David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. Orchestra (Seat BB105, $49).
Program
Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920; rev. 1945-47) by Stravinsky (1882-1971).
Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion, and Orchestra, BB 121 (1937/40) by Bartok (1881-1945).
Ciel d'hiver (2013) by Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952).
Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 105 (1918-24) by Sibelius (1865-1957).
Percussionists: Christopher S. Lamb, Daniel Druckman, Markus Rhoten.
While I have heard of all the composers on today's program, all the pieces are new to me. I looked for - not diligently - the New York Philharmonic Program Notes which are usually posted on line, but couldn't find them. So I feverishly tried to read the Playbill that was handed out at the door. They provided minimal help, as they talked mostly about the "context" of the pieces, rather than what the pieces were about. There are a few exceptions, and I found those quite illuminating, but also felt like I was grasping at straws. Perhaps the music is to be experienced, rather than described? (Charitable statement to both myself and the commentators.)
Stravinsky wrote the first piece for wind players only. The Program Notes describes Stravinsky as growing suspicious of how string instruments tend to get "expressive," and he wanted the piece to have an "uninflected sound." He described the work as "tonal masses ... sculptured in marble ... to be regarded objectively by the ear." The piece was dedicated to the memory of Debussy, the latter had dedicated a couple of his own compositions to Stravinsky. Another interesting fact(oid) was that when Stravinsky created the version for today's performance, he had to use other people's "arrangements" of his original work; unusual, but how did it get that way? I counted 22 musicians on stage for the piece. New York Phil has always had a great brass and woodwind section. I thought the NJ Symphony's brass section was comparably competent - Anne didn't think so.
22 players for the Stravinsky piece.
Perhaps it is not possible to talk about the Bartok piece without talking about his declining health at the time, and that he wanted to leave something for his surviving widow to earn money on. There's always that tinge of sadness when Bartok's later works are discussed. The piece didn't start that way, it was first written for two pianists and two percussionists, and enjoyed considerable success. When Bartok was asked to revise the piece to its current form in 1940, he had already moved to the US, and was already suffering from leukemia.
With five soloists playing, and some of them playing multiple percussion instruments, the piece sounded quite complicated. And the stage looked complicated, with two pianos, two pianists, two page turners, three percussionists and many percussion instruments (per Program Notes: timpani, xylophone, cymbals, suspended cymbal, snare drums played both with and without snares, tam-tam, triangle, and bass drum.) For good measure a celesta was thrown in the mix. I do suspect if the percussionists and their instruments were situated in their usual positions in the back, things would sound the same - and I say that with great admiration for the percussionists.
The stars are of course Trifonov and Babayan. I know little about Babayan, other than he was Trifonov's teacher at some point, and that he is Armenian-American. This was also the NY Phil debut for the Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu. With van Zweden leaving in a couple of years, one wonders whether there is any audition elements whenever a new face appears.
The 25-minute piece was quite interesting. I couldn't see the pianists clearly, I could tell they were enjoying the give and take between themselves, with the percussion, and with the orchestra. The three movements are (i) Assai lento - Allegro molto; (ii) Lento, ma non troppo; and (iii) Allegro non troppo. Bartok was supposedly very analytical when he composed the music, with the work employing the strict mathematical ratios of the Golden Section and the related Fibonacci and Lucas sequences. Not that I know what a Lucas sequence is, but I am sure there is no way I can tell.
The five soloists for Bartok: Rhoten, Lamb, Druckman, Trifonov and Babayan. Notice how far back the concertmaster is.
This was my first in-person encounter with Saariaho. I did watch (part of) her opera L'amour de lion on TV, performed by the Met, during the pandemic. Today's Program Notes talks quite extensively about her musical style. She had composed Orion in 2002, and today's piece (meaning Winter Sky) was arranged from that work's second movement, which has Orion the constellation stuck forever in the sky. Orion is readily visible this time of the year, and I often look up the night sky to admire it. I did that this evening, and yes, it is not good to be stuck in the sky for eternity (well, so far only a few billion years). Betelgeuse, at about 550 light-years away is closest to earth, is a red giant that will "self-destruct" (that is, have a supernova explosion) in about 100,000 years. So its eternity will eventually come to an end.
There is this E-flat - D - B theme that gets repeated in different ways. Saariaho wrote different versions of it for different instruments after learning the different sounds from members of the Cleveland Orchestra. It is interesting to listen for that. How that relates to Orion being frozen, however, is a mystery.
Compared to the three pieces that came before it, Sibelius's seventh symphony, his last, sounded downright simple. At least the sounds are more traditional, dynamics go pretty much as expected. The only novel element is that the 21-minute piece is one continuous movement with eleven different tempo markings. Some analysts try to map them into traditional movements, and I am doing this for efficiency: (I) Adagio - (II) Vivacissimo - Adagio - (III) Allegro molto moderato - Allegro moderato - (IV) Vivace - Presto - Adagio - Largamente molto - ... with a coda consisting of Affettuoso - Tempo I. In 1918 Sibelius did describe this work as "Joy of life and vitalite with appassionata passages in three movements - the last a 'Hellenic Rondo.'" Although he allowed that things could change. While I enjoyed the piece, I also spent considerable energy in trying to relate what I hear to what section I should be hearing, with little success.
The concert ended at 12:45 pm (time stamp for this photo). This is the full orchestra, with perhaps 16 first violins, and it looks less crowded compared to the old hall - so perhaps there were some significant modifications made. The music pieces total about 66 minutes, 10 minutes longer than the NJ Symphony Centennial celebration, yet today's concert felt a lot more substantial.
What's the characteristic of this blog entry? It is quite long, and I might say quite informative as a lot is plagiarized from the Program Notes, yet it doesn't say much about the music itself, or how I experienced it. Just what I said at the beginning. This is somewhat like many of my visits to modern art exhibits. I may have read up on the artists, maybe even a discussion of their work, but then I just walk through the exhibit hall without stopping to examine the displays. I come out not knowing much more than when I got in, without an experiential appreciation (if there is such a thing) of the objects on display.
Just before the concert began the lights hanging over the stage were raised, reminiscent of what is done at the Met Opera. Then the lights did a small dance number, which sent a chuckle through the audience. This is my second visit to the renovated hall, and it felt more like someone just threw on a new coat of paint, with little change to the "bones" of the place. The sound was okay, but then I didn't have too much trouble with the old hall either (other than complaining that there was no perfect seat in the auditorium).
Sometime in October NY Phil was advertising a 30% discount for subscriptions of three or more concerts, we took advantage of that offer. We bought only three because of all the uncertainties around our schedule and travel to New York. The price at the beginning of this blog entry? Not a typo, and it includes a service charge of $6. I am typing this paragraph on Saturday morning, and there are still scattered seats available for tonight's concert. An orchestra seat in the last row (HH) costs $140+$21.50. Again not a typo. I just went back to review my credit card charge, it was $322 for six tickets.
We took the train in for this 11 am-start concert, and the trip was quite uneventful.
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