New York Philharmonic – Jaap van Zweden, conductor; Simone Lamsma, violin. November 29, 2018.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra 2 (Seat BB106, $62.50).

Program

Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 15 (1938-39, rev. 1950, 1954, 1965) by Britten (1913-76).

Symphony No. 7, Op. 60, Leningrad (1941) by Shostakovich (1906-75).

I bought tonight’s tickets as part of the subscription I signed up for in the summer, and only knew of the headline “Jaap Van Zweden Conducts Shostakovich.”  That was good enough for me to pick the concert.

I found out earlier today the specifics of the program.  It is some strange coincidence that a piece I hadn’t heard before this month, I would hear twice this month (the Britten violin concerto.)  The Shostakovich piece is 77 minutes long per the Playbill, long enough to be a full-length concert by itself.  Put together we have a program over 100 minutes long, rather substantial by any measure.

Simone Lamsma is a Dutch violinist in her 30s, and this was her first appearance with the New York Philharmonic.  Although we heard this played early this month, the piece still sounded as difficult as it did then.  Lamsma certainly could rise up to the technical challenges.  It would be difficult not to compare how her playing stacked up against Hadelich’s, and – with great reluctance – I must give the nod to Hadelich.  Tonight there were more intonation problems, some sloppiness with the harmonics, and I on occasion detected hesitation.

The “Mlynardski” Stradivarius (1718) she performed on sounded very smooth, it projected very well to our seats.  At times it was a bit overwhelmed by the orchestra, though.

Simone Lamsam after performing the Britten Violin Concerto.

In any case, it was violin performance at its peak form, and I was glad to see it a second time.

Lamsma performed a short encore (she announced it from the stage, but I and those around me couldn’t make out what she was saying.)  It was an virtuoso piece, but it would be difficult to get a piece to showcase more of the musician’s prowess after the Britten piece. And this one doesn’t have the glissandi and left-hand pizzicatos required by Britten.

The Playbill contains much background about the Shostakovich symphony, completed at the end of 1941, during the siege of the city.  It was premiered in March, 1942, and found its way to the New York Philharmonic in October, 1942.  The most recent performance by this orchestra was in 2005.  I am quite sure this was my first exposure.

The music didn’t sound as grim as its background would suggest.  Compared to how Shostakovich can sound, this could even be considered sunny.  What most stood out for me was this theme that got repeated by nearly all the sections of the orchestra.  The siege had just started, and all the horrors of the two-plus year siege had not yet visited on Leningrad.  When the symphony was first performed in Leningrad about a year into the siege, the effect was tremendous: “tears of deep feeling welled up in their eyes.  They had not cried over the dead bodies of their loved ones in winter, but now the tears came, …”  Twenty-seven musicians who had rehearsed did not play in the concert, 25 because they had died.

A full orchestra was used, with a large number of percussion instruments, and more than usual number of brasses (seated on both ends of the stage.)  It sounded loud at times for us, we only hope the players wear ear protection.

The full orchestra sounded very loud at times.  Note the brass players at both ends of the orchestra.

This has been a busy week for concerts.  I will need to wrap this write-up very quickly so as not to fall behind.  On Monday I saw Glass Handel with Chung Shu, Wednesday the Pearl Fishers, Thursday evening this New York Philharmonic concert, earlier this (Friday) evening a Mannes faculty concert featuring Yi-heng and Max (guess who told us about the event), and we have tickets for tomorrow’s New Jersey Symphony concert.  So it will be five concerts in six days, four of them in New York City. I feel a bit rushed and overwhelmed, but not tired.

The New York Times review of the program is generally positive, although less insightful than what I usually expect.  The snare drum with the repeated themes also reminded the reviewer of Bolero.  Turns out Lamsma and van Zweden’s cooperation went as far back as 2007.

We were at Ellie’s in the afternoon, and left Hoboken for Lincoln Center around 4:30 pm.  Traffic was okay and we found parking on 70^th.  We were early enough that we found time to eat at Legend 72. The ramp to Turnpike Eastern spur was closed when we exited Lincoln Tunnel, but the detour didn't add a lot of time to our drive home.