Metropolitan Opera – Bizet’s Les Pecheurs de Perles. November 29, 2018.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat CC26, $25.)

Story.  See previous post.

Conductor – Emmanuel Villaume.  Zurga – Alexander Birch Elliott, Nadir – Javier Camerena, Leila – Pretty Yende, Nourabad – Nicolas Teste.

This was the second time I saw this production of this opera at the Met, and the fourth time overall.

My Rush Ticket seat was in the right rear orchestra section, so I had a completely different perspective of the production, compared to what I saw in January, 2016.

This time, I was not nearly as impressed with the set design.  At the 2016 performance I felt it was a very poetic and effective design (if memory serves,) For tonight it served the purpose, and that was about it.  The dreamy waves that turned into a storm were not nearly as dreamy or menacing, and I am sure I saw people at the back moving the sheets around.  I didn’t catch the divers that climbed onto the boat either, only someone sitting in the swaying boat (no one prone to motion sickness need apply.)

The auditorium was quite full, which was good.

However, I did get to appreciate the story.  While there were still holes in the plot, I could follow much better the emotional trajectory through which it took the audience.  Similar, I enjoyed many of the music numbers beyond the famous duet between the leading men.  The orchestra sounded well the few moments I managed to pay attention to it, and there was none of the jitters I logged in my two previous entries.

The program artists for Zurga and Nadir were Kwiecien and Camerena.  Elliott was called as the stand-in for Kwiecien because of illness.  This is the first time I came across the name Elliott, but he did well, at times at the “breakthrough” level (of course for all I know he may be already world-renowned.)  Camerena had one of the few encores I heard a few years ago in Cinderella (Rossini’s version.)  He did well today, but the performance didn’t quite measure up to my expectations.

Pretty Yende is a recent addition to the Met’s roster, and this is the first time I saw her perform.  She has a beautiful voice that came through very well.  There were slight intonation problems, and harshness sometimes crept it, but I am sure she will be heard from often.  Indeed she will sing the role of Marie in La Fille du Regiment at the Met early next year.

Curtain Call.

Here is the New York Times review.  The reviewer loves Yende, and compares Camerena’s singing to Polenzani’s (whom we also saw.)  In that performance (11/14) Elliott stepped in mid-performance to substitute.  I appreciated the short synopsis she gave, which includes “But then!  Zurga has a better idea.  He sets fire to his village so Nadir and Leila can escape.  They seem as confused as the audience at this point, … Curtain.”

I had to help out at Ellie’s this afternoon, so I took the bus from Hoboken to New York City.  On the way back there were delays in the subway system due to track repairs, so I didn’t get back to Hoboken until after 11 pm.  After eating at Mamoun’s, it was around 12:30 pm that I was home.

What does food from Mamoun's have to do with the opera?  Well, this is my blog, and I can post whatever I want.

Glass Handel. Eric Jacobson, conductor; Anthony Roth Costanzo, counter-tenor. November 26, 2018.

Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York City.  Apse, center rear.

Program – Music by George Frederic Handel and Philip Glass

Handel – Inumano fratel … Stille amare (Tolomeo)

Glass – Liquid Days

Handel Rompo I Lacci (Flavio)

Handel Lascia Ch’io Pianga (Rinaldo)

Glass In the Arc of Your Mallet (Monsters of Grace)

Handel Vivi Tiranno (Rodelinda)

Glass How All Living Things Breathe (The Fall of the House of Usher)

Handel Pena Tiranna (Armadigi di Gaula)

Glass The Encounter (1000 Airplanes on the Road)

Cast

Painter – George Condo

Dancers – Daniel Applebaum, Patricia Delgado, Ricky Ubeda, Zoe Zien

Orchestra

People Movers

If I am asked to have one description about this concert, I would characterize it as a recital by the counter-tenor Constanzo.  But that would be short-changing it, by a lot.  Let me explain.

Chung Shu had a ticket he couldn’t use, so I came along.  I think he told me (via email) that the concert is called “Glass Handel,” and that his daughter would be at the harpsichord.  I just assumed it was Handel, played in a particularly way – probably with period instruments, as the harpsichord is involved.

That would be a fraction of half correct.  Indeed the program consisted of alternate songs by Handel and Glass.  Many, if not all, of them are arias from the composer’s operas.  While one could definitely hear a huge difference between Handel’s and Glass’s music, the same baroque orchestra (for lack of a better description) was used.  And strangely, the whole thing felt natural.

Behind the orchestra was a screen with a painter behind it.  His shadow would be cast on the screen as he painted on the white canvass.  He was busy at work during the approximately 60-minute duration of the program, and managed to fill the rather large canvass with some beautiful images.

To the orchestra’s right (from my perspective) was a platform for up to four ballet dancers.  The location was such that I had to make an effort to look at them, and therefore didn’t see them much.  For one number a dancer was on center stage.

To the orchestra’s left was a screen where “opera music videos” (I would simply call them “music videos”) were projected.  They ranged from the surreal, the idyllic, the dreamy, to the melancholic.

All this was enough to keep one’s senses fully occupied.  On top of that, Constanzo went through three costumes, from bright red, to blue, to patterns on white.  By taking the layered approach, not much time was needed as he shed the dresses during the performance.  I enjoyed his strong singing voice.  His name is quite familiar, and I do have several entries about him in this blog.

The three costumes worn by Costanzo for the concert.  Notice the progress in the painting behind him.  The shadow of the painter could be seen while he was doing his work (not captured in these photos.)

Curtain Call.  From right: conductor, dancers, guy in white shirt (painter?), Costanzo, and guy in black coat (I have no idea.)

The most puzzling were these 25 or so “people movers” dressed in red tops and black pants who lifted the seats in the audience (with people in them) one by one with “wheelbarrows” from one location to another.  During the entire program.  Our seats were “static” so we didn’t get the ride.  After a while I decided there was no meaning I could get out of it.  My view of the stage, unfortunately, was blocked quite often.  Since the people that got moved had even more disruption, perhaps I needed a different mindset and looked at the whole program as more than just an audio-visual experience.

There would be two performances of this program for today and the day after, it must put quite a strain on the performers.

I took the train in on this raining day.  Chung Shu and I met up at Panda for a quick bite before the concert.  By moving from the local 1 train to the 2 train at 96 Street station, we managed to make the 9:38 pm train back home by 2 minutes.

A search of the web yielded this New York Times article from September 2018 that talked about how Costanzo went about getting the project realized.

The Philadelphia Orchestra – Yannick Nezet-Seguin, conductor; Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano. November 13, 2018.

Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall.  Balcony (Seat D34, $20.)

Program

Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin (1848) by Wagner (1813-1883).

Anthology of Fantastic Zoology (2014) by Bates (b. 1977).

Poeme de l’amour et de la mer, Op. 19 (1882-1890, rev. 1893) by Chausson (1855-1899).

Fountains of Rome (1915-1916) by Respighi (1879-1936).

As the “At a Glance” of the Playbill describes it, tonight’s program was inspired by “a medieval German legend, the magical realism of Jorge Luis Borges, French poetry, and the sights of Rome.”  Indeed, there is a “program” behind each of the compositions.

Of the ten Wagner operas (per the Playbill) that are still performed regularly today, the only one I haven’t seen is Lohengrin, who is the son of Parsifal, and a guardian of the Holy Grail.  The prelude is supposed to start softly, builds to a crescendo representing the unveiling of the grail, and then returns to the soft opening to conclude.  It sounded well enough, but I thought the dynamics was a bit on the flat side.

A few words about our tickets.  Recently I installed this TodayTix APP on my phone which offers discounted tickets to mostly Broadway-like shows, but they do have a few Met, NY Phil, and Carnegie Performances on there.  Today’s tickets were discounted from $43, and were supposed to be “center balcony.”  They were actually on the far right hand side, and we moved to some empty seats one section closer to the center after the Prelude.  While $20 is a great value, I do wonder if I should’ve shelled out more for better seats in this auditorium.  The acoustics was good, but my complaint about Carnegie Hall is the sound can be “too clean,” for lack of a better phrase, still applies.

The stage looked really far away from our seats in the balcony.  We could hear the music well, most of the time.

Mason Bates wrote the Anthology based on the short book by Borges.  The work consists of 11 movements, played without pause: Forest:Twilight; Sprite; Dusk; The A Bao A Qu; Nymphs; Night; The Gryphon; Midnight; Sirens; The Zaratan; Madrugada.  In the Program Notes Bates provides a description of the various creatures and how he constructed the music.  One interesting movement is “The A Bao A Qu,” describing a snake slithering up a tower, molting at the top, and slides back down.  The movement is an exact palindrome.  I could tell which movement it was, but didn’t catch how the music was reversed.  (It took me a while to get the Rachmaninoff inversion, which is simpler.)  The descriptions of the movements are such that the audience spends a lot of time trying to match them to the music.  (And what does “luring the violins one by one” mean practically?)  Eventually I thought 30 minutes of this intellectual exercise was too much and gave up. At that point the music just sounded flat and meandering until the orchestra picked up the pace for a loud finale.

The composer Mason Bates came on stage at the conclusion of the performance of his piece.  Notice the array of percussion instruments in the back, they kept the three percussionists very busy.  The keyboard artist does double duty on the piano and the celesta.

One noteworthy characteristic of the composition is the use of many percussion instruments.  The Program Notes lists 27 different kinds (counting the piano and the celesta,) and the percussionists had to go back and forth for the different instruments.  With 9 drums and 2 music stands in front of him, the timpanist got a work out.  He did great.

The timpanist had a real workout, attending to nine drums.  He also has two music stands.

One can find video clips of this work on YouTube.  I wonder how likely I will listen to them?

While the Chausson piece was about 30 minutes long, a lot of that was taken up by the orchestra.  Indeed in the video clip on the Carnegie Hall website Nezet-Seguin describes the voice as an integrated part of the music.

There is something about French love songs (even classical ones) that make them appealing.  I don’t know how good DiDonato’s French is, but she certainly painted a beautiful and melancholic picture with her delivery.  The sadness is described by one critic as “the inexpressible horror of dead love.”  I simply found the words “the season for lilac and the season for roses will not come back …” incredibly regretful.  I have always liked DiDonato’s sound, too bad sometimes it didn’t carry well into the balcony.

Joyce DiDonato at the end of Chausson's Poeme.

Respighi used the Fountains of Rome to describe four fountains around the city in four different parts of the day.  I was in Rome recently, and really should have visited these fountains (and the pines.)  I have visit Trevi and Triton, but not Valle Giulia and Villa Medici.)  The only other blog entry for this work was a concert I attended while visiting Montepulciano, Italy during a family vacation in 2013.  Embarrassingly, tonight’s performance didn’t feel that different from the one by the Orchestra of the Royal Northern College of Music of Manchester, held outdoors in a cool evening.

It was a good concert, and we enjoyed it despite our seats far away from the stage.  I had higher expectations though.  Things sometimes look better on paper.

Metropolitan Opera – Boito’s Mefistofele. November 12, 2018.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat BB31, $25).

Story and cast.  See previous blog.

Yes, I went back to see this opera.  Bottomline: going a second time added a lot to my understanding and appreciation of the opera.

While the auditorium was still reasonably filled, I managed to move in a few seats (to BB27) at the start of the performance, and to AA17 after the first intermission.

Perhaps it is the location, or perhaps this was the second performance this season, the singers sounded much better this evening.  Both van Horn and Fabiano sounded strong, and Meade was exquisite, especially the aria she sang lamenting the deaths of her mother and child. Fabiano’s voice was a bit strained when he had to belt out the high notes, though.  Compared to the three, Check was quite weak.

I also managed to jot down the different scenes of the play: Prologue – where the choruses sang praises to God; Act I, Scene 1: Carnival, at the end of which Faust met Mefistofele; Act I, Scene 2: Faust’s study, with a telescope symbolizing his quest for knowledge; Act II, Scene 1: a garden scene that Margherita’s mother spins with a ‘mill’ mechanism, it was here that Fabiano had trouble with the high notes; Act II, Scene 2: Witches’ Sabbath scene; Act III: Margherita is in prison, but finds redemption when she renounces Faust; Act IV: ancient Greece - I didn’t realize that Faust and Mefistofele walked down the aisle at the start of the act to get on stage; Epilogue, Scene 1: Faust’s study where he contemplates the futility of it all; Epilogue, Scene 2: back to original set, here Faust dies.  He remains a young man after his transformation in Act II; I guess there isn’t an opportunity to put on the considerable make-up to age Fabiano.

The story was a bit more coherent, but I still don’t understand why or how Margherita and Faust get redeemed.

Meade’s total time on stage is about 35 minutes.  In that time she manages the aforementioned aria, and the duet “Lontano, Lontano” with Fabiano.

Curtain as viewed from Orchestra Seat AA17.

I took the train in, and the train schedule was such that I didn’t get home until after 1 am.  And dinner was after 11:30 pm at Wasabi in Penn Station.  I am glad I took the time to go.

This is not a food blog, but Box and soda at Wasabi in Penn Station for $16.90, not bad.

Monmouth Civic Chorus. Ryan James Brandau, conductor. November 11, 2018.

Triumphant Life Church, Oceanport, NJ.  Patron Seating.

Program.  Dona Nobis Pacem: A Salute to Veterans

The Star-Spangled Banner by Smith, arr. Brandau

Adagio for Strings by Barber.

Songs of Love and War (1997) by Moravec (b. 1957).

[Dona Nobis Pacem by Williams.]

We had complimentary tickets to this concert as we are subscribes for the upcoming MCC season.  In commemoration of Veteran’s Day, this concert was dedicated to those who fought in the wars.  Veterans and families were invited to stand as the audience applauded them for the sacrifices they made.  And the concert started with a spirited rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner.

We had to leave after the intermission as we had a wedding reception to go to, so we missed the piece by Ralph Vaugh Williams, who served as a medic in WWI, so the composition was informed by his own war experience.

I recently heard Samuel Barber’s Adagio for String as background music in a Japanese version of Macbeth, and together with Faure’s Requiem, it sounded very powerful.    The piece was voted at some point “the saddest music ever written,” I doubt very much this afternoon’s performance would qualify.

Paul Moravec was born in 1957.  This work saw its New Jersey premiere (by MCC) in 2002.  The lyrics are actual letters written to and from American troops during different wars:

Don’t Ask (Vietnam War, PFC George Jay Robinson, 1966).  Read by Jacqueline Schreiber; sung by James J. Green, baritone.

Dearest Rowland (WWII, Majorie, March 7, 1944).  Read by Jenni Bluementhal.

Here Hard by the Lonely Grave (WWI, Sol Segal, at the front, June 26, 1918).  Read by Marshall Gorman.

Always, Always (Civil War, Camp Clark, Washington, July 14, 1861).  Read by Daniel Ford; sung by Kenneth Wasser, baritone.

The soloists – all members of MCC – and the chorus did  a credible job.

Brandau acknowleging the artists at the conclusion of the first half of the program.

We would have stayed if the program had been performed without intermission.  The dinner reception started a bit late, so we could have stayed.  Can’t win them all …

The venue used to be the Army Chapel located in Fort Monmouth.  They closed the base down a few years ago.  While this chapel seems to have been repurposed, most of the buildings on the sizeable campus are still vacant.  I wonder if it was economics or politics that led to the relocation of the facility to Maryland.

Metropolitan Opera – Boito’s Mefistofele. November 8, 2018.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Balcony (Seat A115, $92.50.)

Story.  Mefistofele makes the claim to God that all humans are degenerate, he is asked if he knows Faust.  Mefistofele boasts that he can ensnare the aging, fanatical scholar.  Mefistofele approaches Faust and offers his services on the condition that their positions are reversed after Faust’s death.  Faust agrees to a contract with the stipulation that he finds true happiness with the words, “Stay, for you are beautiful.”  The rejuvenated Faust, calling himself Enrico, courts the village maiden Margherita.  When Margherita says her mother would object, Faust gives her a sleeping potion provided by Mefistofele.  Mefistofele then leads Faust to witness the Witches’ Sabbath where Mefistofele is declared their king.  Faust also sees a vision of a woman with a ring of blood around her neck that reminds him of Faust.  Faust goes back to the village where Margherita is imprisoned for killing her mother and drowning the baby she has with Faust. She refuses to leave her prison as she cannot bear living a life of remorse, and when she renounces Faust, a celestial choir proclaims her salvation. Faust is then transported to ancient Greece where he meet with Helen of Troy, and they eventually pledge their love.  Mefistofele is somehow uncomfortable with the situation.  In the epilogue, Faust reflects on his love of a real person bringing suffering, and of a goddess an illusion.  Towards the end, Faust is enraptured in his own vision of bliss, utters the fateful sentence and dies, but redeemed.  Mefistofele exists in defiance.

Conductor – Carlo Ricci. Mefistofele – Christian van Horn, Faust – Michael Fabiano, Margherita – Angela Meade, Elena – Jennifer Check.

First a few words about the story.  What I wrote was the best I could do from the synopsis in the Playbill and my own recollection of the opera.  It doesn’t quite hang together, and neither does the story as it unfolded on stage this evening.  Evidently one can tell the story in different ways, with different events, and different outcomes.  One salient feature of today’s story is the emphasis on the devil; not quite told from his point of view, but with him as the title character.  In Berlioz’s and Gounod’s versions Margherita either kills her mother or baby, but she kills both in Boito’s version.  The Helen of Troy component is new, and that Faust finds redemption is also new.

Those who lament the state of American singers can also take heed that all four principal characters are born in the US, two of them in NJ, and one in NY.  Christian van Horn is a recent winner of the Richard Tucker competition, and we had seen him a few times before, most recently as Colline in La Boheme.  He did a credible job as the devil, although I would like him to be a bit more sinister.  His singing was strong most of the time, except when he was in the back of the rather large stage, there his voice didn’t project that well. There were many scenes where he appeared bare-chested, and he had to jump onto a long table at one point.  Maybe he had on a tight body suit, and maybe the table was slanted so the step wasn’t not as high, but he still managed to pull it off.  In looking over my blog, I discovered I had seen Fabiano a couple of times before, with one of the time as Faust in Opera Australia’s production of the Gounod version, and I enjoyed his singing very much.  In the larger auditorium his voice was not nearly as impressive, but still quite effective.  There is no question Angela Meade can sing well, while she wasn’t quite credible as the young village girl, she was great when Margherita’s innocence turned into despair as she sat in prison.  She was on stage for only limited time though.

Both the first and second parts started with the raising of a couple of curtains.  One was flames licking at the curtain – reasonably enough; the other was a screen with singers sitting or standing behind it.  At the maximum there were about 100 of them, and they all wore this mask, but I am sure it was a mixed and a children’s chorus.  They don’t look particularly tormented, so I wasn’t sure if they were in hell.  Also, on the two balconies there were these people sitting throughout the opera.

A couple of noteworthy sets.  One is the scene at Witches’ Sabbath.  Here we have van Horn directly a motley crew of witches and warlocks, some nude, some scantily dressed (all with body suits, no doubt,) singing praises to him.  The other was where the aforementioned long table where Mefistofele danced with a balloon that was supposed to represent the earth, which he eventually popped.  For an instant there was this woman in the back that was supposed to be a vision of Margherita.

Arrigo Boito wrote many lyrics for operas, including Verdi’s Otello and Falstaff.  For this opera he wrote both the lyrics and the music.  While the songs are tonal, they are not lyrical.  I don’t think I have come across any of them in the past.

I didn’t look into the specifics of this opera when I booked it as part of our subscription, but I didn’t quite expect a traditional opera that is on such a grand scale (at least as far as the large chorus is concerned.)  Anne describes the whole experience as a bit “busy” as one could absorb only so much.  It’s too bad that I will have to give it a thumbs down based on this one encounter.  While the singing was good, it was not good enough to overcome the somewhat incoherent story and the paucity of hummable melodies.

 The applause by the audience for Donald Palumbo (all dark suit) showed its appreciation of how well the chorus sang.

The New York Times review has good and bad things to say about the performance.  The reviewer characterizes the opera as lavish but flawed, and saying someone’s performance may improve in the future is not necessarily praise.

It was good that attendance was reasonably good.  The lady next to me had trouble turning off her cell phone in the beginning, and a gentleman a few seats over stood and yelled at her – completely unnecessary.

We drove in, and again had Chinese takeout in the car.

Julliard Pre-College Orchestra – Robert Spano, conductor; Emanuel Ax, piano. November 5, 2018.

Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center  Orchestra (Seat Q135, $0).

Program

Overture to Candide by Bernstein (1918-90).

Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 (“Emperor”) by Beethoven (1770-1827).

“Dream With Me” from Peter Pan by Bernstein.

Navarra, for Two Violins and Piano, Op. 33 by Sarasate (1844-1908).

Catenaires by Carter (1908-2012).

Take What You Need by Esmail (b. 1983).

Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34 by Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908).

Take a group of gifted, precocious and dedicated children, with families that are willing to back them up (time and financial commitments, emotional support), and you get the Julliard Pre-College division.  Tonight was a “Centennial Gala” in celebration of the long history of the pre-college, and on the program are students, former students, and mentors.

The Overture to Candide immediately put me on notice that this was going to be a great concert.  It is a fast-paced piece of music, and the orchestra did very well with it: great dynamics, impeccable precision.

After the program several people came on the stage to talk about the program and to thank its supporters.  In fact our tickets were given to someone who made a sizable donation to the program.  And somewhere the number $1.5M was bandied about as the amount raised at this gala event.

The most well-known artist in the group was Emanuel Ax, Pre-college ’66.  It’s always a pleasure to hear Ax play and enjoy the narrative he tells with the music, and today was no exception.  However, the weakness of the orchestra was evident as it seemed to be overwhelmed by the soloist.  Not necessary the sound volume (even though at times that was the case,) but that it was relegated to an accompanist instead of being an equal partner.  And did I hear a synchronization problem here and there?

Emanuel Ax played Beethoven's Emperor Concerto.

Shereen Pimental, who was a third-year college student, sang beautifully Bernstein’s song.

Then the young people took over.  Fionna (11) and Hina (14) Khuong-Huu played this incredible Sarasate piece that was just incredible.  And the Elliot Carter piece played by 12-year old Harmony Zhu was described by the composer as “… a fast one-line piece with no chords … a continuous chain of notes using different spacings, accents, and colorings to produce a wide variety of expression.”  Clearly these young girls have tremendous talent, I do wonder if their level of talent is – by Julliard Pre-College standards – typical or exceptional.  If “typical,” then “wow,” if “exceptional,” then I wonder how much Julliard has added to their artistic growth.

The Khuong-Huu sisters.

Vijay Gupta, now with LA Philharmonic, talked about his being rejected by the Pre-college when he was six (six!).  He recently won the McArthur prize for his work with the homeless and the incarcerated through his Street Symphony charity.  The piece he performed was composed by the Julliard alumna Reena Esmail, arranged for the solo violin.  It was short, somewhat difficult (lots of harmonics.)  And what a nice sound his violin produced.

Vijay Gupta, a recent MacArthur Prize winner.

The program ended with another spirited number: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol. It was a performance worthy of any professional orchestra, my only wish is some generous patron endow a violin to the Pre-College.  The concertmaster Annalisa Welinder did very well with the several difficult solo passages, but the violin sound was just a bit weak.

Robert Spano shaking hands with Concertmaster Annalisa Welinder.

Chung-Shu and I were probably the worst-dressed in this gala event.  Many were in the evening finest.  I took the train in.

New Jersey Symphony – Christoph Koenig, conductor; Augustin Hadelich, violin. November 3, 2018.

Basie Center, Red Bank, NJ.  Balcony (Seat J110, $36.)

Program

Don Juan, Op. 20 (1888) by Strauss (1864-1949).

Violin Concerto, Op. 15 (1939) by Britten (1913-1976).

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, “Rhenish,” Op. 97 (1850) by Schumann (1810-1856).

The heading for this concert, “Augustin Hadelich Returns,” was the main reason I bought tickets for this event.  We had seen Hadelich a few times before, and were always impressed with the way he played.

For those not familiar with the violin repertoire (such as I), the Britten and Barber violin concertos must sound somewhat interchangeable.  Indeed they were both written around 1940.

Nothing can be further from the truth.  While there are difficult passages in Barber (which we heard Frank Huang perform with the NY Phil a couple of days ago,) there is quite a bit of lyricism in that composition.  The tunes in tonight’s piece are not as readily hummable, and the entire work has a very different feel to it, structurally and harmonically.  From the very beginning of the first movement (Moderato con moto) we heard this rhythm da-dot-dot-da-da (long shortx2 long long) which stayed throughout the movement and provided the surreal quality to the work.  It reminds me of the theme in Shostakovich’s cello concerto.  The soloist would soon launch into these triple stops and fast double stops that would give pause to most violin students.  (I remember the dread I felt when as part of an exam I had to play an etude of triple stops.)

It gets more difficult from there.  Quoting the Program Notes on the second movement: “The perpetual motion of the Scherzo [vivace] requires extraordinary technique.  The solo part abouts in harmonics, glissandi, scales in thirds, sixths, octaves and 10ths (10ths!), demanding great virtuosity.”  The words are difficult, the execution of the music is even more difficult.  While not flawless (mostly intonation problems during the slow passages,) Hadelich impressed with how he seemed to breeze through the music.

The third movement [Passacaglia: Andante lento (un poco meno mosso)] follows a cadenza.  This movement ends on a trill on the violin that doesn’t try to resolve anything (“leaves us feeling uncertain and searching,” per the Program Notes.)  The piece is performed without pause, although it was easy to tell what movement was being performed.

Hadelich’s 1723 “Ex-Kiesewetter” Strad rose above the orchestra; and we are talking about a large complement of musicians, including the tuba and multiple percussion instruments.  I was surprised that the violin sounded a bit harsh at times, though.

Augustin Hadelich at the end of the Britten violin concerto.

I was disappointed that there was no encore.  I was ready to listen to another Paganini caprice.

Don Juan was one of the ten tone poems Strauss composed, telling a rather familiar – though abridged – story.  It was easy enough to follow the different sections and correlate them with the chapters in Don Juan’s life, including love scenes (by the violin and the oboe.)  The Program Notes noted that the piece is demanding on the French horns, and they came through.

One of the characteristics of Schumann’s Rhenish Symphony is that it has five movements.  The movement markings are: Lebhaft, Scherzo: Sehr massig, Nicht schnell, Feierlich, and Lebhaft.  The Feierlich (solemn) movement was initially titled “in the style of an accompaniment to a solemn ceremony,” probably the result of his trip to Cologne where they saw the installation of a Cardinal at the town’s cathedral.  Even though Schumann withdrew these descriptions prior to publication, the name “Cathedral Scene” has stuck.  It was easy to imagine the Rhine in the background as the symphony is performed.

Koenig used every available gesture to lead the orchestra, including crouching down at several moments.  Whatever his method, the orchestra responded well with a precise and nuanced rendition of the music.

Anne and I met up in Red Bank since we were occupied with different things during the day.  (I attended long-time friend and colleague Brian’s memorial service in Randolph.) The balcony was quite empty, and we moved up two rows after Don Juan – it made quite a difference.

 Also, the marquee at the venue is now "Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre."

New York Philharmonic – Juraj Valcuha, conductor; Frank Huang, violin. November 1, 2018.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat Y103, $39.50.)

Program

Much Ado About Nothing Suite, Op. 11 (1918-19) by Korngold (1897-1957).

Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 14 (1939-40/1948) by Barber (1910-81).

Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 (1940) by Rachmaninoff (1873-1943).

Recently I made the comment “small world, small repertoire” in my posting about how much overlap NY Phil had with HK Phil.  Today I can probably add “small programming ideas” to it.  A bit awkward, what I meant to say was for tonight we also had the concertmaster performing a concerto with the orchestra.

Tonight’s concerto by Barber is not nearly as popular as Brahms’ I heard at the HK Phil concert, but overall it was an enjoyable experience.  At 21 minutes in duration, it was relatively short, and consists of three movements: Allegro, Andante, and Presto in moto perpetuo.  The Program Notes cites the comments made by Barber, which described the first movement as having a structure akin to a sonata, the second movement is introduced by an extended oboe solo, and the last movement as a perpetual motion exploiting the more brilliant and virtuoso characteristics of the violin.  He also used slightly more complicated tempo markings in those comments.

The most noticeable characteristic for the third movement was speed, in keeping with “presto in moto perpetuo.”  I didn’t notice a lot of other challenging techniques such as left hand pizzicatos, harmonics, or double/triple stops.  Huang certainly had no problems with those.  I was surprised there were some intonation problems in the lyrical passages. Also surprising was that he had the music in front of him.  A rather large orchestra was used, and it often overwhelmed the soloist.

Huang and Valcuha at the end of the Barber Violin Concerto.

Korngold wrote “incidental” music for the Shakespeare play which premiered in Vienna in 1920.  He also extracted several works from that music, including the one heard tonight; he actually had it completed three months before the play’s premiere.  The movements of the suite are: (i) Overture; (ii) Maidens in the Bridal Chamber; (iii) Dogberry and Verges; (iv) Intermezzo: Garden Scene; and (v) Hornpipe.  While it was easy enough to picture the scenes suggested by the movement headings while the music was performed, I wish I had some knowledge of the story.

I found the Symphonic Dances a bit difficult to follow.  Not that I couldn’t catch the tunes, or the numerous references to Dies Irae in the last movement, they were straightforward enough.  It was more the music was just wandering about without purpose.

Then I checked my blog, and came across the NJ Symphony performance of the same piece in January, 2018 (yes, we are talking about the same year.)  The conductor gave a short description of what the dances were depicting, and I could follow the program quite well.  He even made sense of why there was this passage for the saxophone!  I wish I had reread my blog before this concert, and wonder why today’s Program Notes didn’t include any of the “program” in its notes.

Overall, not the best effort by the New York Philharmonic.  The January NJSO program is titled “America, Inspiring;” today’s program contained pieces by composers associated with America (I think Korngold’s piece was written when he was still living in Austria.)  Unfortunately, there was no effort to link the pieces together in a coherent way.

We did buy these tickets at a discounted price.  It was good that attendance was quite good tonight.  A testament to NY Phil’s efficiency is that my name in tonight’s Subscribers’ List.

We drove in, and ate Chinese take-out in our car.