Robert Schumann, The Complete Works for Piano Trio – Christian Tetzlaff, violin; Tanja Tetzlaff, cello; Leif Ove Andsnes, piano, on EMI Classics, by Michael Miller

Schumann_1850
Robert Schumann, 1850

Robert Schumann, The Complete Works for Piano Trio
Christian Tetzlaff, violin
Tanja Tetzlaff, cello
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
EMI Classics
John Fraser, producer
Arne Akselberg, balance engineer

Disc 1:
Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Op.63
Piano Trio No. 2 in F Major, Op.80
Sechs Stücke in kanonischer Form,Op.56 arr. for Piano Trio

Disc 2:
Piano Trio No. 3 in G Minor, Op.110
Fantasiestücke für klavier, Violine and Violoncello, Op.88
I. Romanze. Nicht schnell, mit innigem Ausdruck
II. Humoreske. Lebhaft
III. Duett. Langsam und mit Ausdruck
IV. Finale. Im Marsch-Tempo

A close look at the notes for this 2-disc set will give one some insight into thesplendeurs et misères of the contemporary classical recording industry. A grant from Fond for lyd og bilde, the Norwegian arts organization, and Leif Ove Andsnes' Gilmore Artist Award funded this recording, making it possible for a major commercial label, EMI, to release a recording of comparatively little-known music by a great composer, played by internationally renowned musicians. Mr. Andsnes owns the copyright and has licensed the recording to EMI. Presumably the recording company didn't think that the famous names sufficed to counterbalance the obscurity and dubious reputation of the music, for unfortunately the trios, especially the second and third, were lumped in with the rest of what the older literature considered "bad Schumann," commonly disparaged as unmelodic, difficult, and confused. The rediscovery of these fascinating and very beautiful works has been one of the great pleasures of the past twenty years, once musicians learned how to play them and audiences, still slowly and partially, have learned how to listen to them.

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


Some Roman Restaurants, a Thanksgiving Visit to the Eternal City, by David Kubiak

Marco, Pierluigi ed Alessandro Roscioli

What follows is a culinary record of a week spent in Rome over the Thanksgiving holiday, an excellent time to be there if one wants both to eat white truffles and avoid the worst crush of tourists. I in fact heard English at only two of the restaurants I visited, and their staffs, while anxious to talk about how miserable their economic and political systems are, could not have been more cordial. As has always been my experience dining in Italy, knowledge of Italian is useful, but even more important is appreciation for the traditions of cooking. Comment meaningfully on the quality of an artichoke or the texture of the gnocchi, and you will make immediate friends in the restaurants of Rome. As to assessing their quality, the Latin adage tot homines, quot opiniones might have been created to describe critical judgments. I once sat next to a group of Roman businessmen at lunch who spent the better part of an hour discussing the merits of the risotto they were eating in comparison to those prepared by other restaurants they frequented. Guidebooks are always a little out of date in recommendations for an enterprise where quality can change very quickly; the Internet is largely useless, with the exception of reports by the canny American expatriate,Maureen Fant. My own history eating out in Rome goes back some forty years now. I well remember the place where I first saw baskets full of porcini and studied the elaborate choreography of a well-run dining room. It was at Passetto in the Via Zanardelli that I learned about Roman food, and how to play my part correctly in the Italian culinary theater. Passetto remains, having weathered a major scandal a few years ago when two Japanese tourists were charged 700 euros for lunch. Had they been eating dinner at Heinz Beck’s Michelin starred La Pergola the bill would have seemed reasonable, but the police were summoned to Passetto, and now that the dust has settled their awning reads “Wine bar/Caffeteria”. I didn’t have the heart to go inside.

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








Things are heating up at the BSO: Harbison Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 and more under Morlot and Bělohlávek, by Charles Warren


John Harbison
John Harbison

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall

Thursday, November 17, 2011, 8:00 pm

Berlioz, Mozart, Carter and Bartók

Ludovic Morlot, conductor
Richard Goode, piano
Elizabeth Rowe, flute

Berlioz ‑ Roman Carnival Overture
Mozart 
‑ Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, K.503
Carter ‑ 
Flute Concerto
Bartók ‑ 
Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin

Tuesday, November 29, 2011, 8:00 pm

Harbison, Ravel and Mahler
Symphony Hall

Ludovic Morlot, conductor

Harbison ‑ Symphony No. 4
Ravel ‑ 
Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2
Mahler ‑ 
Symphony No. 1

Thursday, December 1, 2011, 8:00 pm

Beethoven and Harbison
Symphony Hall

Jiří Bělohlávek, conductor
Jonathan Biss, piano
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
Gerald Finley, baritone

Harbison ‑ Symphony No. 5
Beethoven ‑ 
Piano Concerto No. 4
Beethoven ‑ 
Leonore Overture No. 3

Things are heating up at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The spate of recent exciting performances began with the great Tchaikovsky “Pathéthique” under Myung-Whun Chung, and has continued with two concert series under Ludovic Morlot, and a series under Czech conductor Jiří Bělohlávek. Both Morlot and Bělohlávek led symphonies by John Harbison, part of the series of his six symphonies the BSO began to last season, and will conclude in January. This is material of major importance and interest. It was a great thing for the orchestra to undertake, and the recent performances have been very effective, as were those of the earlier symphonies under James Levine last season. The orchestra musicians seem really to want to play this work, and go about it with a sense of great commitment. Audience response has been very warm.

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








Festive Cooking: the Search for Authentic British Lasagne, by Michael Miller


Balliol-hall
The Great Hall of Balliol College, ca. 1877-ca. 1885. A. D. White Architectural Photographs, Cornell University Library.

On this ship I am Cook. Hence my activities on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter are customarily pretty well established. I may experiment with the stuffing, or we may find some exciting novelty, like Holy Smokes’ fabulous smoked turkeys, but that doesn't bring any major variation in the drill. I've even grown more efficient over the years, so that's it's not particularly laborious anymore. In parallel with these prescribed actions, my mind spends Thanksgiving in a mildly crazed reverie of a nostalgic or wistful bent—at least it has been so since 2004, when, as I was readying to make my initial attack on the bird, the telephone rang, with a journalist at the other end, who asked if I would answer a few questions about an elementary school classmate of mine who was in the political spotlight at the time. The journalist seemed personable and serious, and I found myself happy to talk to him, the cordless phone cradled on my shoulder, as I seasoned the turkey and put it in the oven. He'd spoken to a good many others—school friends I remembered, others I'd forgotten...teachers as well, including our inspiring Latin teacher, Joe Agnelli, who helped set me off on a long voyage in Classical waters, the ancient world—the other hemisphere of history. The family thought I was crazy to talk on the phone like that, but there seemed no reason not to, as long as I had the use of my hands.

"Excuse me while I peel this onion..."

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Jonathan Nott Conducts the Sydney Symphony in Brahms, Brett Dean and Schubert

Nott
Jonathan Nott. Photo: Thomas Mueller.

Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall: 3 December 2011

Brahms - Tragic Overture opus 81
Brett Dean - The Lost Art of Letter Writing - Violin Concerto
Schubert - Symphony no. 9 in C, D944

Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Jonathan Nott - conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann - violin

Jonathan Nott has a light touch. The subtlety and clarity he encourages from each instrument, treating each with equal importance, allows in a way the music to speak for itself. He does not try to do too much to put his impression on the piece. His conducting is particularly sublime in the very soft sections of the music where he is not afraid to bring the sound level down to a barely audible level, but still with great clarity and texture. In this way the Violin Concerto, "Lost Art" by Brett Dean is well suited to his style. The Australian composer was commissioned to write the piece in 2007 by the Cologne Philharmonie and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic for Frank Zimmermann to whom the piece is dedicated. It is now heard for the first time in Sydney.

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

Vivaldi’s Griselda From the Pinchgut Opera of Sydney by Andrew Miller

Miriam-allan-in-pinchguts-gris

"Modernized Opera" can sound a little scary, especially if implicitly (mis-)associated with the term "upgrade" which came out of Hollywood and Silicon Valley almost simultaneously in the last several years. Perhaps this is why some people are so against it: it sounds as if their changing the notes to modern notes! Or completely reversing the tone of the opera in some sardonic way. Operas should not be modernized because they are old but because it makes sense to do so. The two terms in quotes shouldn't be associated at all: the former is a style, the latter a consumerist slogan and a euphemism for dumbing-down. Bringing the action of the opera into the present either explicitly or in some less realistic or even abstracted way, where there is a motivation, can be a wonderful thing and be high art. When the imagery the designer and director create make poetical and musical sense in the way it unfolds through the piece, with its own internal logic compatible with that of the music, it is a wonderful thing and there is no reason modern images are necessarily excluded from this (there is the problem of literal contradictions in the libretto, references to "pastorella" or "boschi" or "selva" in an opera taken to the modern inner city, but those are a separate matter). The modern setting if anything makes the opera more complicated as a genre of music and should not therefore be used in an attempt to make the opera 'more understandable to the masses' or the monolingual. Only a good music teacher will let a person understand opera well. In this case we have a seldom played late Baroque opera played on period instruments with a modern setting, sometimes quite explicit (clothes, mobile phones, etc.), but the opera, music and story, is strong enough to take almost anything from the director and designer. We are still confused about the nature of the complementary and individual strengths of men and women, often degenerating into a false dichotomy when talked about, and no closer to solving the problems now than in Vivaldi's day of trusting both intellect and intuition, rational thought and wisdom in the personal or social planes, and everywhere between. If anything these problems are worse in today's prosaic and material times. This opera which touches on these problems (as most do) in its own special way is well suited to be sung in a modern setting; Pinchgut has recognized this and accepted the challenge.

Read the full review on The Berkshire Review, an international journal of the arts!

Your Paid Subscription to The Berkshire Review: how to get the most out of it, a message from the Editor

Howard Pyle, Early Printers, etching

Thanks, once again, to all the people who signed up on the first day!

Now that The Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts, is available by paid subscription only, we all feel more committed than ever to bringing you the best criticism and intelligence we can, wherever we happen to be in the world. Our goals are by no means comprehensive...just what a small, enthusiastic team can accomplish. We are scattered, but in interesting places.

From the beginning I thought of The Berkshire Review as a traditional magazine, distributed electronically. All of us write traditional essays and reviews, with introductions, expositions, arguments, and conclusions. None of us write blog entries, which usually lack that kind of structure, are grounded more in opinion than on knowledge, and are innocent of the extensive research that goes into many of the articles and reviews we publish. The only difference is that, since we don't have to buy paper and print ads on that paper to pay for it, our articles can be as long as they need to be in order to make their point. We observe no formulaic lengths or formats. By this I do not mean to disparage bloggers in any way. Many of them are experts in their fields, prepare their posts through research, and are effective writers. Blogging is a mode of writing unto itself. The decision not to pursue it was a personal one, which I considered at length, when I first began to write for online publication. I felt it would detract from the various forms of print-based writing I had worked at for many years: scholarly writing, fiction, and essays. I have never discussed this with the other writers of The Review. It is not even a tacit understanding. It just happens that we all write that way. And that doesn't mean that we wouldn't include a blog among our offerings some day, if it seemed right.

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



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A Singer’s Notes 41: To Dream the Impossible Dream: Man of La Mancha at Capital Rep, by Michael Miller


Kevin McGuire as Don Quixote and Robert Anthony Jones as Sancho Panza in Man of La Mancha at Capital Rep.

Man of La Mancha is manifestly a show which tries to convert. It is not a simple narrative, though its main functional device is story-telling. It seeks to do no less than convince.  It is as close to polemic as musical theatre gets.  It must succeed in doing this, or it has not worked. Capital Rep's new production of this classic musical is fully professional. It is well-cast, musically inventive, and consistently well-paced. Kevin McGuire in the title role has more than a touch of Falstaff in his portrayal. He seemed almost bewildered as Cervantes in prison, and then by turns, tired, rueful, and very human, portraying Don Quixote. He did not hog the stage; often he was the quietest presence on the stage. His singing did not set out to command, but to move. I could imagine a more bravura performance, but Mr. McGuire's was direct and convincing. I thought the strongest parts of his portrayal were the quieter moments, again, sometimes touched by bewilderment or confusion. He humanized the hero.Supporting roles were very well taken. Anne Fraser Thomas as Aldonza did not begin on the defensive. There were other things in her portrayal than anger. If anything the scenes which are the most appalling were a little routine, perhaps too well-executed. I found Ms Thomas increasingly convincing as the show went on, and most convincing at the end of the show where her portrayal, like Mr. McGuire's, was not overstated.

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








A Singer's Notes by Keith Kibler 42 - Listening to Pelléas: the Classic 1941 Recording under Désormières as reissued by Andante, EMI, and Pristine Classical

December 1, 2011 •


Pellas-78-cover
Pelléas et Mélisande, premiere recording, 1941

Very few recordings really deserve to be called iconic, but the 1941 recording of Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, conducted by Roger Désormière, is one. Native speakers are part of its excellence. There is a kind of lightness in the orchestral textures which is usually thought of as French, but this aspect of the recording is frequently overstated. A direction in the conducting which keeps the pace nearly conversational is fundamental. Newer recordings ofPelléas are almost all slower, even much slower. This, like the first BöhmFrau ohne Schatten is a recording surrounded by war- and both have the atmosphere of artists striving to give their native musical cultures a permanence, when permanence is mortally threatened. It is a beautiful thing that in a culture surrounded and eventually occupied by horror, these artists have given us the version of Pelléas which is the most French. No Golaud since has mastered the combination of clarity and beauty in the delivery of the Gallic language like Henri Etcheverry. For me this is the finest aspect of the recording. Etcheverry produces intensity after intensity without overstating, and this makes the hair-pulling scene almost unlistenable. The Mélisande, Irène Joachim, (yes, she is the grand-daughter of Josef Joachim) studied the role with its creator Mary Garden. She finds a living, breathing middle line between innocence and seduction. Of all Mélisandes on disc, she may be the hardest to locate between these poles. Anyone interested in French singing must listen to this recording.

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


Charpentier’s La Couronne de Fleurs and La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers by the Boston Early Music Society, by Charles Warren


Aaron Sheehan, Orphée. with Musical Directors Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs. Photo André Costantini.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier Double Bill
La Descente d’Orphée aux enfers
La Couronne de fleurs

Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 8pm
Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 3pm
New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, Boston

Paul O’Dette & Stephen Stubbs, Musical Directors
Gilbert Blin, Stage Director
Anna Watkins, Costume Designer
Melinda Sullivan, Choreographer

Pre-concert talks an hour before the performances by John S. Powell, Professor of Music, The University of Tulsa.

BEMF Vocal Ensemble
Aaron Sheehan, Orphée
Mireille Asselin, Carrie Henneman Shaw, Michael Kelly,
Olivier Laquerre, Thea Lobo, Jason McStoots,
Megan Stapleton, Brenna Wells, Douglas Williams

BEMF Chamber Ensemble
Robert Mealy, concertmaster
Cynthia Roberts, violin
Laura Jeppesen, viola da gamba
Christel Thielmann, viola da gamba
Beiliang Zhu, viola da gamba
Gonzalo X. Ruiz, oboe & recorder
Kathryn Montoya, oboe & recorder
Avi Stein, harpsichord
Paul O’Dette, Baroque guitar and theorbo
Stephen Stubbs, Baroque guitar and theorbo

BEMF Dance Ensemble
Carlos Fittante, Olsi Gjeci, Caitlin Klinger, Alexis Silver

Boston Early Music Festival’s presentation of two Marc-Antoine Charpentier chamber operas took us from the playful, elegant, high baroque world of the court of Louis XIV, into something more serious and grave, and then back out again. First we were given most of La Couronne de Fleurs, a Pastoral probably not meant for full staging, where Flore, goddess of spring—well sung, and acted with spirit, by soprano Mireille Asselin—summons up the season and then proposes to shepherds and shepherdesses a contest to praise Louis XIV’s military triumphs, the winner to receive the crown of flowers of the title. After the conventional tributes are made, the production turns to the short opera La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers, presenting it as a further entry in the poetic contest, though this is done a bit awkwardly, since the piece does not refer to Louis. The Orpheus opera seems not to have been finished by Charpentier, having only two acts instead of the usual three, and stopping with the beginning of Orpheus’s ascent from the Underworld with his lover Euridice rescued from death. We do not get the familiar incident of his prohibited looking back at her and thus permanent loss of her. BEMF cleverly handled this truncated ending by coming back to the last part of La Couronne, where the god Pan interrupts the poetic/musical contest, putting a stop to it, saying nothing can come up to Louis’s exploits.

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