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Happy birthday

By Kevin Filipski
The Brooklyn Paper
Lois Greenfield

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For its April 1 concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House, the Brooklyn Philharmonic presents "Love and Betrayal," a program paying tribute to composers celebrating milestone birthdays: Mozart’s 250th and Dmitri Shostakovich’s 100th.

Music Director Michael Christie (pictured) discussed the three works on the program with GO Brooklyn, beginning with an honor from one composer to another: Estonian Alfred Schnittke’s whimsical orchestral work, 1977’s "Moz-Art a la Haydn."

"The Schnittke work is an homage to Mozart and the classical-era style, done with an updated musical vernacular, if you will," says Christie. "This very clever piece is a perfect opener."

Next is one of Shostakovich’s most terse and personal works.

"Shostakovich’s ’Chamber Symphony’ is actually a re-orchestration of his eighth string quartet, probably one of his most famous works," Christie explains. "He quotes several of his own pieces throughout, so if we perform one Shostakovich composition, it’s nice to do this, because it’s so autobiographical."

Mozart’s music, written for the play "Thamos, King of Egypt," takes up the entire second half of the concert. "King Thamos" isn’t often performed, probably because it’s a curious hybrid, as Christie notes: not quite opera nor oratorio.

" ’Thamos’ is quite theatrical, which makes it exciting to perform," Christie says. "Even though it’s incidental music to a German text [which Christie translated specifically for this performance], it includes fantastic choral numbers, sung by the New York Virtuoso Singers.

"Coincidentally," the conductor continues, "it’s based on an ancient Egyptian text, like Philip Glass’s ’Akhnaten’ [heard at the last Philharmonic concert]. We’re always happy to perform a piece that isn’t done too often."

The Brooklyn Philharmonic performs Schnittke, Shostakovich and Mozart on April 1 at 8 pm at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Place in Fort Greene. For more information, visit www.brooklynphilharmonic.org.

©2006 Community Newspaper Group

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