Opera Chic

Bearing Witness to 9/11 with the New York Philharmonic

From Daniel J. Wakin comes the New York Philharmonic's announcement for a special memorial concert in remembrance of September 11, 2001. This year's memorial will mark the 10th anniversary of the traumatic terror attack on the World Trade Center and the NYPhil is the first of NYC's cultural orgs to make an announcement.

A free performance of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony will be held at Avery Fisher Hall with soprano Dorothea Röschmann and mezzo Michelle DeYoung. The September 10th evening concert will be broadcast on the radio and on screens in Lincoln Center Plaza. 

We only hope that seats will first go to those who were involved directly in the aftermath of the trauma of September 11.

A Jazzy Start to The New York Philharmonic's New Season

 

Last night, the New York Philharmonic inaugurated their 2010-11 season with an opening night gala at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. Alan Gilbert led the orchestra in the USA premiere of Wynton Marsalis' Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3), Strauss' Don Juan, and Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber. Marsalis was on hand with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for his new work.  

Lots of NYC socialites -- rounded out by Josh GRObahn and Alec Baldwin (in Zenga) -- welcomed Gilbert for his second year as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. 

Alan Gilbert Has Cooler Friends Than You

New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert keeps scaryily awesome company. He was recently spotted walking around Manhattan with the main character Death/Nekrotzar from György Ligeti's opera Le Grand Macabre.

The highly-animated, staged production by designer Doug Fitch (in its first complete New York performance) will be at Avery Fisher Hall for three performances on May 27, 28 & 29.

The New York Philharmonic Makes it to [Access] Hollywood (Thanks, Alec Baldwin!)

 

Access Hollywood has finally gotten the memo about where the cool kids sit in the lunchroom, and Alec Baldwin is the cocky star quarterback to the New York Philharmonic's slutty head cheerleader. The daily gossip show was in NYC covering the NY Phil's 2010/11 season announcement from yesterday afternoon where Alec talked briefly about his partnership with the orchestra's radio broadcasts.

Go here for the video!

The Terrible Twos for Alan Gilbert's Second Year with the NY Philharmonic

(Photo credit Chris Lee)

The New York Philharmonic announced their 169th season (cexcy!), Alan Gilbert’s second year as Music Director with premieres, debuts, and special guests in spades.

The season starts on September 22 with a Gala Opening night that will host the U.S. premiere of Wynton Marsalis's new composition, commissioned jointly with a whole lot of love by the NY Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic and the L.A. Philharmonic.

Gilbert gets a big chunk of the conducting pie and will lead a staged version of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen in June (in an, um, English translation) with Isabel Bayrakdarian as the CLV. He'll also conduct the NYC premiere of Thomas Adès' Multimedia in Seven Days (Ades' on piano) that boasts a dazzling multimedia display. Gilbert taps Mahler again with his 4th, 5th & 6th symphonies and Kindertotenlieder (with Thomas Hampson). He'll be ducking out of NYC as ~Music Abassador~, taking his orchestra on two European world tours, October 2010 and May 2011, details forthcoming. He'll also conduct Carnegie Hall's 120th Anniversary Concert in May 2011 and a Lang(2) New Year's Evening Tchaikovsky extravaganza.

If Gilbert doesn't always make you trill your Yamamotos, 2010-11 offers guest appearances by Michael Tilson Thomas, Daniel Harding, Andris Nelsons, Sir Colin Davis, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kurt Masur, Paavo Järvi, and Christoph von Dohnányi (among others -- you can go here for the full run-down). Sir Colin Davis will conduct Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn (with Dorothea Röschmann and Ian Bostridge); Daniel Harding makes his Philharmonic debut in March 2011 with Mahler's 4th...lol Daniel Harding in NYC means that the Seventh Seal has been broken, go stock up on duct tape and Campbell's soup; Esa-Pekka Salonen will lead a three-week festival to celebrate Haydn, Bartók, and Ligeti called Hungarian Echoes; Michael Tilson Thomas hosts that Sunday matinee crowd-pleaser "Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in Yiddish Theater" in April 2011.

Battling Magnus Lindberg's in-Residence dictatorship is violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter as the 2010/11 Artist-in-Residence. She'll be sharing the soloist spotlight with (OC's abbreviated list) Joshua Bell, Janine Jansen, Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, Nikolaj Znaider, Pinchas Zukerman, Yo-Yo Ma, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Emanuel Ax, Jonathan Biss, and Yefim Bronfman.

The Cunning Little Gilbert! Team NYPhils!  

Winter Vacation with the New York Philharmonic: But You Can Stay Warm & Toasty at Home

Chaperon (and Music Director of the New York Philharmonic) Alan Gilbert packed it up again (we last checked-in a few months ago with Gilbert during his "Asian Horizons" tour) from NYC's Upper West Side and took his orchestra on a European tour. Swapping-out skyscrapers for Gaudi, the NY Philharmonic just gave their first concert in their inaugural city of Barcelona at the Palau de la Música Catalana.

Nine cities in total, the tour will take them through Europe (Spain, Switzerland, Germany, France, and England) in a scatter-shot program. Even American baritone Thomas Hampson is along for the ride, performing Adams' The Wound Dresser.The NYPhils are tweeting the event live from Europe, where you can watch and even vicariously munch on delicious seafood with those famished musicians as they get their grub on at a Barcelona marisquería.

We're also rather fond of the photos, especially the one below -- homage to a bit of NYC SoHo style: Jil Sander's first collection for Uniqlo (or a worthy approximation) isanely popular piume jacket, modeled by NYPhil violinist Hae-Young Ham...reprezent! And stay warm!

 

 

Neeme Järvi and the New York Philharmonic, reMixed with Zemlinsky

We all have a secret place we only share with the special people in our lives, maybe a secret restaurant in the Cinque Terre, a secret little church somewhere in Val di Chiana, a secret view of old industrial Chicago at a certain time near dusk, a secret konditorei in a little Voralberg town, a secret garden in the Isola del Giglio, a secret foggy little square in London that's still lighted in the nighttime -- dimly -- by gaslight.

We all have places and sounds and views that we hold dear to our hearts, that you can't share indiscriminately because the wrong people will just ruin it, somehow, for us too, because those places and sounds and views and flavors somehow seem too delicate -- too magic -- to be there just for anyone, and they're not, oh no they aren't.

Alexander Zemlinsky's music is one of those secret places -- its delicate, deep beauty just resonates so much. And the debate's open on when exactly the twentieth century, as far as music is concerned, began -- on the night of "Salome"'s premiere, on the morning nerdy Arnold Schoenberg woke up on the atonal side of the bed, you name it -- what-ever.

For Opera Chic the twentieth century was born when Alex met Alma, and everything began.

There's a solid argument to be built around the fact that no composer as great as Zemlinsky has had to suffer the same kind of neglect, that no artist as great as poor sad Alexander has been mistreated the way he has had to endure, in the hour of his desperate penniless death and even after it.

Every once in a while, a few major conductors -- all men of personal generosity, it's interesting to notice -- give Zemlinsky's music the kind of treatment it deserves: the late wonderful Maestro Sinopoli's concerts, Riccardo Chailly's and our James Conlon's recordings of Zemlinsky's works. Still, his music remains somewhat obscure, his name almost always absent from most playbills of important orchestras.

Therefore, whenever Zemlinsky is played, it's a good day for classical music.

We just spent a Friday night with the New York Philharmonic, and while Gilbert is away, the Phils play -- and they play Zemlinsky.

In a concert that was originally supposed to herald Count Vlad Jurowski's New York debut, the young Russian conductor had mysteriously double-booked himself (he's currently in Torino performing with the Rai Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale and Radu Lupu). So while Jurowski is in Torino sampling delicious brioche & caffé espresso, Mr. Reliable Neeme Järvi stepped-in to cover the open slot. Not only a new conductor but a new program, too, as Matthias Pintscher's "towards Osiris "got the axe for its U.S. Fall 2009 debut and will premiere instead in March 2010.

In a round of 4 nights, Järvi leads a Beethoven, Mozart, Zemlinsky program (ending on Tuesday) with Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony the headliner...all interconnected via a Prague influence of various and tenuous shades.

It opened with Beethoven, the overture of “The Creatures of Prometheus” (shorter version of the Greek myth: you play with matches, you get burned) When Zeus disposed of Prometheus by chaining him to a rock where he was to be eaten alive by an eagle, he might have thought of Järvi's interpretation -- this one literally felt like it was chained to that same eagle-feasting rock. He galloped along at a worthy pace, but in the end was a shallow, tensionless color that barely sparked Beethoven's fire.

Next was Mozart's magic Prague Symphony, a half-hour foray by Järvi into soaring, polite Mozart  -- the Prague is unique for the three compact movements, shelfing the critical fourth for compositional transitions instead. Järvi's slow and thoughtful tempi wrapped the orchestra in a thick, velvety swath -- an earthbound translation of Mozart's joyful manuscript. Adagio -- Alegro was preoccupied and absent minded, lacking the crackle and good nature of Mozart. Andante and the final Presto was much of the same: Järvi showed mastery of dynamics and pacing, but it never soared nor explored the infinte layers of the score nor captured the exultations of the Mozartian bubble.

Although he fizzled and plunked through the first half, Järvi's final Zemlinsky absolved the Estonian conductor of his former transgressions. Järvi's spot-on interpretation of Alexander Zemlinsky's "Lyric Symphony" was the highlight of the evening with its humongous instrumentation and ballZ-to-the-wall soloists. The Lyric Symphony in Seven Songs, after poems by Rabindranath Tagore from The Gardener, in Hans Effenberger’s 1914 German translation is structured in seven interrelated songs for baritone, soprano, and orchestra, running in a succinct, woven pattern without the aid of breaks. The work premiered in Prague for the International Society for Contemporary Music festival in 1924 to which Zemlinsky -- friend of Mahler, teacher to Alban Berg, Anton Webern, and Arnold Schoenberg, the latter later his bro-in-law (ungenerous Schoenberg married Zemlinsky’s sister Mathilde) found great success.

The work is greatly evocative of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde -- Das Lied predates the Lyric Symphony by at least a decade, but still hearkens greatly to Mahler's song cycle masterpiece: both evolve with half a dozen poems; an immense orchestral scoring; two alternating soloists; and are based on texts translated into German. On paper, yes, the two are similar, but Zemlinksy's savors a frilly depth with his seven gorgeous songs that soar on a more musical, operatic scale. The transitions are marked with such lovely and ethereal segues, scarily harmonious and intuitive. Colorful expressive passages are tinged with graceful foreshadowing.

It's quite obviously a masterpiece of the Twentieth Century, a work of ambition and greatness and awesome power -- incredibly, the New York Philharmonic had only played it once before, in 1979 under the baton of James Levine. Thirty years later, Swedish soprano Hillevi Martinpelto and our dear booming hulking self-loving American baritone Thomas Hampson were well-matched, never straying far from each other in alternating movements. Hampson's first movement, Ich bin friedlos, demands a deafening baritone entering after a breathless, rumbling, Asiatic-tinged overture. Blooming, billowing vocal lines soared over an intricate, gorgeous composition. Hampson mastered movement III's Du bist die Abendwolke with an introspective, melodic and thoroughly modern interpretation.

Swedish soprano Hillevi Martinpelto exercised a fabulous, solid voice, well-suited against both Hampson's professionalism and Lieder's stringent demands. Her first solo via Mutter, der junge Prinz was musical and muscled, but not overbearing. The music, as it is often the case with Alex's work, just shimmered there, in its greatness, not flaunting its beauty but simply allowing it to illuminate the night.

Come for Zemlinsky and stay for Zemlinsky -- this is a rare treat.

It's a Family Affair: Alan Gilbert Celebrates his Roots with the NY Phil

 
(The adorable Gilbert family: Sister Jennifer, concertmaster of the Orchestre National de Lyon; mom Yoko Takebe, a Philharmonic violinist; and Dad Michael, a retired Philharmonic violinist. Photo by Chris Lee from the NYPhil website.)

Alan Gilbert is head chaperone as he takes the NY Phils on an international tour called ~Asian Horizons~. Oh hay -- guess where they are? Less than one month after stepping in officially as the New York Philharmonic's 25th Music Director (actually, it was on September 16...OC was there) Gilbert has left the building, packed-up and leading his orchestra in a five-country jaunt that began last week and ends on the 24th.

In the shadow of a successful 2008 Asia tour, the NY Philharmonic revisits Tokyo (where his mother’s family is from), Seoul, Singapore, Hanoi (they've actually never been before) Abu Dhabi, and Al Ain, where they'll play a rotating program that includes Magnus Lindberg’s EXPO, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto (with young Korean violinst Ye-Eun Choi), Beethoven’s 7th, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 (with Emanuel Ax), and Brahms’s Violin Concerto (with Frank Peter Zimmermann). Alec Baldwin, will join the orchestra for their Hanoi concert as host.

Go to their website for loads more media, including orchestra members quietly sampling the delicious Asian cusine, and then a sake-chugging contest where they turn a tuba into a keg. Just kidding about that last part.

 
C YA! Don't pick up any hitchhikers! Below are a few shots of the Philharmonic President, Zarin Mehta and Gilbert at a press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam.

 

 

The Alan Gilbert Revolution: It's Coming, We Swear, Maybe Just not at this Moment, Tho.

Just shy of forty appearances as Guest Conductor for the New York Philharmonic, native UWS New Yorker, Alan Gilbert, was thrown into the international cult of conducting stardom, and appointed (Summer 2007) as the incoming Music Director to the venerable New York institution. Will the New York Philharmonic's gamble pay off? For the next five years, New York's podium belongs to this 40-something wiz kid of two New York Philharmonic violinists (one former, as daddy Michael -- who totally looks like Dwight Eisenhower -- has retired), Juilliard/Harvard/ Curtis Institute-trained, former pupil of Solti -- to round-out the prestigious former MD title holders of the New York Philharmonic (Gustav Mahler, John Barbirolli, Leonard Bernstein, & Toscanini, those heavyweight legacies -- OC's favorite Toscanini quote: "Even donkeys can conduct, but make music, eh? Difficile!").

For Lincoln Center's high profile 50th Anniversary season, which has already poured millions of dollars into a face-lift for the dated, sprawling, 1960s stomping grounds (and a revitalized logo) ostentatiously pulls the cherubic-faced Gilbert into the spotlight. Will he make the joint cooler? Will he make us laugh, cry, and make us feel all funny in our expensive Eres britches?

Will he manage to be cooler than Dudi on the West Coast? And with better hair?

NYC's concert halls seriously need a little more flava -- does Gilbert have the right stuff?

The maestro stepped out onto Avery Fisher Hall's weathered stage in a his frac, white bow-tie, beaming exuberantly for his inaugural launch with his New York Phils at last night's Opening Gala. Magnus Lindberg, the Finnish composer (and former E-Pek BFF...the two even founded an instrumental ensemble together at the Sibelius Academy) who just began his 2-year appointment as the NYPhil's official Composer-in-Residence, enjoyed a  high-profile debut of his work, marking the inaugural piece conducted by Gilbert as Music Director (and starting out your tenure with Lindberg, then Messiaen is a very very good omen).

This "EXPO" is one of Lindberg's two, newly-commissioned works, this one as stated by the composer was specifically written in homage to Alan Gilbert's premiere as MD. "EXPO" literally started with the crack of a whip (the work's instrumentation calls for it), whipping (huh) the orchestra into a frenzy. The snazzy piece took on a very flourished, assuming nature and overexerted itself at times -- like a petulant teenager. Ambitious ideas gave way to big, complex sounds: not Magnus at his best, but a pretty brash, kick-a$$ way to warn everubody that there's a new sheriff in town. The short work was really just the appetizer for the night's big big thing -- Renee Fleming singing Olivier Messiaen's Poèmes pour Mi.

Renee glided onto the stage in a shoulder-baring royal blue gown with an iridescent brown wrap by Angel Sanchez. Girl's got an undebatable, gorgeous body and we know she works hard on maintaining it, which is why we'd love to see her show it off with edgier, fashion-forward, revealing dresses and less of the junior prom style she insists upon -- she's almost bashful about being stunning. She shouldn't.

Nonetheless, flawless as ever, Renee's Messiaen was, for many reasons, the highlight of the evening. Hearkening to the spirited collaboration between the composer and former MD Zubin Mehta (handled the world premiere of Messiaen's Eclairs sur l'Au-dela), the selection was a knock-out by Gilbert, and we laud him for choosing the rarely-performed gem.

"Mi" was the sobriquet of Messiaen's violist wife, Claire Delbos, whom he had married only four years prior to the composition of the nine-song cycle, serving as propaganda of their happy union. The work was composed in the Summer of 1936, spent in the foothills of the Alps, and one can't escape the many allusions to pastorals and bucolic landscapes. The poems are divided into two books, originally worked for voice and piano, an intimate and dulcet conversation between the two instruments.

Fleming stepped it up and hit a grand slam for the NY Phils, one of the best sopranos on this sorry planet since Montserrat Caballé, mirroring the score with a sparkling smile, flawless delivery, unguarded emotion and an open, gentle heart. Throughout the cycle, Gilbert and Fleming worked together seamlessly (until they reached a small kink at the end of the cycle) shadowing each other respectfully and transparently. Gilbert, who simply gets this piece, expressed great foreshadowing at the inception of the work, which gave way to a flowering, enrapturing movement that later turned crystalline and snappy. Fleming was in clear voice, with "Epouvante" and "L'epouse" showcasing her gorgeous, middle and lower registers. Willowy and ringing, the work was an escapade of emotion and color. As sung in, "Paysage", she was the veritable "gros bijou bleu", the big blue jewel of the evening.

"Le Colliere" in the second book of the cycle demonstrated Gilbert's conducting chops and how he can easily slip into the backlights of the performance. He allowed the orchestra to shape itself without demanding or insisting upon the spotlight. He blended into the background, a canvas prepped. He melted away in front of the orchestra so that it became all about them, and his presence barely registered at all. However, this could also be considered his biggest flaw in light of the emerging pop cult of young conductors: Dudamel, Gardner, Harding, Axelrod, Ticciati -- all conductors with such bubbling, charismatic personalities that they imprint their orchestras with kinetic and infectious energy long before they've even raised their batons. Gilbert, on the other hand, has unoubtedly depth and introspection and intellect, but asserts himself without foisting it in your face. Without that kind of theatrical charisma, he'll need to shape his personality as a conductor, to which luckily he has many years to embark on that journey. He's too young to be the severe, grayed, introspective tyrant -- yet too old to be the sprite. If anything, Gilbert could be accused of lacking a certain thunder, an underlying weight and anchor to the music.

If "Le Colliere" was the highlight of Gilbert's skill, the following "Priere Exaucee" was where Gilbert became too invested in the orchestra and lost focus of the soloist. The orchestra swelled into such a colorful presence, that Fleming was drowned in the maelstrom. Overworked and over-bloomed, the synthesis was lost. Regardless, Fleming exited to a standing ovation, completely deserved for her astonishing work.

After the intermission, the predictable show-stopper, Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. OC admires Berlioz, that cranky Frenchman, but his Fantastique isn't one of OC's favorites. Give us Roméo et Juliette, L'enfance du Christ, Te Deum, Troyens, or Béatrice et Bénedict any day. The Fantastique is too often the domain of the flashy and the vulgar. Seiji Ozawa, by far the greatest living Berlioz conductor, knows very well that Berlioz’s Fantastique is a visionary work of awesome power and centrifugal force. The problem is that most conductors – unlike Ozawa or, to a much lesser extent, Muti – ignore the nooks and crannies that give meaning to the almost psychedelic nature of this symphony, diving instead in an ocean of bombast and, often, simply noise.

Alan Gilbert is too subtle a musician to fall in that trap, but he does lack Ozawa’s discipline -- and a measure of ruthlessness -- that would allow a conductor to explore Berlioz’s revolutionary counterpoint. What Gilbert did last night, if elegant, was neither merciless enough nor lean enough to illuminate what's hiding in the scarily difficult score, that's full of traps.

Gilbert's first movement, Allegro agitato e appassionato was an earnest effort -- hesitant, savored, delicate at times, which built to a lovely crescendo with a good weight and pulse, 'tho a bit muddied at times. The second movement, Allegro non troppo, was a legato reading of the ballroom waltz that satisfied, but left something to be desired.

The Adagio is when Gilbert lost his way a bit. He's undoubtedly musical, obvs, but relied on the compositional beauty of the work to keep the performance buoyant when it needed more edge and personality, more shaping -- it needs to be cut like a diamond in every moment. His pragmatic approach did justice to the work, but he didn't touch on any new ideas, which left us wanting more. The fourth movement, Allegretto non troppo, was a bit of the same. It might be challenging for Gilbert to find effective expression when the composition is muted in color. When there's more subtle movement, it seems Gilbert wallows in the score to find depth, which may not always be the best approach. The final movement, Larghetto -- Allegro, bounced back for Gilbert, with a great range of dynamics, very visceral and stirring. We would have liked to hear it more savored and labored, but Gilbert must have been so excited to conclude his nerve-rattling debut.

All in all, we look forward to hearing more from Gilbert. Now that he's at the helm, it's hard to imagine anyone else holding the baton. We're curious for his skills as an opera conductor, and could see him flourishing at the podium (we're looking forward to hearing his May 2010 NYC premiere of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre). But the night was lackluster, as hit & miss as the tepid star power that turned up for the evening: Meryl Streep , Billy Joel, and Alec Baldwin (natch, as he's been appointed to fill-in hosting duties for the NYPhil and interviewed Gilbert during the half-time show). Although the honorary celebrity spotting goes to Evgeny Kissin, Russian pianist who's in town for his October 1 Carnegie Hall Opening Night, in the mens bathroom fluffing his 'fro. 

 

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New York Philharmonic Concert in the Parks Surrenders To Nature

The NY Philharmonic "Concerts in the Parks" summertime festival should have gone out with a bang -- literally, by colorful Grucci fireworks (we prefer Gucci, tbh). Instead, it went out with a soggy, curt, almost panicky "that's all folks" issued from a microphone after Mahler's 1st Symphony was suddenly silenced halfway between 3rd base and home plate. To be fair, there was lightning and a large brass/horns section.

And so the 45th season of Concerts in the Parks comes to a close (the "parks" part, at least...there are still two more indoor, free performances in Queens and Staten Island) fireworks halted, and Mahler's 1st symphony still hanging unfinished in the muggy July evening air.

Music Director Designate Alan Gilbert, incoming beast master/lion tamer of the New York Philharmonic, conducted the concert series for the second time, a teasing showcase of his Beethoven, Mozart, Copland, and Mahler that rounded out the series (comprising of two performances in Central Park, one in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, and one in Bronx's Van Cortlandt Park).

Though the free outdoor concerts really aren't about the music (as much as we might pretend they are) -- reverberating as they are in uneven waves from the inelegant amplification system that swallow the orchestra and regurgitate blocks of noise in a bullying wall of sound. It's not about the precision or the nuance that Gilbert extracts from the talented Phils (that we know he's capable of) because really, the sound's way too manipulated. No, the concerts are more about New York City supporting their home team players, the NY Phils, the Yankees of classical music, the gorgeous spectrum of NYC's truly diverse crowds converging -- and the way that the massive crowds self regulate in the face of such insurmountable chaos.

Native son Gilbert showed-up in a cream-colored jacket and black pants, while his orchestra took a more relaxed and appropriate route...we saw black jeans and leggings, white tunics and crisp cotton shirts that peppered the players.

Baritone Nathan Gunn was the soloist for the first work, Aaron Copland's "Old American Songs", the highlight being the final work of five, "Ching-a-Ring Chaw" to which Gunn threw himself into with great cadence and enthusiasm.

The final work was Mahler's First Symphony: an overall languid, sort of distracted reading, which perfectly matched the swampy mid-July weather. We wished that the generously organized season could have gone out with a bang, but we'll take the NY Philharmonic anyway we can get them, be it on a soggy stage, in the middle of Central Park, or in a house, with a mouse, in a box, with a fox.

Now here's Whoopie Goldberg munching on a sub!

 

Click the link below for more pictures from the event!

Alan Gilbert to Premiere Peter Lieberson's The World in Flower

Music Director Designate of New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert, will be in his native New Yawk this May to lead his (rah rah rah) hometown orchestra in the world premiere of Peter Lieberson's "The World in Flower", a song cycle commissioned three years ago by the New York Philharmonic.

Lieberson, a Buddhist, intended the work to be the last in a series honoring Eastern-religion masters, as well as a spotlight for his late wife Lorraine Hunt Leiberson's mezzo splendor. But after her death in the summer of 2006, he changed the thesis, and the work is a synthesis of various illuminated texts & prayers (in English translation) including poems by Rilke & Whitman & Neruda.

With Gilbert at the helm, the premiere will feature American mezzo Joyce DiDonato and Canadian baritone Russell Braun from May 7-9, 2009 @ Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. In a sweet coincidence, Mr. Lieberson was Mr. Gilbert's composition & theory teacher @ Harvard. Tweeeeee! The student has become -- the master!

Glitter and Be Gay With New York Philharmonic's Xian Zhang

 (Photo credit: Rosalie O'Connor)

If you're heading to any of the New York Philharmonic's Concerts in the Parks performances this summer, chances are that you'll sample the maestrolicious skillz of Xian Zhang. The New York Phil's Concert in the Parks kicks off this Tuesday, June 24, with selections from Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, and, uhhhh, Sousa; Sousa, which can only mean one thing: FIARWAHKS! YAY! Grucci [not Gucci] fireworks after the show! Also this year for the opening performance, the New York Phil gets interactive, and by sending a txt/sms to 72648 (with code "NYPHIL") before the intermission, you will be able to vote for a final encore from two selections -- although the "chicken or fish" option is top secret for now.

Anyway, as we were saying before we got distracted by exploding things: Xian Zhang, the 34-year-old Associate Conductor of the New York Philharmonic (since July 2005), came from humble beginnings in a tiny North China village, and went onto formal training at Beijing's Central Conservatory. Recently, she became the first woman to conduct the Staatskapelle Dresden on their home turf. This summer, she will be heading the July 8-July 12 concerts across 4 NYC boroughs and New Jersey.    

The NY Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks, currently celebrating its 44th consecutive year, ends on July 15th.

We're sooo not going to debate the artistic integrity behind mass-marketed, outdoor orchestral performances. Rather, we'd like to highlight Ms. Zhang's make-up for her high-res PR shot. Upon low-res inspection, it's all serious business conductor lady. On blow-up? omg sparkly, glitter-flecked lip gloss! I mean, Oswald Kabasta (whose lips were famously chapped) definitely couldn't pull that off. Rawk on with your pretty pony bonnebell self!

Maazel vs Spielberg: "Wrong To Boycott China"

Lorin Maazel speaks spake today (in Italian) at 530PM Milan time @ the Sala Buzzati of Milan's Corriere della Sera: watch the conference live here

Maazel is back in the civilized West (i.e. Europe) after his controversial North Korea concert with the NY Philharmonic, and, between performances of his Beethoven cycle this week in Milan at Teatro degli Arcimboldi, is talking to the Italian media.

He shared impressions from his NY-Philharmonic-Does-Asia-Tour, and told Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera, in an article printed today, that he believes Steven Spielberg made a mistake by renouncing his involvement in the Beijing Olympics. Spielberg’s mid-February snub to the Beijing Olympics made the news when he withdrew as Artistic Adviser for the opening and closing ceremonies. He slammed China for aiding the Sudanese government via weapons deals, thus perpetuating genocide in Darfur, and dropping the ball in their humanitarian obligations within the international community.

Everyone on the side of Sudan applauded Spielberg’s boycott widely, but Maazel wasn't so quick to praise the Hollywood director. Specifically, he said of Spielberg, "It was a mistake for him to renounce the Olympics, as art can open passages in the fortresses". He went on to say, "I understand his position, but I think he made a mistake. Had I been in his shoes, once China's commitment to support the UN resolution for Darfur had been secured, I'd have taken that chance. Also to once again prove wrong that part of America that is constantly hunting for an 'enemy', whether it's Iraq, North Korea, Iran, to be able to justify military budgets and arms sales profits". Better to use musical diplomacy, the interviewer asks? The answer: "They say classical music has no place in contemporary society. This proves them wrong".

Gloves off! Maazel, you'll never work in Hollywood again! Hear me?! Curtains! We don't serve your kind! 

Maazel restates that he has no regrets from accepting the invitation from the North Korean government to represent the first American orchestra to play in the "kafkaesque" country, adding that, "when you have an opportunity in a fortress to open a little door and let enter a gust of fresh air, I will accept it". He had an epiphany after the performance after he saw the reaction of the North Koreans, saying, "They were completely moved, the orchestra patrons were on their feet, and their eyes were glowing. Theirs and ours. In that moment I understood: It had happened like that because they had waited for 50 years. An appointment that the entire country wanted, and like this, the poor of the country had to reduce their intake of electricity for four days to guarantee that there would be sufficient power for us." omg the ny phil prolly couldn't take n e ipods, gameboys, hairdryers, electric toothbrushes, electric razors, cameras, cell phones, laptops...that was prolly the most b00tleg trip ev4r! it's like they went camping!

Pyongyang, Where the New York Philharmonic Makes History

The West-meets-East NY Philharmonic concert in Pyongyang with Maestro Lorin Maazel went off without a hitch, DPRK and USA flags flying on stage in opposite corners to represent each nation. We heard the national anthems of both countries, Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin, Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, George Gershwin's American in Paris, Farandole from Bizet's L'Arlésienne, Suite Number Two, Movement IV, Bernstein's Candide Overture, and Arirang, an old Korean folk song.

Maazel addressed the vast crowds in English, while a North Korean translator helped the audience. On ARTE, we were treated to a half time show of a French interview with Zarin Mehta. It looked like 95% of the audience was party directors and of the banker/lawyer contingent, despite Maazel’s wishes as staging, “a concert for the average citizen”.

Lorin Maazel gave a brilliant performance with the brassy, upbeat, and sparkling NY Philharmonic. They were the perfect ambassadors, and the performance was impossible to cut up. Maazel's unstoppable. He’s in Seoul on Thursday to close the Asian festival, and then he comes to Milan next week to play the entire Beethoven symphony cycle with the Symphonica Toscanini at Teatro Arcimboldi from March 4th-8th.

Here are some screenshots for those of you who didn't catch the event. You can find an Italian-language recap courtesy of Corriere here [video link!]:

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(above: the English --> Korean translator)

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(above: baggin' it for American in Paris)

(above: Glenn Dicterow, first violinist)

 

(above: Halftime show)

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I <3 Pynongyang, The Big Kimchee, The Dictatorship That Never Sleeps.

We're sooo tuning into ARTE channel @ 10:00 am when we wake up tomorrow later this evening for the live broadcast of the New York Philharmonic's two hour concert in Pynongyang, DPRK. Starting at 10:00 am (Milan time, bebbe), Maazel will knock the silk socks off of Kim Jong U b illin' and his stormtroopers of death with a concert which will mark the end of a two day musical festival, which we reported here and here and here. Highlights will include the North Korea and USA national anthems, Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin, Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, and Gershwin's An American in Paris. This is gonna be the h0ttest concert north of the demilitarized zone. 

[Update]: It's like 5 mins after 10:00 am on Feb 26, and ARTE is currently showing some documentary on frikking Russia. WTF ARTE? Pynongyang, I think we have a problem. o hai, it's going to be broadcast l8r 2nite? thx bi!

Maazel Goes To North Korea, World Ends. Or Maybe Not.

The NY Philharmonic arrived in China to begin their Asia tour that will also touch North Korea (Associated Press video here, via the Los Angeles Times). The tour, sponsored by a Communist fifth column, Credit Suisse, has immediately become quite massively controversial in the press ("Arrogant vanity" is one of our favorite slams, especially because in the editorial the unassuming Marty Peretz calls Lorin Maazel egocentric) and on the Internets because, as we all know, when Glenn Gould (who was Canadian, ok ok) toured Russia back in 1957, the West immediately lost the Cold War, all because of a weird nerdy guy sitting down and playing the piano (Gould's tour was also an automatic endorsement of decades of Soviet human rights abuses; little known fact: as soon as he came back home, Gould painted his pet polar bears red).

Maazel tried to explain himself here. To no avail, because North Korea is not only Communist, but also rabidly nationalist (unlike China: see Tibet and Taiwan) and it is a shockingly medieval country (unlike Saudi Arabia). To play in North Korea is very bad. To borrow cash from China to pay for Saudi oil, is OK.

More things to keep in mind whenever we slam Maazel: North Korea is a no-no, but it is fine to go play all over the various music festivals like Dubai's and others, even if those countries not only boycott Israel but will not allow you to travel there if you're Jewish.

It's also cool to go to Starbucks even if they accepted to segregate their stores all over Saudi Arabia and agreed to change their logo to cover up the siren's barely-discernable chest because Saudi Arabia is a moneymaker for Starbucks, unlike Israel, where Starbucks closed down their stores in 2003 (laying off 120 people) because Israelis don't drink as much coffee as the Saudis. Starbucks has stores in Turkey, too -- just don't mention the Armenian genocide while you're sipping on that frapp.

All the above things are OK; Beethoven in North Korea (where the politically/financially connected and the generally powerful will get all the good tickets, unlike, say, what happens at opening night at la Scala or the Metropolitan, where floor tickets are easy to find and free).

So remember kids: boycott the NYPhil tour of North Korea because immortal works of classical music do not spread democracy.

Bombs do.

NY Philharmonic Ready for Televised Fête

The Opera Chic blog earlier reported on the NYC press conference held by the New York Philharmonic last month, which was held to announce their foray into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as the first American orchestra to ever make music within the country currently being pwned by Kim Jong-U. B. Illin.

The NY Phil orchestra announced yesterday that the culminating concert of their DPRK appearance, which is to be held on February 26, 2008 from the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre (which comes after a two-day musical festival in Pyongyang with Maestro Maazel), will be broadcast live. Oh noes! On High Def?? Free Restylane 4 every1!! All of Europe gets the green light, with the concert streaming on EuroArts and ARTE France (among other providers), while details concerning the USA broadcast will come at a later time. The program will include the North Korea and USA national anthems, Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin, Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, and Gershwin's An American in Paris.

This will surely please The Jonger, as according to his official biography, not only was he born on a mountainside under a double rainbow, but he's apparently already gifted the world with the original composition of six operas...that he somehow managed to write in between swigging cognac, fluffling his hair, and polishing his platform orthopedic shoes.

The New York Post is Illin'

Two days ago, the New York Philharmonic held a press conference to announce a new venture within the Democratic People's Republic of Korea: acting as cultural ambassadors, Executive Director Z.Z. Zarin Mehta will send the NYPhil to the DPRK for a two-day musical festival in the capital Pyongyang, ending with a concert on February 26, 2008 under Maestro Maazel. This will be the first time an American orchestra has ever played in the DPRK, and hope they will act accordingly, wearing shorts, firing semi-automatic weapons, munching on twinkies, popping ritalin, and drinking starbucks frapps as they sit in the pit.

The New York Post, one of NYC’s most entertaining newspapers (it costs a freaking quarter) that consistently creates the lamest headlines ever (In May 2007, when NY Yankee's hitter Alex Rodriguez, a.k.a "A-Rod" was seen taking out a blond who wasn't his wife, their headline screamed "STRAY-ROD") fires back hilariously in an ALL CAPS 22 font article, “SYMPHONY FOR THE DEVIL”, and goes on to document a laundry list of offenses from the North Korean government under their most entertaining royalty, Kim Jong-Illiest. We're siding with The New York Post on this one based on headline alone. A++

And NOW the NYT is all like, "Muti's cool for the NYPhil"; the Internet Goes, Duh!

Everybody and their sister now is all like OMG THENEWYORKTIMES ENDORSEDMUTIFORNYPHILCHIEF OMGOMG HESSOKEWL.

And we're down with that, mind you: Opera Chic, a notorious Muti fangirl, shares that excitement: as we discussed ages ago, Riccardo Muti -- his resume, his stature, the excitement and fire he brings to works unfamiliar to NYC audiences -- is the perfect candidate

The Sunday New York Times is now grappling for a piece of the axxion, after Culturegrrl, and the dear Alex "Alessandro Rossi" Ross (he's really Italian, Opera Chic has learned) weighed-in on the subject back in January. Like, three months ago or something (we're not very strong in Math, we spent all the time in class blasting Scarlatti on our headphones and lazily leafing thru import b00tleg copies of Elle South Africa and Japanese Vogue).

Anyway OC's endorsement stands: Viva Viva il Maestro Muti per la Filarmonica di New York!

NY Philharmonic Gets in the Game

The New York Philharmonic has yesterday announced their 2007-08 season.

The new season is loaded with Maazel, Dohnányi's Beethoven's Fifth (Oct 2007), Barbara Cook's 80th B'day Party (Nov 2007), Dudamel (Dec 2007), and tons of Muti (appearing in Jan & March 2008). yay & yay.

Most interesting? Maazel conducts Tosca in June 2008 with our Radames-playa Walter Fraccaro.