Budapest Festival Orchestra. Ivan Fischer, conductor; Renaud Capucon, violin. February 23, 2020.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat Q3, $66).

Program: All-Dvorak (1841-1904)

Legend, Op. 59, No. 10 (1881).

Misto kiekani (“Evening blessing”), from Four Choruses (1876-78).

Slavonic Dance, Op. 46, No. 7 (1878).

Violin Concerto in A minor (1879).

Symphony No. 8 in G major (1889).

When Lincoln Center Great Performers released $55 seats, I bought tickets to five concerts.  (They also charge $11 in fees per ticket.)  Three Sunday concerts for myself (as Anne has commitments Sunday afternoons) and two Monday concerts for the two of us.  I have always enjoyed listening to orchestras other than the NY Phil and NJSO, so look forward to hearing these orchestras in the coming months.

I have some familiarity with both the orchestra and the conductor, having heard them several times in the past (though a review of this blog returns far fewer entries than I expected).  It is much to Fischer’s credit that he has built a reputation for the organization, starting from scratch in 1983.

It was overall a delightful program, and brought out the “best” in Dvorak.  That despite the many shortcomings of the performances.

“Legend” was initially written for piano four-hands, today we heard the last of them (I assume they were orchestrated by Dvorak himself).  These pieces were modeled after Brahms’s Hungarian Dances for piano four-hands, and evidently Brahms, born about 8 years earlier, had a lot of interaction with and influence over Dvorak.  Among other things, Brahms introduced Dvorak to his publisher, and they both solicited Joachim David when they wrote their violin concertos.

In any case, the Legend was a nice and lyrical piece.  The Slavonic Dance started with a lively oboe line, and did sound like the “jump dance” that it was supposed to be.  In between the two orchestral pieces, all the orchestra members stood up, joined by a few more people, and sang the “Evening Blessing” song, a cappella.  Unexpected, and appreciated: who needs a chorus when your musicians can sing so well.

The orchestra can also double as a chorus.  "Evening Blessing" was a delightful song.

I was rather looking forward to the Dvorak violin concerto, a lovely but for reasons unknown to me not a very popular work.  It asks a lot from the soloist and the orchestra, and this afternoon they turned in a mixed performance.  The adjective that occurred to me the most was “unrefined.”  The orchestra was loud, and sounded like a collection of individual instruments.  I was seated close to the stage, so had no trouble picking out the violin.  Compared to what I heard from Bell a couple of days prior, the violin also sounded coarse.  Capucon’s violin is a Guarneri de Gesu, which belonged to Issac Stern.  It sounded more brilliant than I expected of a Guarneri, but lacked the silkiness I expected of one.  He also had intonation problems throughout.  I am sure he could be up to the task, but today it felt like he could barely hold on to the more challenging passages.  The three movements of the concerto are Allegro ma non troppo; Adagio ma non troppo; and Finale: Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo.  Dvorak says “ma no troppo” a lot.  Capucon also performed a lyrical tune as an encore, I wasn't impressed.

 Renaud Capucon is a French violinist who performs on the Guarneri del Gesu "Panette" (1737).

The same “abandon” served the orchestra well in the Eighth Symphony.  The first movement was one of the more exciting renditions I have heard.  The picture painted wasn’t an idyllic stroll in the meadows, but rather someone chomping through the forest, which was an interesting take on the work.  However, the same abandon didn’t work as well for the later movements, although I did jot down in my notes “like the third movement.”  The four movements are Allegro con brio, Adagio, Allegretto grazioso, and Allegro ma non troppo.

Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra after performing the Dvorak Symphony.

I left soon after the concert concluded to try to catch the 5:07 pm (which I didn’t make), and they were doing an encore (with the orchestra singing again) as I exited the building.

Tonight (I am typing this the day after) Anne and I will go to the second BFO concert, an all-Mahler program.

I barely made the South Amboy to NY Penn train (going up the stairs as the train pulled up), and walked to and back from Lincoln Center from NY Penn.  A nice day to be on the streets of New York.