Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. First Tier Center (Seat CC115, $56.)
Program
Orion (1979) by Claude Vivier (1948-83).
Symphony No. 9 in D minor (1887-94; ed. Nowak, 1951) by
Bruckner (1824-96).
It is not easy when you start performing a program
knowing most of your audience is disappointed, and that’s probably how Honeck
felt when he started the series. I am
sure I was among the many that got these tickets anticipating a great
experience: what could go wrong with Dudamel conducting a Bruckner
symphony? Well, the conductor can come
down with the flu and withdraw! Indeed I
got an email informing me of the substitution about a week ago. And I was so looking forward to seeing how
the New York Philharmonic would fare under Dudamel.
The choice of the first piece is quite interesting,
especially in light of the LA Phil program we heard a couple of weeks ago. Vivier was an openly gay Quebecois who was
murdered soon after moving to Paris.
There is much speculation about the circumstances of the tragedy,
including the possibility that he orchestrated his own murder. (All this from the Playbill.) This leads one to wonder if Dudamel picked
the New York programs with the subject of homosexuality specifically in mind.
All that aside, the 14-minute Orion is quite
interesting. Vivier provided a
description of the six sections of the piece: statement of the melody, first
development of the melody laid upon itself, second development, meditation on
the melody, remembrance of the melody, and finally the melody in two intervals. Even though I am not sure what the phrases “laid
upon itself” and “in two intervals” mean (and the Playbill calls the description
desultory anyway), it is at least consistent with my perception that the piece
has a rather simple structure.
And it was actually one of those modern pieces that I
enjoyed on my first hearing. As with
many modern pieces, a lot of different percussion instruments (four
percussionists) were used; curiously the timpani was (were?) absent. It is always fun trying to locate where a
particular sound comes from, so it kept us quite busy. One instrument that was not listed was the
human voice: one of the percussionists actually had to sing out a two-note
motif a couple of times. While the
melody isn’t a tune you would walk away humming to yourself, it was interesting
how it got woven into the piece multiple times.
How this piece is inspired by the constellation Orion, however, is still
a mystery.
The Playbill says this Bruckner piece was last performed
by the NY Philharmonic on November 8, 2008, conducted by Christoph
Eschenbach. A review of my postings
indicates that we actually attended that concert; it also says I ended up
scratching my head quite a bit afterwards.
It bears repeating that this was Bruckner’s last symphony, and he died
while working on the finale of this composition. Most performances now utilize the three
completed movements and end on the “unconventional” Adagio third movement.
March 2014 is more than five years later, and I have
heard many Bruckners in the meantime, and have learned to appreciate him a bit
more. Nonetheless, my impression was
that his music can get very loud, and he was a great fan of brass instruments. Nothing wrong with that, and that was how I
expected Dudamel to deliver it.
Honeck put in a controlled and nuanced performance. At no time could the orchestra be considered
loud or out of control as he led the group on a long journey (I think the first
movement is close to 30 minutes.) Having
visited Vienna and Upper Austria a couple of years ago, I even managed to
correlate a bit of what I heard with the area’s environs.
The piece called for many “solo” passages from different
parts of the orchestra, and afterwards Honeck made it a point to shake hands
with players from the different sections, including the co-acting principals of
the basses. That was certainly a first.
There were a lot of empty seats; many people no doubt
decided to not show up because of the change of conductors. Also, the applause was at best lukewarm and
polite, although from all indications Honeck was appreciative of the
audience. While no doubt Dudamel would
have done a great job - and I wish he had been the one conducting – this to me
confirms many New York concert-goers being attracted by headliners rather than
the music. Too bad they missed out on a
good program.
Listening to radio traffic reports, we were expecting
traffic jams along the way. It was
Friday evening, after all. To our
surprise, we had no problem driving in, and there was a lot of parking available
around Lincoln Center. It had been a
while since we ate at Empire Szechuan, and to my chagrin they took out one of
my favorite dishes (chicken/shrimp combo.)
The New York Times review is enthusiastic. It draws some interesting parallels between
Orion and the Ninth Symphony.
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