Prudential Hall at NJPAC.
Tier G (Seat C5, $38.)
Program
Concert Romanesc (Romanian Concerto) (1951) by Ligeti
(1923-2006).
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21 (1829-30) by
Chopin (1810-1849).
Symphony No. 7 in D Minor, Op. 70 (1884-1885) by Dvorak
(1841-1904).
This was the second concert for the day. I was surprisingly alert for it, considering
we started in the morning driving into New York City.
It didn’t take long for us to realize there were a lot of
Asians in attendance tonight (I will further venture to guess Korean.) The soloist Cho gets billed as a 20-something
phenomenon who now lives in Berlin. Justifiably so, as the Korean-born Cho won
the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 2015.
Bottom line: it was a respectable but not inspiring performance.
Not like Tsujii (playing Beethoven’s Emperor
Concerto with Orpheus) whom I considered inspiring at many levels, or Trifinov,
whom I first heard in 2012, who both inspired and instilled confidence. Cho was well-prepared, but little of the
emotion came through the 30-plus minute performance. In any case, the applause was very enthusiastic
and he performed an encore. The
movements are Maestoso, Larghetto, and Allegro vivace.
Tausk and Cho after the Chopin Piano Concerto.
Dvorak’s Seventh Symphony is described in the Program
Notes as modeled after Brahms’s Third and not overly infused with Czech flaver. Despite its credentials (for instant, “one of
the symphony’s strengths is the power of inner movements”,) the symphony is not
nearly as popular as his Ninth or Eighth, and I am embarrassed to say this is
the fourth entry about this symphony in this blog, and it still felt foreign to
me. And I had looked at the score on
YouTube before the concert!
The piece by Gyorgy Ligeti was most interesting by
comparison. It is relatively short at 12
minutes, and consists of four movements played without pause: Andantino,
Allegro vivace, Adagio ma non troppo, and Molto vivace. It is often considered a concerto for the
orchestra as the different sections (and sometimes the section principals) got
to be highlighted. The solo passages were
all performed beautifully by the musicians.
Actually the orchestra sections and players all played
well. It is unfortunate that these
well-performed segments were not strung together into compelling stories. Tonight the standout was the horn, it was
steady the whole time.
Tausk was very businesslike in his approach. The orchestra gave a mostly precise reading
of the pieces as a result. I do wish the
violins would be a bit more together at the starts of their phrases.
Line of folks buying Cho's CDs and waiting for him to sign them. Several left after the intermission and came back for this event. Quite a few fans.
The concert lasted about 2 hours, and we got home at
around 10:45 pm. We left the house at
around 10:30 am in the morning, and had dinner at Ellie’s.
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