| James Conlon and NY Phil Revive Lost Music - Page 2 |
| Written by Kevin Filipski | |||||||
Page 2 of 2 Q: In the other roles are soprano Tatiana Pavlovskaya as Simone’s cheating wife Bianca and tenor Anthony Dean Griffey as her lover. JC: Tony sang that role with me in L.A. last year, and then in Chicago. He’s one of the finest American tenors around. Tatiana is associated with the Mariinsky Theatre (in St. Petersburg), but I’ve worked with her consistently for the past five or six years. She also sang it with me in L.A. She has a marvelous and wonderful voice and very strong musical personality. Q: Since it’s such a static piece (one set, one act, three characters), does the opera work better fully-staged or in concert? JC: We actually had a hybrid evening when we did it in L.A. because we used abstract projections at the rear of the stage. For the Philharmonic program, we thought it would be best to perform it in a concert setting.  Jonathan Bliss performs Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2. JC: Jonathan and I have worked together for many years, including regularly at the Ravinia Festival (a summer festival outside Chicago). We’ve done a lot of Mozart and Beethoven, and I love him as a musician. We’ll do Beethoven’s fourth concerto later this season in Cleveland. Q: Since they are on the program, is it fair to compare Beethoven and Zemlinsky? JC: Well, I wouldn’t go fishing too much except to say the following: Zemlinsky belongs to the direct line of composers from Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann through to Brahms and Wagner. In concert, I like to pair Zemlinsky intelligently and one of the most satisfying pairings is always with Beethoven, because the pure classicism of Beethoven’s music sets off Zemlinsky’s romantic genius. Q: Do you feel there’s still a lot of work to be done in resurrecting the music of these forgotten composers? JC: There is a lot of work to be done, that’s true, but there’s been an enormous amount of interest, so it hasn’t been in vain– I’m delighted with the progress we’ve made. {mos_ri}
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