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Less bombastic, but thoroughly convincing
Marin Alsop's elegant simplicity
Steve Cohen
Marin Alsop apparently didn't get the memo.
Female musicians these days are supposed to wear glamorous dresses to look beguiling on their CD covers and concert posters. Alsop, in contrast, wears simple black pant suits and cuts her hair short. As a result, we concentrate more on the music she programs.
She conducts the classics much the way she dresses: unfussy, simple and elegant.
I've never heard Alsop conduct a mediocre concert, and the last few that I've seen have been considerably better than that. The last two featured works associated with her mentor, Leonard Bernstein, but she led performances that were radically different from the way Bernstein interpreted those same pieces. In the Verdi Requiem with the Baltimore Symphony last spring and the DvoÅ™ák New World Symphony with the Philadelphia Orchestra last weekend, she led readings that were less portentous, less bombastic, less throbbing yet thoroughly convincing.
Her style was also equally far removed from what I grew up with in Philadelphia during the Ormandy era. Alsop cares a great deal about eliciting a beautiful sound from the orchestra, and what she gets is sonorous but less lush and plush than what her predecessors produced.
Her tempo for the New World was faster too, with no sentimental lingering, albeit with a few luftpausen (momentary suspensions). DvoÅ™ák was inspired by America, but he remained a composer from central Europe who maintained its traditions.
Organ virtuosity
Sharing the program with the New World was Samuel Barber's Toccata for Organ and Orchestra and Aaron Copland's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra. Alsop loves to program 20th- and 21st-Century compositions and the Barber has a Philadelphia connection, too, because Ormandy gave the piece its world premiere here.
The Toccata is a collaboration between orchestra and soloist, rather than a flashy demonstration of organ virtuosity. Ken Cowan meshed his playing with the Orchestra; even his solo cadenza dovetailed unobtrusively into the orchestral fabric. Then, for brief moments at the end of his cadenza, he got to pull out all the stops (almost literally) and demonstrate what his instrument can do.
Benny Goodman's challenge
The Copland piece, on the other hand, was written to display Benny Goodman's clarinet virtuosity, although the composer had to edit his score when some of his passages proved difficult for the King of Swing. The Orchestra's principal clarinetist, Ricardo Morales, has no problems with the trickiest and highest writing; he made a dazzling impression in the piece.
This is the second time I've seen Alsop conduct a concert that was short enough to allow an encore (in this case, Brahms's Hungarian Dance) and still end in less than one hour and 55 minutes— another reason audiences left happy.
Female musicians these days are supposed to wear glamorous dresses to look beguiling on their CD covers and concert posters. Alsop, in contrast, wears simple black pant suits and cuts her hair short. As a result, we concentrate more on the music she programs.
She conducts the classics much the way she dresses: unfussy, simple and elegant.
I've never heard Alsop conduct a mediocre concert, and the last few that I've seen have been considerably better than that. The last two featured works associated with her mentor, Leonard Bernstein, but she led performances that were radically different from the way Bernstein interpreted those same pieces. In the Verdi Requiem with the Baltimore Symphony last spring and the DvoÅ™ák New World Symphony with the Philadelphia Orchestra last weekend, she led readings that were less portentous, less bombastic, less throbbing yet thoroughly convincing.
Her style was also equally far removed from what I grew up with in Philadelphia during the Ormandy era. Alsop cares a great deal about eliciting a beautiful sound from the orchestra, and what she gets is sonorous but less lush and plush than what her predecessors produced.
Her tempo for the New World was faster too, with no sentimental lingering, albeit with a few luftpausen (momentary suspensions). DvoÅ™ák was inspired by America, but he remained a composer from central Europe who maintained its traditions.
Organ virtuosity
Sharing the program with the New World was Samuel Barber's Toccata for Organ and Orchestra and Aaron Copland's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra. Alsop loves to program 20th- and 21st-Century compositions and the Barber has a Philadelphia connection, too, because Ormandy gave the piece its world premiere here.
The Toccata is a collaboration between orchestra and soloist, rather than a flashy demonstration of organ virtuosity. Ken Cowan meshed his playing with the Orchestra; even his solo cadenza dovetailed unobtrusively into the orchestral fabric. Then, for brief moments at the end of his cadenza, he got to pull out all the stops (almost literally) and demonstrate what his instrument can do.
Benny Goodman's challenge
The Copland piece, on the other hand, was written to display Benny Goodman's clarinet virtuosity, although the composer had to edit his score when some of his passages proved difficult for the King of Swing. The Orchestra's principal clarinetist, Ricardo Morales, has no problems with the trickiest and highest writing; he made a dazzling impression in the piece.
This is the second time I've seen Alsop conduct a concert that was short enough to allow an encore (in this case, Brahms's Hungarian Dance) and still end in less than one hour and 55 minutes— another reason audiences left happy.
What, When, Where
Philadelphia Orchestra: Barber, Toccata for Organ and Orchestra; Copland, Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra; DvoÅ™ák, Symphony No. 9 (“From the New Worldâ€). December 1-3, 2011 at Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center, Broad and Spruce Sts. ( 215) 893-1999 or www.philorch.org.
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