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A FRIEND GIVES PETER A HAND WITH THAT PESKY WOLF
By Vivien Schweitzer
Richard Termine for The New York Times
New York Times
July 7 2007
Photo: Kevin Kline and the New York Philharmonic, conducted by
Bramwell Tovey, performing "Peter and the Wolf" at Avery Fisher Hall
on Thursday.
Sometimes the best children's toys are coveted by adults. During a
performance of Prokofiev's charming "Peter and the Wolf" by the New
York Philharmonic and Bramwell Tovey at Avery Fisher Hall on Thursday,
it seemed as if a storyteller and his musical accomplice were re-
enacting a favorite bedtime story for a rapt audience that even
included some real kids.
"Peter and the Wolf," which Mr. Tovey called a work for "children of
all ages," has been recorded innumerable times with starry narrators,
including Leonard Bernstein, David Bowie, Sean Connery and Sophia
Loren. The actor Kevin Kline was added to the distinguished lineup
in Thursday's concert, part of the Philharmonic's annual Summertime
Classics series. Mr. Kline engagingly relayed the adventures of
Peter and the animals with whimsy and charm, while Mr. Tovey and
the musicians eagerly conveyed the musical ingenuity of Prokofiev's
picturesque score.
There was plenty of other colorful music by Russian composers during
the concert, "Moscow on the Hudson," which was performed under a
backdrop depicting Red Square. The program opened with an energetic
rendition of Glinka's ebullient Overture to "Ruslan and Ludmila,"
performed far more frequently (outside Russia) than the opera itself.
The orchestra members, in their summer uniform of white jackets,
seemed to be enjoying themselves, with the sumptuously spun-out cello
melody particularly lovely.
Mr. Tovey, whose personality is as ebullient as this music,
interspersed the works with a lively stream of jokes and anecdotes.
One related the origins of Tchaikovsky's lighthearted "Capriccio
Italien," written in 1880 (an unusually happy year in the oft-tormented
composer's life) while he was staying in a hotel in Rome next to a
cavalry barracks. No one likes being waked up at the crack of dawn
on vacation, but Tchaikovsky put his rude awakening to good use and
wove the early-morning trumpet call of his noisy neighbors into the
opening fanfare of the Capriccio, a musical postcard of his sunny
respite in Rome.
There was more sunshine in the stirring Pas de Deux from "Spartacus,"
the ballet by Khachaturian, the son of an Armenian bookbinder living
in Georgia, who moved to Moscow to study in his late teens in 1921.
Like many of his colleagues, Khachaturian ran afoul of the Soviet
regime, but this work, depicting the uprising of repressed slaves
against their wealthy masters, was naturally a hit with the
authorities, and it was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1959.
Then the plot shifted from ancient Rome with Borodin's programmatic
"In the Steppes of Central Asia," the most subdued work on the
program. The composer provided a detailed written description to
guide his listeners' imagination, his musical brushstrokes evoking
a caravan of horses and camels slowly crossing the dusty steppes.
"Would you like one more?" Mr. Tovey shouted at the audience at the
end of the concert. They hollered back a resounding "yes" and were
rewarded with a vivacious reading of Khachaturian's popular "Sabre
Dance" from the Gayane Suite No. 2.
By Vivien Schweitzer
Richard Termine for The New York Times
New York Times
July 7 2007
Photo: Kevin Kline and the New York Philharmonic, conducted by
Bramwell Tovey, performing "Peter and the Wolf" at Avery Fisher Hall
on Thursday.
Sometimes the best children's toys are coveted by adults. During a
performance of Prokofiev's charming "Peter and the Wolf" by the New
York Philharmonic and Bramwell Tovey at Avery Fisher Hall on Thursday,
it seemed as if a storyteller and his musical accomplice were re-
enacting a favorite bedtime story for a rapt audience that even
included some real kids.
"Peter and the Wolf," which Mr. Tovey called a work for "children of
all ages," has been recorded innumerable times with starry narrators,
including Leonard Bernstein, David Bowie, Sean Connery and Sophia
Loren. The actor Kevin Kline was added to the distinguished lineup
in Thursday's concert, part of the Philharmonic's annual Summertime
Classics series. Mr. Kline engagingly relayed the adventures of
Peter and the animals with whimsy and charm, while Mr. Tovey and
the musicians eagerly conveyed the musical ingenuity of Prokofiev's
picturesque score.
There was plenty of other colorful music by Russian composers during
the concert, "Moscow on the Hudson," which was performed under a
backdrop depicting Red Square. The program opened with an energetic
rendition of Glinka's ebullient Overture to "Ruslan and Ludmila,"
performed far more frequently (outside Russia) than the opera itself.
The orchestra members, in their summer uniform of white jackets,
seemed to be enjoying themselves, with the sumptuously spun-out cello
melody particularly lovely.
Mr. Tovey, whose personality is as ebullient as this music,
interspersed the works with a lively stream of jokes and anecdotes.
One related the origins of Tchaikovsky's lighthearted "Capriccio
Italien," written in 1880 (an unusually happy year in the oft-tormented
composer's life) while he was staying in a hotel in Rome next to a
cavalry barracks. No one likes being waked up at the crack of dawn
on vacation, but Tchaikovsky put his rude awakening to good use and
wove the early-morning trumpet call of his noisy neighbors into the
opening fanfare of the Capriccio, a musical postcard of his sunny
respite in Rome.
There was more sunshine in the stirring Pas de Deux from "Spartacus,"
the ballet by Khachaturian, the son of an Armenian bookbinder living
in Georgia, who moved to Moscow to study in his late teens in 1921.
Like many of his colleagues, Khachaturian ran afoul of the Soviet
regime, but this work, depicting the uprising of repressed slaves
against their wealthy masters, was naturally a hit with the
authorities, and it was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1959.
Then the plot shifted from ancient Rome with Borodin's programmatic
"In the Steppes of Central Asia," the most subdued work on the
program. The composer provided a detailed written description to
guide his listeners' imagination, his musical brushstrokes evoking
a caravan of horses and camels slowly crossing the dusty steppes.
"Would you like one more?" Mr. Tovey shouted at the audience at the
end of the concert. They hollered back a resounding "yes" and were
rewarded with a vivacious reading of Khachaturian's popular "Sabre
Dance" from the Gayane Suite No. 2.