BPO, under Novo, teams with pianist Wosner for top-flight concert

Editor’s note: Julian Shepherd kindly wrote this review so that his wife, Lee, could attend a Madrigal Choir of Binghamton rehearsal. She was loathe to skip any rehearsals, with MCOB’s “Lessons and Carols” concert coming up on Thanksgiving weekend.

By Julian Shepherd

Maybe the reason for existence is what Charles Ives questioned in the The Unanswered Question, but the Binghamton Philharmonic provided one answer for us last Sunday (Nov. 6) at Binghamton University: great music performed with great skill and sensitivity. Accompanied by guest pianist Shai Wosner, the orchestra played a program of two well-known and beloved pieces by Beethoven and Schumann, introduced by the lesser-known work by Ives. The performance, in the Anderson Center’s Osterhout Concert Theater, was dedicated to the memory of Marianne Wallenberg, a long-time violinist, teacher and proponent of music in Binghamton. (Wallenberg and her husband, the late Fritz Wallenberg, founded the Binghamton Symphony, now the BPO.)

What did you do in the arts this past week?

Did you “Art Walk”? Were you at a play or concert or poetry reading? Please share your week with us.

BPO program not inspired by Halloween but certainly full of tricky treats

Reviewed by Lee Shepherd

Tricky? Undoubtedly, but the difficult music played by the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra on Halloween Eve was a real treat for the mind and heart. The second concert in the BPO’s 2010-11 Classical Series featured Italian concert pianist Fabio Bidini performing Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Debussy’s Petite Suite and Elgar’s complete Enigma Variations, 14 musical caricatures of Elgar’s friends and family and their quirky mannerisms.

John Covelli & Friends: Fantasia with too little sax

Reviewed by Leo Cotnoir

There is no question that John Covelli is a talented pianist, and it is clear that mid-19^th Century Romanticism is his métier. After a somewhat overlong but informative introduction Sunday (Oct. 3) at The Schorr Family Firehouse Stage in Johnson City, Covelli launched into Robert Schumann’s “Fantasia in C Major, Opus 17” with the energy and gusto of a much younger man performing for a jury who would decide his fate. One could not help but hear the connection Covelli feels with the composer through his teacher, who studied with Schumann’s wife, piano virtuosa Clara Schumann. When he ventured into other periods, however, although still technically impressive, Covelli seemed on shakier musical grounds. For my taste his performance of a transcription of Bach’s “Prelude in B minor” had far too much tempo variation as did his reading of Mozart’s “Fantasy in D minor” that at times sounded more like Brahms than Mozart. His performance of Debussy’s “La Cathédrale Engloutie” (“The Sunken Cathedral”) began with the ethereal quality we associate with French Impressionist composers but soon seemed to be grow a bit bombastic. A second piece by Debussy, “Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest” (“What the West Wind Saw”), since it calls for a heavy hand to depict the storm wind, was more successful.