Maria Veracini's 1735 opera Adriano in Siria, with Fabio Biondi leading Europa Galante and singers Sonia Prina, Ann Hallenberg, and Roberta Invernizzi, recorded in January at the Wiener Konzerthaus. [France Musique]


• From the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, a performance of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier with Kirill Petrenko leading the Bavarian State Orchestra and Chorus, starring Soile Isokoski, Peter Rose, Sophie Koch, and Christiane Karg. [France Musique]


• Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts Mozart's Don Giovanni with Concentus Musicus Wien and the Arnold Schoenberg Chor, starring Andrè Schuen (Don Giovanni), Christine Schäfer (Donna Anna), and Maite Beaumont (Donna Elvira), recorded last month at the Theater an der Wien. [ORF]


• Another Don Giovanni, from Covent Garden, starring Mariusz Kwiecien and Véronique Gens, recorded in February. [RTBF]


• The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Haydn's Cello Concerto in C and Bruckner's Symphony No 7, with cellist Truls Mørk and conductor Mariss Jansons. [BBC3]


• Listen to the 2007 recording of Bellini's La Straniera, with the London Philharmonic and Geoffrey Mitchell Choir: David Parry conducts a cast led by Patrizia Ciofi (Alaide), Mark Stone (Valdeburgo), and Dario Schmunck (Arturo). [ORF]

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Briefly Noted: Wagner and Dietsch

Wagner, Der fliegende Holländer (excerpts) / P.-L. Dietsch, Le vaisseau fantôme, ou le maudit des mers, Les Musiciens du Louvre--Grenoble, Eesti Filarmoonia Kammerkoor, M. Minkowski (released on November 19, 2013) Naïve V 5349 | 4 CDs

Wagner's Flying Dutchman was rejected by the Paris Opéra on the basis of its first few pages. Not impressed, then-director Léon Pillet did accept the story from the libretto, which the impecunious Wagner gladly sold for 500 francs. He sent it on to librettists who made Le vaisseau fantôme ou le maudit des mers, with music by Pierre-Louis Dietsch (1808-1865), who was the chorus master and conductor at the Paris Opéra. It was Dietsch who conducted the 1861 premiere of Wagner's Tannhäuser -- both were relatively short works, meant to be performed before a complete ballet (the fortitude, or inattention, of the Paris audience was legendary). Jens already wrote about the Vienna performances of both the Paris version of Der fliegende Holländer and Dietsch's mostly unknown Le vaisseau fantôme, brought together by Marc Minkowski and his ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble. Naïve has since released a recording of the two works, made at the Grenoble performances, a set which is worth acquiring for any Wagner fan.

The original Paris version of Der fliegende Holländer, from 1841 and in one act, is preserved in the so-called Meudon score, named for the suburb of Paris where Wagner wrote this first version. It has been recorded before and is a valuable document in terms of understanding how Wagner became Wagner. Evgeny Nikitin is a fine Dutchman, at the top of a generally fine cast. Alexander Dratwicki (of the Bru Zane Foundation) has made a new edition of the score of Le vaisseau fantôme, published in conjunction with the Wagner anniversary and used here. Musically, it does not hold a candle to Wagner's version of the story, either the first draft or the later revision, but it has some interesting moments, like the harps in the orchestra in the music for the doomed sailor's redemption. The story is also quite different, with Dietsch's Minna pledged in marriage by her father, a merchant named Barlow in Shetland, to the cursed seaman, Troile, because he owes him his life. Her childhood sweetheart, Magnus, pledges himself to the priesthood instead, even offering to officiate at Minna's marriage, but he recognizes Troile for who he really is, the murderer of his father. Troile calls demonic forces to help him escape, but Minna sacrifices herself for him, guiding him before God's throne in the final scene.

John Ruskin the Artist

J. Ruskin, Study of Part of the Trees in Turner's Crossing the Brook

Garry Wills has an article on John Ruskin (Ruskin: The Great Artist Emerges, April 3) in The New York Review of Books. Not on Ruskin the writer, Ruskin the social reformer, or Ruskin the art critic -- Ruskin the artist. It is based on an exhibit of Ruskin's artwork, John Ruskin: Artist and Observer, at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa (through May 11) and the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh this summer. Not just a painter, in fact, but as Conal Shields, one of the authors of the exhibition catalogue, puts it, a great painter:

Shields places him “among the greatest of English painters and draftsmen,” and wonders at “the relative neglect of his achievement.” Going through the 140 artworks collected here — some from private collections, and some never before exhibited in public — one is tempted to agree with him. The precision and detail of Ruskin’s prose descriptions are given sharp vindication in the pen, graphite, and chalk drawings—and especially in the brilliant watercolors. Ruskin was a fascinated student of geology, crystallography, botany, dendrology, ornithology, and meteorology, and his drawings in all these fields express his love (the only proper word) for each item his brush fondles onto the paper.

One of his most-used books, over the years, has been The Elements of Drawing, in which he mainly teaches his students how to see. Most people, he says, see what they expect — for instance, this is a tree — and look no deeper. They never actually realize what a complex, living thing any particular tree is. His drawings give a virtual biography of every tree he draws: "How troublesome trees have come in its way, and pushed it aside, and tried to strangle or starve it; where and when kind trees have sheltered it, and grown up lovingly together with it, bending as it bent; what winds torment it most; what boughs of it behave best, and bear most fruit; and so on."

So, in the exhibition, Ruskin gives us the tremendous drama of a whole tree, in graphite, pen, and pencil, with wash and white bodycolor; but also, with finest lines of pen and ink, he records the particularities in a foot or so of lightning-gashed trunk, with sprays of leaves growing from its wounds.

You can take a little guided tour through the exhibit in the video embedded below, and see more images of the artwork here. To get a broader view of Ruskin, you can read his books The Stones of Venice, Modern Painters, and The Elements of Drawing.

Glittery 'Jewels' from New York City Ballet

Teresa Reichlen in George Balanchine's Rubies from Jewels, New York City Ballet (photo by Paul Kolnik)

George Balanchine's opulent Jewels is a favorite of Miss Ionarts, and she has watched it many times in the DVD from the Mariinsky Ballet. From her point of view, it is pretty, colorful, varied, and there are no scary villains. Created in 1967 for the New York City Ballet, it is also Balanchine's survey of the state of dance, with each of its three acts focused on the heritage of three ballet traditions -- French Romanticism in Emeralds, New York modernism in Rubies, and Russian imperialism in Diamonds. The New York City Ballet has brought its refurbished production to the Kennedy Center this week, along with a mixed program of shorter choreographies, and it is well worth seeing.

The music of each act reflects those orientations, beginning with two refined scores of incidental music by Gabriel Fauré, for Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande (also heard on Sunday night from the Israel Philharmonic) and Shylock, Edmond Haraucourt's reworking of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. Neither story appears in any appreciable way in the choreography, but with Balanchine, as with all gifted choreographers, the music was his guide. The horn call of the first movement summons the corps de ballet into a diagonal line; the spinning movement features a ballerina making many turns; arms tick-tocked, clock-like, with gently pulsed repeated notes; each phrase or surge or motif is matched with an evocative movement. Both of these scores are diaphanous wonders -- movements from Shylock are inserted between the third and fourth movements of Pelléas, the last of which ends the act -- and the company's interim music director Andrews Sill led a capable, if not yet perfectly polished performance by the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. Unlike their visit last spring, the company's resident orchestra did not accompany them. One could sense at times a tug of war between conductor and musicians, as in that gorgeous flute solo of the third movement of Pelléas, which needed to go a little faster than the orchestra seemed to want.

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