Buffalo Philharmonic at 75 Falletta’S Flair Crowns Resplendent Past Herman Trotter
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
March/April 2011 Music in Concert Buffalo Philharmonic at 75 Falletta’s Flair Crowns Resplendent Past Herman Trotter The Buffalo Philharmonic, currently observing its 75th Egmont Overture, which inaugurated the BPO’s first season on anniversary season, has had a remarkable run with a November 7, 1935. succession of music directors that would make almost any orchestra envious: Franco Autori, William Steinberg, Josef For a “lovers” program there was the happy pairing of a suite Krips, Lukas Foss, Michael Tilson Thomas, Julius Rudel, from Florent Schmitt’s Antony and Cleopatra with Berlioz’s Semyon Bychkov, Maximiano Valdes, and now JoAnn Falletta. Romeo and Juliet forming bookends to the decidedly less Since Falletta took over in 1999, the orchestra’s changes in consequential Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto by contemporary emphasis and direction may not have been as dramatic as the Chinese composers Chen and He. This was followed by an all- ones wrought by Lukas Foss in the 1960s, when the BPO Polish concert capped by Falletta’s stunning view of suddenly became a leading international proponent of cutting- Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra. Guest conductor Leon edge, avant-garde works. But Falletta is navigating a course Botstein led an imaginative program that included two of that seems to be fashioning far greater long-range benefits. Brahms’s mid-sized choral works, N„nie and Schicksalslied plus Working closely with Executive Director Daniel Hart and a revelatory account of Prokofieff’s underrated Symphony No. influential board members who have been willing to “put their 3. For a two-week Gershwin Festival in November with pianist money where their mouths are”, the BPO has achieved Orion Weiss (and recorded by Naxos for future release), unprecedented community visibility and support. This has, Falletta’s flair extended to both innovative programming and with only minor operational adjustments, allowed the audience building. Sensing Gershwin’s potential appeal as a orchestra not only to survive the 2008 recession but to arrive at “crossover” composer, she scheduled the first week’s concerts its 75th anniversary with a balanced budget and an on the Pops Series, offering Rhapsody in Blue, I Got Rhythm endowment that has increased fourfold. Many of the usual Variations, Porgy and Bess Symphonic Picture, and soprano bells and whistles adorn the BPO’s anniversary year, but the Christiane Noll in several of his great Broadway songs. The emphasis remains on the music. Where programming is second week’s concerts on the Classics Series were built concerned, this season is little different from previous seasons. around the Concerto in F and Second Rhapsody, adding works It continues to benefit from what I call the “Falletta flair”, by William Schuman and Buffalo native Philip Rothman, which could be described as a knack for combining enough whose Arc of Visibility proved strikingly evocative of moonlit “top 40” works to satisfy ultra-conservative ears with seascapes. In addition to the Pops program, there was another consistent appeal to more adventurous listeners by performing clever outreach aspect to the Gershwin Festival. For several less known, totally forgotten, or contemporary compositions years Falletta has been appealing to new listeners by deviating that are audience-friendly. In addition, most programs have a from the standard Saturday evening-Sunday afternoon concert connecting theme that broadens interest in the concert as a pairs. Instead, she has offered selected programs as Friday whole. Falletta’s programs for this 75th season not only morning Coffee Concerts with free coffee and donuts. Because display her flair but continue to expose the audience to the of Gershwin’s crossover draw, the concerts were offered on music world’s elite soloists and conductors. Violinist Midori Friday morning and Saturday evening, with good results. opened the season with a stunning Tchaikovsky Concerto, and Falletta’s gift for programming was superbly illustrated by her in December cellist Lynn Harrell offered a marvelously decision to follow Lynn Harrell’s performance of the beautiful introspective but penetrating Elgar Concerto. After the turn of but world-weary Elgar Cello Concerto with Brahms’s the year, the ultra-flamboyant pianist Lang Lang made his Symphony No. 4. Neither of these works could be considered Buffalo debut with his views on the Rachmaninoff Concerto valedictory, but both radiated an autumnal glow that left the No. 2; and pianist Christopher O’Riley will play the Grieg departing audience with warm memories. Still to be heard this concerto on a concert with the North American premiere of season are other examples of ingenious programming, such as Marcel Tyberg’s Symphony No. 2 in April and May. For the side-by-side performance of Alban Berg’s Seven Early Songs landmark seasons like this, many orchestras go out on a with Richard Strauss’s ravishing Four Last Songs, both sung by financial limb and commission a new work from a celebrated soprano Laura Aikin, a Buffalo native. In a program called composer. And many such compositions have one “Celestial Classics” Falletta will conduct Mozart’s Symphony performance and are quickly forgotten. Remember, as part of No. 41 (Jupiter) and Holst’s Planets. The 75th anniversary the 1876 Centennial hoopla, the United States government season will conclude with Verdi’s Requiem, which always commissioned the great Richard Wagner to write a Grosser stands on its own and needs no further comment. The “bells Festmarsch, premiered in Philadelphia. Even Wagner later and whistles” enhancing the anniversary season include .