Lozakovich and Wellber after the Bruch Violin Concerto.
Program
Symphony No. 44 in E minor, "Trauer" by Haydn.
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor by Bruch.
Symphony No. 4 in D minor (1841, rev. 1851) by Schumann (1810-1856).
Artists
The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen; Omer Meir Wellber, conductor.
Daniel Lozakovich, violin.
With both my children and their families in London, I find myself with little time on my hands, so this will be brief.
I was expecting a modern piece on the program (don't we always), and was somewhat surprised that there will be none today.
Of the 106 symphonies Haydn composed, only about 15-20 are programmed with some regularity. No. 44, one of his "Sturm und Drang" compositions, is among them. While I didn't know the term was applied to Haydn, but since it was coined in 1776, it makes sense. The symphony certainly fits the description. If there was any doubt, the animated way the conductor Wellber would remove all of it. He jumped, raised his arms, and used various actions to generate the required "sturm und drang" from the ensemble. He also played the continuo part, and I don't recall seeing one who attacked the harpsichord as energetically as he did.
There is a story that Haydn wanted the slow movement to be played at his own funeral (it was not). And having just listened to it, it doesn't sound like something that would be played at a memorial service. The orchestra on YouTube used mutes for the movement; I don't remember their being used here.
I was remarking in a prior blog entry that I had few encounters with Bruch's violin concerto before this decade. But tonight was the third time I heard it in concert this year. While it was still fresh, I do wonder if there is herd mentality in the choice of solo pieces; or there are bound to be coincidences as there are not that many popular violin concertos.
Lozakovich looked very young (he is 25), and had the technique to do the piece nearly flawlessly; the only quibble I have if the intonation was off on a few notes. The piece could have started a little faster, but I suppose that is subjective and taste-specific. One contrast with last night was the violin sounded a lot stronger. That could be the location of our seats. I did venture to guess Lozakovich performs on a Stradivari; and he does.
For encore he performed (with the orchestra) a very familiar slow movement from a well-known violin concerto, with some modifications. I listened to the slow movements from the popular violin concertos, and still couldn't identify it.
In Wikipedia one can find an interesting history between the 1841 and 1851 versions of Schumann's Fourth Symphony. Clara Schumann claimed that Schumann sketched out the work in 1841, and finished the full orchestration only in 1851. This version was published in 1853, and Clara confirmed that in the 1882. Brahms, however, preferred the version of 1841, and published it in 1891 over Clara's objection. Just another element in the weird relationship between the Schumanns and Brahms.
As with many of Schumann's compositions, this one was easy to like. I do have some familiarity with it; so that helped.
Both Lozakovich and Omer sounded familiar. Indeed we heard Lozakovich back in 2018 (he was 16) performing in the Mostly Mozart Festival, and Wellber in Germany a couple of times before (2023).
This was my first encounter with this Chamber Symphony. While they responded enthusiastically to the conductor, they at times sounded a bit chaotic, and every now and then I caught a specific instrument in a section - never a good thing in my book. Reminds me of NJ Symphony many years ago.
After the performance of Haydn's Symphony. Our seats were behind this railing.
We left right after the concert concluded, and I managed a photo without the railing on my way out.
Attendance was much better tonight than last night.
My back was acting up, so we took Ubers in both directions. To beat the crowd after the concert, we left right after the initial applause, and managed to catch one very quickly.
