Symphony Hall, Boston, MA. First Tier (Seat B8, $95.95).
At the conclusion of the concert.
Program - All-Dvorak Program
Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 (1895).
Symphony No. 8 in G, Op. 88 (1889).
For this BSO season, we plan to attend two concerts with Joe P and Emmie. This was the first one.
Both Dvorak pieces on the program are quite well-known, and easy to like. In that regard it was a pleasant concert. However, the evening didn't turn out to be as great as I had hoped, given the reputation of the orchestra and the venue.
One interesting note in the Program Notes was that the repertoire for solo cello and orchestra is limited; it lists - besides Dvorak - two Haydn concertos, two Saint-Saens Concertos, Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations, and the Elgar and Shostakovich Concertos from "this century" (it's actually the last century, so the writeup is at least 25 years old,) Beethoven wrote a triple concerto (piano, violin, and cello); Brahms a double concerto for violin and cello. And then there is this "hard to pull off" Schumann concerto. The last comment was a bit puzzling also. There are several entries in this blog on the Schumann cello concerto - including a performance by Yo-Yo Ma - and I seemed to enjoyed all the times I heard it. (One could say my appreciation is superficial, and certainly not as a cellist.)
Back to Dvorak. This was the first time that I realized a strong commonality in the opening 4-note cello motif between Dvorak's and Shostakovich's, a motif that is used throughout the respective concertos. Perhaps it's worth noting - again - that Dvorak incorporated passages into the work to memorialize the passing of his sister-in-law (perhaps an unrequited love of Dvorak's), that added a bit of melancholy (well, the key is B minor) and poignancy to the overall emotional feel.
Ferrandez is a Spanish cellist. He certainly made the performance an enjoyable one for the audience. One complaint is the instrument - a Stradivarius - was at times overwhelmed by the (somewhat reduced sized) orchestra. Again this may be how I hear the different frequencies. My seat in Tier 1 Row B is considerably more expensive than Row E - my usual price range - but the acoustics didn't sound much better (I know it is a somewhat apples/oranges comparison). By way of example, for a "random" BSO concert in January, the prices are $91 and $51 respectively.
Ferrandez acknowledging the audience at the end of the Dvorak Cello Concerto.
Ferrandez played an encore. With the fireworks he produced during the concerto performance, I am not sure what it added to the evening. I was impressed when Google identified the piece after a few notes. It returned a movement from a Peer Gynt suite, which I am sure is an error. So it failed twice to get a right answer (to be fair, last time it was network issues).
Per the Program Notes, Dvorak was paid 3000 marks for his seventh symphony, but offered only 1000 for his eighth by Simrock, his publisher. That may be one reason why Dvorak went with another publisher in this instance. A search of the web returned the amusing fact that while Dvorak wasn't paid specifically for the cello concerto, his job in the US paid 25 times more than his prior job.
As to how today's performance fared, it was good, but not spectacular. But spectacular is few and far between, so it's perfectly fine.
This is the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so going to a concert probably wasn't on most people's must do list. That may explain the large number of empty seats in the auditorium. The few times I went to a BSO concert, attendance never seemed to be very high. At New York Phil a poorly attended concert would have say 90% of the seats filled. BSO has one of the largest orchestra endowments in the US (presumably the world as well), so perhaps not a big problem for them. It has to be a bit discouraging for the musicians involved, though. (A search of the web returned attendance numbers that are quite different, so take my observation with a grain of salt.)
A photo in the hallway showing Ozawa and Bernstein at Tanglewood.
There were quite a few empty seats tonight.
It was a nice evening, Joe P drove, which made things very simple.
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