Leonard Link

NY Philharmonic: Muti, Lupu, Beethoven and Scriabin

Tonight, Riccardo Muti conducted the New York Philharmonic, with Radu Lupu joining the orchestra for Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto in the first half, and just the orchestra for Scriabin's 2nd Symphony after intermission.

As with the previous NYP program I attended, I had very different reactions to the two halves. 

In the Beethoven, I thought I heard a pianist and a conductor who had rather different ideas about the music.  Muti's Beethoven is strong, assertive, emphasizing sharp accents and forward movement, while Lupu's Beethoven is lyrical, gentle, a bit understated.  I thought Lupu was at his best in the slow movement, and in the gentler or more whimsical passages of the first movement.  Muti was great in the orchestral introduction of the first movement, but I felt not quite comfortable in accompanying what Lupu wanted to do when he came in.  And I found the last movement too understated to provide the necessary contrast to what came before it.  The collaboration definitely worked best in the middle movement, as Muti is a subtle conductor whose interaction with this subtle pianist was just what the music called for. 

This is not to detract from the technical accomplishments of pianist, conductor or orchestra.  The NYP gave Muti what he asked for, and Lupu played angelically well most of the time -- although I thought a bit slapdash at a few moments, especially in the first movement.  From a front box where I was sitting, it also sounded like Lupu was doing a little vocalizing at times....  At any rate, I had a mixed reaction to the Concerto.

But after the intermission, Muti was free to go his own way with the Scriabin, and I think he is a more satisfying conductor when not collaborating with an instrumental soloist and free to go his own way, because his own way is highly informed by his expertise as an opera conductor.  He really feels the drama in instrumental music, and brings it to vivid life.  

The Scriabin symphonies are tough nuts for a symphony audience to crack.  The movements tend to be overextended and rhapsodic, developing themes that are not particularly memorable.  I find with the Scriabin symphonies that they are reasonably interesting to hear when they are being played, but it is difficult to recall what one has heard afterward, and only the most general impressions stick in the mind.  What really struck me was how Scriabin anticipated Messiaen with his imitation bird calls in the flute in the middle movement ("Andante"), and how Elgarian the final movement sounded at times.  Indeed, I thought that if one added a pipe organ to the orchestration and just shifted some chord progressions slightly, one could be listening to Elgar.

Speculating about this afterwards with my concert companion of the evening, we couldn't figure whether Elgar influenced Scriabin or the other way around, but then considered that in light of the simultaneity of their compositions and the unlikelihood of either having heard much of the other, perhaps it is just a style of music that was "in the air" in Europe at that time. 

In any event, the NYP players covered themselves in glory tonight.  As much as I admired their playing of the Brahms Serenade #1 on Tuesday night, I thought they were just as fine tonight, and I felt a sense of pride as a three-decade subscriber in the accomplishment tonight of the "home town band."  They were awesome.  The rich sound of the strings, the excellence of the winds, the fine balance of the percussion, all came together to create extraordinary textures and spine-chilling colors.  This was orchestral playing at its very best.  And, once again, I found myself envying the folks in Chicago who will have Muti as their music director.  ---   But I balance this against the eager anticipation I have to hear what Alan Gilbert will do with the Philharmonic, and look forward to next season.  I just hope that the predictions that we will be seeing less of Muti as a guest conductor when he takes up the Chicago baton are wrong.

Some recent musical discoveries....

Just a quick note here on some recent musical discoveries and enthusiasms....

First, the string trios of Hermann Berens.  What, you've never heard of Hermann Berens?  An obscure mid-19th century Swedish composer?  The chief rival to Franz Berwald for leadership of the conservatory in Stockholm?   Well, I had never heard of Hermann Berens before reading a review of the new recording of his three string trios by violinist Cecilia Zilliacus, violist Johanna Persson, and cellist Kati Raitenen on Sweden's IntimMusik label -- now the longest duration CD in my collection, at 82 minutes and 54 seconds.  This music is absolutely delightful, well-written for the three instruments, tuneful, and played with zest by the three musicians, who are accorded fine sound and magnificent documentation in the booklet insert.  The only fly in the ointment - my main CD player could not play the last track on the disc - once it got past 80 minutes, there was trouble and eventually a total turn-off.  I initiated email correspondence with IntimMusik and had an exchange of emails with the technical producer of the recording.  Upon receiving my email, he retrieved a copy of the recording, popped it into a variety of CD players and had no trouble with it.  I then tried it out in my portable sports SONY, which features 45 second delay and super error correction capability (obviously, for use in sports activities) and it played just fine -- as it did in my computer when I copied it into my iPod software.  So I guess it was beyond the capabilities of my high-end home CD player, but by no means unplayable.  In any event, this is a terrific recording and I hope others may be inspired to try it out.  It may take some searching, but it's worth the effort.

Then there's a 2007 Naxos release that I just got around to playing, and it's a stunner - Eldar Nebolsin's recording of the Rachmaninoff Preludes for Piano, the familiar Prelude in C# Minor, Op. 3, No. 2, followed by the complete Op. 23 and the complete Op. 32, yielding a well-filled disc running over 77 minutes.  Nebolsin's performance is superb, right up there with such Rachmaninoff champs as Ashkenazy and Lympany.  (The composer himself had unique insights but was recorded in inferior sound in the 78 rpm era, and this music really benefits from the rich, full piano sound capable of being reproduced today.  And, shame on RCA of the early 20th century, they were never interested in having him record the entire set, so we only have excerpts.)  At the Naxos price, Nebolsin is an obvious recommendation in this music.

Then there is the exciting news that The King's Consort, the English early vocal and instrumental group, is back with a wonderful Handel recording directed by Matthew Halls, who took over leadership of the group when the founder, Robert King, was jailed for child abuse.  (I haven't heard any updates on King's situation.  For all I know, he still resides in custody....  Anybody heard differently?)  I had so loved the recordings by this group that I was very concerned they might be disbanded, since they were Robert King's creation.  But by the sound of the new recording of Handel's Parnasso in Festa, the group is thriving under Halls's leadership.  Hyperion provides the usual superior production values, the vocal soloists are excellent, and the piece is a little-known masterpiece.  Definitely worth acquiring.

Finally - a shout-out to the French indy label Mirare!   I love your recording of Haydn Piano Sonatas by the excellent young Israeli pianist, Iddo Bar-Shai.  A rave review in International Piano magazine led me on quite a wild goose-chase to acquire a copy, however, since you did not see fit to release it in the countries where I buy CDs or patronize websites.  You seem to have a bias against English-speaking music lovers (although, strangely, considering your release policy, the booklet included English-language notes).  I googled Bar-Shai's name recently to see if there was anything new by him, to learn that there was a November 2008 release of Chopin Mazurkas.  And again, of course, checking all the usual distributors on-line of classical CDs in the U.S. and Britain, I came up empty-handed.  I had acquired the Haydn from a distributor who sent it from Europe covered with Latvian postage stamps!!  Where will I have to look for the Chopin?  And why is such excellent work not being distributed in the U.S.?  Some research showed that Bar-Shai has played in this country, so why not send his recordings here?  What a strange industry this is.....

Who Will Address the Stink in the Los Angeles Fire Department?

Our daily Westlaw search for new material for this blog and my newsletter, Lesbian Gay Law Notes, turned up a very disturbing case today.  Yesterday (January 29), the California 2nd District Court of Appeal affirmed a jury award of $1,730,848.00 to Lewis S. Bressler, a retired fire captain, based on the finding that he had suffered unlawful retaliation from other captains and persons of higher rank because, among other things, he had brought to light the racist, sexist and homophobic treatment of a lesbian, African American firefighter.  He also suffered retaliation for reporting the inappropriately sexist remarks that another fire captain had made about the spouse of a fire department member.  The opinion for the court, summarizing the facts in the trial record, lays out a saga of unfair treatment of Captain Bressler so severe and unrelenting that he was essentially driven from the department.   Reading the opinion makes one's blood boil.   The court's opinion would make an excellent basis for a dramatic presentation, given the amount of tension and the clash of characters detailed therein.

The court ordered that its opinion not be officially published, but in these days of electronic court-reporting, that is a meaningless restriction, because the opinion is available in full text on Westlaw (2009 WL 200242), and presumably on Lexis as well (I haven't checked).  Presumably the court designated this unpublished to avoid embarrassment to the Fire Department, which I would consider an unworthy reason to designate an opinion to be unpublished, especially when this opinion can serve the role that investigative journalism should serve.  (Has the media in L.A. ever tried to uncover and publicize the problem of racism, sexism and homophobia in the LAFD that is vividly detailed in this opinion?  The evidence that at least one fire house is so rotten with prejudice and discrimination that people have transferred out just to get out from under, and that when somebody  -- Bressler -- tried to blow the whistle on this by going through LAFD channels to file complaints, the system was turned around on him and he was hounded out of the Department?) 

Who is going to take this problem on?  Is there anyone in the media in L.A. awake to this problem and willing to make something out of it?  Is the "progressive" Democratic mayor willing to make something out of it?  Is anyone going to call the Fire Comissioner on it?   That this opinion is designated as "unpublished" is, in my opinion, scandalous.  Part of the role of civil rights law enforcement is to root out discriminatory practices, but how can that be accomplished when the record of such practices is buried?  I generally dislike the idea of "officially unpublished" opinions, and I question its legitimacy except for the rare circumstances where keeping the text secret serves some vital national interest.  Certainly the names of innocent people can be redacted from a published decision, but those who are guilty of effectuating illegal, racist, sexist and homophobic policies in their workplaces deserve to be exposed to the light of day.

I hope somebody in L.A. will bring this opinion into the public discussion, and that accountable elected officials will be required to respond to what it shows about the internal workings of the LAFD.

If this is an unusually heated posting on my blog, I think the occasion merits it.

Colombia's Highest Court Mandates Equal Rights for Same-Sex Couples

With the caveat that I haven't seen the opinion (and probably could not read it, since it is in Spanish), I want to pass on the news that two LGBT outlets have reported that the highest court of the nationa of Colombia, the Constitutional Court, issued a ruling on January 28 in a pending case brought by Colombia Diversa (a gay civil rights advocacy group), The Centre for Law, Justice and Society, and the University of the Andes's Group for Public Interest Law, finding that the equal rights mandate in Colombia's constitution requires that same-sex couples be accorded the same rights that are now accorded to different-sex couples in common law marriages.  From the press reports, it seems that Colombia has extended a wide array of rights typical of marriage to different-sex couples who are cohabiting in a marital-like relationship.  Now same-sex couples with such relationships will have similar rights and responsibilities.

This is only the latest in a series of rulings by the courts in Colombia mandating equal rights for gay people.  Ironically, however, according to the report published in Pink News from the UK, life is not necessarily easy for gay people in Colombia, despite these legal victories.  It is said that the police have frequently mistreated gay people, and that "serious human rights violations against LGBT people are commonplace," according to Tony Grew, the author of the article published this morning.

So one asks from a U.S. perspective how immigration authorites would deal with a petition for asylum or withholding of removal by a gay person from Colombia in the present situation.  From reading many federal court rulings on appeals from denial of refugee status to gay people, it strikes me that evaluating a petition from a Colombian would pose significant problems.  On the one hand, there might be credible evidence of police mistreatment of gay people, which would be considered official persecution if it is adequately severe.  But, on the other hand, the legal establishment of the courts has staked out an anti-discrimination and equal rights position that is advanced to the stage of countries that are generally deemed gay-friendly.  So how would the court decide, in the absence of specific evidence showing that the individual petition has suffered persecution.  In cases where the individual has not personally experienced official persecution, courts have sometimes granted the right to remain in the U.S. based on evidence that there is systemic persecution in a particular country, usually at the hands of the police, such that an individual who is known to be gay is likely to be targeted.  But the results of the cases are mixed.

And, of course, as political and social conditions for gay people improve in any particular country, the use of asylum or withholding of removal as a device for allowing them to reside in the United States becomes questionable as a matter of U.S. policy.   So this new ruling poses interesting issues in terms of its possible influence outside of Colombia.

Magnificent Brahms from Muti and the NY Philharmonic

Tonight I caught the last performance from Riccardo Muti's first week of guest-conducting with the New York Philharmonic.  There were too many empty seats, which explains why I was there, at least in part.  One of the benefits of being a Patron Donor to the orchestra is that when advance ticket sales for a concert are slow, they send out an email to the donor list offering discounted tickets....  Actually, it's a bit surprising that ticket sales would have been slow for this concert.  I would have thought that hearing Thomas Quasthoff sing would be a draw, and Muti has been popular as an NYP guest conductor over the years.  On the other hand, Quasthoff was singing Italian opera arias by Haydn, hardly prime territory even for connoisseurs, and the Brahms capping the program was the Serenade No. 1 rather than one of the symphonies....  Perhaps the empty seats are just another reflection of the economy - cultural tourism to NYC is probably down, and it may be that the audience is stripping down to the hard core subscribers with fewer single ticket buyers.  And, after all, it was Tuesday night, last concert of a 4 concert run with this program, so maybe the audience for this music was just tapped out...

In any event, I guess the NYP is hurting like many others.  But it's a shame the crowd wasn't bigger, because the Brahms Serenade was the performance of a lifetime.  Really, they were burning on all cylinders down there on the stage, the orchestra playing its collective heart out, and everybody -- EVERYBODY - had an excellent night.  Principal Horn Philip Myers, who had a less than stellar performance the last time I attended, was a real champ tonight - and a good thing, because at times the Serenade really seems to be a horn concerto in disguise.  All the wind soloists were excellent, but Myers really stood out among them tonight.  I was a bit unhappy that Muti was playing the piece with a reduced string section - after all, in its final version, Brahms called it a Serenade for Large Orchestra - but the strings on the stage gave a full sound considering their numbers, and played like demons. 

What impressed me in particular on this occasion was the soft playing.  This is an orchestra that has a tendency towards loudness, abetted by their airplane hangar of a hall, but tonight the quiet playing just took your breath away, especially in the first minuet movement and the adagio.  The sheer finesse was overwhelming - the subtlety of the timpani playing, for example, or the careful blending of soft extended woodwind lines.  It was all fantastic, one of those times when one remembers that, after all, the NYP is among the finest orchestras in the world.

Sorry I can't be quite so enthusiastic about the first half.  The Symphony No. 89 by Josef Haydn is really not among his more inspired creations, especially considering that No. 88 was practically standard repertory back in the days before orchestras played very much Haydn.  The orchestra played well, but I didn't feel the kind of electricity that flew from the Brahms performance.  And I wondered why Muti reduced the strings so much for this.  The program note mentioned that it was commissioned for a Paris concert series where they boasted an orchestra with 40 violins, but Muti used about half that number.  So any idea of reducing the strings to be "authentic" or to field a chamber orchestra of the type Haydn would have led at Esterhaza would be misguided here.  I bet the piece would have made more of an impression with the full NYP string section.

Thomas Quasthoff is a marvelous musician, a great baritone, and a spectacular person -- and I think his appearance in these works is really part of his promotional tour for his new CD, due out imminently, of Haydn opera arias.  The problem, at least for me, is that the four arias he sang, while pleasant enough, were just not really extraordinary, and pulled out of the context of the operas for which they were written, didn't have all that much of an effect on me.  In addition, there was a sameness to them, perhaps reflecting the convention of writing for the bass- baritone voice at that time.  A program of more varied arias, perhaps mixing Haydn with Mozart and Handel, would have been more interesting.

And, Muti....  The NYP tried for years to woe him into the music directorship, without success -- only to learn last year that he accepted the podium in Chicago -- and once he's taken it, we probably won't see him as a guest conductor in New York.  He has always really "clicked" with the NYP in my experience, so that's a shame and we need to enjoy him while we can.  I'm looking forward to this Saturday night, when I'll be back to hear him conduct the Scriabin 2nd Symphony (he's a real specialist in Scriabin - his recorded cycle of the symphonies on EMI is a marvel) and to collaborate with Radu Lupu in the Beethoven 3rd Piano Concerto.

And - a question:  Here is Lupu doing Beethoven 3rd this week with the NYP.  So why, in the new Carnegie Hall schedule that was emailed to subscribers today, is he listed as playing the very same concerto next year with a visiting orchestra in Carnegie Hall?  There is a fatal lack of imagination there.  Or is he only playing Beethoven 3 these days?  Let's mix it up, Maestro Lupu, give us a different concerto next year...

Students Expelled from Religious School Over Lesbian Relationship

A California appellate court has ruled that a religious high school was free to dismiss two students for having a lesbian affair, because the school is not a "place of public accommodation" covered by the state law banning sexual orientation discrimination. The ruling in Jane Doe v. California Lutheran High School Association, 2009 Westlaw 161869 (Cal.App., 4^th Dist.), was announced on January 26 in an opinion by Justice Betty Richli.

Students applying to the California Lutheran High School in Wildomar, California, a private religious school affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Synod and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, are required to signify their acceptance of the rules governing the institution, which includes an agreement to conduct themselves according to rules of "Christian Conduct." According to Justice Richli, the school presented evidence about the view of non-marital sex and homosexuality embraced by the religious bodies that sponsor this school. "Lutherans believe that homosexuality is a sin," she wrote. "The School has a policy of refusing admission to homosexual students. Its ‘Christian Conduct’ rule provided that a student could be expelled for engaging in immoral or scandalous conduct, whether on or off campus. This would include homosexual conduct."

In this case, a student reported to a teacher that a female classmate had said that she loved another female classmate, without naming any names. The student told the teacher that he would be able to figure out who was involved by looking at the female students’ MySpace pages. The teacher reviewed the MySpace pages of his female students and discovered the two students who were subsequently expelled, each of whom had referred to being in love with the other. One of the students identified herself as "bi" and the other as "not sure" under the category of sexual orientation.

The teacher reported to the principal, Pastor Bork, who convened a meeting of the school’s Disciplinary Committee, which advised confronting the students and suspending them if they confirmed the truth of this information. Bork questioned each of the girls, they admitted that they loved each other, had hugged and kissed each other, and had told other students that they were lesbians. This earned them a suspension, letters to their parents explaining why they were being suspended – that they had a "bond of intimacy characteristic of a lesbian relationship" – and ultimately their expulsion by vote of the school’s board of directors.

The girls sued under California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which forbids sexual orientation discrimination by places of public accommodation. They also claimed damages for invasion of privacy and false imprisonment – referring to their sequestration in closed rooms for questioning until they were sent home, as well as "outing" them to their parents.

Judge Gloria Trask of Riverside Superior Court granted the school’s motion for summary judgment, concluding that it was not a "business enterprise" covered by the Unruh Act, and the plaintiffs appealed.

The Court of Appeal agreed with Judge Trask, finding that private, non-profit schools were generally not considered to be businesses. There was no need to get into the school’s alternative freedom of religion argument under the circumstances. Ironically, the main California precedent that the court invoked was a 1998 decision by the California Supreme Court, Curran v. Mt. Diablo Council of the Boy Scouts of America, 17 Cal.4th 670 (1998), holding that the Boy Scouts organization in California was not a place of public accommodation, thus rejecting a suit by a gay man who had been excluded under the Scout’s anti-gay membership policies.

"Curran is controlling here," wrote Justice Richli. "Just like the Boy Scouts, the School ‘is an expressive social organization whose primary function is the inculcation of values in its youth members.’ According to its mission statement, as set for in its student handbook, ‘CLHS exists to glorify God by using his inerrant Word to nurture discipleship in Christ, serving primarily the youth of our WELS and ELS congregations, equipping them for a lifetime of service to their Savior, their homes, churches, vocations and communities.’"

Justice Richli stressed the selective nature of the school’s admissions process, which was up-front in informing applicants about the "Christian Conduct" code. Even though the school engaged in some commercial transactions to support its activities, such as selling concessions and t-shirts at athletic events, the court did not consider this a basic activity of the organization.

The court also rejected the privacy and false imprisonment claims, finding them to be very much bound up with the unsuccessful Unruh Act claim. Justice Richli noted that the school had not publicized the reason for expelling the girls, and found that informing their parents was not a violation of the students’ privacy.

Mark Stone & Stephen Barlow - English Love (song recital)

Sometimes when browsing through a website I come across a recording by a performer unknown to me offering a program so tempting that it proves irresistible.  That was the case with this artist-produced recording of English songs, performed by baritone Mark Stone and pianist-composer Stephen Barlow.  The name of the label is "Stone Records," thus my deduction it is self-produced, and I believe I saw it browsing on the Presto Classical website, which is English-based but offers recordings in US dollar amounts at nice discounts, and offers the occasional independent production of this sort.

With becoming modesty, the musicians provide no biographical information in the booklet, but a quick check on-line shows that Stone is a young English baritone with a thriving career in opera and song recitals.  The purchase of the recording was worth the risk, because he is excellent, and so is his collaborator, Mr. Barlow, who in addition to providing a fine partnership in the performance of the songs contributes one of his own songs as the finale to the program.  Stone selected the songs, put them in order, provides excellent brief notes about the composers and the music, and sings with great beauty and sensitivity.  The program is a far-ranging survey of English song, from Dowland and Purcell up to Barlow, sampling along the way many of the important 20th century song writers.  The program is not encyclopedic, however, and it would be great if Stone could do a follow-up consisting of the composers left out of this batch, of whom there are many. 

The entire production is very professionally done, fine sound quality, excellent graphics on the booklet, first-class all the way.  Salute!

No Tax Break for Father of Children Conceived Through Gestational Surrogacy

The United States Tax Court gave an unwelcome Christmas present to William Magdalin, who was appealing the Internal Revenue Service’s refusal to allow his medical deduction for expenses incurred in the conception and birth of his two children by gestational surrogacy. The Tax Court ruled in Magdalin v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, T.C. Memo. 2008-293, 2008 Westlaw 5535409 (December 23), in a decision by Judge Robert A. Wherry, Jr., that the expenses were not deductible, since they did not involve treatment of any medical condition suffered by the taxpayer or intended to affect a structure or function of the taxpayer’s body.

Judge Wherry’s opinion does not go into great detail about the underlying facts, although a passing reference suggests that the case involved a gay man who had previously fathered two children without the use of any reproductive technology in his prior marriage to a woman, and thus who was shown to suffer from no fertility problems that would require medical treatment. The petitioner in this case is a medical doctor licensed to practice in Massachusetts, where he was living at all times relevant to the case. In 2004 and again in 2005, he contracted with women to be gestational surrogates, submitting to implantation of embryos formed from his sperm and donated eggs. Two children resulted from these procedures. Magdalin documented his expenses and took them as medical deductions on his federal tax returns to the extent they exceeded the statutory floor of 7.5 percent of his gross income for each year.

The IRS disallowed the deductions, and Magdalin, representing himself, appealed to the Tax Court. He argued, in essence, that it was unfair that a married couple using gestational surrogacy because of a wife’s inability to conceive or bear children could deduct the expenses on their tax return, but that he, an unmarried gay man, could not do the same. He referred to a Private Ruling Letter by the IRS, 2003-18-017 (Jan. 9, 2003), approving such a deduction for a married couple.

Judge Wherry explained that the statutory authorization for medical deductions was limited by its terms for "medical care of the taxpayer, his spouse, or a dependent," and that the deduction is a limited exception to the general rule that taxpayers are not allowed to deduct personal, living or family expenses, and is thus narrowly construed.

Under the Internal Revenue Code, "medical care" refers to money spent "for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or for the purpose of affecting any structure or function of the body." In this case, Wherry observed, there was no indication that any of these claimed expenses had anything to do with Magdalin’s medical condition, or affected his own body in any way. That made this case totally distinguishable from the married couple using IVF and a gestational surrogate to have a child, since this was a medical treatment for the wife’s infertility.

Private Letter Rulings are not citable as precedents in any event, and the Tax Court decided that Magdalin’s case was not the occasion to get any further into the issue of medical deductions for married couples using IVF. Instead, the court focused on the statutory definition and its lack of applicability to Magdalin.

Magdalin had tried to raise a claim that failure to allow him the deduction created a constitutional problem. "Petitioner argues that it was his civil right to reproduce," wrote Judge Wherry, "that he should have the freedom to choose the method of reproduction, and that it is sex discrimination to allow women but not men to choose how they will reproduce. While he correctly acknowledges that Internal Revenue Service private letter rulings are ‘not legal precedent,’ he refers to Priv. Ltr. Rul. 2003-18-017 (Jan. 9, 2003) to show that ‘the expenses for egg donor, medical and legal costs are deductible medical expenses."

"Although petitioner at times attempts to frame the deductibility of the relevant expenses as an issue of constitutional dimensions," Wherry concluded, "under the facts and circumstances of his case, it does not rise to that level. Petitioner’s gender, marital status, and sexual orientation do not bear on whether he can deduct the expenses at issue. He cannot deduct those expenses because he has no medical condition or defect to which those expenses relate and because they did not affect a structure or function of his body. Expenses incurred in the absence of the requisite underlying medical condition or defect and that do not affect a structure or function of the taxpayer’s body are nondeductible personal expenses within the meaning" of the relevant Tax Code provisions.

Magdalin, a doctor (as noted above) who represented himself on this appeal to the Tax Court, could seek judicial review in the federal courts. Attorney Daniel P. Ryan represented the IRS on the appeal.

Leon Botstein and the ASO Explore Music of the G.D.R.

No nostalgia for the German Democratic Republic (i.e., communist East Germany) in this quarter, and none on the part of Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra, as the Maestro pointed out in his program note for this afternoon's concert at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall.  And yet, there was a country that existed from 1945 until the reunification with the fall of the Berlin Wall more than 40 years later -- a country that had composers busily producing new music.  Would it be interesting to find out what that music sounded like?  Of course....

So, this afternoon, Botstein and the ASO presented a survey of music by five prominent composers of the communist German state: Hans Eisler, Rudolf Wagner-Regeny, Paul Dessau, Udo Zimmermann, and Siegfried Matthus.  The program included four United States premieres and one New York premiere. The only piece on the program for which such claims could not be made was the country's national anthem, which provided a brief prelude to the program.  (It was composed by Hans Eisler, and sung on this occasion by soprano Marjorie Owens -- with unnecessary amplification.)

So, what did this music sound like?  It is so hard to describe music in words.  What it is more possible to do is to say in a general way that nothing I heard this afternoon struck me as an imperishable loss to the international symphonic repertory, but every work seemed worth hearing at least once and some of the pieces excited curiosity for further listening and further exploration of the composers.  Actually, Eisler and Dessau are not entirely unknown quantities.  After all, Eisler even had his American period -- and it shows, since it seems as if George Gershwin was an influence on his musical style!  Despite some dabbling with "12-tone" and atonal compositional technique, all the works on today's program actually sounded tonal, and most of them seemed reasonably listener-friendly.  There just was not anything that suggested the kind of memorability that makes a piece worthy of repeated listening.

On the other hand, I was particularly fascinated to trace the influences, especially since the G.D.R. was rather isolated musically from what was happening in Western Europe and the U.S.A. for the earlier part of its history, things only opening up a bit in the 1970s and later.  As it is, I felt that Richard Wagner's music seemed to carry a strong influence, and -- surprisingly? -- Igor Stravinsky seems to have made a big impact.  And then, of course, Gershwin.

According to the program note, former NY Philharmonic Music Director Kurt Masur (who is a Gershwin enthusiast) is also a great enthusiast for the music of Siegried Matthus, whose Responso (1977), a four-movement symphony, concluded the program and was in many ways the most significant piece presented today. But I don't recall having heard any performances of his music by the NY Philharmonic during Masur's decade at the helm.  Of course, I may have missed something, since I didn't attend every concert....   The Matthus piece tickled my funny-bone at various points, because I thought there were sections that seemed directly lifted out of Stravinsky's revolutionary ballet, Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring).  This would make Matthus an "Ivesian" figure, as US composer Charles Ives was fond of quoting other peoples' music in his own pieces.  I wonder how much of this quotation of Stravinsky was conscious?  There were also sounds here that seemed directly lifted from Lutoslawski (his Concerto for Orchestra, for example, in Matthus' Nocturne movement), and the big Adagio struck me as a cousin to the big adagios in Mahler's later symphonies.

The only other piece on the program calling on the talents of Ms. Owens (unamplified this time) was Eisler's Goethe Rhapsody (1949), and I found this a very curious piece, a sort of pastiche of twentieth century styles, including some moments that, as noted above, seemed very much Gershwin-inspired.  Since Eisler had some contact with Hollywood during his US stay, perhaps the musical tastes of the film colony in the 1940s rubbed off on him.  Ms. Owens sounded great, her nice big voice cutting through the large orchestra beautifully, prompting questions why she used a microphone for the national anthem.

In any event, this concert vindicates the purpose Botstein has set for the ASO - to uncover music that is relatively unknown and to give it an airing, because you never know when you might come across a masterpiece that should be in the repertory, and even if you don't discover one, you might hear something interesting or something that helps to explain something else.  Now off to the on-line references to see what interesting recordings might turn up of music by these guys....

Kirill Gerstein Piano Recital at Peoples' Symphony Concerts in New York

The Russian-born pianist Kirill Gerstein played a marvelous piano recital on January 24 at Washington Irving High School in Manhattan under the auspices of the People's Symphony Concerts series.  I was not really aware of Mr. Gerstein prior to his appearing on the announcement for this series, but tonight's concert definitely made me a fan!

According to the biographical material on his website, he was born in Voronezh, attending a school for talented youngsters in Russia before moving west to advance his studies.  He won First Prize in the 2001 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, received a 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Grant, and was selected as a "rising star" by Carnegie Hall for its 2005/6 season.  His website reproduces a highly favorable notice by Anthony Tommasini of the NY Times from a prior New York recital.  Somehow he was not on my radar before this.  (I hope he will update the website, which seems to have been started up and then rather abandoned, since it contains no mention of his recent activity.)

The recital was well chosen, with perhaps one exception, to show off his strong points as a pianist.  The exception, unfortunately, was his opening selection, J.S. Bach's English Suite in A Minor, BWV 807.  Playing Bach on the modern concert grand piano is tricky stuff.  The music was conceived for early 18th century keyboard instruments, either harpsichord or clavichord.  The pianist who wants to play this music in public is faced with critical choices.  The performances I most enjoy are those where the pianist decides to make use of the expressive resources of the instrument and to emphasize the expressive aspects of the music through creative phrasing, dynamics and expression marks placed by the performer.  (Bach wrote in a time when it was not customary to provide much of this direction to the performer, who would be assumed to be knowledgable about the customary methods of applying expressive devices to the unadorned notes.)  I find Murray Perahia to be an ideal Bach interpreter on the piano, because he fully uses the resources of the piano.  Piotr Anderszewski's Bach is also attractive to me, although he perhaps goes a bit further than Perahia in applying his personal touch to the music.

By contrast, I thought Gerstein did not adequately exploit the expressive resources of the piano.  His playing had -- at least in my opinion -- a rather hard-edged, somewhat metronomic quality.  All the notes were there, of course, and the two hands were well-balanced, but I thought the performance was on the cold side, lacking in expressiveness and thus ultimately unconvincing.  Perhaps, as well, the first piece on the program found him getting used to the sound of the hall with an audience in it -- presuming he had some practice time in the empty hall earlier in the day? -- and so he was playing more loudly than would be ideal, in my view.  Bach did not mark lots of gradations of volume in his piano scores, which can lead the performer to avoid wide dynamic contrasts, but I think that is mainly because Bach was really writing with the harpsichord or clavichord in mind, instruments that do not provide the performer with much, if any, ability to vary dynamics.  But piano renditions that accept the limitations of the earlier forms of keyboard instruments are much less interesting to me...  Personal taste here.

But I was swept away by the rest of his program.

Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme by Corelli, Op. 42, is actually misnamed, since the theme is not by Corelli at all.  Rather, the old traditional La Folia theme was used by Corelli for a set of virtuosic variations for violin, but the authorship of the theme itself is buried in antiquity.  Rachmaninoff was a master of the variation form (witness his Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, or the wonderful Variations on a Theme by Chopin), and it was fascinating to follow him on his journey with the "Corelli" theme.  Gerstein's playing was so different here from the Bach.  I heard a wide dynamic range, variations in touch (although his prevailing sound is firm and rich, even when playing quietly), plenty of drama in the phrasing and modulations of tempo -- in short, an ideal performance of this rarely-heard work.

After the intermission, there was a splendid rendition of Chopin's F Minor Fantasie, Op. 49, and Busoni's Piano Sonatina No. 6, a fantasy on themes from Bizet's opera "Carmen."   The Busoni established a theme for the rest of the recital, and sent a clear signal that Gerstein enjoys playing piano transcriptions that give him the opportunity to interpret some of the greatest tunes that were written for performance in other musical media.  His main program finale, the scherzo from Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony (No. 6), was stunning in its epic virtuosity.  The only thing I really missed from the orchestra version was the crashing cymbals at key points -- hey, you can't expect everything in a piano transcription of a brilliantly-orchestrated piece -- but I found his performance thrilling.  For encores, he offered two more transcriptions:  Kreisler's Liebeslied, and Schubert's song "The Erl-King." 

Now I will be on the look-out for more opportunities to hear this young pianist.  (He'll celebrate his 30th birthday in 2009.)  If his website is any indication, he hasn't made a commercial recording yet, but I'll be doing further exploration on that.  Given its rarity, it would make sense for somebody to set down his account of the Rachmaninoff, and the Busoni plus the transcriptions that he played tonight would make great companions for such a recording.

On my way home on the subway, I listened on my ipod to another great young pianist play the Kreisler piece, in the Rachmaninoff transcription (which I believe was the one Gerstein was using): Yevgeny Sudbin.  Sudbin is a bit further along in his career, having produced several successful recordings for BIS and received somewhat more media attention than Gerstein.  I found his recording delightful, but no more so than Gerstein's rendition tonight.  By happy coincidence, Sudbin is also featured by People's Symphony this season, also at Washington Irving High School, on March 14.  This is my first opportunity to hear him perform live.  Be there or be square!!!

Postscript:  His website did not say anything about it - or at least it did not turn up on a quick breeze through - but an on-line search revealed that Kirill Gerstein does have a debut recital disc out on the Oehms label, which I now have on order.  But it doesn't include the Rachmaninoff!!!  Please, somebody, get that man into a studio!