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Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/250528
Smillie's PICKS retires in 2016, I chose Abrams over his close rival, Marcelo Lehninger. Te LO smartly ofers us a sample of Abrams' versatility and style in a 2014-'15 season preview concert at the Brown on Tursday, Feb. 20, at 7 p.m. It opens in a blaze of rhythmic color and energy with Leonard Bernstein's Candide overture. Smart choice: highly energized "young" music of manic rhythm and melodic invention. Te concert also includes a blazing Bartok concerto. Tickets are a cheerful $20. Te main interest, however, will center on Abrams' pair of subscription concerts — 10 a.m. Tursday, Feb. 27, and Saturday, March 1, at 8 p.m. In addition to John Adams' sprightly Te Chairman Dances and a performance of a Ravel piano concerto, Abrams will take on one of the central works of mid-20th century art and politics: Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. Te Russian sufered vilifcation from Stalinist thugs masquerading as judges of aesthetics and for failing to adhere to the strictures of "Soviet realism." His Fifth, from 1937, was his great breakthrough work that established his ability to innovate while appearing ostensibly to conform. Both the state and the public hailed it, and Shostakovich was spared to write again. New, maybe exceptional By Thomson Smillie Illustration by Bart Galloway O Romeo, Romeo (and Juliet) Kentucky Opera gets a double nod this month, the frst for scheduling Charles Gounod's blithe and brainless take on Shakespeare's soupiest play, Romeo and Juliet, and the second for having the good sense to schedule it on Valentine's Day, presumably to attract that younger, prom-dressed segment of the market. Have you noticed how few of the Bard's greatest plays have made it as great operas? Te towering exceptions of Otello and Falstaf aside, I can name maybe only half a dozen. Te reason is that many of the best operas are made from second-rate plays — melodramas, pot-boilers and bodice-rippers — whereas the pace and profundity of a Hamlet does not generally lend itself to the leisurely tempo of music. Add to that the argument that while Shakespeare was, I believe, unquestionably the greatest lyric poet in English, he was not always its greatest dramatist, with some really creaky plots, of which R and J is an example. Te dopey denouement of who has drunk what and when, and the double suicide, is more palatable when wrapped in the gorgeous, mid-Victorian romanticism of the French composer Gounod, who also gave us Faust, the most popular and frequently performed opera of the 19th century, until La Bohème knocked it of its perch in the 20th. Kentucky Opera's salute to young love opens 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14, at the Brown Teatre, with a 2 p.m. matinee on the 16th. A new Teddy in town We have two chances in the coming weeks to see and hear the dynamic 26-year-old Teddy Abrams, who, as music director designate of the Louisville Orchestra, becomes the youngest such maestro of the moment in the U.S. and the youngest in the LO's history. I have a vested interest in his success, having bleated on for years that a young person, with a young person's tastes and vitality, was desperately needed to galvanize the ensemble. Ten, having seen him perform in the fall at the "beauty contest" to help pick a successor for when Jorge Mester 90 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 2.14 Keeping up with the changing small choral groups can be daunting, but a well-informed pal attended a frst concert by one, named the Louisville Chamber Choir, directed by the University of Louisville's excellent Dr. Kent Hatteberg. My friend found the tone, maturity, choice of music and execution all exemplary and recommends we take the frst available opportunity of hear the ensemble. Tis will be 3 p.m. on Feb. 23 at St. Agnes Church of Newburg Road. Te concert will include Frank Martin's mass for a double choir and a Bach motet. I do know that when I frst started typing this paragraph, I had no clue who or what a "Martin Mass" might be. So I stopped, went to YouTube, entered "Martin Mass for Double Choir," listened to the nearly 30-minute-long piece all the way through and was ravished by the beauty of the unaccompanied singing. By the time I resumed writing, I was a convert. Final thought Bernard Uzan is a witty Frenchman who many times directed for Kentucky Opera in the past. Having worked with some of the big stars, he was well aware that, for some, status was in inverse proportion to the number of rehearsals you turned up for. Pavarotti rarely attended them at all, coming to the theater and being told which door to come in and where to stand when. At least that's better than Dame Nellie Melba, the Australian diva, who is alleged to have sent her maid to rehearsals. Uzan told me he was invited to direct Gounod's Romeo and Juliet but that the Romeo would not arrive for the frst four days of rehearsal. "Ten the Juliet, she leaves on day fve and comes back on day 10, while Romeo leaves again on day nine and comes back for the dress rehearsal," Uzan says. His response: "Eet ees impossible! You ask me to direct Romeo and Juliet, not Romeo OR Juliet." Editor's note: This is Thomson Smillie's last column. He passed away late last month after health problems he battled in typically Thomson fashion — with a smile on his face, good cheer in his heart and no complaints. As his lovely wife Marilyn put it so well, he loved every minute of life. We'll have a remembrance of Thomson in our March issue.