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THE YEAR IN REVIEW: MUSIC

THE YEAR IN REVIEW: MUSIC; Of Necessity, Thoughts Turned To Purpose And Relevance

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December 30, 2001, Section 2, Page 31Buy Reprints
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THE year in classical music was fraught with organizations everywhere reeling from the national economic downturn. By the summer, the very survival of the respected St. Louis Symphony Orchestra came into question. Even the renowned Chicago Symphony grappled with financial setbacks.

Then came the horror of Sept. 11. The first reaction of classical-music ensembles and companies, like arts organizations everywhere, was to go through a crisis of relevance. What is the role of music in a newly insecure world? How best to respond to brutality and loss?

The New York City Opera had been scheduled to open its season with a new production of Wagner's ''Fliegende Holländer'' on Sept. 11. Urged by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to get under way as soon as possible for the sake of the city's morale, the City Opera found the inner strength to regroup. Four days later, on a Saturday afternoon, singers, staff members and administrators, led by the company's general director, Paul Kellogg, appeared on the stage of the New York State Theater to sing the national anthem before presenting the new Wagner production. In the evening the company continued as scheduled with, of all things, the director Jonathan Miller's zany take on ''The Mikado.''

In a way, for me, that was the most meaningful day of music in 2001. By just showing up, let alone performing so valiantly, the company made it safe again -- not physically safe (no New Yorker will ever take that for granted again) but emotionally safe -- to let ourselves enjoy music, to be stirred by Wagner and amused by Gilbert and Sullivan.

As other companies opened their seasons, some decided to alter their programs in memory of the victims of the terrorist attacks. Kurt Masur conducted the New York Philharmonic and the New York Choral Artists in a noble performance of Brahms's ''German Requiem'' in September. Other organizations thought that the right response was to go on with challenging programs as planned. One such was the Miller Theater at Columbia University, which opened another adventurous season in September with the Absolute Ensemble in a riveting performance of Mark-Anthony Turnage's visceral and grating orchestral work ''Blood on the Floor.''

Various visiting ensembles struggled with what to perform for their first appearances in New York. Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic, in three concerts that opened the Carnegie Hall season in October, decided to replace Mahler, Webern and Wagner with several Beethoven symphonies. The orchestra gave a thematic reasoning for the shift: in a time of chaos, Beethoven provides certitude. Actually, you could argue that Mahler's tormented Seventh Symphony and Webern's haunting Six Pieces for Orchestra might have been even more appropriate. But the Beethoven performances were utterly distinguished.

Of course, the questions of relevance that were forced on classical-music organizations in the aftermath of the attack are the very questions they should be addressing anyway. In this regard, it was particularly dismaying to watch the constituents of Lincoln Center struggle toward some consensus over a major redevelopment plan that remains uncertain. Still, on their own, the individual organizations did memorable work.

Though Mr. Masur has not done enough to introduce new works, especially by American composers, into the Philharmonic's programs, he was in his element in February, conducting the premiere of Hans Werner Henze's impressive Symphony No. 9, scored for orchestra and chorus. The Philharmonic debut of the dynamic young American conductor David Robertson, in a thoughtful program of Wagner, Schoenberg and Beethoven in April, hinted at what might have been had the orchestra acted more boldly in choosing its next music director. That appointment went instead to Lorin Maazel.

At the Metropolitan Opera in the spring, James Levine could do no wrong, it seemed. From the amazing Met orchestra, he elicited remarkable performances of Wagner's ''Parsifal,'' with the tireless Plácido Domingo still extraordinary in the title role; Berg's ''Lulu,'' with Christine Schäfer as Lulu in an impressive Met debut; and Strauss's ''Ariadne auf Naxos,'' with Deborah Voigt just wonderful in her signature role.

And as if in answer to the accusation that the Met operates on a lower level when Mr. Levine is not on the podium, two of the company's most stunning productions in years were non-Levine events. In the spring Valery Gergiev, with a brilliant production team brought mostly from the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg, offered a gripping account of Prokofiev's ''Gambler.'' And just this month, two Germans, the conductor Christian Thielemann and the director Herbert Wernicke, in his American debut, collaborated in a musically and dramatically enthralling production of Strauss's long and difficult ''Frau Ohne Schatten,'' with Ms. Voigt surpassing herself as the Empress.

Carnegie Hall was, once again, an exemplar of balanced, innovative and important programming. When Pierre Boulez conducted three concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic in March, his modernist inclinations and the orchestra's time-tested elegance blended fascinatingly in works by Bartok, Stravinsky, Webern, Bruckner and Mahler. The mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, with the excellent period-instrument ensemble Il Giardino Armonico, offered a revelatory program of little-known arias by Antonio Vivaldi in February. Ms. Bartoli is single-handedly altering the general perception of Vivaldi as a human concerto factory. Daniel Barenboim's three concerts with the Chicago Symphony in October offered some compellingly performed Wagner: lots of it, including Act I of ''Die Walküre'' and the complete ''Tristan und Isolde.'' For me, the memorable work in those programs was Elliott Carter's engrossing and ingenious new Cello Concerto, written for and performed by Yo-Yo Ma. It was the most exciting new work I heard this year.

The French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, best known for his work in contemporary music, gave the recital of the year at Carnegie Hall this month. In an intelligently fashioned program, Mr. Aimard made striking connections between Berg, Beethoven, Liszt, Debussy and Ligeti. They all emerged, rightly, as radical voices. The young Christopher Taylor deserves special mention for his transfixing performance of Messiaen's ''Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus,'' nearly two and a half hours of staggeringly difficult music, at the Miller Theater in February.

A notable appointment this year was Mr. Levine's as the next music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It makes sense both for the orchestra and for him. But everyone in the business will be watching to see what happens when he takes the helm full-time in 2004, for Mr. Levine extracted, on a two-year trial basis, a potentially important concession from the musicians.

Invoking the simple principle that some works are harder than others, he asked for flexibility in the union-enforced weekly rehearsal schedule. He did not want more total hours, just the ability to add sessions one week in exchange for cutting back in another, depending on the programs. What could be more sensible? But traditionally, unions have resisted any tinkering with their regular workload.

It could be a significant step toward opening up American orchestras to more experimentation and challenge, and in helping these tradition-bound organizations to address questions of mission and relevance that they must ponder, now more than ever.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section 2, Page 31 of the National edition with the headline: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: MUSIC; Of Necessity, Thoughts Turned To Purpose And Relevance. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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