In Brief: Second Flood 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.

• A performance of Haydn's oratorio The Seasons, featuring the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra from Budapest, recorded in the parish church of Fertoszentmiklos, just a few kilometers away from Esterhaza where Haydn worked from 1766 to 1790. [Australian Radio]


• Paul van Nevel leads the Ensemble Huelgas in Renaissance works based on the chanson Malheur me bat by Josquin, Agricola, and Obrecht, a concert recorded in the Eglise Saint-Sulpice de Favière. [France Musique]


• Listen to Herbert Blomstedt conduct the Vienna Philharmonic in Bruckner's fifth symphony. [ORF]


• Mariss Jansons leads a performance of Verdi's Requiem Mass with the Munich Philharmonic. [BR-Klassik]


• Watch Marin Alsop conduct the São Paulo State Symphony in Clarice Assad's Terra Brasilis, a fantasy on the Brazilian national anthem, Chopin's second piano concerto (with Nelson Freire as soloist), and Mahler's first symphony. [Cité de la Musique Live]

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Good Friday Magic: 'Parsifal' Round Two

The poor sales of the National Symphony Orchestra's concert performance of the third act of Wagner's Parsifal were worse than I thought. Even with the special offer of half-price orchestra tickets, the Kennedy Center Concert Hall had a shocking number of empty spaces at the second performance on Friday night. Indeed, the papering of the house was at an unheard-of extent: as I walked into the Kennedy Center on Friday evening, I overheard a Kennedy Center official offering free tickets to that evening's NSO performance to tourists visiting the building. Neither Wagner nor Parsifal was mentioned, and I did not eavesdrop long enough to see if the offer was accepted. There is no guarantee that someone walking into the Kennedy Center this evening would receive a similar offer for tonight's final performance, but there are likely some readers out there who would happily accept a free ticket.

After being seated on the left aisle for the Thursday performance, I had the chance to compare the sound on the right aisle, again at about halfway back into the house. The acoustics in the Concert Hall are notoriously variable, and from the right side, the singers seemed more present -- especially those, like Yuri Vorobiev as Gurnemanz, who stood on the right side of the podium. While Nikolai Schukoff's Parsifal, who stood on the left side, sounded about the same, it was also odd to note that the four tuned gongs in the procession scene sounded much more clearly when I was seated on the left side, perhaps because the gongs' stand was on the right side of the orchestra, facing towards the left side of the house. Whatever the reason, on Friday night the gongs were so faint as to be almost non-existent far too often.

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Dip Your Ears, No. 157 (René Jacobs in New Pergolesi)

G.B.Pergolesi, Seven Last Words of Christ R.Jacobs, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin S.Karthäuser, C.Dumaux, J.Behr, K.Wolff Harmonia Mundi

Delicate, Vivid Last Words

There’s a story of discovery and research to this work, which was first found in 1930, championed by Hermann Scherchen, but not attributed with any certainty to the youthfully deceased Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, published just recently, and recorded only now. A cycle of seven small cantatas, quite unlike any other Seven Last Words (Schütz, Haydn, Franck, MacMillan…), Septem verba a Christo is an extraordinary work, lovingly championed by René Jacobs. The recitatives are alive and almost counter-intuitively nimble, typical for AkAMus’ brand of early music excitement. The arias—around bass/Jesus Konstantin Wolff—are splendidly done. The description that crops up again and again is “delicate”. There is a sophisticated delicacy to every aspect of this performance, as if the music—for all its vibrant outbursts—was made of the finest Belgian bobbin lace.

Made possible by Listen Music Magazine.

Eschenbach's 'Parsifal' (Act III)

Baritone Thomas Hampson
We covered the Verdi bicentennial yesterday and will again tomorrow, with Washington National Opera's production of the Italian composer's La forza del destino. In between, we were happy to observe instead the Wagner bicentenary -- again -- which the National Symphony Orchestra marked with a performance of the third act of the German composer's final opera, Parsifal. It is a work we have not heard in Washington since the staging by the Mariinsky Theater in 2006, so it was not as long a drought as that for Tristan, but we wish we heard more Wagner in these parts than we do.

The score is a wonder, austere in many ways but also mystical, surprising, and at times truly odd. Debussy singled out a particular quality one hears in the score, which he said was a model for the orchestration he was looking for in Jeux: "that orchestral color which seems to be lit from behind." Listening to only the exaltation of Act III, without the suffering and turmoil of the first two acts, seemed a bit like cheating at times. I cannot deny that I wished Christoph Eschenbach had chosen to do a single performance this week, say on Friday night only, but of the entire score. It may have made more sense for sales, too, since the NSO box office found itself having to offer some severe discounts to avoid having a drastically empty house.

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Cameristi della Scala

Charles T. Downey, Shutdown doesn’t stop Cameristi della Scala from leading a stroll through Verdi operas (Washington Post, October 11, 2013)

Is it perverse to celebrate the Verdi bicentennial year without singers? Excerpts of Wagner’s operas are performed in symphonic format all the time, so perhaps a precedent has been set. Cameristi della Scala, a chamber orchestra made up of musicians from the orchestra of Milan’s most famous theater, went one better on Wednesday night by performing other composers’ instrumental fantasies on themes from Giuseppe Verdi’s operas.

The musicians had the bad fortune to arrive in Washington during the government shutdown, which has canceled the free concert series at the concert’s intended venue, the Library of Congress. Happily, the Italian Embassy saved the day, offering its small auditorium for this performance, part of the ongoing festivities of the Italian Year of Culture. [Continue reading]

Cameristi della Scala
Verdi arrangements by Giovanni Avolio, Luigi Mancinelli, Camillo Sivori, Antonio Bazzini, and Antonio Melchiori (listen to an excerpt)
Italian Embassy

Braque at the Grand Palais, True Love

George Braque was a grand master. Involved in Fauvism with Matisse and Derain and, along with Picasso, in the development of Cubism and the first to use cut papers in his works, he redefined how we perceive the world visually. Georges Braque: A Retrospective, which just opened at the Grand Palais in Paris, is quite a tour de force. Consisting of some 240 paintings, drawings, graphic works, and collages drawn from both public and many private collections, this is one of those must-see kinds of exhibits.

At that time I was very close to Picasso. Although we were very different in temperament, we were driven by the same idea. Over those years, Picasso and I said things to each other that no one would ever be able to say again, that no one would ever be able to understand again.... things that would be incomprehensible now and that gave us so much joy... and it will all end with us. It was like climbers roped together on a mountain...

For me there is a more cerebral, meditative approach to Braque, which separates him from the more raucous Picasso. Braque lingered, he found nuance in the shapes and patterns and the application of the paint itself. He was, after all, a Frenchman.

Of all the work in this extensive exhibit, I was drawn to and returned several times to the painting The Duet, from the collection of the Pompidou Center. The cubist geometry is certainly evident in the multi-dimensional figures and complex spacial analytics, but there is romantic sensibility that is more attuned to Matisse than Picasso. However, The Duet, which is a riff on Matisse's Piano Lesson, is less severe in temperament. I'd prefer a lesson with Braque's music teacher. I think Romare Bearden also did.

I love the young student's hair bun and the triangular shapes surrounding her head, emanating from the picture on the wall. This girl has a lot going on. The puffed pink chest of her teacher boldly trys to keep her focused on the task at hand, as the world streams in through the window. These are the sights and sounds only a Frenchman can bring to a painting and Braque just keeps on giving.

Besides Paris, Houston will be the only U.S. venue for this exhibit. Houston, Paris, hmmmm.

Hidden Places

Act like you belong, as the phrase goes, and you'll get in the door. I've used the technique over the years, and more often than not, I did get in the door and never once took such a gift for granted. This past month on a trip to Italy, artist friends suggested that I visit the drawing library at the Uffizi Gallery. My friends had lived in Florence for many years and often visited the collection: "you can actually handle these fragile amazing master works," they said, still themselves amazed. Of course there is a catch. You have to have a letter of introduction from a professor or scholar to gain entrance. It's a bit complicated and being Italy, some things are impossible, but sometimes the impossible is quite easy.

I got a letter of introduction and made contact with the department, the Gabinetto dei Disegni. I then made my way to a side door of the Uffizi, where I checked in with security. I was then directed through a back hallway, up a stairway and an elevator, then through a massive oak door, to the main hall filling with the day's visitors. I crossed the hall to another massive door and entered to the offices of the director, a middle-aged woman who sternly asked for my letter of introduction, then almost begrudgingly pointed me to the adjoining room.

A two-story, dimly lit chamber is lined floor to ceiling with shelves of boxes. This is where you get down to business. Each box is labeled with an artist's name, like Michelangelo or Botticelli or Pontormo. In each box are photo reproductions of each drawing in the collection. Under most circumstances you could spend days happily pouring over these images.

I found a Pontormo image that spoke to me, four of them actually. Then the librarian in charge, a very nice man, struggled to communicate with me in English, as I desperately mangled Italian. Eventually it became clear that I needed to choose the image I wanted to see, write the file number on a note pad with carbon copies, and the librarian will clear my request with the stern middle-aged woman in the outer office.

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Kennedy Center Chamber Players

Charles T. Downey, Kennedy Center Chamber Players offer top-notch evening of Bach, Brahms
Washington Post, October 8, 2013

J. S. Bach, Gamba Sonatas, J. Savall, T. Koopman

The chemistry of a chamber music ensemble can be as elusive and mercurial as any relationship, or even more so. Many factors can contribute to making a performance excellent or not so much. Whatever those factors may have been, they all lined up for a top-notch concert by three members of the Kennedy Center Chamber Players on Sunday evening at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Cellist David Hardy and pianist Lambert Orkis showed two different musical facets in the first half. Bach’s Sonata in D for viola da gamba and continuo (BWV 1028), updated to cello and grand piano, was blithe and sweet, with only a few minor tempo inconsistencies between players in the fast movements. Orkis kept his foot off the sustaining pedal, adding some pleasing ornaments, and Hardy minimized his vibrato, both playing with consummate sensitivity. [Continue reading]

Kennedy Center Chamber Players
Music by Bach, Mendelssohn, Brahms
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater