Program
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 87 (1804-08) by Beethoven (1770-1827).
Symphony No. 1 (1988) by Corigliano (b. 1938).
Today's program is a combination of the old and the new. Beethoven's Fifth must be one of the most performed symphonies; and (may I be an elitist for a second) most people probably do not know the name Corigliano outside of the music he wrote for the film The Red Violin. Even then, I suspect most people associate the film music with Joshua Bell.
One reason to pick the two pieces on tonight's program may be to provide contrast between two disparate works, and demonstrate how music from different eras can speak to the listener. While there is debate as to if Beethoven had any "scenarios" in mind when he wrote his fifth symphony, Corigliano has made it abundantly clear his first symphony was a response to the lives of his colleagues and friends lost to the AIDS epidemic of the 80s.
My expectations before the concert for the two works was Beethoven would sound familiar, and Corigliano would bring up all kinds of emotions. Turns out I appreciated how the Beethoven symphony was performed, and didn't think the Corigliano work was as powerful as I had anticipated.
With the Beethoven symphony being as familiar as it is, I did wonder if there would be anything "new" coming out of tonight's rendition. First of all, it sounded amazingly fresh. Dudamel achieved this by how his exquisite phrased the music, and by delivering on the contrast one expects of Beethoven. Easy to imagine, difficult to execute. It's a performance where you knew the music was leading somewhere, rather than s simple "we are repeating this theme for the fifth time."
The Program Notes on this symphony starts with a quote from Robert Schumann: "Let us be silent about this work! No matter how frequently heard, whether at home or in the concert hall, this symphony invariably wields its power over people of every age like those great phenomena of nature ... no matter how frequently we may experience them." Assuming there were no taped recordings during Schumann's lifetime, I have no idea how people could hear a symphony at home (except for the few who had an in-house orchestra). But Schumann definitely didn't anticipate people now can put something on loop, and listen to the same music again and again. A typical concert goer probably has heard Beethoven's fifth more times than Schumann did during his lifetime, which makes any performance bringing in a fresh perspective that much more precious.
After performing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
I had heard the Corigliano symphony before, in (what was then) Avery Fisher Hall, with Dudamel conducting the LA Philharmonic, the organization Dudamel left to join the NY Phil. That was back in 2014. While I don't remember the music, I do remember how impactful the performance felt.
Perhaps my expectations were set too high for this symphony, but I came away thinking they were not met, and that I really didn't remember much of the music. That latter issue was immediately evident as I didn't remember - nor did I anticipate - the loud percussion that preceded the A note that bookended the 45-minute composition. The Program Notes had an interesting passage on how Corigliano took short sentences written to eulogize friends he lost to AIDS, set the sentences to music, and then incorporated the resulting short lines as solo instrument passages in the third movement. It would have been nice to have these lines included in the Program Notes. In general, Corigliano's description of the various movements helped a lot with the appreciation of the music. Another example would be how the Tarantella movement (second) ended up being prophetic in the dementia his friend experienced.
2025 is more than 10 years later than 2014. Thanks to advances in medicine, AIDS as an epidemic has largely faded from the public consciousness. Perhaps that's a reason the symphony was not as impactful for me as it was when I first heard it.
A much larger orchestra was used for the Corigliano symphony. The last row, usually reserved by percussionists, was populated by the brass section, bookended by a tube on each end.
List of instruments used in Corigliano's First Symphony.
Corigliano, now 87, was invited onto the stage at the conclusion of the performance.
For this season, Dudamel is the music director designate of NY Phil. I assume that means his responsibilities for this season do not go beyond conducting several series of the season. The job of "transforming" the organization still lies ahead. I look forward to seeing what this transformation will look like in the ensuing seasons. Will the transformation be gradual, or abrupt? One could argue a more punctuated reading of music is in the orchestra's future, or was it just Corigliano? Or was the difference attributable to the different seats we had tonight?
For now, it is pleasant enough to appreciate how he leads a concert with enthusiasm and precision. I am still scratching my head why on several occasions he held his left hand up which what appeared to be counts (3, 2, etc).
In anticipation of how popular Dudamel may be, tonight's concert is repeated five times. We were surprised at the number of empty seats in the auditorium. Even more surprising was that many people left after the intermission. For this crowd one would think people would skip the Beethoven and show up for the Corigliano.
Our seats were in the middle of the row (I guess after a few seasons we finally got the "good seats"). So we had to apologize to all the people we had to walk past after the concert so we could rush to make the 9:38 pm train back home. We did make it this time, with a couple of minutes to spare.
