Pittsburgh New Music Net

You can hit a concert every night over this weekend, starting tonight with the PSO premiering Joan Tower’s new work Stroke. That concert is tonight and tomorrow night and features pianist and wolf conservationist (how often to you get to type that phrase?) Hélène Grimaud performing Mozart’s Piano Concert No. 23, K. 488, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2. Go to the Friday night show if you can so that…

You can catch Alia Musica Pittburgh’s second spring concert at Saturdany night at 7 p.m. (Synod Hall). And that’s not all! If you order now (or even if you don’t) you can hear ELCO’s “Mixtape” concert Sunday night at the Brewhouse, and as you would hope, there will be lots of Duquesne Pilsner on hand as part of the festivities (and coffee for the under 21 set.)

Whew! Are you ready?

So basically, I almost never give  a standing ovation. It just doesn’t seem to mean that much anymore, and classical music audiences tend to give them out for merely competent performances. I’ve even been at concerts where the soloist, though famous, gave a truly sub-par performance only to have the audience leap to their feet.

Friday night’s performance of Final Alice by the PSO was frought with technical difficulties, especially in the case of Hila Plitmann’s headset mic, which seemed to have a loose connection somewhere that led to very loud pops at random intervals and to a lot  flinching in the audience. Pittsburgh’s USDA Grade A classical music critics have already written about the tech issues here and here.

What I found particularly discouraging was not the tech problems, per se—tech fails, and usually at the worst possible time—but the length of time it took for the engineers to make a decision about how to address the situation. It was fully two thirds of the way through the piece before Plitmann was given a wireless handheld and the headset mic was turned off for good. During those two thirds of the piece I was stewing in my juices, thinking about how hard it is to get a good hearing of a contemporary work, and how any barrier makes that more difficult. So when  Final Alice came to a close and the crowd leapt to its feat in a thunderous and sustained ovation, I got off my curmudgeonly butt too. And it wasn’t one of those stand-clap-clap now let’s run to the parking garage before everyone else ovations that I’ve seen plenty of times; this felt like the real thing.

I found myself wondering why, with with the actual experience of Del Tredici’s work having been so degraded, did the audience respond so enthusiastically? One clear reason has got to be Plitmann’s astonishing performance of such a demanding piece. I think there was a certain amount of rallying around her and the orchestra, who were in no way to blame for the difficulties. What also stood out to me, was that Del Tredici’s work really is one of the masterpieces of the 20th-century orchestral lit, and not even botched sound reinforcement could hide that. I left wanting to spend more time with a piece that has many riches to offer.

Being an audio engineer is tough work. Everyone has an opinion, and you only get noticed when something goes wrong. That said, at the highest professional level, you don’t expect to see the kinds of problems Heinz Hall experienced on Friday night, and if those problems occur, you expect them to get worked out more quickly. It would have been fine with me if Slatkin had stopped ten minutes into the work once it was apparent that the problem wasn’t going away. Maybe there is something in the contract that says he’s not allowed to, but that would have been preferable to having so much of what was very apparently a brilliant performance by both soloist and orchestra disfigured by sound reinforcement issues. In any case, it’s a testament to the depth of the music and the strength of the performances that the we were able to get a glimpse of how great a work Final Alice is, and I heard that Sunday’s performance was technically flawless. Good news to be sure.

I gotta say, I’m very excited about hearing Hila Plitmann sing David Del Tredici’s Final Alice tonight. It’s hard for me to believe that it was 2002 when Plitmann and Del Tredici were here for Pitt’s Lehar Residency, but the performance and the music both stick out in my mind as outstanding.

The PSO also deserves a shoutout for some creative programming with Peter Leo’s revamped Peter and the Wolf, narrated by David Conrad, providing the other side of this program. It’s risky for a major orchestra to put a contemporary piece on a program without a warhorse or a top tier star to move tickets, but this is the kind of program that is really designed to expand the orchestra’s audience beyond the subscriber base and the programming and marketing teams deserve kudos for the effort. And don’t forget that PNMNet fans get a 20% discount! To order your discounted tickets, visit culturaldistrict.org and use promo codes “Twisted” or call 412.392.4819.

Another shout-out goes to Patrick Burke and the composer/performer collective NOW Ensemble. NOW releases their new CD Awake tonight at Le Poisson Rouge, so if you are in New York, check out this outstanding group.

Hila Plitmann and David Del Tredici

There’s lots of good music coming up as we head into May, but I wanted to give you the early heads-up on two exciting performances from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra: David Del Tredici’s Final Alice, with the remarkable soprano Hila Plitmann (May 6 and 8) and the Premiere of Joan Tower’s Stroke, a work commissioned by the PSO as part of Tower’s year-long residency with the orchestra (May 13 and 14).

The PSO has generously offered PNMNet fans a 20% discount for both concerts! To order your discounted tickets, visit culturaldistrict.org and use promo codes “Twisted” (Del Tredici’s Final Alice) and “21635″ (Tower’s Stroke), or call 412.392.4819.

The May 6-8 performances of Final Alice also feature a Pittsburgh-centric version of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. The traditional story—boy meets wolf, wolf eats boy, hunter kills wolf and rescues boy unscathed from wolf’s belly—has been rewritten by former Pittsburgh-Post Gazette columnist Peter Leo to reflect modern times in our city. Actor and tireless Pittsburgh advocate David Conrad will supply narration for Leo’s updated story.

These concerts will also include a bevy of innovative ancillary programs such as discussion with the artists, literature experts, and special art exhibits. You can find out more about these events after the jump.

The May 13 and 14 performances of Tower’s Stroke will also included world renowned pianist Hélène Grimaud performing Mozart’s piano concerto No. 23 K. 488, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major.

(more…)

Heinz Hall
Tickets

Joan Tower’s year-long residency with the PSO will culminate in the premiere of Tower’s Stroke. The program also features Hélène Grimaud performing Mozart’s Piano Concert No. 23, K. 488 and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto Symphony No.2 in D Major.

Full details for the program, including a video interview with Joan Tower, are here.

So is this a great weekend for new music in Pittsburgh or a terrible weekend? I think it depends on whether you can bilocate and/or have plenty of time. Here’s the rundown.

Starting tonight (Thursday) and running through March 5, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will perform Joan Tower’s Tambor and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (1945, not 1911. Go figure.).

On Saturday, March 5, the PSO will read works by student composers from CMU, Duquesne, Pitt, and WVU. This is a great program that really gives our up and coming composers a truly unique experience, so bravo to the PSO and all this year’s composers who had their music selected.

The evening of March 5 brings Ravish Momin and Tarana back to town after a very well received concert at the Warhol this summer. Or you can take in entelechron—Roger Zahab, Rob Frankenberry, and David Russell—at the Andy Warhol Museum performing music of John Cage. See what I mean about bilocating?

The Cage program at the Warhol is the first of three Music on the Edge Programs in 15 days, so as they say in the action movies, buckle up! MOTE continues its highly compressed season on March 13 with New York’s counter)induction and finishes off with the entirely unique Newband playing music by Harry Partch, Dean Drummond, and Mathew Rosenblum on the Harry Partch Instruments.

Check out the events calendar for more details.

If you are heading out to Heinz Hall tonight to see the PSO perform Joan Tower’s Concerto for Clarinet, don’t forget that it’s Light Up Night and there will be even more random street closures than usual. Via the PSO’s Facebook page,

STREET CLOSURES: Roberto Clemente Bridge (Sixth Street.): 5 a.m. – midnight.
Andy Warhol Bridge (Seventh Street): 9 a.m. – midnight.
Rolling closures (6 to 8 p.m.) from Ross Street to the corner of Stanwix and F…t. Duquesne Blvd.

The Rolling Closures should be the name of Pittsburgh’s next great Rock band. You heard it here first.

Sunday night, Alia Musica Pittsburgh performs at Frick Fine Arts Auditorium. Rumor has it there is a duo for two hi-hats on the program, so what more do I need to say?

Heinz Hall

Tickets

Leonard Slatkin leads the PSO in Tower’s Concerto for Clarinet with Principal Clarinetist Michael Rusinek as soloist. The concert also includes Bernstein’s On the Waterfront and Copland’s Appalachian Spring.

A busy weekend for lovers of contemporary music starting tonight with the PSO playing Joan Tower’s Uncommon Woman and Made in America (they’ll repeat the program on Saturday as well), Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble giving a 5 p.m. performance on Saturday at Kresge (see the previous post), and Music on the Edge presenting Norway’s Cikada Ensemble with guitarist Magnus Andersson on Saturday at 8. And don’t forget to check out Andy Druckenbrod’s article on Joan Tower in Thursday’s P-G.

Heinz Hall

Tickets

Carl Maria von Weber: Oberon Overture

Max Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1

Joan Tower: Sequoia

Maurice Ravel: Suite No. 2 from Daphnis et Chloe

More information about this concert.