Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Orchestra (Seat
MM105, $66.)
Program
Piano Concerto in D major, Hob. XVIII: 11 (1780-84) by
Haydn (1732-1809).
Symphony No. 3 (2011; New York Premiere) by Christopher
Rouse (b. 1949).
A Ring Journy, a Suite from Der Ring des Nibelungen
(1848-76) by Wagner (1813-83) arr. Alan Gilbert, after Erich Leinsdorf.
One of the tickets for this concert was an exchange from
an earlier event that Anne couldn’t make.
When I checked a couple of days prior, I noticed there were only very
few seats left, so I went ahead and bought one in the rear of the orchestra
section. Anne had the seat in row T, and
I had the seat in row MM. The acoustics,
it turned out, was quite okay.
One would usually expect Ax to do a Beethoven or a modern
piece, but instead today he chose a rather straightforward and short composition
by Haydn. The most curious about this
work is musicologists have not been able to determine when it was actually
composed; the only thing that is “almost certain” is that it was the last
keyboard composition by Haydn. It is a
delight to listen to, but I couldn’t tell if it was a great performance. The three movements are Vivace, Un poco
adagio, and Rondo all’Ungherese (Allegro assai.)
Christopher Rouse is finishing up his first year as
composer-in-residence at the Philharmonic. Today’s work was written before he took up
this appointment, it was jointly commissioned by several orchestras; his
Prospero’s Rooms was premiered by the New York Philharmonic in April 2013, and
Symphony No. 4 will be performed in 2014. In a remote sense he and I had some connection:
he studied composition under Karel Husa (among others,) and I played in the
orchestra that Husa directed; probably around the same time. I usually groan when it comes to listening to
a modern piece like this as more often than not they are completely beyond my
grasp.
The composer did write a short description of how the
work (with the tempo marking ♪=176 Theme and Variations) which helped a lot in
following the overall plot (plan.) It
actually made the piece understandable and enjoyable. A seat in the orchestra section did not offer
a good view of all the instruments, thus I wasn’t able to tell the difference
between a Chinese cymbal, a crash cymbal, and a suspended cymbal; nor that
between a tam-tam and a tom-tom.
Rouse also made a connection between this work and
Prokofiev’s second symphony, making the claim that he followed Prokofiev’s
architecture, and that Prokofiev was influenced by Beethoven’s last piano
sonata. He also said there was little in
the way of quoted passages from the Prokofiev piece. On top of that, the second was one of the
more obscure symphonies of Prokofiev’s.
All I can say is that if I was asked to link Rouse’s work with another
composer, Prokofiev would be way down the list; and I suspect I still won’t get
the connection if I had had listened to it.
After reading through the Program Notes a couple of
times, I still don’t quite know what Leinsdorf or Gilbert did to generate this
evening’s suite from the 15-hour Ring cycle.
That this is also billed as the premiere performance of the Ring puzzles
me even further as Maazel had done a “Ring without Words” when he was leading
the orchestra.
Be that as it may, when you condense 15 hours into 50 or
so minutes, things can sound quite interesting; especially if you extract the
nicer, singable tunes, and repeat each of them several times. The excerpts work very well as music, but
there is no continuity to the story.
Having sit through the cycle three times, I can claim some familiarity
to the music and the story. All I heard
were various vignettes. When you see the
operas, you listen for the leitmotivs; while they do appear here and there in
this suite, they sounded more accidental than intentional. Maazel’s adaptation was more true to the
original plot; it at least started and ended with the Rhine. The snobbish in me would say the Gilbert
piece was more accessible to your typical concert-goer.
Having said all that, it was still a very enjoyable
experience. There is considerable
difference when the orchestra is on center stage, where it gets all the
attention, compared to when it is down in the pit. Also, there was no need to worry about
drowning out the singers.
Our friend played the lead (of two) in his section for
the Haydn piece, and was at the assistant principal’s place for the Rouse and
Wagner pieces. Good for him. Also, there were nine double basses for both
the Rouse and Wagner pieces, and six harps for the Wagner piece.
I did not get tickets for this concert when I did my
annual subscription, thinking it wasn’t going to be that exciting. Both Anne and I thought it was very
enjoyable.
The New York Times review is glowing. The reviewer made the “connection” that Ax
and Rouse are respectively the artist- and composer-in-residence.
No comments:
Post a Comment