Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Two icons of music lend their considerable talent and star power to Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival

• By drediman
• November 27, 2019
• No Comments

Two recent high points of the ongoing White Light Festival were the contributions of two icons of the music world – classical music’s superstar conductor Gustavo Dudamel and jazz legend Wynton Marsalis.

Gustavo Dudamel leads the L.A. Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall.

Over at David Geffen Hall, the dynamic Gustavo Dudamel led his fantastic Los Angeles Philharmonic for two memorable concerts. These performances were shining examples of why the charismatic Venezuelan maestro is one of the most in-demand conductors in the world. The first program (RECOMMENDED) – an offering of this fall’s White Light Festival, courtesy of Lincoln Center – consisted of Bruckner’s stirring four-movement Symphony Number 4, which Mr. Dudamel and the L.A. forces tackled in a beautifully-articulated rendition. Indeed, Dudamel’s talent for taming and shaping large-scale works into gripping, wholly satisfying musical and emotional experiences was in full evidence here.

The following evening’s concert (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) – this one part of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series – was more eclectic. It began with Alberto Ginastera’s “Variaciones concertantes”, a vibrant, episodic teaser. The program continued with the New York premiere of John Adams’ rollicking piano concerto “Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?” (an L.A. Philharmonic commission), featuring the dazzling pianist Yuja Wang in an impassioned performance that yielded five (!) encores. Unlike the cool, intellectual works typically produced by minimalist composers, this one was unafraid to wear its emotions on its sleeves, and the fiery Ms. Wang was only too happy to oblige. Perhaps more than any other piece of classical music, I’ve probably heard Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” more than most (either in context of a dance performance or the concert hall), and Dudamel’s version, which concluded the evening, was riveting. The performance, which bursted with color and detail, was also astonishingly focused, showing off the drama and mounting tension inherent in Stravinsky’s still-jarring score to maximum effect. It also highlighted the considerable individual strengths of each section of the L.A. Philharmonic. Exciting stuff.

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Chorale Le Chateau perform Wynton Marsalis’s “Abyssinian Mass” at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Then at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center, I attended a performance of Wynton Marsalis’s hugely ambitious “Abyssinian Mass” (RECOMMENDED). The piece was created in 2013 for the bicentennial of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and here was performed as another offering of the White Light Festival. Although the idea of setting the Christian mass to jazz music – and by extension, the African American experience – is conceptually compelling, there’s no getting around the fact that Mr. Marsalis’s two-act, throw the kitchen sink evening is messy and overstuffed (the concert clocked in at a lengthy two-and-a-half hours). But this is neither here nor there. The cumulative effect of the the rowdy and rousing “Abyssinian Mass” – which featured the swinging Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and spirited Chorale Le Chateau (a sizable, irrepressible gospel choir), as fiercely conducted by Damien L. Sneed – was positively electrifying, as well as a deeply moving shared human experience. A particular highlight for me was the slow-jamming sermon, a downright inspirational call-and-response segment that soulfully melded all the elements of the sprawling work – spoken word (courtesy of the wise Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts III), choral work, jazz accompaniment, and choreography.

L.A. Philharmonic
Classical Music
Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival / Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series / David Geffen Hall

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra / Chorale Le Chateau
Jazz
Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival / Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center