New York Philharmonic – Alan Gilbert, conductor; Leonidas Kavakos, violin; Christina Landshamer, soprano. March 1, 2017.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat CC104, $47).

Program

NYx: Fractured Dreams (Concerto No. 4 for Violin and Orchestra) (2016) by Auerbach (b. 1973).

Symphony No. 4 in G major (1892 and 1899-1901; rev. 1901-1911) by Mahler (1860-1911).

This concert wasn’t in our original plans.  Because of our travels, we exchanged tickets for a Tchaikovsky Festival concert for this one.  I was a bit ambivalent about it, but decided it could be interesting.  There was this violin concerto commissioned by New York Philharmonic to be premiered by Kavakos, and Mahler is always interesting.

We had heard a composition called Nyx before, composed by Salonen.  For that program Nyx was called a shadowy figure to which can be traced the creation of Day (or heaven and earth in another version.)  Today’s Playbill described Nyx as the goddess of the night.

Lera Auerbach was raised in the Russian Ural Mountains and came to the US in 1991 to study at Julliard and later at Hannover University of Music, Drama, and Media.  She evidently is much more than a composer; she has also published poetry and books.  And tonight’s concerto is her fourth for the violin, for which she also wrote an accompanying poem.

Auerbach came on stage before the performance to talk about her work.  She used different illustrations to characterize the music, but did not add much to the description found in the Playbill.  By changing the word from Nyx to NYx she made this composition about life in New York, or rather broken dreams, that are somehow tied together.

The thirteen dreams (sogni) are labeled Libero, Pesante, Tragico, Nostalgico, Scherzo meccanico, Allegro moderato, Sognando libero, Nostalgico curioso, Allegro furioso, Magico, Tragico, Adagio misterioso, and Allegro furioso.  Since some of these descriptions don’t really translate into tempi, and the movements were played without pause, so it was difficult at times to know where we were.

One really cannot blame Kavakos for having the music in front of him.  In the past I have described his playing as practicing an etude.  Today it was much more natural, most of the time anyway.  There are unconventional techniques such as playing very close to the bow to produce an eerie sound – this music was about dreams, which would include nightmares, after all.  As contemporary music goes, I found this piece on the “easy-to-like” spectrum.  One of the reasons I didn’t pick this concert as part of my subscription was because of this piece, now I don’t mind hearing it again.

Lera Auerbach, flanked by Alan Gilbert and Leonidas Kavakos, after the performance of her fourth violin concerto NYx: Fragmented Dreams.

Since much of the music is atonal, I wonder how many would notice any wrong notes played.  Also, a musical saw was used to produce a sound that is not, but still best described as being like, finger nails on a chalk board.  The pastor of the church I grew up in played this instrument, although he used an actual saw.

When Dicterow was the concertmaster, he would recuse himself (most of the time) from being in the orchestra.  Frank Huang, however, led the orchestra for this premiere.  I assume he would enjoy experiences like this, and egos were such that they didn’t clash.

Mahler’s Fourth is long, at about an hour.  We heard this six years ago, which also had Dicterow playing Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto.  At that concert Staples led the orchestra, which included quite a few solo lines.  Today Huang did that part.

After I posted the blog for the 2011 concert, a reader explained to me a second violin tuned a tone higher is used during some of the solo passages to generate a more brilliant sound.  I guess we could called that a B violin.

The song “Das himmlische Leben” was part of the fourth movement, and it was sung by Christina Landshamer.  She sang in last year’s Messiah, and my comment that her voice was weak applies to tonight’s performance as well.  The lyrics, describing a child’s view of heaven, were quite interesting.  The Program Notes explained what all the saints are.

Frank Huang being acknowledged by Alan Gilbert and Christina Landshamer at the conclusion of Mahler's Fourth Symphony.

Sometime during the performance of the Mahler it occurred to me that Gilbert actually is a great conductor, to so effortlessly bring out the story in the composition and the best in the orchestra.  In some Playbills he is described as someone in the lineage of Toscanini, Mahler, Bernstein, and other prominent New York Philharmonic conductors.  Perhaps he is not quite in that league yet, but I am quite sure he will get there.  This is his last year as the music director, I wonder where he will be next.

The New York Times reviewer also thought Auerbach didn’t connect with the audience, but enjoyed the music and had a rather lengthy description of the piece.  He also had good things to say about the Mahler symphony.

We bought some Chinese takeout and ate on Lincoln Plaza.  Today was a warm day.