Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Orchestra 3 (Seat
FF10, $34).
Program
Frieze (2012) by Mark-Anthony Turnage (b. 1960).
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 (1822-24) by Beethoven
(1770-1827).
Artists
Manhattan School of Music Symphonic Chorus - Kent Tritle,
director.
Julianna Di Giacomo, Soprano; Kelly O’Connor,
Mezzo-Soprano;
Russell Thomas, Tenor; Shenyang, Bass
Alan Gilbert started the concert by talking a bit about
Turnage’s Frieze. It was mostly a repeat
of what he said in the Playbill. The
piece was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society, which also
commissioned Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony about two hundred years ago; the idea
was to respond to the monumental work.
One could interpret this as Gilbert implying that Turnage’s work may end
up as immortal. Gilbert also drew
parallels between the corresponding movements of the two symphonies, saying the
newer piece gave him a new appreciation of the pauses in the third (if memory
serves) Beethoven movement.
If that is the implication, I can quite confidently
predict that it won’t work out that way, knowing full well I probably won’t be
around in a couple of hundred years to see my prediction confirmed or disproved. Beyond that, the piece left me with little to
say. Not that I don’t want to, there is
simply not much to say about it. Well,
the piece in and of itself is probably okay, but I kept trying to find all
these Beethoven references and failed to do so.
Playbill has high praises for Turnage in general, and he is the composer
for the opera Anna Nicole that just finished its run at the (now bankrupt) New
York City Opera. This was my first
encounter with his music, though.
The piece is of bearable length at a little over 20
minutes, and consists of four movements: (1) Hushed and expansive; (2) With
veiled menace; (3) ♪ = 60; (4) ♪ = 120.
I am quite sure the composer didn’t run out of ideas for the last two
movements, although – again – I cannot prove it from what I heard. The fourth movement didn’t sound twice as
fast as the third, though.
The Playbill claims that before this series of concerts,
the Ninth Symphony has been played 196 times.
At say 4 concerts per series, that means about 50 programs. As the orchestra has been around for 170
years (it was founded in 1842), that means they put it out once every 3 to 4 years. Interestingly, the last time the symphony was
performed was in December 2004, about 9 years ago; thus the interval has been
much longer than average.
And it was worth the wait. I was caught up after the first few measures. The orchestra came to life, as did
Gilbert. Their sound and movements were
crisp and precise, as a great orchestra and a great conductor should be.
I am sure many people realize this, but I have never seen
it written up as such. The Ninth can be
thought of as a juxtaposition of two different compositions. The first three movements are so “pastoral”
in nature that they evoke similar images that the sixth does. (In my case, I was trying to remember the
ninth’s opening theme and kept thinking I had it mixed up with the sixth.) If the performance ends with the third
movement, it will be satisfying to most listeners, other than those who worry
about issues such as key signatures and that the music would end with a slow
movement. The three movements are:
Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso; Molto vivace; and Adagio molto e
cantabile. The fourth movement has as
its marking Presto – Recitativo “O Freunde, nicht diese Tone” – Allegro assai. It starts in a way similar to the first
movement, but launches into a majestic oratorio that demands a different sound
from the orchestra and the addition of vocal parts.
A few remarks about the vocal parts. The soloists all did fine, although I had
trouble picking out the mezzo-soprano part at times. Shenyang started the whole exercise with a
strong rendition of “O Freunde, nicht diese Tone!” If I recall correctly, he was discovered by
Renee Fleming several years ago, and as they say, the rest is history; this is
the first time I heard him sing, though.
I do wonder why he uses only a given name, and that of a city at
that. Like Cher, or Enya, perhaps. (Turns out his name is Shen Yang, Shen being
the family name.) I think this was my first encounter with the Manhattan School
Symphonic Chorus (a search of my blog confirms it), they put in a strong
performance.
The Playbill contains quite a few contradictory comments
by music critics, several of which I paraphrase below: “saying that the
audience received the work enthusiastically does not mean praising the work –
it is beyond praise – but the audience;” “the Andante was declared by modern
aestheticism to be over-long;” “I do not accept as perfect every note, every
phrase, every chord; perhaps even I do not consider it in every detail a model
work of art;” “it is sacred, I have often wondered why;” and “very badly set in
the last.” So even great music has its
detractors: the quotes are respectively by Robert Schumann, Claude Debussy (who
didn’t think it was too long), Ralph Vaughan Williams, Igor Stravinsky, and
Giuseppe Verdi, not a music slouch among them.
As for me, I am moving from the “too long, too many
repeats” towards the “not one superfluous note” camp. Not quite all the way there, although tonight’s
performance pushed me along considerably.
The enthusiastic applause by the audience was well deserved, and
provided a dramatic contrast to the reception of Turnage’s Frieze.
Looking back over my prior blog entries, I last saw the
Ninth performed by the New Jersey Symphony and I, alas, called it amateurish.
The New York Times reviewer loved the Turnage piece, and uncharacteristically had a lot of good things to say about Gilbert in general, and his rendition of
the Ninth Symphony in particular.
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