David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. Orchestra (Seat G101, $66).
Program
The Oceanides
(1914) by Sibelius (1865-1957).
Cello Concerto (2016) by Salonen (b. 1958).
The Firebird
(1909-10) by Stravinsky (1882-1971).
The Playbill nonchalantly described the first half of the
program as being written by two Finnish composers, about 100 years apart. What it failed to mention – probably because
it was too obvious – was that the younger composer would be conducting his own
work, and that he could trace his composition heritage to Sibelius.
Tonight’s Cello concerto was written for Yo-Yo Ma, which
he premiered with Salonen in 2017, with the Chicago Symphony. Overall it was an exciting piece to listen
to, especially in the wonderful hands of Truls Mork and under the baton of
Salonen. Salonen describes the first
movement as “evolving from ‘chaos’ and becoming like a comet,” and that the
concerto explores “the concept of a virtuoso operating at the very limits of
what is physically (and sometimes mentally) possible.”
As to the first point, a program of the music doesn’t necessarily
translate into how a listener hears the music.
Of course one can make the case of chaos turning into order, and how “a
moving object is emulated by other lines … A bit like a comet’s tail.” But what I heard was a lot more than that; at
a minimum, the orchestra/sections at times took the lead, and at times there
was quite a bit of conversation.
Not being a cello player, I do not know all the virtuoso
techniques one can bring to the instrument.
As a string player, I do know how difficult harmonics, glissandos, high
registers, large intervals, and left-hand pizzicatos are. All these, and more, were present in the
concerto. Not only that, some of these passages
were so long that they no doubted tested the stamina and concentration of the soloist,
and the orchestra, for that matter.
In that sense, Mork – a Norwegian – did an excellent
job. He needed the music (who wouldn’t?),
and there were precarious occasions when the music was about to fall off the
stand. My seat in Row G gave me an
excellent view of how he methodically tackled the music, and how he worked
against a large orchestra. Salonen needed
the music also.
Several interesting aspects. A set of drums was placed up front, and a
percussionist came out after the first movement to hit them (for lack of a
better term). He also had some “rattles”
that he would shake. There was a speaker
placed in the front also, I assume it was used to broadcast some preprogrammed music
that sounded like bird calls. (I am not
sure if it was bird calls, but that seems to be a Finnish favorite.) The concerto is “performed in three movements”
which are fast, slow, fast; naturally there are slow passages in the fast
movements, and vice versa. A lot of
tremolo was used in the orchestra strings.
(This turns out to be true of both nights’ programs.)
Truls Mork and Esa-Pekka Salonen after performing the Salonen Cello Concerto. Notice the drums on the right, and the speaker between Mork and Salonen, partially blocked by the music stand for the soloist.
I hadn’t taken notes during a concert for a long time,
but couldn’t help myself when the second movement started: slow movement begins
with a bang, Mork has great techniques and is precise (minor intonation
programs on rare occasions), the harmonization – especially by the flute – produces
an interesting effect, demonstrates the sounds a cello can make, glissandos
sound like ghosts wailing, cacophony plus drums.
What words did I conclude my notetaking with? Instrument abuse and mental torture. Perhaps that what Salonen meant in the quote
cited above? As a first time listener,
there were several occasions I wanted that passage to end, not only because I
wondered – for instance – how many glissandos on how many strings does one
need, but that do we need to see if the musician would “fail” after – say –
five tries. Bottom line? If given a chance, I would listen to it again.
The concert began with a short piece by Sibelius. The tone poem Oceanides is based on Greek
myth and describes the thousands of sea nymphs born to Oceanus and Tethys, his
sister. Salonen put the orchestra “volume
control” to great use in describing what must be cresting and ebbing of these
great waves. Sibelius wrote this for the
Norfolk Music Festival in 1914, and travelled to Connecticut to conduct it,
collecting an honorary degree from Yale in the process.
I wish I had studied the Firebird before attending this
concert. That would have made the
program much more interesting. As it
was, I needed the anchor provided by the familiar tunes to follow the program
along. Again the piece was tailor-made
(not that Stravinsky was thinking about the Philharmonia Orchestra) for the abilities
of this orchestra. One remark I wanted
to make: as exciting as the passage “Infernal Dance” was, it reminded me of how
Trifonov did that by himself, on a piano.
After the Firebird. He can make a deep bow.
Salonen conducts with precision and attention to
details. He will become the music
director of San Francisco Symphony in 2020, succeeding Michael Tilson Thomas.
The program lasted until 10:15 pm, so I had to take a
late train home, getting in a little before 12:30 am.
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