New York Philharmonic – Daniel Harding, conductor; Glenn Dicterow, violin; Lisa Milne, soprano. March 4, 2011.

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, First Tier Center (Seat DD103, $65).

Program
Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 35 (1916) by Szymanowski (1882-1937).
Symphony No. 4 (1892 and 1899-1901, rev. 1901-11) by Mahler (1860-1911).

We bought tickets to a concert with Dicterow as a soloist many years ago; we didn’t go because of a heavy snow storm. The concert still went on, but we couldn’t make it out of the house.

Karol Syzmanowski was a Polish composer influenced greatly by the French. This one-movement, 25-minute long concerto is difficult to pin down. It calls for a large orchestra (two harps, for instance; and several percussion instruments) which didn’t work out too well today because the soloist sounded very weak. Perhaps it’s the seat I was in, but the violin sounded so distant that I thought it had the mute on. Dicterow did manage to show off his technical ability, there was a whole passage of harmonics that he did superbly. His intonation tonight was great; I used to complain quite a bit about his solo passages while acting as the Concertmaster.

Given he doesn’t get to play as a soloist that often, I wonder if the selection of this piece is the wisest. You would think he would want people to walk away thinking “wow, he is a great violinist” rather than scratching their heads. The way it came across was he was doing a very difficult etude and paying a lot of attention to the music (he had the score in front of him).

Before today I had heard Mahler’s 1st and 5th through 9th symphonies. I was glad that I could check another one off the list.

Overall this was a very nice symphony, although I wouldn’t have attributed it to Mahler if I didn’t know. It was not “typical” in its simplicity; neither does it contain many of the meanderings that characterize a Mahler symphony. In one regard it was typical: length. This one is advertised at 58 minutes, and indeed lasted that long. The four movements are (i) Deliberately. Do not hurry; (ii) In easy motion. Without haste; (iii) Serene (Poco Adagio); and (iv) Very leisurely. No allegro or anything of that sort. Every now and then there would be an intense passage, sometimes where you wouldn’t expect them.

Per the Program Notes, the symphony was sketched out by Mahler during the last few days of summer 1899. It must somehow be gestating in his mind as he finished most of it during the following summer at his new cottage at Maiernigg on the south shore of Lake Worthersee. He continued to revised it afterwards, though.

Sheryl Staples had quite a few solo lines that were quite interesting, especially in the second movement. For some reason she brought a second violin with her, and switched from one to the other. One could say one sounded more brilliant than the other, but that doesn’t explain the need for two. I must say it is not easy to switch instruments without having them bump into each other, but she had that worked out well, and the pace of the music wasn’t particularly fast.

The third movement – caused by Mahler’s vision of the deceased at a church cemetery, per Bruno Walter – was indeed quiet and serene.

The fourth movement (relatively short at about 8 minutes) calls for a soprano soloist. Unfortunately the first thing you notice about Milne is her girth; she seems to be four times the size of Maples. Even then, she didn’t sound as strong as expected: adds to my theory there are no good seats in Avery Fisher Hall. The song “The Heavenly Life” starts with “We enjoy the pleasures of Heaven, And therefore avoid earthly ones.” It talks about various saints (Peter, Ursula, Martha, and others) and related activities (e.g., fishing and Peter). Supposedly it should start with simple, childlike joys; I didn’t quite get it, though.

This is also a New York Philharmonic debut for the British conductor Daniel Harding. He appears to be quite young (35 per New York Times), and did a good job with the Mahler. However, he seemed to want to milk to the fullest the last notes of the Mahler symphony: he kept his hands up for what felt like ages. Nonetheless, the symphony didn’t feel long.

Overall, the concert was just okay. The audience felt the same way: most of the applause was polite, not enthusiastic.

Our trip in was a breeze, there was no traffic at all. There was a 30-minute delay getting into the Lincoln tunnel on the way back, though.

The New York Times reviewer went to the opening concert Thursday and had some quibbles with the Mahler performance, attributing the problems to the conductor and the orchestra not knowing each other. I was hoping the reviewer would explain why the Concertmaster used two violins; alas, he didn’t. Another review claims the second violin was tuned a step high.