London Philharmonic Orchestra – Edward Gardner, conductor; James Ehnes, violin. April 14, 2019.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Tier 1 (Seat CC101, $66).

Program

Overture to Egmont (1809-10) by Beethoven (1770-1827).

Violin Concerto in D minor (1903-04, rev. 1905) by Sibelius (1865-1957).

Symphony No. 1 in D major (1885-88) by Mahler (1860-1911).

Fairly or unfairly, tonight’s concert felt a lot more substantial than Sunday’s.  Not to minimize Ravel’s Concerto in G, in the violin repertoire the Sibelius must rank among the top, and at 56 minutes Mahler’s first symphony is a titan, even though he withdrew that title a few years after its publication.

The Egmont overture, an otherwise completely legitimate concert piece, served as the program introductory piece to provide a break for late comers to be seated.  It was played with precision, ending in a building crescendo that signaled triumph at the end.  No, Beethoven didn’t write an opera called “Egmont,” instead it was introduced in Vienna at a play based on Goethe’s tragic play.

I have reviewed the Sibelius Violin Concerto many times in this blog, my most recent encounter was in Hong Kong last September, with Joshua Bell.  What I learned from the Program Notes today was that the 1905 revision was less flashy, and conducted by Richard Strauss at its premiere.

Ehnes was flawless technically.  The orchestra was large, but he managed to maintain a balanced dialog with it throughout.  The first two movements were a bit too “mechanical” for me: there is always the risk that making sure the execution was technically flawless may make one lose focus on the message.  I once characterized this concerto as going through the stages of grief: frustration, struggle, bargaining, and acceptance.  While I was impressed with the violinist’s virtuosity throughout, it’s only in the last movement that I felt emotionally engaged with the music.

Ehnes and Gardner after the Sibelius Concerto.  The soloist held his own against a rather large orchestra.

He played two encores.  Sonata No. 3 by Ysaye was like an etude in double- and triple-stops.  He performed it flawlessly: I didn’t catch any stray notes.  A true musician can appreciate how the piece is organized, a true technician can appreciate how challenging the piece is; I am neither.  The second encore was Bach’s third violin sonata (third movement, I believe).  Bach’s music is not easy to get right, and I don’t know this well enough.  However, I think the way Ehnes approaches the violin is perfect for Bach.

I am reasonably familiar with Mahler’s first symphony. If I were to describe how I heard it, I would – as with the concert yesterday – plagiarize the lot from the Program Notes.  So I decided to include that in this blog.

I did a count of the number of musicians on stage for this symphony: 16 first violins, 14 second violins, 12 violas, 10 cellos, 8 basses, 5 percussion players (2 sets of timpani), 9 brasses (trumpet, trombone, tuba), 12 reeds (4 each oboes, bassoons, clarinets), 4 flutes, 1 harp, and 1 additional trombone in the midst of the 8 horns.  Not sure I got everyone; and of course there are doubling parts (piccolo, English horn, etc.)

The third movement started with a solo double bass playing “Frere Jacques” in a high register.  It sounded quite nice, although it could have been much louder.

It occurred to me that Mahler had to be both precocious and self-assured to think he could get away with this, his first symphony, composed when he was in his twenties.  As the Program Notes explains, “some listeners were baffled by his ingenious juxtapositions of irony and sublimity, of parody and exultation, as well as by his merging of the genres of song and symphony.”  I believe some other reviewer had a phrase like “vulgarity and refinement” as well. It was a good thing that his supporters outnumbered his detractors, I can see a critic panning his music as being “un-serious,” “comical,” “immature” and as a result he may either been shunned or driver to stop writing altogether.  Evidently the critics did get to him, since he did revise the symphony, including the removal of one movement altogether.

This is a large orchestra that held together well.  Notice the section seating arrangement was quite different from Sunday's performance.  The first time I observed something like this.

I had not sit in Tier 1 for a while.  One gets a much more interesting view of the stage; however, the acoustics at my seat wasn't the best: I could hear okay, but the sound came across at times a bit muffled.

I was impressed with both the Philharmonia Orchestra and this one.  The advantage of living near New York is that great performers come visit.

CS and his neighbor also attended this concert.  We met up for a light snack at Starbucks before the concert – I was late because NJ Transit had problems due to a downed tree in Middletown.  The concert ended at about 10:15 pm, so we had to take the 11:07 pm train home.  Anne picked me up at the train station at around 12:30 am.