Mahler, Copland - Orchestral Works - Jeremy Benk (Pianist) - New World Symphony Orchestra - Michael Tilson-Thomas - Miami, April 10, 2010

Last Saturday I attended a concert by the New World Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Michael Tilson-Thomas that took place at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami. The programme included Aaron Copland’s Piano Concerto and Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony in C-sharp minor. The soloist for the Copland piece was American pianist Jeremy Denk.

Tilson-Thomas founded this orchestra and is its artistic director. There’s no doubt about the connection and dedication that he feels towards this ensemble made of young musicians taken from all over the United States. Deemed as the “America’s Orchestral Academy”, this group of instrumentalists gave me a great impression on my first time seeing them perform live. The sound of the orchestra is pure and precise; the percussion section is quite amazing. And it’s clear they hold Tilson-Thomas in a special place in their hearts and minds, since the dialogue between all the instruments and the conductor was free of obstructions, they communicated perfectly and in total harmony. Tilson-Thomas sometimes-awkward body motions were followed with exact execution by the performers, who, is evident, know who is in command.

I was also very pleased with the acoustics of the Arsht Center. I sat in second row (one could even say first, as the actual front row didn’t circle the entire round-shaped stage). I had the big grand piano in front of me through Copland’s entire piece, and the second violins were pretty much in my face. But I could listen to all instruments, with crystalline clarity, and with perfect balance. From the snare to the trombone to the bass, I was able to enjoy all the details of the performance.

Aaron Copland’s Piano Concerto was new to me. I’ve heard plenty of works by the American master but this concerto was not one of them. I can honestly say the piece left me undecided. On one hand, it is exciting, full of energy, with a tremendous percussion section and quite dazzling piano acrobatics; on the other hand, the jazzy/ragtime elements incorporated in the music make it feel rather mundane, even vulgar. Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” came to my mind, though in that work the popular-music flavor is evident and welcomed; here, in Copland’s concerto, I wasn’t sure what the intentions were when the piece was composed. Anyway, in general, the work is entertaining (specially seeing it performed live) and Jeremy Benk’s playing was nothing short of amazing. At times I was caught surprised at abrupt time changes, dissonant chords and plenty of “wrong” notes, but that was all Copland’s invention.

After the performance, Benk stayed for one extra little dessert: by petition of Tilson-Thomas (according to Benk), he performed Charles Ives’ “Scherzo” for piano, a little quickie piece, an adaptation of a popular American theater melody (the name of which escapes me) that served as a perfect showcase for the soloist’s abilities.

After the intermission, the orchestra came back for the main event. The piano was (thankfully) taken under the stage, and Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony kicked off. What a change! This is a monumental piece of music, my third-favorite work by Mahler after his Sixth and his First symphonies, and the rendition was amazing. The first movement was all drama and emotion, from the fanfare that opens the work to the ending of the march. The brass section performed perfectly, though there was one occasion when I noticed something wrong, though I failed to point out exactly what it was (I saw some musicians looking at each other with grins on their faces, so I was not alone). The second movement got the same treatment, with a perfect balance between fortissimo and pianissimo. The tempos, all of them, were spot on for my taste. The stormy scherzo that marks the middle point on the symphony was fiery, chaotic, a musical pandemonium. The most famous movement of the symphony, the adagietto, was especially beautiful, and probably the orchestra’s best moment of the night. How beautiful this music is! It almost brings tears to my eyes, the way the violins and other strings cried with tenderness, in mourning. This was a glorious lament, sad, human, a musical gem. The final movement, triumphant and loud, was superb. All the gigantic orchestra this symphony requires comes into effect here. This is a magnificent conclusion that, nevertheless, leaves the listener with an ambivalent feeling: it’s not totally optimistic, hardly so, but it’s not sad. The orchestra conveyed those emotions perfectly.

The concert ended after several rounds of applause for the young musicians and their revered master. This was a fantastic concert, the best I’ve attended so far in the US, and it leaves me wanting to hear more and more performances of this outstanding group of young musicians who, under the expert direction of their director, show that classical music has a bright future in their hands.

Mozart, Saint-Saens et al. - Chamber music works - FIU Chamber Players - Miami, March 2010

The most recent concert I've attended took place in FIU’s Wertheim Performing Arts Center on Thursday March 04. The FIU Chamber Players performed works by Mozart, Saint-Saens, and Brahms, plus a composition/improvisation by the players. On paper, this chamber music concert looked much more to my liking than the first one I reviewed a few weeks ago.

Opening the concert we had the Piano Trio in B-flat, K. 502 by Wolfgang A. Mozart. The performers were Jose Lopez on the piano, Robert Davidovici with the violin and Ross Harbaugh in the cello. I had already watched Davidovici play in the previous concert in FIU and I was quite pleased to see him return, now to play a piece by one of my favorite composers. Needless to say, the music in the trio was of the highest quality, with that melodic gift that no composer or musician has ever been able to repeat after Mozart. The first playful movement was graciously played by the performers, in what resembled a duel between the two strings, on one side, and the piano on the other. While the piano went crazy with scales and arpeggios, the violin proposed the ideas and the big cello complemented them. In the second movement, once again the Salzburg master proved that he was unrivaled in writing music that is so beautiful, and at the same time, easy to listen to. The violin played with delicacy, with the other two instruments allowing it room to breathe and to shine. The final movement, a return to the playful spirit of the first one, was pure bliss, a perfect rondo of the kind only Mozart could give us. I was very satisfied with the playing by the three instrumentalists.

The second work of the night was Camille Saint-Saens’ “Fantaisie for violin and harp”. Davidovici came back for the violin part and Deborah Fleisher took charge of the harp. It was my first time seeing this big instrument so close to me, and I was amazed at its size (it really looks smaller when in the context of a big symphony orchestra) and its physical beauty. As for its sound, I already knew the wonders it could do thanks to Mozart and his glorious Concerto for Flute and Harp, but it was a revelation to hear it paired only with a violin. Saint-Saens was another composer with a talent for beauty and melody like no other, and the piece was a perfect showcase for the violin’s lyricism and the harp dream-like delicacies. The work had a few Spanish elements here and there, though in general it sounded more romantic and passionate. The Fantaisie is structured in a few separate sections, each with different subjects, but the spirit is the same throughout the entire score. I was extremely pleased with the music and the performance.

The next part of the concert was my least favorite. Deemed as a “Catch as Catch Can Composition/Improvisation”, what we heard next was clearly jazz, not classical/academic music. Gary Campbell played the saxophone, Jamie Ousley the bass, and Mike Orta the piano, in a work that felt less improvisatory than I expected, with the exception of the soloing by each one of the instrumentalists. What was good about the piece, for me, was the chance to see a big bass, a perennial pawn in the symphonic orchestra, taking center stage, and its user certainly knew how to make the most out of the occasion, with a tremendous solo that sounded as difficult as it looked uncomfortable to play. The musicians were good, their connection very firm, but the piece left me rather cold. There’s just a few jazz pieces I truly love, and this Composition/improvisation will not be entering that group anytime soon. Anyway, it was an interesting experience and a welcomed change of pace.

After the intermission, the same trio of the beginning plus Laura Wilcox in the viola returned to the stage, this time to play Johannes Brahms’ Piano Quartet in A, Op. 26. It was quite a coincidence that both my first two concerts with this group of players have ended with Brahms’ chamber music. Unlike the previous time, however, the Brahms was not the highlight of the event. The playing sure was fiery and impeccable. Amazingly, it was the work itself the one that didn’t get to me. I love Brahms symphonic music and in general all his works for big orchestra, and I like his string quartets, but this time I was left underwhelmed. The first movement seemed to drag forever without the clear purpose of other sonata movements by the Hamburg master, even when the first theme was particularly beautiful. The slow movement was not one of the most memorable. The music became more interesting to me with the arrival of the more ferocious third movement and the dramatic fourth movement. Thus, the concert ended on a high note, but not as high as I could have expected.

In general, the event was a good experience and the performances more than satisfactory. I think the jazz composition was at the same time a blessing and a curse: on one hand, it was a welcomed return to earth from the highs we were flying at after so much beautiful music by Mozart and Saint-Saens; on the other hand, it distracted me (and, as I noticed, the audience) and left us less ready to fully concentrate on the more complicated structures and thematic material of Brahms’ work. Putting a jazz piece in the middle of three classical/romantic compositions was an interesting experiment but one that, in my view, needs not be repeated.

Ginastera, Brahms et al. - Chamber works - FIU Chamber Players - Miami, January 2010

On January 21 I attended a concert that took place in the Florida International University’s Wertheim Performing Arts Center. The program for the night consisted of chamber music performed by the FIU Chamber Players. During the first part of the concert the music was from Latin America composers, including 5 songs by the well-known Argentinian master Alberto Ginastera. The second part of the event featured a work by one of the biggest names in the post-romantic era (and one of my ten favorite composers), Johannes Brahms.

The auditory was not even half-full, a fact that, while not good by any means for the artists, helped bring the noise factor closer to zero. We were soon introduced to our soprano for the night (Kathleen Wilson) joined by the pianist, young Jennifer Renee Snyder.

The first group of featured works was by unknown-to-me composer Carlos Guastavino. The set consisted of 2 songs (or Lieder, if I’m not wrong in using this denomination to Spanish songs written in the 20^th century). I have never been a big fan of these kinds of compositions, not even of the ones by composers more familiar to me like Schubert or Mahler. The songs were brief and rather forgettable.

The second group of works was a selection of 5 songs by famed Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera. As the night was unfolding, I felt I had chosen the wrong concert to attend, but at the same time, I thought “this is more challenging than going to a concert full of music you already like”. Anyway, the music, rather simple and short, was pleasant, and worked well as introduction for what came next, since I started to hear more adventurous, constraint-free music. While the soprano sung very well but never really impressed me, the pianist showed a lot of energy and power in her performance, practically upstaging her vocal counterpart, especially in the faster songs like “Chacarera” or “Gato”. All in all, I’ve never been able to empathize with academic-music songs (for simple vocal music, I really prefer popular genres), and this first two sets left me rather cold..

The two musicians left the stage and came back joined by three more artists: viola player Laura Wilcox, clarinetist Julian Santacoloma, and the conductor, Orlando Garcia. Garcia introduced us to the work of Aurelio de la Vega, “The Magic Labyrinth”. To explain the work, an image of the score was projected on a screen behind the stage. The score featured a rather strange, labyrinth-like figure which, with a closer look, was revealed as the actual music. Garcia explained that the work was written in such a way that the key and harmonies had to pretty much be “sensed” by the musicians, and that they had to follow the labyrinth until the end. The music started and I was surprised. This was atonal music, the kind that has never been my favorite but that I have always wanted to see performed live. The melodic ideas were few and far between; most of the time harmony took center stage as the instruments’ dialogue was rather sequential, one speaking after the other. Lots of percussive effects by otherwise non-percussive elements like the soprano’s score-holder and the body of the grand piano joined forces with very-high, twirling figures in the viola and abrupt-ending scales and phrases in the clarinet. The soprano’s voice was used as another harmonic instrument, never really singing but providing bursts of harmony (or disharmony, I should say). The piece was effective and I enjoyed it a lot. I’m not sure I’ll run to buy a recording of it, but I’m glad I was able to listen to it live.

What followed next was a composition by the conductor himself, “Parallel Universe I”. Garcia explained us that this is part of a longer work exploring parallel universes in music. The screen projected a video of a foggy, dusty gray place that looked like a cell, gradually opening the shot during the performance until we saw the entire room. The music was atonal, devoid of melody, but in this case, sadly, also devoid of interest. The constant repetition of little ideas on each of the instruments, with almost no room for any thematic exploration, or even experiments in color, left me cold. The big idea was to explore the fusion of live music with recorded music. At some points, music would sound through the speakers in the auditory, and the live ensemble would harmonize with it and play at the same time. Though a novel trick, it felt more like a gimmick to me, with little substance. It was a new and somewhat exciting experience, though, and I’m glad I could take part of it.

After the intermission, finally, traditional music came back with a vengeance, so to speak. Johannes Brahms’ Sonata in D Minor, Op. 108 for piano and violin was the closing piece of the night. What a way to end a concert! A big fan of his music for big orchestra, I’ve just started to explore the chamber side of the catalogue of the Hamburg master. I was extremely pleased with the music, beautiful, romantic, powerful and soft, menacing and soothing, performed very well by Robert Davidovici on the violin and, especially, Kemal Gekic on the piano. I think Davidovici played in a great way but his actual stage presence was lacking - I know it’s not rock or metal, but the musician really looked like a robot in front of the piano, and while music is what really matters in the end, I believe a powerful-looking performance greatly enhances the transference of emotions to the audience-. Gekic, on the other hand, was outstanding, sending us wave after wave of emotion and passion for the art. The work itself was majestic, I particularly enjoyed the last movement, during the last moments of which piano and violin looked as if they were finally trying to settle the score of an impossible battle once and for all. The second movement was a good moment for the violinist to show us his most exquisite abilities, and his great understanding of the piece. In general, the way it was played, the sonata sounded more as a violin concerto, where the orchestra consisted of only one instrument, the piano,

I left the Wertheim Center very satisfied with what I just witnessed. I had the chance to step out of my comfort zone and venture into the world of songs and atonal music, and, especially the latter, I enjoyed it a lot. And, even better, the night was closed off with a grandiose finale.