Sunday, January 07, 2018

New York Philharmonic – Jeffrey Kahane, conductor/piano; Alisa Weilerstein, cello. January 5, 2018.

David Geffen Hall.  Orchestra (Seat M106, $58.)

Program
Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, K. 453 (1784) by Mozart (1756-91).
Variations on a Rococo Theme, for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 33 (1876-77) by Tchaikovsky (1840-93).
Symphony No. 98 in B-flat major, Ho. I:98  (1792) by Haydn (1732-1809).

This was a delightful concert.  The programmed pieces made sure of that, with easy-listening Mozart concerto and Haydn Symphony.

To me most of Mozart’s music are delightful, and most have been commented on extensively throughout the years.  Every now and then I would learn and remember something interesting, such as how he meshed four or five themes together in the Jupiter Symphony.  For this program the commentator in a sidebar “Listen for … the Starling’s Song” talks about Mozart’s pet starling which was taught to whistle the tune used in the last movement.  I didn’t know people kept starlings as pets, and that they could be taught particular tunes.  The main body of the commentary was more on the history of the symphony than on the music.  Which is fine with me.  The other aspect was that the cadenzas played today are “unquestionably by the composer.”

Kahane was both the conductor and soloist.  For this orchestra probably no conducting was necessary; and, as I have said before, this arrangement loses the true give-and-take between the piano and orchestra.  For a live performance the arrangement is such that the audience sees only the back of the pianist.  Nonetheless, it was a good (can’t tell good from excellent, remember?) and delightful performance.  The movements are allegro, andante, and allegretto – Finale: Presto.

Curtain call after performance of Mozart's Concerto.

We heard the Rococo Variations in October last year at a New Jersey Symphony concert.  Today’s was no less delightful a performance.  Seated close to the stage, it was easier to appreciate the technical difficulties presented by the piece.  Weilerstein made this crowd-pleasing piece look easy.  I do hope she has a heavy coat, just looking at her dress made me feel cold.

Alisa Weilerstein after playing Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations.

Haydn’s 98th Symphony was the last of his first group of London Symphonies.  Many of the 12 London Symphonies have nicknames: Surprise, Military, Clock, Drumroll (per Playbill), I would agree with the commentator that this one takes a back seat to none.  Indeed its freshness of this symphony made it an enjoyable experience.  The one interesting fact alluded in the Playbill was Haydn’s musical signature, performed at the fortepiano.  Kahane was again the solist/pianist. The Pianoforte didn’t get a lot of airtime, mostly providing a continuo role.  The signature towards the end, however, was unmistakable.  Haydn himself played the 11-measure passage at its premiere.  The four movements of the Symphony are Adagio – Allegro; Adagio cantabile; Minuetto – Trio; and Finale: Presto.

The Fortepiano was used in Haydn't 98th Symphony.  It sounded more like an harpsichord than I remember.

The New YorkTimes review is mixed: praising the performances, panning (a bit) the programming. He also mentioned Kahane did less continuo for the Haydn than he would expect (or would have liked.) Weilerstein was wearing the same dress on Thursday; some performers I know change during the same concert!  Evidently she first performed this at age 13 with the Cleveland Orchestra.  The article didn’t talk about attendance at an evening where traffic had to be very bad.  For today’s 11 am concert, the hall was quite full.


Yesterday (Jan 4) saw the area hit with between 8” to a foot of snow, so our initial thoughts were to either skip this concert or take public transportation.  We decided to drive in and park in one of the nearby garages.  Turns out okay as traffic was very light as the cold spell we have (since December 26 the temperature has not reached freezing, and may break tomorrow Monday Jan 8) probably kept a lot of people off the roads.  We ate something simple at Panera Bread before heading home.

No comments: