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A recording with impact GOTHENBURG SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA As part of the major, prestigious recording project that encompasses all of Sibelius’symphonies, last Friday it was time to attempt to make a live recording of the seventh symphony. Particularly Suitable Symphony Phenomenal Duets.
Music without resistance GOTHENBURG SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA When the music itself is of limited interest, the classical interpreter is faced with a difficult dilemma. How do you create something personal from material that does not seem to go anywhere in particular, that has little tension and lacks individuality? Unfortunately this applied to two of the three pieces presented in this concert, John Fernström’s orchestral overture Symphonic Prologue from 1950 and Peter Tchaikovsky’s first symphony, subtitled Winter Dreams, from 1866. Of course it can be maintained that the music is attractive in very general terms, but this hardly increases the degree of urgency. Beauty without obligations, music without resistance. Neeme Järvi adopts a cautiously reverential approach to both pieces. No sweeping gestures, no romantic overstatement. And it does indeed sound fine when the orchestra, as in slow second movement of the Tchaikovsky symphony, allows the woodwind and horn sections to create a sound consisting in equal parts of detailed precision and melodic dreaming. But in musical terms, not much happens. The orchestra plays and the notes are produced without any deeper layers of significance. Perhaps they should follow the example of Glenn Gould’s Mozart interpretations, and move directly against the music’s intentions and destroy what is far too balanced and regular? The great triumph of this concert was instead the performance of Shostakovich’s first cello concerto, composed for Rostropovich at the end of the 50s, on this occasion with the solo cellist Claes Gunnarsson to the fore. And how he plays - in a matter-of-fact, biting way, with a perfect feel for the music’s hysterical, burlesque aspects, without at any time ever overdoing it and becoming introspective. The long solo cadences become a journey into a private landscape, where the silence is filled by the strongest forces and where the virtuoso handling of the music collides with the inner fury.
DSO brings fun to Mahler’s magic With this week’s performances of Gustav Mahler’s Seventh Symphony, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and music director Neeme Järvi have reached the halfway point in their Mahler cycle. The Fifth, Ninth, Second, First and Seventh symphonies have been checked off the list (in that order), and the monumental song cycle “Das Lied von der Erde” will be heard in May. The series is deepening in expression and nuance as Järvi and the DSO travel further into Mahler’s sprawling universe of emotion and sonority – nostalgia and nightmare, soulfulness and satire, orchestral rocketry and calm are all but a heartbeat apart. The Seventh, the most delphian of Mahler’s symphonies, is the least programmatic, philosophical or autobiographical. Its five movements do trace a path of darkness to daylight, but this is as close as Mahler came to absolute music. The work’s lack of cosmic implications played to both the strengths and weaknesses of Järvi’s intuitive approach on Thursday. With no specific tale to tell, Järvi could indulge Mahler’s fantastic playground of color and character. Järvi almost whipped the marches into muscular dances. He italicized the skirls of woodwinds and dreamlike atmospherics in the night music. He leaned into the humorous scherzo and cast a seductive gaze on the exotic music of violin, harp, guitar and mandolin. The DSO played at its most expressive; solos percolated with personality. So much was so good, in fact, that it was a shame Järvi never quite took the final interpretive step to reconcile all the dislocations of texture and feeling into a single arch – a task less obvious in the Seventh but no less required. Järvi meandered, but, oh, what a fun ride it was. The concert opened with the 18-year-old German violinist Julia Fischer playing Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, K. 216. She is a promising talent, with a meticulous technique, intense tone and mature musicianship.
Neeme Järvi brings verve to Mahler’s complex Seventh Symphony Conductor Neeme Järvi, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s own comeback kid, confirmed his return to health and form Thursday by tackling yet another formidably difficult and elusive work, Mahler’s Seventh Symphony. The Seventh Symphony, which Mahler completed in 1908, bears comparison with Stravinsky’s notoriously challenging Rite of Spring ballet of 1913. Perhaps it’s the combination of Mahler’s demonic syncopations and the work’s crazy mood swings that has kept the Seventh from winning the public affection lavished on his other symphonies. Such was the evocative picture painted by Järvi and a thoroughly prepared orchestra. Järvi, who prides himself on whipping through Mahler’s symphonies at record speed, indulged more conventional tempos here, and to invariably successful effect. In both the broadly drawn opening movement and the finale, Järvi caught Mahler’s surging conflict between optimism and the unpredictable arrows of fortune. But it was in the three middle movements – the heart of the work, by turns angular, shadowy and songful – that Järvi and the DSO made the most powerful impression. This was chamber music writ large: disciplined, poetic, mesmerizing.
Järvi and DSO have fun with a work by an old friend Composer Olly Wilson, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and music director Neeme Järvi have become fast musical friends in recent seasons. Järvi gave the world premiere of Wilson’s “Shango Memory” with the New York Philharmonic in 1997 and later performed and recorded the work with the DSO. Wilson, 64, has been appointed the DSO’s African-American composer-in-residence for the second time since 1998, and this weekend Järvi and the orchestra are giving the world premiere of the DSO-commissioned “Episodes for Orchestra.” Like many composers, Wilson often draws upon jazz and other African-American vernacular influences, but what distinguishes Wilson is how deeply and individually these ideas have been assimilated into an unabashedly high-modernist aesthetic. Stravinsky, Berio, Lutoslawski, serialism, the polyrhythmic complexities of jazz and an inventive palette of sonorities are all embedded in Wilson’s music like a painter’s ground. “Episodes for Orchestra,” a 14-minute rhapsody of seven organic sections, is typical Wilson – energetic, colorfully orchestrated, percussive, full of drama, abstract but crystal-clear in its formal design and emotional trajectory. A thwack of timpani and vibes launches the work with a tone cluster that fragments immediately into a rush of pulsating music. Wilson gets much mileage from the play of stasis and motion; oscillating violins seem to run in place; quick flashes of woodwinds, stuttering brass riffs and flurries of marimba and vibes percolate into dizzy syncopations on top of ever-shifting meters. After such bristling music, the work’s long middle passage, a strikingly tonal cantabile for violins, comes almost as a shock. But as the melody rises in stair steps, dissonance slowly creeps back into the score. The climactic episodes find the strings engaged in obsessive stop-and-go rhythms. The ghost of Stravinsky’s "Rite of Spring" appears, only to recede into vague blues allusions. A long glissando and crescendo in the strings ends the piece in a final orchestral punch. It’s difficult to imagine a conductor more attuned to Wilson’s sound world than Järvi. Friday afternoon he easily untangled the rhythmic knots and shaped a dynamic but relaxed performance. The DSO musicians, many of whom seemed to enjoy the technical challenge of the piece and appreciate the reward of Wilson’s craftsmanship, played with expressive athleticism. Max Reeger’s Piano Concerto in F minor – bloated and Brahmsian – made a bizarre pairing with Wilson’s “Episodes”. Soloist Alexander Markovich’s thunderous approach was astonishing in its way but left whatever sublimity is in the score waving a white flag of surrender. Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony could have brought more of the same. But Järvi, whirling on his heels to give the downbeat before the applause died, led a breathless performance full of sunny vitality: fast, furious and fun.
Olly Wilson’s “Episodes” gets a delightful debut with DSO The perfect expression of eclectic music is the work that transforms familiar signposts into a billboard splashed with ideas that seem completely fresh. Such is the beguiling delight of Olly Wilson’s Episodes for Orchestra, which received its world premiere by the Detroit Symphony Friday afternoon at Orchestra Hall. Not unlike Mozart, the paragon of eclectic composers, Wilson has pulled together rhythms and colors and melodic gestures from a wide range of popular and formal musical styles to forge a highly personal and thoroughly engaging work for large orchestra. The gamut here runs from African drumming and the blues to jazz and Stravinsky. But what makes Episodes even more appealing is its warm persona – its vibrancy, lyricism and sly wit. And none of this was lost on conductor Neeme Järvi or the DSO in a performance that captured the music’s spirit as well as its intricacy.
DSO sings in riveting “Sonnets” In the last months of a life endured under Soviet control, Dmitri Shostakovich set to music a collection of verses by the Renaissance painter and poet Michelangelo that surely reflected the composer’s perspectives on truth, beauty, alienation and death. These 11 somber, and yet luminous, songs for bass-baritone and orchestra, known informally as the Michelangelo Sonnets, formed a riveting centerpiece in the Detroit Symphony’s concert Thursday night. Almost as successful was a turn through Stravinsky’s 1911 ballet Petrouchka.
DSO, Järvi at peak for all-Russian concert The “Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti” by Dmitri Shostakovich was written just a year before the composer’s death in 1975, when he knew he was dying and in the wake of a string of profoundly moving late works, among them the 14th and 15th symphonies and the 13th, 14th and 15th string quartets. These are works of quiet desperation, inward cries of disillusionment that dance with despair yet avoid self-pity; gone are the jackhammered banalities and repetitions of earlier works. The “Verses” – a sobering, 45-minute group of 11 orchestral songs, based on Michelangelo’s ruminations on spiritual but earthly matters like truth, love, anger and death – makes significant demands on the concentration of everyone: conductor, orchestra, bass voice soloist and audience members. This is not music for everyday consumption, but it’s a powerful and important work. It’s to the credit the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and music director Neeme Järvi that room has been made for it on this week’s all-Russian program. The songs are declarative, with lyric vocal lines underscored by spare but effective orchestration: muted horn and hushed strings in “Night”; hovering clouds of terse harmony in “Separation”; sharp snaps of percussion and wild orchestral shrieks in “Creativity”. Gloom is the dominant mood, but it is not exclusive: The erotic imagery of “Morning” finds reflection in a sweet orchestral caress, and the bizarrely upbeat finale, “Immortality”, revels in fairy music for flute, piccolo, clarinet, harp and glockenspiel. The Russian bass Sergei Leiferkus sang Thursday with a restrained expressivity in which his resonant voice colored the drama with subtleties that whispered rather than shouted. Järvi, too, seemed taken with the music’s introversion, shaping a deeply affecting and intense performance, particularly in the strings. Lest anyone think the entire program is a downer, the intermission is followed by Stravinsky’s “Petrushka” that in Järvi and the DSO’s hands becomes a wild ride of color, humor, brazen but bouncy rhythm and sheer virtuosity. On Thursday principal trumpeter Ramon Parcells earned special praise for his trumpet solo, and kudos go to principal flute Ervin Monroe and pianist Robert Conway. But the overall feeling was of a glorious team, with Järvi’s off-the-cuff personality fusing more and more with deeper interpretive insights, and the players finding new means of expressing their own personalities within the collective play of the ensemble. A few loose ends here and there could not dampen the impression that Järvi and the DSO have reached a new artistic peak in the last year. These are concerts not to miss.
Orchestra gives Gliere symphony a rich treatment What bothered the young man in the crowd about the Glière Symphony No. 3, he explained to companions after Wednesday night’s concert, was that it sounded as if it was never going to resolve itself. It did, of course. Eventually. It takes a long time – 70 minutes – and that feeling of sustained tension is at least half the fun of the piece. But Glière’s crowning achievement, subtitled “Ilya Muromets” after the Russian warrior, is really a bargain, giving you most of the Russian symphonic tradition in one tidy package - a little Rachmaninoff and Borodin, shades of early Stravinsky, and a last movement that recalls Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini. Philadelphia audiences think they know this 1909-11 piece, since the Philadelphia Orchestra has a tradition with it, or at least parts of it. Stokowski led it, and Ormandy trimmed it to suit his needs. But the version Neeme Järvi conducted Wednesday with the orchestra in Verizon Hall was with no cuts, and for those who surrendered to its perfumed atmospheres, the work sped by. For the man in row S who fumbled with his M&Ms so noisily that he spilled them on the floor, there was no hope. No wonder this piece appealed to Stokowski; it’s got every fairy-tale trick in the book except the hero chopping off the head of a monster. Oh, it has that, too. The musical language: That’s the magic in this piece. There are lots of whole-tone melodies (can you say dark and mysterious?), proud Russian anthems, Scriabin-like harmonic ambiguity to sustain a shroud of fear, and sensuous murmurings of nature. And how many pieces do you know that turn the contrabassoon into a star soloist? Järvi, music director of the Detroit Symphony and one of the most recorded conductors of his time, knew he didn’t need to create a lot of visual theatrics to make the piece go. He was just a solid authority figure keeping everything in order. Even in the second movement, a poem of ecstasy in itself, Järvi was not tempted to do elaborate choreography. The orchestra, bloated with extra musicians, did an admirable job in pumping out brilliant colors.
Concert: Japan PO/Järvi Festival Hall FOREIGN orchestras hardly ever visit without packing something from their national repertory in their suitcase. But until the first encore on Friday night, an exuberant fantasy on Japanese themes that featured some exotic percussion, it seemed that the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra was doing just that. True, they were joined by a Japanese soloist, the outstanding violinist Akiko Suwanai, but the programme appeared to reflect more of the Baltic heritage of their principal guest conductor, the Estonian Neeme Järvi. Even if the focus on Pärt and Sibelius made this a less than obvious touring programme, nobody could accuse these visitors of doing anything deliberately obscure: Suwanai was there to play Everyone’s Favourite Violin Concerto. Yet in spite of the over-exposure that Bruch’s Concerto No 1 in G minor receives, Suwanai managed to find fresh things to say. Her opening statement was typically bold, memorable for the depth and projection of her tone. But at first the orchestra failed to match her impact. The Prelude was workmanlike, with little sense of anticipation of what was to follow. And, once the orchestra got into its stride, the powerful upper strings, notable for their brightness and bite, overbalanced the less forceful lower voices. Things improved in the finale, where the soloist’s spiky articulation of the dance rhythms had an animating effect on everyone. Wherever one stands on the so-called “holy minimalists”, and however manipulative some of these figures may seem, there is no denying the genuine originality of Arvo Pärt’s key works. The Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten is one of these, in which a tolling bell and falling strings build up a rich, hypnotic pattern. It received a diaphanous performance here, but something more ethereal or even mystical was required in Fratres, heard in the version for strings and percussion. This uses similar building blocks, but with less interesting results, and the air of solemnity seemed superficial. Sibelius’s Second Symphony was the highlight of this concert, with Järvi shaping an impassioned account that breathed with all the flexibility required. His opening had welcome propulsion. Outstanding contributions from the principal oboe, pungent in the best sense, lent extra distinction to this performance; indeed, piquant winds and incisive brass helped to create an “authentic” tone. With the brooding slow movement encompassing not just mystery but something rather tragic and even grim, the surging finale and ultimate blaze of affirmation seemed unusually stirring.
There’s more to Manchester than meets the eye THE first-ever visit of a Japanese orchestra proved to be an exhilarating finale to the year-long Japan 2001 festival. Under their chief guest conductor, Neeme Järvi, the 100-strong Japanese Philharmonic Orchestra showed discipline, technical excellence, emotional warmth - and a sense of humour. It may have been a well-tried Scandinavian programme, with Grieg’s Piano Concerto and Sibelius’s Second Symphony, but there was nothing easy-going about their playing. Indeed, I have not heard the Sibelius played better, even in Helsinki, the city where it was premiered 100 years ago to the day. Järvi is a conductor of the minimalist school, not a man to break sweat. But he certainly knows how to get the musicians stirred up. The speed, precision and yet light touch of the scherzo was spellbinding to hear - and to watch. In response to a cheering audience, Järvi gave us two deserved encores.
DSO to host flutist Järvi Metro Detroit concertgoers have met the two boys belonging to Neeme Järvi, music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. But this week the lone girl in the Järvi brood finally makes her Detroit debut. Unlike her brothers, Paavo, music director of the Cincinnati Symphony, and Kristjan, leader of the New York-based Absolute Ensemble, Maarika Järvi did not follow her father’s footsteps into a conducting career. She wields a different baton – a flute. Maarika joins the DSO and her father to give the North American premiere of “Chant of the Celestial Lake”, an evocatively titled flute concerto by the Järvis’ fellow Estonian, Peeter Vähi, who wrote the piece for Maarika. At 38, Maarika (MAR-ick-ah) has entered a new phase of her life. In 1999, she left her steady job as an orchestral musician in Madrid for a riskier but more liberating existence as a freelance chamber musician and soloist with a special interest in 20th-Century and contemporary repertoire. She moved to Paris, married a Frenchman, and now lives in Geneva, Switzerland. Her solo career is picking up steam. She plays the Vähi concerto and a contemporary Estonian work by Urmas Sisask on a new CD on the CCn’C label, with Kristjan Järvi leading the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. Another all-Estonian disc will be released next month on the Finlandia label. She plays recitals and chamber music and has formed an unusual duo with a bassoonist friend. As an orchestral soloist, she has performed with the Gothenburg Symphony and groups in Estonia, Spain, Turkey and Canada. Among her siblings, Maarika has the ability to collaborate with her father; podiums do not accommodate more than one conductor. But though it hasn’t happened often, Maarika has worked under her father’s baton as a soloist and as a principal flutist. In both cases, the music-making has been special. “It’s an incredible feeling of familiarity,” she said last week from her home in Geneva. “I know exactly what he’s trying to say with his hands. When a conductor comes in front of an orchestra, 100 people are guessing. But with him, every single gesture I get.” Neeme Järvi says accompanying his daughter is the same as working with any other top-flight soloist, except sometimes “father feelings” do intrude. “A father gets a little bit nervous sometimes,” he says. “But it’s not the case. She’s such a professional player it’s no problem.” Like her brothers, Maarika was born in Tallinn. Because she and Paavo (PAH-vo) are so close in age – he is 13 months older – their parents treated them almost like twins, even starting them in school at the same time. The house was saturated with music and they spent their childhoods going to rehearsals, playing backstage at the opera house where their father was working. Maarika took piano lessons but was never serious about them, and an experiment with the violin ended in tears. She became more interested in languages than music, starting English in the second grade after learning Russian and her native Estonian. Today, she also speaks French, Spanish and German and can get by in Italian and Catalan. When she was 12, her parents gave her a recorder. Soon a teacher replaced it with a flute. Something mysterious about the sound of the instrument appealed to her, a metallic quality she can’t quite identify. “I had a good result immediately,” she says. “Flute players in the beginning usually hate the way they sound. But I remember being proud for myself for eliminating that airy tone and making a beautiful tone.” It turned out to be the Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia in La Coruna, Spain. She won the job, later adding other Spanish orchestras to her resume, enjoying the polyglot cultural life of Europe and the opportunity to indulge her childhood love of languages. Still, the urge came to strike out on her own. Among her biggest hurdles is the twin resistance among orchestra managements and concert presenters to wind instrument soloists and modern repertoire. The Mozart Flute Concertos have been played enough, she says. “My little brother (Kristjan, 29) is influencing me in terms of doing new music, searching for different styles and sonorities.” “I agree with my father. He plays music that he likes. It doesn’t matter what style. The 19th Century is dated for me, but music doesn’t have to break more limits; there are no more limits to break. I think you can find a middle ground.”
Järvi to Retire in Three Years Neeme Järvi has signed a three-year contract extension as the Detroit Symphony’s music director, after which he will step down and become Conductor Laureate. Järvi turns 65 next month. “I am at the age now where I want to cut back on my schedule and spend more time with my family,” he said in a statement. “he demands of a music directorship are great, and during my tenure with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra we have accomplished much. [But] in 2005, it will be time for me to slow down.” At that time, Järvi will have been the orchestra’s music director for 15 years. Emil J. Kang, the DSO’s president and executive director, expressed satisfaction that Järvi would be with the orchestra at the time of the scheduled opening (October ’03) of its expanded facilities at the Max M. Fisher Music Center. Kang said a search committee would be formed presently; in addition to musicians, board members, and key staffers, the search process will utilize input from the community. The Estonian-born conductor is credited with bringing the Detroit Symphony back to the glory days of Paul Paray, its music director from 1952-’63, and into the international limelight. He has made 38 recordings with the orchestra, and the DSO is among the only orchestras in the U.S. to still have its own radio presence. The orchestra claims its “Mark of Excellence” broadcast is heard by over one million listeners weekly. Järvi’s two sons, Paavo and Kristjan, are also conductors. The former is the new music director of the Cincinnati Symphony and onetime principal conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Kristjan is music director of the Absolute Ensemble. Daughter Maarika is principal flute in the Madrid Radio Symphony.
Järvi’s role crucial to DSO’s success Neeme Järvi’s musical stewardship will extend to 15 seasons by the time he steps down in 2005. He’s played a crucial role during those years in bringing the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to the most robust financial health in its history and, one might well argue, to its all-time peak of artistic achievement. Today, the DSO is debt-free, playing to good houses at Orchestra Hall and building the Max M. Fisher Music Center, a four-story annex scheduled to open in the fall of 2003. The conductor also has simply made the DSO better. The musicians put their hearts on the line for him. Week in and week out, the quality of that relationship resonates through Orchestra Hall.
Conductor Neeme Järvi gives DSO 3-year notice The Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Neeme Järvi says he will lower his baton after the 2004-05 season. Who will succeed Järvi? DETROIT--Neeme Järvi, music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, announced Thursday that he will step down after the 2004-05 season to become the DSO’s conductor laureate. Järvi, who turns 65 next month, will return for annual guest-conducting appearances as conductor laureate. He also signed a new contract to continue as music director for the next three seasons, extending his tenure with the DSO to 15 years. Of the 11 conductors who have served as DSO music director, only Ossip Gabrilowitsch, the celebrated Russian whose stint from 1918-36 first put the orchestra on solid artistic footing, served longer than Järvi. “Fifteen years is enough,” says Järvi, who has bounced back, apparently to full strength, after suffering a stroke last summer that caused him to miss the beginning of the current season. “I feel very well indeed, but I have to be careful. Now there is a new generation of conductors.” The role of music director is complex. Typically conducting roughly half the classical programs in a season, the music director shapes an orchestra’s personality and sets the tone of discipline. But also critical in the modern American community is the chief conductor’s role as the orchestra’s ambassador to the people. Charm counts, and it’s one of Järvi’s strengths.
DSO music director Järvi times swan song for ’05 There was something about the number 15 that appealed to Neeme Järvi’s impeccable sense of timing. Fifteen seasons at the helm of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra would be perfect – enough time to cap an extraordinary tenure without the risk of wearing out his welcome. Järvi, 64, has decided to step down as music director of the DSO at the close of the 2004-05 season, leaving a 15-year legacy that will be remembered as one of the orchestra’s most important eras. Järvi – who says he has fully recovered from the ruptured blood vessel he suffered at the base of his brain last July – announced his plans to the orchestra at Thursday’s rehearsal at Orchestra Hall. “I like very much the round number 15,” Järvi said after the rehearsal. “It’s a good time. My health was in danger this summer, but I’m recovered. “I’ve had a wonderful relationship with the musicians. I’ve enjoyed them and they’ve enjoyed me. And I don’t want it to become a bad mood in my 29th year or something. It’s sad to end it now, but this is a time to be proud.” At Järvi’s request, he and DSO management negotiated a 3-year contract that will end with the Estonian-born conductor assuming the post of conductor laureate, returning to conduct about two weeks a season. Järvi’s 15-year tenure will be the second-longest in DSO history, after Ossip Gabrilowitsch’s 18 years, from 1918 to 1936. DSO leaders must now begin the lengthy process of finding a successor. The first step will be to form a search committee of musicians, board members and staff. Conductors identified as candidates will guest-conduct the DSO. Järvi’s timing gives the DSO a generous window to conduct an unpressured search. Orchestras are not always this fortunate. Last month, at the Montreal Symphony, conductor Charles Dutoit quit unexpectedly when his contentious relationship with the musicians hit rock-bottom, and conductor Hans Vonk resigned his post at the St. Louis Symphony because of illness. Both orchestras are now in crisis mode. “The fact that Neeme set it up this way is a gift,” said DSO president Emil Kang. “We can plan for his successor, and we want to celebrate everything he has meant to the DSO.” It is difficult to overestimate Järvi’s impact on the DSO and musical culture in Detroit. The orchestra was aesthetically dormant by the close of Günther Herbig’s tenure in 1990. An $8-million deficit threatened to bankrupt the orchestra, and internal relations were still sour from two musicians’ strikes in the 1980s. Järvi sparked an artistic renaissance at Orchestra Hall through his vital and spontaneous music making, impish personality, 38 recordings, three international tours and eclectic repertoire. Järvi raised the DSO’s profile to its highest point since Paul Paray’s tenure in the 1950s. At the close of his 12th season – long after most orchestras have grown weary of their conductor – Järvi remains a beloved figure among DSO musicians. Järvi is wildly popular with DSO audiences, who hang on his every animated gesture and won’t leave the hall until he treats them to one of his trademark encores. Järvi’s friendship with Bill Davidson, owner of the Detroit Pistons and Guardian Industries, led directly to the multimillion-dollar fund that has allowed the DSO to tour regularly for the first time. Järvi’s charisma became a rallying point for the DSO institutionally. Visionary management turned the orchestra around financially and led to the ongoing $125-million Orchestra Place renovations. Järvi’s infectious enthusiasm – particularly the synergy he created among the musicians, management and board – was the catalyst. “We’ve been through some difficult times in the last 12 years, but the one key strength all along has been our music director,” said Kang. DSO violinist Beatriz Budinszky said that at the heart of the relationship between Järvi and the musicians has been his utter joy in making music. “It’s his love of music, his enthusiasm for what he’s doing. It’s contagious. You get caught up with that.” Järvi has always been known as a workaholic, shuttling between conducting posts in Detroit and Gothenburg, Sweden, and juggling worldwide guest-conducting duties. But he has already scaled back his duties in Sweden and now he says it is time to slow down further and spend more time with his family. Still, he is looking forward to three more years with the DSO, and Thursday he talked enthusiastically about diving into the profound symphonies of Anton Bruckner, exploring other repertoire he hasn’t performed with the DSO and the possibility of a Far East tour. “There will be interesting stuff the next three years.”
DSO, chorus rise with Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” Listening to an energetic, impassioned account of Beethoven’s epic Missa Solemnis Friday night at Orchestra Hall, one couldn’t help but reflect on how fortunate the Detroit Symphony Orchestra has been in its association with the Choral Union of Ann Arbor’s University Musical Society. What makes Beethoven’s setting of the Mass so imposing for the singers is the same transcendent expressivity that makes it so compelling for the listener. The ethereal beauty of the Benedictus, the driving power of the Credo, the many fugal harangues of devout faith – all challenge the choristers’ technical wherewithal, preparation and sheer determination. The Ann Arbor choir, brought to peak form as usual by its director, Thomas Sheets, made this uncompromising music – the unearthly vision of a deaf composer – sound at once sublime and altogether manageable. But then when was it ever otherwise with Sheets’ fine choir in its collaborations with the DSO? Yet it appears the orchestra may be inclined to part company with the Choral Union. Except for one appearance by the women, Sheets’ singers are not in the DSO’s plans for next season. An ad hoc chorus will sing in the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to open the season. No ad hoc group of singers in the world could have delivered this Missa Solemnis, and the Ninth Symphony, if not so voluminous for the choir, is scarcely less difficult. Järvi, who showed his familiar flair for working with choruses, also pulled together a first-rate group of vocal soloists for this occasion. Perhaps vocal quartet would be more accurate, for Beethoven conceived of the foursome as an ensemble and eschewed the usual sprinkling of solos and duets. Even when singing toe-to-toe against the full choir, mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby, tenor Richard Clement and bass Eric Owens brought distinctive character to their music. One would have expected that much and more from soprano Marvis Martin, an accomplished veteran equal to Beethoven’s brutally demanding assignment. But Martin could hardly sing at all, and probably should have been elsewhere drinking hot tea. Her upper register, where the heart of this music lies, constantly came out pinched and foreshortened.
Kristjan Järvi Leaves Berlin Breathless At the same hour on the same afternoon (June 2), both the Philharmonie and the Konzerthaus offered exceptionally promising concerts both of which especially attracted me. At the Philharmonie, Marc Minkowski, celebrated in his native France but not yet very well known in Germany, would make his local debut with Kent Nagano’s Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester in an imaginative program offering Ernest Chausson’s Symphony, a favorite of mine almost never available anywhere in live performance, and ending with the rare cantata “Faust et Hélène” by Nadia Boulanger’s fabulously gifted younger sister Lili, who died in 1918 at the age of only 25. The Konzerthaus offered two other promising Berlin debuts, with Neeme Järvi’s younger son Kristjan, 29, conducting the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin in another uncommonly interesting program: Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements (1942-45), Prokofiev’s 1935 second Violin Concerto (featuring yet another local debut, by England’s Menuhin protégé Daniel Hope, 28), and John Adams’ “Harmonielehre” (1985). Torn, I mentally flipped a coin and wound up at the latter – which turned out brilliantly, a resounding audience and critical success. And the headline of the Morgenpost review of Minkowski’s debut with the DSO called it no less than “sensational”, a term almost never applied here to such events. Well, you win some, you lose some. I will definitely not miss Minkowski’s next Berlin appearance. As quoted in a Morgenpost interview, Kristjan Järvi, whose father has conducted the Detroit Symphony since 1990, left his native Soviet Estonia at the age of seven with the entire five-member family carrying one suitcase and 200 American dollars to start a new life in an unknown alien land. Today his elder brother Paavo Järvi heads the Cincinnati Symphony. About 16 months ago Kristjan Järvi became musical chief of Sweden’s Norrlands-Oper in Umea. Their comparatively aberrant sister Maarika, who settled in Paris, decided against the baton in favor of the flute. Kristjan grew up in New York, and his podium manner exudes that quality; he whipped up the Stravinsky to its culmination with a jubilant physical exuberance one could only term American, in the most admirable sense. That, like his music-making overall, derives at least in part from his activities with the New York crossover group he founded and heads, the Absolute Ensemble, which has always reveled in a gamut ranging from Bach to Zappa. Kristjan Järvi’s uncompromisingly contemporary Berlin program did not prevent the Konzerthaus from selling out – and both young artists won the audience over hands down. Not even the trickiest asymmetrical rhythms in all three works, frequently changing bar by bar at breath-taking tempi, gave Järvi the slightest pause, any more than the Prokofiev caused Hope the least problem in razor-sharp reciprocal accuracy, both with each other and together with the orchestra. Only rarely does one have the pleasure of such completely unblemished rhythmic security as characterized this entire concert. Kristjan Järvi energetically revved up this not always most responsive of orchestras to a pitch of rare excellence. It will not surprise me if one Berlin critic’s confident prediction – “In ten years [at the latest], Järvi will have the orchestra eating out of his hand” – should prove true.
Neeme Järvi at his best There was a feeling of exam day in the air last Wednesday, when the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra came to round off this year’s concert season. Perhaps the high averages over the year had indicated that something special was going to happen in this, the final concert of the year? Or were people expecting great things from seeing Neeme Järvi in concert again? He had had to cancel his previous concert, to be sure. This time Järvi, that unsurpassed provider of inspiration, stood in front of the orchestra. This is the man who almost magically fills his musicians with courage, and who builds his music using equal parts of technical brilliance and emotion. Järvi at his best is the master when it comes to achieving this.
Neeme Järvi oma parimas hiilguses Enne Göteborgi Sümfoonikute hooaja lõppkontserti möödunud kolmapäeval oli tunne nagu eksamil. Üldiselt kõrge tase aasta jooksul lubas ka hooaja lõpuöögilt midagi erakordset oodata. Või ootas publik hoopis suuri tegusid nähes Neeme Järvit juhatamas, kes paraku oli sunnitud eelmise kontserdi ära ütlema. Ükskõik mis põhjusel, olid rahva ootused õigustatud. Seekord seisis ületamatu inspiraator Järvi orkestri ees. Järvi on mees, kes maagiliselt suudab täita muusikud julgusega, kes ehitab muusika üles kasutades võrdselt nii briljantset tehnikat, kui ka tundeid. Ja kui kavas on Tshaikovski viies, on Järvi ülesanne ilmselge: sütitada igaühele kuulajaist tuld südamesse ja hinge. Aga see ei juhtu ainult seepärast, et orkester mängib kõvasti, kiiresti ja perfektselt. Ka teisi asju peab lisama, et laiendada fraase ja välja tuua kõik mis võimalik hea maitse raamides. Ei ole kerge selgeks teha, mida helilooja partituuris mõtles ning kuulajaile teha arusaadavaks muusikas väljendatud sündmusi nii, et need tunduksid põnevad ja loogilised. Järvi oma meisterlikkusega andis parima, et seda saavutada.
Maestro pani festivalile efektse punkti „Tore oli õpilastega koos olla. Tahaksin kiita Pärnu Linnaorkestrit, kes ei teinud lihtsalt tööd, vaid nautis seda,” ütles Järvi. Järvi suveakadeemia kätkes mitut meistrikursust, mis olid sulatatud ainuomaselt Oistrahhi-festivali programmi ja teenistusse ning aitasid kujundada loomingulist õhkkonna. Meistriklasse juhendasid Jorma Panula, Michel Lethiec, Viktor Pikaizen ja Kalle Randalu. Järvi lisas, et Oistrahhi-festival aitab viia Pärnut maailma. „Sest just siin toimuvad rahvusvahelised sündmused kultuuri ja muusikategemise vallas,” märkis Neeme Järvi. Festival pakkus palju erinevat muusikat Suurt osa festivali muusikavalikust kandis Kuldar Singi looming, see on muusika, mis tuleb maailma viia ja ükskord jõuab ta sinna niikuinii. „See peab saama meie kõikide pillimeeste missiooniks,” lausus pianist Kalle Randalu. Neeme Järvi dirigendist poeg Kristjan Järvi oli seda meelt, et tänavune Oistrahhi-festival kujunes fantastiliseks. „Tundub, et kõik on võimalik ja kõik ideed saavad rakenduse. Ideid on nii palju, et ajab lausa hulluks. Minul, Allar Kaasikul ja isal,” märkis Kristjan Järvi. Enim lõi inimlikkus ja mõistmine välja Oistrahhi-festivali lõppkontserdil, kus silmad olid vees Neeme Järvil, kontsertmeister Maano Männil, orkestril ja kuulajatelgi. Oistrahhi-festivali kunstiline juht Allar Kaasik ütles, et kavatseb ka järgmisel aastal festivali korraldada. „See tuleb natuke suurem ja parem, sest järgmine aasta tähistame David Oistrahhi 95 aasta juubelit ja selleks ajaks on valmis uus kontserdimaja,” rääkis Allar Kaasik. Dirigendiks poolvägisi
USA hiigelandmebaas kiidab Eestit /--/ Eesti klassikud esindatud. Detailselt tutvustab All Music Guide dirigent Neeme Järvi tegemisi, Järvit nimetavad ameeriklased „üheks tihedaima graafikuga rahvusvaheliseks dirigeerimistäheks, kes on salvestanud imetlusväärselt laia repertuaari”. Ühe plaadiga on andmebaasis Erkki-Sven Tüür, viiteid leiab ka Tõnu Kaljuste dirigeeritud albumitele, andmebaasis on olemas ka Veljo Tormise biograafia, tõsi küll, helilooja nimi on pealkirjas ekslikult „Veljo Tormin”.
Myaskovsky: Symphony No. 6 “Constructivist” is an adjective often flung at both Myaskovsky’s Sixth Symphony and Prokofiev’s Second, falling wide of the mark in each case. Prokofiev’s pile-driving score dates from his enfant terrible years in Paris. Myaskovsky’s Sixth, written in 1924, is rooted in post-Romanticism, while its stance, equating the Revolution with the biblical apocalypse, links it to the Russian symbolists of the previous decade. Avoiding frenzied overdrive in Prokofiev’s Second, Valeri Polyansky errs on the side of lightness, and the Chandos disc’s principal attraction is the Sinfonia-Concertante for Cello and Orchestra, given lean coherence by cellist Alexander Ivashkin. On DG, meanwhile, Järvi and the Gothenburg Symphony can’t disguise the longueurs in Myaskovsky’s epic, though the playing is to die for and the recording outstanding.
BSO opens Tanglewood with stunning success Gil Shaham with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi conducting, at Tanglewood, Sunday. Call it classical music, arena-rock style. That’s what we got in the Shed at Tanglewood on Sunday afternoon at the Koussevitzky Memorial Concert, when the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi conducting, coupled Tchaikovsky’s explosive violin concerto with Prokofiev’s gigantic fifth symphony. Soloist for the Tchaikovsky was Gil Shaham. Shaham’s close relationship with the BSO will survive the end of the Ozawa era, and that’s a good thing. The infectious Israeli is one of the most compelling soloists on any instrument. The concerto, indispensable to violinists, is one of the summits of the repertory. Liquid, electric, it’s replete with gorgeous interwoven melodies. Tchaikovsky gives the soloist fearful moments, including amazing runs, double stops, pizzicato in both hands, and shimmering glissando. You’d figure Shaham would saw the violin in half with all the hacking. Interest from the orchestral part comes from the winds, and Järvi made sure they got a bow of their own afterward.Shaham shows his enjoyment readily and self-effacingly, charming everyone onstage and off. He is a wonder of tone, spot on at every juncture, and athleticism, moving about the stage, interacting with intelligence and persuasion. Järvi opened the program with a bumpy ride through Tchaikovsky’s “Capriccio Italien”. The conductor, exasperated by too fast and too loud playing during some of the quieter moments, put both hands down and glared at his troops at one point. But the boisterous, Spanish-tinged waltz eventually won over both maestro and audience, concluding gloriously. Fittingly for the annual Koussevitzky memorial, the program ended with Prokofiev’s wonderful fifth symphony, which Koussevitzky had commissioned and premiered in 1945. It is one of the most unusual works in the symphonic repertory, and benefited from Järvi’s unique style. I’ve never seen a conductor shake the hip and wiggle the shoulders as much as our Estonian guest. The orchestra seemed to dig it. The first movement bears the slowest metronome marking of any major symphony, although Järvi, like most conductors, ignored the rules and pushed the pace a bit. That helped, but the succeeding scherzo might have needed a little more rehearsal time. All was repaid in the final two movements, full of fun, a certain sense of triumph (it was 1945, and Russia was emerging from years of occupation) and the folkloric, impassioned energy the best Russian music always has. The finale, its principal melody based on a randy Russian vulgarism, positively beamed with optimism and hope.
Dynamic duo highlight concert at Saratoga Violinist Ida Haendel and pianist Martha Argerich represented two-thirds of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto at Saratoga Friday night, and the simultaneous presence of two of the world’s most elusive, individual, and charismatic musicians was a great lure to play hooky from Tanglewood for a night. Maisky always looks as if he is playing with complete inspiration and abandon, but for all the Rape of the Cello theatricality, his work becomes predictable. That’s something you could never say about the others. Argerich, often wild, played with impeccable style and control and fabulous musical and pianistic imagination; with a slight emphasis on one note of a fast arpeggio, she can create magic. Her accelerando at the very end was thrilling. Haendel had a couple of moments of dicey intonation, but apart from that, she played with awesome assurance and command, and although she has been before the public since the mid-1930s, she is still totally spontaneous. Haendel’s piquant phrasing of the polonaise theme in the finale, with its elegant dynamic shadings, obviously delighted Argerich. Dutoit, facing a situation that would have thrown most conductors into a panic, conducted with suave assurance, and the orchestra members seemed to be having the time of their lives. If this performance had taken place in New York City, it would have been sold out months in advance. The Saratoga Performing Arts Center was not full, but the audience went crazy. The program opened with a stirring performance of Beethoven’s overture “Leonore, No. 3”, which displayed both the sumptuous “Philadelphia Sound” and a Beethovenian litheness. Outgoing music director Wolfgang Sawallisch has left the orchestra in superb shape. The program ended with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, which I didn’t hear because I decided to listen to another Fifth Symphony, Shostakovich’s, in a lowering performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Neeme Järvi, broadcast live from Tanglewood. Sunday afternoon’s BSO concert in Lenox brought an opportunity to hear Järvi live. The Estonian music director of the Detroit Symphony first conducted the orchestra in 1981, and over the last two decades he has matured into a distinguished elder statesman of music. Despite a history of health problems, he remains a dynamic and vital figure on the podium. Sunday he and the orchestra delivered a vivacious performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Capriccio italien” and a compelling, idiomatic, dark-hued performance of Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony. The afternoon’s soloist was violinist Gil Shaham, who chose the Tchaikovsky Concerto. He has become a very aggressive stage performer, prowling the stage like a caged animal; one feared for Järvi as Shaham bore down on him. But the violinist played with his usual refinement, sensitivity, and insouciant brilliance. A conflicting assignment made it necessary to listen to the finale of the Prokofiev on the lawn in order to make a quick getaway. The side lawn is to be avoided because the sound is distant and there is a messy mixture of live and amplified sound. On the main lawn, however, one was struck by the clarity and projection of the speakers; you could really hear what was going on inside.
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 What if Ludwig van Beethoven hadn’t gone deaf before completing his magnificent Symphony No. 9? Or what if he had had a modern orchestra, with all its tonal strength, to work with? Those were two of the considerations that led composer Gustav Mahler in 1895 to re-orchestrate Beethoven’s final symphony. MAHLER’S BEETHOVEN: THE DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, hosted by musician and poet Patti Smith, features the DSO, led by music director Neeme Järvi, in its first public performance of Mahler’s orchestration of the Ninth Symphony. The 90-minute program airs on PBS Wednesday, December 13, 2000, 10:00 p.m. ET. This edition of one of the great landmarks of the orchestral repertoire provides audiences with insight into a musical tradition that has vanished – the re-orchestration of important works to satisfy current tastes or, in the arranger’s mind, clarify the composer’s intentions. Gustav Mahler, who served as music director of the New York Philharmonic from 1909 until 1911, attempted to do just that with Beethoven’s “Choral” symphony by doubling the woodwind complement, extending instrument parts, muting or adding horns and adding a tuba, which had not yet been invented at Beethoven’s time. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s second music director, Ossip Gabrilowitsch (1918-1936), one of the most celebrated pianists of his day (he was the soloist at the first concert played by the Philadelphia Orchestra), was a close friend and staunch supporter of Mahler. Following Mahler’s death, Gabrilowitsch borrowed the score of the re-orchestrated Symphony No. 9 and paid the orchestra’s librarian to copy Mahler’s changes to the symphony into his own score and to make the same alterations to musicians’ parts. That score and parts have remained in the library of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra since 1924. MAHLER’S BEETHOVEN: THE DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA tells the story of Mahler’s re-orchestration, the friendship between Gabrilowitsch and Mahler, and how the score came to be in Detroit. The special includes interviews with the orchestra’s music director, Järvi, University of Michigan musicologist Stephen Whiting and others. Joining Järvi and the DSO for the performance of the Symphony No. 9 are soprano Camellia Johnson, mezzo-soprano Eleni Matos, tenor Frank Poretta III and bass-baritone David Pittman, as well as University Musical Society Choral Union of Ann Arbor. Patti Smith has a long association with Detroit, where she lived for many years and regularly attended concerts of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra with her husband, the late Fred “Sonic” Smith. As a songwriter and performer, she brings both a keen understanding of what it means to alter someone else’s artistic composition and a fan’s passion for Beethoven’s music. Smith has released six albums and numerous volumes of poetry.
Far from routine Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Perhaps it is the live recording for Deutsche Grammophon’s upcoming Sibelius box set (release date 2004) that raises the temperature. But after the break the orchestra really takes off, in true style. The interpretation of Sibelius’ First Symphony, conducted by Neeme Järvi, is quite simply brilliant. A high, high tempo and something of a nervous, verging on the hysterical, energy in the approach. Not the self-absorbed, reflective Sibelius, but the exaggerated romantic who charges headlong into the confusion of the 20th century and confirms that what was once whole now lies before us in shattered fragments. This gives the beauty and the layers of sound an almost mystical lustre, and what is the Symphony Orchestra’s strength - a combination of warmth, fragility and shy longing - becomes a defence against what is heroic. A precision in the lyrical aspect and at the same time a frenzy and an intensity that means that the performance is not in least routine. So: yet another stroke of magic from Neeme Järvi. Two pieces were played before the break. First of all the premiere of Paula af Malmborg Ward’s brand new Sambal Dente, a piece that the orchestra played with obvious pleasure. I enjoy that lack of fear in af Malmborg Ward’s way of writing and arranging and, for example, letting a passage that is reminiscent of an old-time music hall orchestra collide with the rhythmical sharpness and a fascinating air of expectation in the percussion section’s contributions. But nothing much comes of the samba rhythms, and as a whole the piece feels a little unfocussed. Then came Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto, with the wonderful Nikolaj Znaider as soloist. What a sound he creates, shimmering and crystal-clear, what rhythmical vigour in his playing. Znaider wipes the floor with most other international virtuosos in the younger generation, by virtue of the sheer nerve of his interpretations, which also includes the Prokofiev concert. In this instance, however, the orchestra was not quite on its toes, and could not match the rhythmical complexity of Znaider’s performance.
A real thriller GOTHENBURG SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 20 years is an incredibly long time to be the conductor of an orchestra with an international profile and ambitions. Such a period of time is of almost “Berlin” proportions.
Unbridled joy and bravely breaking the barriers. Venue: Gothenburg Concert Hall EVERY TIME I have any contact with the Gothenburg Concert Hall I get the feeling that this must be the happiest cultural institution in Sweden. The artistic successes of recent decades and the expansion from an orchestra of 85 to 109 musicians is something of a fairy tale. The fact that the concert hall’s director Sture Carlsson looks as though he is having to suppress a broad grin so that he can introduce the concert that rounds off the celebration of Neeme Järvi’s 20 years as head conductor with due solemnity is not surprising. INSPIRED BY Roland Barthes’ “A Lover’s Discourse”, in the first movement Gefors creates a musical vision of intoxication beyond the imaginable. With ranging brass chords, violent cymbal clashes and sounds that build up to a white roar, an archaic, jazz-style melody intones a feeling that “exceeds imagined sensual pleasure at which desire has hinted”. It is a daring opening that stretches Gefors’ own limits to the full. But also runs the risk of you thinking: “now then, is that what the uncivilised unspeakable actually sounds like”? But Gefors is a dramatist, and uses this roar of sound as a provocative reflection or magnetic points in the following movements, where the tone is more “everyday”. And where pleasure appears as anxiety in the middle of love. As something that prevents it from knowing which way to turn. “A piece in which she puts her foot down and brings the full apparatus of the orchestra into a dance.” Here there are similarities with the excess energy in the young passion depicted by Gefors in “Lydia’s Songs”, the orchestral song cycle from 1997, and which “Pleasure” may be seen as a continuation of. This is particularly noticeable in the turn-of-the-century, romantic melody in the second movement. But perhaps it is here, as in the song melody in the fourth movement, that Gefors ends up for a while on far too safe ground. In an exquisiteness (he is a master of prosody) that threatens to put a frame around that which wants to break out. IN THE FINALE’S MEANDERING duet, composed in an original follow-my-leader pattern (in which the gap between the voices becomes shorter and shorter), I sense an influence of Messiaen and his ecstatic opera “Saint Francis of Assisi”. Here Gefors takes a new movement with a melody that sounds like an abstract pop song for Petter Bergman’s “If not we”. And it chirrups like the devil!
Detroit Symphony Orchestra can be heard on Sundays Did you know the DSO is the most widely heard orchestra on the nation’s airwaves? A new season of DSO radio broadcasts begins Sunday. Presented by General Motors and hosted by Dick Cavett, the 26-week series will air at 5 p.m. Sundays on WDET-FM (101.9) and 9 a.m. Sundays on CKWW-AM (580). Highlights include Neeme Järvi leading the DSO in Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 and the world premiere of “Episodes for Orchestra” by DSO African-American composer-in-residence Olly Wilson.
James Carter jazzes DSO audience The Detroit Symphony Orchestra made a rockin’ return to its home roost Thursday night, unleashing the homegrown gifts of saxophonist James Carter in the world premiere of a concerto that sent the crowd wild. Sierra, who teaches at Cornell University, was present to share in the exuberant applause. His three-movement concerto, which has the soloist switching off between tenor and soprano saxophones, is a delight and a thriller, idiomatic and challenging in its jazzy language, affecting in its bluesy-ballad turns, electrifying in its solo flights and as colorfully fashioned for the orchestra as it is for the man with the horn. And make no mistake: Carter, the 33-year-old Detroit native who has emerged as one of the brightest stars in jazzdom, was the man. His performance was nothing short of a virtuoso clinic, a toe-tapping, heart-stopping, smile-making romp. He is the complete musician, a technician with no apparent limits and a poet of deep sensibility. Indeed, Carter’s eloquent turn through the concerto’s balladlike slow movement drew an early ovation. It was the finale, however, that blew off the roof. Carter’s extended cadenza – more like a soulful, mercurial soliloquy – on tenor sax, midway through the movement, touched off a blazing, syncopated home stretch that had the DSO ripping like a jazz band, Järvi dancing on the podium and Carter merrily tossing off riffs that matched blinding speed with gorgeous colors.
Järvi, DSO take audience on a thrilling Mahler journey While the Detroit Symphony Orchestra presses its search for a music director to succeed Neeme Järvi, who steps down in 2005, Järvi’s first appearance of the new season provided a ringing reminder of the good hands that now keep this increasingly impressive band. Nothing less could be said about the thrilling performance of Mahler’s gargantuan Symphony No. 3 that Järvi and company delivered Thursday night at the Detroit Opera House. Everything about the Third Symphony is huge – the orchestration with its nine French horns and supplemental choirs of women and children, the sweep of emotion from poetic night-music to sun-splashed marches, the sheer expanse of the first and final movements. And yet in his clear-sighted, sensitive and expansive approach to the music, Järvi managed to keep both its structure and its poetry in view while making the work feel almost concise in its 90-minute length. The DSO responded with a radiant performance, from the strings’ warm and fluid playing to woodwinds and brasses that painted Pan and all his realm in vivid hues. As Mahler’s voice of the deep and mysterious night, mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby imbued Nietzsche’s solemn poetry with blazing majesty. Forming a suitably angelic choir, in Mahler’s chapter of divine commentary, were the women of Ann Arbor’s University Musical Society Choral Union and the Christ Church of Grosse Pointe Boys Choir.
Sax star’s DSO gig might get him back on CD racks The last time James Carter played at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, a crew from Atlantic Records taped the three nights of roaring music as the Detroit-born saxophonist matched wits with a slew of special guests, including the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. But 16 months later, as Carter returns to Baker’s for a two-night stand, “Live at Baker’s” still hasn’t arrived in stores. But another Carter recording with a Detroit connection is moving to the front burner. Sony Records has expressed strong interest in Roberto Sierra’s Concerto for Saxophones, which was commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and written for Carter. The piece had its world premiere last week at Orchestra Hall. A few months after the Baker’s sessions in June 2001, the depressed recording climate caused Atlantic’s corporate owner, WEA Records, to kill the venerable Atlantic Jazz label, drop a gaggle of artists and reassign others, including Carter, to Warner Bros. Herbst says it hasn’t been released because scheduling conflicts have prevented the necessary touch-up recording. That work, including sessions with Franklin, is now scheduled for late November in Detroit. Herbst says she hopes the CD will be out by spring 2003. “I definitely want to get the album out,” says Carter. “Baker’s personifies Detroit.” Last week, Sony’s vice president for jazz, Yves Beauvais, traveled to Detroit and was so taken with the Sierra concerto, according to DSO officials, that he plans to pitch the project up the line at Sony. The concerto, conducted by DSO music director Neeme Järvi, was received rapturously by audiences and critics. It marries classical and jazz elements and showcases Carter’s virtuosity. DSO vice president and general manager Stephen Millen says that, should Sony give the project a green light, the record company would either buy the rights to tapes of last week’s concerts or arrange to record the work again at Orchestra Hall under more controlled circumstances. Though the DSO’s relationship with Sony would not extend beyond the Sierra concerto, a DSO appearance on Sony would be a coup, given that a severe slump in the classical industry in recent years has brought the recording of American orchestras to a near halt. The DSO has been without a recording contract since its deal with Chandos ended in 1996. “We’re really excited about the potential,” says Millen.
DSO, Znaider breathe new life into two great works On paper, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s concert Thursday night with Neeme Järvi and the Danish violinist Nikolaj Znaider looked like a season highlight. But as it turned out, paper, ink and promise couldn’t begin to do justice to the real deal – being at Orchestra Hall and hearing two great works brought to resonant life as truly and wonderfully as if they were being born before one’s eyes. It was indeed a rebirth of sorts for Carl Nielsen’s finely crafted Violin Concerto, which in the 91 years of its life had somehow eluded a DSO debut until Thursday night. To judge from the loud and long audience response, however, this fascinating concerto, as elegant and lyrical as it is technically spectacular, will be revisited here before many more seasons have passed. He also enjoyed a savvy, responsive collaborator in Järvi and alert, poised playing from the DSO. But the orchestra was only warming up. Just ahead, in Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony, lay one of the DSO’s finest achievements in recent seasons. At 45 minutes, the Shostakovich 10th roughly matches the length of Schubert’s “Great C major” Symphony. But the Russian work dwells on the far side of the universe from the “Great C major’s” confidence, affirmation, lyric poetry and spiritual repose. There’s more of Mahler’s angst here, the sudden leaps and turns of a soul besieged by the world and half expecting its precipitous end.
Järvi makes Sibelius’ notes fall like fresh snow GOTHENBURG SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Hans Pålsson is a poet at the piano
Enchanted, lively programme for the tour GOTHENBURG SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Restrained caution More than mere technique
“Ongaku no Tomo” The opening piece, “A.S. In Memoriam” by the contemporary Swedish composer Martinsson (1956- ), and the encore performances of “Andante Festivo”, “Karelia”, and “Alla Marcia” from the “Karelia Suite” were of exceptional quality. It is possible to regard these selected works as a mere greeting by the orchestra. Still, one cannot help being impressed by how they are able to create a rich color without being bland, and of the quality of the strings ensemble which possesses both a sense of texture along with a clearness of tone. While the orchestra expanded their repertoire under the shrewd leadership of Järvi, they also increased the range of their acoustics and form of expression. In a particular period of the mid 1990s, they tended to play a bit too freely, perhaps by being directly influenced by the conductor’s personality. However, the ideas of the two parties seem to have overlapped in a high level, with the strings at the core. Järvi also made his presence known with Sibelius’s fifth symphony. The orchestra gave a performance of a grand scale with emphasis on the framework of the piece, and they were able to keep the total image of the piece intact even when minor problems occurred. Personally, I was hoping for a more in-depth interpretation of the piece. In the violin concerto, Rachlin gave a lively performance of Sibelius that was rich in contrast, and made the most of his fullness of tone. He was successful in emerging from the temporarily shaky period of his career. The audience exploded with excitement hearing the assertive performance of Ysaye.
A Performance with a Sense of Vitality Different from Functional Beauty The universal always begins at home. “World class” and “international standard” are totally different concepts. Twenty years have passed since Estonian born Neeme Järvi has taken on the post of principal conductor at the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. In this present day, it is rare for an orchestra to be able to present a set of aesthetics based on a long-term relationship with a particular conductor, as seen in the tight collaboration enjoyed between Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, now the national orchestra of Sweden, was nurtured under the intensive leadership of conductor Neeme Järvi, and made its name in the world particularly with their excellent presentation of works by Nordic composers. |
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