Sargent Conducts Delius

This is an excerpt from a film called "Battle for Music" made in 1945. Sir Malcolm Sargent conducts the London Philharmonic in "La Calinda" by Delius. Note the shots of the audience: children listening intently. An inspiring reaction to the performance of great music. Thanks to Karl Miller for bringing this video to my attention.

Paul E. Robinson

Andras Schiff Plays Schubert

Hungarian pianist Andras Schiff playing Schubert's Hungarian Melody as an encore at the 2011 Proms in London's Royal Albert Hall. One could hardly imagine a more authoritative performance of this haunting piece.

Paul E. Robinson

Anna Moffo Sings Rachmaninoff's Vocalise, Op. 34 No. 14

June 27 marks the birthday of American soprano Anna Moffo (June 27 1932 - March 9 2006). Born in Pennsylvania to Italian immigrant parents, Moffo studied at the Curtis Institute, and later at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. She made her operatic debut in 1955 as Norina in Don Pasquale. A singer gifted with a gorgeous, naturally-produced voice and great personal beauty, Moffo was a noted Susanna, Nanetta, Mimi, Violetta, Lucia, Gilda, Liu, Nedda, Pamina, Manon, Juliette, Butterfly, among others. She was a Met favourite for seventeen seasons. Moffo left a large recording legacy, mostly on RCA, a company headed by her second husband, Robert Sarnoff. Despite her stupendous vocal gift, Moffo never had a very firm technique, and it caught up with her by the early seventies. Her recordings after the vocal crisis, ie. the title role in Thais and Princess Eudoxie in Halevy's La Juive, found her far below her best. To remember Anna Moffo, here is her spectacularly beautiful Vocalise by Rachmaninoff, one of her very best recordings.

Joseph K. So

Stokowski Celebration in Philadelphia

This week the Philadelphia Orchestra is celebrating Leopold Stokowski. Stokowski had a long and legendary tenure as music director of the orchestra, and it all began in 1912. Thus, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of his first concerts in Philadelphia. To commemorate this important part of its history the Philadelphia Orchestra is giving four concerts this week, each of which relates to Stokowski. For more information visit the orchestra's website at www.philorch.org. The conductor for all the concerts this week is the music director designate Yannick Nezet-Seguin.

I will be in Philadelphia this week for the Stokowski Festival - the revised edition of my Stokowski book will be out this fall - and a report for LSM will follow.

This video of part of the last movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 with Stokowski conducting dates from 1965 and the concert was given in Japan. It is typical of the great conductor. It is well-prepared and exciting but the frequent tempo changes - none of which are in the score - indicate that Stokowski was more interested in personalizing the score than doing what the composer intended. The work of a great interpreter? Or desecration of a great piece of music? This is the Stokowski Problem.

Paul E. Robinson 

Eva Marton Sings Abscheulier! wo eilst du hin? from Fidelio

Monday June 18 was Hungarian dramatic soprano Eva Marton's birthday. Born in Budapest on June 18, 1943, she turns 69 this year. Marton studied at the Liszt Academy and made her debut in 1968 at the Hungarian State Opera as the Queen of Shemakha in Rimsky-Korsakov's Le coq d'or.  Her success led to invitations to sing at major houses in the west including Frankfurt, Vienna, Hamburg, La Scala, Covent Garden, San Francisco, and the Met. Her Met debut was as Eva in Die Meistersinger in 1976.  While she never sang opera in Canada, she appeared in concerts and recitals, notably at Roy Thomson Hall, singing Four Last Songs and Salome's Final Scene with Sir Andrew Davis conducting the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, as well as a solo recital in the Roy Thomson Hall International Vocal Series in the mid 1980's.  The Marton soprano in its prime was a huge instrument of beauty, warmth and power, ideal in Wagner (Brunnhilde in particular), Strauss (Kaiserin and Elektra) and the verismo heroines of Gioconda, Tosca and Turandot. She was also a noted Leonore in Fidelio.  Marton retired officially in 2008 after a run of Klytemnestra in Barcelona, but came out of retirement to sing Klytemnestra again in Geneva in November 2010.  Singing the heavy dramatic soprano repertoire took its toll on her voice, as one noticed considerable deterioration by the 1990's. To celebrate her birthday, here's Eva Marton in her prime singing Leonore's great aria, videotaped in Tokyo in 1981. I believe it was the Vienna State Opera on tour in Japan. Her singing here has a tendency towards flatness in the high B naturals, but one is impressed by her opulent tone and the sincerity of her acting. 

- Joseph K. So

Alison Balsom Plays Haydn

It is difficult to make a career as a trumpet soloist but the young British virtuoso Alison Balsom is managing to make a go of it. She is a fabulous player but in addition she is blonde, beautiful and a charismatic performer. As they say, she is the complete package. Here she is playing the last movement from Haydn's Trumpet Concerto with Vasily Petrenko conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. For more on this rising star visit her web site at www.alisonbalsom.com.

 Paul E. Robinson

A Conversation with Hans Graf Part 2

 In Pt. 2 of my recent conversation with conductor Hans Graf we discuss the Houston Symphony's 2012-2013 season. Maestro Graf also looks back on nearly 12 seasons with the orchestra.

The Houston Symphony has just returned from Moscow where it gave two concerts, and will soon begin its summer season which is comprised mostly of outdoor concerts. Among the highlights next season will be a concert version of Berg's opera Wozzeck. In May, 2013 Graf will bid farewell to Houston with performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection."

Paul E. Robinson

Mahler Symphony No. 8 "Symphony of a Thousand" Finale

Any performance of this monumental work by Gustav Mahler, with its massive orchestral and choral forces, is an occasion.  One such occasion is happening this week in Toronto, when the TSO puts on two performances, on Wednesday and Thursday at Roy Thomson Hall (8 pm). It is an almost all-Canadian cast, with sopranos Erin Wall, Twyla Robinson (replacing an indisposed Adrianne Pieczonka) and Andriana Chuchman, mezzos Susan Platts and Anita Krause, tenor Richard Margison, baritone Tyler Duncan and bass Robert Pomakov. The massive chorus includes the Mendelssohn Choir, Amadeus Choir, and the Elmer Iseler Singers, plus the Toronto Children's Chorus, all under the baton of Peter Oundjian. The work is approximately 85 minutes long—depending on tempo—and divided into two parts. The orchestration in Part One, Vieni creator spiritus, is particularly dense. Some would even describe it as bombastic, so it's always a challenge for the conductor to bring out clarity. Part 2, based on Goethe's Faust, with its hushed chorus at the end, is truly exquisite. Here is the finale of Part 2 with Sir Simon Rattle conducting the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain from the BBC Proms. There is no information on cast from the clip, but I recognized Christine Brewer and Soile Isokoski as sopranos 1 and 2. 

— Joseph K. So

Claudio Bohorquez Plays Bach

This week in Washington, D.C. the Uruguayan cellist Claudio Bohórquez plays the Lalo Cello Concerto with Eschenbach and the National Symphony. Next week these same artists will begin a South American tour in Mexico City. Later in the tour they will play a concert in Montevideo, Uruguay with Bohórquez as the featured soloist. Bohórquez has recently emerged as one of the finest cellists of his generation. You can see and hear for yourself in this video of an excerpt from the Suite No. 1 for Unaccompanied Cello by J.S. Bach.

  

— Paul E. Robinson

Philip Glass' Einstein On The Beach

The big operatic event this week is the North American premiere of the revival of Philip Glass' Einstein On The Beach, as the opening event of Toronto's Luminato Festival of Art and Creativity (June 8 to 17 2012), now in its sixth year. The work was first seen on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in 1976 and subsequently seen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1984. The world premiere took place in Avignon, France in July 1976, followed by a tour to Hamburg, Paris, Belgrade, Venice, Brussels, and Rotterdam. An opera in four acts connected by five intermezzos which Glass calls "knee plays", the work lasts nearly five hours without cuts, and performed without an intermission, although audience members are allowed to come and go quietly. It is directed by Robert Wilson with choreography by Lucinda Childs.  I won't even attempt to summarize the opera as it's better that the audience read about it at www.luminato.com and see it in person. There will be three performances on June 8 and 9, both at 6 p.m. and June 10 at 3 p.m. at the Sony Centre.  Here is a videoclip of the opera that will whet your appetite for this unique experience. 

— Joseph K. So

Ivan Fischer Conducts Schubert

Ivan Fischer is a conductor who spends most of his time with the orchestra he created, the Budapest Festival Orchestra. And together they have produced scores of memorable concerts and recordings. But Fischer is also active as a guest conductor. He is generally a welcome guest wherever he goes because he always brings fresh ideas. In this video he conducts the Berlin Philharmonic - or a reduced version thereof - in the first movement of Schubert's Symphony No. 5. The performance is full of beauty and charm but perhaps its most interesting feature is the way he has seated the orchestra. In the traditional orchestral seating arrangement the strings are in front and the winds and brass behind. Not so here. The wind players - one flute, two oboes and two bassoons - are seated in a semi-circle right in front of the conductor. Why? Because even with a reduced string section it is often difficult for the winds to be heard when they are seated in their usual places. Stokowski did this sort of re-seating all the time in order to get the best possible balances in his orchestra. Would that more conductors had his imagination. Fortunately, in our own time we have Ivan Fischer and a handful of other conductors willing to experiment with ways to serve the composer better.

 Paul E. Robinson

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Plays Schoenberg

For many years now the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center has been presenting outstanding concerts in the Big Apple. Under the current artistic direction of cellist David Finckel (of the Emerson String Quartet) and his wife pianist Wu Han the quality has been raised even higher. Here is a recent performance of the original version of Arnold Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night). The video includes only the second part but Part One is available on YouTube for music-lovers who are interested. The performers are Arnaud Sussmann and Erin Keefe, violins, David Kim and Teng Li, violas, and David Finckel and Priscilla Lee, cellos. Apart from the beauty and excitement of the performance, this video is also exceptional in providing a translation of the poem by Richard Dehmel which inspired Schoenberg. But more than that, the episodes of the story told in the poem appear on the screen pretty much where they are depicted or expressed in the music. Paul E. Robinson