David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. Orchestra (Seat W05, $80).
The Lebeque sisters, Semyon Bychkov and Bryce Dessner on stage after the piano concerto. The sisters wear matching outfits with skirts that flare up. Cute in children, here we have 70+ year old ladies (born in 1950 and 1952).
Program
Don Juan, Tone Poem after Nikolaus Lenau, Op. 20 (1888) by R. Strauss (1864-1949).
Concerto for Two Pianos (2017) by Bryce Dessner (b 1976).
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 (1940) by Rachmaninoff (1873-1943).
The first remark I made to myself as the concert began was: wow, the New York Phil does have a better sound than NJ Symphony, which I heard yesterday. There is a high degree in subjectivity to what constitutes good sound: the musical instruments, the precision, and the acoustics of the auditorium. And in the past I have made the remark Carnegie Hall's sound sometimes is so clean that it would sound "antiseptic." Whatever the reasons, subjective or objective, I was impressed with how well the sound came across.
The Program Notes mentions Liszt as one of the first composers in the "tone poem" genre. I don't recall hearing any of Liszt's ever, but Strauss's have made regular appearances in concerts I attend. Indeed, Don Juan was on the NJ Symphony program in January this year. One would think the various conquests of the Don would be clear, but I couldn't tell how many were described in the piece, and (to be somewhat prurient) how the conquests were made. That final thrust of the sword, however, is quite obvious.
The concertmaster (Staples for today) had to play a few solo melodies, and the sound was weaker than I expected, given how dependable she had been in the past. The ear is a funny thing. In the NJ Symphony concert Bell acted both as a concertmaster (in Mendelssohn's Overture to Midsummer Night's Dream) and a soloist (his violin concerto). In the first instance he just blended with the violin section, and in the second instance his violin stood out. I am sure the orchestra, and he, played the same way in both instances. (Not quite germane to this blog entry, I know.)
A large ensemble was used in the Don Juan tone poem.
Things got busy on stage between the first and second pieces on the program. Many chairs were removed for the smaller orchestra, two pianos had to be brought out. Stage hands (I counted five of them) and librarians (two) were busy getting things ready. I guess it's not in the musicians' contract for them to carry their own music.
I knew the piano duo Lebeque sisters from simply browsing the internet. Today's encounter was my first, online or in person. We had seen Dessner before with the NY Phil, back in 2019, where his composition "Wires" was first performed, and he played the electric guitar. I was nonplused then. I was equally nonplused today. Since the NY Phil invited him back (at least his music), so there had to be something there.
The Concerto had three movements, helpfully named movements 1, 2 and 3. The two pianos face one another, so one had its lid opening to the audience, the lid for the other one was missing. I couldn't tell who was Katia, and who was Mariella; that was probably not important.
The opening was exciting enough. But that excitement didn't last very long; the music just seemed to drone on after the initial several minutes, punctuated every now and then by something lyrical or episodic. The Program Notes has references to Philip Glass and Stravinsky. To the extent that Glass's music move forward through slow changes, parts of today's concerto was indeed so. Glass's music had a simplicity that I couldn't find in Dessner's. Stravinsky? I don't know what the Stravinsky sound is.
Watching the two pianos at the same time could become cognitive dissonant. From where I was sitting on the left side of the auditorium, I could see one pair of hands move and correlate what I hear with the movements. On the other hand, there was piano music coming from the other performer, and I kept wondering how the sound came about. Perhaps an overhead camera projecting the two pairs of hands onto a screen would help. Or a seat in the higher tiers where both keyboards can be seen. As it was, I kept telling myself since the music didn't correspond to the hand movements I saw, it had to come from the other Lebeque sister. A small orchestra was on stage for this, yet the pianos were still overwhelmed at times.
I caught the headline of the New York Times Review, the reviewer seems to pan this piece. Not having read the article, I am not completely sure.
It would be a stretch to call Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, dances; I can't imagine a ballet or dance routine based on the music. That may well be my limitations. As music, however, there is much to be liked. Going over my blog entries, the conductor of a NJ Symphony performance painted a picture of a dance hall with dancers entering and leaving. Today's Program Notes mentioned Rachmaninoff had considered naming the three movements parts of the day (Noon, Twilight, Midnight; or Morning, Noon, Evening; proving that one can sometimes make arbitrary associations of title to music). The interesting part for me is still how Dies Irae gets incorporated more and more in the last dance.
End of program. One obvious difference is the use of a piano in the Rachmaninoff piece.
Bychkov was quite energetic in his conducting, and the orchestra responded well. I also noticed the NJ Symphony principal bass in the bass section. She was absent in the NJ Symphony performance yesterday. Thoughts of "small fish in big pond, big fish in small pond, what is better?" came to mind.
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