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.
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