New York Philharmonic – Jaap van Zweden, conductor; Cynthia Phelps, violin. November 18, 2016.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra Center (Seat BB110, $50.50).

Program

Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin (1848) by Wagner (1813-83).

Unearth, Release (Concerto for Viola and Orchestra) (2016) by Adolphe (b. 1988).

Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 (1877/1878) by Tchaikovsky (1840-93).

There are two major reasons to attend this concert: van Zweden is conducting, and a viola concerto written by a young musician.  When we did the subscription during the summer, we avoided the weeks around Thanksgiving; so when discounted tickets became available, and we were sure we would be in town, we bought tickets to this event.

I have yet to see the opera Lohengrin, and know very little about it.  Evidently he is the son of Parsifal and the plot revolves around his defending the honor of Elsa, wrongly accused of murder.  Premiered in 1850 (with Liszt conducting), it predates Parsifal by several years.  The Program Notes talks glowingly of the opera, calling it “may be the most sheerly gorgeous of Wagner’s operas,” and proceeds to describe the structure of the introduction.  All I can say is this 8-minute piece is quite complicated and sounds nice.

Julia Adolphe is not quite 30 years old, so to have a full symphonic work performed at Lincoln Center is no small feat by any standard.  She graduated from Cornell (with Robert Stucky among her teachers) and is now going for her doctorate at USC.  I still don’t understand why there is a need for titles in these modern works, but at least this one is relatively straightforward.  The three movements of this 20-minute work are: I. Captive Voices; II. Surface Tension; and III. Embracing Mist; I don’t know how they mesh with “Unearth, Release.”  Adolphe has the following description of her composition: The work reveals a transformation from sinking to swimming to floating, from drowning in uncertainty toward embracing ambiguity.

I heard Phelps – the Philharmonic’s Principal Viola – performed as a soloist once, and all I remember was I had trouble picking up the soloist’s lines.  It worked much better today, no doubt due to the use of a smaller orchestra (still sizable) and having the orchestra stay silent or quiet when the solo viola is playing.  I don’t know what to expect of a viola concerto, this one definitely is less of a show-off than a highlight of the characteristics of the instrument.  While the music didn’t have me scratching my head, I didn’t quite get what it was trying to say either.  In any case, I can’t picture how “drowning in uncertainty” would sound differently from “embracing ambiguity.”

Tchaikovsky’s symphonies seem to be back in vogue the last several years; which is fine with me as I enjoy his romanticism.  While Symphony No. 4 is not as popular as his 5^th or the Pathetique, it bears all the characteristics of a Tchaikovsky composition.  Per my blog, I heard this a few years ago performed by the Philharmonic (Gilbert conducting) and at the end of last season by New Jersey Symphony (Zhang conducting).  Today I draw the same conclusion: NJSO still has a ways to go.  For instance, the last movement is marked “allegro con fuoco,” and most orchestras take it as quickly as they are able.  With all the sixteenth notes, it takes a great orchestra to do it with precision.  NJSO can (per my notes,) but certainly didn’t garner as much excitement as today’s performance.

Van Zweden seemed to be able to extract a great deal from the orchestra, which bodes well for his tenure with the organization (he is director-designate for next season, and director after that.)

Julia Adolphe, Cynthia Phelps, and Jaap van Zweden after the performance of Adophe's "Unearth, Release."

The New YorkTimes review contains a detailed account of the Adolphe piece.  It also describes the Lohengrin piece as “a radiant account.”  The reviewer is not as complimentary with the Tchaikovsky though, calling the last movement “more frenzied than festive.”

We stayed at Ellie’s new place in Hoboken last night, and took public transportation in for this 2 pm concert (per New York Times, for people afraid of the dark.)  We had lunch at a Korean restaurant close to the Penn Station.  We had dinner with Ellie and family before returning to South Amboy.