Mariss "Hammerhands" Jansons strikes the glocken-anvils and conducts the Wiener Philharmoniker in Strauss' Feuerfest during its annual Neujahrskonzert. We wanna see the part where Mariss goes buckwild with the hammers and runs around the hall swinging for the fences because he didn't get his Air Jordan Concords for Xmas.
The Viennese must never be hungover on New Years Day. HBIC Julie Andrews was in the audience.
Whenever she has the privilege to hear the Bayerischen Rundfunks -- aka The Funky Rundfunks -- play live, led by their maestro Mariss Jansons, Opera Chic feels that they might very well be the greatest orchestra in the world (the last time she did hear them live, at la Scala, it was just another splendid treat).
There's just something special and unique in the precision of that multilayered sound; after the Carnegie Hall triumph the other night, New Yorkers seem to agree.
Tony Tommasini, possibly confused after too much partying to celebrate his survivor status in a vastly downsized department, ignores the obvious answer in a baffling comment re: the Muti/CSO thing:
And Mr. Muti would have been all wrong for New York. I, for one, could not be more hopeful about Mr. Gilbert’s potential. But I thought that the Philharmonic players all would have shared my enthusiasm.
Now, the quite evident answer to the mystery that leaves Tony Tommy baffled, ie the reason why the NYPhil don't seem to share TT's unabashed enthusiasm for Gilbert may be, quite simply, that... Gilbert may not be as good a conductor as Muti.
Let us be clear here: OC likes Gilberto, and she thinks that he'll do just fine, and anyway he's got his back covered because all the New York critics are totally in the tank for him and he'll certainly commission a lot of new stuff that'll spread jobs and much-needed benjis among a lot of otherwise underemployed people.
But there is indeed a list of the Big Five when it comes to conductors, too -- the list of the top five conductors in the world.
Opera Chic's, strictly in alphabetical order is this:
Claudio Abbado
James Levine
Riccardo Muti
Antonio Pappano
(your list may be slightly different, but in all seriousness not that different: maybe you can replace Pappano with Barenboim or Jansons with Haitink, but Claudio, Jimbo & Riccardo solidly belong in that list).
The fact Tommasini chooses to ignore is that Gilbert, however interesting and refreshing a choice, cannot be reasonably included in that Big Five list, by all means. Muti can. And indeed he is in very many people's Big Five list -- including, one suspects, a lot of CSO musicians'.
Give it up for the great maestro Mariss Jansons, who last night amazed la Scala with his Bayerischen Rundfunks, aka "The Fieldmarshals Of Funk" (j/k), in a program that boasted
Also sprach Zarathustra, the Tristan prelude, and Bartok's Miracolous Mandarin.
But the coolest part is that, as an hommage to Italy, he also chose -- as a surprise -- the Intermezzo from our beloved Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, horrifying the many snobs here who consider Mascagni, with Cilea, too "popular", too "lowbrow", too "crude" -- when, in fact, Mascagni and Cilea are obviously anything but (I mean, Herbie Von Karajan was one of many famous huge Mascagni fans).
And also, the heartbreaking Intermezzo represents the best use of opera by a film director, like, evar.
Well done sir!