WONDER WOMEN

Elad Kabilio and Kirsten Scott at Interface

Elad Kabilio's "Music Talks" are designed to break down the barriers between musicians and audience. Guests at the comfortable Interface on 30th St. are invited to get a drink, to sit on comfortable sofas in an informal arrangement, to learn from the lively and knowledgeable Mr. Kabilio, and then to listen in a new way.

Last night's theme, part of Women in the Arts Festival, was a celebration of Women's History Month and paid tribute to the strong heroines of opera. The liberation we take for granted today was not always the case and these operatic heroines were ground breaking exemplars.

A most interesting feature of the evening was the choice of artists. Mezzo-soprano Kirsten Scott and maître de chant Laetitia Ruccolo are two strong women themselves who got together and formed Bare Opera, an alternative female-run opera company that utilizes unusual spaces to present fresh takes on opera--immersive and intimate. Ms. Scott is Artistic Director and Ms. Ruccolo is Music Director. We have been writing about them for about 3 years. We love what they do.

Mr. Kabilio interviewed Ms. Ruccolo about her role at the piano. She doesn't like the phrase "collaborative pianist" and prefers the French title "maître de chant" to express her wide ranging work in coaching singers, preparing the program, and multiple other tasks.  Ms. Scott was given the opportunity to describe each operatic heroine about whom she was singing. The two women selected the arias to be performed.

We are not sure what the compelling Ms. Scott sang at her Carnegie Hall debut last weekend but everything she sang last night was stellar. The program opened with "Cruda sorte" from Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri.  Isabella is a strong woman who goes off to Algiers to rescue her lover. The delivery was superb.

Rossini loved his strong female roles, mostly mezzo-sopranos. We have heard Ms. Scott on a prior occasion singing "Una voce poco fa" from Il Barbiere di Siviglia and we loved the way she handled the various sections of the aria and limned Rosina's character through the fioritura. The performance has only gotten better with even more attention to the details of her personality. As she explained, this is an "entrance aria" meant to establish the character. She added that Rosina "keeps me on my toes".

From Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas, she sang the sad aria "When I am laid in earth", explaining that Dido's strength was not one of accomplishment but an inner reserve that helped her face death fearlessly.

Strength of character is also exhibited by Charlotte in Massenet's Werther and Ms. Scott gave us a lovely performance of "Va! Laisse couler mes larmes" which illustrates the manner in which a tearful catharsis allows women to be strong. She not only captured Charlotte's character but did so with long melodic lines.

Mezzo-sopranos are often called upon to sing en travesti, and Bellini gave the part of Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi to a mezzo. We enjoyed hearing Romeo's aria "Deh tu, bell'anima" in which Ms. Scott used her vibrato to express the character's grief when he believes Juliet to be dead.

In Les Contes d'Hoffman, the hero's muse assumes the identity of a friend Nicklausse who must be strong where Hoffman is weak; she extricates him from some hairy situations. We heard Ms. Scott perform the "Violin Aria" and it took us back to 2013 when she performed this role with Martina Arroyo's Prelude to Performance.  Again, she has only refined the character.

Similarly, we reviewed her Cherubino in 2013 and remember well how persuasive she was in the role, exhibiting all of the character's anxiety and energy.  It was a pleasure to revisit "Voi che sapete" from Mozart's Nozze di Figaro and we enjoyed hearing her tell the audience some of the excitement and challenges of singing en travesti.

Before bringing out the big guns for Carmen, the stage was turned over to the lovely cellist Laura Metcalf who played Hollman's Carmen Fantasy for Cello and Piano. Mr. Kabilio explained the function of these "fantasies" as a means of bringing the operas into the home in an era before radio, TV, CD's and internet. Ms. Metcalf and Ms. Ruccolo played beautifully together and yes, all the big tunes were heard within ten minutes.

Concluding the program were selections from Bizet's opera. The strength of Carmen is undeniable. She lived and died on her own terms--fiercely and fearlessly. We heard the "Seguidilla", the "Habanera", and "En vain pour eviter" from the card-reading scene. All were vocally splendid and dramatically affecting.

This was the perfect evening to have introduced newbie friends to opera.

(c) meche kroop

STRING QUARTET 101

Audrey Hayes, Mariya Polishchuk, Aaron Blake, Kallie Ciechomski, and Elad Kabilio

We are not at Carnegie Hall or Alice Tully Hall sitting with our hands folded in a row of somnolent obligatory attendees for two long hours, then puzzling over obscure program notes during intermission.  No! We are attending Music Talks at a roomy space called Interface on West 30th St. sitting in a comfortable armchair and listening to the exciting cellist/educator Elad Kabilio actually giving us demonstrations on the instruments of a string quartet, showing us what to listen for and getting us all excited about the program.

Mr. Kabilio's enthusiasm for his music, for his cello, and for educating and involving his audience members is completely contagious. His audience is on the young side and totally absorbed. What a different experience we are having of chamber music. Mr. Kabilio wants to break down the barriers between musicians and audience. We give him an A+.

The centerpiece of last night's program was the second movement of Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, known as Death and the Maiden. This pillar of the string quartet repertory was composed in 1824 when the composer knew his death was certain. 

The theme of this movement was based on Schubert's 1817 lied "Der Tod und das Madchen, Op.7, No. 3" which was movingly sung by the famous tenor Aaron Blake immediately preceding the movement so that we could recognize the theme. Mr. Blake was successful at coloring the voice of the Maiden with anxiety, and that of Death with comfort. The poem was written by Matthias Claudius.

The movement is in the form of theme and variations. Mr. Kabilio demonstrated how the viola plays the obsessive ticking of the clock and how Schubert used the violins to create different moods whilst the cello repeated the theme, ensuring that each repetition of the theme felt different. Changes of mode from major to minor were clarified.

The program ended with a most unusual performance of Schubert's 1815 lied "Erlkonig, Op. 1". Instead of the customary piano accompaniment, we had an arrangement for string quartet by the wildly talented composer Dina Pruzhansky; it was filled with excitement. One could listen for the horse's hoofbeats and the strings augmented the mood.

A highlight for us was hearing from Mr. Blake the means by which he colored the voices of the frightened child, the father, and that of the wily Erlkonig. Of course, for the Narrator, he used his "normal" voice. He gave a demonstration of falsetto singing and how that tone is produced using just the edges of the vocal cords.

It was a perfect followup to last night's Monteverdi in that it was obvious that the text, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, shaped Schubert's music.

Also on the program was plenty more music of anxiety, this being Halloween week. Mr. Kabilio pointed out that Edvard Grieg's sole string quartet portrayed his own anxiety and frustration in tackling this musical form. The anxiety is revealed in the obsessive repetition of a motif. The strings are asked to produce double and triple stops. Grieg never wrote another string quartet!

Equally anxious and dissonant was the prelude from Bernard Hermann's Psycho Suite which set the tone for the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name.

With all of that anxiety, it was a pleasure to hear Charles Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" which was written to parody a music critic. If any composers are reading this and you wish to write a piece to parody this music critic, we would be delighted! 

We enjoyed the performances immensely but had one minor quibble. We bet readers will have anticipated the quibble. We so wanted Mr. Blake to abandon the score! He is primarily an opera singer but anyone who wishes to enter the world of lieder recital had best learn to leave the book behind. If one can commit an entire role to memory it shouldn't be out of reach to learn a few songs.

If you are heavily invested in hearing an entire work in toto, you might not enjoy Mr. Kabilio's Music Talks. But if you would like to see what's "under the hood" and expand your appreciation, these evenings are for you. The next time we hear any of the above works we will surely have reached a new level of understanding.

(c) meche kroop

A CHORUS OF CELLOS

Elad Kabilio, Grace Ho, Luke Krafka, and Caleb van der Swaagh

One speaks of a herd of cattle or a pride of lions, but what does one call a group of cellos? For want of a better collective noun, we have decided upon a "chorus of cellos" since they sing in different voices.  If one of our readers can come up with a better collective term, please address the issue in the comment section.

The voices we heard last night at Elad Kabilio's "Music Talks" were magnificent. At the upper end of the register we are reminded of "head voice" in a soprano and at the lower end of the register we feel the resonance in our body that we feel when a bass is singing.

In the works we heard that were arranged for this unusual grouping of instrumentalists (not unusual for Mr. Kabilio however) voices were distributed among the four players-- but not consistently. Each player had opportunities to play the upper, middle, and lower voices.

Although the entire evening revealed a stunning array of Latin American music, the part of the program that left us bedazzled was soprano Larisa Martinez' heartfelt performance of Manuel de Falla's Siete Canciones Populares Espanolas. We have lost track of the number of times we have written about this cycle of songs but last night's performance was like hearing it for the first time.

Ms. Martinez' warm timbre and commitment to the text brought the emotions straight to the heart--and emotions there were aplenty! She brought out the irony of "El pano moruno", the lighthearted attempt of  "Seguidilla Murciana" to hide a broken heart, the sorrow of "Asturiana" (our personal favorite", the rapture of young love in "Jota", the peacefulness of the lullaby "Nana", and the pain of loss in "Cancion" and "Polo". The songs are brief but the feelings intense.

What was particularly remarkable about this hearing of something familiar was not only Ms. Martinez' memorable performance but that the work, composed for voice and piano, was arranged for voice and four cellos by composer Dina Pruzhansky, who also changed the key. This brought an entirely new texture to the work. It was like returning home after a vacation and finding that a designer had come in your absence and done a marvelous renovation.

Ms. Martinez closed the program with a selection from Maria la O, a zarzuela composed by Cuban Ernesto Lecuona.  What a gorgeous aria and so magnificently performed! All we can say is if we don't get to see a zarzuela presented soon in toto, we will have to do it ourself! 

Ms. Martinez went to Cuba last year as part of an artistic delegation from Turn Around Arts, which was established by Michelle Obama. (And what is the present FLOTUS accomplishing???). We are sure she dazzled the Cubans the same way she dazzled us.

Our first love is always vocal music but the instrumental part of the program was the source of great pleasure for us and for our guest who was unfamiliar with classical music but is now a convert. There is something about four cellos that will do that every time!

What is unique about Music Talks is the enthusiastic manner in which Mr. Kabilio presents the works on the program, instructing audience members in a non-academic fashion on what to listen for--i.e. the five beat measure of the folk-inflected Zortzico of Catalunyan composer Isaac Albeniz, the layered melodies of Argentinian Astor Piazzola, and the intricate manner in which Brazilian composer Heitor Villa Lobos melded Bachian structure with the color of his native folk music.

What a satisfying evening! If you have never attended a Music Talks event, you might consider their upcoming recital in which Metropolitan Opera tenor Aaron Blake (of whose voice we are very fond) will join the string quartet for some exciting music making. Put October 26th on your calendar! And we will also mention that the atmosphere is informal -- up close and personal--just the way we like it!

(c) meche kroop

LONGING FOR JERUSALEM

Inbar Goldmann, Avigail Malachi-Baev, and Elad Kabilio

When Music Talks, we listen! There is a reason for Elad Kabilio's success with his Music Talks. One reason is his enthusiasm and commitment to his work; the other is his giving the music world something unique. Perhaps these two features are common to all successful people.

Last night's presentation, given at the Center for Jewish History, attracted such a large audience that there was standing room only. The theme was Jerusalem-- as a symbol of longing for peace, for home, for a place of one's own.

We do not know whether Judaism is a religion, a race, a nationality, a birthright, or a chosen identity; but we do know that there is a culture that has been sustained over centuries in spite of persecution, ethnic cleansing, and the holocaust. To many Jews, Jerusalem represents a state of mind as well as a geographical place.

What Mr. Kabilio's Music Talks offers is education and illumination along with entertainment. What he relates is always interesting and conveyed with gusto, then illustrated with music. (If there is a word for aural "illustration" we hope one of our readers will comment below!)

These programs are so interesting that we find ourselves widening our musical horizons beyond opera. That being said, we were delighted that the program featured a most unusual arrangement (by the three artists themselves) of Verdi's "Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves" from his opera Nabucco. The strong voice of mezzo-soprano Inbar Goldmann carried the melody with Avigail Malachi-Baev's clarinet playing some gorgeous arpeggios and the cello filling in the bass line.

In the opera, the Hebrew slaves are held captive in Babylon and long for their homeland. This chorus is famous in Italy as "Va pensiero" and was important in Verdi's time. Although there is some historical revisionism occurring, it has long been thought to be important to the Risorgimento and a rebellion against foreign rule. It almost became the Italian national anthem; it succeeded as the anthem of one of their many political parties.

The rest of the program was new to us. We heard songs about Jerusalem coming from both traditions of Judaism--Sephardic (Middle Eastern) and Ashkenazic (European). We did not hear that much of a difference but we did very much enjoy the singing in Ladino, a form of early Spanish spoken by Spanish Jews. Prior to the Inquisition, Spain enjoyed an artistically fertile period during which the three Abrahamic religions coexisted peacefully!  Imagine that!

In any case, the language sings beautifully and much of it was easy to understand to anyone who speaks Spanish. 

Hebrew, on the other hand, was resurrected when the state of Israel was formed. This new country needed a language and its own music. Much of this music was created by women. Tzvi Avni set psalms to music and we heard "Yefe Nof".

We also heard klezmer music which we had thought of as Ashkenazic, but to our ear it didn't sound all that different. There was a definite Middle-Eastern feel to it in the melodies played by the clarinet. There was also a section with a very high tessitura. The second piece was identified as a celebration song; it is played at Jewish weddings and all the guests rise and join in a circular dance; it is called "Hava Nagila". Interestingly, this melody was brought to Palestine by Hasidic Jews from Europe and has an interesting history, available online to the curious.

We heard a song known as "the second anthem" of Jerusalem in which the cello initiated and played an embellished line filled with turns and trills; the voice joined in, and finally the clarinet. This was composed by a woman.

We also heard "Kaddish" from Deux Melodies Hebraique by Ravel, transposed for cello.

It goes without saying that the musicianship was excellent. We have always enjoyed Mr. Kabilio's cello but this is the first time we heard Ms. Malachi-Baev's clarinet and it was quite lovely. Ms. Goldmann's voice is strong and passionate and she clearly connected to the music she sang.  But it wasn't until the final piece about peace ("Salaam") when she sang "off the book" that we felt her connection with the audience.

We are always grateful to Mr. Kabilio for expanding our musical horizons!

(c) meche kroop

WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY....SINGS

Colin Davin, Elad Kabilio, and Larisa Martinez

You may observe that in the photo above Mr. Kabilio is blurry whilst Mr. Davin and Ms. Martinez appear rather sharp. The reason is that we do not have a fast enough lens on our iPhone and Mr. Kabilio never stops moving! Indeed this young man is always on the move. Gifted not only as a cellist but as an educator and a producer, the kinetic Mr. K. started Music Talks about six years ago and we have watched his audience growing until they outgrew their venue. Their new home is Interface, a spacious loft-like space on W. 30th St. Nothing pleases us more than seeing a Sold Out sign in connection with classical music.

In case you hadn't noticed, there is a quiet revolution going on the classical music world, one in which young artists are starting their own companies and presenting music in unusual venues in order to attract new young audience members. People who are reluctant to buy costly tickets to concert halls or invest huge amounts of money in subscriptions can more readily be tempted to attend a more casual venue for a modest entrance fee.

An advantage of this sea change is that unusual and highly specialized programs can be presented.  We are indeed in an era of specialization of taste.

Mr. K. certainly has his finger on the pulse of his audience and plays them as adroitly as he plays his cello, and that's saying a lot. He did not play the cello last night at Interface but rather put on his educator's cap and shared his ebullient enthusiasm with the comfortably seated audience.  The 90 minutes flew by and if you didn't leave with your feelings fulfilled and your brain stimulated, there is something wrong with you.

The subject of the evening was "Guitar Stories: Spain" and Mr. K. brought together two amazing artists to give us an evening as tasty as tapas. Celebrated guitarist Colin Davin immersed himself in the sounds of Iberia which Mr. K. explained is really many countries in one, revealing multiple influences from its neighbors. If the tour was too brief, then we travelers can explore further on our own.

Isaac Albeniz composed at the end of the 19th c. and, although he composed his Op. 232 for the piano, most people recognize it from its guitar transcriptions, probably most successfully accomplished by Andres Segovia. The key has been transcribed from G minor to E minor. The introduction, originally intended as a Preludio to a suite entitled Chants d'Espagne, was retitled by the publisher as "Asturias". However, to our ears, it is most definitely Andalusian in spirit.  Indeed we recognize one of the rhythms as a buleria.

Mr. Davin began pianissimo and built to an exciting intensity that brought the vigorous foot stamping of flamenco to mind. The insistent thematic repetition made it impossible to forget, and as the theme ascended the scale the excitement grew, with a more tranquil middle section providing a respite.

The fifth section of the work is entitled "Cordoba" and was given a soulful introduction. We particularly liked the quiet chorale-like section.

Federico Mompou, a Catalonian, did write for guitar and we heard selections from Suite Compostelana, commissioned by Segovia himself. Santiago de Compostela, the capitol of Galicia, is the culmination of a famous Christian pilgrimage in Northwest Spain. The "Preludio" shows the influence of nearby France whereas "Muineira" with its duple meter shows the Celtic influence on the area. Yes, the guitar can sound like bagpipes and yes, we did feel like dancing!

Poor Antonio Jose, executed at 34 during the Spanish Civil War, produced some fine music before he died.  His Sonata for Guitar has its organizational foot in Neoclassicism but its emotional foot (or heart, as it were) in Impressionism. He paid tribute to his teacher Maurice Ravel in "Pavana Triste" which had a limping rhythm reminding one of sobs. Mr. Davin's fingerwork in the Finale was rapid fire.

The culmination of the evening was Manuel de Falla's Siete Canciones Populares Espanolas, a piece that was written for soprano and piano. Although that is the way we are accustomed to hearing it, we loved the way it sounded on the guitar which was an equal partner to the lovely Larisa Martinez' luscious soprano. Her exquisite tone and clear diction conveyed the meaning of the text with Mr. Davin's guitar supplying the witty subtext. The songs are concise and pungent with ample opportunity to change mood by color and texture.

Our only quibble was that the seven songs were not performed as a unit, as they are meant to be. The cycle was interrupted twice for Mr. K. to explain the songs to the audience, which broke the mood. We believe this was a well-intentioned attempt to educate the audience and we do understand that people's attention spans are growing shorter by the megabyte, but the cycle begs to be heard in one piece!

(c) meche kroop

BACK TO BACH

Elad Kabilio and Larisa Martinez

We have been writing about Larisa Martinez and her gorgeous soprano for a couple of years now and have enjoyed her performances in opera, song, and zarzuela.  We have also been writing about Elad Kabilio and his unique MUSIC TALKS  for some time.  The pairing of these two talents is an exciting one.  Last night's recital at Interface (an unusually comfortable venue with great acoustics and couch seating) was an extension of one we heard a year ago.

Cellist/impresario/educator Elad Kabilio presented a captivating program exactly one year ago that demonstrated the influence of J.S.Bach on the Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla. We confess to never having enjoyed or understood Bach's highly intellectual music until Mr. Kabilio, in his educator hat, demonstrated what a fugue was by utilizing his cohort of cellists.  But, just as Steven Blier has expanded our appreciation of song beyond those of the 19th c., so Mr. Kabilio has expanded our appreciation of instrumental music in similar fashion.

Bach wrote Die Kunst der Fuge just for fun; it was not commissioned.  He never specified which instruments should be employed.  In this case, the four voices were distributed among four cellos and each cellist was given different voices from time to time, so the adventure would not fall on only one pair of arms. The result is complex but accessible with voices layered upon voices.

The "Contrapunctus" XIV" in D minor was the last one he wrote and it was never finished. Performance tradition includes a chorale at the end which resolves into D major, leaving the listener satisfied.  Uncharacteristically, aside from the original theme, two new themes were included, the second of which spells out B-A-C-H (we are not sure what note H represents). Was Bach pulling our collective leg?

Piazzolla was a 20th c. composer and, having been introduced to the concept by Mr. Kabilio, it became clear how he was influenced by Bach. Mr. Kabilio and his three gifted colleagues (Grace Ho, Talya Buckbinder, and Caleb van der Swaagh) had a great time with the energetic and syncopated fugue which was followed by a slow section (Misterio).  When a short demonstration without the syncopation was played one could readily appreciate the Bach-ness of it all.

We enjoyed the traditional tango "Oblivion" which involved a lot of plucking and a compelling three note ascending motif.  But our favorite was "La vi llegar" which made us want to get up to dance the tango. The pizzicato playing was stirring to say the least.

The Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos was next on the program, fulfilling the promise of the program Bach in Brazil II. The early 20th c. composition Bachianas Brasileras No. 5 is ineffably lovely and we were thrilled with the opportunity to hear Ms. Martinez perform it once more, so immersed is she in this music.

The beginning aria, the Cantilena, has Portuguese lyrics but our joy is maximized in the vocalise since no words are needed to convey such deep emotion as Ms. Martinez expressed. The spirited Dansa (Martelo) is followed by humming which seems very difficult to achieve in the upper register but Ms. Martinez demonstrated how she uses the "ng" position of the tongue.

The final work on the program sent us over the moon.  Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona wrote the one-act zarzuela Maria La O in 1930. The plot is a sad one in that the mulata Maria bears the child of an aristocrat who marries within his own social class. This zarzuela was popular in Puerto Rico, where Ms. Martinez was born and her performance showed both fine technique and depth of feeling. We enjoyed Ms. Buckbinder's tremolo accompaniment.

The audience for MUSIC TALKS is growing rapidly and all the couches were occupied. The audience seems delighted by the intimacy and informality, as well as the educational aspect. If you have end-of-year donations to make, this would be a great group to consider.  Their next event will be a world-famous harpist on January 24th. What a way to celebrate our birthday!

(c) meche kroop

DEBUSSY AND THE MOON

Maya Lahyani, Ben Laude, and Elad Kabilio

In six seasons, Elad Kabilio's MUSIC TALKS has become a most important feature of the music scene in New York City. If you have ever listened to chamber music in a large hall, feeling removed from the action and baffled by the academic language of the program notes, you will appreciate the unlimited pleasures of sitting in a casual and comfortable environment within a few feet of the performers and experiencing all the intimacy the composer intended.

We seem to be in the middle of a movement to bring good music to a new audience, an audience comprising people who love music--not just people who buy tickets to see someone with a "big name" or people who want something to do on a Saturday night.

We are not sure where this trend began but several years ago we attended several series of Rob Kapilow's WHAT MAKES IT GREAT? in which Maestro Kapilow took apart a beloved piece of music to teach us why it is great.

Mr. Kabilio is similarly an educator but he is also a fine musician with a great touch on the cello; he clearly adores performing and communicates this enthusiasm to his loyal followers. Every single show we have attended has taught us something about music and gotten us to hear it with fresh ears.

Now Mr. Kabilio has found just the right performance space with great acoustics and flexible seating, a place where one can feel right at home and relaxed in a way that fosters better listening, not note-taking.

Last night we learned a great deal about Debussy, a composer we have enjoyed but sort of taken for granted.  That has changed. We have been made aware of Debussy's place at the beginning of the 20th c., as part of a movement to connect with real people and life as it is lived, a movement seen in the visual arts among the Impressionists and in opera among the verismo composers.

The first piece performed by Mr. Kabilio and the versatile pianist Benjamin Laude (who also writes about music) was a Scherzo for Cello and Piano dating back to Debussy's student days (1882). The work is filled with enthusiasm and playfulness as the simple melody is tossed back and forth between the two instruments. There is much staccato playing on the piano and pizzicato playing on the cello. At this point, the young composer still had one foot in Romanticism.

The second offering was a piano solo from Preludes Book 1 of 1910 which was clearly inspired by Impressionism and by the wealth of new colors and rhythms Paris had been exposed to from the 1889 World's Fair.

From Preludes Book 2, composed shortly after, we heard "Brouillards", a subjective depiction of thick London fog in which the white keys are used to depict the image with the black keys used to illustrate the obscuring fog. The overall effect was one of anxiety. The pianism of Mr. Laude was outstanding.

These points were illustrated before the performance so that we in the audience would know what to listen for.  This pedagogical strategy was most effective!  Even understanding how a spacious feeling can be conveyed by intervals of an octave or fifths was helpful.

A waltz from 1910 was discussed in terms of nostalgia for the past vs. mocking of the past. Just listen to the delicious schmaltziness of the right hand and the subtle irony in the left! Another subtlety we would have missed!

This was all gravy to us, since it was mezzo-soprano Maya Lahyani's performance of Trois Chansons de Bilitis that attracted us to attend this event. From her intense performance we learned something that went beyond words. We were familiar with the history of the poetry--poet Pierre Louÿs invented the fiction that his poetry was from Ancient Greece and written by a woman named Bilitis.

Debussy selected three out of 140 poems to set. They are snapshots taken from three periods in a woman's life. (We are reminded of Schumann's Frauenliebe und Leben). In "La flûte de Pan" Ms. Lahyani conveyed the innocence of a young girl's first flirtation. The piano writing is in the Lydian Mode giving the work a mythic feel.

In "La chevelure", the sensual colors of her voice let us know that this woman was embarking on a serious romantic adventure. The chromaticism of the piano writing suggests the sensuality of the woman's cascading hair.

 In "Le tombeau des Naïades", there was the disillusionment that is felt when a man mocks his partner's dreams. It took Ms. Lahyani's consummate vocalism and dramatism to show us all this and we wondered why we'd never heard it before. We loved the way she colored her voice when the man was speaking. We were moved to tears by the universality of disillusionment springing from this very particular event. Major wow!

But the major wows were not over!  Oh, no! An original event occurred that left us wide-eyed in wonder. Israeli actor/dancer/mime Ido Rozenberg created a piece choreographed to the final selection on the program, Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor from 1915.  The character of Pierrot from commedia dell'arte was, at that time, somewhat of a cliché; Arnold Schoenberg had already written Pierrot Lunaire three years earlier. But from the pen of Debussy and the artistry of Mr. Rozenberg, everything seemed new and fresh.

In the Prologue, Pierrot contemplates the moon, for whom il est tombé amoureux.  Part II is a sérénade, in which the besotted but untalented Pierrot tries to win her love. Mr. Kabilio's cello is obliged to imitate some bad lute-playing. The finale is written in a pentatonic scale and shows Pierrot's disappointment and frustration.

To the best of our knowledge, this work has never before been performed with a dancer.  Leave it to Mr. Kabilio to come up with fresh ideas that help us hear music differently.

We have already cleared our calendar to attend the next Music Talks on November 30th. We have thrilled to soprano Larisa Martinez and the quartet of cellos that join her; but we hear this program of Bach in Brazil will be a new one.

(c) meche kroop

MUSIC TALKS

Elad Kabilio, Grace Ho, Larisa Martinez, Oded Hadar, and Caleb van der Swaagh

 

 

 

We escaped from the crowds and chaos of Cyber Monday to spend a pleasant hour with some marvelous musicians.  We learned.  We listened.  We relaxed.  We arrived stressed out and we left feeling soothed. We felt entertained as well as educated.

MUSIC TALKS has a mission: to bring music to an intimate and informal setting, to break down the barriers between musicians and audience, to expose audiences to chamber music in small doses. The experience would be a perfect one to introduce someone to the joys of classical music; it does not, however, insult the intelligence of those of us who already love music.

For example, as lovers of 19th c. vocal music and opera, there is a great deal about instrumental music we don't know and a great deal of pre-Classical music that we haven't appreciated. Without delivering an entire dissertation, cellist Elad Kabilio introduced the audience to J.S. Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge, composed toward the end of Bach's life.

We never really understood what a fugue was but Mr. Kabilio easily explained how it differs from a canon and proceeded to illustrate--the subject was played by one cello, the slight variation played by a second one (the variation for harmonic purposes), and the original subject entering the scene played by a third cello.

Apparently Bach worked out this puzzle meticulously without ever indicating for which instruments  it was intended.  To our ears, it sounded just right with four cellos!  Mathematics became music and pleased our ears as the strands were woven together into an harmonious whole.

Even more enjoyable was Bach's Aria from Pastorale in F Major which was surprisingly lyrical.

The tangos of Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz (turn of the 20th c.) and Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla (mid-20th c.), whose works we have only heard on the bandoneon, were performed as well, arranged for four cellos. In "Mocosita" there was plenty of legato bowing and staccato plucking. We felt like getting up to dance.

But the highlight of the concert was a second hearing of the"Aria" and "Dansa" from Heitor Villa Lobos' Bachianas Brasileras No. 5 sung by soprano Larisa Martinez and arranged for four cellos by Mr. Kabilio. (Villa Lobos wrote this tribute to Bach for 8 cellos.) The program was called Bach in Brazil and it was interesting to hear the echoes of Bach in Villa Lobos' composition.

We had so greatly enjoyed Ms. Martinez' performance of this work two weeks ago that we were most eager for her repeat performance. We are partial to the Cantilena sung on the open vowel "ah". No words were needed to convey the depth of feeling.

For the month of December we have decided to highlight the possibilities of supporting every small company we write about so that our readers can find something better to do with their Xmas funds than buying someone an ugly sweater.  Better to give the money to a worthwhile enterprise and make your loved ones happy with a hug!  So here is the URL...www.Music-Talks.com. Please give!

(c) meche kroop

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

Benjamin Laude, Maya Lahyani, Elad Kabilio

Last night we experienced "Music Talks" for the very first time. We hope it will not be the last. Host and master cellist Elad Kabilio has a mission of presenting classical music in an intimate and informal setting, bringing this music to a broader public. On the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, he has skills as an educator and manages to convey quite a bit of helpful information without talking down to his audience.

He founded "Music Talks" four years ago and we were happy to be made aware of his project by the sensational Israeli mezzo-soprano Maya Lahyani whom we first noticed (and reviewed) at last year's Gerda Lissner Awards Recital in which she sang the "Habanera" from Bizet's Carmen.

We are far from experts in the field of chamber music but we are eager to learn and profited by Mr. Kabilio's comments about Russian music. Not only were the comments useful but there was live demonstration on both cello and on Benjamin Laude's piano that sharpened our listening skills.

Aside from the vocal music, which we will come to shortly, we heard selections from three generations of Russian composers. As one may have predicted, our Romantic ears responded most enthusiastically to Tchaikovsky's Nocturne for Cello and Piano in D minor, Op. 19.

We learned that a Nocturne was generally played at the end of an evening of music and we learned to listen for the opening theme in the cello which was lavishly embroidered by the piano when it returned after the lavish coda of the second section.

We then heard Chant du Ménestrel, Op. 71  by Alexander Glazunov, who came along a generation after Tchaikovsky. The cello was intense and we related best to the lyrical center section.

Stravinsky's revolutionary tendencies and eclecticism were discussed before we heard his 1925 Serenade in A for piano, beautifully played by Mr. Laude. We learned why this composer returned to Romanticism for this work and why each of the four sections lasts only 3 minutes. (If you can guess why and write it in the comments section below, you will get a free subscription to the blog!)

The first part "Hymn" was an homage to Chopin and once Mr. Laude played the original Chopin melody on the piano, we could better appreciate what Stravinsky did to it. We also learned about how he avoided defining the major/minor issue at the conclusion of the piece "Cadenza Finale".

As valuable as the instrumental part of the program was, we found the highest level of interest in the vocal section. Ms. Lahyani is a mezzo of the highest order who can be seen and heard onstage at the Metropolitan Opera. She has a voluptuous plushy sound that was just right for Sergei Rachmaninoff's Romantic songs. The first four were composed when Rachmaninoff was barely past his teenage years.

We loved the intense drama of "Oh Stay, my love, forsake me not!" written in the throes of an ill-fated love affair with a girl who had (insert gasp) "Gypsy blood". "Morning" is a gentle song which Ms. Lahyani swelled to a fine climax. "In the silence of the mysterious night" was followed by our favorite "Do not sing, my beauty, to me".

This is among our dozen favorite songs by ANY composer. The minor key melody is memorable and the words are haunting and ineffably sad. It is still running through our brain and inhabiting our heart. Ms. Lahyani did particularly well with the vocalise section. The depth of feeling and variety of dynamics were impressive.

We also heard an intense song from a later period of Rachmaninoff's oeuvre--"All once I gladly owned", and as encore, Tchaikovsky's well known "None but the lonely heart".

To our ears, Ms. Lahyani's Russian sounded just fine but our native born Russian companion told us that although the words were mostly comprehensible, the Russian was pronounced with a significant accent.

We have one criticism of this otherwise superb performance. We have written often about the use of a music stand. In this case, Ms. Lahyani barely looked at it and we had the impression that the score was there more as a security blanket. But it does serve to interrupt the connection with the audience.

All told, it was a most worthwhile evening--mostly entertaining with a healthy dose of instruction.

(c) meche kroop