David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. Orchestra (Seat U103, $109).
Pintscher and Shaham after the Mendelssohn violin concerto.
Program
neharot (2020) by Matthias Pintscher (b. 1971).
Concerto in E minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 64 (1844) by Fe. Mendelssohn (1809-47).
Pelleas und Melisande (After the Drama by Maurice Maeterlinck): Symphonic Poem for Orchestra, Op. 5 (1902-03) by Schoenberg (1874-1951).
The pieces are 25, 29, and 43 minutes in length, per the Program Notes. A lot of music for a concert.
There are so many well-known composers and conductors that I have never encountered before, still, Pintscher appearing as both a conductor and a composer is a relatively rare event.
Let's dispense first with the familiar piece for most people, at least for me. Mendelssohn's violin concerto is a standard piece in the violin repertoire, and is still programmed quite regularly. I heard it last in November, 2023, performed by Joshua Bell.
I have stated on many prior occasions that my problem with familiar pieces is I have strong feelings about how those pieces should sound. Indeed that's a regular remark I made in prior entries. That's my first reaction when Shaham started to "deviate" from that canonical (in my mind) performance. Then I caught myself. And I ended up enjoying the piece. Sometimes "standards" should be abandoned, it would appear. So with a change in my vocabulary, I note that Shaham played the piece in an unusually fast pace.
Shaham sometimes gives off an "another day at the office" kind of vibe, and today was one of those days. Nothing wrong with that. While the Mendelssohn piece is not considered the most challenging of violin virtuoso pieces nowadays, it was still amazing how he tacked the arpeggios and double stops with ease. In the past I have commented on how much he moved around on stage, often "invading" the spaces normally associated with the concertmaster and the conductor; today he was a lot more subdued.
For encore he played a Bach piece.
For encore Shaham performed a Bach piece. He has 2 Stradivariuses at his disposal.
Pintscher was born in Germany and now lives in New York City. He started this season as the music director of the Kansas City Symphony. The piece neharot was composed in 2020 on commission from LA Philharmonic. The Hebrew word means rivers and tears, and the composition is meant to be "a clear echo of the devastation and fear, but also of the hope for light, that so emotionally characterized this time of our lives." He is referring to the COVID pandemic. If that's not enough, inspiration also came from "the mysteries of Chartres Cathedral, where several rivers cross exactly under the place where Chatres was built." The Program Notes also provided a description of two of the solo lines found in the piece (by a trumpet and oboe).
Despite the aid provided in the Program Notes, I was quite lost about the message the piece was trying to bring forth. I did get the two melodies - such as they were - but not much else. I did jot down some remarks after the performance: going nowhere slow, the description was more interesting than the actual piece, some interesting sounds from percussion, and (most interestingly) one percussionist had to rush from one instrument to the other.
After the play Pelleas et Melisande premiered in 1893, Debussy turned it into an opera in 1902, Faure and Sibelius wrote music for the play in 1898 and 1905. Per the Program Notes, Richard Strauss introduced Schoenberg to the play, suggesting he compose an opera based on the play. The result was a symphonic poem. The question asked by the Program Annotator was why Strauss, a master at the opera and tone poems, didn't do it himself. I add the question of whether there are differences between a tone poem and a symphonic poem (cursory internet search says they are the same thing).
I have seen the Debussy opera at the Met, and heard the Schoenberg symphonic poem at New York Phil. My entry for the concert noted Alan Gilbert first asked the orchestra to run through a few of the leitmotifs. Alas, no help was provided in this area. I was lost in the 2009 performance, 15 years later, I was even more lost. Tone poems supposedly tell a story, for most people some help in that area would be most appreciated.
Pintscher after conducting his own composition neharot. The piece was completed in 2020, but today was its U.S. Premiere.
The Schoenberg piece also called for a large orchestra. Not as many percussionists, though.
The orchestra platform is very deep.
This is an interesting program. The obvious question is how a classic(al) violin concerto meshes with two modern pieces. One hint was the series consisted of a Thursday and Sunday performance, and in between we have Yom Kippur. All the compositions have a Jewish element to it. Both Mendelssohn and Schoenberg were Jewish. By using a Hebrew term and comparing the piece to a Kaddish, Pintscher at least claims some level of Jewish culture (and possibly heritage). Shaham's parents were from Israel. Too much coincidence not to be a conscious programming decision.
I got tickets to this concert because of a conflict for the last concert (see previous entry). Anne couldn't make this one, so I went by myself.
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