Delos Diary

As a response to all the hoopla surrounding the grand opening of Walt Disney Concert Hall here in Los Angeles, I have been looking for some way to relate Delos International with the great event. At last: it suddenly became easy after the appearance of the latest issue of LA Weekly last Thursday, October 23.
The popular give-away tabloid carried a feature article extolling the prospective virtues of the stunning new Manuel Rosales pipe organ which audaciously graces the area behind the orchestral platform in the new hall. Rosales, who lives in Los Angeles, is considered one of the foremost organ designers on the international scene. Even though all the parts of his organ are installed, he will require almost a full year until the instrument is "voiced" properly so that when played all 6,000+ pipes will "sound like components of a single instrument."
For those who don't want to wait that long, the Delos catalog, known since its inception for fine organ recordings, lists three CDs featuring a great Rosales-designed instrument, his Opus 11 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Portland, Oregon. Installed in the 1980s, this organ (total pipes, 4,194) is highly regarded by the organ community and the three Delos albums available explore its range and possibilities. Gargoyles and Chimeras (DE 3077) stars organist David Britton playing unusual works by Diogo de Conceição, J.S. Bach, Michel Corette, Giuseppe Gherardeschi, Louis-James-Alfred Lefébure-Wély, Louis Vierne and Camille Saint-Säens. Organ Music of Reger and Vierne (DE 3096), David Craighead, organist, is next in line, and finally famed organist Catharine Crozier recorded a recital of great French organ music Things Visible and Invisible (DE 3147). Composers on this recording include Olivier Messaien, Jean Langlais and Jehan Alain.
All three albums have been praised by critics and organ aficionados and give a preview of what to expect from the fantastic new instrument awaiting its inauguration in Disney Hall.

Delos Diary

Our Delos International executive offices are at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. The southwest corner to be exact, three floors up. Those who are familiar with Hollywood know that the Boulevard's sidewalks are ornamented for many blocks with stars containing the names of hundreds of celebrities associated in various ways with the entertainment industry. One can always tell the tourists from the jaded natives by observing their behavior. The tourists walk along, heads down, looking at the stars. The locals studiously ignore them.
Today, I happened to look down at the stars on our own southwest corner. There are four stars with a large circle in the middle. The circle contains the names of America's Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins. The stars list Frank Mann, Rex Ingram, Constance Talmadge, and … Blanche Thebom! This stopped me cold. Why Blanche Thebom, beautiful Met mezzo-soprano of the 40s and 50s, in this gaggle of space explorers and old movie luminaries?
Then I crossed the street and looked at the grouping on the southeast corner. The circle repeated the names of the astronauts, but the stars listed Donald O'Connor, Julius la Rosa, Gladys Swarthout and Maria Callas! Two more opera stars — a mezzo and a legendary soprano — grouped together with a minor pop singer and a great film comedian, recently deceased. It's as if some demented hostess had shuffled place cards at a dinner to achieve the most unlikely combinations.
So, I've drawn up my own plan for a revised Delos corner. We'll leave the astronauts in the middle but surround them with a different mix. The star closest to us will be dedicated to Ewa Podles', the great Polish contralto we're so proud to have on our label.
Let's reserve the other three stars for movie celebrities but choose ones with the same passionate character Ewa displays in her life and art. One might be Quentin Tarantino, a director who stops at nothing to achieve the results he is seeking. Another could be Kathy Bates, a distinguished actress whose strength and directness in performance are akin to Ewa's. To add a final historical figure, why not Bette Davis, an artist who could sweep all before her in a wide variety of roles? Good company, one and all, for the Ewa Podles' we know and admire on her Delos Handel Arias CD (DE 3253), and her Russian Arias album (DE 3298).

Delos Diary

Looking through the texts of old Delos Diary entries before they become outdated, I came across one I wrote August 13, 2003, in which midsummer heat must have affected my judgement … or memory at least. I detailed a long list of contemporary or near contemporary composers represented on recent Delos recordings, but failed to mention Benjamin Lees. His Passacaglia for Orchestra is the opening selection on Delos' American Contrasts (DE 3291) with James DePreist and the Oregon Symphony. Mr. Lees is certainly one of the most respected composers active on the American scene, and his Passacaglia, composed in 1976 for Antal Dorati and the National Symphony of Washington, DC, is a wonderfully rich and serious score consisting of a theme, nineteen variations, and a coda. Listening to it I was reminded of the structure of the Passacaglia last movement of Brahms' 4th Symphony. The same integrity and strength, the same wise use of orchestral resources. It's also a wonderful contrast (as the album title implies) to the other selections by Vincent Persichetti and Michael Daugherty.
Another example of the programming skills of conductor James DePreist.

Delos Diary

As a follow-up to my recent entries about the Delos New York visit — which included a recital reception for Dmitri Hvorostovsky at the Russian Consulate and the Centennial Khachaturian Concert at Carnegie Hall the next night — we returned to LA just in time to attend a special screening of a new film documentary Khachaturian by Peter Rosen at the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood (the film was offered as an entry in the ongoing Hollywood Film Festival).
Approximately 83 minutes long, the movie covers the fascinating story of Khachaturian's creative life and his struggles with the Soviet system from his youth to his death in 1975. Rosen and his collaborators have combined abundant newsreel and archival footage with recent interviews and historic theatre clips to document the life and music of this great and underappreciated composer. The movie itself will be playing selected runs in various arthouses around the US in the next few months. It should be a promising candidate for inclusion in Academy nominations for Best Documentary Film - 2003.
Having already viewed the film on a VHS cassette, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well it adapted to the enormous state-of-the-art projection in one of the Arclight's superior auditoriums. The music and ballet sequences are quite breathtaking and the solemn scenes of Khachaturian's funeral are extraordinarily moving.
Anyone interested in Russian music and those who created it in the turbulent 20th century should find plenty of material to talk about and think about in this film. In the near future it will probably be released in VHS and DVD format, but if you have the chance to see it on the big screen you should not pass it up.

p.s.: Just out — Khachaturian won Best Documentary at the Hollywood Film Festival.

Delos Diary

POSTSCRIPT to my item of a few days ago which detailed the Hvorostovsky tribute at the Russian Consulate in New York City on October 9.
Among the guests who were there to enjoy the hospitality and the magnificent singing of Dmitri Hvorostovsky was a truly legendary diva, star of the Metropolitan and La Scala, Aprile Millo. We were introduced and had a lively, to say the least, conversation. Madam Millo, who looks every inch the ideal Verdi heroine, is actually all-American, but also happens to be an authority on the proper Italian singing style.
She loves Renata Tebaldi and … Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Raised eyebrows? He's Russian!
Opera fans who have heard him in performance or who have purchased his delos CD "Verdi Arias" (DE 3292) know what Aprile means. Hvorostovsky's command of the Italian style of singing and identification with the great Verdi baritone roles is so complete that he sets the standards for judging and listening to other leading artists in his voice range.

Delos Diary

Chapter Two of our recent trip to New York.
On Friday, October 10th, the Khachaturian Centennial Concert was held at Carnegie Hall. Featured artists included the Philharmonia of Russia conducted by Constantine Orbelian, Russian mezzo-soprano Marina Domashenko, the Yale Alumni Chorus and Yale Glee Club, members of the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale, and pianist Dora Serviarian-Kuhn. Special guests included Khachaturian's son, his son's wife and their son who had flown in from Russia, plus over 2,000 other enthusiastic audience members.
From where we sat in a first-tier box, the house looked like a sell-out… a gratifying sign that Khachaturian's great gift — music that communicates directly to almost everyone's emotional center — still has the power to bring in a large audience.
The new Delos release Khachaturian Centennial Album (DE 3328), recorded earlier this year in Moscow by most of the same personnel, offers most of the music heard in Carnegie Hall. The early Piano Concerto, played by Dora Serviarian-Kuhn, a specialist in this piece, was added for the New York concert; plus three rousing orchestral encores (all of which are featured on the Delos release Vodka & Caviar -- The Ultimate Russian Spectacular DE 3288): the Lezginka and Sabre Dance from Gayaneh (audience favorites), and the famous Waltz from the Masquerade Suite.
By the end of the evening the audience was in a virtual tumult with standing ovations, many flowers, and shouts of bravo. Any reservations one might have had about Khachaturian's music — its open emotional appeal, its almost too obvious melodic and rhythmic thrust — were swept away by the total involvement of everyone on stage. The huge Yale Chorus made gorgeous sounds backing up beautiful Marina Domashenko's luscious mezzo-soprano voice in the Ode of Joy. Add to this five harps and a large orchestra and you had a musical tribute to Mother Russia that makes God Bless America sound timid.
The Lenin Ode and the Suite of highlights from Spartacus both received definitive performances. The concerto performance in Dora Serviarian-Kuhn's hands was both brilliant and idiomatic. Constantine Orbelian presided over the entire evening with his usual authority (in his earlier career as a concert pianist he had played and recorded the Khachaturian Concerto himself on an award-winning disc).
Lots of dressing room kudos followed until the privileged faithful were almost forcibly shoved out by Carnegie Hall personnel, anxious to close up and go home. Still later a small nucleus of friends met for a midnight celebratory supper which continued until the tired staff of Shelly's practically begged everyone to leave so that they could shutter the restaurant for the night.
I think Khachaturian, who treasured convivial gatherings and loved celebrations, would have had a great time if he had been present. The easiest way for the rest of us to recapture the feel of this special evening is to listen to the Delos Khachturian CD (DE 3328). Try it with a little vodka on the side and you'll see what I mean.

Delos Diary

This past week included a long-anticipated trip to New York City… a few days there with a specific purpose directly involving Delos International. Two events in two days, with the accompanying receptions, eating bouts, and friendly reunions, made for an exciting change of pace in our daily grind of turning out Delos masterpieces.
First on Thursday, October 9th, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, the distinguished Russian baritone and Delos recording artist, was honored with a gathering and reception at the Russian Consulate in New York City at 9 E. 91st St., housed in a beautiful old mansion near the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. The Russian consul and his associates are well aware that with his Delos recording of "Where Are You, My Brothers?" - Songs of the War Years (DE 3315) Hvorostovsky has done a great PR job to help elicit understanding and sympathy among western audiences for the suffering the Russians endured during World War II.
The reception was held between 6 and 9 in the evening and included an hour long, never to be forgotten recital by the honorée, accompanied at the piano by maestro Constantine Orbelian. Special piano arrangements had been created for the occasion, and Constantine Orbelian proved as talented an accompanist as he is a conductor. Hvorostovsky sang several of the War Songs from the Delos album, a Romance from the opera Demon by Rubinstein, O Sole Mio (included in his Passione di Napoli album) and a final, very moving and somber Russian folk song, sung a capella.
The glory of the Hvorostovsky voice, heard in a relatively intimate room holding perhaps one hundred auditors, is hard to describe. Although he had sung the preceding evening in one of the Met's sold-out series of La Traviata and was due to sing again two days later, he held nothing back. The only adequate response afterwards was to flee to one of the buffet tables and toast his artistry with a celebratory shot of Russian vodka. The privileged assembly of guests, which included diplomats, ballet dancers, singers and friends, seemed well aware that they were probably the luckiest people in New York City that evening. Most of them left clutching copies of the Delos War Songs CD as precious souvenirs of a unique event.
My next entry will continue with a description of the second great Delos-associated occasion of the New York visit.

Delos Diary

"Truth is stranger than fiction"
or perhaps I should say "I told you so."

Toward the end of July, in search of some item to spice up this diary, I fantasized on a somewhat "different" production of La Traviata. In my version, based on this season's casting at the Met, Violetta (Renée Fleming) passes up young Alfredo Germont (Ramon Vargas) for the overpoweringly handsome Giorgio Germont, his father (Dmitri Hvorostovsky). The premise: why would a beautiful but vulnerable Parisian courtesan waste her remaining days on a sweet-voiced young tenor and pass up the stunning baritone with the silver hair and "mahagony" voice? Lightweight summer fun, I thought.
Fast forward to October. The opera production is a reality, a big success, and now come the reviews. I quote Justin Davidson from Newsday's October 2, 2003 review:

"Fleming's stunning if sometimes tenuous balance between ferocity and buttery vocal elegance, combined with Hvorostovsky's startlingly carnal presence, suggests that there is more to Violetta's act than self sacrifice. Confronted with the mature Germont, Violetta suddenly understands that her puppyish lover is not likely to prove great company in her final months. Alfredo will cringe while she withers, he will deny the obvious and ultimately he will leave. … Vargas … as Alfredo … one of the world's best lyric tenors at the moment … steps back and lets the two stage lions, Fleming and Hvorostovsky, pace and purr and roar."

I didn't make this up, but I do feel vindicated. Now what other new production can I meddle with?
(For Dmitri Hvorostovsky's way with Verdi, try Delos DE 3292 Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings Verdi Arias.