New York Philharmonic. Philippe Jordan – conductor; Julia Fischer – violin. October 31, 2019.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  (Orchestra 3, Seat HH105, $46.50).

Program

Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, Classical (1916-17) by Prokofiev (1891-1953).

Concerto in E minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 64 (1844) by Mendelssohn (1809-47).

Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 (1811-12) by Beethoven (1770-1827).

Just as with the NJ Symphony concert a few weeks ago, I was looking forward to this first NY Phil concert we were about to attend.  I was not quite sure what to make of the Program.  Both the Mendelssohn and Beethoven pieces are staples of the concert repertoire.  I don’t recall having heard the Prokofiev symphony live before, but it is on one of the CDs in our car, and gets played quite often (more because we have only a couple of CDs in the car than anything else), and it is a short and pleasant composition.

Prokofiev’s first symphony was written when Prokofiev was a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and “would earn an enduring spot in the orchestral repertoire … and in the history books as a forebear of the widespread neoclassicism of the 1920s.”  The short symphony (less than 15 minutes) consists of Allegro con brio, Larghetto, Gavotte: Non troppo allegro, and Finale: Molto vivace.

If one had listened to one version of performance many times, that version tends to be the standard by which other performances are measured.  But that’s not what I came away with at all with this delightful, fast, and light-hearted rendition.  The orchestra sounded precise and crisp, just like how Mozart would have wanted it.  After listening to this piece I was ready to settle in for an enjoyable evening of familiar music.

(I did hear this performed by NJ Symphony a couple of years ago, with Zhang conducting, and liked that performance too.)

Julia Fischer’s name is very familiar.  A search of my blog returned only one instance where I heard her perform, and that was in 2008, when she was in her twenties.  The aspect about her that was special was that she’s both a concert violinist and concert pianist, and was at that time the youngest professor at some school.  Interestingly, that was the only concert of hers that I had ever attended.

More than ten years down the road, that’s still her career path.  And by all indications tonight she could get most of Mendelssohn right, one could quibble with the interpretation (e.g., tempo), the occasional off-pitch here, or that some notes were played too softly, but it was a well-done performance.  That Mendelssohn’s concerto highlights the melodic and technical skills of the violinist, and she took advantage of it.

Fischer and Jordan after performance of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.

How does one distinguish between a tier 1 level soloist and a superstar?  She didn’t come across as such tonight, perhaps it was the occasional mistake, or the inability to engage the audience more, or may be it was simply projecting an aura of confidence.  I don’t know if it would make her a superstar in the instrument, but I would say trying to straddle both the violin and piano may not get her there.  Even though a typical soloist does only a few pieces per season, one still has to live and breathe the art day in and day out.  What you want to be able do with a violin is quite different from with a piano (e.g., latter has no pitch issues, and interval jumps are done very differently).  Not that any one needs any advice from me, but I wanted to write down this observation.

She performed Paganini's Caprice 24 as an encore piece.  It was well done, but not quite up to how Hadelich did it a few years back, which I described as "perfect."

Frank Huang stayed for the Mendelssohn.  I do wonder if he sometimes should excuse himself as I am sure many (some?) in the audience were wondering if he could do a better job.

Many people think of the film Immortal Beloved when it comes to Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, specifically the slow movement.  It indeed is one of the more lovely movements in the repertoire, conjuring up thoughts of regret, introspection, and longing.  However, it would be unfortunate not to appreciate the other movements which are not as “sturm und drang” and Beethoven’s odd-numbered symphonies.  I very much enjoyed the piece.

Curtain Call after Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.

We last saw Philippe Jordan conducting the Met’s Ring Cycle in the spring.  Today we had a good view of the stage, and noticed that he conducted with a lot of energy and movement.

Here is the New York Times review.

Today’s is Halloween, so we left candy outside our door for the late trick or treaters, and I was surprised at how many people were out and about around the Lincoln Center area.  A block of 69^th was dedicated to pedestrians.  I, for one, can’t understand the point of walking around in a costume.