Hamburg Symphony. Sylvain Cambreling, conductor; Martha Argerich, piano. April 25, 2024.

Laeiszhalle Grosser Saal, Hamburg, Germany.  2. Rang/Galerie Links (Seat 5-6, 9.9 Euros).

Anne sneaked in a photo of Argerich doing an encore (Third movement of Ravel's piano concert in G).

Program

Philippe Boesman's Chambres d'a cote

Maurice Ravel's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G major

Sergei Prokofiev's Suites from "Romeo and Juliet" op. 64 (excerpts)

One major reason we are in Hamburg for a few days is to attend a concert at the Elbphilharmonie.  We managed to get tickets for only one concert at the venue (as usual, hesitation was the culprit).  We did get tickets for two concerts at Laeiszhalle - the venue before Elbphilharmonie came into existence.  This one in the large hall, and a chamber concert in the small hall this coming Sunday.  I am also thinking of going the Hamburg Opera Sunday evening, even though we are flying back to NJ the following morning.

As I am also trying to record the "travel" aspect of this trip, I am a bit pressed for time to write my impressions of these concerts, so here we go ... Not being able to find a program for this concert helps as I don't need to digest and react to it; all I plan to do is write what comes to mind.

First note the ticket price, not even 10 euros.  The most expensive tickets sold for 62.70 Euros, so the concert was not expensive.  But 9.9 euros.  When we got to our seat, we found out the section is behind these arches which severely limited visibility of the stage.  The photos included in this entry were made with me standing up.  We moved to different seats, but they were all "bad."  A friend used to say they went to concerts for the real time sound, I had to try to adopt that attitude today.  In my defense ... One, those were probably the only seats left when I tried to book, I might have chosen the aisle seats for ease of access, but they were blocked most by the arches; Two, who would have thought of such a design?  There are examples of old concert halls built without such huge arches.

Laeiszhalle was first augurated in 1908.

When seated, our seat in the Gallery afforded a very limited view of the stage.  And this is before people sat down.

Front of hall.

Back of Hall.  Seats behind the arches have a very limited view of the stage.  The auditorium seats over 2000.

The Boesman piece can be characterized as a sound experiment.  There are quite a few sections to this (about 20 minutes) piece, with each exploring a different effect created by different voices and techniques.  It was quite interesting.

A while back I was confused about Gershwin's piano concerto, and concluded soon after it start that it was not Ravel, somewhat to my credit.  I must say Ravel's concerto can easily be confused with Gershwin's, especially the first movement.  (I vaguely remember Ravel visiting Gershwin at some point.)

The definitive performance of this concerto was by Yuja Wang a few years ago (with the London Symphony at NJPAC).  It "broke the code" and I have since come to understand and appreciate the piece.  Argerich's performance certainly was good, but didn't add new insight into the piece, and the "message" wasn't as clear as Wang's performance (or how I remember it).

She performed two encores.  The first one was with the orchestra, and for a while I thought it was composed by Gershwin, and that would have been a natural thing to do.  When I turned on the Google APP, it returned the third movement of Ravel's concerto.  Well ... this was one of the few instances an encore actually was a repeat.  She played a solo piano piece as her second encore.  The Google APP returned Arthur Rubinstein's Fantasiestucke, Op. 12: Traumes Wirren.  Let's go with that.

The concert concluded with excerpts from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Suites, I take that to mean the conductor selected different movements from the several Suites Prokofiev constructed.  The individual movements are quite familiar, I wish I had a listing of what they were so I can imagine along.  (Or, having heard this so many times, I should know the scenes depicted in the numbers.)  It was clear there were two families, things were tender, things got violent, and death ensued.

A rather small ensemble was used by Boesman to produce some very interesting sounds.

At the conclusion of the concert.  The Hamburg Symphony calls Laeiszhalle its home, and Cambreling is the music director.

.

Overall, I enjoyed the concert, even though I had a limited view of the musicians, and the sound reaching my seat wasn't ideal (I am sure).

We ate at a Japanese restaurant before the concert.  It was close to 10 pm when we got back to the hotel.

Orchestre National Avignon Provence. Jochem Hochstenbach, conductor. April 23, 2024.

Auditorium-Orchestre National de Lyon.  First Balcony (Seat E91, 15 Euros).

Program

Brahms Serenade No. 1

I could find little information on the concert.  We didn't notice any programs being offered at the venue.  Perhaps the rather long introductions at the beginning is how it is done?

Not much information on the front of the ticket either.  Mar = Mardi, Tuesday.

The Lyon Orchestra wasn't performing during the two days we were in town.  When I found out this concert was on, I walked over to the concert hall (about 30 minutes) to buy two tickets.  They were all priced at 15 Euros for the event.  I was told there were only a few seats left in this section, yet there were many empty seats in the auditorium.  (To be fair, an audience size the NJ Symphony would love to have.)

Some gentleman came on stage to introduce the orchestra and the conductor, as far as I can tell, as he said it all in French.  When it came time for the conductor to speak, he apologized for not being able to speak in French, and spoke English instead (interpreted into French).  He described Brahms's hesitation in composing symphonies, and called his early orchestral compositions serenades.  He further described the movements and played short excerpts to illustrate his points before settling in to perform the entire piece.

The acoustics in the hall was good, even though we sat on the left side of the auditorium.  The serenade consists of six movements, and has a strong pastoral feel to it (an idea the conductor emphasized by asking the horn to play a few measures).

The outside of the auditorium.  It looks like it could use some maintenance.  Wikipedia refers to this as Auditorium Maurice Ravel.

The inside is fine.  The acoustics is good.

Brahms completed the first serenade in 1858, and the first symphony in 1876.  Brahms's composition style clearly matured considerably in the intervening two decades.  If I didn't know what I was listening to, I wouldn't have guessed Brahms, and certainly not a symphony he composed.  Nothing wrong with that, sometimes a dose of light music will do the job, and that's the intention of today's program.

On the way back, Anne was sure someone (a young girl) tried to put her hand in her coat pocket.  There is much talk these problems have moved to smaller cities as well.  It was close to 8:30 pm when we got back to the boat, the restaurant managed to find something for us to eat.

Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. Lorenzo Viotti, conductor. April 15, 2024.

Main Hall, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.  Orchestra (Seat 20-23, 72.5 Euros).

Program

Mahler's Symphony No. 9.

When I booked the ticket for this concert Anne decided not to go because of her worries about jet lag and physical exertion. Jet lag has not been too difficult for either of us, and Anne felt quite good physically yesterday - our first day of arrival.  By then, however, the concert was sold out.  Before we got to Amsterdam, we didn't realize the tram stops from the hotel to the concert hall were practically door-to-door.

As I described in the last entry, I didn't feel the acoustics of the concert hall was particularly amazing.  For today's concert the orchestra sounded good enough, but the clarity I expected wasn't there.

Of course this is a difficult Mahler piece to interpret, both for the orchestra and for the listener.  What is undisputed is that this is Mahler's attempt at portraying the struggle between life and death.  By this time he had been diagnosed with an incurable heart problem, so unlike the Tragic Symphony - dark but not clear whether Mahler had specific events in his mind - death was clearly a presence throughout the ninth symphony.  Or was it?  While it is easy to argue life and death can be linked with the first and last movements, it is debatable, and often debated, what the significance of the middle movements are.

An issue of more interest to musicologists is if this is actually Mahler's tenth symphony, despite himself calling it the nineth.  He had earlier called "Das Lied von der Erde" a symphony.  He did not get to hear this symphony during his life time.  A performance can last from 75 to 90 minutes, today's was on the shorter side.

What a piece of music says depends on the artists as well as the listener.  Take the silence at the end of the first and fourth movements: does it signify nothingness, or entry into an unknown realm?  While Mahler the atheist might not have believed in a conscious afterlife, he could still be trying to portray a "circle of life" situation.  The loud passages: are they celebrations of life, or screaming at fate and the unfairness of it all (atheists still have a sense of cosmic fairness, I imagine).  The conductor did hold his position for a long time after the symphony ended, I think the tentative clapping of a few audience members finally broke the "spell."

A particular interpreter may have a specific interpretation of the piece, but should he tell the audience?  Or should it simply try to look at the piece as absolute music and let the listener extract what he wants to hear from it?

Today's performance didn't answer any of the questions I have about the piece.  A great performance would still allow the listener to construct a message.  I have been able to do so with many of Mahler's symphonies, but not tonight.  So my remark is not particularly unfair to the music director.

For completeness, the movements of the symphony are (1) Allegro comodo; (2) Im Tempo eines gemachlichen Landlers, Etwas tappisch und sehr derb; (3) Rondo-Burleske: Allegro assai. Sehr trotzig; and (4) Adagio.  Sehr langsam und noch zuruckhaltend.

Viotti is the NL Philharmonic's music director, and he is all of 34 years old.  His name may lead one to think he is Italian, but he is Swiss.

Drinks are again included with the ticket price.  Since there was no intermission, they were available after the concert as well.

Both concerts offered free drinks.  Here they are on offer after completion of the symphony as there was no intermission.

Tram No. 12 got me back to the hotel in no time.

Concertgebouw Orchestra. Emmanuelle Haim, conductor; Lenneke Ruiten, soprano. April 14, 2024.

Main Hall, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands.  Orchestra (Seat 13-32, 97.25 Euros).

At the conclusion of the concert.

Program

Concerto grosso in G major, op. 6, No. 1 by Handel.

Suite nr. 3 in G (from Water Music, HWV 348-350) by Handel.

Suite (from 'Dardanus') by Rameau.

Cantate 'Il delirio amoroso,' HWV 99 '(Da quel giorno fatale)' by Handel.

A program - available in Dutch only - costs 3 Euros.

We are going on a river cruise in France, and decided to tag on "pre-" and "post-cruise" visits to Amsterdam and Hamburg, partly/mostly for the opportunity to visit concert halls in the two cities.

Concertgebouw shows up in many lists as one of the top concert halls in the world, and the current NY Phil music director Jaap van Zweden started his music career as the concertmaster of the (Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra (at age 19, the youngest ever).  For our Amsterdam stay I would attend two concerts.  Anne also came to this one, and I would come by myself to a second one.

Except for the Water Music piece, I am not familiar with the Handel pieces on today's program.  They are all accessible enough.  I was surprised at how long the cantata was, and that the soprano sang a considerable amount.

I didn't find the Rameau piece particularly interesting, that's probably due to lack of preparation on my part.

The orchestra used for the concert was small: 7 first violins, for instance, so I didn't get to hear what a full orchestra would sound like.

A performer has to walk down a stair case for the performance and the curtain call.  In this case the soprano Lenneke Ruiten.

The conductor and the soloist had to walk down a stair case, rather long at 20 to 25 steps.  For today the two women had no problem, but I can imagine some of the older performers (Mehta and Blomstedt come to mind) must dread having to come up and down, more than once because of the curtain call.  The orchestra members climb up a set of stairs to get to the podium, so there doesn't seem to be an easy way to get there.

I didn't buy a program because it costs 3 euros, and is available only in Dutch.  It did contain the lyrics translated from Italian to Dutch and Spanish (if I heard it right).  On the other hand, drinks are included in the ticket price, and there is no limit to numbers of drinks (wine, juice, and soft drinks).  The main stations were quite busy, but I came across one in the back that was quiet.

Typing this a week later, and having attended both concerts, I remember remarking to myself "what is so great about the acoustics?"  While there was nothing wrong with it, I didn't find the sound particularly clean, or the instruments (including the voice) sounding particularly refined.

The Concertgebouw is located in the museum area, right next to the van Gogh museum.

On the side are names of different composers.  The hall seats about 2,000 people.

There were a few scattered empty seats.  As I type this entry I found out I had booked seats that were one row apart (both aisle), but just assumed they were adjoining.  No one tapped on my shoulder to complain, either we lucked out, or the seat holder was polite and found another seat.

We got into Amsterdam yesterday.  This morning we visited Rijsmuseum.  I was surprisingly awake for the concert.

New York Philharmonic. Jaap van Zweden, conductor; Joseph Alessi, trombone. March 21, 2024.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat AA118, $70).

At the conclusion of the concert.  Notice only "traditional" instruments were used in the Scottish Symphony - not even a harp.

Program

To See the Sky: an exegesis for orchestra (2023) by Joel Thompson (b. 1988).

Trombone Concerto: Three Muses in Video Game (2021) by Tan Dun (b. 1957).

Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56, Scottish (1840-42) by Mendelssohn (1809-47).

I don't know who "estimates" how long a concert is, but 1:30 minutes is way off the mark.  The three pieces along add to 80 minutes, throw in a 20- to 30-minute intermission and we are close to two hours.  The concert concluded at 9:24 pm.

It is difficult to understand how these three pieces fit together as a program.  Joel Thompson is in his 30s, still in school (getting a doctorate at Yale).  And I suppose he is known among a lot of people in the music composition world, but not much beyond that.  Tan, on the other hand, became internationally known with the music for the movie "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon," that was 2000.  His history of composition started way before that.  Mendelssohn, on the other hand, was from the early nineteenth century, and his two "Scottish" compositions are part of the standard repertoire in the classical music world.

So, per my new way of thinking about performances, this concert had little chance of being a great one (again, I can name only a handful great concerts I have witnessed).  That said, the overall experience was tremendously satisfying.

With modern composers I have to use my left brain, as their compositions usually call for analysis rather than enjoyment.  The satisfaction is being able to "understand" the work in some way.  Joel Thompson certainly didn't make it easy by naming the work after a line in a song "Sometimes you have to gaze into a well to see the sky."  The logic of this escapes me, but he further explains his desire to expand beyond trauma as a Black man in this country (paraphrasing him, correctly, I hope).  Whether this work is a reflection of that, I am not sure, but he used "rhythms of his youth" with the conviction that it doesn't make the music Jazz (again a paraphrase).  I would agree that was indeed the case, and would opine that his music was accessible.  I can't quite put a label on it, but I am still puzzled how the movements can be described as I. Sometimes ... II ... you have to gaze into a well ... III ... to see the sky.

Tan's Trombone Concerto is similarly mysteriously titled.  The Program Notes contains a description of what he meant by a "muse" in a video game.  His intention in writing this was to attract young people to this genre, and he claims "through this piece I reached a lot of young people."  The three muses are muse of bili, muse of xiqin, and muse of sheng, three ancient Chinese musical instruments depicted in some Dunhuang cave paintings.  One could argue if the sounds were anything like these instruments, but I am hard pressed to associate what I heard with a video game.  My experience with video games is very limited, of course.

In all that discussion, one may forget this is a trombone concerto.  We heard Alessi recently, and this concerto also asked the trombonist to do amazing things.  One of those days I will learn about the trombone and its capabilities, but tonight's performance seemed to use only a limited number of techniques.  Yes, it is amazing such a bulky instrument can sound so agile, and how much practice it takes to get the intonation just right, at such a high speed, but that seemed to be it.  I do wonder how often a trombonist gets to be a soloist twice in a year.

The bottom line is that - to my surprise - I found the Thompson piece more enjoyable than Tan's.

Mendelssohn wrote the Fingal Cave Overture soon after he visited Scotland, and the Scottish Symphony about 10 years later.  At 40 minutes it is quite long, and one wonders occasionally if all those repeats are needed.  Overall, however, it is a delightful piece to listen to, especially when performed by a competent orchestra.  While it probably is not program music, one can easily associate with what one might expect to feel while visiting Scotland (stretching a bit here).  Scotland has its dark and stormy days, I thought there was not enough of that.  The four movements are (I) Andante con moto - Allegro un poco agitato; (II) Vivace non troppo; (III) Adagio; and (IV) Allegro vivacissimo - Allegro maestoso assai.  The program says the movements are played without pause, but there were clear pauses in today's performance.  I don't think it mattered one way or another.

Since the concert lasted about two hours, we missed the 9:38 pm train by a few minutes, and intead took the 10:23 pm train home.

Joel Thompson at the conclusion of his piece.

Joseph Alessi after performing Tan Dun's Trombone concerto.

Hoboken Children's Theater. Jungle Book Kids. March 10, 2024.

Hoboken Children's Theater.  Stalls ($5).

Anne and I drove up to see this performance.  Afterwards we spent some time in Bloomfield Street.

NYO-USA All-Stars. Yannick Nezet-Sequin, conductor; Daniil Trifonov, piano. March 14, 2024.

Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall.  Balcony.  (Seat H121, $44).

Nezet-Seguin and Trifonov after Gershwin's Concerto in F.

Program

Piano Concerto in F by George Gershwin (1898-1937).

Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 60, "Leningrad" by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975).

Artists: Alumni of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America

I have not had time to do a lot of research on NYO, and the description in the Playbill is quite sketchy.  It has been in existence for a little over a decade, the ensemble goes through an intensive practice during the summer, and then does a Carnegie Hall performance and an international tour.  For the current year the conductor will be Marin Alsop.  Tonight's orchestra consisted of about 100 of the alumni.  Many are now members of professional orchestras, some are associated with universities and conservatories, and several are free lance musicians.

Both the conductor and the solo pianists are of course superstars in the classical music world.  This concert would be in high demand.

Yet I got an email a couple of weeks ago saying there were still seats available, and when I checked a few days prior to the concert, sections of the balcony were completely empty.  By the time of the performance, the auditorium was pretty filled up, except for the upper balcony.

I didn't have a chance to look at the program carefully, and erroneously thought the piano concerto would be Ravel's F major.  It was only after the starting few measures that I realized it wasn't Ravel.  Gershwin of course sounded very different from Ravel, and his music has a definite American feel to it.  Scattered among the three movements were passages requiring the highest level of virtuosity, which as usual Trifonov dispatched with ease.  Most of the time it was easy to pick out the piano, but there were instances the piano was drowned out by the large orchestra.  The three movements are Allegro; Adagio - Andante con moto; and Allegro agitato.

A substantial orchestra was deployed for the piano concerto, drowning out the piano at times.

For encore Trifonov played a piece based on the popular song "When I Fall in Love."  [Note added 3/19.  Carnegie Hall now lists the encores on their webpage, indeed it was YOUNG / HEYMAN "When I Fall in Love" (arr. Bill Evans).

I heard Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony before, in 2018, performed by the NY Phil, conducted by van Zweden.  There I expressed the feeling (or tried to) that the description of the piece made it sound intriguing, but the actual music was much less so.  Tonight I got a similar feeling.  Many different interpretations of the piece were offered, mostly about whether Shostakovich was being sincere or cynical when he composed the music.  The Annotator Jack Sullivan even allowed that the current interpretation is affected by today's culture.  Which is well and good, but I have to ask how would a different culture - mainland Chinese, for instance - interpret it?  

For me the more basic question is, what did Shostakovich have in mind when he wrote this?  I find the following quote in the Program Notes, attributed to Shostakovich, puzzling: "I have nothing against calling the Seventh the 'Leningrad' Symphony, but it's not about Leningrad under siege, it's about the Leningrad Stalin destroyed and Hitler merely finished off."  Did I get the chronology wrong?  I thought Stalin was after the Nazi's.

Perhaps more encounters with this piece would make me appreciate it more.  From tonight I got to appreciate how the "invasion theme" was built up at the beginning of the movement, and how the repeated snare drum pattern reminded me of Ravel's Bolero.  The movements of the symphony are: Allegretto, Moderato (Poco allegretto), Adagio, and Allegro non troppo.

An even larger orchestra was used for the Shostakovich symphony.  Notice the much larger brass section (orchestra's rear right).  If one looks carefully, the concertmaster is switched.  As far as I could tell, the one who led the Gershwin was now sitting in the back of the second violin section.  Seating for other members were changed also.  Nezet-Seguin's shoes had soles with sequins, making a strong reflection that at times looked like small light bulbs.

Nezet-Sequin gave his all when conducting this music, I could even hear his shout at some point.  And from the balcony the orchestra movements looked quite interesting at times.

The Gershwin piece was about 30 minutes, the Leningrad 75, so with a late start and an encore the concert didn't end until 10:35 pm or so.  The 11:18 pm train got me to South Amboy after midnight; Anne picked me up.

New Jersey Symphony. Xian Zhang, conductor; Tom Borrow, piano. March 14, 2024.

NJPAC, Newark, NJ.  Orchestra (Seat H101, $46).

At the conclusion of the concert.  Notice on the far right the regular principal bass.

Program

NightVision (2001, rev. 2002) by Ludwig (b. 1974).

Piano Concerto No. 24 (1786) in C Minor, K. 491 by Mozart (1756-1791).

Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64 by Tchaikovsky.

It was a nice spring day.  The cherry blossoms are in bloom.

The Program Notes contains much praise for the two "classical" pieces for this after (concert start 1:30 pm).  And its description of NightVision is quite interesting also.  My first thoughts were the concert had the potential of being "great," but would the NJ Symphony be able to deliver?

Ludwig's name is David Serkin Ludwig.  He is Peter Serkin's nephew, and Rudolf Serkin's grandson.  So quite a musical heritage.  He is no slouch either, as he is Dean of Music at Julliard.  (The others Deans head up dance and drama.)  This 7-minute piece was commissioned and premiered by NJ Symphony in 2001, over 20 years ago.  Per the Program Notes, the piece has quasi-minimalist, Coplandesque, Straussian, and Hollywood cinematic elements, but demonstrates Ludwig's eclectic personal musical language.  One could argue all that is true.

During the brief on-stage dialog with Zhang, Ludwig joked that he was a Julliard dropout, and he still made it as a dean at the school.  He also had the sense of humor to say something is wrong if the interview is longer than the piece itself.

As the piece was his first orchestral composition, I do question if it truly represents his musical language.  In any case, having listened to his music for all of seven minutes, I cannot tell what his language is, anyway.  The piece did not leave me scratching my head, so that's something.

Zhang and Ludwig had a brief dialog before his piece was performed.

After the performance of NightVision.

Mozart's 24th piano concerto is not that familiar to me, so it took me on a ride in directions that I didn't expect.  The Israel-born Borrow put in an excellent performance.

The Program Notes describes the opinion of a musicologist who thinks the C Minor compositions written by Mozart suggest that Mozart was severely depressed during that period.  Frankly I have my doubts.  Yes, one can convince oneself music in minor keys tends to be sad, introspective, or melancholic, the 24th certainly fits that bill, but to use that (and other pieces, I know) to make such a diagnosis is really stretching it.  If one assumes Mozart also wrote music in major keys, are we then to diagnose him with another kind of psychiatric problem?

As encore Burrow played Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op. 32, No. 2 in G sharp minor.  Probably to show off his virtuoso side.  He didn't announce the piece, so how did I find out?  I surreptitiously used the Google "Song" function.  I am impressed, both by the pianist, and by what Google can do.

Israel-born Tom Borrow was born in 2000.

The Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony is a war horse for orchestras.  For me the notable characteristic is the use of the same opening theme in all the four movements, a practice not common among composers or in their compositions. It was many many years ago, but I still consider among the live performances I heard the one Blomstedt did with the NY Phil in 2012 is the best one I have heard. With passage of time, the specifics that I enjoyed - apart from the notes I took - have faded.  The one characteristic that still stands out was Blomstedt allowing the orchestra to let loose; instead of sounding chaotic, the music felt like horses galloping forward with abandon.  Will Zhang execute a controlled performance, or will she let the orchestra run on its own.  We are talking about the NJ Symphony, so I do worry what would happen if the members are given the "fire at will" command.  It turned out to be a controlled, but also enjoyable, performance.

While the concert didn't turn out to be "great," but it was memorable.  And how many "great" concerts can one expect to encounter anyway.  (Right now Mehta's performances of the Bruckner and Mahler Symphonies, and the Blomstedt one discussed here, are the three that readily come to mind.)

NJPAC really needs to get its act together.  Last time, with Joshua Bell, getting the audience seated took a long time.  It was a full house, so may be understandable (still not excusable).  Today's turnout was reasonable, but it wasn't until 1:40 pm that the audience began to settle down.  Some suggestions: start the process earlier, print the door number on the ticket, or make it easier to move from one aisle to the other.  Also, the customer sometimes can be right.  There was this lady whose seat is in the middle, perhaps one or two seats closer to the other door.  The usher insisted she go back, and enter through the "proper" door.  There was perhaps one person in that row, so it would be easy enough.  The lady just ignored the usher and took her seat.  All that time people were waiting to have the usher make sure they "belong."

Rosamunde String Quartet. Bejamin Hochman, piano. March 10, 2024.

Town Hall.  Auditorium.  (Seat N117, $15.45)

Program

String Quartet in C Major, Op. 20, No. 2 (1772) by Haydn (1792-1809).

String Quartet No. 3 (1927) by Bartok (1881-1945).

Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44 (1842) by R. Schumann (1810-1856).

At the end of the concert.  Bendix-Balgley, Hochman, Yao, Vickery and Li.

Quartet: Noah Bendix-Balgley and Shanshan Yao, violins; Teng Li, viola; Nathan Vickery, cello.

This is another concert in the PSC series that I subscribed to for the season.  Even in my jag-lagged state (I returned from a 3+ week trip to Australia and Asia the day before), it had to be one of the more enjoyable and well-performed concerts I have attended.

As I have stated many times before, I am not a chamber music person.  It's counterintuitive that four or five lines of music are more difficult to follow than the many sections in a symphony orchestra.  My brain and my ears are just not tuned that way.

Today, however, the lines were clear, the interplay easy to appreciate, and the overall effect was simply magnificent (getting carried away there a bit).

For the Haydn piece Yao had the first violin, and for Bartok it was Bendix-Balgley.  As Bendix-Balgley explained after the first piece, the Haydn piece is a delight, the Bartok piece runs the gamut of folk music to (close to) rock and roll, and Schumann's composed during his chamber music period, and is a prime example of music from the Romantic period.  I didn't need more description than that today.

All the musicians play (or played) in world-renown orchestras.  Bendix-Balgley is a first concertmaster at Berlin Philharmonic, Teng Li the principal violist at LA Phil, and Vickery the youngest cellist hired by NY Phil.  (And what is the difference between a concertmaster and a first concertmaster?)

My usual complaint about not being able to hear the viola wasn't a problem today.  Perhaps there were fewest lines to follow, or perhaps Li simply projected well.  Indeed, sometimes I thought the viola was too loud.  For the Schumann piece I wish the piano was louder, as it was it sounded like it was background oftentimes.  Make no mistake though: today's was a great concert.

As usual, I sat in the back (Row R) so I could make a quick getaway at the end to catch the 4:07 pm train home.

The train timetables are such I got into NY before 1 pm, so I decided to take walk (all the way to 3rd Avenue) to get my steps in.  I was surprised how much homelessness I encountered along the way.