Whatever toll James Levine’s health problems have taken on his conducting schedule, and his career more generally, when he does mount the podium — as he did last week to conduct “Wozzeck” at the Metropolitan Opera, and again on Sunday afternoon, when he led the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall — his performances are invariably so finely polished and intensely communicative that you cannot doubt that he is at the top of his game.
Met Opera 管で完璧な指揮を見せたJ．Levine [音楽時評]
Boston Symphony のMusic Director を辞任し，Metropolitan Opera のMusic Directorに専念することにした James Levine が，予定通り，Metropolitan Opera Orchestra のCarnegie Hall 公演を指揮して，その好演振りが評論されています．
when he does mount the podium — as he did last week to conduct “Wozzeck” at the Metropolitan Opera, and again on Sunday afternoon, when he led the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall — his performances are invariably so finely polished and intensely communicative that you cannot doubt that he is at the top of his game.
彼の指揮台への歩行，礼をする仕草などが，次のように紹介されています．he now walks on and off the stage with a wheeled walker (which lets him move at a speedy clip); he uses a cane during his bows; and he leads his players from a swivel chair. But once he begins to conduct, his gestures are clear and energetic, and the power of the musicians’ response is something to behold.
プログラムは， Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Evgeny Kissin & Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 だったようです．
Schoenberg はBrahms のムードで指揮したそうで，Levine の解釈として興味深い点です． He made a more subtle connection too, focusing on Schoenberg’s often fluid, sometimes tactile use of tone color in presenting slowly but inexorably unfolding musical ideas
Evgeny Kissin はすっかり大家になったようで，Levine と見事な競演を展開したそうですが，Levine はBrahms を演奏するようにオーケストラの音を張り上げていたようです．それでも， Mr. Kissin’s contribution was a pure-toned, poetic line, driven but singing, with an almost narrative directness and momentum. He showed an entirely different side of his interpretive personality in his encore, an incendiary, deeply personalized account of Chopin’s Scherzo No. 2.
後半がBrahms の2番だったのですが，The Brahms offered other joys all its own, not least the kind of sweeping phrasing that, in hands as deft as Mr. Levine’s, makes the most familiar scores sound fresh and vital. And section for section, the orchestra played with a virtuosity and unity that are prerequisites for that kind of performance. とたいへん新鮮な名演を聴かせたといいます．
なによりも James Levine が，身軽になって，Levine らしさに溢れた演奏を展開したことをたいへん嬉しく思います．
Music Review
The Brahms Behind the Schoenberg
By ALLAN KOZINN
Published: April 11, 2011
Daniel Barry for The New York Times
The Met Orchestra, with the pianist Evgeny Kissin and the conductor James Levine, at Carnegie Hall.
Yes, he now walks on and off the stage with a wheeled walker (which lets him move at a speedy clip); he uses a cane during his bows; and he leads his players from a swivel chair. But once he begins to conduct, his gestures are clear and energetic, and the power of the musicians’ response is something to behold. That was not lost on the Met Orchestra’s audience on Sunday, which gave Mr. Levine a standing ovation and had him return to the podium three times before he had the concertmaster follow him offstage.
Mr. Levine seemed in a Brahmsian mood, and not only because the second half of the program was devoted fully to Brahms’s Symphony No. 2. He gave Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra a Brahmsian heft, and shaped them, at times, as if Brahms were the score’s guiding spirit. And if the pianist Evgeny Kissin’s playing in Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 had a thoroughly Chopinesque litheness, the orchestral passages were so loud and so broadly drawn that it was hard not to hear them as having a Brahmsian girth.
It is not uncommon to draw connections between Brahms and Schoenberg: Simon Rattle did exactly that during a visit with the Berlin Philharmonic last season. And the Five Pieces, from 1909 (heard here in the 1949 revision), early experiments in escaping the constraints of tonality, lend themselves easily to this exercise. Mr. Levine made the kinship unusually clear partly by emphasizing the work’s late Romantic accents rather than its early modernist ones.
He made a more subtle connection too, focusing on Schoenberg’s often fluid, sometimes tactile use of tone color in presenting slowly but inexorably unfolding musical ideas — and then, after the intermission, pointing up Brahms’s use of similar techniques in the Second Symphony.
The Brahms offered other joys all its own, not least the kind of sweeping phrasing that, in hands as deft as Mr. Levine’s, makes the most familiar scores sound fresh and vital. And section for section, the orchestra played with a virtuosity and unity that are prerequisites for that kind of performance. That combination of qualities enlivened the Chopin too, and created the illusion that the orchestral scoring here was as inventive as the piano writing.
Mr. Kissin’s contribution was a pure-toned, poetic line, driven but singing, with an almost narrative directness and momentum. He showed an entirely different side of his interpretive personality in his encore, an incendiary, deeply personalized account of Chopin’s Scherzo No. 2.
The World's Best Comes to Sydney [音楽時評]
Sydney のOpera House はそのユニークな建築様式でも有名ですが，オーストラリアの着実で健全な経済成長を背景に，毎年，世界の有名 Orchestra を招いて賑わっているようですが，今年はFor only the second time in its history, the Vienna Philharmonic returns to Sydney ということです．多分，サントリーホールのウイーンフィル・ウイークの前後に南半球に回るのではないでしょうか．
指揮は，Christoph Eschenbach，who is currently Music Director for both the National Symphony Orchestra (USA) and the Kennedy Centre in Washington. です．For Baritone Matthias Goerne， studied with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau，this will be his first visit to Australia. とあります．
For Sydney Opera House, the Vienna Philharmonic concerts are the latest in a series of performances as part of its World Orchestras Program, including the Israel Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta in 2008, the London Philharmonic with Vladimir Jurowski in 2009 (which also toured to Brisbane and Perth) and the Berlin Philharmonic with Sir Simon Rattle in 2010 (which also toured to Perth). と外国オーケストラ・シリーズの一環だといいます．
“The 2011 concert program features masterworks from the heart of the Vienna Philharmonic’s repertoire: Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony, Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ and music by honorary and adoptive Viennese - Brahms, Mahler and Mozart. “The orchestra is closely associated with the music of Anton Bruckner so it is thrilling that a performance of his epic ‘Romantic’ Symphony forms the core of one of the two programs.” とあります．
これからオーストリアや中国と連携して，世界的な音楽家のアジア，太平洋地域への招聘を進めることが出来れば，低成長化する日本でも現在よりずっと手頃なチケット代で，一流楽団を聴けるようになるのではないかと期待するものです．
The World's Best Comes to Sydney
April 11, 2011 - 10:10AM
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
For only the second time in its history, the Vienna Philharmonic returns to Sydney
From 29 September to 7 October 2011, the Vienna Philharmonic returns to Australia following the Orchestra’s first ever Australian concerts at Sydney Opera House in 2006. The Orchestra can trace its origins back to 1842 and has received innumerable prizes, gold and platinum record-awards, national decorations and honorary memberships in countries throughout the world. There is arguably no other musical ensemble more consistently and closely associated with the history and tradition of European classical music than this world famous orchestra.
This year, the orchestra will be led by renowned conductor and pianist, Christoph Eschenbach. He has been Music Director of the Houston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra and is currently Music Director for both the National Symphony Orchestra (USA) and the Kennedy Centre in Washington. Eschenbach is a regular guest conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic.
Baritone Matthias Goerne studied with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and is regularly invited to perform with orchestras, in operas and in recitals across Europe and North America. This will be his first visit to Australia.
For Sydney Opera House, the Vienna Philharmonic concerts are the latest in a series of performances as part of its World Orchestras Program, including the Israel Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta in 2008, the London Philharmonic with Vladimir Jurowski in 2009 (which also toured to Brisbane and Perth) and the Berlin Philharmonic with Sir Simon Rattle in 2010 (which also toured to Perth).
Talking about the this year’s Vienna Philharmonic repertoire, Sydney Opera House CEO Richard Evans commented, “The 2011 concert program features masterworks from the heart of the Vienna Philharmonic’s repertoire: Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony, Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ and music by honorary and adoptive Viennese - Brahms, Mahler and Mozart.
“The orchestra is closely associated with the music of Anton Bruckner so it is thrilling that a performance of his epic ‘Romantic’ Symphony forms the core of one of the two programs.”
But perhaps the last word should go to Richard Strauss who said, “All praise of the Vienna Philharmonic reveals itself as understatement.”
US;Symphony：破産から復活する可能性！ [音楽時評]
Syracuse Symphony Orchestra は2010~2011シーズンを打切り，今週末には破産を申請する予定だそうです．
The Syracuse Symphony Orchestra bought this（写真の） Steinway six years ago for $50,000. It's worth up to $96,000 now , and it's among the assets likely to be auctioned during bankruptcy. Two years ago, the financially ailing symphony put up that essentially free piano, worth more than $75,000, as collateral for a loan from M&T Bank．M&T, in fact, took a lien against everything the symphony owns, according to records. と全てが銀行からの借金のカタに入っているそうです．
a Chapter 7 bankruptcy — everything the symphony has acquired over the past 50 years could be sold to the highest bidder. なのだそうです．
しかし，それがSymphony の終焉になるとは限らないといいます．
とりわけ大きいのは，Symphony が持つ Music Library なのだそうです．The symphony’s extensive library of sheet music, sometimes replete with musicians’ hand-scribbled notes; という貴重品が含まれているそうです．
The end of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, however, does not mean the end of any symphony orchestra in Syracuse. In many other cities — San Diego, Nashville and Oakland, Calif., among them — bankrupt symphonies have been pulled from the ashes by benefactors or governments. とSymphony が蘇った例は少なくないのです．
潰れた筈の Honolulu Symphony でさえ，The Honolulu symphony filed Chapter 7 late last year, and in March a group calling itself the Symphony Exploratory Committee bought all the assets for $210,000. と復活の僅かな可能性を見せているのです．
A Chapter 7 bankruptcy would wipe out the symphony’s debt and void its contract with musicians. Any new symphony would start with a clean slate.
The president of the SSO Foundation, a non-profit group that supports the symphony by raising money and managing an endowment, believes that will happen here. 実例を挙げますと，
In 1988, the city of Oakland bought the music library of the bankrupt symphony there, and that collection is used by a new orchestra.
Just two days before the San Diego Symphony’s assets were to be auctioned in a bankruptcy court in 1996, a local businessman stepped forward with $2 million to save the day. The symphony — and its extensive music library, which had attracted potential buyers from as far as Wisconsin — remained in San Diego. The orchestra last year celebrated its 100th anniversary.
The Syracuse Symphony Orchestra についても，同じ事が起こりそうな予兆が見られるのです．
Syracuse Symphony Orchestra assets likely heading toward auction block
Published: Monday, April 11, 2011, 6:34 AM Updated: Monday, April 11, 2011, 8:20 AM
The Syracuse Symphony Orchestra bought this Steinway six years ago for $50,000. It's worth up to $96,000 now , and it's among the assets likely to be auctioned during bankruptcy.Syracuse Symphony Orchestra officials traveled to the Manhattan showroom of Steinway & Sons in February 1995 to pick out a new grand piano. They settled on the largest piano Steinway produced: a 9-foot-long Model D, with a black lacquer finish.
The orchestra paid $50,000. Days after the purchase became public, a local couple who loved keyboard music gave the symphony $50,000.
Two years ago, the financially ailing symphony put up that essentially free piano, worth more than $75,000, as collateral for a loan from M&T Bank, state records show. That gave M&T a lien on the piano, much like a bank may hold a lien on your car. M&T, in fact, took a lien against everything the symphony owns, according to records.
As the SSO heads toward its final movement — dissolving itself in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy — everything the symphony has acquired over the past 50 years could be sold to the highest bidder.
Among the items on the block: The symphony’s extensive library of sheet music, sometimes replete with musicians’ hand-scribbled notes; that Steinway piano, on which classical pianist Lang Lang first played Beethoven’s “Emperor” concerto; and a celeste, the instrument that produces the distinct plinking sound of the Sugarplum Fairy dance in the holiday classic “The Nutcracker.”
“There’s nothing left. Chapter 7 is corporate death,” said Greg Germain, a law professor who teaches bankruptcy law at Syracuse University. “I think what it signals is that the management of the SSO decided there’s nothing to do but liquidate it and close it.”
The symphony board March 29 suspended the rest of the season and voted Tuesday to file for bankruptcy protection. Local bankruptcy lawyers expect the filing to happen this week and say the whole case could be wrapped up in two to three months.
The end of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, however, does not mean the end of any symphony orchestra in Syracuse. In many other cities — San Diego, Nashville and Oakland, Calif., among them — bankrupt symphonies have been pulled from the ashes by benefactors or governments.
The president of the SSO Foundation, a non-profit group that supports the symphony by raising money and managing an endowment, believes that will happen here.
“I expect that there will be a new classical music organization in the community,” David Ridings said. “It will take some time, and it probably should take some time. The musicians feel damaged. The board feels damaged. Lots of donors feel hurt and damaged, and it’s going to take some time to get past that.”
Ridings said he couldn’t guess when that might be.
A Chapter 7 bankruptcy would wipe out the symphony’s debt and void its contract with musicians. Any new symphony would start with a clean slate.
The foundation has an endowment of about $7.5 million that could help support a new orchestra, Ridings said. The foundation can’t touch the principal, but it has generated enough earnings to provide about $350,000 a year to the SSO, Ridings said.
If the SSO dissolves, the foundation’s charter says the money can be used to “support the organization of a new symphony orchestra in the Central New York region.”
First, though, the SSO must go through a liquidation over which it loses control of its fate and its assets. If the orchestra files Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the court will appoint a trustee to take over and conduct a sale of the assets.
Symphony managers say the orchestra owes about $5.5 million. According to recent financial statements, the SSO showed debts of about $560,000 to M&T, $380,000 on a loan from the symphony foundation and $2.4 million to the musicians’ pension fund.
The latest available audit, from August 2009, shows non-cash assets of $130,000. The symphony could also have non-tangible assets, such as rights to recordings it has made, contracts with performers and even its name, said Todd Brown, a professor at University of Buffalo School of Law.
Still, those are apparently not enough to cover the debt, Brown said.
“Typically if you’re going to file a Chapter 7, you’ve got to be so far under water you don’t have any high-value assets,” he said.
M&T liens, if still in effect, would give that lender first priority on the sale of assets. If there’s any money left over, patrons who bought tickets for canceled concerts might get at least partial refunds, and musicians might see some of the money owed to them. Last in line would be those who loaned money without collateral, and vendors who provided a service — catering or printing, for example — and haven’t been paid.
The foundation is one of the unsecured creditors. The foundation loaned the symphony $380,005 in September 2009, Ridings said, and none of it has been repaid.
“We’re not going to get paid back now,” he said.
The symphony’s assets include the Steinway piano, which has a fair market value of $75,000 to $96,000, said Frank DeFonda of Clark Music, in Syracuse. The symphony bought the piano through Clark’s in 1995. The piano is wedged into a cinder-block storage room near the stage of the Civic Center.
The most important asset is the collection of musical scores acquired over the symphony’s 50 years, said Heather Buchman, the conductor of the Hamilton College orchestra. Such libraries can be extensive: The Honolulu symphony had 2,700 works when it sold them last month.
“The real crucial thing is the music library — all the individual musical parts for all the Beethoven symphonies, all the Brahms symphonies, just hundreds and hundreds of pieces,” said Buchman, who was a member of the San Diego Symphony when it went bankrupt.
Rebuilding the music collection would be prohibitively expensive and, in some cases, impossible, Buchman said. Beethoven symphonies might cost $400 each, she said, but works by some 20th century composers, such as Dmitri Shostakovich and Igor Stravinsky, are still under copyright and could only be rented at a cost of thousands of dollars, she said.
The scores are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, said Jon Garland, chairman of the SSO musicians’ committee. One of the first clues that management was seriously considering bankruptcy came a week ago when the musicians’ librarian told the other musicians that management had called to ask for an inventory of the music, Garland said.
Musicians are watching the fate of their pension fund, to which the symphony owes about $2.4 million. Bankruptcy lawyers say it’s likely the federal government, through the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., will essentially bail out the symphony’s debt and take over the pension fund.
The classical music world is littered with of stories of bankrupt orchestras revived.
The Honolulu symphony filed Chapter 7 late last year, and in March a group calling itself the Symphony Exploratory Committee bought all the assets for $210,000.
In 1988, the city of Oakland bought the music library of the bankrupt symphony there, and that collection is used by a new orchestra.
Just two days before the San Diego Symphony’s assets were to be auctioned in a bankruptcy court in 1996, a local businessman stepped forward with $2 million to save the day. The symphony — and its extensive music library, which had attracted potential buyers from as far as Wisconsin — remained in San Diego. The orchestra last year celebrated its 100th anniversary.
