New York Philharmonic – Tugan Sokhiev, conductor; Gil Shaham, violin. October 25, 2018.

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

Program

In the Steppes of Central Asia, Op. 7 (1880) by Borodin (1833-87).

Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19 (1917) by Prokofiev (1891-1953).

Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 (1877-78) by Tchaikovsky (1840-93).

This was an all-Russian program of familiar pieces, conducted by the Russian maestro Sohkiev.

The Steppes of Central Asia was written by Borodin in celebration of Tsar Alexander II’s silver anniversary as Russia’s ruler.  I hadn’t heard the piece in its entirety in recent years (no reference in the blog, for instance,) if ever, but knew many of the delightful tunes contained in it.  It was a nice piece to start the program.

Prokofiev’s violin concerto was based on a violin concertino Prokofiev worked on (but didn’t complete) in 1915, and thus retained an opus number from that time period.  I would characterize the piece as ephemeral (at 21 minutes) and ethereal.  I still remember how Midori played it, quite a few years ago; that was 2005, some concerts do stick with you.

Again, Shaham was very good technically, and he was certainly into the piece.  I may be prejudiced from the last concert, today it was again “a day at the office” for him.  To put a positive spin on it, the way he played gave me a chance to “analyze” the piece rather than simply being mesmerized by it.

He played a short encore, notable for all the harmonics in it.

Shaham and Sohkiev after the Prokofiev violin concerto.  Quite a sizable orchestra, and Shaham's violin came through clearly.

One thought that I had when I saw Tchaikovsky’s symphony in the program was: small world, small repertoire.  I heard this symphony by the New York Phil in November 2016, conducted by van Zweden; by Hong Kong Philharmonic earlier this month, conducted by van Zweden; and again by the New York Phil tonight, led by a guest conductor.  I remarked that the HK Phil program was one of the best I had heard, than qualified it by saying “against expectations.”  Tonight’s performance was enjoyable, but at an expected level.  For instance, the horns did well on an absolute scale, but I found the unsteadiness at the beginning a bit unexpected.  Also, the second movement wasn’t as dark as what I heard in Hong Kong.  The pizzicatos of the third movement were done well, as were the intervening arabesques.  We got the same wild ride for the fourth movement.

A huge orchestra for the Tchaikovsky.  We noticed quite a few young musicians in the mix. Also, a couple of familiar faces were missing, result of disciplinary actions.

This was our first encounter with Sokhiev, he seemed to be very much in his element, and the orchestra responded well.

I couldn't find a New York Times review.  Here is one review I found on the web.

Interesting question: how would van Zweden compare the two performances?  (I doubt very much he heard this performance as he is scheduled in Europe and Hong Kong.)

It is a testament to the excitement of the program that I was fully awake for all the pieces, despite my having returned from Hong Kong the previous day.  Dinner was at East Szechuan Garden.