David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. Orchestra (Seat N12, $50).
Pre-Concert Recital
Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (1965-70) by Piazzolla
(1921-1992, arr. Bragato).
Neave Trio: Anna Williams, violin; Mikhail Veselov,
cello; Eri Nakamura, piano.
Program
Romanian Folk Dances for string orchestra (1915-17) by
Bartok (1881-1945, arr. Willner).
Le quattro Stagioni (“The Four Seasons”) by
Vivaldi (1678-1741).
The program certainly looked promising: a pairing of the
Four Seasons by Vivaldi and Piazzolla.
We last heard this combination in 2016 with the New York Philharmonic;
on that occasion two of the seasons were performed by Frank Huang, who also did
the entire Vivaldi composition.
Piazzolla’s Cuattro Estaciones Portenas started off as
tangos, and have been arranged by various musicians for different combinations
of instruments. Today’s arrangement was
made by Jose Bragato – who was a member of the Piazzolla quintet - for a trio
of violin, cello, and piano. For the
record, in Spanish the seasons are Verano (summer), Otono, Invierno, and
Primavera – notice the work starts with summer.
I vaguely recall reading in some Program Note or web
entry that there are a few references to Vivaldi in the Piazzolla piece, but I
didn’t hear any. This arrangement gave
equal prominence to the three instruments, asking quite a bit from the
players. Vivaldi provided a text to go
along with his Four Seasons (more on that later), Piazzolla did not. The annotator David Wright writes one could
hear crickets in the summer and fall, produced by the violin’s being played
behind-the-bridge. Otherwise one has to
use one’s imagination to hear what Piazzolla’s describing. Fair enough, and I am sure different people
will conjure up different images.
The trio, evidently all graduates of Bard College, put in
an impressive performance.
The Neave Trio.
When Manze first came on stage, he remarked to the
audience that conductors usually know what would happen during the concert, but
that for tonight that wouldn’t be the case as the two soloists would be adding
various passages, some “improvised,” during the program. The Program Notes describes the Finnish violinist
Kuusisto as being “renowned for his fresh approach … a gifted improvisor.” Sundquist is a Norwegian bassist who now
teaches at University of Tromso (and we have been there!). Let me first say there is no doubt that
Kuusisto is a great violinist; the solo bass had mostly an accompanist’s role,
and my view of Sundquist was blocked by Manze.
He also invited the audience to clap when they felt like
it, and it would be okay if the cell phones rang – as long as they were in the
right key. He also jokingly pointed to
the exit doors in the back if people wanted to leave early (I saw only one
person doing that). It was going to be
that kind of an evening, although by all measures this was still a reserved audience
– the only thing usual was the clapping that occurred now and then.
Bartok is generally regarded as one of the earliest ethnomusicologists,
although composers like Janacek, Sibelius, and Dvorak also incorporated folk
tunes in many of their works. There were
six dances listed in the Program, and they lasted – together with some
improvisation – less than 15 minutes.
The titles are (i) Joc cu bata (Stick Dance); (ii) Braul (Sash Dance);
(iii) Pe loc (Stamping Dance); (iv) Buciumeana (Dance of Buchum); (v) Poarga
Romaneasca (Romanian Polka); and (vi) Maruntel (Fast Dance): L’istesso tempo –
Allegro vivace.
The dances sounded folk enough. Not being familiar with them, I couldn’t tell
where Bartok ended and the improvisation began.
Pleasant enough, and a musicologist probably can get a lot more out of
it than I did.
My disappointment lies with the Four Seasons, and some of
that could be attributed to my wrong expectations. It would be natural to assume an evening with
Vivaldi’s and Piazzolla’s “versions” of the Four Seasons presents an opportunity
to compare and contrast the two. Instead
we were asked to enjoy a performance with various improvisations – which may or
may not be Vivaldi-like – thrown in. A
little of that could be interesting, but the copious amount we got detracted
from the whole experience. Perhaps one
could make the case that the additions were cadenzas (or recaps) for the various
movements, but I couldn’t find any rhyme or theme in the additions, some were
simply too long, and monotonous to boot – well, one could have extended heat
waves and cold fronts, I guess.
There is an English translation of Vivaldi’s poems
accompanying the music (I don’t recall ever having seen it), and the music
supposedly traces the program quite well.
The added music was more like a distraction in this exercise. Each poem consists of four stanzas, but each
concerto has only three movements. I
would like to understand that mystery.
Only the string sections were used tonight, so all others
got the weekend off. We also have yet to
encounter Mozart in this Mostly Mozart Festival, which is okay (and Mozart will
be on the program we attend next Tuesday).
Kuusisto and Manze at the end of the concert. Was it Sundquist on the bass in the back?
At 4 pm Google Maps already showed a delay of over 30
minutes to Lincoln Center, so we decided to take the train in. I brought along some food, Anne bought a
snack at a kiosk in David Geffen Hall.
We had sometime before the 9:37 pm train, so we got something to eat at
Wasabi at Penn Station.
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