Standing ovation in Paris!
Tonight, the LA Chamber Orchestra, performing in the Theatre
des Champs-Élysées, was greeted with a standing ovation, something rarely bestowed by the highly discerning (some might say, snobbish) Parisian audiences. The gorgeous art nouveau-style theater seemed dry to the musicians onstage, but from the center of the orchestra section, the sound was ideal: crisp, clean, and burnished. The soloist once again was Vesselina Kasarova, and she was at her best: a stunning mezzo-soprano voice, focused like a laser. She sang Mozart and Rossini arias to a rapt audience.
LACO Music Director Jeffrey Kahane has been taking a moment to address the audience at every concert. In the audience's native language. It's not at all unusual for conductors to speak German, so his perfect German in the Berlin and Vienna halls didn't really surprise me. But before the Paris concert, he insisted that he was nervous about talking French publically. He was even coached by his wife, Martha. Well, Jeffrey once again nailed the greeting with an immaculate French accent.
I may be imagining a quiet collective gasp among audience members, but there's no doubt that he must have mightily impressed them. The cliche that Americans don't bother to learn other languages is mostly true. Happily, Jeffrey Kahane is giving us all a better name.
There were a pair of beautiful receptions framing the concert. First, on the Ile St. Louis, close friends of the Kahanes hosted a gathering at their beautiful apartment on the Seine. Following the concert, LACO board member Warner Henry and his wife Carol hosted a reception at their equally fabulous Paris apartment just down the street from the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, where Stravinsky's Rite of Spring caused such a ruckus at its world premiere in 1913.
Nearly a hundred years later, the Pulcinella Suite went over marvelously well; nary a fistfight!
Most of the orchestra players arrived the very day of the concert, which gave them a few hours at most to look around this miraculous city. For those toting their children on tour, the Eifel Tower was a must....every darned step. Helpfully, our hotel was only a few blocks away.
Some did a bit of shopping; Violist Roland Kato took a busman's holiday to a music store and came away with a stack of sheet music. Clarinetist Joshua Ranz bought a clarinet! It's the less frequently used "C" clarinet, which makes some passages easier to play. He actually purchased a "student" model by Leblanc that Paris Opera Orchestra players are also using. Inexpensive, relatively, yet absolutely warm enough in tone to play professionally. Violinist Jennifer Levin walked for hours.
Violist Victoria Miskolczy was visited by family who live in Europe. LACO Executive Director Andrea Laguni was reunited with his brother, Stefano, a theater director and actor who is married to a singer specializing in early music. They live in Paris. Associate Executive Director Ruth Eliel and her husband Bill Cooney saw the Vlaminck exhibit at the Musee de Luxembourg with Parisian friends. Danielle Harrell, who oversees Major Gifts and, along with Devin Thomas, handled many of the logistical aspects of the tour, met up with an old friend, and then received a visit from her mom and sister. I wandered around the Luxembourg Gardens and the Place de Vosges. It's been about 25 years since I'd been to Paris, and knowing one afternoon was not exactly enough time to see all the sights, I picked a few favorite places from my past.
des Champs-Élysées, was greeted with a standing ovation, something rarely bestowed by the highly discerning (some might say, snobbish) Parisian audiences. The gorgeous art nouveau-style theater seemed dry to the musicians onstage, but from the center of the orchestra section, the sound was ideal: crisp, clean, and burnished. The soloist once again was Vesselina Kasarova, and she was at her best: a stunning mezzo-soprano voice, focused like a laser. She sang Mozart and Rossini arias to a rapt audience.
LACO Music Director Jeffrey Kahane has been taking a moment to address the audience at every concert. In the audience's native language. It's not at all unusual for conductors to speak German, so his perfect German in the Berlin and Vienna halls didn't really surprise me. But before the Paris concert, he insisted that he was nervous about talking French publically. He was even coached by his wife, Martha. Well, Jeffrey once again nailed the greeting with an immaculate French accent.
I may be imagining a quiet collective gasp among audience members, but there's no doubt that he must have mightily impressed them. The cliche that Americans don't bother to learn other languages is mostly true. Happily, Jeffrey Kahane is giving us all a better name.
There were a pair of beautiful receptions framing the concert. First, on the Ile St. Louis, close friends of the Kahanes hosted a gathering at their beautiful apartment on the Seine. Following the concert, LACO board member Warner Henry and his wife Carol hosted a reception at their equally fabulous Paris apartment just down the street from the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, where Stravinsky's Rite of Spring caused such a ruckus at its world premiere in 1913.
Nearly a hundred years later, the Pulcinella Suite went over marvelously well; nary a fistfight!
Most of the orchestra players arrived the very day of the concert, which gave them a few hours at most to look around this miraculous city. For those toting their children on tour, the Eifel Tower was a must....every darned step. Helpfully, our hotel was only a few blocks away.
Some did a bit of shopping; Violist Roland Kato took a busman's holiday to a music store and came away with a stack of sheet music. Clarinetist Joshua Ranz bought a clarinet! It's the less frequently used "C" clarinet, which makes some passages easier to play. He actually purchased a "student" model by Leblanc that Paris Opera Orchestra players are also using. Inexpensive, relatively, yet absolutely warm enough in tone to play professionally. Violinist Jennifer Levin walked for hours.
Violist Victoria Miskolczy was visited by family who live in Europe. LACO Executive Director Andrea Laguni was reunited with his brother, Stefano, a theater director and actor who is married to a singer specializing in early music. They live in Paris. Associate Executive Director Ruth Eliel and her husband Bill Cooney saw the Vlaminck exhibit at the Musee de Luxembourg with Parisian friends. Danielle Harrell, who oversees Major Gifts and, along with Devin Thomas, handled many of the logistical aspects of the tour, met up with an old friend, and then received a visit from her mom and sister. I wandered around the Luxembourg Gardens and the Place de Vosges. It's been about 25 years since I'd been to Paris, and knowing one afternoon was not exactly enough time to see all the sights, I picked a few favorite places from my past.
posted by Gail Eichenthal @ 6:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home