Prudential Hall at NJPAC, Newark, NJ. Orchestra (Seat Q101, $15).
Program
Isola (2007) by
Fagerlund (b 1972).
Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 (1844, rev. 1845) by Mendelssohn
(1809-1847).
Symphony No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 82 (1915, rev. 1916,
1919) by Sibelius (1865-1957).
One of my reactions to yesterday’s New York Phil concert
was that it was a “pops” concert with a serious composition wedged in. For tonight, the reaction was quite the
opposite, two serious compositions sandwiching in a showpiece.
Sebastian Fagerlund is a young Finnish composer who has
built quite a reputation for himself, such as being the composer-in-residence
of the Royal Concertgeouw Orchestra last season. This composition is inspired by Seili Island
of Finland. It is beautiful – rugged
rocky beautiful, per the conductor – but has a dark history as a leper colony
in the middle ages where lepers were sent to fend for themselves and presumably
die, and as the location for a mental hospital until 1962. The music is supposed to reflect this
dichotomy. The program notes calls this
a tone poem, but the conductor insists there is no program to the music except
for the inspiration.
Fagerlund’s music is characterized as “a fusion of
post-impressionism and modernism, with a dash of minimalism. He often juxtaposes meditative, trance-like
stasis with jagged rhythms.” Whenever I see “minimalism” I think – rightly or
wrongly – Philip Glass. In Fagerlund’s
case, there were many occasions where different simple not-quite tonal motif of
a few notes were repeated again and again, and other “stuff” evolved and
revolved around these motifs. I heard a
lot of darkness, not much beauty (well, perhaps in Finland beauty and sunny are
different things.) The music ended
softly, if I recall correctly.
This was our first encounter with Ning Feng, a young
Chinese violinist who now lives in Germany.
The Mendelssohn violin concerto is a tricky one to perform, not so much
for its difficulty – and it is difficult enough – but more for how one
interprets it. Feng pulled off the
technical part, and I was particularly impressed by how he managed to keep the
bow glued to the strings, but I am not sure the performance was enjoyable
beyond that. Per his website, he plays
on a Stradivarius, but some passages didn’t quite come through. In his defense, he was playing against a
large orchestra.
Ning Feng after performing Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.
When he returned to the stage, he lamented to the
audience the limited solo violin repertoire, and asked the audience whether it
should be Bach or Paganini. He ended up
playing the latter’s Caprice No. 24.
While impressive, it wasn’t as clean as one could imagine, and I
certainly won’t call it perfect, as I called Hadelich’s encore a few years ago.
I am only somewhat familiar with Sibelius’s Symphony No.
5, so I appreciated the description I found in the Program Notes. The music is challenging to pull off. As examples: for the strings, the use of
tremolos makes it difficult to sound precise; the horns have to hit many ascending
and descending intervals (4ths, 5ths, and 6ths) in the last movement, and it is
difficult to get the notes perfectly righ – and no safety in numbers! Going over my blog, I have heard this a few
times already, and each time I said/implied that I needed to hear this some
more to fully appreciate it. Alas,
tonight is no exception.
Slobodeniouk after Sibelius's Symphony No. 5.
We stopped by Hoboken before heading out to Newark. Dinner was at Wok to Walk, a small fast-food
restaurants a couple of blocks from NJPAC.
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