FOLLOWUP: “Porgy and Bess” — opera or musical?

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

 

Last Saturday in the Pasadena Pops concert, the orchestra’s
new principal conductor, Marvin Hamlisch, alluded to a new production of Porgy and Bess now being prepared back
east, declaring that he was pleased that it was being produced as a Broadway
musical instead of an opera In my review (HERE), I responded, “I do, however,
take issue with Hamlish’s contention that Porgy
and Bess
is a musical. I realize that director Diane Paulus is
working on a new production of what she calls The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, which is supposed to recast
the work as a musical, but, in the words of Ira Gershwin, ‘It Ain’t Necessarily
So’ — i.e., it’s an opera.”

 

I’m not the only one who doesn’t agree with the production.
An article by composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim in today’s New York Times castigating the concept
is HERE (it also appears in a number of other media outlets).

 

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/stephen-sondheim-takes-issue-with-plan-for-revamped-porgy-and-bess/?ref=music

 

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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(Revised) OVERNIGHT REVIEW: Marvin Hamlisch and Pasadena Pops at the Rose Bowl

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

______________________

 

Pasadena Pops; Marvin
Hamlisch, conductor

“Marvin Does Broadway”

Saturday, August 6, 2011 The Lawn Adjacent to the Rose
Bowl

Next concert: August 27, 2011 “Marvin Does Movies”

Info: www.pasadena-symphony.org

______________________

 

54366-Hamlisch-thumb-216x171-54365.jpg

There may have been more important ways to spend a Saturday
night but few, if any, could have been more pleasurable than spending last night
with Marvin Hamlisch, the Pasadena Pops and an array of soloists under balmy
skies and a bright half-moon at The Lawn Adjacent to the Rose Bowl.

 

A good-sized crowd turned out (particularly impressive
considering there was competition from the California Philharmonic’s Rodgers
and Hammerstein program at the Arboretum and from the staged production of Hairspray at Hollywood Bowl) to hear
Hamlisch and friends work their way through a couple of dozen selections from
Broadway, the place where Hamlisch quipped “tickets cost $150 and parking is
$900.”

 

That sort of witty, yet gentle repartee is part of what
makes a Hamlisch concert go down so easily. His banter ranged from the
downgrading of the nation’s credit rating from AAA to AA+ to joking with KABC
weatherman Dallas Raines about the region’s relentlessly constantly good weather.
Mid-show he dashed off a spunky set of piano variations on Happy Birthday in the styles of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven — shades
of Victor Borge!

 

More than anything, however, Hamlisch succeeds by connecting
with all ages in the audience in part because his comments on the music are
intelligent even when they’re brief. For example, he and the orchestra opened
with two Rodgers and Hammerstein overtures, with Hamlisch explaining that the Oklahoma overture was the traditional, “Hey,
come on in” collection of song that would appear in the show, while the Carousel Waltz was radically different
because the music never reappears and the curtain is open at the beginning, not
closed.

 

(I do, however, take issue with Hamlish’s contention that Porgy and Bess is a musical. I realize
that director Diane Paulus is working on a new production of what she calls The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, which is
supposed to recast the work as a musical, but, in the words of Ira Gershwin, “It
Ain’t Necessarily So” — i.e., it’s an opera).

 

One of things that make Hamlisch’s programs succeed is that
they are really a descriptive phrase of the former Pops music director, Rachael
Worby, programming for the iPod mentality). About the only thing he didn’t do
was to identify all the shows from whence the music came (although there was a
list of the shows in the program).

 

In addition to his commentary, Hamlisch conducted decently,
if not with great flair (he does seem to bury his head in the score quite a
bit), played the piano (sometimes doing both at the same time), and even sang a
duet with Cady Huffman for one his own tunes, They’re Playing Our Song, which Huffman informed people was the
show with which she made her professional debut at the La Mirada Theater. Apart
from a few rough patches, the Pops orchestra playing was typically first-rate.

 

Individually and as ensembles the three soloists provided
many of the evening’s high points (there was actually a fourth soloist at the
conclusion of the first act: Steven Brinberg, who did a neat takeoff on
Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond — my original review didn’t identify him by name).

 

As a trio, Huffman, Anne Runolfsson and Gary Mauer offered a
poignant rendition of Send in the Clowns,
while Runolfsson and Mauer played Anything
You Can Do I Can Do Better
with typical over-the-top foolishness (although she
did display the requisite amount of impressive power).

 

Huffman vamped a slinky Ulla from The Producers while Mauer offered a winsome rendition of Begin the Beguine and later had the
evening’s funniest moment with another witty Cole Porter song, The Tale of the Oyster.

 

To conclude the evening, Mauer joined with Runolfsson,
Hamlisch and the orchestra to finish the evening on the highest and most
powerful of notes as they reprised their roles in The Phantom of the Opera, a performance that should have impressed
even the most ardent “Phantom” haters and did bring forth a thunderous standing
ovation from the others.

_______________________

 

Hemidemisemiquavers:

Although the Pops uses video screens on both sides of the
stages, the camera work remains mediocre and the lighting continues to have
problem, rendering people’s faces much redder than they really are (Huffman and
Runolfsson looked like they had Rosacea).

Hamlisch listens to his audience. After hearing reports
that some people (not everyone, I hasten to add) were upset that the first
concert didn’t begin with The Star
Spangled Banner,
Hamlisch opened with the National Anthem last night, then
quipped that the balance of the program would be SSBs from countries around the world.

One thing I’m going to miss when the Pops moves to the
Arboretum is the convenient parking adjacent to the Rose Bowl venue and the
fast getaways that patrons have.

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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AROUND TOWN/MUSIC: Cleaning out the inbox

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News

A shorter version of this article was first published today in the above papers.

 

THE PASADENA POPS AND THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY ARBORETUM have finalized a contract for the orchestra to appear at the Arcadia facility beginning next summer. The three-year agreement with an "evergreen" clause will also see the Pops become the Arboretum's presenting partner. Dates for the Pops' concerts in 2012 are June 26, July 21, August 18 and September 8. Happily for fans of both the Pops and the California Philharmonic -- which shifts from the Arboretum to next-door Santa Anita Racetrack next summer -- that means the two organizations will not conflict on dates, a good thing from a parking and traffic point of view. The Pops also envisions "family concerts, outdoor theatre, silent films, as well as Asian-influenced performances, to name a few," according to Paul Jan Zdunek, CEO of the Pasadena Symphony Association; programming details will follow in the coming weeks. MORE

 

MUSE-IQUE, the new ensemble headed by former Pops music director Rachael Worby, will appear in a free concert of American music on the steps of Pasadena's City Hall at 6 p.m. on Sept. 11 commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

 

THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC has promoted outgoing associate conductor Lionel Bringuier to the new post of resident conductor through the 2012/2013 season. MORE

 

GUSTAVO DUDAMEL, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will be featured on a new DGG box set of CDs next month conducting the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra of Sweden (one of three orchestras he currently helms) in Bruckner's Symphony No. 9, Sibelius's Symphony No. 2 and Nielsen's Symphonies No. 5 and. 4 (The Inextinguishable).

 

Gramophone Magazine (which is published in England) devotes its cover story for the August 2011 issue to Dudamel and this new recording. It's an interesting article but not easy to find. The print edition costs $10 (U.S.) and the only way to find it online at this point is to subscribe ($63.14 per year or $16.21 for three months). Like other digital magazines, you get the full pages and have to scroll through them (i.e., they're not converted to easily readable text). However, the publication does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee if you're not satisfied.

 

Los Angeles Times Music Critic Mark Swed dwells on Dudamel's upcoming DGG release, which Dudamel recorded at the beginning of his tenure with the Swedish orchestra (he became that ensemble's music director in 2007; next season will be his sixth and last in that capacity, although he will continue to work with the ensemble as its "honorary conductor").

 

Two things make this upcoming recording intriguing, as Swed points out in the article. First, the works are pieces that Dudamel has yet to conduct in Los Angeles. Second, the performances show him at a very young age (he was 26 when he came to Sweden) and he talks with Swed about how his concepts have changed -- and are changing -- even in just a few years. The article shows us a different side of Dudamel than we've seen so far in L.A. BTW: there's a great photo of young Gustavo -- wearing glasses and with short hair. You might not recognize him without the caption!

 

THE L.A. PHIL has announced the 2011-2012 participants in the Dudamel Fellowship Program: Joshua Dos Santos of Venezuela, Mihaela Cesa-Goje of Romania (the first woman ever selected for the fellowship), Courtney Lewis of Northern Ireland and Boston, and Santtu Rouvali of Finland.

 

Each of the four conductors spends 4-6 weeks working with Dudamel, Phil musicians and with students in LAPO education programs. During their time (Santos, Lewis and Rouvali will have two time blocks), the fellows will both observe and gain hands-on experience. The Dudamel Fellowship was instituted in 2009. One of the inaugural class, Perry So, is leading Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings on Tuesday's Hollywood Bowl program and a member of last year's class, Joshua Weilerstein, was recently named as one of two assistant conductors at the New York Philharmonic (MORE). Details on the new class are HERE.

 

JOANN FALLETTA, who once headed up the Long Beach Symphony, has renewed her contracts with the Buffalo Philharmonic and Virginia Symphony and been named principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

 

The Buffalo Philharmonic contract takes her through the 2015-2016 season; she was the first woman to head a major orchestra when she took over that position in 1999 at the age of 45. The Virginia Symphony contract is for another three years with an option for an additional two years. She becomes the first American and first woman to serve with the Ulster Orchestra.

 

Violinist JOSHUA BELL, who is appearing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic next week at Hollywood Bowl (DETAILS), has been named music director of the

Academy of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields in London. According to Gramophone, Bell will conduct performances from the violin chair as opposed to standing on a podium (at the Bowl he will lead the Phil in Vivaldi's The Four Seasons while playing the solo parts). Kenneth Sillito remains as the ASMF artistic director and will also conduct. Pianist Murray Perahia has been the group's principal guest conductor for several years.

 

THE L.A. PHIL has announced the 2011-2012 participants in the Dudamel Fellowship Program: Joshua Dos Santos of Venezuela, Mihaela Cesa-Goje of Romania, Courtney Lewis of Northern Ireland and Boston, and Santtu Rouvali of Finland.

 

Each of the four conductors spends 4-6 weeks working with Dudamel, Phil musicians and with students in LAPO education programs. During their time (Santos, Lewis and Rouvali will have two time blocks), the fellows will both observe and gain hands-on experience. The Dudamel Fellowship was instituted in 2009. One of the inaugural class, Perry So, is leading Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings on Tuesday's Hollywood Bowl program and a member of last year's class, Joshua Weilerstein, was recently named as one of two assistant conductors at the New York Philharmonic (MORE). Details on the new class are HERE.

 

UPCOMING NOTABLE CONCERTS: The Cal Phil plays today at 2 p.m. in Walt Disney Concert Hall and concludes its 2011 summer season on Aug. 21 at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and 22 at Disney Hall (DETAILS)

 

Southwest Chamber Music concludes its summer festival at The Huntington Library tonight at 7:30 p.m. and August 20-21, also at 7:30 p.m. (DETAILS)

 

John Mauceri returns to conduct the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, which he founded 20 years ago, on Aug. 19, 20 and 21, playing the score to Walt Disney's 1940 movie classic "Fantasia" while the movie is shown on the Bowl's large screens. (DETAILS). This is one of my "don't miss" concerts of the Bowl season.

_____________________

 

(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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NEWS AND LINKS: 9/11 Concerts beginning to appear on schedule

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

 

The question about how classical music will commemorate the
10th anniversary of 9/11 terrorist attacks isn’t really “how” but “how many?” Because
9/11 falls on a Sunday this year, most churches will likely pay tribute in
their worship services. However, details of special musical events are also
beginning to emerge.

 

The Pasadena Master
Chorale
will honor the day with a performance of Faur’s Requiem at 4 p.m.
at La Crescenta Presbyterian Church. Artistic Director Jeffrey Bernstein will
lead the concert, which will open with four a cappella American works: a
traditional setting of Psalm 137, By The
Waters of Babylon;
Virgil Thompson’s My
Shepherd Will Supply My Need
; Words
To Be Spoken
, by Ross Lee Finney; and Bernstein’s own arrangement of America the Beautiful.

 

The Faur Requiem is a logical choice for this type of
concert. As Bernstein notes, “Perhaps the lightest of the well-known Requiem
settings, Faure’s Requiem is tuneful and direct, ending with music of ethereal
beauty and promise.” Soprano Krystle Casey and Baritone Cedric Berry will be
the soloists in the Requiem, which will be accompanied by Edward Murray on the
church’s pipe organ. DETAILS

 

Incidentally, the PMC will present a summer concert entitled
“My Spirit Sang All Day” on Aug. 14 at 4 p.m. at La Crescenta Pres. Bernstein
will conduct music ranging from Purcell, Elgar, William Billings and Ralph
Vaughan Williams to Ernst Krenek and Matthew Harris. DETAILS

 

The first group out of the block on 9/11 commemorations
was the Los Angeles Philharmonic,
which will use its Hollywood Bowl concert on Tuesday, Sept. 13, as a tribute to
those who died in the attack. The program will include the other “most obvious”
musical choice — Mozart’s Requiem — and pair it with Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Bramwell Tovey, who
for the past two seasons was the Phil’s principal guest conductor at the Bowl,
will lead the orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale and soloists Heidi Stober, soprano;
Kate Lindsey, mezzo-soprano; Nicholas Phan, tenor; and Matthew
Rose, bass-baritone. Chichester
Psalms
calls for a boy treble but he hasn’t been named yet (at least the
name isn’t on the Web site). DETAILS

 

BTW: the Bowl’s concert on 9/11 will be a rock concert
featuring The National;

Neko Case,
with special guest T Bone Burnett
; and Sharon Van
Etten
in what the HB Web site describes as “an evening of
triumphant, powerful and poetic American rock music [celebrating] our spirit
and resolve under the stars of the summer sky.” DETAILS

 

Muse-ique, Rachael
Worby’s new ensemble, has announced it will participate in a free concert of
American music at 6 p.m. on the steps of Pasadena’s City Hall, but no details
have been forthcoming.

 

More will surely arrive in the in-box during the weeks
ahead.

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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NEWS AND LINKS: Jorge Mester named artistic director of Young Musicians Foundation

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

The revision is to correct the location of the Nov. 6 concert.

 

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Jorge Mester, who for 25 years was music director of the Pasadena
Symphony, has been named artistic director of the Young Musicians Foundation and
its Debut Orchestra. The 76-year-old Mester will continue in his current
positions as Music Director of the Louisville Symphony and Naples (Fla.)
Philharmonic, although the Louisville ensemble is embroiled in a major
financial struggle at the moment.

 

Founded in 1955 and based in Los Angeles, the YMF is one of
the nation’s top pre-professional training orchestras. Its list of former music
directors includes such illustrious names as Andr Previn, Myung-Whun Chung and
Michael Tilson Thomas.

 

Last week, the its most recent maestro, Case Scaglione, was
named an assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, joining Joshua
Weilerstein, who was a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic last
year, in that post assisting Music Director Alan Gilbert (MORE).

 

Scaglione’s YMF predecessor, Sean Newhouse, is now assistant
conductor of the Boston Symphony. Last season he won praise from audiences and
critics alike when he stepped in on two hours notice to replace James Levine
and conduct Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 with the BSO (MORE).

 

Thus, Mester (who has served on the YMF Advisory Board for
12 years) takes his new position at a propitious time for the organization. He
will help select and mentor the YMF’s next music director (it’s usually a
three-year appointment) and is preparing an expanded conductor program where he
will serve as a mentor for those people, as well. He will also supervise
auditions for the orchestra’s new musicians next month.

 

It’s a role for which Mester is eminently suited. He headed
the conducting program at The Juilliard School in New York City in the 1980s, taught
conducting at the USC Thornton School of Music, and was the Aspen Festival’s
artistic director for many years (he is now conductor laureate there). Several
conductors heading orchestras today, including JoAnn Falletta (Buffalo
Philharmonic) count Mester as a mentor. During his time with the Pasadena
Symphony, he also introduced to local audiences a number of young artists who
have gone on to major careers, perhaps most notably the violinist Midori.

 

In addition to his shepherding and teaching work, Mester
will conduct one of the YMF’s six free concerts during the upcoming season,
leading the orchestra in John Adams’ Shaker
Loops
and Bizet’s Symphony in C Major at 6 p.m. on Nov. 6 at the Los Angeles County Art Museum’s Bing Theater.

 

Read Janette Williams’ article in the Pasadena Star-News HERE.

The YMF media release is HERE.

The 2011-2012 YMF Debut Orchestra season is HERE.

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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