Main Auditorium,
National Concert Hall, Dublin, Ireland.
Stalls (Seat J10, E28.80).
Program – Music
for Halloween
The Firebird
Suite (1919) by Stravinsky (1882-1971).
Rhapsody on a
Theme by Paganini by Rachmaninov (1873-1943).
Totentanz (Danse
Macabre) by Liszt (1811-86).
La damnation de
Faust – Dance of the Sylphs: Hungarian March by Berlioz (1803-69).
The Sorcerer’s
Apprentice by Dukas (1865-1935).
We are on a
short trip to Ireland, and will be in Dublin for a couple of days. When I did a search back in NJ, this is the
concert I found, at that time it had many empty seats. After we landed yesterday, we walked over to
the venue (less than 15 minutes) and bought two tickets. By telling the agent we were over 60, we got
10% off, and we were also told there were many seats available. It was good that the place was perhaps 70%
filled today.
The familiarity
of the music on the program (or most of it) contrasts greatly with my lack of
knowledge of the conductor, the soloist, and the orchestra. It stands to reason Dublin has an orchestra,
but a bit surprising that the major one is RTE (Irish initials for Radio and
Television Ireland,) and not the Dublin Philharmonic or the Irish Symphony – I
actually started searching for the more “reasonable” names first. The conductor, an assistant conductor at the
Halle Orchestra in Manchester, is in his early 20s. This is our first encounter with the pianist,
either in name or in person. The concert
hall has comfortable seats, has a capacity of around 1200 (estimate), and is
not unduly ornate. It does have a lot of
common space, so people don’t keep bumping into each other before the concert
or at intermission.
Feeling a bit
guilty about paying so little for a concert, I went and bought a program for
E5. Other than some announcements of
upcoming events, there are no advertisements. The commentary was simply
written, but quite illuminating.
Overall this was
an enjoyable concert. Certainly not in
the “great” category, but footed the bill very well. All of the pieces have a “dark” side to it,
with the Dies Irae theme heard in a couple of them.
Even after
hearing it multiple times, the Firebird Suite still sounded a bit unfamiliar to
me. A look back at my blog entries
indicated that I had listened to this 1919 5-movement version at least three
times, which I all enjoyed. Tonight’s
wasn’t a bad performance, but nowhere near great.
Since I had no expectations going in, I would have been happy if the rest of the evening stayed at this level. Turns out the rest of the evening got much better.
The piece by
Rachmaninov is based on a virtuoso piece written for the violin by
Paganini. I have some idea how difficult
the Paganini piece is, and from the looks of it, the Rhapsody isn’t any
easier. The Rhapsody is a set of 24
variations on the theme of Caprice No. 24, and the Program Notes goes into considerable
detail about its structure. For me the “insight”
was there are basically three themes: (i) the Paganini theme in minor key, (ii)
an inverted theme in a major key played at a slower speed, and (iii) the use of
Dies Irae in some of the middle variations.
Pace’s performance was thoroughly enjoyable, nuanced: strong, playful, and
frightful. He was very attentive to the
conductor also.
In keeping with
the season, after the intermission Pace brought out a small skeleton and hanged
it on the piano. The Orchestra’s
Co-Leader (most organizations would use the term Concertmaster) also brought
out a skull with flashing red eyes.
Liszt’s
Totentanz uses the Dies Irae theme also.
Per the program notes, he was inspired to write this after seeing “The
Last Judgment” in Campo Santos. Since he
finished this work after 20 years, one could argue either way: the work left a
lasting impression on him, or the influence isn’t that real. Yesterday Anne and I went to visit Ireland’s
National Gallery and viewed an exhibit where current writers picked out
paintings that inspired their work.
Oberlin College loans out master paintings to their students during the
school year. I remember going to some
children recitals where paintings were placed next to the piano: perhaps there
was something about the practice, after all.
In any case,
this was another brilliant performance by Pace.
While he didn’t make the difficult passages look easy, he played in such
a way that exhilarated rather than got the listeners worried.
The Berlioz
piece was quite light-hearted and delightful, even though it is excerpted from the
serious work for Berlioz. Given the
story often associated with it, the Dukas piece is more humorous than scary,
and that is a great way to describe Halloween here. When we came out a little after 10, some
streets were filled with people costumed up for their parties. They were all well-behaved, perhaps it was
too early to be seriously drunk yet.
If I remember correctly, a symphony orchestra in Northern Ireland (Belfast?) was on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. Given today's attendance, and (as far as I can tell) that there is no music director, I am slightly worried about this organization as well. That would be too bad as my limited exposure to them would indicate their adding a lot of cultural value to the city.
It was a short walk
in nice (for Ireland dry is nice) weather back to the hotel.
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