From the Brooklyn Music School’s joyously
fun update on "The Nutcracker," to seasonal harmonizing
by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, to a timeless treasure at the scenic
Bargemusic venue, to an exotic Tan Dun Passion at the Brooklyn
Academy of Music, Brooklyn will be awash in great performances
this holiday season.
Here are the highlights.
’Nutcracker’ in da ’hood
Billing it as "Tchaikovsky in the ’hood" may be too
much, but otherwise, "A Brooklyn Nutcracker" – which
transplants the beloved 19th-century ballet perennial to our
backyard in the 21st century – is too delectable to miss.
This year, the Brooklyn Music School broadens its horizons with
two consecutive weekends of performances of the Tchaikovsky classic
[Dec. 7-8 and Dec. 14-15, Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at
3pm, at the Brooklyn Music School, 126 St. Felix St. at Lafayette
Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 638-5660] and a special guest performer,
none other than Borough President Marty Markowitz, for the opening
night gala on Dec. 6 at 7:30 pm.
Brooklyn Music School Dance Director Robin Osborne first reconfigured
"The Nutcracker" to fit Brooklyn in 1999, and her witty
re-imagining of Tchaikovsky’s soldiers, dolls and sugarplum fairies
into familiar settings like Coney Island, the subway system (where
the young heroine enlists the aid of a pack of rats to help her
overcome the Rat Queen), Junior’s Restaurant and a heartwarming
finale in Prospect Park will delight parents and children alike.
Performed by the school’s Journey Dancers Ensemble, as well as
current students and faculty, "A Brooklyn Nutcracker"
is a singular take on a seasonal favorite fast developing into
a notable – and very welcome – Brooklyn tradition. Tickets are
$15, $10 children and $50 opening night.
Sing, sing a song
For its annual holiday performances, the "Holiday Harmonies"
concerts, the 200-member strong Brooklyn Youth Chorus – currently
celebrating its 10th anniversary – is featured in two separate
programs on Saturday, Dec. 7 at St. Augustine Church, 116 Sixth
Ave. in Park Slope. (Tickets are $25, $15 and $8 children 10
and younger. For more information, go to the Web site at www.brooklynyouthchorus.org.)
In the main program, "My Heart Rejoices" (7:30 pm),
the Brooklyn Youth Chorus is joined by the Intermediate Division
ensemble for an evening’s worth of excerpts from the choral repertoire,
including works by Robert Schumann and Leonard Bernstein’s "Mass,"
which the Youth Chorus recently performed at Carnegie Hall with
the Collegiate Chorale.
Earlier in the day, at a 2:30 pm family matinee, "A Children’s
Celebration" features the Brooklyn Youth Chorus’ Training
Choruses in an assortment of familiar seasonal music and carols,
featuring J.S. Bach and John Rutter.
These sing-along concerts are not the Brooklyn Youth Chorus’
only holiday appearances: later this month, it joins the Brooklyn
Philharmonic for the Mark Morris Dance Group’s version of Tchaikovsky’s
"The Nutcracker," called "The Hard Nut,"
at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland
Place in Fort Greene, Dec. 17-22. (For more information, see
"Return of the ’Nut’.")
Always in season
Since Antonio Vivaldi’s "Four Seasons" is – thanks
to its title – current no matter what time of year, Bargemusic
is to be commended for its thematic programming that places the
baroque warhorse in its holiday schedule.
For two weekend programs, the string ensemble I Virtuosi Italiani
appears on the Bargemusic stage (on the East River at Fulton
Ferry Landing), leaning heavily on – who else? – Italian composers.
For the Thursday and Friday (Dec. 5 and Dec. 6 at 7:30 pm) evening
programs, "Four Seasons" is the featured work, followed
by an orchestral arrangement of the only string quartet composed
by Giuseppe Verdi.
Although Vivaldi’s masterpiece is an endlessly inventive series
of memorable melodies – especially the sections that aren’t as
over-heard as the ubiquitous "Spring" section – the
Verdi quartet is equally filled with the kinds of delectable
chamber music sounds that one might think would have eluded Verdi,
the master of Italian grand opera.
Accompanying the ensemble are harpsichordist Eva Young (in the
Vivaldi work) and violionist Mark Peskanov, who returns for the
second I Virtuosi Italiani programs Saturday and Sunday (Dec.
7 at 7:30 pm and Dec. 8 at 4 pm), which begin with more – and
more obscure – Italian music.
Two infrequently performed Italianate works for string orchestra
– "Serenade for Strings" by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari and
"Concerto for Strings" by Nino Rota, better known for
his Fellini film scores but also a masterly composer of orchestral
music – open the bill, followed by readings of familiar works
by two youthful prodigies who became something rather more by
adulthood, Mendelssohn and Mozart.
Mendelssohn’s Sinfonia for Strings, No. 10 in B Minor gives way
to Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra.
Violinist Peskanov and violist Toby Hoffman are soloists in the
Mozart work, and oboists Ariana Gez and Nicholas Swan and French
horn players Angela Cordel and Christina Guarinoi fill out the
orchestra parts alongside I Virtuosi Italiani. Tickets are $35
and $20 students. For more information, visit the Web site at
www.bargemusic.org.
’Tiger’ composer
BAM’s Next Wave festival continues Dec. 11, Dec. 13 and Dec.
14 at 7:30 pm at the BAM Harvey Theatre with another work composed
for the 250th anniversary of J.S. Bach’s death, "Water Passion
after St. Matthew." (Osvaldo Golijov’s "La Passion
de San Marcos" was unveiled last month.)
Tan Dun, best known for his Oscar-winning musical score for the
hit martial-arts actioner, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,"
composed "Water Passion after St. Matthew" employing
his usual amalgam of Western and Eastern sounds, mixed in with
theatrical and visual touches that place his "Water Passion"
squarely in the performance-art tradition.
No one familiar with Dun’s stage work – including his eclectic
opera "Marco Polo" – will be surprised by the visual
originality of "Water Passion." Along with musicians
arrayed around the stage, several of whom play exotic-looking,
and sounding, ancient instruments (electronically processed),
other performers play 17 illuminated bowls filled with water
– which gives the piece its title – or use stones to create a
gently soothing percussive sound.
In Dun’s hands, the continuously swirled water becomes a metaphor
for life, death and transcendence: the message of Bach’s original
chorales.
In addition, a BAMdialogue with Tan Dun will be offered on Dec.
11 at 6 pm at the BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland
Place in Fort Greene. Tickets are $20, $35 and $50 to the performance.
BAMdialogue tickets are $8. For more information, visit the Web
site at www.bam.org.
