Saturday, October 08, 2016

New York Philharmonic – Alan Gilbert, conductor; Magdalena Kozena, mezzo-soprano. October 1, 2016.

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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