David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. Orchestra (Seat V7, $52.50).
Pre-Concert Recital
Alla Tarantella, from Five Pieces for String Quartet
(1923) by Schulhoff (1894-1942).
Lento, from Cypresses (1865) by Dvorak.
Doina Oltului, Traditional Romanian (arr. Ljova,
after Dinicu).
Budget Bulgar (2005) by Ljova (b. 1978).
Brooklyn Rider Quartet: Johnny Gandelsman, violin; Colin
Jacobsen, violin; Nicholas Cords, viola; Michael Nicolas, cello.
Program
Symphony No. 38 in D major (“Prague”) (1786) by Mozart
(1756-1791).
Dances of Galanta (1933) by Kodaly (1882-1967).
Violin Concerto in A minor (1879) by Dvorak (1841-1904).
As critical as I was about the last concert I attended, I
wanted to heap a lot of praise on tonight’s concert. Not only was the program well-performed, it
was also a lot more exciting.
While Mozart’s Prague Symphony is popular, it is not as
well-known as the Jupiter, which I heard on Sunday. Tonight’s performance was head-and-shoulder
better, a conclusion I drew a few measures into the piece. The crispness was there, the contrast was
there, the lightness was there; and – above all – the coherence was there. I was happily following along as the
orchestra went about its journey. Langree
was as energetic as Fischer, but managed to elicit a much better response from
the orchestra.
The Orchestra had a delightful performance of Mozart's Prague Symphony.
One of the observations I have is concert pieces come in
and out of vogue. Dvorak’s violin
concerto is a case in point. I had not
heard one for so long that I didn’t remember how it sounded (not that I was
trying hard to remember it). A search of
this blog indicated that the one time I heard was performed by Sarah Chang, in
2005.
It came back to me rather quickly as soon as the piece
started. I was simply in awe of how the
whole piece sounded. This is a very
difficult piece to play, it requires superb technical skills from the soloist,
and there are very few breaks for him (in this case) during the entire concerto;
on top of that, there is no emotional pause – in Bell’s telling tonight it was
anger nearly the whole time. Now Bell
did have a slip up here or there, I was impressed with how he managed all that,
and he didn’t even miss the high notes, which in the past he had problems
with. He now produces such a sweet and
lovely sound few others can match; of course, he has a great Strad at his
disposal, but many others do also.
Joshua Bell acknowledging the audience enthusiasm after an exhilarating performance of Dvorak's Violin Concerto.
As encore he and the orchestra played an adaptation of
Chopin’s Op. 9 Nocturne (No. 2?) which offered a contrast to the Dvorak concerto. It was gentle, inward looking, and had a dose
of virtuoso elements. Chopin didn’t
write any music for the violin, and I thought if he had done so, it would sound
like the piece we heard tonight.
Sandwiched between the two pieces were five dances by Kodaly
(Lento; Allegretto moderato; Allegro con moto, grazioso; Allegro; and Allegro
Vivace). Kodaly and Bartok traversed the
Hungarian countryside collecting folk music (I didn’t know they did it together),
and the dances certainly sounded very Hungarian. Kodaly did live in Galanta, a town about 35
miles east of Bratislava, for a few years.
Gypsy music (not sure if it is an acceptable nowadays) is nice to listen
to, but by the end of the 17 or so minute program I thought we have had enough.
The pre-concert group Brooklyn Rider is by most measures
a string quartet. It claims to “offer
eclectic repertoire in gripping performances that continue to attract legions
of fans and draw rave reviews from classical, rock, and world music critics
alike.” Quite a statement, and I am not
sure why they didn’t call themselves brooklyn rider (lower case) to sound even
hipper.
Brooklyn Rider.
While they didn’t quite live up to that description, the very
short program was quite interesting. And
the pieces did add to the Eastern Europe feel of the evening. Erwin Schulhooff’s Alla Tarantella was one of
five moments (the others are “alla” tango, Viennese waltz, serenade, and
Czeca). Dvorak’s Lento is arranged from
his Cypress song cycle, and may be a tribute to his unrequited lover Josefina,
who had already died. Ljova is the pen
name of Lev Zhurbin, and the two pieces are in the styles of Romanian music and
klezmer (I had to look this up, it means Middle Ages Jewish folk music). Certain the Romanian piece reminded me of Zigeunerweisen,
and contributed to my feeling there was too much Gypsy this evening.
When we looked at the orchestra listing in the Playbill,
we found Laura Frautschi listed as the concertmaster, and couldn’t find Allifranchini
in the violin section. So we concluded
something definitely happened. This
Friday’s concert, however, had he and Frautschi playing together a piece by
Schnittke. To add to the puzzlement, who
walked out as the concertmaster?
Allifranchini, of course.
Members of the MMFO as listed in tonight's Playbill. Allifranchini's name was nowhere to be found. But look at the first photo in this blog entry, who was in the concertmaster's seat?
Driving up was not a problem, and we found free parking
of 65th. Dinner was takeout
from Great Wall. We got home at around
10:20 pm.
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