H+H goes all Beethoven

Genius is used too freely these days, as witness the MacArthur Fellows program, but there are a few true geniuses in history who have broken new paths. Einstein was one, and Ludwig van Beethoven another. Born while Mozart and Haydn were still actively working, his music blazed new levels of complexity and grandeur. He combined instruments and voice in new ways and composed music of sublime beauty. The H+H program this past weekend featured two of his works: the Piano Concerto #4, featuring Robert Levin on fortepiano, and the Symphony #6, the Pastoral. The program began with a delightful short choral work, the opening chorus from Handel's Saul, sung by a youth chorus made up of high school students from several eastern Massachusetts schools, led by Andrew Clark, and accompanied by the H+H orchestra. The youthful voices soared, and most of us felt the selection was all too brief. The concerto began with a quiet soft solo, after which the motif was echoed and reworked by the orchestra. While the instrument does not have the power of a modern piano, in Mr. Levin's hands it was a soaring voice, played to perfection. The obvious chemistry between soloist and conductor led to a perfect performance. After intermission, the Pastoral Symphony led us musically through a preparation for and visit to the countryside. The music was quiet and peaceful at times, with cuckoos and other birds singing, and crashing at others as we musically lived through a storm. The H+H orchestra was at its peak, and left us wishing for more.

A night with Janis Joplin

Some signature songs sound even better when they are “covered” than when sung by the originator. Karen Akers does a better Piaf than the little sparrow did. The same cannot be said about Janis Joplin. Her distinctive gravelly voice made all of her songs uniquely hers. Despite this, “A Night with Janis Joplin,” now on national tour, provides a great evening of entertainment. The show stars Mary Bridget Davies as Janis, telling us her life story and singing very well. The show also features four superb back-up singers who cover such luminaries as Bessy Smith, Aretha Franklin, Odetta, Etta James and Nina Simone, all described as major influences on Janis. Many songs are sung first by the legendary black figure and then by Janis with her contrasting style. The backdrop and staging are well-done, with photos interspersed with 60’s style images. The singers are supported by a great band with keyboard, two guitars, bass, drums, saxophone, trumpet and trombone. The audience, most of whom were old enough to have heard the original, were wildly enthusiastic. Not the real thing, but a great night out.

A triple header hit by the New Bedford Symphony

The New Bedford Symphony under Maestro David MacKenzie has made a point of mixing the old favorites with less familiar music. Last night’s performance introduced many in the audience to Four Sea Interludes from Britten’s opera Peter Grimes, orchestrated by the composer. The opera tells the story of an English fisherman driven to suicide by the suspicious deaths of two of his apprentices, and the four Interludes served to bridge one scene to another, while telling a tale. The piece was richly orchestrated with four percussionists and a harpist on stage and a clearly emotional piece. After a scene change followed Schumann’s deeply romantic Cello Concerto, with three movements played without pause. The soloist was Carter Brey, principle cellist of the New York Philharmonic, whose playing was deeply felt and technically superb. Unusually for a concerto, the soloist and orchestra were not clearly separate, but interwove their playing, almost like a chamber music ensemble with a larger size. The NBSO strings and woodwinds filled in perfectly. Mr. Brey got a well-deserved standing ovation. The final piece on the program was Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an exhibition. There is a reason the “old warhorses” such as Beethoven’s Fifth or Dvorak’s New World remain popular: they are great music. In this pantheon must fit Mussorgsky’s opus. The death of his friend artist Viktor Hartmann prompted an exhibition of his work, and Mussorgsky wrote a piano etude describing the pictures he saw, woven together by a musical promenade taking the viewer/listener from one work to another. The piece was orchestrated by Ravel into a series of tone poems, with a finale, depicting the Great Gate of Kiev, that had echoes of the 1812 overture. The piece was again richly orchestrated. Parenthetically, I have to wonder if the Britten was programmed after the Mussorgsky, when the question came up “how can we use four percussionists and a harp in another work? The NBSO was in perfect tune with the piece, and it was a resounding success. I would also applaud Carter Brey who democratically sat in as another cellist for the concluding work.

Banjo dynamo at the Wamsutta

The Wepeckett Salon Series usually features excellent but little known musicians, but last Saturday the Wamsutta Club hosted Jeff Scroggins and Colorado, a high-energy five member bluegrass band that has performed internationally. On their way back from touring Ireland, the band found it easy to stop off in New Bedford for a gig. The band is led by two-time national champion banjo player Jeff Scroggins, and also features his 20 year old son Tristan on mandolin. Playing a mean guitar and providing most of the vocals was Greg Blake, and the band also had Ellie on fiddle and some vocals and Sebie on bass. While billed as “bluegrass,” the band featured a variety of musical styles from near-pop to traditional folk to bluegrass. Their playing was indeed energetic, and Greg’s vocal range was excellent. Ellie did a soulful rendition of “Just a few old memories” as well as providing harmony. With free parking, table service for food and drink and very reasonable prices, you owe it to yourself to check out the remaining monthly concerts.

A Grieving Mother: The Testament of Mary at the New Rep

Mary receives very little mention in the Bible; there is actually more written about her in the Koran than in the New Testament, and she was an afterthought in early Christianity. Only in the fourth century AD did she begin to be given status in the church. Because so little is written about her in the Gospels, every artist is free to create his or her own picture, in image or in words. One such is the short one-woman play Testament of Mary, by Colm Toibin now at the New Rep Theatre’s Black Box. The play was presented on Broadway, and received several Tony nominations, but had a surprisingly short run. Apparently the director did not feel the script was strong enough to hold an audience and used a dramatic staging, with a buzzard on the stage and a nude Mary at one point. The current production, directed by Jim Petosa, takes the opposite tack. There is a stone wall as a backdrop, and a single large rock on which the actress sits from time to time, and Mary. This production requires a strong actress, and Paula Langton more than fulfilled that need. Alone on stage for over an hour and a half without intermission, she had the audience captivated throughout. This Mary is a very human figure, and her story recounts the life of Jesus, with focus on the crucifiction, from the point of view of a grieving mother who does not understand what her son was doing or why he had to suffer so. She is giving her story in contradiction to that of the unnamed “visitors” intent on re-writing the story to fit their needs, doubtless two of the Apostles. The play was heavily condemned by local Catholic laity, but the play is certainly not anti-Catholic, simply the biblical story as it might have been seen by a very human mother. With a wonderful actress, this play should be on your list to see before the run ends.

H+H goes all Haydn

In an interesting conceit, this past weekend, H+H put on an all-Haydn program. In lesser hands, it would have been too much, but for them it worked. Starting with one of his early works, the Symphony number 8 is “typical” Haydn: lovely, “easy listening” classical music that one assumes was meant to entertain the guests of Count Esterhazy without asking too much of them. An interesting feature was the showcasing of several different instruments in a “concertante” style. After the stage was largely cleared we heard the Violin Concerto #3, featuring the electric Aisslinn Nosky as soloist and leader of the twelve string players. Unlike concertos from Beethoven on, the soloist was not clearly separated physically and musically from the ensemble. Ms Nosky played along with the violins during the orchestral part and then had her own moments to shine in virtuosic solos. After intermission was a brief performance: the Overture to one of Haydn’s many operas, Armida, This was, as would be expected for the genre, more dramatic than most of Papa Haydn’s opus. It also opened up a new world to me. Before today I would never have guessed that Haydn wrote 15 operas. These are rarely performed, and not because they lack quality but because in his day he was overshadowed by Mozart, and today probably because in a circular fashion, they are so little known that producers worry they will not fill the halls. The final piece of the program was one of Haydn’s later works, Symphony #84, one of the Paris Symphonies. This work, much more musically complex that Number 8, showed off Haydn’s growth over the years. A lovely performance, fitting tribute to one of H+H’s namesakes.