New York Philharmonic – David Robertson, conductor; Deborah Voight, soprano. June 9, 2011.

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Orchestra 1 (Seat M115, $65).

Program
Symphony No. 1, Op. 10 (1924-25) by Shostakovich (1906-75).
The Isle of the Dead, Symphonic Poem after Arnold Bocklin, Op. 29 (1909) by Rachmaninoff (1873-1943).
Erwartung (Expectation), Monodrama in One Act, Op. 17 (1909) by Schoenberg.

This is an interesting concert, with all three pieces written in the early 20th century. We had tickets for a concert the following week but exchanged them because of an upcoming trip. It started out as a very hot day (it got as high as 100F), but a cold front came through while we were having dinner at Empire Szechuan, and the walk to the parking garage afterwards was delightful.

Shostakovich wrote this symphony when he was 19, as part of his graduation assignment from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and as such a remarkable piece of work. It sounded much more complex than, say, comparable work of Schubert at this age. It was nonetheless “easy listening” although I am not sure there is a clear message to the music. Shostakovich’s later music tends to be somber and a bit on the dark side (at least most of what I have heard, notable exception being the ballet Bright Stream I saw a couple of days later.) Towards the end the timpani played these notes that are close together in range (maybe as little as a semitone apart); I wonder if that adjustment is done in real time, or were they tuned so close to each other.

The Program Notes mentions Shostakovich referring to this work as “Symphony Grotesque” with the scherzo suggesting skipping dancers perilously out of balance. The other remark says the work is tonal, in F, but hovering between F major or F minor. I frankly didn’t catch either. The four movements are Allegretto, Allegro, Lento (attacca) and Allegro molto.

We are seated in Row M. I am sure we have seated closer to the stage before, but today the music sounded very loud. I can imagine how ear-piercing it must be for someone on stage, especially for those who are close to the percussion and brass sections.

The Isle of the Dead is a painting done by Arnold Bocklin, who painted five versions.

Rachmaninoff was fascinated with the black and white reproduction of this work, but was disappointed by the color of the actual painting. He wrote the music before this, evidently. The piece is about 21 minutes long, starting with a 5/4 tempo for about 10 minutes before moving into 3/4 tempo. It got quite loud after another 5 or so minutes, and eventually got back to the original 5/4 tempo. That I got, but I missed the funeral chant at Dies Irae at the end of the piece.

The Program Notes quotes Rachmaninoff as saying music comes to him in one flash: “and they come: all the voices at once. Not a bit here, a bit there. All. The whole grows.”

There is speculation that Schoenberg wrote Erwartung possibly with the influence of what happened the previous year: his wife Mathilde had an affair with the painter Richard Gerstl. The story talks about a woman wandering in the forest looking for her lover, with different emotions running through her head, and eventually stumbles his murdered corpse. The original libretto implied that the woman murdered her lover, but that was edited out by Schoenberg.

The Program Notes thinks the composition is such that the audience, watching this emotional train-wreck without feeling that it is based in reality, will feel removed and turned into voyeurs. I had trouble following the words. One contributor is that I was so close to the stage that I had to snap my head up and down to read the surtitles and watch the artists. Another is that the words are difficult to fully digest. You get the meaning, but not necessarily the mood. Perhaps if I had studied the text a bit more before hand, it would have helped. For me it just turned out to be puzzling.

I have seen Deborah Voight a few times before (Helen of Egypt and a couple of Ring Operas, for example). Her singing is fine, but not what I would call refined. It is the same here. For some reason there seems to be only one volume setting: loud. I know she can definitely do soft. It is not like she is overwhelmed by the volume of the orchestra (although there were instances of that.) There were passages where she basically sang against one instrument and her voice was clearly the much stronger instrument (the violin, especially.) Half an hour of intensive singing is quite impressive, though.

The New York Times Review has an in-depth critique of Voight’s performance. The reviewer obviously in enamored with David Robertson, calling him “great” and “brilliant.” Well, at least he stopped short of saying that he walks on water.