Author Archives: Leslie

Yefim Bronfman, Tchaikovsky, the San Francisco Symphony

Bronfman-1-(c)-Dario-Acosta-120x67  Yefim Bronfman performed Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the San Francisco Symphony, September 14, 2013. My eyes open wide and I shake my head; I am startled by my good luck to have been there. Please do not listen to anyone who belittles Tchaikovsky. There are those who will do it because too many others like his music. Do not listen to that noise, listen to Tchaikovsky. Mr. Bronfman played with power, grace, and understanding. He played delicately. He played so fast that I could not believe anyone’s fingers could move that way. He created a musical world. The SF Symphony met his need for a great partner in building this world. I want to say it was monumental; it was, but that word does not express the movement and life in the music. Mr. Bronfman played it into life. It is music that does not suggest a story but brought me to tears. The magnificence of his performance filled the hall with love, desperation, exaltation, with Tchaikovsky. The SF Symphony’s Music Director, Michael Tilson Thomas’s programming brilliance put Prokofiev’s Third Symphony on the same concert, after intermission and a chance to catch one’s breath. The SF Symphony played it as an overwhelming musical experience. The symphony, premiered in 1929, is full of struggle. All of the instruments are engaged in the battle. Knowing that the Symphony has sources in Prokofiev’s opera, The Fiery Angel, it could be the absolute struggle between good and evil, but it is a symphony, not an opera. The music has jagged, stabbing sounds and a quieter theme for the horns. There is no relief; the instruments assert their desires. It is a devilish battle. Search Prokofiev on the internet. Under his picture the caption is “Ballet Composer.” It is another harsh irony pursuing Prokofiev through the new century. Yes, ballets and Peter and the Wolf, but also the depths of this fantastic, cruel, reality in his Third Symphony. Thinking about Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, a line from W.H.Auden’s poem, In Memory of W.B. Yeats, comes to mind. “Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.” Both Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev were set upon by Russian struggles. Was Tchaikovsky too Western to be accepted as a great Russian composer? Were Prokofiev’s operas elements of pre-Revolutionary decadence? The bureaucrats with guns as well as other composers shouted, “Yes!” Auden asked the poet “with your unconstraining voice/Still persuade us to rejoice;” that is what Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev both could do and did for music and for us. Auden won’t claim “rejoice” because all is well, but because they could write this music.

Ruth Ann Swenson: Angel of Opera

Ruth Ann Swenson will perform at Weill Hall of the Green Music Center, Sonoma, CA, Sept. 29. You still have time to get a plane ticket or jump in your car if you are not near Sonoma. Do not miss this opportunity. One of the loveliest places on the planet, Sonoma is about to rejoice in one of the loveliest voices ever heard. Ms Swenson’s recital is part of a line up of major stars whose performances celebrate the opening of this new, acoustically perfect venue. (Itzhak Perlman will be there on the 21st; Herbie Hancock on the 28th.) It was a privilege to be in Ms Swenson’s audience when she sang the role of Desdemona, June 22, 2013, at the Astoria Music Festival. This writer has long considered Verdi’s Otello to be THE opera. The performance in Astoria’s legendary Liberty Theater lifted us all to a new level of experience. Ruth Ann Swenson sings like an angel must sing: pure pitch, always effortless whether the heights of her soprano or the depths, exquisite  clarity when the notes come quickly. Praying alone in her bedchamber, her Desdemona broke our hearts with her music at the same time she led us to experience more understanding through the  music alone. The Otello performance onstage in front of the orchestra was devised and conducted by Artistic Director Keith Clark. It was a masterful presentation, a proper way to recognize Verdi in his bicentennial year. In addition to Maestro Clark’s Festival Orchestra, Ms Swenson was joined by the powerful performances of Allan Glassman as Otello, and Richard Zeller as Iago. Together they created an Otello that still pierces my heart just remembering it. On Sept. 29, Ms Swenson will sing music by Bellini, Verdi, Mozart, Handel, Berlin/Rodgers & Hart, Gershwin, Lehar. For ticket information call 866/955-6040. The Green Center: 1801 E. Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park, CA. Photos: (L to R) Ruth Ann Swenson as Desdemona, Keith Clark conducting; Alan Glassman as Otello; June 22, 2013, Astoria Music Festival. Photos by Jonathan Clark.

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Dance Festival Concert & Full Day of Dance©

Where did the time go? I feel as though the Festival just ended a day or two ago. It’s Sept. 10. The Festival Concert was on August 25th, and what a tremendous program it was. A full house audience watched with obvious pleasure. The dances were beautiful, exhilarating, powerful, and even fun. The audience went outside to observe the Festival Dancers perform their site specific works in Pioneer Park, just adjacent to the Masonic Center. It was a beautiful day in the sun and under the big trees. Here are some pictures from rehearsals and performance day. If you missed the Festival this year, don’t let that happen again. Planning for Season number three begins now. It will be a great one. MasonicCenterThis is the Masonic Center: Dance Center for the Festival. Here’s the entrance to the Festival Concert. The Festival Dancers performed Song of the Mountain, a premiere, dances in the park, and Little Cat, set to a Polish folk song. BeingACatHere’s Leslie Friedman demonstrating how the Little Cats will take their bows.Entrance890Ch

Mountain View Voice Features Festival Photos

Dance Festival Composite photoThe Mountain View Voice newspaper ran a fantastic photo feature of the Festival on Friday, Aug. 23. Here’s the link to it:  http://mv-voice.com/news/2013/08/21/a-whirlwind-week-of-dance  It truly was a “whirlwind week of dance,” and the Festival Concert today at 3 p.m. will top it off in great style. We had previews of the Polish Folk Dance and the Tap Dance that will appear in today’s concert because Christina Smolen and Audreyanne Delgago-Covarrubias both drew on the dances they will perform for material in their classes. Absolutely thrilling!

Dance Festival Off to a Great Start

A wonderful day! The Festival Dancers worked so well at learning the two dances they will perform and also beginning to explore Pioneer Park, the site for their site specific works. Some questions have come up because the article in the Mountain View Voice printed that the Festival Concert would be in the park. Nope, it’s in the Masonic Center. Just that one adventurous piece, the Festival Dancers own works, will be in the park which is adjacent to the Masonic Center. Today, Michelle Le and Miranda Chatfield from the Mtn. View Voice came to photograph the dancers. Very exciting!Flying leslie Left Small

International Dance Festival-Silicon Valley Opens Tomorrow

After spending 51 weeks thinking about it, planning for it, making phone calls, sending emails, staying awake wondering what to do next, the second season of the International Dance Festival-Silicon Valley begins tomorrow morning. I can’t believe it. I’ve spent so much time trying to get the word out about the Festival, now I wonder what it will be like to be in the first class at 10:30 tomorrow morning. I see ahead to the Festival Concert and realize that we have just Monday-Friday to teach two dances to the Festival Dancers AND to have them ready to perform. Take a deep breath. Here we go.Dance Festival Composite photo

Mountain View Voice Features Festival

That wonderful newspaper, the Mountain View Voice, has run a terrific advance feature article about the International Dance Festival-Silicon Valley. Thanks to the editor, Andrea Gemmet and to the writer, Miranda Chatfield for recognizing the Festival’s significance for the whole community. Here’s the link: Lively Foundation Artistic Director Leslie Friedman http://mv-voice.com/news/2013/08/15/dance-festival-returns-to-mountain-view.

Dance Movie Night

damn-yankees-gwen-verdon-1958-everettTake a break Tuesday evening, August 20. Come to Dance Movie Night. Show time is 8 p.m. at the Mountain View Masonic Center, 890 Church St., Mountain View. Film ends around 9:30. Featured film will be a great dance classic. Admission: $5 per person. The International Dance Festival-Silicon Valley offers opportunities to dancers and non-dancers to experience the best in dance.

Bach & Fleezanis@Music@Menlo

bio_fleezanis  It is a joy to be in Jorja Fleezanis’ audience any time. On July 28, in her concert “Into the Light,” Ms Fleezanis, the rare artist who is loved as much as she is acclaimed, curated the program. She wrote that she chose music which “transports us from where we were before hearing a masterpiece to a place very different when it is over.” Music@Menlo’s 11th season, “From Bach,” presented an ideal theme for her selections. Each work, Ms Fleezanis wrote, “engages our many emotional temperatures.” She focused on music which lifts the listener into the light even while facing the darkest facts of human life. Bach’s Violin Concerto in E Major, dating from 1723, is not dated by the passage of centuries. In the wonderfully rhythmic first movement, Ms Fleezanis channeled Eleanor Powell, demonstrating through her playing and even the occasional foot tapping, the physical existence of music. It moves us as it moves the air waves. The dazzling rhythmic complexity provided a playground for the ensemble: Arnaud Sussman, Sean Lee, violins; Paul Neubauer, viola; Dmitri Atapine, ‘cello; Gloria Chien harpsichord. The dark reflection of the Adagio movement was not dismissed by the exuberant, lovely finale, but its presence made the energetic beginning and ending Allegros all the more precious. Mozart’s String Quintet no.4 in g minor (1787) recognizes pain and drama in the darkness, always present even if waiting off stage. Ms Fleezanis, Mr. Lee, violins; Mr. Neubauer, Sunmi Chang, violas; Laurence Lesser, ‘cello awakened the audience to the human answer to the dark: Here we are. We can play this music together. We can present Mozart’s thoughts to you 226 years after he met darkness with unique brilliance. Messiaen’s Theme and Variations for Violin and Piano (1932) was a surprise on the program of earlier music. It was played beautifully, enchanting anyone apprehensive about Messiaen’s technique. Ms Chien showed the piano’s percussive strength, and Ms Fleezanis’s violin took us on silken sails into the sky. It fit the artfully constructed program so well. Handel’s Eternal Source of Light Divine (1713), turned the program to sacred music. This work, also Ode to the Birthday of Queen Anne, cites the Queen as source of Light and Peace. The music gives thanks to God for “distinguished glory” adding “lustre to this day.” Performed by Elizabeth Futral, soprano; David Washburn, trumpet; Ms Fleezanis, Kristin Lee, violins; Ms Chang, viola; Mr. Atapine, ‘cello; Hyeyeon Park, harpsichord; Handel’s faith lifts his music toward a peaceful heaven. The program closed with Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen (Praise to God of all the Earth) written by Bach ca. 1730. Mr. Washburn’s trumpet was stellar. Light and dark coexist throughout. In the slow movement, the music is reflective, sad, but in his text Bach does not swerve from praising and thanking God, promising to live a “devout life.” Having opened with the exaltation of “Jauchzet!”  “Joyfully praise!” the cantata returns to Alleluia. Ms Fleezanis, meeting Bach, offers joy.