Is 2008 Over Yet?

Can I come out now?

2008 has been an exceptionally crappy year in so many ways, global and personal. From the total meltdown of financial markets to staggeringly blatant political corruption in Illinois, to ongoing misery in Darfur, violence in Kenya, violent xenophobia in South Africa, Mugabe refusing to leave office, the earthquake in Sichuan, Afghanistan slipping into disarray, a completely unnecessary war in Georgia, successful gay marriage bans in California and the South, food riots due to spikes in prices, 2008 just plain sucked. Not to be completely overshadowed, the perpetual human and political disaster that is Palestine flared up spectacularly just in time before the end of a rather embarrassing political year in Israel.

Ecologically, 2008 was a singular catastrophe. Between hurricanes Ike and Gustav, an unusual cold spell in China at the beginning of the year, floods and record numbers of tornadoes in the Midwest, cyclone Nargis, floods in China, record wildfires in California and the destructive winter storm Emma in Europe, and the latest winter storms in the US that included the first snow in Las Vegas in over 30 years, hardly anyone can seriously doubt that human-induced climate change is happening. 2008 was the tenth warmest year on record (and the ten warmest years ever all occurred within the last twelve years). Even the last diehard global warming deniers will sooner or later come around once they look at the bills for their increasing insurance premiums. The insurance industry has calculated that damage due to natural catastrophes in 2008 amounted to a total of 200 billion US dollars.

But 2008 did have some highlights. We elected Barack Obama to the presidency in the most disciplined grassroots political effort ever seen. This, more than anything, should give us some hope that 2009 can't possibly be as bad as 2008. Also on the personal side, 2008 wasn't a complete waste. While a loss of gainful employment was a setback, the extra time spent with my wife, relatives and family; the new and revived friendships and - last, but not least - the extra time spent practicing piano and going to concerts have been priceless and very special. So, in this spirit, here is to a 2009 filled with more of the good stuff from this last paragraph, and less of the bad stuff from the first two.

Berliner Philharmoniker Streaming Live

Websites like medici.tv and monteverdi.tv have already introduced classical music fans to the glories of high definition streaming videos of classical concerts. The Berlin Philharmonic now takes the idea to its next logical step: LIVE streaming high definition video directly from the concerts. That's right. Don't worry about figuring out what tie to wear or booking that flight to Berlin. Soon you will be able to virtually attend *every* regular season concert of the Berlin Philharmonic right at your home computer - provided you have a fast internet connection and an adequate enough sound system to do the orchestra justice.



The Berlin Philharmonic has just launched its new "Digital Concert Hall" website via which you will be able to see their upcoming concerts, starting January 6, 2009, as well as an archive of past performances. While registration is free, watching the videos isn't. Passes for individual concerts are between EUR 5.00 and EUR 9.90 and a season pass for EUR 89.00 gives you access to the full season's videos. But you don't have to buy the proverbial cat in the bag without first getting an idea of how the video will sound and look on your machine. Clicking the "How it Works" link takes you to a video explanation of the website as well as to a "Stream Test" that includes a video of Sir Simon conducting the first portion of the last movement of Brahms's 2nd Symphony up to the beginning of the repeat.

Screen captures below from the "Stream Test".





[EDIT:] Videos of all the earlier concerts from the current season can be found in the archive and are individually available for purchase. You can view a video preview for each. Click on "More Information" to access the preview link.

December Music Wrap-Up

Fabio fantastico

After hearing Fabio Luisi live for the second time in less than two months, I wholeheartedly second Opera Chic's selection of Luisi as Conductor of the Year. Having brought his own Staatskapelle Dresden to Chicago last month for a glorious performance of Strauss and Brahms, Luisi returned to Orchestra Hall last week to lead the CSO in a program of Weber, Nielsen and Berlioz, marking his debut on the CSO podium.

Guest conductors, being transients, rarely are able to meaningfully affect an orchestra's sound and color palette. Given the limited rehearsal time, the task is even harder for an unfamiliar conductor making his debut and in a program covering a very disparate selection of works from different musical periods and cultures. But it is precisely this that Luisi achieved last night. Weber's Oberon Overture had that trademark German romantic darkness typically associated with Luisi's Dresden Orchestra, while the Nielsen flute concerto was appropriately transparent and angular. For Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, Luisi managed to coax yet a different sound world out of the CSO, illustrating Berlioz's radical score in vivid detail.

As in his Dresden appearance, Luisi exhibited an uncompromising attention to detail, phrasing and balance that may have been frustrating to musicians ready for a holiday break, but yielded results of a caliber rarely heard even at Orchestra Hall. The Oberon overture, for example, featured some of the finest and most incisive string playing heard from the CSO in recent years. In the Berlioz, Luisi created the most stunning musical sceneries. For example, in the very opening bars setting the atmosphere for the Rêveries-Passions, or in un Bal conjuring up the image of a roomful of party guests turning their heads as a stunning woman (the idée fixe) enters. Yet, despite the detail, the performance never disintegrated into disjointed bits. Luisi took the Berlioz rather briskly, but maintained a flexibility of tempo that kept the playing urgent and the narrative compelling and coherent. Particularly marvellous in that respect were the third and fourth movements: the former sounding genuinely like an organic whole - a rare achievement in this piece - the latter finding the right pace, neither a lugubrious schlep of death, nor so grotesquely fast as to lose its portent of doom. All around, this was a masterful illumination of a very treacherous score. One hopes that Luisi will make Chicago a regular destination in his tour schedule.

CSO principal flute, Mathieu Dufour, was the stellar soloist in the Nielsen flute concerto, in which he yet again exhibited his peerless virtuosity and sheer tonal beauty. It was a special treat to hear Dufour in this repertoire which asks the flutist to engage in a dialogue with more sonically powerful interlocutors like the trombone - a challenge that presented no problem for Dufour's enormous tone. Speaking of trombones, CSO trombonist Charles Vernon played his part with such stunning dynamic control that one wishes we could hear him more often in a solo role.

Barenboim @ Harris

OK, so I have a new gripe about the Harris Theater's acoustics to add to the list: they're lousy for piano recitals, too. Firstly, on the balcony the sound comes across very blurry and unarticulated. You can see the pianist pedaling judiciously, but the audio doesn't match the visuals. Basically, as far as I can tell, the upper balcony seats are not worth the money for any non-amplified performance, however cheaply they may be offered. It's a different story on the main floor where the sound is actually quite okay, though the piano still sounds more distant than it physically appears. But even on the main floor the Harris Theater somehow manages to be a space in which every cough and dropped program booklet is heard much more clearly than the music.

Daniel Barenboim returned to Chicago this past Thursday for his first Chicago area solo recital since leaving the helm of the CSO. He came, he played Liszt and single-handedly held off a snowstorm the weather people had promised for that evening. Okay, maybe not the last part. Many critics take Barenboim to task for his seemingly hectic schedules of weeks crammed with many musically demanding events - Barenboim just premiered Eliott Carter's newest work, Interventions for piano and orchestra, with James Levine and the BSO in Boston and at Carnegie Hall, while also giving his Met Opera debut conducting Tristan und Isolde and giving an identical all-Liszt piano recital at the Met. But I actually think Barenboim revels in that sort of non-stop musical immersion. Spending an evening with Liszt is probably a way for him to recalibrate his mind before returning to another round of Tristan.

Before an adoring crowd that included many members of the Chicago musical establishment, as well as past and present CSO musicians, Barenboim offered an all-Liszt program patently unsuited for the cavernous acoustics of the Harris Theater, yet so compellingly performed that one was drawn in nevertheless. There are pianists of greater technical virtuosity, with more fire and dazzle. But what keeps me coming back to Barenboim's performances is his ability to overcome the percussive character of the piano and his peerless ability to connect a piece of music to a larger context of musical influences and relationships. And this program offered some textbook examples.

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli described his non-percussive piano sound as having evolved from his prior training as a violinist and organist. If Barenboim never trained as a vocalist, you would never know that from the way he plays the piano. Unlike just about any living pianist today he can make a melodic line breathe and give it its unique tonal character, instantly evidencing his immense experience as an opera conductor and vocal accompanist. This was most mesmerizingly apparent in the three Petrarca Sonnets that opened the program. Suspended in gradations of pianissimo at the verge of inaudibility, Barenboim managed to give each line its unique voice and sustain and spin it all the way to its natural conclusion.

Likewise, the three paraphrases from Verdi operas that concluded the program allowed Barenboim to pull an almost orchestral palette of colors out of the piano. Most interesting for me was the Aida paraphrase, where Barenboim managed to give the priests' chorus such a disembodied tonal character that the sound of that voice seemed to really come from offstage, as it would have in the actual opera. The weak point of the performance was the Dante Sonata. Not only because it is a very uneven work, which Barenboim did not manage to really present as a coherent whole. But also because at this point in the recital Barenboim's technique became rather uneven. But as in many Barenboim recitals I have attended, Barenboim seemed most at ease and technically brilliant in the encores, in this case a Scarlatti sonata, a Chopin Nocturne and the "Minute" Waltz.

There has been some speculation that this recital was a stepping stone towards mending relations with the CSO and getting Barenboim to return more regularly to Chicago. Let's hope it is so. The adoring crowds on Thursday night were ample enough evidence that Barenboim has had a lasting effect on Chicago's musical scene during his 15-year tenure as the CSO music director.

Haitink Ends 08 Residency with a Runthrough

Bernard Haitink always struck me as one of the most meticulous conductors working today. In his best performances there is practically no score indication that is glossed over or not put in proper context with the whole. It therefore seemed to me a little out of character that Haitink would end his 2008 residency on December 9 with an underrehearsed runthrough of one of his greatest hits of two seasons ago, Bruckner's 7th. Granted, this performance was a bit of a warm-up for an upcoming East Asian tour. But still, this was a concert more illustrative of unrealized potential than an evening of memorable music-making. While the comparative lack of rehearsal time generated a certain refreshing spontaneity often missing from Haitink's conducting, articulation and phrasing were not quite on the superlative levels we have become accustomed to from Haitink and the CSO. Nonetheless, it was quite clear that both conductor and orchestra have this work in their bones. With a little more rehearsal and the adrenaline that comes from performing on tour, audiences in Asia should be in for a treat. Haydn's Symphony No.101 "the Clock" comprised the first half of the program and suffered perhaps most from the lack of rehearsal. Everything was in place, but lacked rhythmic bounce and the symphony ended up sounding rather tedious despite its relative brevity compared to the Bruckner.