Joanna Gabler, “Transcapes: Vermont and the Berkshires” on View at the Bennington Museum, May 12 – June 24, 2012

Joanna Gabler, Transcape

Joanna Gabler,

“Transcapes: Vermont and the Berkshires” on View at the Bennington Museum
Opening reception: “Transcapes: Vermont and the Berkshires” at the Bennington Museum, Saturday, May 19, 3-4:30 pm.

“Art is and always will be the sacred and secret gate between the invisible and the visible.”
Joanna Gabler

Opening May 12 in the Regional Artists Gallery at the Bennington Museum is “Transcapes: Vermont and the Berkshires,” works by Joanna Gabler.  Combining her two long-lasting passions, photography and nature, Gabler sees and photographs nature through the eye she developed over years of work as a painter—a medium she still works in.  Sensitive to color and form, she goes out into Nature, seeking her own personal vision. All her art is inspired by and co-created with Nature.  By painting and capturing the unseen energies behind physical reality and making them visible, using digital media as a creative tool, Gabler calls her images transcapes, because they are landscapes transfigured by her artistic vision. The transcapes in this exhibition are based on digital photographs of the Berkshires and Southern Vermont.

Read the full notice on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!

Audience Misbehavior: Everyone Wants To Get In On The Act, by Nancy Salz

An audience many years ago

An audience many years ago

They looked like a normal Broadway audience, these adults attending a matinee of Seminar. Then ten minutes into the play, when Alan Rickman, the star, made his entrance, they went berserk—screaming as if he were Professor Snape, his Harry Potter film character, instead of an actor on stage—and stopped the show in the middle of a tense scene.

A few weeks ago a fistfight broke out during the Brahms Second Symphony at a Chicago Symphony performance. In January Alan Gilbert, the conductor of the New York Philharmonic halted a performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony when a member of the audience wouldn’t or couldn’t silence his cell phone. Gilbert’s rare action made the front page of the New York Times. In November 2011, an audience member shouted, “Terrible! Too slow!” during Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony at the London Philharmonic and barged out of the auditorium.


Read the full article on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!


Two Orchestral Concerts at Chapel Hill: Tonu Kalam conducts the UNC Symphony Orchestra; Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts the European Union Youth Orchestra, by Steven Kruger

Tonu-Kalam, Music Director of the UNC Symphony Orchestra

Tonu-Kalam, Music Director of the UNC Symphony Orchestra

The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Memorial Hall

Wednesday, April 13, 2012
UNC Symphony Orchestra
Tonu Kalam, conductor

Higdon – “Light”
Hovhaness – Symphony No. 2, “Mysterious Mountain,” Op. 132
Dvorak – Symphony No. 5 in F major, Op. 76

Friday, April 13, 2012
The European Union Youth Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor
The Carolina Choir, Susan Klebanow, director
Louise Toppin, Andrea Moore, Terry Rhodes (sop)
Maurio Hines (replacing Anthony Dean Griffey), Tim Sparks (ten)
Richard Banks, (bar)
Clara Yang, (pn)

Copland – An Outdoor Overture
Beethoven – Fantasy in C minor for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra, Op.80
R. Strauss – An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64

Every so often it does an “armchair musician” good to step away from being a critic in life—to abandon an unforgivingly abstract, digital and lofty perfectionism—and look instead into the world of young musicians in love with music and personally engaged in its making. That was my motive and mindset in visiting the UNC campus last month. It did not hurt that my oldest school friend, Tonu Kalam, has been conductor of the UNC orchestra for many years and that he, his fiancée, Karyn Ostrom (who plays violin in the ensemble), and their “attack-cat” “Dolce” were my generous and expansive hosts in idyllic surroundings.

Prof. Kalam supervises an orchestra which has the advantage of being immense, but whose refinements over the many years invariably disappear with the awarding of a diploma. At least 65 of its members are not even music majors. And yet the quality of execution is astonishingly high. (Indeed, there were moments during his concert when one might have been forgiven for thinking oneself in the presence of Ashkenazy’s fully professional-sounding European Union Youth Orchestra.) Indeed, several members of Kalam’s orchestra were invited to play sitting in with the EUYO for its concert.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!

Quelques parcs parisiens (version française), par Alan Miller

Les arbres rectilignes, mid-February. Photo © 2012 Alan Miller.

Les arbres rectilignes, mi-février. Photo © 2012 Alan Miller.

To read the English version, click here.

Les parcs m’intéressent plus que les bâtiments. Les parcs sont imprévisibles; ils évitent la politique des auteurs qui entravent l’architecture. L’auteur d’un parc n’est jamais plus puissant que la nature qui a toujours son mot à dire à travers les ans et les saisons. Les parcs viellissent un peu comme les êtres vivants. Un bâtiment est souvent plus beau le jour de son achèvement alors que un parc flambant neuf a ses meilleures années à venir…comme Ronald Reagan a dit à propos des États-Unis—un propos que l’on ne peut pas considérer rétrospectivement sans une ironie amère. Je ne serais pas surpris si la plupart des meilleurs souvenirs des citoyens se passent dans les parcs. Ils semblent quelquefois les endroits les plus joyeux de nos villes—et peut-être les derniers. Les parcs encouragent une ampleur de sentiment que l’on ne retrouve que rarement dans les rues. Dans le parc un coureur peut pousser son corps au maximum lorsque un pique-niqueur passe la journée en regardant les fourmis volant les miettes de pain. Dans le parc, tout le monde est riche.

Lisez le tout
 à la Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!








The Clevelanders Visit San Francisco: Welser-Möst Conducts Mendelssohn, Saariaho, and Shostakovich at Davies Hall, by Steven Kruger

Franz Welser-Möst. Photo Roger Mastroianni.

Franz Welser-Möst. Photo Roger Mastroianni.

Davies Hall, San Francisco
Sunday, April 15, 2012
The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor

Mendelssohn – Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Opus 56, “Scottish”
Saariaho – Orion
Shostakovich – Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Opus 54

“These people look too thin to be from Cleveland!,” growled a reptilian voice behind me. A pretty safe comment to make about almost any American city these days—but as the Cleveland musicians took the stage last Sunday, I couldn’t help thinking there was something inherently unified, lean and reserved about their demeanor.

Orchestras tend to exhibit their nature just by sitting. Ormandy’s Philadelphians of old, arrayed like satisfied horn-rimmed deans at a faculty meeting, would tune up proudly in lush, seductive sonorities—though none from the pieces about to be played. The New York Philharmonic’s atmospherics were always different. A certain crustiness and general slouch suggested that they’d practice whatever  passage they damn blaring well pleased, whenever they pleased, and that you’d better be pleased—or else!

Such characteristics tend to persist over time, so it is no surprise to encounter George Szell’s swiss watch of an orchestra still refined, still European in demeanor and disinclined to do anything showy forty-two years after his death. Indeed, as the musicians tuned up in Davies Hall, the violas were soft, the general din kept to a minimum and the woodwinds pure light cream, like Vienna’s. But I also thought to myself, the players seemed mysteriously uncomfortable, as though in some sort of professional strait-jacket….

Read the full review
 on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!








Esa-Pekka Salonen and Leila Josefowicz in Salonen’s Violin Concerto, with Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin and Stravinsky’s Complete Firebird, by Michael Miller

Leila Josefowicz

Leila Josefowicz

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Friday, April 13, 2012, 7.00 pm
Symphony Hall

Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor
Leila Josefowicz, violin

Ravel ‑ Le Tombeau de Couperin
Salonen  ‑ 
Violin Concerto
Stravinsky ‑ 
The Firebird (Complete)

This concert was without a doubt one of the great events of the season, whether in Boston or New York, and certainly a high point in the BSO’s unexpectedly patchy year, at least as far as guest conductors were concerned, which seemed almost miraculous on paper, given the short notice allowed by James Levine’s final health setback, but in practice greatly curtailed by the cancellation of some the most distinguished conductors. Riccardo Chailly’s coronary ailment forced him to cancel his two concerts and effectively put him out of the running for the empty music directorship. Andris Nelsons rather strangely decided to go on paternal leave barely more than a month before his scheduled concert. Ill-health made it necessary for Kurt Masur, one of the great interpreters of the Missa Solemnis, to back out of his engagement while already in rehearsal. It was, to say the least, reassuring to find Esa-Pekka Salonen appearing  as scheduled with violinist Leila Josefowicz in an advanced stage of expectancy, much to the delight of her many fans in the audience.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!

The St Lawrence String Quartet and Diana Doherty on Oboe, Plays Music by Haydn, Dvořák and Mozart and Contemporary Music by Matthew Hindson and Gordon Kerry by Andrew Miller

2012_gordonkerry

Australian composer Gordon Kerry. Photo from musicaviva.com.au

City  Recital Hall, Sydney: 21 April 2012
The St Lawrence Quartet and Diana Doherty play in Melbourne on 24 April, Perth on 26 April, and Melbourne again on 28 April.

Joseph Haydn - String Quartet in F minor, op 20 no 5
Gordon Kerry – Elegy for String Quartet
Mozart - Oboe Quartet in F major, K370
Dvořák – String Quartet no. 14 in A flat major, op 105
Matthew HindsonRush for oboe and string quartet

The St Lawrence String Quartet
Geoff Nuttall – violin
Scott St John – violin
Lesley Robertson – viola
Christopher Costanza – cello

Diana Doherty – oboe

Such a broad range of small detail, an infinite diversity of subtle variations in tone, attack, dynamics etc., more than is practical even for a composer to write into a score, is possible, even common on the string instruments, especially the violin, and it seems to be much easier to find violinists capable of nuanced playing than any other instrument, flute, horn, oboe, for example, though maybe not piano, though these instruments are not directly comparable. The string quartet then presents so many musical possibilities not to mention possible combinations of musical personalities, for both the performer and composer, and such opportunities for experimentation with the genre’s huge density of detail, relative speed of composition, and fantastic possibilities at the frontiers of musical sound. It is easy too to compare a symphonist’s writing string quartets to a painter’s drawing of finished studies, and this tradition continues, even if new symphonies and operas are relatively rare, as we see here in this program which includes the newish work by Gordon Kerry whose pieces, like Ian Munro’s last year, will feature in most of this year’s chamber music concert tours organized by Musica Viva.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!

A Singer’s Notes by Keith Kibler 48: Simple Gifts – The Knights play Copland, Goldmith’s She Stoops to Conquer at the National Theatre, London, Live in HD

She Stoops to Conquer at the National Theatre

I’m sitting now in the late sunlight, looking at my cat’s ear. A translucent point it is with its hairs shining gold. It is sweet, and I am being sentimental. That which is sentimental is always ordinary in some way. Sentimentality is a kind of comfort. I once overheard the great Bernard Haitink say in a rehearsal “What is wrong with sentimentality anyway?” This from a conductor sometimes thought of as sober and straight-laced. There is nothing so remarkable about a cat’s ear, but a cat’s ear in the sunlight can seem something from a better world. I had a feeling like this when the bells started to play in The Knights’ recent performance of Copland’s Appalachian Spring in the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. We had already heard the old tune several times, and then we heard it with bells. You know the place. The performance was so honest and utterly straight that I heard the jangling as new minted. The old tune was glowing. I never really noticed the bells before; I never really heard them. There is such risk in these few bars. But this is a piece which attains to simplicity and achieves it, and they simply were there. No big event-just the simple sublime, and no other composer hears this better than Aaron Copland. ‘Tis the gift to be simple.

Read the full article on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!


Berkshires Summer Preview Subscription Special. Win a Tanglewood Picnic!

Imperial Roman Fourth Style fresco from Herculaneum

Subscribe to the Berkshire Review before May 1 and get a chance to win a sumptuous four-course Tanglewood picnic box for two prepared by the Review‘s resident chef with locally grown and raised organic or natural ingredients. Wine included! Oh yes…and the lawn tickets, too, for the concert of your choice.

Those of you who follow Geraldine Ramer’s wine articles or our restaurant reviews and other essays about food and drink know how fond of the pleasures of the table we all are at the Review. Summer  visitors to the Berkshires and locals alike look forward to picnics on the lawn almost as much as the music.

Our Tanglewood preview has been posted for some time, as has Tannery Pond’s. More are on the way. While we get these ready, we thought we might entice you to join us as paid subscribers by offering this rare dining experience. What else? Complete access to the reviews, articles, and interviews on theBerkshire Review, roughly 85% of our content.

Subscribe now, or at least before May 1, 2012, and be sure to give us your email address, either on the payment form or via e-mail to be eligible for the drawing. Already subscribed? Gift subscriptions are also eligible.

Read about it on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!


The Tinalley String Quartet’s Unique Voice: Bach, Haydn, Shostakovich and Beethoven by Andrew Miller

Shostakovich1

Dmitri Shostakovich.

Sydney Opera House, Utzon Room: 16 April 2012
Tinalley plays this program in Adelaide on 22 April

J. S. Bach – Contrapunctus I, IV and IX from Art of Fugue
Shostakovich – String Quartet No. 7
Joseph Haydn – String Quartet in f minor Op. 20 No. 5
Beethoven – String Quartet in e minor Op. 59 No. 2

Tinalley String Quartet
Adam Chalabi – violin
Lerida Delbridge – violin
Justin Williams – viola
Michelle Wood – cello

The chamber music fairy can touch any group anywhere, it seems, whether or not they have masses of recordings with prestigious labels, or a ‘high profile’ (in fact I don’t think she even reads the newspaper or listens to recordings). Even so, the Tinalley String Quartet knows their music backward and forward, as if there were no phrase or note they hadn’t rehearsed, discussed or thought about, or just intuitively understood on the moment. They are a very tight group, the sum total of their sound shows care and understanding, as if their feel for and ideas of the music span it vertically, horizontally and diagonally on any diagonal the composer cares to involve, particularly so in the Bach Art of Fugue pieces and the fugal last movement of the Haydn quartet. The close acoustic of the room only reveals the nuanced detail in their ensemble sound and the unique colors and textures of their group’s voice, very sonorous and woody, rounded and well seasoned, rich, but one where all the instruments are clear and yet combine into something greater than the sum of its parts. The favorable acoustic of the smallish room helps, and I suspect chamber music, especially the string quartet, often comes across more strident in tone than the ideal intentions of the artists when played in a larger concert hall shared with orchestras, but a small room like the Utzon Room would only reveal flaws or empty spaces in an inferior group or a less thoughtful and personal interpretation. Here the room was merely complementary, as if just subtly lifting something already there. It was a remarkable mature performance for any group, let alone one so young (founded in 2003 at the University of Melbourne) with musicians as young as they are (all in their late 20s or 30s), but one isn’t really aware of such mundane temporal qualities when they play.

Read the full review on the berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!