Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Orchestra 1 (Seat T106,
$69.50.)
Program
… quasi una fantasia … for Piano and Groups of Instruments,
Op. 27, No. 1 (1987-88) by Gyorgy Kurtag (b. 1926).
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 (1796-1803) by
Beethoven (1770-1827).
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) (1911-13) by
Stravinsky (1882-1971).
This is the first week of the New York Philharmonic
season. Adding to that excitement is
that the son-in-law of our friends will be starting his season with the
orchestra, which is a big deal: hundreds of musicians audition for a spot on
the roster. I am sure quite a few
tickets were sold to this cheering section.
Ellie and Kuau came along for the occasion also. The four of us had dinner at LUCE prior to
the concert, reasonably priced entrees that were quite good. The restaurant is a stone’s throw from
Lincoln Center; somehow we never noticed it before.
A few days prior I met up with my former boss Marc, another
regular at these New York concert events.
We were talking about the “new” music that Gilbert is trying to
introduce into the Philharmonic’s repertoire, and Marc said he doesn’t get
it. My response is I don’t appreciate it
very much either.
Today’s opening piece is an example. First of all, I have problem with these fancy
titles coined by these modern artists.
Instead of simply calling it a fantasy, he had to call it by a more
complicated Italian name, with dot-dot-dots in front and after the title. The piece consists of four movements played
without pause: (i) Introduzione (Largo); (ii) Presto minaccioso e lamentoso
(Wie ein Traumeswirren) [Like a Nightmare]) (Molto agitato, sempre ppp); (iii)
Recitativo (Grave, disperato); (iv) Aria – molto adagio (Lontano, calmo appena
sentito [Distant, calm barely perceived]). Why they need Italian, German, and English, I
don’t know. The instrumentation consists of a long list of instruments,
including several “echo” percussion pieces – whatever that means. When we walked into the hall, we noticed two
groups of percussion instruments at the rear, each with four chairs: evidently
they hired many extras. There are other instruments on the first and second
tiers also, in fact the only people on stage were the conductor, the solo
pianist, and the timpanist. I think
there were like six or seven drums, some tuned closely in pitch (a semitone,
maybe.)
In the Program Notes there is a reference to a poem being
introduced by the fourth movement. As if
that isn’t bad enough, the last line of the poem isn’t complete! I am embarrassed to say I didn’t get any of
it.
There are a couple of redeeming features to the piece. Foremost among them is the brevity, at only
ten or so minutes. My remark that for
some pieces it takes longer to read up on than listening to applies here
also. The second is the music generally
follows the markings listed in the program, so there wasn’t a lot of head scratching. Third is the “stereo effect” generated by the
placement of the instruments was interesting at times. I wonder if these modern compositions (and
composers) would ever get anywhere beyond an occasional performance here or
there. I would not actively avoid going
to a concert if this piece is on the program again, but I suspect even if I
wanted to, it would be difficult to find another performance. [To provide a counter-argument, an obscure
piece I heard in Hong Kong was actually played in Carnegie Hall. In that instance there is a common element:
Edo de Waart.]
The Beethoven piece was quite enjoyable, as any good
rendition of the work would be. The
balance between the soloist and the orchestra was great at our seats. The three movements are Allegro con brio,
Largo, and Rondo: Allegro. Ah, the
simplicity. For some reason Beethoven
took a long time to complete this work, and the cadenza wasn’t completed until
1809.
A few days ago Chung Shu sent me several Youtube links to a Rite
of Spring performance conducted by Boulez, with the assignment to delineate
where each of the “movements” begins and ends.
The piece is thirty-some minutes in length, and is in two parts. Part One: The Adoration of the Earth consists
of Introduction, Augurs of Spring (Dance of the Adolescent Girls), Mock
Abduction, Spring Rounds, Ritual of Rival Tribes, Procession of the Sage, The
Adoration of the Earth (The Sage), and Dance of the Earth. The Second Part (The Sacrifice) consists of
Introduction, Mystical Cycle of the Young Girls, Glorification of the Chosen
One, Evocation of the Ancestors, Ritual Action of the Ancestors, and
Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One). I
also found a Boulez performance of the ballet on Youtube. After working on it for a morning, I did
manage to complete the assignment. The
ballet performance is interesting in that there was some spectacular
horsemanship, but puzzling as you wouldn’t think it follows the plot at all –
such as it is.
To my great dismay, I couldn’t quite follow the music during
the actual concert itself. What I should
have done is to bring my homework write up with me.
Chung Shu posted a link to the New York Times review on an
earlier performance, which I haven’t yet read: I don’t want to be biased by
these influential critics. I couldn’t
avoid his posting saying the Rite of Spring was the highlight of the evening,
though.
My experience isn’t nearly as sanguine. The piece started okay, with the lovely mysterious
tune played by the bassoon that made this piece so famous. It however eventually degenerated into simply
a competition between the sections to see who could play louder. And given where we sit, they were pretty
loud. I had mentioned in a prior blog
(when they were playing a Tchaikovsky symphony) that Gilbert seemed to be able
to put an appropriate restraint on things.
He either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do that tonight. This is the third time I have blogged about
this piece, and I thought the other two times, conducted by Harding and Mehta, were better (this is from my blog
entries, I certainly don’t remember the specific performances.)
So, the season for me isn’t off to a great start, although I
am sure it’ll improve.
The New York Times review goes into a detailed description
of Kurtag’s piece. It is one of the most
positive pieces ever written by a Times reviewer in recent memory. We evidently listen for very different
things.
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