Showing posts with label Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Show all posts

Thursday, February 8, 2024

A sellout crowd rhapsodizes over Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's Gershwin

Wayne Marshall leads the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Strathmore, Feb. 3, 2024/By Patricia Leslie


It was the first time I had seen a conductor play an instrument during a performance, but that’s what he did.

When the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra paused during Rhapsody in Blue, conductor/pianist Wayne Marshall played two solo arrangements which were not altogether pleasing to the entire sold out crowd who came to hear the uninterrupted perennial favorite by George Gershwin (1898-1937).

This is the centennial of the composition which debuted on February 12, 1924 in New York City.

It was a New York kind of a night at Strathmore, beginning with Music for the Theatre by Aaron Copland (1900-1990), then Rhapsody and after intermission, Three Dance Episodes from On the Town by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) and Harlem by Duke Ellington (1899-1974).

Wayne Marshall talks to the audience at the performance of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Strathmore, Feb. 3, 2024/By Patricia Leslie


Before the show at coat check, the fellow gleamed when he repeated what had come in an earlier email from the BSO to ticket holders, that it was a sellout night with all 50 "emergency" seats (which are usually held for special circumstances), sold, and all the choral seats which are above the orchestra, sold, too.

It was a grand night, and the orchestra did not disappoint in the least. 

The stage could barely hold all the musicians, and Conductor Marshall played the piano "face out," meaning the grand piano backed up to the orchestra so that all in the audience could see his hands moving up and down the keyboard, which was not hidden from view by the instrument which is the usual case for those seated orchestra left .

The familiar Copland strains rang out, and it's understandable why Music for the Theatre is not as popular as his Appalachian Spring or Fanfare for the Common Man, Billy the Kid or Rodeo, but orchestra lovers cannot hear the familiar all the time or that's all we'd hear! (Which may not be a bad thing.)

It's unfortunate that the writer from the Smithsonian could not include BSO's Gershwin production in the listing of other Rhapsody orchestral performances celebrated throughout the U.S., which he described in today's half page spread in the Wall Street Journal. I guess Baltimore was too close to home.  

Wikipedia quotes a 2005 article in the Guardian which found that by using "'estimates of earnings accrued in a composer's lifetime,' George Gershwin was the wealthiest composer of all time."  

Et tu, Tay Tay? 

George Gershwin by Carl Van Vechten, Mar. 28, 1937, Library of Congress



patricialesli@gmail.com



 

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Wildest expectations soar at the Washington Cathedral


Sergei Rachmaninoff, age 10 or 12, St. Petersburg/Wikimedia Commons

The title of the program was To the Wild Sky and my favorites were all there:  Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the Washington National Cathedral with Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) and the Cathedral Choral Society

Who knew about their links? 

Conductor Steven Fox leads the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Cathedral Choral Society at the Washington National Cathedral, Mar. 19, 2023/By Patricia Leslie

In the Cathedral's crossing, the musicians, soloists, and chorus hypnotized the audience throughout the afternoon with Rachmaninoff's unsettling response to a painting and his intrepretation of Poe's  "bells! bells!  bells!" ringing everywhere.  
The Isle of the Dead, 1880 - 1886, Arnold Bocklin (1827-1901)

Also on the program was Tennyson's text of his poem, In Memoriam: A.H.H., sung by soprano Andriana Chuchman, who later joined the Symphony, other soloists, and Chorus in Poe's The Bells.
Soprano Andriana Chuchman at the Washington National Cathedral, Mar. 19, 2023

After all, it is the 150th anniversary of Rachmaninoff's birth (April 1 or [O.S.] Mar. 20, 1873) and the DMV has gone plumb Rachy with three performances in a week and I am going to them all.    

Lucky me!*

To combine the literary immortals with music is an astonishing feat and one which most assuredly exceeded expectations at the Cathedral from the first note to the last.  

The audience was as captivated as I who had anticipated the sounds would echo in the Cathedral's great hall, diminishing the aural effects but that was not to be.

 
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's percussionists at the Washington National Cathedral, Mar. 19, 2023
 
Guest artists, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Cathedral Choral Society at the conclusion of the performance, To the Wild Sky, Mar. 19, 2023
The Washington National Cathedral, Mar. 19, 2023/By Patricia Leslie

First on the program was The Isle of the Dead, Rachmaninoff's response to a popular painting by Arnold Bocklin (1827-1901).  

The music filled one with a sense of dread. In the boat as we neared the island, foreboding and heavy anxiety filled my emotions as waves and strings deepened, cymbals crashed and threw me around the vessel as it neared shore. The landscape echoed with the coming climax. 

Upon landing, a single violin greeted us with a rainbow  and not such an unpleasant ending.

Death be not proud.

The next selection, Ring Out, Wild Bells, to the Wild Sky was composed by Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964 and a Pulitzer Prize finalist) in 2000 on commission to welcome the new millennium. 

For her base, the composer chose Tennyson's poem with its message of the "universal" drive for peace.  It begins with multiple voices singing like bells in tandem with Ms. Chuchman, chorus, and orchestra. 

Dare I write the best was saved for last?

"The bells!  The bells!  The bells!" so reads Poe's title he wrote in 1848-1849 and spoken confidently cappella before the musical presentation by an unidentified man on video.

"Hear the sledges with bells" is Poe's first line, a sledge, coincidentally or not, was the vehicle used by Rachmaninoff and his family to escape Russia forever in 1917 as the nation's revolution took hold. 

Program notes said an adaptation of Poe's Bells by the Russian Konstanin Balmont (1867-1942) led a student at the Moscow Conservatory in 1912 to recommend to Rachmaninoff that he put the poem to music. 

After the composer read the verses, he "decided at once to use them for a choral symphony," an incredible performance at the Cathedral for the audience to hear that which became "the one I like best of all my works."

The movements included solos by John Ramseyer, tenor, Ms. Chuchman, and Aleksey Bogdanov, baritone, all exceeding quality demanded by Washington's attending classical perfectionists. 

With a 20 minute intermission, the concert lasted almost two hours, an unforgettable production which will be hard to outperform by this week's remaining Rachmaninoff concerts.

More about Rachmaninoff: 

Is it Rachmaninoff or Rachmaninov? Music for Everyone says the Rachmaninoffs changed their name from Rachmaninov when they fled Russia, likely because the family was pre-revolution Russian bourgeoisie.


Boosey & Hawkes, "the" classical music publisher, says about Rachmaninoff: "The years up to the Russian Revolution were spent in an exhausting whirl of playing and conducting, with the family’s country estate at Ivanovka, in the countryside south-east of Moscow, offering a haven of peace where he could concentrate on composition. The works that emerged during this period include the Third Piano Concerto, the symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead, the choral symphony The Bells, and two a cappella choral works, the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom and the Vespers."

Rachmaninoff was born into a musical family and began piano lessons at age 4. After fleeing Russia 
with his family and settling in the U.S. about four decades later, he made a living by giving many performances but, like many artists, finding little time to compose.  

On Feb. 17, 1943, already "gravely ill" and almost 70 years old, Rachmaninoff played his last recital at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville where a statue to the composer was dedicated in 2003, the 130th anniversary of his birth, at the site of the 1982 World's Fair.

He became an American citizen shortly before he died of melanoma that year.

Conducting Sunday was Steven Fox, assisted by Joy Schreier, pianist.

*More Rachmaninoff:

The National Symphony Orchestra, 7 p.m., Mar. 23, 2023 at the Kennedy Center.

BSO, 8 p.m., Mar. 25, 2023, Music Center at Strathmore, Angel Blue and Rachmaninoff II; tickets starting at $35.

BSO, 8 p.m., Apr. 13, 2023, Music Center at Strathmore, Marin Conducts Rach 3; tickets starting at $35. 

In Baltimore BSO Rachmaninoff performances, Mar. 24, Mar. 26, and Apr. 15, 2023.

Of note, Poe and Tennyson were born in the same year, 1809, as was President Abraham Lincoln.

Why are most of the great composers Russian?  I am guessing many Ph.D. students have written their dissertations on this topic, at least one I would like to read!  Does their nation's turbulent past play a role?



patricialesli@gmail.com

Saturday, April 13, 2019

BSO and Morgan State will take you to the Promised Land


A commemorative stamp issued in 1973 celebrating the life and works of George Gershwin, including Porgy and Bess/U.S.Postal Service


Hurry to Baltimore tonight or tomorrow for a knockout performance by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Morgan State University Choir in concert with national opera stars who present George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

You ain't heard nuthin' 'til you hear (and see) this.
Another commemorative stamp issued in 1973 celebrating George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess/U.S.Postal Service


It's performed with spine-tingling songs, duets and trios, ("Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin,'') by singers who act, move, and dance, far more than anticipated for a concert opera.

Who needs sets with glamour like this flowing across and above the stage? Which is where the Morgan State Choir stood in all-black ensembles, about 50 voices strong, under the direction of Eric Conway.  

The show's director, Hana S. Sharif, excels with her cast and crew, including effective, unnamed fight and sound managers.


The words to the music are screened above the performers, but the production stands on its own, and the words are unnecessary.
In 2015 the Morgan State University Choir sang at the White House for President and Mrs. Barack Obama in a televised live performance/Photo, Morgan State University Choir

Excellent, essential contributions by the BSO's xylophonist and pianist produce a hush in several places when they play solo, always under the capable direction of Conductor Marin Alsop.

While I waited in line to order my dinner at Strathmore before the Thursday evening performance, the couple behind me told me they had come just for the choir.

"Have you heard them?" they asked me.

No, I had come just for Porgy and Bess which I've heard and seen many times.

"Well, just you wait!" they exclaimed.  "They are outstanding!" And they were, combined with the soloists and orchestra. 

One of the soloists is the talented tenor, Larry Hylton another star graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, who played Sportin' News, and there he was, a'prancin' and dancin'  across the floor, back and forth, in yellow pants and a top hat made to stand out. 

The show is a fast-paced exhibition by George Gershwin (1898-1937) which takes place in Charleston, S.C. during the Great Depression, when a woman, Bess, becomes the property of one man, Crown, then another, Porgy, and finally, Sportin’ Life, who carries her away to New York.
 
No matter how many time you have seen this show, the exceptional tunes endure.


Bass-baritone Robert Cantrell is Porgy who carries the role fittingly, strong and rich, while he limps in  suspenders across the stage, aided by a crutch, but it's the powerful voice of baritone Lester Lynch as Crown who makes his presence keenly felt even before he enters the stage. He commands the crowd's attention and sets the pace for the action, whisking Bess away to his land of no forgiveness.

Soprano Laquita Mitchell is the beautiful Bess who dashes out in a bright red, sexy dress to catch the hand of the most available.
  
The first mid-act applause followed soprano Reyna Carguill's incredible solo as Serena, who delivers "My Man's Gone Now," after Crown's murder of her husband, Robbins (Joshua Jones). 

Another show-stopper is soprano Jasmine Habersham
who plays Clara and begins the show serenading "Summertime" to her baby until her husband, Jake (Cameron Potts) comes on stage to cradle their child and croon "A Woman is a Sometime Thing." 


Alexandra Crichlow Bradshaw is the distinguished Maria who joins Ms. Carguill and Mr. Cantrell in the closing of "Bess, Oh Where's My Bess?"

Porgy takes leave of the stage singing "Oh, Lawd, I'm On My Way" to follow Sportin' Life and his Bess to New York.

Not to miss!

What:  Porgy and Bess by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra  and the Morgan State University Choir and more

When:  Tonight at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. 

Where:  Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St.
Baltimore 21201


How much:  Tickets information is at the link.  For special "Young and Free" discounts at the Sunday performance, click here

For more information: Call 410-783-8000.

I'm on my way....
to Baltimore
I'm on my way
to a heav'nly land
for in that town
I'll hear the grand
music o'er the land

Oh Lawd, I'm on my way
I'm on my way to a heav'nly land
I'll ride that long, long road
If You are there to guide my hand

Oh Lawd, I'm on my way
I'm on my way to a heav'nly land
Oh Lawd, it's a long, long way
But You'll be there to take my hand 






Oh, I got plenty o' nuttin'
An' nuttin's plenty fo' me
I got no car, got no mule, I got no misery
De folks wid plenty o' plenty
Got a lock an dey door
'Fraid somebody's a-goin' to rob 'em
While dey's out a-makin' more
What for?
I got no lock an de door
(Dat's no way to be)
Dey kin steal de rug from de floor
Dat's okeh wid me
'Cause de things dat I prize
Like de stars in de skies
All are free
Oh, I got plenty o' nuttin'
An' nuttin's plenty fo' me
I got my gal, got my song
Got Hebben de whole day long!


patricialesli@gmail.com 

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Bravo! Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's 'Scheherazades'


Sani ol-Molk (1814-1866), Scheherazade and the Sultan, 1849-1856/Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org


Bravo!  Bravo!

That was the response from the sold-out, standing audience at the conclusion of two Scheherazades played by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the Music Center at Strathmore.

Listeners were spellbound by Scheherazade.2 by John Adams (b. 1947) and Scheherazade by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908).
 
Mr. Adams wrote Scheherazade.2 for his longtime friend and collaborator, Leila Josefowicz, the BSO guest artist who was Scheherazade at the concert.
Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra/Baltimore Symphony Orchestra


Like Rimsky-Korsakov's composition, Scheherazade.2 was thrilling and captivating, almost as if the audience became peeping people, witnessing private, dangerous events.

Fortunately, although contemporary, Mr. Adams's Scheherazade.2 lacked harsh clashes and stifling pauses which afflict many modern works.  

Both Scheherazades are poignant masterpieces, played with large orchestras, using almost the same instruments with the addition of Mr. Adams's celesta and cimbalom.
An Arabic manuscript of the 1001 Nights by Unknown/Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org

In both performances, the cello and bass captured the tensions and fears caused by the sultan, evident throughout the music which contained agonizing combinations, as the imaginary, ruthless dictator practices torture, but gradually succumbs to the magic of Scheherazade.  

Ferdinand Keller (1842-1922), Scheherazade and Sultan Schariar, 1880/Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org 

Wearing a sleeveless, colorful tunic, Ms. Josefowicz played her violin with gusto, occasionally stomping her foot, standing in the shape of a Z, mostly perpendicular to the audience and adjacent to BSO's conductor, Marin Alsop, who complimented Ms. Josefowicz's ability to perform without notes.

Sometimes the violinist threw back her back as if to taunt her invisible captor, the 15th century sultan.
 
According to legend, Scheherazade (also called Shirazad, Shahrazad, and Shahrzad) was the name of the last bride of the murderous sultan who, over 1001 nights, killed 1001 women, one by one on their wedding nights, fearing their unfaithfulness.

That is, until the last bride, Scheherazade, who regaled the sultan night after night with stories and endings she left until the next night and the next and the next...for 1001 nights.  By then, the sultan was enraptured and made Scheherazade his queen to live forever in the pages of 1001 Nights.

At evening's end, Conductor Alsop recognized the principal musicians, the soloists in the Rimsey-Korsakov, the first violinist and concertmasterJonathan Carney who played like it was his last concert, and cellist Dariusz Skoraczewski, another evening star among many.

Indeed, Rimsey-Korsakov brought my friend and me to tears, emotionally wrought by his compelling Scheherazade.

For both composers, their creations began with art.

Mr. Adams visited the Monde Arabe (the Arab World Institute) in Paris where he saw renditions of cruelty and  brutality inflicted upon women beginning with illustrations from the 15th century. (Additions from the 21st century: Trump, R. Kelly, Harvey Weinstein, Bob Kraft, Bill O'Reilly, Matt Lauer, Mark Halperin, Tucker Carlson)

On International Women's Day weekend, Conductor Alsop called Mr. Adams "probably the biggest feminist I know."

Wikipedia says Rimsey-Korsakov had an interest in the Orient and the pictures from 1001 Nights helped drive him to his greatest composition.

Although Rimsey-Korsakov's version ends happily with Scheherazade able to prolong and save her life through her marvelous story telling, Conductor Alsop said Mr. Adams's composition leaves it up to the listener to decide the outcome.

In which case, (thank you, Mr. Adams) with her bow, Scheherazade pierces the throat of the cruel dictator whose streams of blood turn into coral snakes which the heroine rides to the torture chambers. There, snake-strangled guards loosen their grips on chamber keys which our heroine scoops up and unlocks prison doors, freeing all captives. 

Together, the former prisoners and Scheherazade leave the Earth to ride on, ride on the snakes in majesty up to the heavens where they alight from the rocket snakes to step upon starry skies and to this day, wink at us nightly from their pedestals in the universe.

Meanwhile, continuing their journeys, the corals speed through the universe to their temporary residency on the planet Mars, which to this day is known as the Red Planet.
   
Sometimes, as it were, these kind beasts are yet called upon to awake from hibernation and be born again, to render aid to those on Earth, and descend upon legislators in Annapolis, Maryland who disavow the Bravo Symphony Orchestra's financial needs.  

On Earth, the rocket snakes embrace the people's representatives whose skin turns coral red as they become servants in the kingdom of Daniel Sultan, a worse destiny, not yet known.
    
So ends the tale of a thousand and one nights of pleasure with the Bravo/Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.  

You see what music and art can do! The beat goes on

Next up for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra:  

Appalachian Spring March 14 at Strathmore, March 15 and 16 at the Meyerhoff in Baltimore, and  

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix March 22 and 24 at the Meyerhoff, and March 23 at Strathmore.

patricialesli@gmail.com