Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

The Philharmonic Society of Orange County closed its current season on Monday with a wild card – pianist Simone Dinnerstein. Much has been made of her rather DIY career trajectory. She came to wide acclaim, at least among the recording and ticket buying communities, following the release of a self-financed disc of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in 2007. More conventional success in the classical music field followed with a recording contract from Sony and appearances all over the globe. She has remained popular, and for good reason, more often than not as a solo performer who makes appearances on an eclectic group of stages both big and small. Monday was the first time she had appeared on a major stage in Southern California and it was to a mostly full house at the Segerstrom Concert Hall.

The program consisted entirely of her beloved Bach, French Suite No. 5, English Suite No. 3, and Partita’s No. 1 and 2. The French Suite here was one that I’d previously heard her play at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival in 2010, a more intimate venue that played more to her strengths. She’s a quirky player and her performances do lie outside of the mainstream for most world-class soloists. She is unique, but her playing is also rather mannered. On Monday she exhibited neither an academic restraint that favored clarity nor a period sensibility that brought out the dance rhythms underpinning each movement in all the suites. Instead she takes an impressionistic tack that views Bach’s line as broad strokes of color as if it was something Debussy had written that was long since overlooked. At times, particularly in the faster movements, this approach can verge on cacophonous distortion towards unclear ends. At other times there is a beautiful glow and warmth although never much of a sense of stillness. Ironically this penchant for broadly colorful impressionistic playing may seem last suited for the music of the composer she is best known for. But it is also one of the things that sets her apart from the pack and keeps her so popular with audiences.

Labels: Philharmonic Society OC

Is it possible for a major American orchestra to tour these days without programming a work from a living composer? Of course it is. And yet, if a look at the ensembles on the road over the last two seasons is any indication, surprisingly few do. Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston. You name it, American orchestras now tour with new(ish) music as standard practice. This is a good thing, even if it doesn’t always mean that the ensembles involved are doing progressive or cutting edge programming in the particular instance or even in their regular hometown seasons. In yet another example of this practice, The Cleveland Orchestra was the latest ensemble to stop in Southern California this week as a guest of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. The evening was built around Kaija Saariaho’s Orion, a work commissioned by the orchestra under its current music director Franz Welser-Möst during the early years of his tenure there. It was an excellent choice. Saariaho continues to be perhaps the most musically satisfying of living composers and the expansive rich textures, often darkly hued, always amaze. She is also perhaps the most sophisticated composer of orchestral music around, and the expanse of these other-worldly three movements that oscillate between furious storms of sound to the quiet reaches of something more inward was profound.

But I did get the nagging feeling that perhaps something was missing, even in this most interesting work on the evening’s program. The rich, certain sound of the Cleveland players is much what you would expect from the legendary orchestra. But conductor Welser-Möst sometimes exhibited a certain rigidity of pacing and overall lack of drama. He’s a particularly curious maestro with a great deal of physical restraint on the podium. It’s tempting, though likely unfair, to assume this physical restraint translates directly his musical interpretations. But I couldn’t help feeling timidity plagued much of the rest of the program. The evening started with Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 where the orchestra sounded polished with a lovely rich string sound. But the performance was flat and surprisingly uninvolved. That’s one thing with Mendelssohn, but the same sort of abject stance is harder to take when in comes to Shostakovich. The finale of the evening was the Russian composer’s Symphony No.6, three movements with all the grandiose sorrow and maniacal speed associated with his best work. Welser-Möst dug in here to a much greater degree for a performance that was emphatic if not at all marked by the kind of folk sensibility one commonly gets from Russian ensembles. The performance worked mostly, but it had the feeling of poetry translated from another language, somehow a step removed in the current context. Of course, I could pontificate about how this performance does or doesn’t relate to the many controversies that have swirled around the Cleveland Orchestra in recent years, but that kind of analysis is really rather facile in the end. This is a single performance and has all the real successes and failures real single performances have. The orchestra is still very much embedded in their familiar legacy of superior sound and they can play the heck out of many things including an important piece of recent music.

Labels: Philharmonic Society OC

I wasn’t going to write about the whole “woman composer” thing. I hold with those that feel the qualifier somehow invites people to take the work of composers who are women and hold them to a standard that is different and doesn’t serve anyone very well. Plus I can’t think of anything to say that Lisa Hirsch didn't say better already in her excellent 2008 piece for New Music Box.* And yet, as Lisa Hirsch points out, speaking of women composers as well as women conductors is in other senses unavoidable when faced with the stark difference in the opportunities they’ve been afforded in the classical music world. There is still a battle to be waged, and Marin Alsop and her Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which stopped in Orange County as guests of the Philharmonic Society on Wednesday, did so with an unambiguous agenda in this regard.

The BSO has taken up a seasonal theme of adventurous women and are featuring the works of contemporary women on their current program. Furthermore, the programming itself brings the issue front and center as Wednesday’s show opened with Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man paired with Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman. The piece is Tower’s most frequently performed piece and one she dedicated to another trailblazer, BSO Music Director Marin Alsop. I can’t say the pairing of fanfares, both of which use the same instrumentation, told me very much about any gender divide in music or the world of its performance.

But what was true here, and throughout the rest of the evening was just exactly how exciting it was to see Marin Alsop conduct. She has magnificent stage presence and a strong sense of dynamics. And truth be told, despite my many years as a concert goer, I must admit that seeing a woman on the podium of a major orchestra in this way adds to that excitement for me. Yes, this is progressively a more frequent event, and I can rattle of over a dozen other women conductors I’ve had the pleasure to see perform live. But there is something about Alsop and her command of the music and her relationship with this orchestra that rivets.

I wish I could say the same for the music of composer Jennifer Higdon. The other major work on the first half of the program was her Percussion Concerto composed for Colin Currie who was on hand to play it. In some ways the concerto does have an unusual structure in that the soloist not only interacts with the orchestra as a whole but also specifically with the other players of the percussion section in particular at several points throughout the seamless single movement. But despite this, the writing overall takes the most pedestrian of forms with the soloist providing a number of virtuosic turns on a variety of different instruments while the rest of the players generate music that is unvaryingly the same from moment to moment. Currie is a remarkable player though and did pull off some pretty spectacular playing in the showy part written for him. Yet in total, it was a similar experience to Aho’s recent Clarinet Concerto that popped up with soloist Martin Fröst with the Los Angeles Philharmonic last week – whimsical, but ultimately hollow.

The L.A. Philharmonic was on my mind again in the closing piece of the program, Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. If you closed your eyes on Wednesday you could easily imagine yourself in Walt Disney Concert Hall, and not just because the L.A. Times’ Mark Swed and the L.A. Phil’s Deborah Borda were in the room. And I intend this statement to be taken in all the ways it could be construed. Alsop choose some deliberate methodical pacing in the later movements of the symphony that turned things boggy, but at other moments there was a clarity and detail to be admired. The sound was peculiarly American, harking back to the Copland that opened the night with broad almost optimistic attacks that, while certainly congruent with the work’s 1945 premiere, felt a little less like the Moscow of that eventful post-WWI evening and more like, well…Baltimore. Alsop punctuated the evening with a snippet of Borodin's Polovtsian Dances before sending off the very enthusiastic Orange County crowd who seemed to share my warm feelings for her and her orchestra. And that seems as much like the face of progress as anything else I can think of.

*If I'm not mistaken, Ms. Hirsch's piece made her the big winner of the 2008 Best Arts Blogger in North America Prize for her response to the prompt "Women composers. Now what do they want?" However, I may be mistaken about this.

Labels: Philharmonic Society OC

The Takács Quartet is one of those fixtures of the classical music world that seems almost impervious to time. Even after 35 years and a handful of personnel changes, they remain one of the finest chamber music ensembles in the world. They returned to Southern California on Tuesday along with pianist Garrick Ohlsson on their current tour as guests of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County to the intimate Irvine Barclay Theater. The program was part of the organization’s “Beethoven: The Late Great” series revisiting the monumental music the composer produced in his final years, and the evening did include his String Quartet No. 14, Op.131. It was the first time I’ve heard the current roster of Takács play this piece since their much lauded recording of the Beethoven string quartets and subsequent appearances in Los Angeles nearly a decade ago. Little had changed musically with the seamless addition of violist Geraldine Walther to the combo, and no one went away disappointed. It was lean, muscular Beethoven, now in full Romantic bloom, enchanted with rhythm and touchingly lyrical. It’s easy to complain about the omnipresent programming of Beethoven’s music, but this performance provided all of its own justification.

The rest of the night was dedicated to the endlessly fascinating musical world of Shostakovich and the Piano Quintet in G minor with Ohlsson. The Quintet was composed in the halcyon days of the late 30s and early 40s when Shostakovich was on the rebound from his falling out with Stalin and his works were again warmly received by the powers-that-be even if they would sustain some outside criticism for the composer’s purported willingness to toe the party line a bit more artistically. Seventy years later, though, one wouldn’t mistake the music as having come from any other hand with its jarring combinations of military and carnivalesque elements. The opening Prelude and Lento was some of the most haltingly sad music I’ve heard played all year. The Takács players have the knack of delivering something that could be almost obscenely jocular but also knowingly weary at other times. Perhaps the only oddity here was that the Takács players and Ohlsson could be of two minds at moments. Ohlsson often went for a polished almost quintessentially classical feel, eschewing the temptation to deliver a poke in the ribs every now and then. But it may have been for the best, grounding the performance overall with some contrasting elements. The Takács players will continue their tour through the U.S., Europe, and Australia into the summer with appearance at Carnegie Hall next month, and if you haven’t caught up with them lately, now would be a great time.

Labels: Philharmonic Society OC, Takács

Dean Corey was excited. And rightly so. The Artistic Director for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County was not only celebrating his birthday but was also welcoming the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and their Music Director Riccardo Muti to the Segerstrom Concert Hall stage for the first time on their first tour of California in over 20 years. The appearance was a long time in the making, and after hearing one of the world’s great orchestras with one of the world’s great conductors live up to those accolades, I was glad that Corey and his crew persevered in making this particular appearance happen. Say what you will about the music on the program, the orchestra played spectacularly with the kind of sound other ensembles would give anything to emulate. The brass, of course, are legendary. But I just couldn’t get over how polished the strings were overall. The combination of big, bright sound and real precision doesn’t always come together in such a package, but for the Chicago players they live comfortably side-by-side. And while Muti has his detractors, I must say every chance I’ve had to hear him conduct has left me awestruck with the fluidity of his phrasing and ability to command sublime, propulsive performances without any rough edges.

The evening’s program was an unusual one, full of machines and the future. It started out with Honegger’s Pacific 231, a tone poem evoking the power of a steam locomotive. Honneger uses several rhythmic elements to suggest the acceleration and movement of steel. The CSO provided the energy, and you could feel the engine burst to life in the short introduction. This was paired with a new CSO commission from their Composer-in-Residence, Mason Bates. He was certainly one lucky guy to have these particular forces amassed to show off his new work, Alternative Energy. The four movement symphony, which is divided into two parts, doesn’t suffer from a lack of ambition. Each movement refers to a different place and time where human technology has taken a leap forward. That two of these four segments take place in the imagined future is a bold and risky move throwing the material into the realm of science fiction. The first movement looks at the harnessing of combustion engines by Ford for use in automobiles in the late 19th Century. Bright lyrical lines in the strings swirl around the crank of a car's gear shaft - a motif that will be repeated at times throughout the whole work. It’s not a bad idea, but one that sounded a lot like a John Williams movie score to my ear.

Next on the energy tour were recorded sounds from the Fermilab particle collider in Chicago placed over contemporary orchestra fare. All of this was rather loud, and the sounds of the collider were indeed fascinating, evoking both speed and high energy. The last two movements invoked an imagined Chinese nuclear reactor some 100 year down the line and eventually a finale set in "an Icelandic rainforest on a hotter planet" far beyond that. Again recorded elements peppered the score in an intriguing way. The real problems with Alternative Energy was how derivative some of the orchestral music was. Just as the opening movement suggested Coplandesque Americana, the nuclear plant segment was filled with chimes and Hollywood-style Chinoiserie. And if you didn’t see Bjork coming at you by the time the Avatar-like last movement rolled onto the stage, you hadn’t been paying attention.

The evening wrapped up with another unusual piece at least for most contemporary orchestral programs, César Franck’s Symphony in D minor. And while there is nothing technological or mechanical about this work in particular, Muti kept the energetic, propulsive feel high throughout its three movements. It was an enthralling, beautifully paced and intricately shaped performance putting Franck's symphony in the best possible light. But this is the kind of thing the CSO does every day. The other program on this tour which includes works form Schubert and a new commission from composer Anna Clyne will also be presented in Southern California on Sunday courtesy of the La Jolla Music Society. And at the Segerstrom Concert Hall, the great American orchestras will keep on coming with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop on March 28, the Cleveland Orchestra with Franz Welser-Möst on April 17, the Los Angeles Philharmonic on April 28, and the New York Philharmonic with Alan Gilbert on May 8th yet to come.

Labels: Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonic Society OC, Roccardo Muti

On Saturday, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County presented a recital by one of the most fascinating and challenging of all pianists, Italian-born Marino Formenti. His performances are nothing less than fascinating regardless of their overall success or failure. This is a man who has performed Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ naked on a stage covered with thousands of hamburger buns, among other daring musical feats. And while he didn’t quite go that far in Orange County, he nonetheless presented a show that was intellectually rigorous if not completely easy to swallow by all of those in attendance. The show was structured around Beethoven’s late Diabelli Variations, a collection of 33 variations composed in response to a project proposed by the music publisher of the same name who had solicited variations from a number of contemporaneous composers on a rather pedestrian waltz he had written himself. Beethoven scoffed at the request, but later surprisingly produced one of his greatest works by creating an overabundance of responses, one of the last major works of his life. The work has been lionized over the years and filled with projected rage against the dying of the light, serving as fodder for filmed documentaries and framing devices for deeply serious plays about death starring big Hollywood stars.

But Formenti was having none of this Jane Fonda glossy approach on Saturday. He views the work in much more every-day human terms, seeing the individual variations as being a collection of responses, sometimes mocking and farcical, that Beethoven might have actually had to such a request at the time of the work’s composition. Originally Saturday’s recital was to have included other variations on Diabelli’s waltz that Formenti was to have commissioned; however, they failed to materialize. Formenti kept in the spirit of the project, though, by playing works that were similar in structure and intent. First was George Benjamin’s set of 6 canons for solo piano, Shadow Lines. These short rhythmically complicated bursts segued into Evan Gardner’s Variations on a Theme by John Cage. The young Gardner had cleverly chosen the “theme” from Cage’s silent 4’33” for his work that relied heavily on electronics that was receiving its U.S. Premiere performance. Formenti, seated at the piano, didn’t actually play the instrument but instead followed a series of hand motions while wearing motion sensitive gloves that record the “silence” or ambient noise in the room. This sound is then looped, re-recorded and played through amplifiers resulting in distinct electronic thumps and beeps that arise out of the feedback from the absence of sound.

Gardner’s approach set the groundwork well for the performance of the Beethoven that followed in taking a rather shifting and unfixed notion of variations to inform his music. Like Formenti’s approach to the Diabelli Variations, Gardner takes a more complicated view of a composer's understanding of source material in creating music, which in the case of Beethoven has become ossified as a primary source material over time. It was interesting even when the sound became too unfocused and dissipated in the Segerstrom Concert Hall.

Needless to say, this starting material was not particularly well received by a Saturday night Orange County audience that was expecting comfortable and familiar Beethoven. Many people were restless and noisy even after opening remarks from Gardner and Artistic Director Dean Corey.At times Formenti appeared agitated during the first half of the evening and when he returned for the Beethoven, the crowd was about to find out that his Diabelli Variations would be like none they had heard before. He pounded into the opening waltz before the crowd had even stopped applauding with a churlish and mocking tone, one that would permeate much of the performance. Bounding bass lines crashed over melodic ones often at breakneck speed creating music that at times sounded as contemporary as anything in the first part of the evening. There were moments of calm in this, but any pretty moments were not in abundance confounding the expectations of many in the room. Formenti pointed out some of Beethoven’s mocking disregard for Diabelli’s original source material and suggested the composer was not necessarily looking for high-minded platitudes on the human condition in his work as much as nearly 200 years of history might lead you to believe. It was a bold interpretative choice and one that was fascinating to listen to if not always comforting or readily accessible. Perhaps Formenti was acting out some frustration with the audience by taking an exceptionally oppositional approach this particular evening, but regardless of the mood of the moment, this was not an interpretation meant to be comforting or reassuring in any way. And that in itself was exciting. Formenti lived up to his reputation, delivering something that was thought out and dynamic, even in the most unexpected of musical places.

Labels: Formenti, Philharmonic Society OC

Southern California was one of the many regions on the Mariinsky Orchestra’s current tour of the United States with their long-time music director Valery Gergiev. But, of course, Southern California always manages to put its own unique decentralized stamp on things so the three programs offered on this tour promoting the Mariinsky’s latest release of Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, and 6 involved performances in two different locations over 2 hours apart by car spread over 6 days. Plus, a three-day trip to the bay area was sandwiched in between the first and second programs and, unlike other cities on the tour, the local concert stops did not include performances of either Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1 or No. 6. But no matter. The Tchaikovsky they delivered was spectacular and thrilling, and everything else provided plenty of interesting listening.

I missed out on the first show of the Southern California set, which was sponsored by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County last Thursday, while I was in New York. The Philharmonic Society has enjoyed a close relationship with the Mariinsky Orchestra over the last few years and the orchestra played a big role in the inauguration of the Segerstrom Concert Hall in 2006. So it's a special occasion when Gergiev and his players return there and the second program on Monday, which included Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies No. 3 and No. 4, showed off how well things have gone for the hall in the last five years. It was wonder of a program and it sounded great in the space. American audiences in particular may be prone to overlook Tchaikovsky’s Russian heritage. His romantic works are so omnipresent that their familiarity breeds a certain contempt at times among some classical music fans. But if there is any orchestra in the world that can put the Russia back in Tchaikovsky, it’s the Mariinsky players, and Gergiev led these two symphonies in a performance unlike just about any other you’re likely to hear. The rough-hewn, sometimes severe take on even the smallest details imbues the symphonies with an almost folk music-like air. The slow movements have a mournfulness that one might not always think of in these very pretty pieces of music as well. It wasn’t technically flawless playing, but it was undoubtedly exciting. Even the encore from The Nutcrakcer seemed fresh and surprising that evening. The orchestra is not without finesse, and there was an assuredness in these performances that made even the rougher edges seem inspiring.

The following evening, Gergiev and his orchestra traveled to the other side of downtown Los Angeles to play a role in the opening of another brand new venue, The Valley Performing Arts Center on the campus of Cal State Northridge. It was my first visit to the very modern looking facility, which is pleasing to look at if a little cold on the outside. The “Great Hall” auditorium of the facility is filled with curving wood panels and grey metal accents. And in a parallel to those early shows at the then new Segerstrom Hall, the acoustic issues on Tuesday's VPAC show weren't quite sorted out yet. The Mariinsky Orchestra program was a thoughtful one that provided a 20th Century antidote to the Tchaikovsky show of the previous evenings. Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite started things off with a sound and perspective that was more mystical than Disney-esque. This piece can come off like movie-trailer music if you aren’t careful, and the Mariinsky Orchestra gave it a sometimes jarring twist that made it clear it wasn’t advertising anything. Next was Prokofiev’s demanding Piano Concerto No. 3 with soloist Alexander Toradze. It’s a furious flight of music, and here the acoustics got the better of everyone. The piano, at the foot of the stage was largely inaudible over the orchestra from where I sat in the loge and in many other places in the hall from reports I heard. Toradze struggled to rise above the orchestra even in the quietest parts. The sound could be cacophonous and harsh in the auditorium as well which continued into the evening's final offering, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1. This is a tough and rather daring early work from a composer with the opposite problem from Tchaikovsky- he's almost always talked about in terms of his relationship with his homeland and the Soviet Union. And like much of his work, Shostakovich fills this symphony with numerous folk themes as well as its looming, dark middle movements. Despite the harshness of the sound though, it was still a fascinating performance with its darker, edgier attitude. And so life goes on in Los Angeles and its environs as well all piled back into our cars afterwards, some for a long drive home. The city is filled with amazing things, it's just a rarity when they are packaged close together.

Labels: Philharmonic Society OC, Valley Performing Arts Center

Ian Bostridge Photo: Ben Ealovega 2010

The concluding performance of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County’s season took place on Friday with a visit from Bernard Labadie and his crackerjack Canadian Baroque ensemble Les Violons du Roy. And though that is enough in and of itself, they weren’t alone, bringing along British tenor Ian Bostridge. The program wasn’t surprising—Handel, Vivaldi and a stray Geminiani or Caldara bit here or there. What was a bit unusual is that this is not necessarily the first music one thinks of when one thinks of Bostridge. Or at least I don’t. The tenor has risen as one of the best known tenors of his age, but this has been largely in the works of Britten, Schubert, and Mozart. And while he’s no stranger to Baroque music, having recorded both Handel and Monteverdi, it has not been the mainstay of his repertoire. So in some ways, this show might have been an ideal setting for him to branch out. There are few ensembles as satisfying as Les Violons du Roy. Playing modern instruments with historical performance techniques, they produce a hybrid sound that is both stable and powerful but still related to the past. The evening opened with a suite from one of Handel’s best operas, Alcina, which was one of the highlights of the whole night. The playing in conerto grossi from Handel and Geminiani was equally brisk and lively and sounded warm and full in the Segerstrom Concert Hall.

The arias on the program were predominantly those of Handel and Vivaldi. Bostridge opened with two different settings of the same text from Tamerlano, one from Handel and another from Francesco Gasparini. But from the outset it was clear that as admirable as Bostridge’s singing is, it wasn’t completely satisfying. Technically, he made much more of the coloratura runs than many tenors I’ve seen who regularly perform Baroque works. His vocal leaps were clean more often than not and he avoided losing track rhythmically. But Bostridge never felt like he was invested in the characters or emotions of the texts, however. Granted, Baroque operas are not known for their unique or identifiable themes and plots. But these arias often felt unattached to anything. Bostridge’s gaunt frame and lack of other physical involvement than some minor contortions only heightened the effect. Probably the most successful pieces in the vocal component of the program were “La tiranna” from Vivaldi’s Arsilda, Regina di Ponto with its unusual rhythmic elements and Handel’s “From celestial seats descending” from Hercules. This latter lovely work is more oratorio than opera and recounts Hyllus’ torn emotions between his father Hercules, and Princess Iole, whom his father has captured as a prisoner of war. And it is possible that given the more two-dimensional aspects of the drama of Hercules that made it seem a better fit for Bostridge. The dramatic range of the aria seemed more fully occupied here for some reason. Or maybe he was just saving the best for last. In any event it was a nice end to the Philharmonic Society season, which will be followed next year with perhaps one of the strongest and most star-studded season the groups has yet put together with a schedule that reads like a list of the world’s major orchestras including visits from the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra as well as Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Petersburg, Baltimore and, of course, Los Angeles.

Labels: Philharmonic Society OC

Louis Lortie Photo: Elias

The Canadian pianist Louis Lortie returned to Southern California on Sunday to help the Philharmonic Society of Orange County kick off the 200th anniversary year of Franz Liszt's birth. He’s appeared at Segerstrom Concert Hall before, as he has in Los Angeles, and to be honest both times I’ve seen him play in the past, it has been as a pinch hitter for someone else who called in sick. And while those prior appearances were certainly adequate, neither prepared me for the wonderful recital he gave on Sunday in Costa Mesa. Liszt’s 200th birthday is a big one, and Lortie chose to perform what is arguably the composer and pianist’s masterpiece, Années de pèlerinage in its three volume entirety. (Though without all of the movements Liszt later added in an additional supplement to the second suite or "year".) Années is a massive work that encompasses nearly three hours of music. Liszt composed the components of each suite over a period dating from as early as 1848 to as late as 1877. Grouped into three “years,” each suite references geographical locations where Liszt had traveled and is meant to capture some of his own thoughts and experiences of these places. What’s more, the Années captures a cross-section in the development of Liszt’s compositional style. They vary from lush Romantic reflections on Italian poetry to virtuosic flurries in passages that change and morph in tone as they go along.

Lortie tackled the suites in two sittings on Sunday, each 90 minutes long without an intermission. In the afternoon her performed the “first year” and the first four movements of the “third year” leaving the balance of that suite and the “second year” for the evening performance. Lortie specializes in these Romantic solo works and his love for Liszt's huge and varied travelogue showed throughout. He flew at the keys with amazing speed at times only to later turn with a soft and warm touch in other passages. And while it may not have been the most crystalline of performances, his total commitment to the spirit of Liszt was evident throughout. He even managed to hold audiences in both sittings in complete silence throughout with not a clap or interruption at any time. At the end of the afternoon performance on completing Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este from the second suite, he almost appeared to be in tears from emotional if not physical exhaustion. A sentiment I could relate to given the tender beauty of his performance. That is not to say I thought everything was perfect. Lortie seemed a little pedal heavy at times to my ear and the acoustics of the Segerstrom Concert Hall could get a little muddy the lower and louder things got. But this is quibbling over something so deeply felt and on such a large scale. The program ended with an encore of Liszt’s Gondoliers, one of the movements from the supplement to the “second year” the composer published in 1861. Ultimately, the involved and lovely playing was admirable, and Sunday’s performance was a great way to commemorate the upcoming Liszt anniversary.

Labels: Philharmonic Society OC

Isabel Baykardarian and the Manitoba Chamber Ensemble with Anne Magson
Photo: mine 2008

Talk about the right material for the right singer at the right time. I’ve always had warm feelings for soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian. Like most opera goers, I know her primarily for bright and shiny Mozart roles such as Susannah and Zerlina. But I wasn’t quite prepared to see her take the whole thing up a notch in Orange County on Sunday as part of the Philharmonic Society series at the Segerstrom Concert Hall. The stars aligned for her that evening and she gave a spectacular heart-felt performance that produced one of the more enthusiastic crowd reactions I’ve seen in Orange County in awhile.

Her program, which was played with the assistance of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra under Anne Manson, focused almost exclusively on the songs of late 19th century Armenian composer Gomidas Vartabed with Ravel’s Deux mélodies hébraïques thrown in for good measure. Gomidas, of whom I knew virtually nothing before tonight, was a priest in the Armenian church and worked to preserve both liturgical and folk melodies of his people before he, like millions of others, were dislocated as part of the Armenian genocide. While Gomidas escaped with his life, things were irrevocably changed for him afterwards as millions of his people were killed under the auspices of the Ottoman Empire. If there's anyone who could make an argument for these songs it is undoubtedly Bayrakdarian and she does so in spades.

While many of these Gomidas’ songs about love, yearning, and nature were simple and straightforward in a folk tradition, Bayrakdarian gave them such loving attention that they developed a fierce life of their own. Often sounding more like a mezzo than a soprano, Bayrakdarian operated with ease in the lower part of her range and delivered a committed and ravishing performance I won’t soon forget. Her husband and accompanist Serouj Kradjian joined her on many numbers and performed a few of Gomidas’ folk dances in an interlude as well.

This performance was the second on Bayrakdarian’s “Remembrance Tour” dedicated to the victims of all genocides that will cross the country this fall with appearances at Carnegie Hall among other places. She has also recorded a new release featuring many of these works on the Nonesuch label, which is being touted in her PR materials as the first widely available recording of these songs in the West. While I’ve not heard it yet, I can say that if it is a quarter as good as Sunday’s performance, it’s a must.

Labels: Philharmonic Society OC