David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. Orchestra (Seat R15, $50).
Pre-Concert Recital
Fantasy in C major, D. 760 (“Wanderefantasie”) (1822) by
Schubert (1797-1828).
Drew Petersen, piano.
Program: All-Beethoven
Violin Concerto in D major (1806).
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major (“Eroica”) (1803).
It had been a while since we last attended a concert, so
I was somewhat looking forward to this event.
I was pleased to have gone. We had
a busy summer so far, with our daughter and our son’s families staying with us
on and off since mid-June, and we also spent a week in Hawaii with our son’s
family. By no means a complaint, but the
quiet was nonetheless refreshing after our son’s family left this (Tuesday)
morning. [Turns out we ran into a bit of
a problem with our boat right after that, and had to get the problem
resolved. Again, not complaining.]
This was our first encounter with the young Norwegian
violinist Vilde Frang (born 1986), so I didn’t know what to expect.
Both my and Anne’s first remarks after the concert were
that she came away way too soft; indeed Anne cupped her ears quite a bit during
her performance to hear better. From
what I could hear, however, it could have been a great performance – the enthusiastic
applause of the audience was also an indication of that. There were slight intonation problems here
and there, which was to be expected for a live performance. It is interesting to see what the soloists do
during the many long orchestral passages in this concerto, especially during
the first movement. In Frang’s case it was
staring into empty space most of the time.
Frang and Manze after the Beethoven Violin Concerto.
The Eroica symphony was written a few years before the
violin concerto, during Beethoven’s so-called “heroic” period. At 47 minutes it is considered a long
symphony, but is only 5 minutes longer than the violin concerto. It also has one additional movement (Allegro
con brio; Marcia funebre: Adagio assai; Scherzo: Allegro vivace; Finale:
Allegro molto).
This is one of the first works I “studied” in music class
while in college, especially how the opening theme was used in the first
movement. Memory is an interesting
thing, as the first movement the second movement came back to me, and the third
came towards the end of the second. On the other hand, the fourth movement always
eludes me (I can’t remember it this very moment).
A testament to the quality of the orchestra is that I now
have high expectations for them. By and
large they did well, although there were times they wandered a bit. And they did manage to sound like a much
larger orchestra. It was interesting to
see how the different section principals tackled their solo passages: how the
flutist’s fingers fly all over her instrument, and how long the oboist could
hold her breath. And the second violin
section is all women.
After performing Beethoven's Eroica Sympohony.
Andrew Manze directed with a lot of movement. He will be on again later this week.
Schubert’s Fantasy in C major grew out of a song he
composed in 1816 called “Der Wanderer.”
Some of the words are “Here the sun seems so cold/the blossom faded,
life old/and men’s words mere empty noise/I am a stranger everywhere.” This became the Adagio section of this
one-movement work. (This from the Program Notes.) All I could tell was there
was a recurring theme (actually a couple of them) in this virtuosic piece of
piano music, which Drew Petersen dispensed with methodically in the pre-recital
in a most enjoyable manner.
We decided to drive in, and didn’t encounter too much
traffic. We had not eaten street food
for a while, and discovered the menu had changed somewhat, but prices have gone
up quite a bit! We got a snack at Wok
City after the concert.
No comments:
Post a Comment