David Geffen
Hall at Lincoln Center. Orchestra (Seat
T105, $82.50).
Program
Les Nuits d’ete
(The Summer Nights), Op. 7 (1840-41; orch. 1843, 1855, 1856) by Berlioz
(1803-69).
Scheherazade,
Symphonic Suite, Op. 35 (1888) by Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908).
When one thinks
of “summer nights,” various images would come to mind. They can range from the singing of
nightingales, or a bright evening sky, or perhaps a severe thunderstorm. It took someone like Berlioz to make this
about frailty, death, cemetery, and lament.
I didn’t get to read the lyrics until the program was underway, and was
quite unprepared for how dark the lyrics were after the first song
(Villanelle). The other songs in this
collection are Le Spectre de la rose (The Specter of the Rose); Sur les
lagunes: Lamento (On the Lagoons: Lament); Absence; Au cimetiere: Clair de lune
(In the Cemetery: Moonlight); and L’ile inconnue (The Unknown Island.)
After
reconciling with the fact that this was going to be a dark composition – which
happened around the third song – I began to appreciate the music. The reduced-size orchestra provided a great
companion to the soloist. While I do not
know French, the projected surtitles helped my appreciation of the mood
tremendously.
Kozena had a
strong voice. Every now and then it
sounded a bit on the coarse side, but that just added to the grittiness of the
prose. I enjoyed her singing.
The composition
was originally written for voice and piano, and song-by-song orchestrated by
Berlioz, starting with Absence. He
modified the songs in other ways as well, including the transposition of two of
them: “Le Spectre de la rose” by a minor third, and “Sur les lagunes” by a
whole step.
“Absence” was
first introduced to the New York Philharmonic by Leopold Damrosch in 1877,
together with other works heard in New York for the first time. The concert wasn’t a box office success, and
Damrosch was not invited back. Perhaps
out of spite, Damrosch founded the New York Symphony in in 1878. After 50 years, the New York Symphony, under
the direction of Leopold’s son Walter, would merge with the New York
Philharmonic. Walter was also instrumental
in convincing Andrew Carnegie to build Carnegie Hall.
While Scheherazade
is probably known to most people, and some of the tunes in it are easily
hummable, it is not programmed that frequently in live concerts. Since I started my blog, this was only my
second encounter with the piece. The
four movements are (i) Largo e maestosos – Allegro non troppo; (ii) Lento –
Andantino; (iii) Andantino quasi allegretto; and (iv) Allegro molto. Before it became unfashionable to do so, they
also had descriptive titles: (i) The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship; (ii) The Story of
the Kalander Prince; (iii) The Young Prince and Princess; and (iv) Festival at
Baghdad, the Sea.
It was an
enjoyable performance, the mood swung from serene to tempestuous, and the
orchestra gave the music its all. The
Program Notes says Rimsky-Korsakov thought it would be sufficient that the
listener “carries away the impression that it is beyond doubt an Oriental
narrative of some numerous and fairy-tale wonders …” That was a relatively low bar.
The soloist
violin got quite a bit of workout as the protagonist, and some of the passages
were quite challenging. There were other
solo passages from various members of the orchestra also. Interestingly, only Frank Huang got the
billing in the Program.
The audience
applauded enthusiastically afterwards, which the orchestra and Gilbert
deserved.
Curtain Call after Scheherazade.
A few observations. First is that Gilbert went
back to his baton, which looked more natural. The other was if Huang continues
to perform the way he did, people would soon forget about Dicterow. Lastly, the amount of coughing between movements was close to unbearable. Perhaps free cough drops should be more readily available at the doors?
We stopped by
Jersey City before driving into New York.
Dinner was at Columbus Empire Szechuan which we hadn’t been to for a
while.
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