NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC IN BEETHOVEN/SALONEN RAPTURE

NY PHILHARMONIC PRESENTS BEETHOVEN. SALONEN, NEW COMMISSION, IN THRILLING PROGRAM

 Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen with the New York Philharmonic

Metacosmos composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir presents her2017 commission from the New York Philharmonic Society-the Marie-Josee Kravis Prize for New Music-photo/Stephanie Berger



by Dwight Casimere

The New York Philharmonic gave one of the most satisfying concrerts of the current subscription season with guest conductor and favored orchestral collaborator Esa-Pekka Salonen at the podium. With a searing performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor by towering young pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, bookened by the World Premiere of the 2017 New York Philharmonic Commission by the petite and soft-spoken composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir and a fiery performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major, Sinfonia eroica, the evening expressed the very definition of excellent programming.

Iceland is perhaps the smallest of all of the Nordic countries, but it is a relative giant in terms of the amount of musical talent that flows from its frigid shores. There are about 80 musical schools in this country of barely 33,000 residents.A virtually tuition-free system  ensures that students have access to music education beginning at the age of six. An impressive number of composers and performers have staked a prominent presence on the international stage. Among them is the young composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir, who was named the New York Philharmonic's Kravis Emerging Composer in 2015, and who was commissioned in 2017 to create the orchestra society's 198th commission, Metacosmos. 

The work totally belies the composers angelic, petite appearance. Though only 12 minutes in length, the work is structured from a framework that acts as an ecosystem of materials that are carried from one performer and one section of the orchestra to another in a series of textures, harmonies, phrases and lyrical lines. The composer described the experience; "When you see a long sustained pitch, think of it as a fragile flower that you need to carry in your hands and walk the distance of a thin rope without dropping it." That, in a nutshell, is the sum and substance of Metacosmos.

British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor's imagining of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3, was the polar opposite of the preceding piece. Big and brash with sweeping glissandos and cascading chord progressions, this was the Voice of the Master, thundering across the ages. At just 25 years old, Grosvenor is one of the most accomplished solo pianists currently on the concert stage. Close your eyes and you'd swear you were listening to someone far more advanced in years, so sensitive and self-aware is his playing style. His depth of understanding of the music and his careful execution on the keyboard is astonishing. Even when using the pedal, each note is clar and distinct with dynamic expressions moving rapidly from one mood to the next with seamless clarity. Beethoven himself considered this his most mature work for piano and marked his ascendency to the pinnacle of virtuosos in Vienna. Grosvenor's interpretation captured the majesty and glory of his work to perfection.

Esa-Pekka Salonen is one of the most exciting conductors to watch. His conducting style consistently finds the cellular rhythmic core of a piece and extrapolates it to its most logical extension. Thus, he and the orchestra found in Beethoven's Eroica a new dynamic tension.It was a heart-pounding performance that caused the blood to race right through the explosive ending. Beethoven had orginally intended the piece as a tribute to Bonaparte. His later disillusionment led him to re-write the title page and rename it Sinfonia eroica. The work became a metaphor to Beethoven's life and his personal view of famous leaders who often fail to iive up to idealized expectations. Untethered from its grounding in the image of Napoleon, the eroica stands as searing commentary of the events taking shape today. As shaped by conductor Salonen and the New York Philharmonic, the work sounded as relevant today as it perhaps did at its inaugural performance.  

SUNDANCE AWARD WINNING DOC "WINNIE" IN NY S.W.A.N. DAY SCREENING JUST DAYS BEFORE DEATH OF WINNIE MANDELA AT 81

by Dwight Casimere

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela-"Mother of South Africa" and South African Parliament Member
Dies at 81

 Dwight Cashmere at the S.W.A.N. Day screening at SVA Complex in Chelsea

 Sundance Bet Director Award winning French director Pascale Lamche via SKYPE

 ImageNation Excecutive Director and Founder Moikgantsi Kgama

Terra Renee-Founder AAWIC Film Festival

by Dwight Casimere

NEW YORK-The announcement that the "Mother of South Africa." Winnie Mandela has died at 81 comes just days after her legacy was honored with the screening of the Sundance Best Director Award winning documentary "Winnie"as the final day event of the Women in the Arts and Media Coalition film festival at SVA Center on S.W.A.N.  (Supporting Women in the Arts Now) Day.

Presented by ImageNation, Founder and Executive Director Moikgantsi Kgama and AAWIC Film Festival Founder Terra Renee introduced the film and a post-screening discussion with the director, Pascale Lamche via SKYPE from her home in France.

"The U.S. was given a very sanitized version of the transition of power to Nelson Mandela," Lamche told the audience, " and a rather confusing and conflicted portrait of  Winnie Mandela, which either presented her as a saint or drug her down to the level of sinner in the days after the fall of apartheid," Instead, the film gives a rather complex and nuanced portrayal of the actual events that surrounded Nelson Mandela's incarceration, and the concurrent movement, led by Winnie Mandela, that kept her husband's memory, legacy and cause alive and which led to the firestorm that swept him into power. Her thanks was a humiliating public trial for sedition, which was played out in cringe-inducing detail in the film. Chief among those who betrayed her was her closest friend, Bishop Desmond Tutu, an act which elicited both tears and the subsequent ire of Winnie Mandela. The vicious attacks led by her enemies and the subterfuge of the ANC are all explored in depth in the film. 

Winnie Mandele's march into the pages of  history began with her assertive and single-handed resurrection of the anti-apartheid movement.  "The whole objective of the government was to put her husband away so that people would forget about him," Winnie says in the documentary.  We see her leading countless demonstrations, proudly raising her fist in defiance, while crowds cheered her on. Her efforts were later transposed across the globe,  creating the international pressure cooker that sprung his eventual release from prison after 27 years.

The victory did not come without a price, both personally and politically. By the time of Nelson Mandela's ascendency to the presidency of South Africa, their marriage was on tatters. Subsequently, the efforts by the ANC, the party for which she sacrificed her personal life, the well-being of her family and her own personal safety and security, abandoned her and made her the object of a smear campaign that had seismic repercussions.

Winnie Mandela herself spent time in jail for her alleged acts of sedition in the early days of the struggle. Her experience was recounted in the biography 491 Days; prisoner 132369, which was the basis for Lamche's documentary.

It is not a pretty picture, but one that bares the blemishes, scars, and soul of a dedicated warrior who put the welfare of her country and her people above all else. "It was difficult," Winnie says of her marriage to Mandela. "You have to understand that after we were married, we were only really together for a few months. After that, the entire relationship was carried out through letters and through visits through bars. At times I felt terrible guilt because of my children. They suffered because it was a choice between them and the survival of the nation."

"Winnie" is the portrait of a woman of great strength who forged a path to freedom, head bloodied but unbowed. Her efforts led to eventual victory and to an exalted place in the firmament of stars bearing the names of the great leaders of out time.

HBO DOC KING IN THE WILDERNESS PREMIERES MONDAY, APRIL 2 7PM ET/6PM CT

by Dwight Casimere 

                     

     

     

The 50th Anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be recognized with the airing of the HBO Documentary, King In The Wlderness, Monday, April 2 at 7pmET/6pmCTHBO. Drawing on personal recollections of his closest associates, former SCLC Executive Director, US Ambassador to the UN and Mayor of Atlanta Andrew Young, King's personal secretary, Xenonia Clayton, personal friend and financial backer Harry Belafonte, strategist C.T. Vivian, Rev. Jesse Jackson and others, combined with archival news footage and photographs,  Emmy Award winning director Peter Kunhardt weaves an at times dark portrait of the final three years of the Civil Rights leader's life.

Beginning with the signing of the Voting Rights Act by President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1965 to his assassination on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis on April 4, 1968, the film portrays the conflicts surrounding his movement and the personal strife and crisis of confidence he faced in his personal life.

During the time of covered in the film, the anti-Viet Nam war movement was emerging among white radical students, the Black Power Movement under Stokely Carmichael was gaining traction in the northern cities, which were on the verge of erupting like a social volcano.  Mix into this fermenting cauldron reports of Dr, King's alleged extra-marital affairs, behind-the-scenes infighting within his own ranks and the ongoing very public debate with the Black radicals and what remains is a very compelling film on a pivotal moment in American history, which still has lingering seismic repercussions. The biblical parallels to the final days of Christ were not lost on this reviewer. The audience is left to draw their own conclusions as to King's state of mind in his final moments in this powerful and well structured documentary from a superb filmmaker. On HBO, Monday, Aprl 2, 7pm ET.

35TH MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL SHOWCASES HBO'S VICE WITH TIM CLANCY

EMMY-WINNING VICE WEEKLY DOCUMENTARIES CONFRONT POWERFUL ISSUES

BY DWIGHT CASIMERE

HBO VICE CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND SHOW RUNNER TIM CLANCY AND MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING JAIE LAPLANTE

TIM CLANCY Q. AND A. AT THE HBO VICE SCREENING AT THE MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL
(BELOW) SCENES FROM THREE VICE SHORT SUBJECTS: THE FUTURE OF FIREARMS, CHINA'S GHOST TOWNS AND ASSADS-SYRIA

BY DWIGHT CASIMERE

MIAMI-The 35th Miami Film Festival featured an evening dedicated to the hard-hitting HBO documentary series Vice. The non-conventional narrative series, featuring cutting edge short documentary films that explore some of the more unsettling subjects in today's headlines. Co-Executive Producer and Show Runner Tim Clancy sat withe film festival executive director Jaie Laplante to discuss the series and three hand-picked episodes screened that evening; China's Ghost Towns, The Future of Firearms and Assad's Syria.

Each of the short films went behind the scenes to explore that, at times, more unsettling aspects of their subject matter. For example, The Future of Firearms deals extensively with the recruitment and organizing of pre-teen and teen-aged sharp shooters who are avid gun users and marksmen who are sponsored by gun manufacturers. They even wear vests, jackets and other gear emblazoned with company logos, much like those of Nascar drivers. The film also explains how the gun lobby uses the current hysteria over gun control to further their cause and increase gun sales. The most disturbing segment was one fled on the South Side of Chicago featured an illegal gun dealer, his face disguised with a mask, explaining how almost anyone can find an illegal gun anywhere, just ask around! He also said that even legal gun owners are contributing to the problem of illegal gun sales by selling their guns on the street just for the expediency of some quick cash or to just get rid of an unwanted weapon.
Through five seasons at HBO, the Emmy-winning Vice Weekly has produced impactful short-form documentaries on key issues affecting our world – and discovering extraordinary people focused on sustainable solutions to seemingly impossible problems.

On a lighter note, the HBO Vice screening was followed by a party hosted by Stella Artois and featuring ribs, tacos, pulled pork Cuban sliders and Asian specialties from an array of local food trucks at The Wharf, Miami's newest outdoor venue.

 Dwight Casimere with Yvonne and Yvette Rodriguez of the film Lainegra at the HBO VICE Party

 The Wharf, Miami's newest outdoor party venue

Faces in the crowd at HBO VICW Night at The Wharf

 Former Chicago Bear Running Back Thomas Q. Jones, star of the film A VIOLENT MAN with Dwight Casimere  and the film's director Matthew Berkowitz and the film's co-star Denise Richards

 Celebrity photographer Jayme Gershen and friend

 Yvonne and Yvette Rodriquez of the film LATINEGRA enjoying The Wharf HBO Vice bash

Dwight Casimere at The Wharf HBO VICE night

35th MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL: PAUL SCHRADER'S "FIRST REFORMED"

'TAXI DRIVER' SCREENWRITER'S LATEST FILM SEES ETHAN HAWKE
AS A MINISTER STRUGGLING WITH HIS CONVICTIONS

 Dwight Casimere at the 35th Miami Film Festival Media Center at The Standard Miami Beach

 First Reformed Director Paul Schrader

Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried star in First Reformed


by Dwight Casimere

MIAMI BEACH--Screenwriter and Director Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, American Gigolo) told an audience at the 35th Miami Film Festival that he was determined to do what he called a "quiet" project that was a complete departure from the many game-changing hits he's written directed over the years, the least of which was his maiden endeavor, the ground-breaking Taxi Driver. "I wanted to go back to my religious roots, deep into Calvinism, in the culture in which I was raised," he said of First Reformed, the Ethan Hawke starring vehicle in which the actor portrays an ex military chaplain turned pastor of a small, upstate New York tourist church, with virtually no members. The church is overseen as the step-child of a mega-church, presided over by a friendly, yet somewhat officious leader played with brilliant deftness by Cedric the Entertainer. This actor is highly underutilized as he shows considerable acting chops at balancing the bifurcated personality of his character. Hawke meets his spiritual Waterloo in the person of the super devout, pregnant Mary (Amanda Seyfried) whose perennially depressed husband Michael (Philip Ettinger) is hell-bent on having her abort her already too-far advanced pregnancy so he devote his full attention to his magical passion to save the world from environmental apocalypse.  Mary wants the Reverend to counsel Michael and bring talk him down off the ledge, which we quickly learn is an exercise in futility. It doesn't take much of a Sherlock to figure which was this thing is going. The Reverend gets drawn further into Mary's pollyanna and he is drawn like a moth to the flame of activism sparked by Michael's  zealous but truncated mission. Complicating it all is the fact that Cedric is attempted to keep the Reverends from going off the rails before the celebration of the church's 250th anniversary to be attended by the Governor and, more importantly, the corporate sponsors (read environment-destroying money grabbers) who feed Cedric The Entertainer's coffers.


First Reformed is the very antithesis of everything Schrader has ever done. "There are some elements of Taxi Driver in it, particularly in the ending. What I really wanted to do was create a film which is almost completely devoid of any action, but is driven almost by what doesn't happen. My thought was that by depriving the audience of the usual plot devices that they expect, they will get further drawn into the film."

First Reformed accomplishes all of this and more with stunning capability. It leaves you wondering about the limits of faith and the need to supplant blind faith with bold action and the healing effect of the power of love.

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC GIVES SNEAK PEEK OF ASIAN TOUR WITH BRAHMS PIANO CONCERTO NO.1 WITH YUJA WANG

MUSIC DIRECTOR-DESIGNATE JAAP VAN ZWEDEN TUNES UP FOR HIS FIRST ASIAN TOUR WITH THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC

Photo: Chris Lee

by Dwight Casimere

NEW YORK-The excitement in the audience was palpable at David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center when New York Philharmonic Music Director-Designate Jaap van Zweden took to the podium with the Beijing-born  soloist Yuja Wang to lead the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1. It was a scintillating performance and most apropriate as the orchestra was on the eve of its first Asian tour under its new leader. 

The svelte virtuoso quickly lived up to her reputation as one of the most electrifying performers on the concert stage today. Her velocity-defying octave trills in the opening movement showed off her phenomenal dexterity as did her emotive playing in the Adagio. Maestro van Zweden elicited a lush sound from the violins in the opening theme. Wang's  towering technique  then melded into the delightful rhythms expressed in the Hungarian Dance themes that drove the final movement to its thundering climax. Wang obliged the audience's effusive applause with a pair of encores; Mendelssohn's Song Without Words and in F sharp minor and Brahm's Intermezzo in C sharp minor.

Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 allowed the orchestra to stretch out and show its true mettle under Maestro van Zweden's firm hand. The Prokofiev showed the orchestra's superior capability and  dynamic range with van Zweden nimbly navigating the orchestra through the composer's contrasting passages. Soaring violins followed by sonorous cellos and majestic brass with solid percussion urging the entire ensemble to the exciting conclusion.

If this concert was any indication,  audiences in Beijing Kyoto, Tokyo, Nagaya and Taipei are enjoying a thrilling encounter with the New York Philharmonic during this week's tour. 

Monday, April 2 at 7:30 the orchestra returns to Brooklyn's National Sawdust for a Co-presentation of CONTACT! At National Sawdust with host Esa-Pekka Salonen. The orchestra returns to David Geffen Hall Wednesday, April 4 at 9:45 am for an Open Rehearsal with Guest Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen at the podium for a program of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 with virtuoso Benjamin Grosvenor at the keyboard, followed by Beethoven's thunderous Eroica Symphony to be performed at 7:30pm Wednesday evening and again Thursday and Friday at 7:30pm and 8pm respectively. Visit nyphil.org for tickets and information.

35th MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL EXPLORES ISSUES OF RACIAL IDENTITY, IMMIGRATION, WOMEN IN MENTAL TURMOIL

LATINEGRAS: LOVE THE SKIN YOU'RE IN PREMIERES AT 35TH MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL

Film Explores Identity Crisis Faced by Black Women of Latin Culture

Dwight Casimere with Yvonne and Yvette Rodriguez of Latinegras

The cast of LATINEGRAS: Love The Skin You're In with Director/Producer Omilani Alarcon (center-left)


by Dwight Casimere

Latinegras:Love The Skin You're In, a documentary film produced and
directed by poet, singer and filmmaker Omilani Alarcon, is a
heartfelt, poetic journey of self-discovery concerning the identity
crisis suffered by black women who are of Latin heritage. In lyrical
words, and stunningly in-your-face cinematography, Omilani acts as
both on-camera presenter and behind-the-scenes narrator, interweaving
the personal, revealing testimonies of about a dozen women from
various locations within the Latin and Afro-Latin diaspora: Puerto
Rico, Guatamala, the Dominican Republic, Peru,  Panama, and New York,
all expressing their continuing pain of identity. Broken down into
segments; Ghosts of Our Past, which charts the history of slavery from
the Middle Passage to the New World, The Politics of Blackness, which
recounts the establishment of the legal structuring of modern slavery
through the Louisiana Purchase and the Missouri Compromise, the One
Drop Rule, in which blackness is defined by the presence of one eighth
to one thirty-second of black blood in any person's genealogy,
Questions of Complexion and Skin Tone and the filmmakers own final
descent into self-confrontation in a final healing, almost Baptismal
journey to her own roots in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. The film is brought
to its conclusion amidst the catastrophe of Hurricane Maria, yet, the
filmmaker finds that even in this calamity, there is reason for hope
and the promise of a new beginning. Latinegras: Love The Skin You're In
is targeted at a very specific audience, yet its message of universal
acceptance and hope is a lesson that applies to us all.

Yvonne and Yvette Rodriguez

35th MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL TACKLES RACIAL IDENTITY, IMMIGRATION WOES AND RELIGIOUS PHOBIAS

MIAMI FEST FEATURES TRIBUTE TO A FRENCH ACTING ICON AND HOSTS OSCAR-WINNING GREATS

by Dwight Casimere

The cast of Latinegras: Love The Skin You're In at its premiere with director/producer
Alimony Alarcon (center-left)

by Dwight Casimere

The 35th Miami Film Festival March 9-18 plays host to a dazzling array of international stars and directors and features films that tackle such issues as racial identity among women who are both black and Latina, the struggles of suburban mothers on the brink of mental breakdown and the tribulations of a young Mexican American couple coping with the changing landscape of US immigration laws while trying to preserve their fledgling marriage. Four-time Oscar nominated writer, director and producer Jason Reitman premiered his newest film Tully on Opening Night, with Oscar winners actress Charlize Theron and screenwriter Diablo Cody.  France's Oscar-winning national treasure  Isabelle Huppert,  is the subject of a Tribute Screening of her latest film Souvenir, at which she will receive the festival's Precious Gem-Icon Award and Spain's greatest living filmmaker Carlos Saura will receive the Precious Gem-Master Award at a screening of the new documentary on his career and family life, Saura(s).

Also featured was the directorial debut from two-time Academy Award-nominated Beninese-American actor Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond) which takes us on a personal journey of spiritual reclamation. Demonized by Christianity, scarred by colonialism and crudely misrepresented in Hollywood movies, we in the West know nothing about voodoo. It is time to tell the story from an African perspective.

With In Search of Voodoo, Hounsou returns to his West African birthplace to visit sacred sites, witness rituals and interview scholars, adepts and politicians, who provide an accessible survey of voodoo’s rich history and reliance on nature as a guiding force in the lives of its practitioners.

The festival features 148 films of all genres from 50 countries including three for the first time in the festival's Official Selection category from Benin, Georgia and Swaziland. The festival wraps up with the Award's Night screening of Curro Velázquez’s smash hit Spanish comedy Holy Goalie (Que baje Dios y lo vea), with star Alain Hernández in attendance. The Miami Dade College 35th Miami Film Festival continues through March 18.