{"id":5630,"date":"2019-11-08T21:47:59","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T21:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/?p=5630"},"modified":"2019-11-15T21:48:09","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T21:48:09","slug":"review-ward-stare-leads-the-rochester-philharmonic-orchestra-in-bach-to-bartok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/review-ward-stare-leads-the-rochester-philharmonic-orchestra-in-bach-to-bartok\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Ward Stare leads the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in \u2018Bach to Bart\u00f3k\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Rochester City Paper<\/a><\/p>\n

Classical review: \u2018Bach to Bart\u00f3k\u2019 an RPO journey worth taking<\/strong>
\nBy David Raymond<\/p>\n

Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg \u2013 great composers but only occasional visitors to Kodak Hall at best \u2014 finally made it on the same Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra program last night. The evening also included a 20th-century standard, B\u00e9la Bart\u00f3k\u2019s Concerto for Orchestra.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

If Schoenberg\u2019s fantastically detailed orchestration and overheated emotions recall any predecessor, it\u2019s Mahler. As a devotee and convincing interpreter of Mahler, Ward Stare\u2019s passionate reading made the connection between these two composers very clear.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Here and there, the musicians approached Webern and Schoenberg\u2019s exposed writing hesitantly, but there was plenty of beautiful solo and ensemble playing to be heard along the way. And the full-orchestra outbursts in the first and fourth pieces were downright startling; nobody presented \u201ccatastrophe\u201d like Schoenberg. Stare had the long view of each piece, and gave a clear and compelling reading of still-complicated music.<\/p>\n

Alban Berg\u2019s Violin Concerto is one work I have long hoped to hear on an RPO program; it has been accepted as a masterpiece since the day of its premiere in 1936, but the orchestra hasn\u2019t programmed it since 1981. I\u2019d never heard it live at all, and what a powerful piece of music it is. Berg was of course the composer of the operas \u201cWozzeck\u201d and \u201cLulu,\u201d and for all the formal complications of his music, a masterful musical dramatist.<\/p>\n

Berg\u2019s last completed work (he never heard it performed) is \u201cin memory of an angel\u201d \u2014 a memorial for a beautiful and beloved young woman, Manon Gropius (the daughter of Mahler\u2019s widow Alma and her second husband). It\u2019s also Berg\u2019s own premonition of death and a review of his life, combining Baroque and atonal musical procedures. That is a very simplified version of the story behind this concerto, which is worth reading in detail.<\/p>\n

Bach comes in here as well, in the final movement, when Berg turns the last four notes of the 12-tone row that is the basic DNA for the concerto into the first four notes of a Lutheran chorale tune. \u201cEs ist genug\u201d (\u201cIt is enough\u201d \u2013 an acceptance and welcoming of death), is heard here in Bach\u2019s haunting, surprisingly chromatic arrangement. Those four notes lead to a transcendent, and thoroughly tonal ending: death and transfiguration.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d never heard violinist Tessa Lark either, but she, Ward Stare, and this concerto all seem made for each other. She tossed off its fearsome technical demands with aplomb, unerringly finding the emotion behind the notes, and Stare and the orchestra were with her every step of the way. This music was compelling in every measure. The overwhelming climax of the second movement was magnificent here.<\/p>\n

Lark also perfectly complemented the \u201cback to Bach\u201d thread of the evening with her solo encore: a refined elevated reading of the Largo from Bach\u2019s Third Sonata.<\/p>\n

After this marvelously moody first half, Bart\u00f3k\u2019s Concerto for Orchestra came off almost as a big, playful puppy. Like the Berg Concerto, it is a vast canvas by a composer who saw his mortality in the near future; the Concerto for Orchestra has an elegiac slow movement, but instead of Berg\u2019s tragic climax and slow fadeout, Bart\u00f3k mostly offers geniality, wit, and virtuosity.<\/p>\n

Of all the pieces on this program it is definitely the most frequently performed and acclaimed, but its energy and orchestral brilliance never seem to fade. Stare and the orchestra really cut loose for this and put on an exciting show, from elegantly turned woodwind solos and duets to passionate, massed-strings sound.<\/p>\n

In his spoken introduction to the Schoenberg and Berg works, Ward Stare commented, \u201cThis is probably my favorite of this season\u2019s programs.\u201d Based on last night\u2019s concert, it\u2019s definitely mine.<\/p>\n

Read the full review.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Rochester City Paper Classical review: \u2018Bach to Bart\u00f3k\u2019 an RPO journey worth taking By David Raymond Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg \u2013 great composers but only occasional visitors to Kodak Hall at best \u2014 finally made it on the same Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra program last night. The evening also included a 20th-century … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4208,4209,3910,3685,3613,3686,3612,4207],"class_list":["post-5630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bach","tag-bartok","tag-classical","tag-concerto","tag-conductor","tag-orchestra","tag-review","tag-ward-stare"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5631,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5630\/revisions\/5631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/1616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}