Avery Fisher
Hall at Lincoln Center, Orchestra 1 (Seat S103, $64.50.)
Program
Nyx (2010) by
Salonen (b. 1958).
Piano Concerto
in G major (1929-31) by Ravel (1875-1937).
Jeux: Poeme
danse (1912-13) by Debussy (1862-1918).
Der
Rosenkavalier Suite (1909-10/1944) by R. Strauss (1864-1949).
My prior
encounters with Salonen’s music have been mixed, so I was not expecting much
from the music that began today’s program.
The Playbill contains Salonen’s description of this work, Nyx being a
shadowy figure in Greek mythology which traces to Nyx the creation of Day (or
heaven and earth in another version).
Salonen decided to name the composition after this elusive figure, while
making the claim that he is not trying to describe her. He also mentions a deviation of his recent
technique of continuous variation of material in the composition of this
work. In any case, many of his remarks
are too profound for me, and – I suspect – for much of the audience.
So I fully
suspected I would be shrugging my shoulders (figuratively) during the
performance. Instead I found this an
easy piece of music to enjoy, as the orchestra is called upon to produce its
full range of timbres, frequencies, and loudness. While I cannot dissect the piece into
different parts, I found it quite coherent as the music went from soft to loud,
slow to fast, and low to high.
Salonen came on
stage afterwards to take a bow.
I recall having
heard Ravel’s G major piano at least twice, and came away with different
impressions. This is definitely a
difficult piece – Ravel wanted to premiere it but couldn’t, after all – and
Barnatan managed to pound out all the notes, leaving no doubt that he could
handle the virtuoso piece. However, musically
it wasn’t satisfying, and the second movement simply dragged on aimlessly. Going back to some of my earlier blog
entries, this could be an enjoyable concerto.
A couple of days
ago we heard Gershwin’s piano concerto.
Ravel composed this after his visit to America and Gershwin, so it is
natural to assume there is some Gershwin influence in this piece. Indeed occasionally one hears a glissando
that evokes images of a jazz player.
Interestingly, a
concert I went to last year had both the Gershwin and the Ravel piano concertos
on the program. Actually, the pianist
was also the conductor for that concert as well (Jeffrey Kahane.)
We heard Jeux a
few years ago, conducted by Lorin Maazel in 2011. To recap, this was intended as ballet music
with a rather thin story line. I
described the sound by the full orchestra then as “great.” Admittedly I don’t remember much about that
2011 performance; however, while today’s performance is okay, it is definitely
not in the “great” camp.
Similarly, the
Rosenkavalier Suite didn’t quite rise to the “great” level either. The version played today was by an
unidentified arranger in 1944, although Artur Rodzinski is believed by many to
be the editor. For this concert series
Gilbert further replaced the last section of the arrangement with the last
pages of the opera, subsuming the vocal parts into the orchestra’s lines.
So this was a
disappointing performance, and it showed so much promise on paper.
In his short
description of the program, Gilbert talks about exploring texture and color
possibilities. With the exception of
Salonen’s, the works were composed within about two decades of one another, yet
they have the possibility of providing a wider range of textures than the LSO
program we saw two days ago. Gilbert
decided to forgo the use of a baton today, I wonder if that had anything to do
with the sloppiness of the sound. Anne remarked that he looked like a traffic cop.
The 36-year old
Israeli pianist is the Artist-in-Association of the New York Philharmonic, so I
imagine he comes with great credentials.
I had mentioned earlier how I found his performance flat, let’s hope it
gets better as he spends more time working with the orchestra.
I don’t know if
Sheryl Staples will be named the concertmaster to replace Dicterow. If she did, I would be okay with it. Actually in some way I am rooting for her,
something about bridesmaids eventually becoming brides. There were quite a few solo lines, but today she
came across uncharacteristically weak playing them.
In an earlier
blog I was hoping that the changes affecting the orchestra won’t diminish its
quality. Let’s hope today was just an
aberration.
The New YorkTimes review actually went along pretty much the same lines I did, although I
will concede the reviewer has better prose. The one
exception would be his calling Barnatan’s performance “judicious,” and the
second movement “striking simplicity.”
This was an 11
am concert, but our drive into and out of the city was quite straightforward.
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