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Robert Croan: Martinon composition in spotlight
Tuesday, November 03, 1998 By Robert Croan, Post-Gazette Music Critic
Featured in tomorrow evening's Y Music Society recital of violinist Dylana Jenson is an unaccompanied Sonatina by Jean Martinon (1910-76) that promises to be one of the more interesting novelties of this season. The French-born Martinon is best-known as a conductor. He was music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1963-68 and became a stalwart among record collectors in the days of LP, his recorded output encompassing - among other things - the complete orchestral works of Berlioz, Ravel and Debussy. They've been reissued on CD by EMI Classics.
Like many well-known conductors, however, his secret love was composing. A Jean Martinon Society was founded on both sides of the Atlantic in 1984 to celebrate his contributions as a composer. It should be noted, by the way, that other 20th-century conductors who tried their hand at composition (with varying degrees of success) include Antal Dorati, Igor Markevich, Manuel Rosenthal - and Pittsburgh's own Lorin Maazel.
Jenson's recital, with pianist Brian Ganz, also contains music by Vitali, Beethoven and Prokofiev. Details: 412-521-8011, Ext. TIX.
BY ANY OTHER NAME: Duquesne University tenor Todd Fortier won praise from PG writer Mark Kanny for his "excellent solos" in the Bach Choir's Oct. 24 performance of Ariel Ramirez's "Misa Criolla" at Carlow College. His performance, however, was incorrectly attributed to another local tenor who did not sing that night. For those who might like to hear Fortier sing under his true identity, he'll be sharing the title part in Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann" with Korean tenor Inseok Chang in a concert version by Duquesne's Opera Workshop at the Music School's PNC Bank Recital Hall on Nov. 15 at 8 p.m.
AND THEY SAY I'M A TOUGH CRITIC: Coming on the heels of a notoriously successful "Tristan und Isolde" by Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera's attempt to do Wagner's great music drama was less than a resounding triumph. The headline in the San Francisco Examiner picked out the phrase "Major Disaster," as music critic Allan Ulrich opened his review by saying: "If the San Francisco Opera's General Director Lotfi Monsouri were a sporting type, he would cancel all the remaining performances ... refund the prices of the tickets and take the loss. ... This ineptly cast revival explores a hitherto undiscovered bottom to the barrel. [It] was a virtual shipwreck of a performance." He goes on the say that "Elizabeth Connell, the Isolde of the revival, gasped her way through the 'Liebestod' " and that "she pummels the score...lunges at high notes or scoops her way into them and flats as a matter of course." He called tenor Wolfgang Schmidt "inexcusable," describing his voice like "leather left out in the rain too long." As for the orchestra, there was "raw string execution, poor balances and a muffled response from the evocative English horn." Finally, noting that conductor Donald Runnicles led an uncut performance, the critic quips, dryly, "How fortunate for us."
MUSIC ON THE AIR: WQED-FM station manager Jim Cunningham will speak on "The Future of Classical Radio: Pure, Lite or Not-at-all" at the HYP-Pittsburgh Club, Downtown, Nov. 12 at 5 p.m. Tickets for non-members are $15, including wine and cheese receptions preceding and following the talk. Details: 412-281-5858.
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