The CultureMap Interview

Rock star conductor JoAnn Falletta pops in on the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra

JoAnn Falletta in action.
Photo by Jim Bush
JoAnn Falletta is performing with the River Chambers Orchestra Saturday andSunday.
Photo by Cheryl Gorski
Falletta is a passionate advocate for classical music and looks forward toworking with Aleicia Lawyer.
Photo by Enid Bloch

JoAnn Falletta, rock star conductor, returns to Houston for the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra's (ROCO) opening weekend on Saturday and Sunday. Talk about starting a season with one high-profile baton.

Falletta, most known as the music director of The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, has just released the first in a series of recordings on the Naxos label of the music of Marcel Tyberg, a Holocaust victim, whose scores were lost until now. A passionate advocate for the future of classical music, Falletta is a frequent contributor to several publications and also the author of Love Letters to Music, her first book of poems.

Falletta took time out on the eve of the BPO's 75th Anniversary to discuss her Houston visit, recent recordings, and her nonstop life in music with CultureMap.

CM: The thought of you in the same room with ROCO's founder Alecia Lawyer is simply explosive; two powerhouse women in classical music collaborating makes perfect sense. How did your path's cross? Both of you are evidence of the rising power of women in music. Can you speak to that as well?

JF:. A friend told me about Alecia and ROCO. He said it was something you need to see to believe and he was right. Alecia is a major force. She is doing what so many orchestras are trying to do by reaching the audience in innovative ways. It's so different and satisfying to conduct ROCO. They need an open-minded conductor who is not rigid. I am so glad to be back.

It's hard for me to have a perspective on women in classical music because I have wanted to be a conductor since I was seven years old. I got lucky that it's now something possible for women. Even 50 years ago, if you look at symphony orchestras, they were mostly men. Now, there are many more women musicians, composers and soloists. It has taken the longest to have more women conductors. Change happens slowly.

CM: The ROCO program includes Mendelssohn's Symphony #3, Ligeti's Concerto Romanesc, and the world premiere of Scott McAllister's Rhapsodie for String Bass and Chamber Orchestra, performed by ROCO principal bass Sandor Ostlund. How do all those selections come together to make a delicious musical meal for our ears?

JF: If you are making a meal, every course needs to be different, yet somehow complement each other. A concert is like that. The Mendelssohn is a chestnut. It's fantastically beautiful. When Mendelssohn was a young man, his parents took him on a trip to Scotland. He was so taken and overwhelmed by the water, the sky and the power of the waves, that he wrote this piece. It remains a perfect portrait of the geography of Scotland.

The Ligeti is a surprising piece in that it's based on Hungarian folk music. Sometimes people are afraid of Ligeti. They will understand the soil of Hungary. And, of course, McAllister's new work is a wonderful piece. I know audiences will respond to it. It's important to select new music that you feel passionately about.

CM: I feel so proud to be from a city that can claim to have supported a symphony orchestra for 75 years. It seemed when I was growing up just about everyone knew the name of the BPO conductor. They were considered local cultural leaders and heroes. Congratulations on turning 75. What do you have to say for yourself as the one standing at the helm of his beloved cultural pillar of Buffalo?

JF: It says a lot about Buffalo and the surrounding Erie County. They have valued and cherished this orchestra for 75 years. And you know it's a city that has gone through troubled times. It makes me proud that we have this incredible cultural environment that cares about the arts and history of great music.

CM: Tell us about your discovery of Holocaust victim Marcel Tyberg's scores. To think that the legacy of this composer, who died in Auschwitz in 1944, could have been forgotten is tragic.

JF: It's such an interesting story. A gifted surgeon, Dr. Henry Mihich studied with Marcel Tyberg as a child in Italy. Tyberg left his scores with the doctor, entrusting him with this legacy. He never returned and Henry has been trying to get this music into the world for many years. He came to me with a shopping bag full of scores, handwritten and falling apart. This is wonderful music that no one has ever played. It's a Buffalo story about not giving up.

CM: What do you do when you are not making music?

JF: I ride my bike. I am a big reader and an avid snorkeler. Oh, and I write poetry.

unspecified

Movie Review

Daniel Craig shines in Queer, an unapologetic tale of love and loss

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

---

Queer is now playing in theaters.

movies film