David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. Orchestra (Seat CC13, $92).
Program
The Unanswered Question (1906-ca. 1941) by Ives (1874-1954).
Piano Concerto, Universos Infinitos (2011) by Benzecry (b. 1970).
A concert with Dudamel conducting should be exciting, and I did look forward to today’s concert with some level of excitement. I must say I walked away with mixed feelings, happy that I got to hear a couple of new works (for me) that had some level of “programming” to them, but disappointed that the concert wasn’t as enjoyable as it could have been.
The Unanswered Question addresses the “perennial question of existence,” per the Playbill. It is short, with the score stating that it would take eight minutes, the Program Notes saying around six, and probably lasted about five (didn’t time it exactly), and felt even shorter than that. It left me with the suspicion that Ives gave up not long he started the exercise, and I am quite sure making it much longer won’t help with getting the answer. The Program Notes contains a good description of the music: strings represent the Druids and are at ppp throughout; the trumpet asks the question; and the flutes hunt for the invisible answer, getting more agitated enough to be in a con fuoco state, and eventually (quickly in my assessment) realize the futility of it all.
Charles Ives was an interesting character, with a successful career in the insurance business in addition to securing himself a reputation as a well-known composer. One could argue if his music was more startling than that of his contemporaries such as Bartok and Schoenberg, as the Program Notes asserts, but there is no doubt his work is not programmed as much as his contemporaries.
Ives asked but didn't answer the question.
Esteban Benzecry is a Lisbon-born Argentinian who now lives in Paris. The concerto was composed in 2011, but didn’t see its world premiere until October 2019 at the LA Philharmonic, with the same conductor and soloist (to which the work is dedicated). The work has three movements: I. Un mundo interior (An Interior World); II. Nuque Cuyen (Madre Luna/Mother Moon); and III. Toccata Willka Kati (Retorno del Sol/Return of the Sun). Per the composer, the first movement is about the cosmic and interior universes of an individual and how he/she develops, it has a 4-note fanfare theme and a calmer second theme; the second movement reflects how the people from southern Chile and Argentina feel they are made of stardust, supported by the various sororities and tonalities of the orchestra; the third movement alludes to the “winter solstice” festival (June 21) and how the indigenous people celebrate the arrival of another planting season.
One can always argue if one hears the “message” in the music, and with the Program Notes it was relatively easy in the case. The music itself was quite enjoyable. The initial 4-note motif, which gets repeated in different forms quite often (also in the third movement), reminded me of Shostakovich’s cello concerto and the opening theme. Tiempo is not tall, so he had to reach over for the two ends of the piano, that didn’t seem to hinder his excellent delivery of the solo lines. The music is such that the orchestra plays an equally important part, often with the piano in support.
This is Tiempo’s debut with the NY Phil, and he certainly put in a great performance. A lot is asked of the soloist, and he came through. Great dynamics, clean tone, making short work of this difficult virtuoso piece.
The four principals in the performance of Benzecry's piano concerto: Tiempo (back towards camera,) Benzecry, Huang, and Dudamel.
With new music my faculty is used mostly to grasp what is happening. That was true of the short Ives piece. It was even more true with this large orchestra, including instruments like the cuica (a friction drum with a wide pitch range), waterphone, claves, and bamboo wind chimes. The five or so percussionists were certainly kept very busy. On top of tracking the instruments I also wanted to get the “story” behind the work, and the themes that tie it together. While I certainly enjoyed the two pieces enough to want to listen to them again, I was so occupied with determining if it was “good music” that I couldn’t decide if it was a good performance.
Naturally I expected to enjoy the audience perennial favorite of Dvorak’s. For me Dvorak’s Eight is a hit-or-miss affair, but his ninth is so easy on the ear that it is always enjoyable. And we are talking NY Phil and Dudamel here. Well, I was disappointed, not deeply so, nor slightly so (B+ grade then?). One reason maybe how Dudamel has chosen to “dramatize” a particular phrase by adding a rubato and a glissando to it. Some may call that original, but it just drove me further up the wall every time it got repeated.
The entire orchestra after performing Dvorak's "From the New World" Symphony.
Dudamel had a slightly different take on this phrase, don't remember hearing that a few years back when he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic.
I remember listening to Dudamel conducting the same symphony at Carnegie Hall, with the Vienna Philharmonic. If my blog entry was any indication, I wasn’t blown away either.
I came across this NY Times review; the reviewer spends most of the article on the Dvorak piece and loved the way Dudamel brought new insight and new life into the piece. I of course beg to differ.
I came across this NY Times review; the reviewer spends most of the article on the Dvorak piece and loved the way Dudamel brought new insight and new life into the piece. I of course beg to differ.
We originally had tickets for the evening concert on Thursday 1/16, but Anne had a commitment she didn’t want to break, so we ended up exchanging the tickets for the Friday 11 am concert. The original tickets were bought on sale, and in the past few years NY Phil would not allow exchanges into a similar section with those tickets, so we ended up paying $38 additional for each ticket. There were scattered empty seats in the auditorium.
We took the train in, and had enough time to eat at the Penn Station Shake Shack before catching the train back to New Jersey.
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