Night After Night

Divine madness.

Fritz Wunderlich and Hubert Giesen perform Schumann's Dichterliebe.

"Getting to Know Schumann Again, with Some Favorites"
The New York Times, December 17, 2010

Here's another of those occasional roundups in which the classical-music critics of The New York Times pick their favorite recordings to represent this or that composer: here, Schumann, whose 200th birthday was celebrated this year. (We tackled another bicentennial baby, Chopin, in May.) You'll find my picks on the third page of the feature as it's laid out for the web, but start from the beginning to get the whole picture. As usual, I'm providing direct retail links for the five discs I selected here.

SYMPHONIES NOS. 1-4, OVERTURE, SCHERZO AND FINALE
Staatskapelle Dresden, conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch
(EMI Classics 5 67771 2; two CDs)
Amazon / Amazon MP3 / Ariama / ArkivMusic / ArkivMusic MP3 / iTunes

PIANO CONCERTO; PIANO QUINTET
Rudolf Serkin, pianist; Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy; Budapest Quartet
(CBS Great Performances MK 37256; CD)
Amazon MP3 / ArkivMusic / iTunes

PIANO WORKS *
Wilhelm Kempff, pianist
(Deutsche Grammophon 471 312-2; four CDs)
Amazon / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble / DG Web Shop

* In the very short time since this essay was filed, a newer, cheaper and more comprehensive box of Kempff's Deutsche Grammophon Schumann recordings appeared without much fanfare; this one devotes a fifth CD to Schumann's Piano Concerto and Konzertstück in G (a.k.a. Introduction and Allegro appassionato). Amazon stocks it on disc and in MP3 format, the latter being a serious deal at under $20. It's also on iTunes, and other stores will likely have it; no need to hesitate in choosing it.

‘DICHTERLIEBE’
Fritz Wunderlich, tenor; Hubert Giesen, pianist
(with songs by Beethoven and Schubert; Deutsche Grammophon 449 747-2; CD)
Amazon / Amazon MP3 / Ariama / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble / DG Web Shop / iTunes

‘MYRTHEN,’ DUETS
Dorothea Röschmann, soprano; Ian Bostridge, tenor; Graham Johnson, pianist
(Hyperion CDJ33107; CD)
Amazon / Ariama / ArkivMusic / Hyperion / iTunes

Finally, you'll find information on the Hyperion box set of Schumann's complete songs I mentioned in my essay here.

Life and times.

Leon Fleisher: In Focus at the 92nd Street Y
The New York Times, December 15, 2010

In preparing for this review, I read several sizable chunks from Leon Fleisher's newly published memoir, My Nine Lives, co-written by my friend and colleague Anne Midgette. What little part I managed to read confirmed what I'd already suspected: the book is a delight, a gripping personal story as well as a lively page-turner. I'm looking forward to reading the entire book over the holiday break.

While reading the book, I came upon a name I'd not seen or thought about in some time: Jacob Lateiner, another distinguished pianist and educator, and the artist who commissioned and premiered Elliott Carter's Piano Concerto. This seemed like an appropriate coincidence on Saturday, which was Carter's 102nd birthday. But sadder news followed: Lateiner died on Sunday, as I learned in a message from pianist Bruce Brubaker that evening.

You can read Brubaker's memorial tribute to Lateiner on his ArtJournal blog, Pianomorphosis, here. The New York Times obituary is here. And you can listen to the finale from Lateiner's 1957 Westminster recording of Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto in the video embedded below.

Kindred spirits.

Steven Isserlis and Jeremy Denk at the 92nd Street Y
The New York Times, December 13, 2010

Needless to say, and unsurprisingly, this was terrific: a perfect example of two intelligent, inquisitive artists finding common ground in a recital that covered a lot of unfamiliar and worthwhile territory. Erin Baiano's terrific photograph brilliantly captures the energy and enthusiasm Isserlis projected throughout the concert; Denk, though sedate at this particular moment, was similarly effusive, especially during the Ligeti études he spontaneously added to the program in lieu of Liszt. Mark your calendars now: Denk will be playing the first two books of Ligeti's dazzling études along with Bach's "Goldberg" Variations at Zankel Hall on February 16.

French knot.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard at Carnegie Hall
The New York Times, December 11, 2010

Here comes the flood.

Photograph by Eric Calvi

"Unleashing a Creative Deluge"
The New York Times, December 7, 2010

A preview story regarding the composer, performer and director Mikel Rouse, whose latest stage creation, Gravity Radio, opens tonight at the BAM Harvey Theater with additional performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. For many folks, the Thursday performance will be the must-see show, since it comes with a post-performance artist talk conducted by Evan and Andrew Gregory of the Gregory Brothers, the creative force behind the insanely popular web-video series Auto-Tune the News.

Try to imagine doing an important interview and having your subject start to sing, "Those geese are cooked / those geese are cooked." Yes.

This is, if memory serves, the longest feature I've written to date for The New York Times -- a very generous word count, especially for the daily -- and still there are literally dozens of things I'd like to have included but couldn't. Mostly these are bits of older history, like the fact that nearly all of Rouse's Broken Consort music is available from his label via iTunes, since he had the amazing foresight to structure most of his record deals -- even the major-label releases by his alternative-rock group, Tirez Tirez -- as licensing deals for a finite period, after which all rights reverted to him.

Rouse will surely issue the Tirez Tirez material some day. Meanwhile, go here for an earful of a young Rouse smitten with David Byrne and Philip Glass.

I'd also like to have gone into greater detail about the process by which Rouse's archive was acquired by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, which celebrates its arrival with a visual-art exhibit, "Passport: 30 Years Drawn on the Road," on Wednesday. That process, an extension of the library's earlier aquisition of collections from Meredith Monk and Ping Chong, shows the way in which the institution's staff is learning how to categorize collections from artists whose work transcends genres not occasionally but defiantly, and how to preserve and make available the archives of artists whose work is seldom if ever codified into a score or printed instruction manual.

How great is it that you can look at an online gallery as extensive as this one, by the way?

Some day, it seems, I'll need to write a bigger, longer and more comprehensive piece about Rouse, whose work, I think, is both popular and underappreciated, immediately comprehensible yet deeply misunderstood. On a different note, I'd love to see Rouse pull out his old Broken Consort charts for a spin; I bet they'd go over well at (Le) Poisson Rouge, the Bang on a Can Marathon or Big Ears. But it might be even cooler to think that some enterprising younger conductor, composer and/or bandleader could go to the library and look them up, too.

Finally, there's one certain word I didn't use at all in my preview. See if you can figure out what it was. Here's a hint:

Sketch of Mikel Rouse, Kyle Gann and Ben Neill by Mikel Rouse, borrowed without permission from Kyle Gann, who tells the story behind it here.

Clarinet marmalade.

The Risør Chamber Music Festival at Carnegie Hall
The New York Times, December 6, 2010

As linked in this review, here's a video of the dazzling clarinetist Martin Fröst playing his brother Göran Fröst's arrangement of klezmer giant Giora Feidman's "Let's Be Happy" at the Verbier Festival.

O come all ye faithful.

Andrea Bocelli at Madison Square Garden
The New York Times, December 4, 2010

Andrea Bocelli presents "My Christmas" at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ tonight, and there's no reason to think that things won't go just a bit more smoothly than they did on opening night: a Garden show less engaging than that of Justin Bieber, and less operatic than when Roger Waters recently presented Pink Floyd's The Wall.

A brief, thoughtful Q&A with Bocelli ran in The Guardian on November 22; you can read that here. Naturally, you'll find a better photograph than the iPhone image above on the Times site. And my previous Andrea Bocelli review, from his Carnegie Hall engagement with the New York Philharmonic in September 2009, is here.

One by one.

Darmstadt Essential Repertoire at Issue Project Room
The New York Times, December 3, 2010

Night one of this vital young festival featured a sterling cast of local luminaries in Berio's first ten Sequenzas. I only wish I could have spilled more ink on the performers bunched together at the end, as every participant brought something unique and special to this event, but I think you get the general impression. I urge you to click through to the Times review to see Hiroyuki Ito's characteristically gorgeous photos of Claire Chase and Chris McIntrye. And remember, this festival continues through Saturday and warrants your attention.