Sunday, February 10, 2019

New York Philharmonic – Jaap van Zweden, conductor; Emanuel Ax, piano. January 31, 2019.


David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat Z112, $85.50 ).

Program
Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, K. 16 (1764) by Mozart (1756-91).
Piano Concerto in D major, Hob. XVIII:11 (ca. 1780-84) by Haydn (1732-1809).
Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra (1928-29, rev. 1949) by Stravinsky (1882-1971).
Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551, Jupiter (1788) by Mozart.

Sometimes it is good to attend a concert where it is possible to enjoy without having to think too much.  Tonight’s concert certainly qualifies, at least for three of the four pieces on the program.  Of course, many Ph. D. degrees have been granted, and many books have been written, on these pieces.  The discussion topics can range from exactly when the pieces were written, to what instruments were intended to be used, to how the pieces illustrate the genius of the composers.  All good, but I, for one, could use a break, and this was two hours of sitting back and enjoying the music.  Interestingly, there are no records of when the “old” pieces were premiered.

It is instructive to have Mozart’s first and last symphonies performed in the same program, so one could appreciate the prodigy Mozart was (he was 8 when he wrote his first symphony), how he matured as a composer, and, perhaps, speculate what could have been if he hadn’t died at such a young age.

Mozart’s first symphony consists of three movements: Molto Allegro, Andante, and Presto.  Easy to listen to, and easy to perform (I assume.)  The Program Note says this work was not far removed from coeval (why use a simple word like “contemporary”) three-movements symphony by Carl Friedrich Abel and Johann Christian Bach, except they were 41 and 29 years old.  I was young when I started graduate school, and felt quite smart until this 16-year old was in the same class that I was (he got his Ph. D. the same year I did.)  Abel and Bach had to feel even “worse.”

Mozart’s last symphony was written a few years before he died, so it is somewhat of a mystery why he hadn’t written more, given how prolific he could be.  He finished his last three symphonies in the span of nine weeks, after all.  With all the repeats (which were taken today), the piece lasted about 35 minutes.  I still remember getting a bit bored the time there were three Mozart symphonies in the program.  Today was a bit better, although I would be okay to have things move along a bit faster.  In any case, the “highlight” was the last moment, well known for the fugue where Mozart strung together all five melodies.  Naturally we can count on our word-smithing annotator to say “Mozart renders the listener slack-jawed through a breathtaking fugal display of quintuple invertible counterpoint, …, looking backward … Bach and Handel, and forward … Beethoven.”


 A larger orchestra was used to performed Mozart's 41st Symphony (bottom) compared to the first (top photo.)  The Jupiter is about three times as long as the first symphony Mozart composed.

Haydn lived to the ripe old age of 77, and probably was equally prolific a composer, even though his work is not accorded the same superlatives as Mozart’s.  While he wrote over 100 symphonies, the number of keyboard concertos is only 13 (per Wikipedia.)  Again, once could just sit back and enjoy the performance, and there is no better pianist to do it than Ax, whose playing I always enjoy.  The three movements are Vivace, Un poco adagio, and Rondo all’Ungherese (Allegro assai).  The Hungarian nature of the Rondo was delightful.

Haydn's Piano Concerto was a delight to hear.

Stravinsky wrote the Capriccio after he fled Russia for Western Europe.  He started with the third movement and added the other movements later.  The Wikipedia entry says he wrote it for himself so he could make a living performing it.  It was about 18 minutes long, and performed without pause; the movement transitions were quite clear, though.  The movements are Presto, Andante rapsodico, and Allegro capriccioso ma temp giusto. In addition to the solo piano, there is a “concertino” group (again per Wikipedia) of strings.  We could see the violin and the double bass, the piano blocked our view of the viola and the cello.  In fact some of the wind section sounded like they belonged in this small ensemble also.

A more complex orchestra, with many percussions, was used to perform the Stravinsky Capriccio.

Being the first time for me, I could only say it was a nice give-and-take among the different players, with the piano naturally playing a prominent role.  Ax brought his music with him, either he wasn’t sure he had it memorized, or more in keeping with a chamber performance.

The orchestra performed an encore.

The weather has been bitterly cold the last night, and it was in the teens when we parked our car.  We had dinner at East Szechuan Garden again.

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