New York Philharmonic – Christoph Eschenbach, conductor; Till Fellner, piano. April 19, 2018.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat BB103, $59.)

Program

Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat major, K.482 (1785) by Mozart (1756-91).

Symphony No. 9 in D minor (1887-94; ed. Nowak, 1951) by Bruckner (1824-96).

When I bought these tickets in June, 2017, the title was “Haitink conducts Mozart and Bruckner.”  The pieces on the program remained the same, but we had a different conductor for the actual performance.  Haitink is 89, so I suppose every now and then he would not be able to make a concert.  In any case, Eschenbach would be a competent substitute for any maestro.

This was the New York Philharmonic debut for the Austria pianist Till Fellner, and was also the first time I heard him.  My first impression was he looked quite a bit older than his photo in the Playbill.

Compared to his 21^st and 23^rd piano concertos, the 22^nd certainly is not nearly as popular.  In my case, it isn’t popular at all, as I was unfamiliar with it, other than for a passage here or there.  As with most of Mozart’s piano concertos, it was easy enough to like.

Fellner put in a solid performance.  His interpretation was clean, and his phrasing kept a crisp dialog between the soloist and the orchestra.  At 34 minutes, it is a bit on the long side, but didn’t feel long at all.  The movements are Allegro; Andante; and Allegro (Rondo).

Till Fellner taking a bow after the Mozart concerto performance.

The story behind Bruckner’s ninth symphony is a bit sad, according to the Program Notes.  The conductor Levi, whom Bruckner respected, couldn’t make sense of his eighth symphony, which shook Bruckner’s confidence to such an extent that he stopped work on the ninth symphony and instead spent the years 1887 to 1891 revising that and other symphonies as well.  Eventually the eighth symphony premiered in 1892 to great acclaim, but by that time the composer was in declining health.  He finished the first three movements and had sketched out in different levels of detail the last movement.  His died on October 11, 1896, and per the Playbill “worked on the piece, took a short stroll, and, on his return home, had a few sips of tea, lay down on his bed, and quietly passed away.”

Even thought many subsequent composers have constructed a fourth movement from Bruckner’s sketches, tonight’s performance ended with the third movement.  The movements add up to about 60 minutes, and are (i) Feirelich, misterioso; (ii) Scherzo: Bewegt, lebhaft; Trio: Schnell; and (iii) Adagio: Langsam, feierlich.  Near the end, “the Wagner tubas recall the Adagio of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony and then four horns quote the beginning of his seventh,” so says the Program Notes.  I am not familiar enough with his symphonies to be able to hear these references.

A large orchestra was used for the symphony.  I couldn’t get a clear view of every musician on stage, but estimate there are 16 first violins and 12 cellos; on the roster there are 14 and 11 respectively, and Staples led the orchestra.  Surprisingly they didn’t sound that loud, although there is no “complaint” about volume.  I still recall how well Zubin Mehta conducted Bruckner’s eight symphony (the blog entry, however, is not as effusive as I thought it would be), tonight’s performance didn’t rise to that level.  That is not to say it wasn’t an interesting piece to listen to.  My preconception of Bruckner was he would dwell on a theme for a long time before moving on to the next, and there was some of that, but not so much that I felt at any time “move on already.”

A very large orchestra was used to perform the Bruckner symphony.  The only percussion instrument was the timpani.

I have seen Eschenbach conduct many times before, including in Houston and Hong Kong.  And he had led the New York Philharmonic in a performance of the Bruckner Ninth, but it was the 1934 Orel edition – so that must be why I didn’t remember any of it.

Again referring to my blog entries, I had heard the Mozart concerto the last time the Philharmonic performed it, in June, 2012, with Ax and Gilbert.

This blog entry is being written two days after the concert.  We went down to Philadelphia to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra yesterday, as a result many of the mental notes from the New York concert were “erased.”  In a way, if it takes so little to make one forget, it couldn’t have been that memorable.  A harsh way to look at it, but not far from the truth.