Opening Night of The New York Philharmonic

Alan Gilbert, music director and conductor
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
Wynton Marsalis, director and trumpet
Opening Night
Avery Fisher Hall, New York, NY
September 22, 2010


Wynton Marsalis – Photo Credit: Julie Skarratt

On the first concert of the Lincoln Center Fall season, the New York Philharmonic performed Strauss’s Don Juan, a most difficult score (it is used to audition string players for almost every orchestra), with supreme virtuosic strength and confidence, sounding as good as any top ensemble who has ever played it. Music Director Alan Gilbert’s tempos and pacing were perfect as usual, translating the composer’s intentions rather than trying to sauce it up with a personal interpretation, as his predecessor often did. Gilbert is not a showman; he is an honest man at the podium. Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber (the title is practically longer than the piece itself) was never milked for the sake of pandering to an audience, and Gilbert once again stayed true to the composer’s tempo markings and dynamics. As a result, the work and the orchestra’s playing were stirring and brilliant, and the delicate gem of a slow movement was played with just the right simplicity and tenderness.

Wynton Marsalis’ 45-minute Swing Symphony (in its US premiere) is about 30 minutes too long to be a concert piece. All the extended jazz riffs and solos take time away from the Philharmonic, which often served as an accompaniment. The moments that did integrate the orchestra were derivative of blues found in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess or the raucous elements of the Mambo from West Side Story— to name a couple possible influences. The prevalent, virtuosic solo playing by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra was always outstanding, however, and the audience clearly appreciated Mr. Marsalis’ playing and tremendous artistic effort here. One of the movements, which was played at the Berlin Philharmonic world premiere, was cut out of this US premiere—due to time allotment for the PBS telecast, but next season, the Philharmonic will play the symphony in its entirety. If anything, Gilbert should figure out ways to convince Marsalis to cut out more. And if that can’t be done, Marsalis needs to incorporate the symphony orchestra a lot more. I still think the concept of bringing the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic together is a good one; after all, expanding audiences and enriching cultural tastes are necessities in today’s world.

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by Anthony Aibel  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

Mostly Mozart Festival

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Louis Langrée, conductor, Stephen Hough, piano
Carolyn Sampson, soprano, Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
Steve Davislim, tenor
Concert Chorale of New York, James Bagwell, Director
Avery Fisher Hall, New York, NY
August 20, 2010

Stephen Hough-Photo Credit: Christian Steiner

The Festival dedicated its final concert to the genius for whom it was named with an all-Mozart program: the Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K.467, and the Cantata “Davidde penitente,” K.469, both written in 1785. The Cantata is not performed as often as it deserves. It was written at the request of a Viennese charitable Artists’ Society devoted to looking after the widows and orphans of musicians. Mozart was a member of the organization and had promised to compose a choral piece for a benefit concert, but was too busy to create a major original work, so he took parts of his own unfinished C-minor Mass and just added two new arias. He used an Italian text based on the Psalms of David, said to have been provided by Lorenzo da Ponte, his later librettist. Thus, the music is vintage Mozart, with many grand choruses using complex counterpoint, and extraordinarily difficult arias that would not be out of place in any of his operas. The soprano goes up to high D’s and E’s and engages in spectacular vocal acrobatics; the tenor has a long “scene” with almost equally demanding coloratura passages. The soloists at this concert did nobly, but could not conceal hints of struggle. The chorus was wonderful; Langrée handled his large forces admirably.

Sasha Cook-Photo credit: Christian Steiner

The C-major Piano Concerto became famous because the slow movement was used in a film called “Elvira Madigan;”  many people became familiar with it who would never have heard the concerto. It is one of Mozart’s sunniest, most beautiful works; its tunes are simple but can be endlessly developed; the solo part is brilliant; the scoring includes timpani and a full complement of winds. The lovely slow movement shows Mozart at his most romantic, the Finale at his most playful. Stephen Hough played it with ease, elegance and expressiveness; he used his own stylistic, effective but unostentatious cadenzas. His encore, Schumann’s “Träumerei,” was properly dreamy but a bit too free.

Carolyn Sampson-Photo Credit: Nina Large

The orchestra was in top form all summer, but the balance favored the winds and percussion under every conductor. Under Langrée, the timpanist frequently entered a split second too early, especially at the beginning of a piece; later, he seemed to settle into the beat. The concerts were very well attended, and it was a pleasure to watch the unstinting enthusiasm with which the audiences gave standing ovations to the orchestra and all the conductors, demanding encores of practically every soloist. Another observation was more troubling: the number of wheelchairs, crutches, walkers and canes seems to increase not only every year, but also in the course of a single season. In a way, though, this may be encouraging: it indicates that more and more people with disabilities are determined to participate in New York’s cultural life and enjoy its abundant offerings.

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by Edith Eisler  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

Mostly Mozart Festival

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Louis Langrée, conductor
Joshua Bell, violin
Jeremy Denk, piano
Pre-Concert Recital: Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk
Avery Fisher Hall, New York, NY
August 18, 2010

 

Joshua Bell-Photo credit: Bill Phelps

This No-Mozart, all-Romantic program was one of the Festival’s best. It opened with Weber’s Overture to the opera Der Freischütz and closed with Schumann’s Symphony in D minor No. 4, Op. 120, in the revised 1851 version. In between, Joshua Bell, Jeremy Denk and the Orchestra’s string section played Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings in D minor, the second Festival program featuring two major works in the same tonality. Written when the composer was 14 years old, the Concerto is not top-notch Mendelssohn and is only infrequently performed, but it is full of youthful romanticism, exuberance, and the promise of future greatness. The soloists reveled in the brilliant passage-work, alone and together, tossing off the long runs in parallel thirds with easy virtuosity and perfect coordination; Bell’s pure, expressive tone cast a silvery radiance over the lovely melodies. The Orchestra, under-employed except for the Introduction, offered discreet support, and everybody had a grand time.

The performance of the Weber and Schumann indicated that Langrée harbors a romantic soul under his penchant for cool, speedy, almost vibratoless Mozart. He encouraged the musicians to surrender to the passionate ardor of the music using their warmest, most intense sound, and they responded whole-heartedly. The Overture overflowed with vigorous energy without getting hectic; the strings sang out, the wind solos were wonderful (those Freischütz horns!).

Schumann cast his fourth Symphony in his favorite “Fantasy” form, with its four contrasting movements  melting into each other. Originally composed in 1841, it was actually his second symphony, but its negative reception caused him to put it aside. Ten years later, having written two more symphonies, he revised it, refining the transitions between the movements and adding a lot of doubling to the orchestration – a decision that has remained controversial: the texture gains substance but loses transparency. Langrée used the second version; while he could not save the sound from becoming murky at times, its richness made up for the lack of clarity, and he brought out the character and changing moods of the music: the vitality of the fast sections, the poetry and romanticism of the slow ones, the assertive robustness of the Scherzo.

Mozart visited his Festival at the Pre-Concert recital, when Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk played his “big” B-flat Major Sonata K.454, written in 1784, the first of his last three great violin and piano sonatas. Though Avery Fisher Hall is hardly the best place for intimate chamber music, the performance was admirable. Frequent partners, the two players have achieved an extraordinarily high level of ensemble; they took over each others’ lines, calibrating the sound for relative prominence, built on each others’ dynamics, tonal and expressive intensity, and created a true “conversation between friends.” Their subtle interplay was even more impressive than their dazzling collaborative virtuosity in the Mendelssohn Concerto. 

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by Edith Eisler  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

Mostly Mozart Festival

Mostly Mozart Festival
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä, conductor
Antti Siirala, pianist
Avery Fisher Hall, New York, NY
August 14, 2010

Osmo Vanska-Photo Credit: Greg Helgeson

This concert was not only all-Mozart, but all dramatic, minor mode Mozart. It featured two guests from Finland: conductor Osmo Vänskä, a familiar presence at the Festival, and the young pianist Antti Siirala in his New York orchestral debut.

The program presented two symphonies rarely performed together: the “little” G minor Symphony, No. 25 K.183, written in 1773, and the “big” G minor Symphony, No. 40 K.550, the second of his three great final symphonies, all written in the summer of 1788. Mozart reserved the key of G minor for some of his most dramatic and most moving works, such as the String Quintet K.516. These two Symphonies share both characteristics, but, composed 15 years apart, are also very different.

The disparities are apparent from the beginning. The first movement of No. 25 is all energy and impetuosity, and while the second theme, in major, is playful and gracious, its return in minor is dark and ominous. The first movement of No. 40 has a pensive resignation, occasionally pierced by a surge of defiance or a ray of hope. The slow movements of both symphonies are in major modes. The early one, based on a single theme, is calm and simple; the later one is contrapuntal and complex; its initial repose is disrupted by wrenching dissonances. The Minuet of No. 25 is a rustic dance, that of No. 40 is weighed down with heavy cross-rhythms; both have genial Trios in G major. The Finales are fast, with avalanches of relentlessly rushing passages.

These symphonies were well suited to Vänskä’s active, emphatic conducting style. Visually, he was in perpetual motion, bowing, twisting and turning, stabbing the air with his baton; musically, it was reflected in dramatic overkill, slashing accents and extreme dynamic contrasts, which made the early Symphony seem anything but little. For the late Symphony, all conductors – and Mozart lovers – have their own interpretation. Väskä took a surging approach to the opening theme, with sea-sickness-inducing swells, not indicated in the score, in every pair of bars. His tempi were generally moderate compared to the hectic speeds often favored today; only the Finale of No. 40 was a headlong rush.

Mozart wrote only two piano concertos in minor keys; the program included the first, K.466, written in 1785, in D minor, another tonality associated with high drama (think of Don Giovanni and the Requiem). The Concerto is characterized by strong contrasts of dynamics, mood, texture, and confrontations rather than interplay between soloist and orchestra. The unusually extensive orchestral exposition begins with mysterious, syncopated murmurings in the low strings, terminated by a thunderous eruption by the full orchestra. The pianist enters, like a lone wanderer, with a new, gentle, pleading theme followed by rippling scale-passages, and continues to go his own way. The slow movement begins as a serene song in major, but the peacefulness is shattered by an outburst of running piano triplets in minor, driven by shrilling woodwinds. Calm is restored at the end, but turbulence runs high in the Finale, until the Coda turns to D major for what might seem a happy ending, but in fact feels like an attempt to ward off deep sadness.   

Siirala, winner of many European prizes, is an excellent, admirably self-effacing but communicative pianist. Putting his consummate technique entirely at the service of the music, he played with inward expressiveness, refinement and restraint; though careful not to exaggerate, he rose to the dramatic climaxes, including the long, elaborate, stormy cadenzas by Beethoven (who also wrote cadenzas for Mozart’s other dramatic Piano Concerto in C minor). The orchestra provided strong, empathetic support.

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by Edith Eisler  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

Mostly Mozart Festival

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Pablo Heras-Casado, conductor
Gil Shaham, violin
Avery Fisher Hall, New York, NY
August 4, 2010

PABLO HERAS-CASADO, conductor; GIL SHAHAM, violin with the MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA – PHOTO CREDIT – Richard Termine

This was one of the Festival’s “Some Mozart” programs; one third Mozart, to be exact. Mozart’s contribution was the Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K.219, the last, and probably the greatest, of his authentic works in that genre. It was performed by Gil Shaham, winner of the 1990 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2008 Avery Fisher Award, and one of the most appealing, versatile virtuosos before the public. Among his most captivating qualities are his charm and spontaneity, and, along with his brilliant technique and luxurious tone, they were on full display at this concert. Indeed, it may be his boundless facility that tempts him to succumb to today’s rampant infatuation with excessive speed. The Concerto’s slow movement was lovely, but the first, though clear, was rather hectic and over-accented; the Rondo lost much of its gracious courtliness, and the “Turkish” interlude raced past like a furious sandstorm. In the Joachim cadenzas, the runs were too fast for human ears. However, the fireworks brought the audience to its feet, eliciting an encore that turned out to be a piece related to the Mozart concerto by its Turkish roots, which Shaham recently heard in Istanbul. A relentless, super-fast marathon run-around, it sounded, to the uninitiated listener, like a Klezmer dance on speed.

The program began with Stravinsky’s “Dumbarton Oaks” Concerto, written in 1937 to celebrate the 30th wedding anniversary of the owners of that grand estate, where the United Nations were founded seven years later. Supposedly modeled on Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, the Dumbarton Oaks Concerto is in three movements, all full of Stravinsky’s characteristic quirky, irregular rhythms and spicy harmonies. The first and third movements are bustling and dissonant; the second is a charming, leisurely, dance-like Allegretto. The 15 orchestral soloists played splendidly—singly and together.

Mostly Mozart has established an admirable policy of inviting rising young conductors, and this concert introduced the Spanish-born Pablo Heras-Casado in his Festival debut. Though only 32-years-old, he has conducted music from the 17th century to the immediate present in opera houses and concert halls all over the world; his American debut took place in 2008 at Carnegie Hall with the ACJW Ensemble (The Academy of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute). All this experience has given him a style that is confident but not showy, authoritative but not authoritarian. He handled the changing rhythms and textures of the Stravinsky expertly, with sparing, efficient gestures; unfortunately, in the concerto,  he frequently allowed the orchestra—especially the winds—to cover the soloist.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2, Op. 36, which closed the program, was also efficient, but—again in conformity with current trends—very fast, with excessive dynamic contrasts and sharp, aggressive accents, giving the music no chance to breathe or speak for itself. However, the brilliant Finale elicited a prolonged, vociferous ovation. 

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by Edith Eisler  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

Mostly Mozart Festival

Mostly Mozart Festival
Opening Night Gala Program
Avery Fisher Hall, New York, NY
July 28, 2010

Stephanie Blythe, mezzo-soprano with Louis Langrée - Photo Credit Richard Termine

This is the Mostly Mozart Festival’s 44th season – an impressive display of longevity and resilience. It has weathered many internal and external changes that affected its programming strategy, and this year’s programs reflect some of them: they range from All-Mozart to Mostly Mozart, Some Mozart, A Little Mozart, and No Mozart At All.

Mozart is featured in its opening and closing concerts: the latter will be All-Mozart and the former began and ended with Mozart, the Overture to La Clemenza di Tito and the “Haffner” Symphony, K.385. In between came Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor Op. 21, played by Emanuel Ax, and arias from Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, sung by mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe. Louis Langrée, the Festival’s Music Director, conducted the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. 

Most of the Orchestra’s musicians have been with the Festival for many seasons, but do not play together regularly all year; they must recapture and refine their ensemble every summer. Also, this is a chamber group rather than a symphony orchestra, so it lacks the power needed for some of the symphonic literature. For this program, however, it was just right, and it was immediately clear that it is in fine shape, able and eager to carry out its Maestro’s wishes. Langrée is an elegant conductor, though his arm-gestures make him look as if he were going to fly off at any moment, an impression accentuated by the full-sleeved shirts he wears. His style tends toward extremes of dynamics and tempo: the pianos are almost inaudible, the fortes are eruptions that shake the rafters. He likes to hear lots of winds and percussion, putting the strings at a serious disadvantage. The opening of the Overture, for example, was explosive rather than majestic. In the Symphony, the tempi were so fast that the music lost all charm and expressiveness; even the slow movement was very brisk, and the Finale raced past in a blur. 

 

Pianist Emanuel Ax with the conductor Louis Langrée - Photo Credit Richard Termine

In the Concerto, Langrée succeeded so well in keeping the orchestra from covering the soloist that, at times, the piano part seemed to float in mid-air without harmonic or rhythmic support. Ax’s playing, however, was superb. His tone was invariably beautiful, the legato sang, the chords were powerful but mellow; the runs were as clear and even as chains of pearls. His liberties—spontaneous and perfectly balanced—made the music flow as naturally as words spoken in a native idiom. The tumultuous ovation was rewarded with a brief Chopin encore. 

Stephanie Blythe’s voice is formidable: it can cut through and float above an orchestra, reaching the farthest corners of an auditorium. Its quality is unique, resembling dark amber in the low register, bright amber up high; by varying her vibrato, she commands an amazing range of intensity, color and nuance. The arias she sang were taken from two of her signature roles. Cesar’s prayer was devoutly thankful and supplicating; Orpheus’ lament was perhaps not heart-broken enough, but spun out a seamless melody. The famous opening aria from Handel’s Serse (better known as Handel’s “Largo”) as an encore was beautiful. 

This was a most promising start to New York’s favorite summer festival.  Welcome back, Mostly Mozart!

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by Edith Eisler  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

New York Philharmonic

New York Philharmonic
Alan Gilbert, conductor
Christine Brewer, soprano; Jane Henschel, mezzo-soprano; Anthony Dean Griffey, tenor; Eric Owens, bass-baritone; New York Choral Artists: Joseph Flummerfelt, director
Avery Fisher Hall, New York, NY
June 26, 2010

 

Alan Gilbert

Alan Gilbert

Alan Gilbert’s first season as the New York Philharmonic’s Music Director ended as adventurously as it had begun, with a premiere commissioned for the occasion. Both were written by Magnus Lindberg, the Orchestra’s newly-installed Composer-in-Residence; the first was titled EXPO!, the second Al largo. The composer provides the best description of his own music: “Only the extreme is interesting. Striving for a balanced totality is now an impossibility….” In Al largo—(meaning “offshore”)—a big orchestra with a huge percussion section produces a great, joyful noise with many brass fanfares and a multitude of instrumental colors, but without any discernible form or structure.

The main work on the program was well suited to demonstrate Gilbert’s ambitious, wide-ranging plans for his orchestra, and to celebrate the successful close of his first season: Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, Op. 123, one of the greatest, most formidable works in the literature.

The Missa has a singular history. Begun in 1819, it was intended, in Beethoven’s words, “to contribute to the glorification of the day” when his friend and patron, Archduke Rudolph of Austria, was invested as Archbishop of Olmütz. However, the Missa was far from ready to be performed at the ceremony a year later; indeed, Beethoven wrestled with it longer than with any other composition. Not until 1823 did he consider it finished, having in the meantime written his last three piano sonatas, and worked on the “Diabelli” Variations and the Ninth Symphony.

This unusually long period of gestation and contemplation could not but affect the nature of the work. Alan Gilbert thinks that what makes it so difficult to understand and perform is, at least in part, the dichotomy between its sacred and secular elements. But one might also say that it is the music itself that baffles and overwhelms both listeners and performers. It shows Beethoven at his emotionally most profound, his spiritually most sublime, and his intellectually and technically most intractable. Everything is driven to excess: the extreme changes of mood and expression; the constant shifts of meter, tempo, and dynamics; the abrupt swings from lyricism to drama, and from humble pleading to heaven-storming ecstasy. If Beethoven had any weaknesses, they lay in his vocal writing and his counterpoint, and the Missa naturally abounds in both. As in the Ninth Symphony, chorus and soloists are driven into the stratosphere for unsustainably long stretches; the fugues – and there are many – are so complex that they seem to get tangled up like coils of barbed wire. At times, even Gilbert’s usually unfailing sense of balance and textural clarity was defeated by the dense, overloaded score.  No wonder the work is heard so rarely.

The Philharmonic’s performance must have been one of the best in recent memory. Orchestra and chorus, meticulously prepared, were precise, secure, and emotionally involved; among the vocal soloists, the soprano was outstanding; the rest were good, though not well matched: the bass and alto were too subdued, the tenor was too heroic. Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow played his big solo in the Benedictus brilliantly, but his tone was too unremittingly intense.

The concert’s real hero was Alan Gilbert. His beat, as always, was clear and decisive; his transitions and tempo changes were admirably smooth and organic; his mastery of this immensely complex score, from the smallest detail to its monumental over-all structure, was prodigious; he led his enormous forces with the natural authority born of a thorough knowledge and deeply felt love of the music.

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by Edith Eisler  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

New York Philharmonic

New York Philharmonic
Alan Gilbert, conductor
Lisa Batiashvili, violin
Avery Fisher Hall, New York, NY
June 12, 2010
Alan Gilbert

Alan Gilbert

This concert was the first of three to be conducted by Alan Gilbert this month to conclude his opening season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. His adventurous, imaginative programming has brought us more contemporary works than have been heard here for many years. One of the most prominently featured composers was Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958) from Finland, whom Gilbert installed as the Philharmonic’s Composer-in-Residence. Indeed, the current season opened with one of Lindberg’s works, EXPO, and this program began with the Philharmonic premiere of another, Arena for Orchestra. Commissioned to write the required test work for the first Sibelius Conductors’ Competition in 1995, Lindberg deliberately made it an obstacle course for the conductor, with frequent tempo and meter changes and drastic textural and dynamic contrasts. Scored for an enormous orchestra whose percussion section uses every known and some unknown instruments, it begins in a sonic haze, but soon erupts into brass fanfares; occasionally something resembling a melody tries to emerge, but is immediately driven away by the next outburst of brass and percussion. Gilbert has performed the work many times and conducted it with confidence and authority; the Philharmonic negotiated all the hurdles with admirable aplomb. The composer was present to share the applause.

The program’s soloist was the phenomenal young Georgian violinist, Lisa Batiashvili, in the Sibelius Concerto. It has become her signature piece since, aged 16, she won second prize as the youngest-ever competitor at the 1995 Sibelius Competition. After that, her career on stage and recording became meteoric, and no wonder. She has the flair of a virtuoso without the flourishes and mannerisms. Her technique is dazzling, but she never calls attention to it, making the most hair-raising fireworks seem as easy as breathing, blithely taking risks with supreme confidence. Her tone, enhanced by a famous Stradivarius violin, is gorgeous, capable of infinite variations of color, nuance and intensity. Best of all, her playing is expressive but never exaggerated or fussy, and her stage presence, too, is simple and natural. From the Concerto’s icy, misty beginning, the stormy climaxes built up organically; the slow movement was all inward tenderness, the Finale all driving, rocking energy. 

Lisa Batiashvili

Lisa Batiashvili

The program ended with Brahms’ Second Symphony in a lovely performance that balanced dignity with exuberance, warmth with austerity, repose with excitement. The orchestra played splendidly.  

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by Edith Eisler  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY