Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood Music Festival gives Gershwin's Porgy and Bess new vitality

Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Festival, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess give regal luster to lowly Catfish Row

Reviewed by Dwight Casimere

Performance photos courtesy Boston Symphony Orchestra/Hilary Scott

Additional photos by Dwight Casimere

Soprano Nicole Cabell (Clara) with Dwight Casimere

The famed Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood

The view of the Berkshire Mountains from Tanglewood

Alfred Walker as Porgy and Laquita Mitchell as Bess

Conductor Bramwell Tovey leads the cast and Boston Symphony Orchestra in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess

The Berkshire’s, Lenox, Mass.—Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Festival chose as one of its season closing concerts Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in a concert version of its Original 1935 production. Presented without costumes or props, the singers acted out the parts in summery white tuxedoes for the men and colorful evening gowns for the ladies. With British Grammy Award winning conductor Bramwell Tovey at the helm of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in his Tanglewood and Boston Symphony Orchestra debut, and the robust Tanglewood Festival Chorus, ably conducted by John Oliver, the Koussevitzky Music Shed reverberated with soulful wailings from the depths of Catfish Row. Remarkably, without the benefit of any props or costumes, the singer/actors ably represented the anguish, trials and tribulations of life in the hardscrabble world of South Carolina’s bayous and back alleys.

Based on DuBose Heyward’s 1926 novel Porgy and later fleshed out into a play with spirituals by Heyward and his wife, Dorothy, the following year, the pair then collaborated with George and Ira Gershwin to create one of the most enduring works of both the American Broadway and the world’s operatic stages.

Porgy and Bess is Gershwin’s finest work. He spent months in South Carolina immersing himself in the music and physical setting of the opera. Having lived in Harlem, its no surprise that he became a master at incorporating black musical idioms into his compositions. The vernacular of jazz and the heart-wrenching wail of the black spiritual became an integral part of his far-reaching orchestrations. Under Maestro Tovey’s baton, the passages sparkled with depth and clarity. The singers represented one of the most superb assemblages of stellar African American voices on any concert stage. They delivered spine-tingling performances and breathed fresh life into Gershwin’s familiar melodies. So invested were they in the performance, they made it seem as if it had been written solely for that night’. Indeed, on so many levels, this evening’s presentation was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Beginning with the beauteous Nicole Cabell and her shimmering silver-toned rendition of the Gershwin classic, “Summertime,” the template was set for an unforgettable summer’s evening that will remain indelible.

Laquita Mitchell had the delicate beauty and the crystalline coloratura soprano voice needed to make Bess seem the vulnerable and besieged woman that she would become throughout the night. The object of Porgy’s headlong ardor (bass-baritone Alfred Walker, in an electrifying performance), their stormy relationship appears doomed from the start, but the ride to its obvious conclusion is so enthralling that both the principals and the audience, cast all caution to the wind. The self-serving ardor and silver-tongued overtures of Sportin’ Life (Jermaine Smith), and Porgy’s earnest-to-a-fault pursuit of Bess, propel the action. Storms exist on the emotional horizon that are as devastating as the physical threat of Irene.

There are some brilliant performances throughout. Tenor Jermaine Smith is a tour de force as the sarcastic Sportin’ Life. His leaps and struts were as “thrillin’” as anything performed by the late Michael Jackson. Mezzo-soprano Krysty Swann used her sultry voice and voluptuous beauty to good advantage to convey the sass of her character, Annie. Soprano Marquita Lister sparkled both visually and vocally in scene after scene. At every interlude, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus rocked the Shed with their echo. Catfish Row will never be the same! The haunting voice of the Strawberry Woman, soprano Alison Buchanan, also in her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut, was hauntingly effective as she made her mesmerizing entrance along the Shed’s perimeter.

Porgy and Bess does not so much entertain, as it inhabits your emotional universe. Its story of worshipful, unrequited and abusive love resonates deep within the soul and occupies a place in the farthest reaches of the human psyche. Its impact is felt long after the ovations have echoed within the Shed and faded into memory.

This night’s Porgy and Bess and its proximity to the storm-delayed dedication of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s memorial in the nation’s capitol brought pause for reflection.

Dr. King was a great lover of music and the arts and counted many African American artists as his closest friends. Indeed, the “I Have A Dream” passages of his most famous and final speech were uttered at the urging of his close friend and confident, the late, Gospel great, Mahalia Jackson.

It occurred that this performance by these gifted young African American singers was a far more fitting tribute to the life and legacy of Dr. King than anything that could have been manufactured in Washington. I’m sure that if the strains of “I’m On My Way (To The Promised Land)” had in anyway reached the National Mall, the stony visage of the King monument sculpted by Chinese Master Lei Yixin, would have broken into a heartwarming smile!

Harlem Travel Guide sheds new light on New York's newest "find"

HARLEM TRAVEL GUIDE SHEDS NEW LIGHT ON ONE OF NEW YORK’S MOST HISTORIC NEIGHBORHOODS

Review by Dwight Casimere

Photo gallery by Dwight Casimere

1. "Restaurant Row" on Malcolm X Boulevard in the "new" Harlem

2. A collection of renowned poet and Harlem resident Maya Angelou's personal letters and artifacts which she recently donated to the Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture in Harlem

3. Chef Marcus Samuelsson at the helm with his culinary staff at Red Rooster Harlem

4. Harlem Travel Guide Co-author Valerie Jo Bradley (c) with Chef Marcus Samuelsson (r) and Manager Derrick Fleming(l) at Opening Night of the Red Rooster Harlem

5. Celebrating Mothers' Day in Harlem 2011

6. A mural on a 125th Street storefront

7. The world-famed Apollo Theatre with Hotel Theresa in the background

8. Statue of Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. in front of the State Office Building in Harlem named in his honor

9. A sign outside Ebenezer Church on Malcolm X Boulevard

10. Church Ladies and their regal "Crowns"

11. The statue of Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman by African American artist Alison Saar at Frederick Douglas Blvd. and St. Nicholas Avenue, the only statue of a Black woman erected in New York City

12. The famed Lenox Lounge on Malcolm X Boulevard remains a jazz favorite. It originally opened in 1939 and was home to Dinah Washington, Ruth Brown, the Ink Spots and Dakota Staton among other music greats

13. Harlem is home to many international cultures

14. All decked out in his "Sunday Best"

15. An impromptu pause for prayer

16. The monument at Duke Ellington Circle at the north entrance to Central Park is the first monument in New York City dedicated to an African American and the first memorial in the United States honoring the jazz music giant

17. St. Martin's Episcopal Church on Malcolm X Boulevard

18. Street sign commemorating Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

19. The famed Hotel Theresa on 125th Street in Harlem

20. Co-authors Carolyn D. Johnson (l) and Valerie Jo Bradley at a summer street festival in Harlem

HARLEM TRAVEL GUIDE

Authors: Carolyn D. Johnson

Valerie Jo Bradley

Published by: Welcome to Harlem

www.welcometoharlem.com

Copyright© 2010 Welcome to Harlem

All rights reserved.

NEW YORK-Harlem is renowned throughout the world as the birthplace of the Black Renaissance, from the black repatriation movement of Marcus Garvey, the founding of the NAACP by W.E.B. Dubois through the black empowerment speeches of Malcolm X and the political power broking of Congressman Adam Clayton Powell. What most people don’t know is that Harlem is inextricably tied to the cultural and political growth of our nation. From its humble beginnings as a Native American seasonal settlement and a Colonial-Dutch outpost, it later became the headquarters of General George Washington in the dawning days of the Revolutionary War. Once New York City’s first suburb, it became a safe-haven enclave for a succession of European immigrants. It is preeminent today as the epicenter of African American and Latino culture.

Tired of the narrow focus of previous travel guides, authors Carolyn D. Johnson and Valerie Jo Bradley set out to create an authoritative and authentic guidebook that fully explored the 400-year history of Harlem, USA. The authors are a latter-day mirror image of the ambitious settlers that have come to call Harlem home. Carolyn Johnson is Harlem born and bred and is owner of Welcome to Harlem Tours. Her collaborator and editor is Harlem activist Valerie Jo Bradley. Together, they have created a first of its kind travel guide, which uncovers the hidden treasures of the most unique urban community in the world.

Harlem Travel Guide is a one-of-a-kind tour book, which deals with Harlem exclusively. It is organized in to distinct sections that highlight each of its unique districts, Central Harlem, where African Americans settled in the early 1900s, East Harlem, which is home to the Latino population, to West Harlem, home to a diverse population of African Americans, Africans, West Indians, Latinos and whites. With clubs, restaurants, art galleries, theatres, libraries, churches, places to shop, landmarks, parks and monuments, it offers one of the richest experiences anywhere to a visitor. Harlem Travel Guide gives an “insiders” view that can’t be found anywhere else!

Co-author Valerie Jo Bradley said she and Carolyn Johnson decided to write the Travel Guide because of the lack of information in previous publications.

“Most of the travel guides in New York only devote to or three pages to Harlem and they only mention a few of the attractions, such as the Apollo Theatre, Abyssinian Baptist Church and Sylvia’s restaurant, which most people already know. What they don’t include is all of the sites in the rest of Harlem. They only do Central Harlem, not even mentioning attractions in East Harlem and West Harlem.”

Most people will be surprised at the information revealed in the book’s 250 pages. East Harlem, which is now predominantly Latino, was also home to a rather large Italian community. A few vestiges of that community still persist, including several popular restaurants and an annual celebration that brings many former Italian residents back to their old community.

“In East Harlem there is the Dance of the Giglio and Feast,” Bradley recalled, “ which is a tradition established when East Harlem was Italian. Imagine 125 men carrying a five-ton, five-story, hand-sculptured tower and a twelve-piece brass band on their shoulders and dancing through the neighborhood in tempo to Italian folk songs. Italian families return every August for this event that began in the late 1880s in Brusiano Italy to honor Saint Antonio.”

There’s also a “new Harlem” emerging that is racially diverse and upwardly mobile. “Harlem has undergone a housing boom and a massive dose of economic development. Newly renovated properties are coming on the market and new businesses are being opened at a rapid pace. “

Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) near 125^th Street and Frederick Douglas Boulevard (8^th Avenue), have become virtually “restaurant rows” with new cafes, cabarets and coffee shops popping up like spring flowers. One of the most notable and celebrated is Red Rooster Harlem, the creation of Celebrity Chef Marcus Samuelsson, a Harlem resident. A reincarnation of the legendary Red Rooster restaurant, which was known as the virtual office of Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, the new Red Rooster is the place to see and be seen in New York, with celebrity sightings, such as those of Tony Bennett, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Tom Brokaw and Danny Glover, are an almost nightly occurrence. The wait can be up to an hour and a half, even with a reservation. But no one seems to mind. They’re usually happily dancing the night away to the live Salsa band in the massive curved cocktail lounge, especially on a Tuesday night!

Photos and memorabilia from the earlier Red Rooster line the walls, most of them donated by former patrons of the original restaurant. I’m sure somewhere at a corner table, Adam himself is saying “Keep The Faith Baby!” while chomping on one his favored Cuban stogies!

There are several places where the book can be purchased:

on-line at www.welcometoharlem.com and www.amazon.com

Also, the book is formatted for the kindle, Ipad, and android and can be purchased at the Amazon website.

People can also visit the Welcome To Harlem Visitor Center located at 2360 Frederick Douglass Blvd., between 126th and 127th streets in Central Harlem.

MOVIES: God Bless Ozzy Osbourne traces tumultuous life of Black Sabbath founder

MOVIES: GOD BLESS OZZY OSBOURNE

Reviewed at the TriBeCa film festival World Premiere, April 24, 2011

Story and photo gallery by Dwight Casimere

NEW YORK—For 90 minutes, audiences in 400 movie theatres around the country will have an unprecedented opportunity to delve into the mind of one of most absorbing personages of the modern 20^th and 21^st century music scene. GOD BLESS OZZY OSBOURNE is a three-year-in-the making documentary on the tumultuous and often controversial life, loves and attitudes of undoubtedly the most ‘in your face’ musical icon. Lionized as the founder of Heavy Metal, with the pioneering British band Black Sabbath, Osbourne single-handedly embodied everything that characterized the heavy metal genre. Considered the “Godfather of Heavy Metal,” he is known as the “Prince of Darkness,” and for good reason. After all, he’s the man who showed up at an audition for one of the most powerful record producers in the business and introduced himself by biting the head off a real bat. “I didn’t know it was real at the time,” Osbourne told an assemblage of press reviewers at a post-screening news conference at the Tribeca Film Festival last spring. “If I’d known that, I don’t think I’d have done it. The rabies shots after were painful as hell!”

GOD BLESS OZZY OSBOURNE tells the life story of Ozzy, as seen through the eyes of his youngest child, producer/filmmaker, Jack Osbourne, who worked alongside directors Mike Fleiss and Mike Piscitelli. “I know it sounds cliché,” Jack told the audience,” but this truly was a labor of love. You have to understand, I wasn’t really all that close to my dad growing up. He was just this person who would drop in and out of my life. It wasn’t until I became an adult, that I began to know him for who he was and came to realize that he was really someone special who should be admired. There’s no one else like him. He’s truly one of a kind and that’s what we tried to show in the film.”

“God Bless…” traces Ozzy’s life from his humble beginnings as the son of a laborer in the hardscrabble world of Birmingham, England. The fact that he came to love music and wanted to become a musician, although influenced by blues, r &b and rock ‘n roll legends of his youth, was considered an oddity in the ‘school of hard knocks’ world in which he was reared.

“When I was a kid in school, I had dyslexia. I had a hard time making it in school. The kids could be so cruel. I eventually dropped out. I started turning more and more inside myself. Thank god for music!” Ozzy heard he Beatle’s first single and became a fan of the group. The rest, as they say, is history.

“If it hadn’t been for music,” Osbourne said, candidly, “I’d have been digging a ditch somewhere.”

That was hardly the case, though. Over the course of his 40-plus year career, Ozzy Osbourne has sold over a hundred million albums worldwide, been featured in countless television shows and films and has been the subject of media controversy since the day Black Sabbath hit the ground running.

The film recounts the band’s whirlwind beginnings. The drug-infused, bash ‘em and trash ‘em early days, which found them banned from the major five-star hotels around the world. “We used to just take the plumbing in the bathroom and just rip it apart,” Ozzy recalled. It all fell apart and Ozzy’s world went into a catastrophic tailspin when he was kicked out of band in 1979 for his excessive drug and alcohol abuse. The subsequent death in 1980 of one his dearest friends, collaborators and fellow band member, former Quiet Riot guitarist Randy Rhoads, who plane crashed while the pilot was trying to buzz Ozzy’s tour bus as a practical joke that, obviously, backfired.

In 2002, Ozzy Osbourne became a household name with the premiere of the hit MTV reality TV show, The Osbournes, one of the first successful programs of the genre. Osbourne and his wife and powerhouse manager Sharon founded the Ozzfest tour, a physically draining, but financially lucrative franchise for the oddball genius.

Ozzy has been awarded several times for his contributions to music. In 1994, he was awarded a Grammy for the track “I Don’t Want to Change The World” from the album Live & Loud. In 2005, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. In true Ozzy fashion, he mooned the crowd!

“I’m just amazed that I’m still alive,” the 63 year old rocker said, responding to a question from this reporter. “I think I just have a drive, a will to succeed and to do something better all the time. I’m always trying to reach for something better and to create just a little more excitement. It’s just something inside me that keeps me going!”

We should all share in that same spirit. Thank God for Ozzy Osbourne.

God Bless Ozzy Osbourne plays in theatres August 24 with an encore performance August 29^th. Check local listings and www.FathomEvents.com for theatres and showtimes.

Cisne Negro: Fiery dance from Brazil at Joyce Theatre NYC

Cisne Negro at the Joyce Theatre:

From “Black Swans” to Red Firebirds

Story by Dwight Casimere

Photos by Matthew Murphy

1. The entire ensemble in Calunga
2. Morvan Teixeira and Harrison Gavlar in Abacada

NEW YORK—Cisne Negro (Black Swan) of Sao Paulo, Brazil, is one of South America’s premiere contemporary dance companies. In a long awaited return engagement to New York’s Joyce Theatre in the trendy Chelsea district, the company showed why.

The most dazzling piece, Flock (2007), from the company’s Chevalier of France Order of Arts and Letters choreographer Gigi Caciuleanu, the company displayed its unique ability to mold its dancers, in groups of two and three and as solo performers, into a series of geometric shapes that change in rapid, kaleidoscopic succession. “Michelangelo come to life!” is how my neighboring dance enthusiast described the visual experience. With music by Igor Stravinsky, the company vividly portrayed the choreographer’s symbolism of transforming motion and color into pure energy. The Lighting Design, by Raquel Balckian further underscored the kinetic movements of the dancers.

The gifted young Brazilian composer Andre Mehmari composed the score for Abacada, choreographed by the company’s Assistant Director Dany Bittencourt. The piece was a study in contrast, in which the dancers, improvising in solo or duo displayed their ample strengths. The word ABACADA is similar to a Brazilian term that stands for an Amazon fruit or a little bird. In this piece, it actually represents the composition’s Rondo structure of A (the main theme and ensemble/chorus dancers) and the contrasting B.C. and D themes featuring the dancer’s improvisations. The piece draws heavily on Brazilian folk tradition, which embodies ancient rituals and dance from Africa and India with the influence of European aesthetics throughout its history. It is a visual immersion in all that is the cultural fusion of Brazilian life and art. Each of the dancers literally threw themselves into their performance and danced with abandon!

Calunga, was the most visually stunning of the evening. A new work, in its New York Premiere, it featured choreography by the company’s Rui Moreira, regarded as one of Brazil’s premiere dancers. It was truly a tour de force with brilliant costumes by Gustavo Silvestre.

Cisne Negro has performed in countries around the world and is considered one of the most important modern dance companies in Brazil. Its repertoire mirrors the culture of its native city, Sao Paolo and its mix of cultures and races, with a style that explores the diverse elements of black culture and folk tradition and integrates them into a unique style of presentation. Their dancing is highly technical and virile with an earthy authenticity that is breathtaking.

Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart presents Juho Pohjonen, Piano

NEW YORK—Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall was brimming to capacity with seats lining the perimeter and rear of the concert stage in unprecedented fashion. The anticipation of the crowd for Lincoln Center Presents Mostly Mozart Festival was satiated with a scintillating performance by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, under the baton of British conductor Jonathan Nott.

The festival program, which featured Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, with the brilliant young Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen at the Steinway, contrasted the music of Stravinsky and his Symphonies for Wind Instruments, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 with that of the world’s greatest composer of all time.

Maestro Nott proved himself particularly adept at executing Stravinsky’s shifting tempos and rapidly changing themes, particularly the elegiac coda and alternating pastoral themes that echoed his famous opening to The Rite of Spring. Stravinsky’s musical ideas, while boldly modern, looked back to the uncluttered clarity and beauty of Mozart’s musical ideas. Nott and the festival orchestra brilliantly captured Stravinsky’s sonorities, with Nott elevating the brass far beyond its normal bombastic reaches to become a contemplative choir of an elegant nature.

Juho Pohjonen slipped almost unobtrusively on stage and eagerly perched himself on the Steinway’s bench. His no-nonsense approach hurled him directly into the dance-like opening passages of one of Mozart’s most inspired pieces. Pohjonen’s playing captured all of the youth playfulness and inventiveness of Mozart’s fertile creative genius. Each note in his flurry of lengthy and difficult passages was delivered with clarity of tone that allowed each golden note to reverberate on its on strength, with little affectation or showmanship. Pohjonen used the pedal only sparingly, letting the strength of his supple fingers and the surety of his spot-on attack deliver the goods. It was a bravura performance that certainly must have had The Master smiling somewhere in the firmament.

Maestro Nott brought out the best in his orchestra with his handling of the tricky dance rhythms of the Allegro. His handling of the contrasting pianissimo and the sudden crescendo that followed was masterful. The timpani, with its ringing pronouncement, framed the piece in the majestic splendor it deserved. Nott used his considerable skill to present the theme of the closing scherzo that mimics the theme introduced in the first movement. The device is a clever one on the part of the composer. Nott and his crew kicked it up a notch with a lively surge of syncopation at the end. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought that Beethoven had a little jazz lurking in his veins!

Broadway In Chicago: Pinkalicious is Pink-eriffic!

Broadway in Chicago:

Pinkalicious is Pink-errific!

Photos courtesy Broadway In Chicago and Emerald City Theatre

CHICAGO—Pinkalicious is a musical theatre summer treat designed for the little ones, but it’s also fun for the whole family. Emerald City Theatres 2010 hit is now at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut, playing Thursdays through Sundays now through September

Although intended for the small fry, this reviewer found himself humming and clapping along with the peanut gallery. It’s just that entertaining!

“We are pleased to add theatre for young audiences programming to the Broadway Playhouse, making theatre more accessible to all ages,” said Broadway in Chicago President Lou Raizin. Emerald City brought the play to the Broadway Playhouse after a sold out run last year at their Chicago home, The Apollo Theatre in Lincoln Park. Bringing the show to the Magnificent Mile makes it accessible to a much wider audience, including both local and tourists visiting the downtown area.

Pinkalicious is a Midwest premiere directed and choreographed by Ernie Nolan, Producing Artistic Director of Emerald City Theatre, who is also the Scenic Designer. Book is by Elizabeth Kann and Victoria Kann, co-authors of the New York Times best-selling children’s picture books, Pinkalicious (HarperCollins, 2011), Purplicious (HarperCollins, 2007), Goldicious (HarperCollins, 2009) and Silverlicious (HarperCollins, 2011). The two are sisters who grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Victoria’s award-winning artwork has graced the covers and pages of countless magazines, newspapers and books. Elizabeth’s writing has appeared in a variety of newspapers and print publications.

What’s great about Pinkalicious is that it’s interactive. Audience members are handed fans that they can wave in response to the performance on stage and they’re invited to clap and sing along whenever they want to.

The plot is centered on a theme fostering good nutrition. Pinkalicious Pinkerton (the spunky vocal powerhouse Lara Mainier) eats one too many pink cupcakes and catches a serious case of “Pinkititis,” as diagnosed by Dr. Wink (Ashley Braxton), which turns her the color pink from head to toe. “Pink is a perfect state of mind,” Pinkalicious sings, as she and the cast proceed on a merry, tune-filled jaunt toward healthy eating habits, spurred on by her broccoli-eating brother, Peter Pinkerton (a robust-voiced Mark Kosten), who can hopefully help cure her before its too late.

Patrick Byrnes and Rachel Klippel are delightful as Mr. and Mrs. Pinkerton. Of particular note are the Cupcakes, a septet of dancer/puppeteers shrouded in black, operating large pink cupcake hand puppets that seem to dance in mid-air in the “Cupcake Dream.” That was one of the most captivating numbers in the show as was the duet between Pinkalicious and Peter in “Pink-A-Boo.”

The music by John Gregor and Lyrics by Gregor and the Kann sisters truly sparkled and had many of the young audience members, and more than a few older ones, humming down the aisles as they headed to the lobby to greet the performers in person, who signed autographs for the young theatregoers. If you’re looking for a terrific morning activity before a day of sightseeing or shopping along the Magnificent Mile, or a first-time theatre experiences for your young ones, Pinkalicious is the perfect pick. It’ll have you feeling in the pink!

Pinkalicious is performed at Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place Thursday through Sunday at 10am. The schedule has alternating Thursday and Sunday performances, so check www.broadwayinchicago.com to get exact performance dates.

Gil Shaham, NY Philharmonic in expressive Walton Violin Concerto

Gil Shaham, Violin at New York Philharmonic

Reviewed by Dwight Casimere

June 17, 2011

Photos:

Gil Shaham portrait by Christopher Steiner

New York Philharmonic performance photo by Chris Lee

NOTE: THIS IS THE FINAL DAY (JULY 29)TO SEE VIOLINIST GIL SHAHAM IN A PERFORMANCE OF WALTON’S VIOLIN CONCERTO WITH THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC AT THE ORCHESTRA’S NINTH ANNUAL RESIDENCY AT THE BRAVO! VAIL VALLEY MUSIC FESTIVAL, CONDUCTED BY LUDOVIC MORLOT. MR. SHAHAM WILL PERFORM WALTON’S VIOLIN CONCERTO AS PART OF HIS CONTINUED EXPLORATION OF VIOLIN CONCERTOS OF THE 1930’S WITH THE ORCHESTRA. THE FOLLOWING IS A REVIEW OF HIS PERFORMANCE OF THE WALTON VIOLIN CONCERTO AT AVERY FISHER HALL IN ONE OF THE ORCHESTRA’S FINAL SPRING CONCERTS.

NEW YORK— Gil Shaham is a virtual force of nature on the violin. His dynamic approach makes him an audience favorite and a sought after soloist with the world’s leading orchestras. That, by preamble, accounts for the capacity audience at a Friday matinee performance at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, in a concert of Musorgsky’s programmatic Prelude to Khovanshchina, Walton’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, featuring Mr. Shaham, followed by Ravel’s elegiac Pavane pour une Infante defunte (Pavane for a Dead Infanta) and concluding with the show-stopping Pictures at an Exhibition.

Shaham is a frequent soloist with the Chicago Symphony in concerts at both Symphony Center and Ravinia Festival. He was born in Urbana, Illinois, while his parents were academic fellows at the University of Illinois. His father, Jacob, was an astrophysicist, his mother, Meira Diskin, was a cytogeneticist. He undertook violin studies in Israel at the age of eight and began playing with the Jerusalem Symphony and Israel Philharmonic while still a teenager. That experience led to a scholarship at Julliard in New York and further studies at Columbia University. Gil Shaham is a multiple Grammy Award winner with more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs to his credit.

Shaham’s performance of the Walton Violin Concerto (composed 1936-1939 and revised 1943/1950) was the centerpiece of the program. It continues his long-term exploration of the “Violin Concertos of the 1930s” with the New York Philharmonic. This performance, guest conducted by Ludovic Morlot, reveals Walton in all of his feverish modernism and lyrical nods to his spiritual mentor, fellow Brit, Sir Edward Elgar.

William Walton’s Violin Concerto has a storied past, worthy of a short film documentary. Commissioned by the great Jascha Heifetz, its premiere performance was to have taken place at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, but the virtuoso’s schedule forced the work to e dropped from the program. The onset of World War II prevented Walton from conducting the work’s eventual premiere with the Cleveland Orchestra two years later. Shaham payed homage to the work's originators, while giving it his own individual stamp. His precise attack and fervor in navigating its furiously fast runs and intricate stops were dazzling to behold. Not one note was dropped and Shaham maintained clarity of intonation throughout the difficult piece.

Maestro Morlot wove Walton’s complex orchestration into a tapestry of sound. Rising to the forefront in the quieter moments and providing dramatic tension as a backdrop for Shaham’s soaring solos, Morlot conducted impeccably.

Maurice Ravel’s orchestration of Modest Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is one of the hallmarks of the New York Philharmonic’s repertoire. Morlot led the orchestra like a jockey riding a Triple Crown winner to the finish line. It was a thrilling performance that brought the audience to its feet. Bravo!