Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Louis Langree, conductor; Matthias Goerne, baritone. August 12, 2015.

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Orchestra (Seat E15, $40.)

Pre-Concert Recital: Charlie Albright, piano.

Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 (“Moonlight”) (1801) by Beethoven (1770-1827).

Four Etudes, Op. 25 (1835-37) by Chopin (1810-1849).

Program

Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183 (1773) by Mozart (1756-1791).

Ich habe genug, Cantata WV 82 (1727) by Bach (1685-1750).

Three Songs (1815-1826) by Schubert (1797-1828).

Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 (1788) by Mozart.

We left the Boston area at around 1 pm after lunch with Joe and Jess (and baby H), and managed to get to New York a little bit after 5 pm.  There was ample parking on Columbus Avenue; we had dinner at Legend on 72^nd before going down to Avery Fisher Hall to collect our tickets, and early enough to attend the pre-concert recital.  All that was achieved by having multiple GPS systems running (the one in the car, Waze, and Anne using Google maps) and making multiple adjustments to the route along the way.

When Charlie Albright walked out, he looked familiar.  I realized that we heard him before, with BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Keith Lockhart.  He played Ravel’s Concerto in G, which I thought was okay, attributing some of the problems to the acoustics at our seat.  Meanwhile, he added an Avery Fisher career grant to his biography.

The Moonlight sonata must be one of the most well-known pieces in the piano repertoire, and as such the listener probably has some expectations of how it should be played.  That was certainly true in my case, and Albright broke many of those conventions.  That doesn’t mean it wasn’t played well; indeed I enjoyed it a lot, although I thought some passages could be taken at a slightly faster pace.  The movements are Adagio sostenuto, Allegretto, and Presto agitato.

Chopin’s etudes are also in the standard recital repertoire.  The ones listed in the program are No. 1 in A-flat major (“Aeolian Harp”), No. 7 in C-sharp minor, No. 11 in A minor (“Winter Wind”), and No. 12 in C minor (“Ocean”).  The Program Notes has a story assigned to each of the pieces.  Before he started playing, Albright announced that to put some Mozart in Mostly Mozart, he was substituting one of the etudes with someone’s adaptation of Rondo alla Turca (didn’t get either the switched out etude - probably No. 11 - or the adaptor’s name.)  Chopin’s etudes were difficult enough, the Rondo just made my jaw drop.  He had a lot of fun playing it, and the audience showed their appreciation with very enthusiastic applause afterwards.  I was impressed, my only misgiving was he didn’t need the oftentimes exaggerated body movements – his music playing spoke loud and clear.

During the break between the recital and the main concert, Anne saw him wandering around the Green Room on the second floor by himself.  A little unexpected, given how many fans he seems to have (many of them wrote on his Facebook page in Korean.)  She got an autograph from him, only after providing him with a pen; he didn’t have any on him.

Both of Mozart’s symphonies written in the minor key were on the program tonight.  The two were written 15 years apart, with No. 25 written when the composer was 17 years old.  Yet the two bear quite a bit of similarity, one of the most noticeable being the use of syncopation.  The other would be how sunny both sounded even though they were in minor keys.  The orchestra did a good job (it’s MM Festival Orchestra, after all.)  Our seats were in the fourth row, on the far left, so if we strained to our right we had a good view of Langree conducting.  He conducted with so much energy that I wonder how he looked doing Beethoven. The movements of Symphony No. 25 are Allegro con brio, Andante, Menuetto and Trio, and Allegro.  Those of No. 40 are Molto allegro, Andante, Menuetto: Allegretto, and Allegro assai.

Sandwiched between the two symphonies were the Bach cantata and three songs by Schubert.  I knew of Ich habe genug (it is enough) from one of the Bach Festivals I went to in Bethlehem, PA, but didn’t know it was based on what Simeon said when he saw baby Jesus (Luke 2:22-32: Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation …).  A reduced sized orchestra was used, e.g., there were five first violins instead of the usual eight.  The 20 minute cantata consists of (i) aria (Ich habe genug); (ii) recitative; (iii) aria (Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen); (iv) recitative (Mein Gott! Wenn kommt das schone: Nun!) and (v) aria (Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod.)  It was composed in 1727 for the feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary.

We have heard the baritone Matthias Goerne before, although I didn’t remember what he looked like (never sat this close before.)  He has a beautiful and sweet voice which I thought worked very well with this cantata, except for the low notes which didn’t come across too well.  Being in the fourth row, I could hear him very well, but wondered what he would sound like to those sitting further back.

To my relief, when he came back from intermission, Goerne raised his overall volume for the Schubert lieders against a full orchestra.  I really appreciated how he conveyed the sentiments expressed in the lyrics, as if he was reading a poem: melancholic, funny, wistful, puzzled, macabre, and unexpected.

The first song “An Silvia” was based on Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and is basically a tribute to a woman.  “Alinde,” written by Johann Friedrich Rochlitz, describes a long search for Alinda, who eventually appeared by the seeker’s side.  “Erlkonig” was written by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, it describes how a father tries to keep his son calm as he rides through the forest, pursued by Erlking, only to find the boy dead when he gets home.  Schubert wrote the pieces for voice and piano, the scores for tonight were orchestrated by Alexander Schmalcz (born 1969, An Silvia and Alinde) and Max Reger (1873-1916, Erlkonig.)  I enjoyed the orchestra music, they added a lot of "mood" to the songs.

Either the performance level has improved, or after three performances I finally found myself in a festive mood: I quite enjoyed the evening.  We bought some food from a street vendor and a couple of small cakes from Magnolia before we went home.

The New York Times review is positive.  The reviewer enjoyed both symphonies, and noted that there was a lot of Mozart in this program.  He thought Randall Ellis did an excellent job playing the oboe in the Bach cantata, I thought he was a bit weak.  The reviewer also identified the Rondo was adapted by Arcadi Volodo.

The next program we have tickets for is for Friday.  I am writing this Thursday night, after seeing the opera “Written on Skin,” which we decided on doing the last minute.  So we will have gone to three separate concerts this week.