Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. First Tier (Seat CC101, $69.50.)
Program
Symphonie espangnole for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 21
(1874) by Lalo (1823-92).
Symphonie fantastique: Episode de la vie d’un artiste
(Fantastic Symphony: Episode in the Life of an Artist), Op. 14 (1830) by
Berlioz (1803-69).
This concert wasn’t in our original subscription for the
season. Because we changed our plans for
October 4 (we saw Il Travotore), we switched our tickets for tonight’s concert. I was surprised to see my name on the "Repeat Subscribers" insert, how efficient of them.
Anne was in Flushing earlier in the afternoon, and left a
bit after 5 pm. Traffic on the
Queensboro Bridge and the East Side was so bad that by the time she got to the
Lincoln Center area it was past 7:30 pm.
We put the takeout food I got from Ollie’s in the car, and instead each
had a small sandwich (slider) at Avery Fisher Hall before the concert started. We ate the takeout after we got home; nothing got wasted.
The Lalo piece is familiar to most violin students, and I
have known it since high school. As a
show piece written with Sarasate in mind, it is not impossibly difficult to
play, but sounds just great. The Program
Annotator remarks that the best Spanish music is written by French
composers. Lalo’s ancestry was Spanish
but the family had settled in France for a long time by the time Edouard was
born.
I had not heard of Hadelich before, so didn’t know what
to expect. He was born in Germany and
raised in Italy, but got the bulk of his music education in the United States,
and has had a very successful career, including winning the 2006
International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and being a recipient of the
Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2009.
The sound (from the 1723 “ex-Kiesewetter” Strad) was
beautiful and clear, but a bit weak at where we were seated (First Tier). We had not sit in this section for a while,
so I am not sure if that’s the acoustics.
In any case, the passion that I usually associate with this piece did
not come through. The expression on
Hadelich’s face oftentimes evoked the image of the joker in batman movies,
which adds a dash of curiosity to the performance.
The orchestra turned in an effective performance. Given my statement earlier about the weak
violin sound, I found it amazing that the orchestra didn’t overwhelm the soloist,
especially given its size. I would
attribute this to the conductor knowing how to work together with the
violinist, especially given that the sound volume problem disappeared with the Berlioz
piece.
Most listeners would call this a violin concerto, but not Lalo. In any case, the
piece has five movements: Allegro non troppo, Scherzando: Allegro molto,
Intermezzo: Allegretto non troppo, Andante, and Rondo: Allegro.
Per the Program Notes, Fruhbeck has been a regular guest
at the New York Philharmonic for the last few years, yet tonight was the first
time I saw him. He is in his early
eighties, and conducts from a seated position.
However, he conducted energetically, often leaving his chair.
Prior to tonight, my exposure to the Berlioz piece had been only through
CDs, but I do know that Berlioz was driven to write this because of his (at
that time unrequited) love for Harriet Smithson. The Program Notes added a lot to my sketchy
knowledge, including the composer imagining himself to be in a drug-induced
trance where he sees himself executed.
The Symphony is quite long at around 55 minutes, and
consists of five parts. Part One:
Reveries, Passions; Part Two: A Ball; Part Three: A Scene in the Fields; Part
Four: March to the Scaffold; and Part Five: Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath.
Given the nature of the music, things could easily get
out of control. Tonight’s performance
reminds me of an earlier performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony conductor
by the 80+ year old conductor Blomstedt where he allowed things to gallop
forward without restraint, to great effect. In Fruhbeck’ case he turned in a
well-executed, lucid and controlled rendition of the story, which the audience could tag along
and observe. Perhaps having a storyline
helped; I enjoyed the performance greatly.
A couple of interesting things one wouldn’t get from a
CD. First is the dialog between the oboe
and the English horn (Part Three) had the oboe player played from the side of
the stage. The other is these two giant
bells that were custom-made but had to be played off-stage because they were
too loud. (Too bad we didn’t get to see
them.)
Berlioz did get to meet and eventually marry Smithson in
1833. Unfortunately the marriage fell on
hard times and they separated in 1844.
Smithson succumbed to alcoholism and died in 1854. The music, however, will remain a tribute to
this story.
In any case, I am glad we got to go to this concert, even
though it was somewhat by chance. I told
Ellie on Sunday that she probably would have enjoyed it also. Our friend (who shall remain nameless in this
blog as he is on probation) certainly seemed to enjoy performing in it.
The New York Times reviewer was critical of the New York
Philharmonic’s performance of the Lalo piece, but loved the Berlioz one,
calling the overall performance “Jekyll and Hyde.”
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