On my more-or-less annual visit to NYC, recently caught a pretty nice trifecta of concerts:
1. Sat. night with the New York Philharmonic featured guest violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann and a much-liked conductor on this Forum, Manfred Honeck, in what was mostly a very populist program on the surface, but with a few twists. The big twist was the Violin Concerto No. 1 of Bohuslav Martinu, in its 1st-ever NY Phil performances. Very fine performance indeed of the Martinu, with audience applause after the 1st movement, but the latter struck me as more like "Hey, that's a nice piece!" applause rather than the kind of inter-movement applause that normally drives me around the bend. FPZ said something to Honeck during that applause, with a big smile on his face, so he clearly didn't mind the show of appreciation.
Dvorak's Carnival Overture started the concert, where Honeck used a mix of gestures quite elegant in style, where others here have commented on a certain resemblance of Honeck to Carlos Kleiber, and some more emphatic, borderline heavy-handed movements. But it always works as an opener. The 2nd half was basically a "Vienna on the Hudson" version of 1/2 of the Vienna New Years's Day Concert, 7 works from the Strauss family, 6 by Johann Jr. and 1 by Josef. One interesting thing about "Die Libelle" was the emphasis on the 2nd-to-last note of each phrase of the 1st theme. In terms of stage business, one percussionist went to town with dressing up in hunting gear (American, not Austrian) for "Auf Der Jagd", an outrageously plumed hat for "In Krapfenwald'l" (complete with an all-American duck call near the end), and (at the risk of sounding not very PC) rather "swishy" motions in the surprise encore, Josef's "Feuerfest"', complete with anvil, hence the extra choreography in the encore. The last actually had audience clapping along to the anvils, so there was a Strauss family encore with audience participation, just not the standard such encore. Before the encore, the orchestra had a bit of stage fun during the latter part of "Unter Donner und Blitz", when several musicians pulled out umbrellas and opened them. There was also sudden lights flashing in the hall to mimic "lightning".
It hit me afterwards, given the high quality of the playing, that this was a lot cheaper and less hassle than actually going to Vienna for the New Year's Concert (not that I've ever been, of course). The hall was quite full, with several large groups of younger folks present. The aiudience clearly had a good time, and no wonder.
2. Yesterday afternoon, Juan Diego Flores and Vincenzo Scalera gave a recital at Carnegie Hall, the main hall.
At first, I was a bit concerned that much of the program was opera arias rather than art songs as such. But once JDF and VS started the proceedings, past the 1st 3 concert (I.e. Non-operatic) numbers, the reasons for the programming became clear. For one, he followed "Una furtiva lagrima" with a selection from Lucia di Lammermoor which has the line "Una pietosa lagrima". VS also got 2 chances to shine on his own, including a solo rendition of the Meditation from Thais. The real kicker(s) came at the end, when JDF gave us something like 8 (!!) (**) encores (I've never been to a concert with that many encores), the 1st 4 or so (I started to lose count) with him playing guitar, including "Besame Mucho". The rest included more Donizetti (9 high C's), "Be My Love", "Granada", and "Nessum dorma", where in the last JDF impromptu-conducted the audience to sing the brief choral passage, at least those who knew the words. A decent number did, though not myself. Quite an event and a crowd-pleaser.
(**) Carnegie's website actually lists 7 encores.
3. That same day, in fact, less than 1 hour later, the Schumann Quartet, baritone Nikolay Borchev, and pianist Wu Qian gave a terrific concert at Alice Tully Hall. NB & WQ were sandwiched in the middle of the program, with Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death before intermission and Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" just after. Though young, NB clearly brought authentic style to the Mussorgsky, and his German was quite idiomatic later on, no doubt where his years working in Germany have helped. The Schumann Quartet (not named for either composer, BTW - Schumann is the family name of the 3 brothers in the Quartet) did an absolutely splendid job in the Rachmaninov Two Pieces at the start, and the Schubert "Death and the Maiden" Quartet at the end. One interesting feature of their interpretation of the latter was that they used sparing vibrato in the 1st movement, but went for the fuller vibrato sound in the finale. Excellent group, and well worth catching if they ever get to your neighborhood.
1. Sat. night with the New York Philharmonic featured guest violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann and a much-liked conductor on this Forum, Manfred Honeck, in what was mostly a very populist program on the surface, but with a few twists. The big twist was the Violin Concerto No. 1 of Bohuslav Martinu, in its 1st-ever NY Phil performances. Very fine performance indeed of the Martinu, with audience applause after the 1st movement, but the latter struck me as more like "Hey, that's a nice piece!" applause rather than the kind of inter-movement applause that normally drives me around the bend. FPZ said something to Honeck during that applause, with a big smile on his face, so he clearly didn't mind the show of appreciation.
Dvorak's Carnival Overture started the concert, where Honeck used a mix of gestures quite elegant in style, where others here have commented on a certain resemblance of Honeck to Carlos Kleiber, and some more emphatic, borderline heavy-handed movements. But it always works as an opener. The 2nd half was basically a "Vienna on the Hudson" version of 1/2 of the Vienna New Years's Day Concert, 7 works from the Strauss family, 6 by Johann Jr. and 1 by Josef. One interesting thing about "Die Libelle" was the emphasis on the 2nd-to-last note of each phrase of the 1st theme. In terms of stage business, one percussionist went to town with dressing up in hunting gear (American, not Austrian) for "Auf Der Jagd", an outrageously plumed hat for "In Krapfenwald'l" (complete with an all-American duck call near the end), and (at the risk of sounding not very PC) rather "swishy" motions in the surprise encore, Josef's "Feuerfest"', complete with anvil, hence the extra choreography in the encore. The last actually had audience clapping along to the anvils, so there was a Strauss family encore with audience participation, just not the standard such encore. Before the encore, the orchestra had a bit of stage fun during the latter part of "Unter Donner und Blitz", when several musicians pulled out umbrellas and opened them. There was also sudden lights flashing in the hall to mimic "lightning".
It hit me afterwards, given the high quality of the playing, that this was a lot cheaper and less hassle than actually going to Vienna for the New Year's Concert (not that I've ever been, of course). The hall was quite full, with several large groups of younger folks present. The aiudience clearly had a good time, and no wonder.
2. Yesterday afternoon, Juan Diego Flores and Vincenzo Scalera gave a recital at Carnegie Hall, the main hall.
At first, I was a bit concerned that much of the program was opera arias rather than art songs as such. But once JDF and VS started the proceedings, past the 1st 3 concert (I.e. Non-operatic) numbers, the reasons for the programming became clear. For one, he followed "Una furtiva lagrima" with a selection from Lucia di Lammermoor which has the line "Una pietosa lagrima". VS also got 2 chances to shine on his own, including a solo rendition of the Meditation from Thais. The real kicker(s) came at the end, when JDF gave us something like 8 (!!) (**) encores (I've never been to a concert with that many encores), the 1st 4 or so (I started to lose count) with him playing guitar, including "Besame Mucho". The rest included more Donizetti (9 high C's), "Be My Love", "Granada", and "Nessum dorma", where in the last JDF impromptu-conducted the audience to sing the brief choral passage, at least those who knew the words. A decent number did, though not myself. Quite an event and a crowd-pleaser.
(**) Carnegie's website actually lists 7 encores.
3. That same day, in fact, less than 1 hour later, the Schumann Quartet, baritone Nikolay Borchev, and pianist Wu Qian gave a terrific concert at Alice Tully Hall. NB & WQ were sandwiched in the middle of the program, with Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death before intermission and Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" just after. Though young, NB clearly brought authentic style to the Mussorgsky, and his German was quite idiomatic later on, no doubt where his years working in Germany have helped. The Schumann Quartet (not named for either composer, BTW - Schumann is the family name of the 3 brothers in the Quartet) did an absolutely splendid job in the Rachmaninov Two Pieces at the start, and the Schubert "Death and the Maiden" Quartet at the end. One interesting feature of their interpretation of the latter was that they used sparing vibrato in the 1st movement, but went for the fuller vibrato sound in the finale. Excellent group, and well worth catching if they ever get to your neighborhood.
(you know who you are! 
)
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