Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Orchestra (Seat
T103, $72.)
Program
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 (1864-67) by
Bruch (1938-1920).
Symphony No. 6 in A major (1879-91; ed. L. Nowak, 1952)
by Bruckner (1824-96).
CS and Shirley came by at around 4:30 pm, we went to
Jersey City to drop off Shirley and pick up the NY Phil player to get into the
city. There was not a lot of traffic on our way in. We got there in time to grab a
bite at Europan before the concert.
For a mid-week concert, the attendance was quite
good. I am quite sure Zukerman being the
soloist had something to do with it. The
piece he played was well known to concerto goers, especially those who have an
interest in violin music. This is a
technically challenging piece which Zukerman polished off reasonably well. He did particularly well with the more
difficult passages. However, his
intonation was a bit off during some of the technically easier passages. Since it can’t possibly be a case of the
nerves for the experienced performer, I must attribute to either lack of
practice, or his concentration is not as good as it used to be.
In the past I complained about Zukerman’s violin (a
Guarnerius, I recall) as not a proper instrument for a performance in a large
concert hall against a large orchestra.
It sounded great tonight, which I assume has to do with the seats we
had. Also, Enschenbach struck a good
balance between the soloist and the orchestra.
Overall, this was an enjoyable performance. The 25 or so minute work consists of three
movements (i) Prelude: Allegro moderato; (ii) Adagio; and (iii) Finale: Allegro
energico.
I have only limited familiarity with Bruckner’s
work. His symphonies are generally quite
long, and don’t get played frequently enough even for someone who hits over 40
concerts a year. One overarching
adjective that seems to describe all of them is that they are loud; in tonight’s
case, very loud. Bruckner didn’t have a
particular large brass section in this symphony, yet I sometimes felt I needed
a set of ear plugs. We noticed many
musicians covering their ears while not playing, and one kept trying to
reinstall the ear plugs that kept falling off.
This one-hour long work has four movements: (i) Majestoso;
(ii) Adagio: Sehr feirelich (Very solemn); (iii) Scherzo: Nicht schnell (Not
fast) – Trio: Langsam (Slow); and (iv) Finale: Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell
(Moving, but not too fast). I must say
Bruckner’s sense of tempo is very different from mine. One would think movement iii would be quite
quiet and relatively slow, but I certainly didn’t find that to be the
case. Were it not for the
limited-scherzo nature at the beginning and end of the movement, I would have
thought the piece continued to the fourth movement without pause. The way the tempos are specified reminds one
of Mahler; indeed Mahler while not a student of Bruckner actually admired the
older composer greatly. Both of them
were from upper Austria, a region I visited several months ago.
There was a time I listened to Bruckner’s ninth symphony
enough that I began to appreciate it (it’s been a while since I last heard it,
so the appreciation is but a memory). I
wonder if I get to listen to this one more often if that would happen. While I characterize Mahler’s symphony as
wandering on, and finding new vistas, Bruckner’s work seems to be more
concentrated around a number of themes, and in that regard more traditional.
On the way back we got a little of “inside baseball” talk
about the orchestra. Also a word about
the Program Notes. It goes into quite a
bit of background about the two pieces, but there is not a lot of discussion on
the music itself. I am sure many in the
audience could have used some help in trying to grasp the music.
The New York Times review is also on the mixed side, a complaint being the conductor and the orchestra may not have quite jelled. The reviewer also thought the horns blasted a
bit too loudly.
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