Irons, Galway Celebrate Maazel's Birthday
by Music Critic, The Associated Press
March 2, 2005
NEW YORK (AP) -- It was billed as a concert celebrating conductor Lorin Maazel's 75th birthday, but it was more like a gift from the birthday boy.
Tuesday night's New York Philharmonic concert, with performances by actor Jeremy Irons, flutist James Galway and others, presented five compositions by Maazel. Only one had been performed previously in New York.
His music should be heard more often. Three of the works -- ``The Giving Tree,'' ``The Empty Pot'' and ``Irish Vapours and Capers'' -- were simply charming.
The program was a musical triptych to China and Monaco as well as Ireland, perhaps symbolizing Maazel's well-traveled route to the Philharmonic, where he has been music director since September 2002. Born March 6, 1930, in France to American parents, Maazel started on the violin at 5 and first conducted the Philharmonic at 11.
As a conductor, he has been music director of such orchestras as the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra.
His conducting overshadows his composing, although his opera ``1984'' gets its world premiere in May at London's Covent Garden. He often conducts by memory, but on Tuesday he used a score during the entire program.
``The Giving Tree,'' composed in 1998, used the text of the sentimental poem by the late Shel Silverstein about life cycles, eternal friendship and devotion. Maazel's wife, actress Dietlinde Turban, narrated; Han-Na Chang performed the solo cello part.
The piece began in a darkened Avery Fisher Hall with the rush of a wind machine, like the one in Richard Strauss' whimsical tone poem ``Don Quixote,'' which also features solo cello. The narration and solos were often set against a lush terrain of sustained notes by the orchestra. A Mahler-like dirge accompanied one sad moment as the tree faced its mortality. A swelling major chord illustrated the story's happy ending.
``The Empty Pot'' was the highlight of the night. With the stage bathed in red lights, Irons narrated the fable about a Chinese emperor who distributes flower seeds to children. The one who grows the most beautiful flower would be his successor. A boy named Ping -- sung tenderly by 14-year-old soprano James Danner -- is disappointed because his seeds won't grow. But he emerges triumphant because the emperor gave out seeds that weren't supposed to grow. Ping was the only honest contestant.
[And this from Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times: "The Empty Pot," adapted from a Chinese tale by Demi, is a beguiling children's tale about a childless emperor searching for a successor and an honest young boy named Ping. Jeremy Irons, no less, was the mesmerizing narrator, and a remarkable boy treble, James Danner, sang Ping. Tunes and refrains, many of which Mr. Maazel borrowed from a collection of Chinese folk songs, were ardently sung by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.]
The composition begins with flutes and uses the pentatonic scale. The enthusiastic voices of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus added more emotional depth to the plot.
Galway, the night's master of ceremonies, was the soloist in ``Irish Vapours and Capers,'' narrated by Dylan Baker with Turban portraying the tragic heroine. The piece began with the stage in emerald lights (eliciting chuckles from the audience) and with some intonation problems.
In the composition, Maazel weaves in Irish melodies and jigs, including ``Danny Boy'' and ``The Connemara Cradle Song'' and ``I'll Tell Me Ma,'' against unusual harmonies.
``I hate to think how many Irish bars he frequented to get all these Irish jigs,'' Galway told the audience.
The concert began with ``Monaco Fanfares,'' which Maazel said in the program notes was written in self-defense because he got tired of hearing the changing of the guard music when he was living near the prince's palace in Monte Carlo. The composition was imitative of Ravel's ``Bolero,'' with a soft snare drum introducing a melody that repeats and builds in volume.
The most difficult work of the night was ``Music for Violoncello and Orchestra,'' which depicts a vision of beauty that turns beastly. Chang, playing by memory, handled the technical challenges with ease.
The night ended with a round of ``Happy Birthday,'' and unlike Ping's empty pot, a bouquet of flowers for Maazel.