New York Philharmonic. Jonathan Nott – guest conductor; Joshua Bell – violin. 1/14/2006.

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Preferred Orchestra. Seat DD19.

Program

Violin Concerto, “The Red Violin” (1997 – 2003) by John Corigliano (b. 1938).
An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64 (1911-15) by R. Strauss (1864-1949).

I watched the movie “The Red Violin” on TV sometime ago. It traced the 300-year history of a violin from its creation in 17^th century Italy (Amati, Stradivari, and Guarneri are violin makers that come to mind) to its auction in Montreal. Morritz (played by Samuel L Jackson) was the bidder who discovered that the violin varnish had the blood of the violin maker’s wife who had just died. I don’t remember much of the story other than a mad British violinist, and that it was hidden during the Chinese cultural revolution so it wouldn’t be destroyed by the red guards as a bourgeois cultural relic. The violin music in the film was played brilliantly by Joshua Bell. The film came out in 1998

To the original Chaconne (a piece built on a series of chords) composed for the movie, John Corigliano added three additional movements (Pianissimo Scherzo, Andante Flautando, and Accelerando Finale) to create a complete virtuoso violin concerto. Even having seen the movie, I still had trouble associating the music with the story. This piece can be enjoyed as a purely virtuoso piece anyway. It asks a lot from the soloist, double stops, double stop glissandos, and double harmonics; speed and intonation are taken for granted. The orchestration for the concerto is complex, although they reduced the string section considerably. The 1713 “Gibson ex Huberman” Stradivarius sounded brilliant and carried very well. Bell did have a shaky entrance (double stops) and sometimes the orchestra simply overwhelmed the solo violin during its runs.

As someone who plays the violin, I was more fascinated by the sounds and techniques than the music itself. The cadenza in the first movement was interesting, especially at the end with the violin using the wood of the bow and pizzicato answered by different sections of the orchestra. The second movement was short and contained some difficult double harmonics passages. It sounded a bit discombobulated, though. In the third movement there was supposed to be this passage where the violin sounded like a flute in a duet with an alto flute. I frankly didn’t catch it; Anne thought she heard it for a fleeting moment. The fourth movement had a violin line that sounded very baroque and etude-like, but the steady beat in the background gave an overall strange effect. This piece needs to be listened to multiple times before it can be fully appreciated.

There was a long pause after the first movement so late comers could be seated. This is the first time I experienced this sort of disruption at a New York Philharmonic concert. This was inconsiderate to the performers and unfair to those in the audience who made it on time. I hope they at least got the performers’ consent before they did so. One time I sat out the entire first half because I missed the opening. And the coughing. The program notes mentioned Ricola cough drops quite prominently, but the advertising budget evidently did not include easy access to the actual cough drops. I looked for them and couldn’t find any.

The program notes contain an interesting paragraph on how Richard Strauss originally wanted to make the Alpine Symphony into some sort of an “Antichrist” declaration (perhaps more “God is dead?”) but ended up simply with a symphonic poem depicting one man’s day trip up the mountain and back. The continuous piece contains over 20 episodes depicting the various events during the day. The episodes include: sunrise, ascent, stream, waterfall, glacier, dangerous moments, mists, storm, and sunset. (A detailed list can be found in the notes.)

The full orchestra was employed for the symphony. To start, there was a large contingent of brass instruments depicting a hunting party off stage. Every conceivable instrument was used in the symphony, including cowbells (which Anne pointed out during the “Pastures” episode), a wind machine and an organ. The strings returned in full force, increasing the pairs of outside first violins to six from four for the earlier violin piece. We were seated in the Orchestra section; while the seats were closer to the stage, we didn’t have as good a bird’s eye view compared to what we had while in the first or second tier, so we missed a lot of the visual action in the orchestra, particularly the percussion section. There was a huge piece of metal plate hanging from the ceiling, though. We had high expectations of the thunder sound it would make, but it was much softer than I expected.

Nonetheless, this was a very enjoyable piece. One could easily imagine how the different episodes depict the different scenarios. Think Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. For a first time listener (like us), one would probably be making the wrong associations. But that should not detract from the enjoyment: so what if the waterfalls were mistaken for a ghost? With additional hearings these associations would be clearer, It takes real desire and discipline to find the time to listen to this 56-minute piece though.

A few words about the conductor, who made his debut with the New York Philharmonic for these performances. He is British born and made his conducting debut in 1988. He conducted the Strauss piece without music, which is very impressive, considering the complexities of the piece. He used a lot of wrist movements, resulting in gestures that appeared slightly unsettling. The orchestra produced a very nice sound, though.

This was a memorable concert. I am glad we went.