Alexander Platt


	CRITICAL PRAISE FOR ALEXANDER PLATT 2010 Sunday afternoon brought Alexander Platt’s...—Alan Becker, February 15, 2010, South Florida Classical Review Musical marriage make magical melodies—Betty Ligon, The El Paso, Inc. A tip of the hat, then, to Alexander Platt and the Boca Raton Symphonia,—Greg Stepanich, The Palm Beach Arts Paper 2009 “Platt led his orchestra with enthusiasm and great care —Alan Becker, South Florida Classical Review; Boca Raton Symphonia, 11/9/09 “Conductor Alexander Platt demonstrated why his soon-to-end tenure —Gregory Stepanich, PalmBeachArtsPaper.com, Boca Raton Symphonia, 11/9/09 Most of the excitement —Heidi Waleson, The Wall Street Journal, May 28, 2009 PLATT, WAUKESHA SYMPHONY END SEASON WELL —Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, May 20, 2009 Peter Brook’s “La Tragedie de Carmen” —Lawrence A. Johnson, Chicago Classical Review, May 11, 2009 Most of Bizet’s best-loved musical —John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune, May 4, 2009 CHICAGO OPERA THEATER’S “CARMEN” MAKES BIZET LESS BUSY —Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times, May 3, 2009 Artymiw, Shostakovich shine at Boca Symphonia—By Greg Stepanich, Palm Beach ArtsPaper 3/23/09 Rousing Performance—Mendelssohn, Ravel, Larsen and Tchaikovsky, by LAWRENCE BUDMEN, Music & Vision, 2/14/09 Fresh programming enlivens Boca Symphonia concert—By Greg Stepanich, Palm Beach ArtsPaper, 2/9/09 Waukesha Symphony evokes glamour of movies—Tom Strini of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1/25/09 Radiant Rachmaninoff—John Jahn, Shepherd Express Platt,Boca Symphonia glorious in Dvorak—Alan Becker, South Florida Classical Review, 1/12/09 Palm Beach ArtsPaper—Greg Stepanich, 1/12/09 2008 2008 SAW MANY HIGH POINTS—Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 12/20/08 GRANDLY ROMANTIC: Boca Symphonia— Lawrence Budmen, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 12/17/08 BOCA SYMPHONIA OPENER: Greg Stepanich, Music Ciritic, The Palm Beach Post 12/8/08 Waukesha Symphony Orchestra: New work for bassoon is intriguing—Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel November 17, 2008 WSO excels in tough program—By TOM STRINI Journal Sentinel music critic Posted: Oct. 14, 2008 Reduced Waukesha Symphony gets Haydn’s humor—By TOM STRINI Journal Sentinel music critic Posted: 4/6/08 South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com—February 11, 2008—By Lawrence Budmen 2007 My 10 best classical performances of 2007—Greg Stepanich , Palm Beach Post Platt makes charming debut with Bach—Jack Zink, South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com Ensemble matures at impressive pace —Sharon McDaniel, Palm Beach Post Platt themed [Waukesha Symphony concert]—Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel “Mr Platt’s arrangement [Del Tredici’s FINAL ALICE]—Steve Smith, The New York Times Opera Canada/Banff Centre for the Arts; Frobisher —Kenneth DeLong August, 2007 BLUEBEARD and ERWARTUNG —Mark Thomas Ketterson, Opera News ERWARTUNG, BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE —Richard Covello, Opera Canada magazine “American conductor Alexander Platt —Andrew Patner, Bloomberg.com “Alexander Platt —Marc Geelhoed, TimeOut Chicago “Fortunately COT’s —John von Rhein, The Chicago Tribune “As led by COT —Andrew Patner, The Chicago Sun-Times Waukesha Orchesta's MOZART A THRILL —Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reviews archive: 2006 and earlier 2010 Sunday afternoon brought Alexander Platt’s final appearance as the Boca Raton Symphonia’s principal conductor. Next year Phillipe Entremont takes the helm of what has become one of South Florida’s premier orchestral ensembles. Platt can take great pride in his accomplishments with the orchestra since his appointment in 2007, and the good news is he will return to join the Boca Symphonia in the newly created post of principal guest gonductor. Sunday’s well-attended concert at the Saint Andrews School introduced the audience to Samuel Barber’s ebullient Capricorn Concerto for flute, oboe, trumpet and strings. Capricorn, was the name of Barber’s home in Mt. Kisco, New York where he lived with his partner and fellow composer Gian Carlo Menotti for many years. Written in 1944 when the composer was serving in the army, it’s a neo-Classical piece in three pithy movements, and presents a golden opportunity for the three soloists to strut their stuff. This they did, in glorious spirit and sound, with Jeffrey Kaye’s deft trumpet playing, the sprightly flute of Jeanne Tarrant, and the supple oboe tones of Erica Yamada. Barber’s Adagio for Strings was added to the program in memory of the recent tragic events in Haiti Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor is actually the composer’s first in order of composition but the second to be published. It’s a gem of sustained lyricism and delicate filigree passagework; the orchestra, however is given little to do of interest beyond accompaniment. Italian pianist Alessio Bax, who took first prize at the Leeds Competition and the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan gave a refined, gentle performance, carefully caressing the keyboard. His tonal spectrum was of enchanting beauty, especially in the Larghetto where time seemed to be suspended on soft string chords and shifting harmonies. The final Allegro vivace began almost imperceptibly, with its subsequent permutations unfolding with great charm, including the rhythm of the Polish mazurka. With the orchestra’s smaller string section, woodwind solos stood out with greater clarity than usual. Platt concluded his program much as he had begun three years before, with the 22-year-old Mozart’s Symphony No. 31 in D major. Called the “Paris” Symphony, because of the composer’s six-month stay in 1778, it reveals none of the tragedy that befell the composer when his mother took ill and died during his stay. The music, as if divorced from the personal happenings in his life at the time, is full of the joy of creativity, and his discovery of the colors available to him in expanding his orchestral palette. Unlike in Salzburg, clarinets were now available to him here, and this is his first symphony to make use of them. The strings sounded transparent and crystal clear in Platt’s well-shaped performance. If an occasional lapse in unanimity of attack did show up, it was of minor import in view of an overall interpretation that served Mozart very well. Even the original extended Andante did not seem a note too long this day. —by Alan Becker, 2/15/10, South Florida Classical Review [top] Musical marriage make magical melodies— El Paso’s two premier music makers hooked up for the fifth time to take advantage of common purpose and personnel. El Paso Pro-Musica’s Chamber Music Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary series, and El Paso Symphony Orchestra staged a season concert smack in the middle of the festival, with Pro-Musica’s artistic director Zuill Bailey as guest performer. Since the non-profits need to shave expenses without shedding quality, one answer for EPSO was waving a bow right in front of its bottom line. Zuill, on his way to becoming a household name, hangs his cap in El Paso when he isn’t concert touring. He could continue to run the festival and still perform Dvorak’s “Cello Concerto in B minor” with EPSO. Zuill and orchestra were on track in the gleaming high-spirited first movement. His lustrous duet with flute put on a virtuosic display of artistry before joining full orchestra for an intense display of broken chords. Zuill’s eloquence was evidenced in the quieter passages of the second movement. He became one with the music, eyes closed, lost in introspection. An occasional wan smile slipped out. The cello’s sensuous voice profoundly penetrated the joyous finale laden with rhythmic impulses. Sustained audience applause was rewarded with a sublime Bach “Prelude No. 1.” Symphony audiences had the advantage of hearing Zuill in a polished performance under the masterful control of the orchestra with guest conductor Alexander Platt. The Dvorak took up the second half of the concert, as Platt observed: “No one could follow Bailey!” Even so, Platt did a fine job in the first half of conducting the unfamiliar “Rustic Wedding Symphony” by Karl Goldmark. Fairly melodic with five movements, not very memorable. But it was worth hearing. It was pianist Simone Dinnerstein’s big hurrah the second week of the festival. As Zuill’s duo partner in concerts nationwide, Simone is no stranger to El Paso audiences. She first enlivened the chamber festival stage in 2004, when she was still little known. In 1997, she boldly self-produced a recording of the challenging Bach “Goldberg Variations” and instantly swept onto Best Classical CD lists around the country. Now Simone has critics and fans fawning over her. We’re fortunate her 10-year association with Zuill kept her accessible to El Paso’s annual chamber music festivals. Faithful festival fans jammed the El Paso Museum of Art’s Gateway Gallery again for the first free Bach’s Lunch concert Jan. 14. They heard Simone play Bach’s “Suite No. 4,” while Zuill unleashed his voluptuous cello with Bach’s “Preludes, 1, 2 and 3.” Simone’s unpretentious deportment focused her intense concentration on the Suite’s six sections. She exhibited a special expressiveness in the opening Prelude, and prompted emphatic, sensual and dreamy elements all the way to the final Gigue. Her virtuosic approach was spellbinding. Zuill’s rich cello strains marked the colorful No. 1 Prelude, the strong, powerful embodiment of No. 2 and a bracing sensation in No. 3 as his magical bow whipsawed at a fast and furious pace. An added plus to the program was a repeat of the commissioned “Suite de Canciones” by Roberto Sierra, which had premiered the previous week, with Zuill and pianist Dena Kay Jones. Simone brought a lively string quartet with her. The American Contemporary Music Ensemble is a remarkable ensemble of fine young musicians that concentrates on promising contemporary music as well as established composers. Simone led off the Saturday concert in the packed recital hall at the University of Texas at El Paso with effortless and poetic Bach “Preludes and Fugues, No 5, 2, 3 and 9.” The ensemble joined her in another Bach work, “Keyboard Concerto No. 1.” The three movements expressed seamless balance between piano and strings consisting of Clarice Jensen, cello and director; Yuki Numata and Caleb Burhams, violin; and Nadia Sirota, viola. The first Allegro included a delightful duo with piano and viola. The following two Adagios contained a crisp embodiment of gaiety and continued its capricious sparkle to a frisky finish. The concert’s second half unveiled the ensemble’s rambunctious side as it performed “String Quartet No. 3” by Jefferson Friedman (b. 1974). My notes indicate a demented Introduction with not much melody. Bows crawled over the strings like a nest full of bees. Jensen demonstrated her ability to play one note in a long ostinato using two bows at the same time. The final Bach “Keyboard Concerto No. 5” sparkled with Simone and ensemble in a brilliant sharing of virtuosity ending in a rip roaring finish. Sunday’s concert at First Baptist with Simone and the ensemble showed off impressive and powerful teamwork in a superb reading of Dvorak’s “Piano Quintet in A major.” It was a polished performance as the final work in a concert that first presented Schubert’s “Impromptus,” played with lyrical finesse by Simone. Those works were sandwiched around Phil Kline’s (b. 1953) “The Blue Room and Other Stories,” our lesson in learning new music! Short and sour, tart really, the work was sorta like listening to paint dry. No melody but with each instrument pumping, scratching, bumping, they produced different effects that hypnotized. I need to hear it again before giving it thumbs up or down. —Betty Ligon, The El Paso, Inc. [top] A tip of the hat— There has been no shortage during the past century of American composers who have been willing to write violin concertos. But there has been a dearth of conductors and orchestras who have been willing to turn those concertos into repertory pieces (or at least try). A tip of the hat, then, to Alexander Platt and the Boca Raton Symphonia, who did their bit Sunday afternoon for the Violin Concerto of Ned Rorem, a highly original, colorful piece that could certainly stand to be heard more often. Rorem’s concerto, written in 1984, is more of a six-movement suite than it is a concerto in the traditional sense with which most audiences likely are familiar, but nevertheless it adheres broadly to a standard fast-slow-fast structure. The soloist at the Roberts Theatre on the campus of St. Andrew’s School in Boca Raton was the violinist Livia Sohn, a young player to whom Platt gave the title of the Rorem concerto’s premier interpreter. Sohn is indeed a fine violinist, a performer with a strong, rich sound who presented the straightforward lyricism of the third movement (derived from a song Rorem wrote in 1953) with unaffected purity, and the loopy spin-cycle bravura of the fifth movement with impressive technique and nonchalance. With the brusqueness of its opening statement, the savage hammering of the timpani in the second movement, and its passages of stark calm in the fourth movement, it adds up to a concerto of widely varied moods, and Sohn was at ease in presenting all of them. The Symphonia did an expert job for its part, with good solo work by timpani, flute and trumpet at key moments, and an overall sensitivity to the soloist throughout. This is a worthy, interesting concerto, and performing it is exactly the sort of thing an ambitious American chamber orchestra ought to be doing as a matter of course. Sohn followed the Rorem with an encore, a tender account of the Louré movement from the solo Partita No. 3 in E (BWV 1006) of J.S. Bach, which showed that she also has a good grasp of Baroque style and applies it with restraint and sobriety. Sunday’s concert opened with another rarity, the Symphony No. 1 (in D major, D. 82) of the 16-year-old Franz Schubert. This precocious symphonic essay is in some ways closer to an hommage than it is simply derivative, with the tyro composer’s influences laid out clearly for everyone to hear: Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart and even Rossini, as Platt suggested in remarks made before the performance. The Symphonia gave this work a tight, springy sound in its faster movements, which worked admirably with the scalar main theme of the Haydnesque first movement and the virtual Beethoven quote of its secondary theme. The orchestra also played it with vigor and power, which had a way of demonstrating that despite its student origins, this is actually a big work, and would come off just as well played by a large ensemble. The slow movement, echoing the Andante of Mozart’s Prague Symphony (with a sly chromatic-scale quote at the very end), was warm and expansive, and Platt was surely right in the third movement to play the minuet with force and speed to make a better contrast with the ländler of the trio. In the finale, Platt and the players stressed lightness and wit, giving it enough distinction to stand out from the first, which it otherwise resembles in sheer bigness and scope. All in all, a fine reading of a sharp piece that could easily be in the Classical rotation on orchestral programs. The concert closed with another Symphony No. 1, this one by Schumann (in B-flat, Op. 38, Spring). Here the chamber size of the Symphonia was decisive; this is a work usually heard with larger forces, but it works well with an orchestra the size of the Boca ensemble, and textures were clear and rarely sounded thick. The Symphonia’s Schumann was a traditional one as far as tempos and general outlook are concerned, and it was a fitting tribute for the composer’s bicentenary this year. But the violins sounded somewhat ragged and tired, especially in the first movement, which got the music off to an anemic start. Things were better in the ardent slow movement, where the sense of long line was evident as the melody was passed from section to section, and there was plenty of life and bumptious energy in the scherzo and the big-hearted finale. —Greg Stepanich, the Palm Beach Arts Paper [top] 2009 “Platt led his orchestra with enthusiasm and great care so as to meld perfectly in interpretive unity. This will be the music director’s final season and he will be greatly missed.” —Alan Becker, South Florida Classical Review; Boca Raton Symphonia, November 9, 2009 “Conductor Alexander Platt demonstrated why his soon-to-end tenure at the helm of the orchestra has been such a good one: Fresh, even risky programming, and committed performances....What Platt has created is another decent Mendelssohn symphony, more on the order of the Reformation rather than the Scottish or Italian Symphonies, yet clearly well worth doing, and he deserves great credit for thinking of it and for having the courage to try it. It adds a good early Romantic score to the repertoire of smaller orchestras, and allows some worthy music that would otherwise be overlooked to have new life.” —Gregory Stepanich, PalmBeachArtsPaper.com, Boca Raton Symphonia, November 9, 2009 “Most of the excitement of “La Tragedie de Carmen”, was generated in the pit, where Alexander Platt made his small band cook, trading the lushness of a big string section for spare effects....” —Heidi Waleson, The Wall Street Journal, May 28, 2009 PLATT, WAUKESHA SYMPHONY END SEASON WELL —“A low groaning of cellos and basses opens Rachmaninov’s Symphony No.2, which ended the Waukesha Symphony’s season Tuesday evening....Alexander Platt conducted with a great appreciation of the melodic ravishment of this music, and it was ravishing. But he heard more than that, so his players could deliver more and we could hear more. I started to say that he made us hear its architecture, but this epic work compares more properly to planetary forces. I heard in this very committed reading the slow, inevitable and logical movement of tectonic plates.” —Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, May 20, 2009 “Peter Brook’s “La Tragedie de Carmen” is not your grandfather’s “Carmen”, nor, at several points, Bizet’s, for that matter. For the central production of its spring festival, Chicago Opera Theater is presenting Brook’s 1981 chamber re-casting of Bizet’s celebrated opera, which received a vivid, vocally impressive performance Sunday afternoon at the Harris Theater....Alexander Platt conducted the chamber ensemble with incisiveness and flexibility, bringing out the clever felicities of Constant’s re-scoring, and providing firm dramatic momentum, the opera unfolding in a seamless arc.” —Lawrence A. Johnson, Chicago Classical Review, May 11, 2009 “Most of Bizet’s best-loved musical numbers are still there, tended to with verve and style by a crisp ensemble under resident conductor Alexander Platt....” —John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune, May 4, 2009 CHICAGO OPERA THEATER’S “CARMEN” MAKES BIZET LESS BUSY —“Those with a passion for the minimalist aesthetic will be enthralled by “La Tragedie de Carmen” — the cut-to-the-chase version of the Bizet classic now in a Chicago Opera Theater production at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance....As reworked by the 20th century Romanian composer Marius Constant, and adapted by the French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere and British director Peter Brook, this experiment in condensation and modernization, first produced in 1981, has a running time of just 80 minutes, a cast of seven characters, no chorus, no dancing, and a chamber orchestra under the fleet direction of Alexander Platt...” —Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times, May 3, 2009 [top] Artymiw, Shostakovich shine at Boca Symphonia—Area concertgoers haven’t had enough opportunities in the past 10 years or so to hear live performances hereabouts of the symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich, an important group of works whose best examples are likely to swell in stature as the years go by. Now they can add another one to that small list, as Alexander Platt and the Boca Raton Symphonia gave a vivid, vigorous reading Sunday afternoon of the Russian composer’s Ninth Symphony (in E-flat, Op. 70), a short, chamber-style work exactly suited to the size and heft of the Symphonia. It could be argued that Platt’s programming of the piece, and his group’s fine execution of it, made a good case for smaller orchestras everywhere to add it to their usual stock of Mendelssohns, early Beethovens and Borodins. Though the Ninth, written in 1945, doesn’t compare in size and force to works such as the Fifth or even the Tenth (which got a credible performance a couple years back from the Lynn University Philharmonia), the Ninth is still quite difficult, with virtuoso-style chops needed for the violins and woodwinds in particular. That they were up to the challenge was apparent from the beginning, with the flutes throwing out all the sparkle and wit of this side of Shostakovich, and with a remarkably good high-stepping moment from a solo horn. Platt’s tempo was swift and strong in the first movement, and nicely paced in the slower second movement, which despite an unfortunate cracked high clarinet note in the first pages had the right kind of moodiness and tension that this music demands, with the strings especially poignant as they took up the melodic burden. The woodwinds and trumpeter Jeffrey Kaye stood out in the impish third movement, as did the rest of the brass in the short fanfares of the fourth. Some fine solo bassoon work led evocatively into the fifth-movement finale, which Platt began at quite a slow tempo, giving him and the orchestra plenty of room to wind up to the dash and exhilaration of the symphony’s closing pages. This was a sharp, smart, muscular interpretation of this terrific piece, and putting it on the program as the closing work made an even better argument for it. The first half of the concert, held at the Roberts Theater on the campus of St. Andrew’s School, featured the American pianist Lydia Artymiw in the Piano Concerto No. 21 (in C, K. 467) of Mozart. Nearly five minutes were spent on stage in seriocomic fashion before the work began as Kaye, a technician and finally Artymiw herself labored to fix a recalcitrant music stand on the piano. Fortunately, this glitch didn’t spoil the listening mood for the audience, which is good because a subtle, elegant performance of the concerto soon unfolded. Artymiw has a large, pretty sound and the technique to go with it, and she also showed she has good taste. One of the special beauties of the opening movement is its frequent mixing of major and minor keys, and in the first such such solo example, Artymiw made the most of it, lingering just enough on it to give it a good measure of Mozartean poetry. That provided excellent contrast with the even strings of sixteenth notes had to spin out for the rest of the movement, and it also hinted where the famous Andante would go. That movement was notable for the deeply sensitive accompaniment of the orchestra; on the second go-round of the main theme, the pulsing strings were almost inaudible, which made for a lovely effect and also allowed Artymiw full rein to stress the embellishments. In the finale, Artymiw played with a gentle sparkle, and the Symphonia was appropriately restrained until the final measures. It was an admirable partnership of a fine soloist and a sensitive orchestra, and both served Mozart well. The program opened with another work in C major, the First Symphony of Beethoven (Op. 21). Despite the last-minute loss of one of the first violins, the string sound here was full and confident, and the Symphonia gave the Beethoven a rendition that was sinewy in the first and third movements and sweetly charming in the second, without being too precious. The finale was businesslike and less pointedly jokey than some performances I’ve heard, and it worked successfully. This reading was a perfect example of how exactly suited orchestras of the Symphonia’s size are for Beethoven’s first symphonic essays, and what it cannot match in a full-size group in sheer power it redeems in the inner strength and clarity with which it presents the music. The most important aspect of this group’s work is its fresh programming, and the fifth-season brochure that was available Sunday promised more of the same next season, including a performance of the Capricorn Concerto of Samuel Barber and the Violin Concerto of Ned Rorem. Concertgoers by now should confidently expect that these works will be presented with respect and thorough preparation, and a larger eye toward expanding the repertory in general. www.bocasymphonia.org. —By Greg Stepanich [top] Rousing Performance—Mendelssohn, Ravel, Larsen and Tchaikovsky in South Florida—The Boca Raton Symphonia is doing some of the most arresting programming in South Florida. Principal conductor and artistic advisor Alexander Platt imaginatively combines rarely heard scores with emotionally compelling contemporary pieces and a smattering of more familiar repertoire. Platt, a discerning interpreter of wide ranging musical vistas, was in great form on 8 February 2009 as he led the ensemble (now in its fourth season) in a typically eclectic program in the Roberts Theater at Saint Andrew’s School in Boca Raton, Florida, USA . Platt’s clearly delineated, precise baton technique drew strongly accented, adept performances from his highly polished chamber orchestra. Opening with a vigorous, tautly gauged performance of Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, Platt was equally at home in the lyrical impressionism of Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante defunte (‘Pavane for a Dead Princess’)—a gossamer performance that cast its hypnotic spell. Minnesota-based composer Libby Larsen conceived her setting of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese in 1993 for the illustrious American soprano Arlene Auger. Like Peter Lieberson’s recent Neruda Songs, Larsen’s six song cycle revels in sensuous orchestral colors, strings and harp painting evocative backdrops to the often high lying vocal arioso. The score begins with the ringing of chimes as prelude to I thought once how Theocritus had sung, as the writer anticipates death. At the conclusion of the final setting How do I love thee? chimes again ring out as the singer intones the final line ‘I shall but love thee better after death’. Larsen effectively mirrors Browning’s volatile moods (and sense of doubt) with jittery orchestral figurations and wild leaps in the vocal line. Soprano Nancy Allen Lundy successfully met the composer’s formidable vocal demands. Her beautiful, luminous timbre and fearless high register were matched by a pure, firmly focused core of tone and exquisite word painting and textual clarity. A veteran opera conductor (and currently resident conductor of the enterprising Chicago Opera Theater), Platt led a soaring accompaniment, bridging ethereal orchestral tone portraits with the mercurial vocal writing. Platt concluded the matinée performance with Tchaikovsky’s rarely played Orchestral Suite No 1 in D minor, Op 43. (This was probably the work’s first performance in Florida.) Composed after the composer’s Fourth Symphony, brass fanfares of a similar nature appear early in the piece. The specter of Swan Lake seems to haunt this balletic music. Indeed the Divertimento movement (a sentimental waltz) and concluding Gavotte could well have appeared in one of Tchaikovsky’s ballet scores. Although the charming Marche miniature, a favorite encore piece of conductor Arthur Fiedler, is fairly well known, the remainder of the work remains a rarity. This is all the more surprising since the six movement suite is replete with typically Tchaikovskian melodic beauty and opulent orchestration. The Intermezzo recalls the sentimentality and melancholia of the slow movements in the Serenade for Strings and Souvenir de Florence while the Scherzo is an invigorating miniature in the manner of similar movements from the composer’s early symphonies. Platt changed the order of the movements, resulting in greater contrasts of mood, character and instrumentation. The Boca Raton Symphonia responded to his superbly coordinated leadership with a colorful, rhythmically crisp, vivacious and rousing performance. Led by concertmaster Misha Vitenson (first violin of the Amernet String Quartet), the orchestra’s silken strings had a field day with Tchaikovsky’s lush textures and beguiling melodies. —Lawrence Budmen, Miami Beach, USA Alexander Platt conducts the Boca Raton Symphonia in Beethoven's Symphony No 1, Shostakovich's Symphony No 9 and Mozart's Piano Concerto No 21 (with soloist Lydia Artymiw) on 22 March 2009. For information, see www.bocasymphonia.org [top] BOCA RATON—Fresh programming enlivens Boca Symphonia concert —At a time when the sound of belts tightening across the land would seem to invite cultural groups to play it safe, you have to hand it to the Boca Raton Symphonia for putting art first. On Sunday afternoon at St. Andrew’s School, the chamber orchestra that’s now in its fourth season of concerts offered a fine work by a contemporary American composer as well as a rarely heard piece by Tchaikovsky on a program that also featured two briefer favorites. It was an impressive afternoon of music, intelligently conceived and expertly played, and while the level of orchestral finish was not consistently high, the freshness of the programming more than compensated for it. Soprano Nancy Allen Lundy was the soloist with the orchestra and conductor Alexander Platt in a setting by American composer Libby Larsen of six poems from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets From the Portuguese. Larsen is currently in the middle of a two-year residency at Florida Atlantic University, and is composing several new works for the college’s ensembles that will premiere in April. Platt called the sonnet settings—written 20 years ago for the late Arleen Auger—Larsen’s “masterpiece,” and the work has all the more distinctive features of Larsen’s aesthetic: a sharp ear for good orchestral color, respect for English prosody in setting words to music, and a mild harmonic framework that gives her music a sense of geniality. Larsen knows how to frame a poem and make it come alive as a song, and that might be the most attractive thing about these pieces. Here, the singer’s voice isn’t simply one among many other instruments, as it often is contemporary classical music, but a graceful being apart. Lundy’s voice is creamy, pleasant and rather intimate, and well-suited for these pieces, which are not vocally extravagant. On a line such as The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years (from the first song, I Once Thought How Theocritus Had Sung), which Larsen sets to a bluesy melodic line, Lundy conveyed a sense of matter-of-fact confession quite well, an effect aided by her good diction. There’s something of the flavor of Debussy in this score (particularly the second song, My Letters) and even more of Samuel Barber (especially the sixth song, How Do I Love Thee?). The orchestra was sensitive to Lundy throughout, but not averse to exploring the more richly orchestrated pages, giving the cycle flashes of instrumental vividness as the poems explored Barrett Browning’s growing confidence in her love. This season’s Boca Symphonia concerts have as their theme the work and influence of Tchaikovsky, and for the second half of Sunday’s program, Platt led the group in the First Orchestral Suite (in D minor, Op. 43), which as he rightly said is the most obscure of that composer’s four suites. Platt switched the order of movements three and five, placing the Scherzo before the Miniature March instead of after it. There is some very fine music in this suite, written in 1878, and its neglect is hard to fathom. The large audience at the Roberts Theater loudly acclaimed it, and a repeat of the fourth-movement march served as the afternoon’s encore. There were some rough spots here and there, such as the intonation of the brasses with the bassoon in the A major chord just before the violins offer the main theme of the introduction, but overall there was a good deal to admire, including the lovely lightness of the march, the exciting texture of the strings in the busy first-movement fugue (Tchaikovsky was a theory teacher early on), and the intensity with which the orchestra played the long lines of the Intermezzo. The concert opened with the Hebrides Overture (or Fingal’s Cave, Op. 26) of Mendelssohn, an orchestral perennial that got a very swift, almost too-pushed performance as Platt sought to stress the firepower rather than the Victorian probity of the composer. And this was a reading with an abundance of energy. Next came Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess, which had some horn slippage at the higher end of the melody, but in general came across as luminous and deeply felt. The piece, and the concert, were dedicated to the memory of the bassoonist Arthur Weisberg, a veteran educator, performer and composer who died last month of pancreatic cancer at 77. A mention should also be made about Platt’s approach when he talks to the audience. He is a fascinating speaker whose monologues on the music to be made have a kind of dinner-party stream of consciousness that give good insight not just into what the music will be all about, but about how Platt approaches it. On Sunday, he discussed his listening habits (all 11 discs of the complete Mendelssohn choral music, beautiful stuff that is never played) and displayed his grasp of musical and intellectual history (Wagner’s anti-Semitic writings, Tchaikovsky’s post-marriage emotional crisis), but mostly gave the impression of a man deeply committed to his orchestra and his art. For its next concert Sunday, March 22, the Boca Symphonia and Platt will be joined by American pianist Lydia Artymiw for the Piano Concerto No. 21 (in C, K. 467), of Mozart. Also on the program are two symphonies: Beethoven’s First (in C, Op. 21) and Shostakovich’s Ninth (in E-flat, Op. 70). 2:30 pm, Roberts Theater, St. Andrew’s School, Boca Raton. Call 376-3848, 888-426-5577, or visit the orchestra’s Website. —Greg Stepanich [top] Waukesha Symphony evokes glamour of movies— Imagine sitting in a trendy Hollywood cafe in the 1940s or ‘50s and watching the stars go by. Hearing the front end of Sunday’s Waukesha Symphony was a little like that. Korngold's “Captain Blood” overture? There goes Errol Flynn, with all his dash and swagger. David Raksin’s theme for “Laura”? Lush and gorgeous as Gene Tierney. Max Steiner’s “Tara’s Theme” from “Gone with the Wind”? That would be someone grand and dignified—Gregory Peck, maybe. None of it meant a darned thing, but it was all entertaining and even a little thrilling. Korngold’s 1945 Violin Concerto, which draws heavily from his movie music from the 1930s, aspired to more and entertained less. Alexander Platt presided lovingly over all of this music and over his very well prepared Waukesha Symphony. All the glitzy Hollywood music set the stage for the centerpiece of the program, Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3(1936). This symphony is in the same idiom, but its sentiments are not whipped up to order, and its forms were made for attentive ears gathered in concert halls. This is not background music. A simple Russian Orthodox chant heard at the outset underpins the whole symphony. In the first movement, a blazing fanfare of a first theme seems worlds apart from the dreamily lyrical second. But when Rachmaninoff knots them up in the development, you can no longer tell them apart. He untangles them miraculously in the recapitulation, and then lets us hear the chant one more time. In a pleasing flash of retrospective understanding, you can hear how closely related they are and how the other themes derive from the chant. The orchestra, at the top of its game, responded instantly and whole-heartedly to Platt’s expressive flex and dynamic nuance. Nothing about this music is obvious, and everything within it is subtle and complex, but Platt and the WSO got to its brooding, secret heart. This concert took place in Shattuck Auditorium at Carroll University. —Tom Strini of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Posted: Jan. 25, 2009 Radiant Rachmaninoff— Though the Waukesha Symphony Orchestra’s January 25th concert had the apt title “Rachmaninoff & Hollywood,” Maestro Alexander Platt also dubbed it the “diaspora concert” —all the works spanned the war-torn ‘30s and ‘40s and most of the composers had escaped totalitarianism’s tight grip on Europe. The concert opened with a spirited performance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Overture to Captain Blood (1935), one of several Erroll Flynn swashbucklers Korngold scored for Hollywood. The WSO’s brass was especially effective in this rousing piece of classic film music. This was followed by music from 1944’s Laura (David Raskin), wherein the WSO’s strings dominated in sumptuous sonority. Then came music from 1939’s Gone With the Wind, featuring the famous “Tara Theme,” by Max Steiner, another fine example of mood-setting. Violinist Lara St. John was the soloist for Korngold’s Violin Concerto (1945), a lush and challenging work given a bravura performance and superb reading. The second half of the concert consisted of a work Platt admitted has been a favorite his whole life—Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 44 (1936). Apart from a brilliant use of the orchestra that is quite striking in its own right, perhaps the most noteworthy feature of the Symphony is the music’s radiance—lyrical, dramatic, extremely colorful. The first movement requires expansive warmth, the second enchantment and fantasy, and the third an outpouring of exultation and jubilation; and the whole work tinged with nostalgia. The performance made Platt’s acknowledgement of affection for the Rachmaninoff Third superfluous, for the WSO has seldom been as tight, as harmonious, as precise, or indeed, as radiant. —John Jahn – Shepherd Express [top] 2008 2008 SAW MANY HIGH POINTS— “It’s midseason in music and dance, but year-end on the calendar.....The WAUKESHA SYMPHONY does not so much compete with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra as live in a parallel musical universe. Music Director ALEXANDER PLATT has a knack for odd, intruiging programs, and his pickup orchestra plays with uncommon zeal. The WSO’s chamber-sized concerts in the chapel of St.John’s Northwestern Military Academy are particular pleasures.” —Tom Strini, Music and Dance Critic, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, December 20, 2008 GRANDLY ROMANTIC: Vadim Gluzman onstage with the Boca Symphonia— The great Russian school of violin playing has produced many distinguished artists.......Vadim Gluzman is truly phenomenal.....On 7 December 2008 Gluzman turned Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto into freshly minted gold at the opening concert of the Boca Raton Symphonia....Gluzman boldly reinvented this thrice familiar opus, realizing Tchaikovsky’s sweeping originality and melodic glories. The Boca Raton Symphonia’s new principal conductor Alexander Platt offered keenly projected, supple support.....the thirty-two member Palm Beach County-based chamber orchestra made a strong showing under Platt’s invigorating direction. The conductor captured the intricate contrasts and interplay of instrumental choirs in Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks Concerto in E-flat major, the 20th-century master’s modernist concerto grosso. Drawing transparent textures from a reduced ensemble, Platt gave equal weight to the score’s bracing neo-classical astringencies and primitive folkloric elements (in the mode of Petrouchka, Le Sacre du Printemps and Les Noces). The light and shadow, wit and pathos of Stravinsky’s inedible work were vividly revealed. In Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K.504 (“Prague”), Platt emblazoned the Beethovenesque drama beneath the music’s genial high spirits. The strings wove the bewitching melody of the Andante with silky filigree. Platt’s taut, no-nonsense pacing of the Presto finale brought the symphony to an effervescent conclusion.” —Lawrence Budmen, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 12/17/08 GLUZMAN'S TCHAIKOVSKY IGNITES BOCA SYMPHONIA OPENER— “The Ukranian-born Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman gave a blazing performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Sunday afternoon in Boca Raton, using the very violin once owned by the man to whom the work was dedicated in 1878. Gluzman’s performance at the season’s first concert by the Boca Raton Symphonia on the 1690 Stradavarius that belonged to Leopold Auer.....had it all: beautiful tone, flawless technique, a hell-for-leather approach to its virtuosic demands, and a heartfelt identification with its most soulful moments. Conductor Alexander Platt and his orchestra got a serious workout with Gluzman, finding themselves constantly on their toes as the soloist played with tempi and dynamics. But they did an admirable job of doing so.....Platt in general is an involved conductor whose immersion in the music is plain to see, ad that enthusiasm gives his podium work a freshness and liveliness that brings the audience along with him on a journey of discovery. This is a good trait for a music director to have, and it augurs hopeful things for the Boca Symphonia.” —Greg Stepanich, Music Ciritic, The Palm Beach Post, December 8, 2008 [top] Waukesha Symphony Orchestra: New work for bassoon is intriguing— “Russell Platt’s new Concerto for Bassoon and Strings is a lock to becoming a standard work for bassoonists aspiring to more than sideman status in classical music......Alexander Platt, Russell's twin brother and music director of the WSO, conducted with great zeal and understanding.....throughout the Concerto, Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise” (transcribed for bassoon and strings), Mozart’s Divertimento in D and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, Platt knew where to put the stress to bring out the ache in the harmony, how to express the arc of the phrase and where to spring off the beat to make the music dance.” —Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel November 17, 2008 WSO excels in tough program— The electric charge that soloist Andrew Armstrong put into nearly every note of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 on Tuesday was a function of technical skill and interpretive decision. He put a little accent and a little staccato on nearly every note. He favored fast tempos, and he tilted toward louder dynamics. The result was an energetic and exciting Third, with thousands of notes flying into the hall like so many vigorously thrown darts. And I wish he’d listened more deeply to the Waukesha Symphony and how conductor Alexander Platt built Rachmaninoff’s climactic surges and how Platt and his orchestra made them break at the crest of the wave. I’m thinking especially of the falling theme at the start of the second movement, which builds from a lyrical oboe solo to a great orchestral outburst. The effect was not only passionate, but also elegant. I think such elegance is essential to Rachmaninoff. Armstrong’s treatment of similar material was powerful, but crude by comparison. He sometimes banged on the piano, and that misses the point of Rachmaninoff. The Waukesha Symphony, which has a number of new faces in its ranks, has never sounded better, at least since I’ve been listening. The WSO aced a difficult program, which in addition to the concerto, comprised Dvorak’s “Carnival” Overture, Tchaikovsky’s “Hamlet” (for string orchestra) and R. Strauss’ “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks.” In every case, the WSO went beyond accuracy and deep into the spirit of the piece: the riotous color and tumult of “Carnival,” the speech-rhythms and lyrical rhetoric of the gorgeous but rarely played “Hamlet,” and the antic, gestural extravagance of “Till Eulenspiegel.” Bold, justified confidence bolstered the many exposed solos in this repertoire, with especially notable contributions by horn principal Wes Hatch, concertmaster Robin Petzold and clarinetist Dan Roberdeau. But the first bow must go to Platt, for demanding so much from his part-time suburban orchestra and for getting what he demanded. This program took place at Carroll University’s Shattuck Music Center. —TOM STRINI Journal Sentinel music critic Posted: Oct. 14, 2008 [top] Reduced Waukesha Symphony gets Haydn’s humor—The Waukesha Symphony, miniaturized and in top form, played Sunday afternoon at the beautiful chapel of St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy in Delafield. Twenty-four players sounded just right for Haydn’s Symphonies Nos. 80 and 81, composed for Prince Esterhazy’s Hungarian estate. Music was in flux in Haydn’s earlier years, with certain aspects of Baroque music holding on, and the gracious, decorative galant contrasting with the more melodramatic sturm und drang. Music director Alexander Platt seems to hear Haydn mixing and matching styles in mischievous ways in these symphonies. Blunt, village-band orchestration puts a comic, lowbrow tilt on the usually stately minuet in No. 80. In the 81st, the onrushing, proto-Romantic D-minor opening theme hits the immovable object of the dopiest imaginable ländler folk dance tune. It’s supposed to be the second theme, but it’s truncated to a single phrase. It was like Laurence Olivier bumping into Adam Sandler on the set of “Macbeth.” Platt and his players sold that joke, and the one about everything being on the wrong beat in the last movement, and the one about the heavy, determined tread of the minuet theme going on tiptoe after the double bar. Sometimes, the WSO string sections have trouble staying together in fast passages. Sunday, Platt had whittled the orchestra down to its best, and they were accurate and sensitive without fail. The first violins—all four of them—especially impressed with their singing tone in the operatic adagio of No. 81. It’s not enough to be funny; with Haydn, one must be funny and beautiful. Mathieu Dufour, the principal flutist of the Chicago Symphony and a frequent guest in Waukesha, was the soloist in John Corigliano's “Voyage” and Mozart’s Flute Quartet No. 1. The quartet, originally for flute, violin, viola and cello, sounded completely convincing as a little concerto for flute and string orchestra. The flute part comprises virtuoso flights, which show off the player’s agility and speed, and long cantabile lines that show off breath control and sensitivity of phrasing. Dufour brought impeccable elegance to both. Dufour’s Mozart sound was clear and pure. He applied a very different sound and sensibility to Corigliano’s one-movement work. “Voyage” is an idyll, a reverie of shifting, overlapping sonorities. In “Voyage” and, as an encore, in Debussy’s “Syrinx,” the flute was dreamy, sensual, seductive and mysterious. —By TOM STRINI Journal Sentinel music critic Posted: April 6, 2008 Boca Raton Symphonia puts on vivid, crisp performance. A glimpse into the future of the Boca Raton Symphonia was on display Sunday at the Roberts Theater when recently appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Alexander Platt led the ensemble in a program that traversed the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Platt is a strong orchestral technician and lively musical presence. His performance of Haydn's Symphony No.97 was especially buoyant and invigorating. Platt's approach was an appealing combination of lithe, transparent contemporary performance practice and an older school of Haydn interpretation that emphasized greater musical weight and spaciousness. In the second movement Adagio, the conductor enchantingly projected the embroidered filigree of the theme and variations without exaggeration. In a grandly aristocratic Menuetto that was definitely not for dancing, Platt delightfully illuminated the humor of the unexpected drum rolls. Vivacious, incisive string articulation in the final Presto brought the symphony to a sparkling conclusion. The orchestra's precise ensemble and superb playing recalled the best years of the Florida Philharmonic. —Lawrence Budmen, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 2/11/08 [top] 2007 Boca Symphonia. Under a new name, and with its new permanent director, Alexander Platt, at the helm, Boca’s large chamber orchestra demonstrated great subtlety and finesse in an ambitious program in November that included beautiful readings of Bach’s O Mensch, bewein dein Sonde gruss in an arrangement by Max Reger, Mahler’s Bach suite, and the first persuasive rendition I’ve heard in years of the Reformation Symphony of Mendelssohn. Roberta Rust was a fine soloist in the Schumann Concerto, and overall, this concert showed that this group has made real progress since its founding. —Greg Stepanich, Palm Beach Post, 12/30/07 Platt makes charming debut with Bach. The Boca Raton Symphonia entered its third season with another important step in its development, the ascendance of Alexander Platt. For his debut as the Boca Raton Symphonia’s principal conductor and artistic adviser, Platt charmingly connected the dots in a themed tribute to J.S. Bach—without actually playing Bach. So to speak. Though two short Bach compositions were on Sunday’s menu at the Roberts Theatre, both were later arrangements by admirers of the 18th century composer’s work. Meanwhile, Platt noted, the ghost of Bach hovers over the program’s main items by personal friends Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn. Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor featured a generally sparkling guest performance by Lynn University’s Roberta Rust, though the impressive clarity of her passagework grew mushy at times during the opening movement’s cadenza. Platt led the chamber orchestra through Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5 in D, the Reformation, that found both quiet reflectiveness and Pentecostal exuberance, moving easily from the early movements’ interpolations of the Lutheran Dresden Amen toward the large-scale choral fervor of the closing theme, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. The opening Suite for Small Orchestra, arranged by Mahler from Bach’s 1067 and 1068 orchestral overtures, was a clever shakedown for the Symphonia’s season debut. Trills fluttered lightly through the strings at the outset, giving way to a scampering flute both in the overture and through the Badinerie of the second section. Platt carefully sculpted the soft elegance of the famous Air, but cohesion suffered at times in the lively closing Gavottes. Following intermission, Platt served up what he called a “uniquely obscure” century-old arrangement, by German composer Max Reger, of Bach’s setting of the Lutheran hymn O Mankind, Bewail Your Great Sins. The Symphonia’s violas rose to shine in this short, reverent piece, hovering expressively over the deeper tones of cello and bass. As for the important steps, the Symphonia is moving forward in a deliberate, careful manner. Taking up residence in the modestly sized Roberts Theatre a year ago was a smart move that matched good acoustics with the ensemble’s audience base. Platt’s appointment brings focus and continuity to the artistic endeavor without—as the conductor put it—bringing in a dictator to superimpose a vision. Platt is conducting two Symphonia programs this season; the next is Feb. 10. Company president Harry Shuford announced Sunday that intentions are for Platt to conduct all five of the Connoisseur Series programs at the Roberts. —Jack Zink \|Theater/Music Writer \| South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com \| 11/13/07 [top] Ensemble matures at impressive pace It’s the best thing I’ve heard the Boca Raton Symphonia play. Max Reger’s arrangement of the Bach chorale, O Mensch bewein dein Sünde gross (O man, bewail thy grievous sin), is a mere seven minutes long, written for strings alone. Yet for its season opener Sunday afternoon, the Symphonia lavished on it not only soulful grief but also quiet elegance and unusually warm sound. Responding remarkably to new Principal Conductor Alexander Platt, players shaped the little-known piece into their most expressive and smoothly polished playing, the sum of many excellent points in a thoughtful, inventive program that included the national anthem and Bach, Schumann and Mendelssohn. Platt conducted the Reger without a baton, shaping every measure with his hands. It came right after new board chairman Harry Shuford announced that Platt, who will lead only one other concert this season, would conduct all five concerts in 2008-09, far more than expected. Guest pianist Roberta Rust gave another of the performances that stood out as remarkable. Making her Symphonia debut, the Lynn University Conservatory of Music professor lent a lyrical grace and velvety warmth to Schumann’s beloved Piano Concerto in A Minor. There were a few keyboard splotches and orchestra uncertainties, tempo shimmies and breath-holding spots. But Rust lived and breathed the Schumann. Her powerful connection to the work was clear in her fluent singing and beautifully weighted tone. She draws you into the work’s strength of character as well as its distinctively solemn joy. Even after the music ends, she makes you want to hear more. In a lovely, romanticized Bach Suite for Small Orchestra arranged by Mahler, and the triumphant concluding Mendelssohn Symphony No. 5 (Reformation), it was clear: The Symphonia has grown. A 3-year-old, but not a toddler, it is maturing at a surprising, but gratifying pace. —Sharon McDaniel \| Palm Beach Post Music Writer \| Tuesday, November 13, 2007 [top] “Platt themed [the Waukesha Symphony concert] around British music composed during World War II. He opened with the four stormy Sea Interludes from Benjamin Britten’s “Peter Grimes”, an opera about social breakdown in a fishing village. He ended it with the Vaughan Williams Symphony No.5, a hymn to transcendent reality........The Vaughan Williams was pure bliss, played with enormous confidence and unimpeachable understanding of the aesthetic.” —Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, October 3, 2007 “Mr Platt’s arrangement (of David Del Tredici’s FINAL ALICE) retained the work’s epic sweep and buoyant fantasy. If his ardent direction made one wish to hear him conduct the original version, it was no insult to the ingenuity of his orchestrations...Mr Platt deserves praise for providing a workable alternative.” —Steve Smith, The New York Times, 9/3/2007 [top] Opera Canada/Banff Centre for the Arts; Frobisher After the impressive success of Filumena, expectations for John Murrell and John Estacio’s second opera were extremely high, making Frobisher an even bigger challenge. As with Filumena, Frobisher was a joint venture between Calgary Opera and the Banff Centre for the Arts. When it opened in Calgary in January, it played to full houses but mixed reviews, including the review in Opera Canada. Whereas Filumena is a straightforward story opera, Frobisher is an ideas opera in which the narrative element takes second place to a complex web of suggestive dramatic juxtapositions that serve the function of plot. The result is a storyline that in its initial run tended to come across as sometimes obscure or morally preachy, depending on one’s point of view. While the opera’s title suggests it is about the historical charactor of John Frobisher and his search for the Northwest Passage, the opera is really about the nature of human striving—its heroic element, how the pursuit of a goal can be all-consuming and, finally, whether the pursuit, however noble it may be, is ultimately wise or the best focus for a life. These fundamental human questions are given dramatic voice across time through people living now, living in the past and, in a sense, living in the future. For most of the opera, the heroism in striving for a goal—the central dramatic leitmotif—is embodied in two main characters, Michael and Anna, who are trying to make a film about Frobisher. But the opera also includes appearances by the dead Frobisher as a spirit, his engagement with Queen Elizabeth I, and also the spirit of Michael, who dies early in the opera. All these are mediated through Anna’s consciousness. For those who saw the initial run, the central question in the Banff production [seen Aug. 8] was: would the creative team make any changes in light of the Calgary experience? The answer seems to have been: yes, a few. The first act played almost exactly as it did in January, finishing with an impressive finale that, in the Banff production, was even more thrilling and humorous than in the initial performance. The principle reason for this extra zip was conductor Alexander Platt’s very different conception of the scene. In Banff, the tempi were notably quicker, the rhythms perkier and the sentimental aspect [while still present] much more muted. The sense in Banff was of a considerably more modern opera in its musical sensibility; with this came a more dramatic unfolding of the story. Platt has a very good way with the pastiche elements in the score, and the quasi-Gershwin sections came across as musically much more effective than in Calgary. There were other measurable gains, notably at the end, where the important psychological time shift to the present was more successfully realized. The critically important duet between Michael and Anna shortly before the end also had more force and provided the needed emotional climax. A slight tweaking of the narrative line in the second act clarified aspects of the story that were unclear in the first run. For me, at least, this revised version, both as opera and in performance, was considerably more compelling than the January premiere. The singers, while not generally as experienced as those in Calgary, were nevertheless impressive, particularly the three male leads—Thomas Macleay vocally and dramatically a first class Michael, Benjamin Covey a full-voiced Frobisher and Andrew Love an effective Wagman, the Hollywood producer. Christina Tannous was an appealing Anna and fully conveyed the complexities of the character, although her voice tended to excessive vibrato when the dynamic level rose. In all, however, hers was a very commendable account of a very difficult role. Both Heather Jewson as Anna’s mother, Jessica, and Leslie Davis as Queen Elizabeth I projected their roles with firm vocal tone and clearly conceived dramatic interpretations. Kelly Robinson’s stage action was similar in general outline to the Calgary presentation, but small touches here and there made the action more believable and better paced. The humorous element was notably more pointed and clever. The orchestra was fully prepared and delivered Estacio’s complex and richly melodic score with understanding and high technical polish. The sense of “Opera As Theatre,” the mantra of Banff’s summer program, could be felt everywhere. While the opera is fundamentally very different from Filumena, Frobisher in its Banff incarnation proved no weak sister to its elder sibling and constitutes an impressive accomplishment for both the opera’s creators and performers. —Kenneth DeLong August, 2007 [top] “As the second presentation of its 2007 season, Chicago Opera Theater presented BLUEBEARD and ERWARTUNG in an often revelatory pairing...Conductor Alexander Platt drew a thrilling orchestral performance from his players, meticulous in observing the myriad detail in this difficult music; those oscillating flutes in BLUEBEARD have rarely sounded so eerie. An extended ovation required that the company’s final bow be taken after the house lights had been turned on—an enthusiastic endorsement of these two pivotal musical creations.” —Mark Thomas Ketterson, Opera News, July 2007 “The double bill (ERWARTUNG, BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE) was a triumph for conductor Alexander Platt and soprano Nancy Gustafson as the lone character in the Schoenberg. More than 60 musicians constituted over twice the largest orchestra COT had used in the past. Platt handled them with superb control and their sounds were gorgeous.” —Richard Covello, Opera Canada magazine \| June 2007 “American conductor Alexander Platt led a double bill of two early modernist masterworks, Bartok’s 1911 hourlong “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle“ and Arnold Schoenberg’s 1909 30-minute monodrama “Erwartung” (“Expectation”). Platt already had proven himself with assured performances of contemporary works by John Adams, Benjamin Britten and Robert Kurka...The reunion of Platt with director Ken Cazan(which previously resulted in a revelatory “Death in Venice”) assured both riveting theater and ravishing orchestral playing. Each work in the just-concluded run prompted such an ovation at the Harris Theater that you would have thought that the audience had just heard Callas in “La Traviata.” —Andrew Patner, Bloomberg.com \| 5/30/2007 [top] “Alexander Platt conducts with great authority in both works. Bluebeard includes some of the loudest chorales ever to peal forth from an opera orchestra, and Platt lets them ring, but he also has a grasp on the quieter passages. Schoenberg’s bag of Expressionistic tricks is also easily handled.” —Marc Geelhoed, TimeOut Chicago, 5/17/2007 “Fortunately COT’s superior orchestra under Alexander Platt supplied the missing illumination (in Schoenberg’s “Erwartung”) with a sensitive regard for subtleties of texture and color at Wednesday’s opening. The resident conductor’s grasp of the Bartok idiom proved firm yet flexible.” —John von Rhein, The Chicago Tribune \| 5/11/07 “As led by COT resident conductor Alexander Platt...the musical interpretations of these difficult scores (BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE, ERWARTUNG) would hold their own against those of major international ensembles.” —Andrew Patner, The Chicago Sun-Times \| 5/11/07 WAUKESHA ORCHESTRA'S MOZART A THRILL Composer’s Palm Sunday work is given a fine reading in a grand setting “The Waukesha Symphony staged an apt revival of Mozart’s rare Litaniae de venerabilli altaris sacramento, from 1776. Mozart wrote it for Palm Sunday, and it was Palm Sunday; he wrote it for Salzburg Cathedral, and the WSO played it in the splendid chapel of St John’s Northwestern Military Academy in Delafield. Conductor Alexander Platt drew fiery playing and singing from his orchestra, from Mark Aamot’s Jubilate Chorale, and soloists........Their sound, in the live acoustics of the old, stone church, rose to hair-raising at the peaks. The quiet valleys were just as compelling........these were thrilling readings of an extraordinarily imaginative program. Platt’s musical curiosity seems inexhaustible, and he never fails to convey his enthusiasm to his players.” —Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 4/2/07
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