Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra – Riccardo Chailly, Conductor. Louis Lortie, Piano. February 28, 2010.

Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Section CB2 (Row E, Seat 114, $37).

Program
Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11 (1830) by Frederic Chopin (1810-1849).
Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73 (1877) by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897).

[Note: some additional comments added on 3/1/2010.]

Chung Shu & Shirley told us about the concert, and the drive up to NYC was quite easy today. Carnegie Hall is quite impressive inside, has much better acoustics than Avery Fisher Hall, but not without its short falls. The most obvious ones are not much space outside of the auditorium, little legroom in the seating area, and inadequate number of washrooms. At times the orchestra sound while clearly distinguishable, sounded a bit dull also, I wonder if it is the acoustics or the orchestra.

The orchestra claims to be the oldest civic concert orchestra in the world. It began in 1743 and given its current name in 1781 when it moved into the meetinghouse of the textile merchants (the “Gewandhaus”). Whatever the qualifying words after “oldest” mean, its still quite impressive. And it counts among its music directors Felix Mendelssohn and Bruno Walter.

Chopin’s Piano Concertos are familiar repertoire pieces, easy to listen to (not necessarily to play) and enjoy. Today’s performance was no exception. The first movement (Allegro maestoso) began with a longish introduction by the orchestra that was played crisply and with great dynamics. The piano also didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately the level was not matched by the second (Romance: Larghetto) and third (Rondo: Vivace) movements. The slow dreamlike movement instead of sounding muted was at times muddled, probably from too much pedaling. The good acoustics actually worked to the disadvantage of the orchestra in the third movement where every mistake a member made was amplified by the stage. There were too many instances of an instrument (usually the violin) playing too loudly, or coming in too fast, or the orchestra not ending a note precisely. I guess there were many pianists in the audience, and too many of them were moving with the music. It’s annoying when you notice them, and I also wonder how many of them think they can do a better job at the piece.

Louis Lortie played one of Chopin’s Nocturnes as an encore. [Note: A commenter on the blog states that this is a Chopin Etude.]

I played the Brahms Symphony as a member of Cornell Symphony in the mid 70s. Come to think of it, it may actually be at Carnegie Hall as part of our centennial tour! Although I haven’t heard it much since, I am still reasonably familiar with it. The four movements are (i) Allegro non troppo; (ii) Adagio non troppo); (iii) Allegretto grazioso (quasi andantino) and (iv) Allegro con spirito. The performance did not get off to an auspicious start with the unsteady French Horns. It did improve to a certain extent as the piece went on. However, there were quite a few fast passages that sounded out of control, verging on chaotic. The last movement (or more precisely, the last part of the last movement) was done well and generated tremendous applause. I don’t know if I missed the greatness of the performance, or this is a case of “this is Carnegie Hall, so everyone who plays here must be good.”

The orchestra played a Beethoven Egmont Overture as an encore. I actually appreciated this more than the actual performance.

One other thing, the same guy (I assume it is the regular concertmaster) led the orchestra for both the concerto and the symphony. There was none of this excusing oneself in deference of the guest soloist business. I wonder if this practice is limited to a few orchestras, or is suspended you are on tour. I guess I need to be a NY Phil groupie and see them during a tour to find out! Or wait for the BSO to play in our area.