Philadelphia Orchestra – Stephane Deneve, conductor; Vadim Repin, violin. April 20, 2018.

Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center, Philadelphia.  Orchestra Tier (Seat B120, $55.30).

Program

Flammenschrift (2012) by Connesson (b. 1970).

Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major (1923), Op. 10 by Prokofiev (1891-1953).

Death and Transfiguration (1888-89), Op. 24 by Strauss (1864-1949).

La Valse (1919-20) by Ravel (1875-1937).

There is much French influence in today’s program, beginning with the French conductor.  He started the evening by talking a bit about the program.  He will succeed David Robertson at St. Louis Symphony as music director in the 2019-20 season.  In his late 40s, it is no small accomplishment.

Guillaume Connesson is a “young” (by Devane’s definition) composer who wrote Falmmenschrift (meaning “flame-writing” or “letter of fire”) was written to pay homage to Beethoven and Germany.  Devane actually sang out one line to illustrate how Connesson modified the famous Beethoven Symphony 5 theme to use in this piece.  The Playbill also mentions references near the end to Brahms and Richard Strauss.

The nine-minute piece was relatively easy to get, and the description in the Playbill helped a bit in following the program.  Too bad they didn’t broadcast notes to the audience’s smart phones as they did at the last concert we went.  I must admit I didn’t get any of the references, not even the Beethoven theme.

This was the premiere of the Connesson piece by the Orchestra.  Deneve held a copy of the score as acknowledgement. 

I am reasonably familiar with Prokofiev’s first violin concerto, and was looking forward to it.  In general Repin put in a great performance.  He had little difficulty with the difficult passages – and the majority of violin techniques were used – except there were occasional intonation problems.  Compared with the prior times I saw him in concert, he was a bit more mechanical and less engaging than usual.

The Playbill lists his violin as the 1733 “Rode” Stradivarius.  A 2007 blog of mine noted that his violin was a brilliant-sounding Guarnerius.  Upgrade, perhaps?  Also, the concertmaster was absent during the concerto performance.

Repin after the Prokofiev violin concerto.

The second half was occupied with more traditional orchestra music.  Strauss was all of 25 when he finished the tone poem “Tod und Verklarung.”  Basically the experience and hallucinations of a dying man, the body of the work contains a series of resolutions and hopes, and the work ends in a luminous blaze of C major.  These words in the Playbill help, but it would be more illuminating to list the different “elements” so the less-initiated (like myself) can follow along.

Most of the commentaries I read on Ravel’s La Valse talk about how the ending of the wrok reflected Ravel’s disillusion with humanity.  Today’s Playbill had a different take, quoting Ravel as saying that the work had no symbolic meaning of the “present situation in Vienna,” but was simply “almost hallucinatory ecstasy” and dancers exhausted by “the waltz.”  An example of people reading more into what the composer (author) says?  I found the description that the beginning described someone entering the party already in progress very useful in understanding the fragments of melodies.

At the conclusion of the concert.

 At intermission I took a few photos of the venue.  This is a structure (decorative?) at the top level of the concert hall.

 View of the auditorium from the top tier.  The hall is shaped like a cello, but could be the shape of any string instrument, in my view.

The atrium area of Kimmel Center, where the box office is located.

After two concerts, my assessment of PO is still mixed.  It is certainly competent, and has in Nezet-Seguin a conductor very much in demand, but neither of the concerts left a strong impression on me.

There were many empty seats tonight.  We moved one row back as our row was full.  The acoustics did not suffer - it was in general quite weak.

Our original plan was to attend two PO concerts conducted by Nezet-Seguin with Vivien and David, but our upcoming May trip necessitated the change to this concert.  Since Vivien and David had already made other plans for the evening, Anne and I attended this concert by ourselves.  Our son and family were in town, so we left a bit late.  Other than the “roundabout” around city hall, traffic was not bad, and we got in early enough to eat a sandwich bought in a deli nearby.  The return trip was similarly straightforward.  We covered the 70 miles in about 1 ½ hours.