David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. (Orchestra 1, Seat R101, $90.25)
Program
The Elements (2023) by Puts, Meyer, Heggie, Higdon and Montgomery.
Third Symphony (1944-46) by Copland (1900-90).
Concertmaster and Conducting shaking hands after the concert. This would be van Zweden's last year as Music Director of New York Philharmonic.
First, we didn't get to Lincoln Center in time for the Elements. I will get to the reason later.
It was about 8:30 pm when we got to David Geffen Hall. The renovated building has a rather large atrium with a couple of large screen TVs that would broadcast the event live, and is open to the public. The atrium was reasonably full, with all the seats occupied. There was quite a bit of standing room, and some available seating in the box office area. So we managed to see part of the performance. For various reasons it was difficult to concentrate, but I did get a glimpse of what the piece sounded like.
The piece wasn't over until around 9 pm. The durations as stated in the Playbill total 38 minutes. If my logic is correct, that would mean we missed only about 8 minutes of the piece. In my mind I had given up on hearing the piece, so I wasn't focused on it, and consequently don't remember much of it. Perhaps it is sour grapes, but Anne and I concluded we didn't miss much.
At intermission we were allowed into the venue. We have attended concerts in the renovated David Geffen Hall quite a few times, this, however, was the first time we sat in a prime section (Orchestra 1). My first impression was that the sound was loud, although not as clear as it could be.
The Copland piece was finished after the second world war, and the work is considered by some both as a contribution to the war effort and the celebration of its end. Honestly, without the Program Notes I wouldn't have gotten either.
The four movements of the symphony are (i) Molto moderato with simple expression; (ii) Allegro molto; (iii) Andantino quasi allegretto; and (iv) Molto deliberato (Fanfare); Allegro risoluto. A few noteworthy (well, to some) comments on the work. First, Copland deliberated name this the Third Symphony, instead of the more expected Symphony No. 3. Wikipedia has it listed as "Symphony No. 3 (Copland)." What would a purist say to that? Second, the third and fourth movements are performed without pause. Third, the fourth movement contains the well-known theme "Fanfare for the Common Man" composed by Copland a few years earlier. Lastly, Copland made it clear this was the only non-original part of the symphony, and that it contains no folk, jazz or other popular material; he allowed he might have been influenced by Mahler in a general way. Well, had it not for the last sentence, Mahler would not have crossed my mind: and I have been listening to Mahler recordings quite a bit recently.
One can see the performance live from large screen TVs installed in the Atrium, for free.
I wonder why there is this grey hue in the stage area. Photos taken with iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Both Anne and I agreed this was not a particularly inspired performance. Whether it was due to our mindset, I don't know. Let's hope things improve: we have tickets to an additional 12 concerts.
One word about the ticket price. This is part of the "Add-On" package I bought, the "best available seats" were priced at $89 (price of $90.25 includes part of the booking charge). I checked the NY Phil website, a similar seat purchased at "retail" costs $217 (including a $23 service fee).
We took the 5:40 pm train from South Amboy, which would have gotten us to NY Penn at 6:40 pm, ample time to get something to eat before the concert. There was a train accident in North Elizabeth involving a pedestrian fatality at 4 pm, which resulted in delays the rest of the day. As a result, we didn't get to NY Penn until around 8:15 pm. This kind of delay - thankfully - is rare, but does happen.
There was no food at the Bar, nor the kiosks in the venue, so we made do with a bag of chips (each). We did have time at NY Penn for the return trip, and shared a sandwich between the two of us.
The train was more crowded than usual, but was on time. It was just past midnight that we got home.
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