Staatskapelle Dresden Plays Bruckner Symphony No. 8

The Staatskapelle Dresden accepts the appreciation of the audience at Carnegie Hall following its sweeping performance of the Bruckner Symphony No. 8.

Carnegie Hall. NYC. April 19, 2013. This is the second time I've heard Bruckner's mighty Eighth Symphony, the first time being in Berlin with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra lead by Bernard Haiting. In both cases it was the only work on the program, so it attracted only Bruckner fans to its 80-minute length. Bruckner may be an acquired taste, but I can't see how anyone could fail to be moved by this splendid performance under conductor Christian Thielemann. The full-house audience signaled its agreement with a long, loud ovation. 

Rigoletto Hits the Jackpot

Although some critics complained, this production was a huge success with audiences.

Metropolitan Opera. New York City. April 16, 2013. I'm not a fan of transforming classic opera into modern dress and locales, but sometimes it works spectacularly well. The Met's new production of Verdi's ever-popular Rigoletto, is set in 1960s Las Vegas, and the production is the star of this show. The Met's huge stage and resources are turned into something akin to a Las Vegas stage show, replete with Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. While it's a far cry from 16th century Italy, the music and lyrics remain untouched, and the singing is as glorious as one expects from the Metropolitan Opera. I was seated in the middle of the sixth row of the orchestra, and this fabulous seat engulfed me into the production. Even though the story is a tragedy, this very creative way of presenting it was exciting and, given the choice of attending yet another

traditional production (and I've attended many) or this Las Vegas entry, I'd choose the Met's new production any day.

et in 1960s Las Vegas, rather than 1500s Mantua, Italy, the stage show is as gaudy as one would expect.

Quirky But Sometimes Beautiful

Distinguished Italian pianist Carlo Levi Minzi at the Goethe Institut Auditorium, Bangkok, Thailand, following his March 22, 2013 piano recital.

Goethe Institut Auditorium. Bangkok, Thailand. March 22, 2013. Professor Carlo Levi Minzi has a distinguished resume and plays the piano very well, but that doesn't mean that I liked his playing. After all, music is an emotional experience and attempts to explain what one hears, or why one likes or dislikes the way a certain work is performed, have only limited utility. Minzi plays with his fingers flat, and not from the bridge. My guess is that he believes that he achieves a warmer tone with this approach, a tone that is usually attributed to the old world piano masters of a bygone age, such as Shura Cherkassy, Joseph Levine or Joseph Hoffman. However, what Minzi misses is that he fails to utilize the entire range and dynamics of piano playing, which is possible with the modern concert grand. He plays everything super-legato, which results in a bland performance, and, after listening to several works played by him, ultimately, boredom.

Some of Minzi's playing in Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, Schubert's Wanderer Fantasie, and Chopin's Ballade Nos. 1 and 2, were quite beautiful, but all were marred by Minzi's erratic phrasing and frequent tempo changes, which in some instances produced nothing short of distortions of the music. Minzi was most successful in his last two works, Chopin's Ballades 2 and 3, but by that time, I was nervously waiting for one of his jagged phrases to interrupt the smooth line of some nice Chopin playing.