Moscow State Symphony Orchestra – Pavel Kogan, conductor; Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin. November 16, 2014.

State Theatre, New Brunswick.  Orchestra (Seat V102, $29.75)

Program

Romeo and Juliet overture-fantasy (final version 1880) by Tchaikovsky.

Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 by Bruch.

Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 by Tchaikovsky.
Note: Actual performed piece was Symphony No. 4 in E minor by Brahms. 

Goldstar had this event listed in August, with tickets at $24 each (plus a $5.75 processing fee.)  I didn’t know much about this Orchestra, but certainly knew about Salerno-Sonnerberg, and at this price it sounded like a bargain.

To get to the 3 pm concert, I had to cut out of Youth Choir practice early.  Being an unseasonably cold Sunday, traffic was not a problem.  Anne had to attend a workshop at church, so she could make only the second half of the concert.

It is inexplicable to me why Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” is not as popular as Prokofiev’s; and I enjoy the Prokofiev ballet.  The former contains many nice romantic themes that should make it very popular with the audience, and they were put to good use in this adaptation.  While it was difficult to closely correlate the story with the music – and I am not sure this is a condensed version of the original score anyway – one could catch glimpses of the drama.  And this is a great way to get the afternoon started, even though it wasn’t a technically or musically challenging piece.

Given how well-known she is, it surprising that I have never seen (or remember having the chance to see) Salerno-Sonnerberg perform live before this afternoon.  (And the other well-known thing about her was that she sliced her finger while fooling around with a knife.)  She certainly made a statement with the white pants she was wearing.  Franck’s violin concerto is easy to enjoy, and she didn’t disappoint.  The little I have read about Salerno-Sonnerberg is that she gives the performance everything, and that she has some quirky mannerisms.  Both are somewhat true.  But not much more than your average virtuoso.  With her white pants her movements might look more exaggerated than they were; and she did have a habit of standing astride with the violin held under her chin when she wasn’t playing.  And there was a passage of the orchestra’s that she didn’t to play along with the first violin.

The sound of her Guarnerius (confirmed by a web search) worked very well in the relative intimacy of the auditorium.  It didn’t have the brightness of a Strad, something I wish it had for some of the passages.

Off the top of my head I couldn’t remember any of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth’s tunes.  At first I thought I misread the Program and that they were playing Brahms, with the descending and ascending third theme.  To me the piece could be passed off as Brahms’s until the themes get reused so many times.  Brahms or Tchaikovsky, it was a great performance of a lovely symphony, even though a relatively “quiet” one compared to the fifth and the sixth.  One complaint is the relatively poor acoustics of the hall.  Even with all the players beating down on their instruments hard, the volume was still only relatively modest.

The 45 or so minute work consists of four movments: Andante sostenuto; Andantino in modo di canzone; Scherzo: Pizzicato ostinato; Finale: Allegro con fuoco.  I was quite familiar with the first three, but the fourth didn’t sound familiar.  Perhaps I always fell asleep by then?  No a problem today.

[Note added about an hour after this entry was first published.  I am doing this inside UA89 EWR-PEK.  The wifi access I purchased does not allow me to watch youtube videos.  However, the Wikipedia entry for Brahms 4 does contain soundtracks to the music.  Guess what, the piece played was Brahms No. 4 after all.  The movements are: Allegro no troppo, Andante moderato, Allegro giocoso, Allegro energico e passionato.  Should have trusted my first instincts.]

This audience also had the habit of applauding after each movement – at least after the exciting ones.  I usually don’t mind unless the applause interrupts the flow of music.  And I must say it did in the case of Franck’s concerto.  The conductor also seemed to show some impatience as he would sometimes keep his baton up in between movements.

MSSO’s website makes the claim that it is one of the five oldest orchestras in Russia.  I don’t know how it compares quality-wise, but what they did this afternoon was certainly first rate.  A search of the web also indicated that the have been on a tour of various places, including Connecticut and Iowa, performing the same program.

They played several encores (we left after three), and both the orchestra and the audience were quite enthusiastic during the process.  The names of the first two encores were posted outside the hall: a waltz by Strass and a Hungarian Dance by Brahms.  We couldn’t tell who wrote the third one.

We don’t know how this Program fits in with the State Theater’s program.  Our Program book lists the events in November, and most of them are country and pop.  And there is no description of the pieces, just brief biographies of the artists.