State Theatre,
New Brunswick, NJ. Balcony (Seat A109,
$37.)
Program –
Romantic Masterworks
Siegfried Idyll (1870)
by Wagner (1813-1881).
Piano Concerto
in A Minor (1841-1845), Op. 54 by Schumann (1810-1856).
Symphony No. 2
in D Major (1877), Op. 73 by Brahms (1833-1897).
The title of the
program probably applies to the works by Schumann and Brahms. Not to take anything from Wagner, but most
people think of his operas as his masterpieces, and rightly so.
So happens I
heard this performed in November, 2013, performed by the Hong Kong
Philharmonic. The conductor was Lorin
Maazel. What I remember from that
concert was this piece had nothing to do with Siegfried as in the Ring, but
rather it was written by Wagner after the birth of his child. The piece was performed in the foyer of the
Cultural Centre, which didn’t work out that well because of the acoustics, and
because only a small ensemble was used.
Today’s
performance was done by a large orchestra, which the Program Notes claims was
done during Wagner’s time, with him as the conductor on occasion. The other claim made by the Annotator was
some themes were taken from the opera Siegfried, the third act, as a matter of
fact. The Notes also says that this is
the closes thing to a symphony that Wagner wrote. I guess that why musicologists and music
historians keep their jobs; and why I write a blog.
Of course I don’t
remember much of what I heard in 2013, but I am sure that it didn’t sound at
all like today’s performance. The piece then
was quiet and idyllic, today’s was more exciting to hear, but not always on the
idyllic side.
I know enough
about the works by Schumann and Brahms to have a sense of what the music sounds
like, but not so familiar that I end up trying to compare what I heard to what
I considered the “right” way to do the music.
It made for very enjoyable listening: I was (mentally) tapping along,
but still surprised every now and then by where the story went.
It may be
heretical to a serious music student, but overall impression of this Schumann
concerto is it very much like a Liszt concerto (both No. 1 and 2) in how the
piano works with and against the orchestra.
The demands on technique may not be as severe, but that is made up for
by the musicality. A virtuoso versus an
artist, so to speak. Not that this
concerto was easy – our seats in the balcony were quite close to the stage –
and Stephen Hough made that so.
Per the Program
Notes, this piano started off as a Pantasie for piano and orchestra written in
1841. Schumann then suffered a mental
breakdown in 1844, and when he recovered, he added an Intermezzo and Finale to
complete the concerto, which has movement markings Allegro affettuoso,
Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso, and Allegro vivace.
We did hear the
Brahms symphony as recently as October, 2015.
My blog entry said “this was a great concert.” I then proceeded to lament how muddled some
passages were. Somewhat to my surprise, “muddled”
didn’t cross my mind at all. Sure, there
were some passages that did sound as clean as they could be, perhaps I do grade
according to expectations. The movements
are (i) Allegro non troppo; (ii) Adagio non troppo; (iii) Allegretto grazioso
(Quasi andantino); and (iv) Allegro con spirit.
Arming looked
young (born in 1971, in Vienna, per Wikipedia.)
His conducting style is traditional, but seemed to exaggerate sometimes,
and was too passive at others. Perhaps
that is one reason why the music sounded disjoint at times.
Curtain call after the Schumann piano concerto. Stephen Hough on the left, and Christian Arming behind the piano.
I used to remark
that this orchestra seemed to work very well with Lacombe, but not that well
with guest conductors. My experience the
last few concerts indicate that the situation has improved a lot.
There were many
empty seats in the balcony, which was too bad.
New Brunswick is
very close to our house, it was easy getting there and back on a Saturday
evening. We even managed to find
off-street parking.
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