Photo by Rui Dias Aidos
Michael Tilson Thomas' renowned orchestral academy in Miami, the New World Symphony, started its 27th season last weekend with a gala concert that might have earned a PG-13 rating for a movie. The headline over Dorothy Hindman's review in the South Florida Classical Review says it all:
"Stravinsky, lap dancers, and all that jazz open New World Symphony season"
To wit:
A glittering crowd enjoyed the New World Symphony’s season opener Saturday night as Michael Tilson Thomas presented a program of “rare delights.” Congenial works by towering 20th-century masters Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg drew on music nearly two centuries past, and the evening’s truly forward-looking work was American composer George Antheil’s practically unknown Jazz Symphony.
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Alone, Antheil’s eclectic, one-movement symphony would be difficult to grasp with its mix of highly dissonant, repetitious pounding interspersed with fin-de-cycle waltzes and light-hearted, naughty jazz. However, lighting effects, burlesque costumes, and Patricia Birch’s expert choreography combined for a delightfully charming narrative. Erin Moore’s sensational gold dancer gyrated across the stage, seducing four violinists who came to ruin under her thrall, aided by Joseph Brown’s outstanding wa-wa trumpet. Kiva Dawson’s platinum dancer enjoyed a romance with Dugan over his schmaltzy, endearing jazz waltz.
The rest of the concert: Stravinsky's 1940 Symphony in C and Schoenberg’s 1933 Concerto in D minor for Cello and Orchestra, with Tamás Varga, principal cellist of the Vienna Philharmonic, on what MTT called a "musical suicide mission."