Avery Fisher
Hall at Lincoln Center. Orchestra (Seat
T12, $65.)
Program
Three Songs
(arr. Sandor Balogh) by Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847).
Violin Concerto
in E minor (1844) by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847).
Symphony No. 3
in F major (1883) by Brahms.
I knew that
Fanny Mendelssohn was a great musician, but didn’t know (or forgot) that she
was also a prolific conductor. As it was
deemed unseemly for a woman in then bourgeois Germany society (this term from
Playbill) to have a professional career, much of her work was unpublished, and
the first publications were under Felix’s name.
This also explains why there was no date associated with these songs. It was only when the dates were put right next to each other that I realized Fanny and Felix died in the same year.
Ivan Fischer
explained he picked Fanny Mendelssohn’s work to encourage women
composers. I would think a better message
would be sent by programming works by women that are still living. But who am I to argue with interesting programming?
The three songs
are Die Mainacht (May Night), Ferne (Distance), and Gondellied (Song of the the
Gondolier). The lyrics are all in the “lovelorn”
category, the music generally is sweet and pensive. I do like songs like this (Tchaikovsky’s “None
but the lonely heart” comes to mind), but probably need to give them a chance
to grow on me. The soloist Richter is
young (a New York Times article put her at 24 as of October, 2014), and she
sang quite clearly, albeit a tad unrefined.
I liked it.
This was also
the first time I heard the German violinist Isabelle Faust. Overall it was an enjoyable performance, a
result of a competent performance. The
last time I heard this concerto was Gil Shaham with the New Jersey Symphony. Shaham has this habit of moving around a lot
while he performs; Faust was practically glued to the
stage. Other than some problems with the
loud double stops at the end, she performed without a glitch. However, it was a good performance, but not
an inspired one. She plays the “Sleeping
Beauty” 1704 Stradivarius. The
instrument sounded surprisingly weak, although its clear tone would confirm it’s
being a Strad.
Neither Anne nor
I was familiar with the Brahm’s symphony, with the exception of the third
movement. I would agree with the
Playbills description: “more than one commentator has described this work as ‘Olympian,’
a sobriquet that is not inapt …” I am not the only wishy-washy person out
there. In any case, it was an easy piece
to enjoy on the first hearing, even though I didn’t get the “ascending
three-note motif” that opens the symphony.
The orchestra sounded sloppy at times, but responded well to Fischer’s
direction.
After a couple
of curtain calls, Fischer said he would conclude with another composition by
Fanny Mendelssohn. When the orchestra
members stood up, and Richter returned to the stage, I thought it was going to
be an a cappella solo piece. It turns out to
be a choral piece, with all the orchestra musician doing the singing. And they did it so well that I whispered to
Anne: who needs the New York Choral Artists?
The New York Timesreview is quite positive. The review
calls Faust’s performance “reticent,” explained that it was Sandor Balogh that
did the orchestration, and that the encore piece was “Morgengruss,” one of
Fanny Mendelssohn’s six “Gartenlieder” (“Garden Songs”) for a cappella choir; all in all very educational.
Being a rainy Sunday,
we couldn’t find off-street parking.
ICON still offered coupons that beat parking at the Lincoln Center
garage. On our way back we stopped by
Jersey City to have dinner with Ellie, Kuau, and Reid.
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