Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Second Tier Center (Seat AA110, $60).
Program
Russian Easter Overture, Op. 36 (1887-88) by Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908).
Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 61 (1880) by Saint-Saens (1835-1921).
Concerto for Orchestra, BB 123, Sz. 116 (1943) by Bartok (1881-1945).
The overture by Rimsky-Korsakov is quite interesting. It contains many solo lines (flute, cello, violin, trombone, etc), and some passages are very typical R-K. The short piece (16 minutes) has many mood changes. Some of the passages very quite difficult and the orchestra was a bit sloppy at times.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov belonged to this nationalistic group of five Russian composers (“the Mighty Five”) that also included Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui, Modest Musorgsky, and Mily Balakirev (organizer and R-K's mentor.)
I couldn't remember what the violin concerto sounded like. It turned out to be one that was quite familiar to me. The three movements are: Allegro non troppo; Andantino quasi allegretto; and Molto moderato e maestoso – Allegro non troppo. The concerto was dedicated to Pablo de Sarasate. The performance tonight certainly didn't start auspiciously, with the beginning sounding quite lethargic and the violinist having some intonation problems with notes played on the bridge end of the finger board.
Luckily, the performance eventually settled into a rather pleasant rendition of a virtuoso piece of music, noted for the extensive use of harmonics. The clarinet doubling accompaniment made the passage especially dreamlike and enjoyable.
Lithuania-born (1974) Rachlin plays the 1741 “ex Carrodus” Guarnerius del Gesu violin. Guarnerii are usually noted for their smooth tone, and they usually don't project very well against an orchestra. This one seemed to do well, though.
Bartok came to the United States in 1940, and by 1943 had developed the first symptoms of leukemia, his weight falling to a mere 87 pounds. He was also financially strapped, and his similarly displaced Hungarian friends Fritz Reiner and Joseph Szigeti asked the Boston Symphony's Serge Koussevitzky to commission Bartok to write a new symphonic work. After being convinced that this wasn't an act of charity, Bartok wrote the piece at a rural mountain getaway at Saranac Lake, New York. Bartok's commented on the piece at its premiere: “The general mood of the work represents, apart from the jesting second movement, a gradual transition from the sterness of the first movement and the lugubrious death-song of the third to the life-assertion of the last one.” The five movements are (i) Introduction: Andante non troppo – Allegro vivace; (ii) Game of Couples: Allegretto scherzando; (iii) Elegy: Andante non troppo; (iv) Interrupted Intermezzo: Allegretto; and (v) Finale: Pesante – Presto. There was no pause between (iv) and (v) in tonight's performance. (Most of this paragraph taken from the Notes to the concert.)
I usually enjoy Bartok's music. However, I didn't find tonight's piece particularly captivating. Perhaps it was its length: a bit long at 40 minutes. Or perhaps it was its complexity. In any case, the program notes also talk about a parody of a theme from Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, which was in turn copied from Franz Lehar's operetta The Merry Widow. Describing it as “rude vulgar” was probably a bit much, but it certainly sounded out of place.
See also the New York Times review of the concert. The reviewer thought the entire concert was on the vulgar side.
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