David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. Orchestra (Seat Q101, $66).
Program
Symphony No. 7 in E major, WAB 107 (1881-83) by Bruckner
(1824-1896).
A couple of months ago Lincoln Center had this sale of
several of its “Great Performers” series.
I bought two concerts each for this orchestra and the London
Philharmonic (in April).
The Philharmonia Orchestra had programs for Sunday March
10 and Monday March 11, I am writing this review after having attended both of
them, so I will be making some general remarks, and some about the specific
pieces in the programs.
First, the Philharmonia is a big orchestra. For both concerts the members took up all the
space on stage. In the roster were 10
cellos and 8 basses (although I only remember seeing 8 cellos on stage), and
there was a large brass section as well.
Second, the volume dynamics had an enormous range, going
from very soft to very loud. To their
credit, it was never harsh, and for the 3/11 program I was in Row G.
Third, the brass section was competent, most of the
time. There were moments of
tentativeness when they were by themselves.
Soft and firm, particularly, gave them trouble. But few horn players are as competent as
Philip Myers, even though some complain he plays too loudly.
These traits also characterized how I heard the
Bruckner. Suffice it to say the Bruckner
that has stuck with me was his eighth, performed by the New York Philharmonic
under Zubin Mehta. This afternoon’s
performance didn’t quite rise to that level.
Not that I could find anything wrong with it, it’s just
that being loud for loudness’s sake, or being soft to show how well the section
players may showcase their technical abilities, do not by themselves take the
listener through a journey.
Per the Playbill, Bruckner was an admirer of Wagner. When Wagner died in early 1883, Bruckner,
working on the slow movement at the time, added a coda described as “the final
reiteration of a sad chorale intoned by four Wagner tubas, which the master had
used in Der Ring des Nibelungen and that Bruckner now introduced into the
symphonic repertory.” Come to think of
it, to the uninitiated (that would include me, even though I had heard this
before) this symphony could have been passed off as being written by Wagner.
Other aspects of Bruckner that I didn’t know. First is he was viewed as “a devout,
provincial, rather pedantic composer who managed nonetheless to create
magnificent symphonies;” second, when the famed conductor Hermann Levi
conducted this symphony for the first time, a critic asked “how is it possible
that you remained unknown to us for so long?”
Bruckner was 70 then.
Salonen and the Philharmoia Orchestra.
The applause was thunderous. All my reservations aside, I was glad to be
at this concert, and was looking forward to the one Monday night.
I left church as soon as the sermon concluded and drove
up to the South Amboy train station, getting close to “real” speeding. I did make the train by a couple of
minutes. The program started at 3 pm,
was about 64 minutes long, so I caught the 5:07 pm train back home.
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