Theatre review: "The Book of Mormon" traveling version

We have a visitor, The Book of Mormon. It’s unfolding at Benedum Center. This winner of nine Tony Awards arrives full of vitality, salty sass and silliness. Whoops! The tickets come inscribed with the words alerting holders to “explicit language.” Un-huh. This is pegged as being only for alleged mature audiences. Except that the humor most likely most pleases those who’ve only recently been licensed to drive and qualified to vote. Not to put it down, by any means. Riper folk no doubt will grin and guffaw. Just forget about subtlety.

The book, music and lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone are right in line with their earlier successes, the show Avenue Q and the animated TV series South Park. So think of this as a super- decorated, goofy cartoon. The songs have a few clever lyrics and the tunes fly by swiftly and effortlessly in their generic but useful way. Consider them as in the same league with those for Spamalot and The Producers. The show itself’s the thing that captures the essence of the zing.

Yes, it has some of the outrageousness of The Producers, being the next step further out from “Springtime for Hitler” heading off to darkest, AIDS-infested Africa where the natives aren’t restless. Rather they sing and dance their way through misery, poverty and disease, while the Doctor proudly claims he has maggots in his scrotum. He’s telling this to a couple of lily-whites who’ve just arrived from Salt Lake City where the hills are alive with sound of praying.

They and other young-uns of their sect are, weirdly, called Elders, having achieved church status in their missionary positions. The story sends them off while sending up the tenets of their faith, giving Mormonism the substance of bubble gum. So, yeah, this is a satire. Yet, life is not so much nasty, short and brutish as it is more an Oz-like version of a corner of the third world and a fraction of Utah. It dwells on innocence, that of the boys and the natives.

Elders Price and Cunningham are at the center of the fable. As cleverly directed by Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker, Price gee-whizes- by wide-eyed and puzzled while Cunningham finds friendship and finds himself for the first time ever in his stumbling, bumbling life. Christopher John O’Neill virtually steals the show as Cunningham, his warmth and charm constantly glowing on stage. Mark Evans sings superbly and does all the right things with the role of Elder Price. CMU grad Grey Henson capably personifies Elder McKinley, also trying his mother-hugging best to convert the heathens. Another character getting major attention is a young woman named Nabulungi. She’s played by Samantha Marie Ware, who has the voice and style to do the most with a stock musical comedy character.

A lot of the show has the gloss of other Broadway productions but which Casey Nicolaw’s choreography wonderfully parodies. Such funny stuff and more bounces all over the place in this charmer. I imagine that adults are not supposed to bring the kids. But where does childhood end and adult-hood start? Bleep if I know.

The Book of Mormon continues through April 7th at Benedum Center, Downtown - 412- 456-4800 and www.Trustarts.org

Playlist: "The Best of Broadway" Sunday, 24th March 2013

Stephen Sondheim: music & lyrics
"Passion" (original Broadway cast) Angel CDQ 7243 5 5532521 23 -excerpts w/Marin Mazzie, Jere Shea, Gregg Edelman, Donna Murphy, Tom Aldredge, Frances Ruivivar, Marcus Olsen, William Parry, Cris Groenendaal, George Dvorsky-Paul Gemignani, music director

  "Road Show" (original off-Broadway cast) Nonesuch 518940-2-excerpts w/Michael Cerveris, Alexander Gemignani, Alma Cuervo, Claybourne Elder-Mary-Mitchell Campbell, music director

Playlist: "Classics" 24th March 2013

Pete Johnson, pianist-"Ammons-Johnson-Lux Lewis-Boobie Woogie Trio" Storyville LP SLP 4006-"J.J. Boogie" w/Sonny Rogers, g

“Big” Joe Turner, singer-"Joe Turner-The Boss of the Blues" Atlantic LP SD 8812-Jazzlore 5-"Cherry Red" & "Wee Baby Blues" w/Johnson, p-Lawrence Brown, tb-Seldon Powell, ts

 Jimmy Rushing, singer-"The Essential Jimmy Rushing" Vanguard VCD 65/66-"Take Me Back Baby"/"See See Rider" w/ Johnson, Brown-Buddy Tate, ts-Rudy Powell, cl-Emmett Berry, tp

Woody Herman Orchestra-"Woody Herman -and the Herd-at Carnegie Hall, 1946" Verve 314 559 833-2-"Sweet and Lovely"/" Heads Up" w/Flip Phillips, ts-Woody, cl-Bill Haris, tb-Red Norvo, vibes-Billy Bauer,g

 Benny Goodman Orchestra-"Benny Goodman-Vol.5" MusicMasters 5040-2-C -"Ten-Bone" w/Flip, Harris

 Flip Phillips, tenor sax & bass clarinet-"The Flip Phillips Quartet-Live at the Beowulf" Arbors ARCD 19308-"Chloe" w/ Tom Howard, p

 Flip Phillips, tenor sax-'Flip Phillips-A Real Swinger" Concord LP CJ 358-"Hashimoto's Blues"/"Christian Scientist" w/ Howard Alden, g-Dick Hyman,p-Butch Miles, drums

 Howard Alden, guitarist-"Howard Alden-Take Your Pick" Concord CCD 4743-2-"U.M.M.G." (by Billy Strayhorn) w/ Renee Rosnes, p-Lew Tabackin, flute 

Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, bassist-"Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen Trio-Friends Forever" Milestone MC D 9269-2-"The Shadow of Your Smile" /"Sometime Ago" w/Rosnes 

The Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Star Big Band-Things to Come" MCG Jazz MCG 11009-"Manteca" w/ Jon Faddis, tp-Frank Wess, fl-Jimmy Heath, ts-Slide Hampton, tb-Rosnes 

Lew Tabackin, tenor sax-"The Lew Tabackin Quartet-Desert Lady" Concord Jazz CCD 4411-"Chelsea Bridge" (by Billy Strayhorn)/ ''A Bit Byas'd" w/Hank Jones, p-Dave Holland, bass

 The Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band-"Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band-Farewell to Mingus" JAM LP Jam 003-"Autumn Sea" w/Tabackin, flute

 "Lew Tabackin-"I'll be Seeing You" Concord CCD 4528-"Chic Lady"(by Toshiko) w/Benny Green, piano-Peter Washington, bass-Lewis Nash, drums

Theatre review: "Antarktikos" at The Rep

The Rep at Pittsburgh Playhouse offers a world premiere of a play revolving around world famous history about 100 years ago, the story of ill-fated explorer Robert Falcon Scott who died near the South Pole in March 1912. Andrea Stolowitz writes about that in Antarktikos, using an ancient Greek name for that forbidding territory. She explores more but dwells much on Scott’s history while calling attention to present living conditions beneath the frozen surface. She keeps those subjects constantly fascinating but her intelligent creation, despite many admirable qualities, most looks like a device to tell us about Scott and life and death in that port of the world. She constructs a tale about a slightly dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship and how it thaws in a contemporary, life-threatening situation. Stolowitz has come up with an intellectually creative construction, full of interesting details, but emotional involvement never breaks through to warm us. This character study doesn’t get deep enough.

Director Sheila McKenna gets fine, believable performances from her four person cast in the uninterrupted hour and three-quarters. Tony Bingham stands out superbly as Scott giving the man truthful and modest fragility, a portrait which seems justified by what Stolowitz tells us about Scott and what history also says.

The play is a time and place traverser, in which delusions feel real to Susan, a writer, who, as it turns out, is on hospital life-support after a serious bicycle accident. Thus the audience is thrust into what seems her sentient time on earth visiting today’s Antarctica where she encounters a medical technician, Alex, checking on her ability to physically survive the experience. Actually, in real life he helped her survive the accident. Meanwhile, in Susan’s dream time, she is alone with Scott in his isolated, storm-swept tent. Scott is puzzled about how this has happened while Susan tells him of his resurrection as a dead hero.  North of there in the here and now, her somewhat estranged daughter Hilary arrives at the hospital where a relationship evolves between her and Alex.

Stolowitz’s scenes between Scott and Susan show much imagination, but the hospital room parts of the play don’t go very far until the conclusion. And the beginning, with Susan telling about herself and about the threat to human life in the Antarctic goes on quite long, seeming, at best,  like interesting talk. This part of the script would improve with trimming. There are other times when talk takes precedence over action, as if congealed into immobility.

As Susan, Alex and Hilary, Amy Landis, Billy Hepfinger and Morgan Wolk do admirably in giving their characters much believability while director McKenna shapes the performances and stages the actions dynamically.

If Stolowitz wanted to write about the Antarctic and about Scott as much as she seems to, especially given the title, a better choice would have been to go further in that direction. But, according to the program notes, she had other intentions which are expressed in Susan and Hilary’s story.  You can see how these elements might come together but, in this instance, more needs to be done.

Antarktikos continues through April 7^th  in the Studio Theatre at Pittsburgh Playhouse, on Craft Avenue, Oakland-412/392-8000, or online at www.pittsburghplayhouse.com  

Playlist: "Classics" Sunday, 17th March, 2013

Virgil Thomson-"Quadrants-modern string quartets (sic)" Navona NV5883-
String Quartet No. 1 w/Boston Composers String Quartet

Samuel Barber-"Barber: The Lovers/Prayers of Kierkegaard-Andrew Schenck/Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus" Koch 3-7125-2 H 1" -"The Lovers: Body of a Woman, In the hot depth of this summer, Close Your Eyes" w/ Dale Duesing, baritone w/Chicago Symphony Chorus and Orchestra-Andrew Schenck, conductor

"Alan Hovhaness: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 50" Naxos 8.559717-"Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints" Op. 211" w/Ron Johnson, marimba-Seattle Symphony Orchestra-Gerard Schwarz, conductor

"Philip Glass: Violin Concerto" Naxos 8.559056-the concerto w/Adele Anthony, violin-Ulster Orchestra-Takuo Yuasa, conductor

 Jennifer Higdon-"Dragon Rhyme" Naxos 8.572889-Soprano Saxophone Concerto w/ Carrie Koffman, soprano saxophone-The Hartt School Wind Ensemble-Glen Adsit, conductor

 George Antheil-"Antheil: Ballet Mecanique" Naxos 8.559060-Serenade for String Orchestra, No.1 w/Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra-Daniel Spalding, conductor

Playlist: "The Best of Broadway" Sunday 17th March 2013

Victor Herbert: music & Herbert Blossom: lyrics-"Eileen"(2001 Irish studio cast) New World Records 80733-2-excerpts w/Eamonn Marshall, Mary Sullivan, Dean Power, Rachel Kelly-Orchestra of Ireland-David Brophy, conductor

Marc Blitzstein: music & lyrics-"Juno" (original Broadway cast) Fynsworth Alley FA 2134-excerpts w/Monte Amundsen, Loren Driscoll, Melvyn Douglas, Jack MacGowan-Robert Emmet Dolan, music director

Theatre review: "Breath & Imagination" at City Theatre

You’ll hear wonderful songs and witness superb performing at City Theatre in its co-produced world premiere of Daniel Beaty’s play with music called Breath & Imagination. In ninety or so minutes this tells the self-narrated story of real, world-famous African-American concert singer Roland Hayes.

But don’t think of this as a recital of simple facts nor as a song recital. Beaty’s script calls for genuine acting and for a range of many kinds of songs, with more of an emphasis on how they relate to the narrative than heard for their own sake. This most concerns Hayes evolution as an artist and how his career took shape, with racism constantly darkening of the story, seen more as a fact than as creating major drama.

 

Jubilant Sykes glows with warmth and depth portraying Hayes, making the man live and breathe while singing with beauty and soul. His vocal strength and his range enrich the experience but you never get the feeling that this is a showcase for Sykes’ talent. Rather he makes Hayes come alive with assurance and sincerity. Kecia Lewis as Hayes’ mother, named Angel Mo,’ has a voice and characterization that grabs you and holds you equal to the force she displays shaping and bending Hayes’ life. Angel Mo’ has an attitude and, while you smile, don’t you forget it,

Director Darko Tresnjak has staged this imaginatively, getting the best out of David P. Gordon’s inventive set, most noticeably when Hayes is seen as a child.  Angel Mo’ towers over him as he squirms and wiggles on steps below her, Sykes’ playing these scenes with believable charm.  

Actor/pianist Tom Frey adds to the constant appeal and interest as seven people intersecting Hayes along his path to fame, while, at the same time, playing the music impeccably.     

As for the songs, only a few are arias from opera or art songs. Most seem to be spirituals. Unfortunately, if you want to know more, for example to search for them and hear them again, you’ll find nothing in the program book to help. And many sound worth hearing again.  

FYI: Evidently Hayes made few recordings in his best years. You can learn more on-line at San Francisco Classical Voice (http://www.sfcv.org/reviews/the-artistry-of-aframerican-roland-hayes). It reports that the only CD currently available is Preiser Records’ 2-disc set, The Art of Roland Hayes: Six Centuries of Song, consisting of Old English folk songs, and those of Dowland, Handel, Mozart, Schubert, Debussy and Wolf, as well as Hayes’ arrangements of what he called “Aframerican” folk songs, along with Negro worksongs and spirituals. It would have been valuable to say this also in the program book because this fresh exposure to Hayes leaves an indelible impression.

Breath and Imagination continues through March 31^st at City Theatre, 1300 Bingham Street South Side-412/ 431-CITY (2489) and citytheatrecompany.org

After I posted this I was told by City Theatre that Mr.Beaty preferred to not have the songs listed because, having written some of them, he felt it was presumptuous of him to take credit given the sources of the other songs. 
Nonetheless, here is a list of those songs, with City Theatre's permission:
 

Opening/Give Me Jesus [Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) from Les Berceaux

Plenty Good Room/Give Me Jesus (reprise) [Traditional Spirituals]

Let’s Have a Union/Witness [Traditional Spirituals/Daniel Beaty]
Golden Slippers [Traditional Spiritual]

Roland Preached [Daniel Beaty]

Over My Head [Traditional Spiritual]

Round About De Mountain [Traditional Spiritual]

Hold On [Traditional Spiritual]

Chattanooga [Daniel Beaty]

I Hear Music [Daniel Beaty]

Lord, I Want to Be a Christian [Traditional Spiritual]

Roland, an Artist [Daniel Beaty]

Ich grolle nicht [Robert Schumann (1810-56) from Dichterliebe -

Text by Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)]

ACT TWO

Opening (reprise) [Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) from Les Berceaux]

Never Leave Me [Daniel Beaty]

Ich will meine Seele tauchen [Robert Schumann (1810-56) from Dichterliebe-

Text by Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)]

My God Is So High [Traditional Spiritual]

 

Review: "Thurgood" at Pittsburgh Public Theater

Pittsburgh Public Theater continues its Made In America series with a one-person, 90 minute play about a significant American, Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to become part of the U.S. Supreme Court. This respectful production certainly makes clear why we should admire and honor the man. Pittsburgh-born actor Montae Russell, who has major credits in his career, gives an energetic performance. But George Stevens Jr.’s script, simply titled Thurgood, whose simplicity mirrors the result, looks and sounds most like a lecture with very little going for it as theatre. 

We learn about many events on Marshall’s life, most often focusing on what happened in public, dwelling on how he confronted segregation and racism. Stevens has him offering intelligent insights and laudable opinions with touches of light humor, but most come across as judge-like pronouncements, rather than something personal. There are hints about Marshall’s private life; they remain undeveloped, while we get almost nothing of emotional weight.  

Director Ted Pappas has Russell dynamically moving around the stage in a variety of postures, sometimes carrying a cane to represent aging, other times vigorously striding and pacing to imply younger days.  Pappas and his designer also have tried to enhance the experience with colorful projections and lively sound cues. But the interior, the soul of the man, does not emerge. Director and performer have not found ways to give Marshall memorable personality.    

Russell capably delivers the information Stevens wants to bring out but the actor stays stuck with a script which lacks drama, even though many events in Marshall’s life sound dramatic. Russell most often sounds as if declaiming rather than speaking personally, not showing nearly enough significant feelings.

I can’t help wondering how Marshall came across in real life to his colleagues, his friends, his children. Here he stands alone, needing more.

Thurgood continues through April 7^th at Pittsburgh Public Theater, 621 Penn Ave. downtown.  412/- 316-1600  and ppt.org

 

Playlist: "The Best of Broadway" Sunday, 10th March 2013

Jerry Herman: music & lyrics-"La Cage Aux Folles" (original Broadway cast) Sony Broadway Masterworks/RCA 59997-excerpts w/Gene Barry, John Weiner, George Hearn, Elizabeth Parrish-Don Pippin, music director

"La Cage Aux Folles" (2010 Broadway cast) ps classics PS 1094-excerpts w/Kelsey Grammer, Douglas Hodge, Christine Andreas-Todd Ellison, music director

 Stephen Flaherty: music & Lynn Ahrens: lyrics-"A Man of No Importance" (original off-Broadway cast) Jay Records 1369-excerpts w/Faith Prince, Charles Keating, Roger Rees, Jessica Molasky, Jarlath Conroy, Ronn Carroll, Sally Murphy-Ted Sperling, music director

Playlist: "Classics" Sunday 10th March 2013

"Joseph Schwantner: Chasing Light" Naxos 8.559678-Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra-w/ Christopher Lamb, percussion-Nashville Symphony-Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor

 Arthur Gottschalk-"Moto Perpetuo-Moving Works for Cello" Navona NV 5901-Sonata for Cello and Piano-"In Memoriam": 2nd movement: "RF" w/Judith Ahlquist, piano-Ovidiu Marinescu, cello

 William Thomas McKinley-"The American Trumpet" Naxos 8.559719-"Miniature Portraits" four of them w/Jeffrey Silberschlag, trumpet-Deborah Greitzer, bassoon-Seattle Symphony-Gerard Schwartz, conductor

 "Sophia Serghi-Night of Light" Navona NV 5866-"Cantus Integratis: Pura, Peccata, Purgatio" w/Lucie Silkenova, soprano-Eliska Weissova, mezzo-soprano-Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra-Vit Micka, conductor

Michael Mauldin-"The Last Musician of Ur" Navona NV 5891-w/Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra-Petr Vronsky, conductor

"Mary Ellen Childs-Wreck" Innova 844-excerpts w/Pat O'Keefe, clarinet-Laura Harada, violin- Michelle Kinney and Jacqueline Ultan, cellos-Peter O'Gorman, ,percussion

 "Dr. Lonnie Smith-The Healer" Pilgrimage PCD 001-"Chelsea Bridge" (by Billy Strayhorn) w/ Smith, organ- Jonathan Kreisberg, guitar-Jamire Williams, drums

Theatre review: "Looking for the Pony" at Off the Wall Productions

Vivid, creative staging and truly admirable performing instill life and vitality into a play about dying of cancer. It’s Looking for the Pony by Andrea Lepcio at Off the Wall Productions in Carnegie.

The script seems most like an extended lecture not so much about cancer itself but rather about how two women deal with it. It lacks any major developments and the two principal characters stay defined more by words than insight. As those women, Daina Michelle Griffith and Karen Baum give them so much truth that what they are interpreting matters less than what they do with it. Moreover, Cameron Knight, a recent addition to the theatre faculty at CMU, brings memorable color and definition to a multiplicity of subsidiary characters and becomes a wonder to watch. Credit director Robyne Parrish for getting her cast to make the best and the most of this script.

Lepcio writes about Oisie and Lauren, who bonded when they were children, so much so that they consider each others sisters. Lauren develops breast cancer. Oisie is struggling to become a writer. The 85 minute story, told by Oisie, concerns the progression of Lauren’s physical deterioration while her spirit never flags. Oisie suffers the most. Therein lies the principal and only major thread: the one with cancer suffers less than does her friend. Clearly Lepcio also wants to make a major point about medical people and the lawyers involved in what’s left of Laurens’s life.  Such people seem like clowns, as do others in Oisie’s struggle with her career. Director Parrish and set designer Stephanie Mayer-Staley capably enhance the idea having a center ring around which and in which most happens, while Knight and Theo Allyn pop in and out of scenes with an amazing array of characters, costumes and props, as if in some kind of circus.

Parrish cast Oisie and Lauren well. Griffith gives her role physical and emotional substance, even while Oisie herself is internally falling apart. On the other hand, Karen Baum, who looks and sounds completely frail, remains psychologically stable and secure. And credit Baum and Parrish for never having Lauren seem too spunky or obvious as if to say Lauren is what she is and doesn’t need to score points.

Knight's performances become an attraction in themselves. He never overplays and  even sometimes adds sincerity where appropriate, even though playwright Lepcio hasn’t suggested that any of such people are admirable. Allyn’s take on her many variations stays closer to obviousness but works fine.  

As for the title of the play, although is suggests a circus, at the outset, Oisie refers to a complex joke about horse manure, optimism and pessimism which is more obscure but quite pointed. Look for it; recognizing it gives added meaning.  

Looking for The Pony continues through March 16^th at Off The Wall Productions-25 W. Main Street, Carnegie. Tickets at www.showclix.com  or 1-888/ 71-tickets-Or 1-888/ 718 4253 and at Off the Wall: 724/ 873-3576-www.insideoffthewall.com

 

Theatre review: "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" performed by a road company

A traveling production of a show about a traveling production of a show has stopped off here for a few days. The vehicle is Priscilla Queen of the Desert  which, in case you don’t know, deals with three drag-clothed girl/guys in the epoynomus bus strutting their stuff and shaking their booties in the desert heat and heart of Australia’s Outback.

The non-stop, crazy, ditsy Tony –Award- winning costumes could knock your socks off, looking like a combination of Oz and Philadelphia’s Mummers Parade. That parade, FYI, used to only allow men to be in in dem golden slippers, with female impersonation a regular feature on Broad (yes) Street.

In this spectacle feathers, fake furs, falsies ,flashy fabric and sequin sequences shimmer taking center stage in what, ultimately, feels like innocent fun.  If the costume designs seem far out, that’s legit. Because the far-out three would have grotesque senses of glamour.

In this fantasy trip, the idea of innocence may come as a surprise; evidently a presumed controversy is part of the package. Raising the question, is it OK to be gay? Or OK to be different? Come out, come out wherever you and greet the old issue which fell from a star. What else is new in this day and age? We’ve got gay marriages. Gays in the military. Really, babe! Isn't this just another obvious titillation?

Such slight thought-provocation carries no weight. And who needs it? Just sit back and glom  non-stop movement, putting out there 25 pop songs from the last 30 years with disco seeming to most hold sway. The brassy stuff keeps on coming, sometimes rhythmically engaging, but most often sounding interchangeable. There’s a lot of lip-syncing, consistent with the idea that that’s all the girl/guys are capable of. Nonetheless, plenty of songs pay live dues.     

The show’s looks triumph over the music and lyrics, although it appears some sung words apply to the story. Steven Elliott and Allan Scott’s book doesn’t have much flesh. It also includes a bunch of gay-based, snappy lines which, fortunately, don’t get pushed hard.

Drag queen Tick (aka Mitzi) gets a request from his long-separated wife to see if he can put together a show back home in remote, famed tourist destination Alice Springs. He/she asks transsexual Bernadette, a veteran performer of such productions, to join him.  And they convince rather bitchy Adam (aka Felicia) to make it a threesome. Along their trip they encounter some slightly antagonistic locals (in other words, let’s not get too serious) and also meet an older, open-minded auto mechanic, Bob, who is drawn to Bernadette and vice versa. 

Since the story actually focuses on just these three girl/guys in what could be rather bleak conditions and surroundings, you’d think such a musical would be intimate and reflective. Nope. The stage is flooded with production numbers as if that entire continent is packed with nancy boys and wiggling women who've come along for the ride. How’d they get there? Do you care?  And what about the bus which dominates the stage? Give yourself some distance and take it as symbolic, even though it has no closets in which to store three busloads of clothes.

Scott Willis as Bernadette gives a great performance. He makes her totally feminine and graceful, with a touch of class, albeit faded, suggesting later Lauren Bacall, while never overdoing it. Wade McCollum’s Tick/Mitzi has simple sincerity but Bryan West’s version of Adam/Felicia seems mostly generic.

Although there’s supposed to be a message for youngsters that being gay is just being human, parents may want to steer clear of this journey due to profanity and sexual innuendo. Too bad; underneath the glitz something sweet can be found.

Priscilla Queen of The Desert continues through the evening of Sunday March 10^th at Benedum Center, downtown. 412/456-4800  or trustarts.culturaldistrict.org

 

 

Playlist: "Classics" Sunday, 3rd March 2013

Jean Françaix-"20th Century Wind Concertos" Capriccio 10-522-Quadruple Concerto w/Martin Ulrich Senn, fl-Marie Luise Moderson, oboe -Jörg Fadle, cl-Hans Lemke, bassoon-The German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin- Hans E. Zimmer, conductor.

Leo Brouwer-Beatlerianas" Zoho Classix ZM 201304-"Micropiezas" w/ Carlos Barbosa-Lima & Larry Del Casale, guitars.

 Gheorghi Amaoudov-"Sonograms-Armaoudov, Szymanski, Steffens, Part, Xenakis, Minchev" Labor Records LAB 7090-"Thyepolis" w/Benedikta Bonitz, ten. recorder-Christo Tabev, cello-Stoyan Pavlov, Khandjari ( a kind of drum).

 Zhou Long-"Asian Music for String Quartet" Naxos 8.572488-"Song of the Ch'in" w/ New Zealand Quartet.

Ilya Shakhov-"Russian Trumpet Concertos" MDG 901 1770-6-"Romantic Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra" :1st and 2nd movements w/ Reinhold Friedrich, trumpet- Göttinger Symphony Orchestra-Christoph-Mathias Mueller, conductor.

 "Martin Schlumpf-Summer Circle" Navona Records NV 5873-Clarinet Trio: parts A,B, C w/ Rane Moore, cl-Rafael Popper-Kaiser, cello-Cory Smythe, p.

"Tarik O'Regan Voices" Collegium COLCD 130-"Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis" w/ Rafal Jezierski, cello-Philippa Boyle, Sarah Shorter, Breakwell, Christopher Elcombe,solo voices-The choir of Clare College, Cambridge-Timothy Brown, director.

 Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco-"Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2" Naxos 8.5732823-Piano Concerto No. 2: "Romanza" w/ Alessandro Marangoni, p-Malmo Symphony Orchestra-Andrew Mongrelia, conductor.


 

Playlist: "The Best of Broadway" Sunday 3rd March 2013

Marc Shaiman: music and lyrics & Scott Wittman: lyrics-"Bombshell" (original TV cast from "Smash") Columbia BB765446792-excerpts w/Megan Hilty, Karherine McPhee, Julian Ovendeen-Music director not identified.

 Christopher Curtis: music & lyrics-"Chaplin-The Musical" (original Broadway cast) Sony Masterworks Broadway BB76543950-2-Overture & "All Falls Down" w/Jenn Colella-Bryan Perri, music director.

 Carolyn Leigh: lyrics & Cy Coleman: music-"Little Me" (original Broadway cast) RCA 09026-61482-2-excerpts w/ Virginia Martin, Sid Caesar, Mickey Deems, Joey Faye, Mort Marshall, Swen Swenson, Nancy Andrews-Charles Sanford, music director.