Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall. Dress Circle (Seat BB30, $121).
Yuja Wang after performing Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1.
Program
Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25 "Classical" (1916-1917) by Prokofiev (1897-1953).
Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11 (1830) by Chopin (1810-1849).
Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 16 (1912-1913; reconstructed 1923) by Prokofiev.
The "original" program.
About a year ago, Yuja Wang was named an artistic partner of the MCO. It turns out she had been collaborating with the ensemble for many years (probably as a soloist with them). Tonight we got to see what such a collaboration would be like.
The concert started with an announcement. First was a change in the order of pieces on the program (see screenshot), second was that Wang's arm or hand was injured (apologies, etc), and third was this concert was dedicated to the memory of Michael Tilson Thomas, who passed away the week before. A similar tribute was made at last week's NY Philharmonic concert.
With the performance of OSL from yesterday still fresh in my mind, it didn't take too long for me to decide the MCO sounded a lot better. While Prokofiev's first symphony may not be the most challenging of his, it was still a fast-paced 18-minute piece that called for great precision and a wide range of dynamics. The ensemble met it head on. And the "chamber" in MCO was highlighted in this piece: there was no conductor (which was slightly surprising), and only those instrumentalists that had to play sitting down (cellists, for example) sat down (a particular episode of Seinfeld came to mind).
In our Subaru (which we replaced about 8 years ago) we had only a couple of CDs. One of them had the Prokofiev symphony on it, so we have listened to it multiple times, especially on longer trips. That usually means I have in my mind how the piece should be performed. It was done differently tonight, and I enjoyed it.
We had encountered the MCO before as part of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, performing Benjamin's Written on Skin. I characterized the orchestra as large. Interestingly, we saw a singer (Barbara Hannigan) a few days ago at David Geffen Hall.
The string section of orchestra has 10 first violins, 8 second violins, 6 violas, 5 cellos, and 2 basses.
As to the two piano concertos, Wang was just her usual self, putting out an impeccable performance while enjoying herself. In the past I often noticed that she would move her mouth (singing along) while playing; tonight we were too far away to make that observation. With both concertos she directed the orchestra during her "spare time." Given how well the ensemble did for the Symphony, I am not sure that was at all necessary. I guess the title "director" needs to be earned in some way.
Conclusion of Prokofiev's Piano Concert No. 2. Only one costume change for this concert.
A few tidbits from the Playbill. Chopin wrote his first two concertos when he was 19, and tonight's concerto was the second one, but got its moniker because it was published first. Chopin is the one credited with revolutionizing piano playing, and this work was original, and aggressively difficult but yet delicate. Instead of a dialogue between the soloist and orchestra, Chopin's concertos are opera singers performing arias while accompanied by an orchestra in the pit. Indeed, Chopin wrote only these two concertos, since he apparently decided the piano would do nicely just by itself.
The technical challenges of Prokofiev's second concerto, considered the most difficult of his five, are such that Prokofiev was apprehensive about playing it. Indeed he thought he played badly at the beginning of the third movement at a Paris concert. The concerto also has long cadenzas in both the first and third movements; the one in the first movement probably took up half the movement. The Intermezzo movement in this four-movement concerto doesn't sound like any intermezzos of Brahms's. Most intermezzos are contemplative, not this one.
The original score composed in 1912-13 was lost in a fire not long after its completion, so what is in the repertoire today is the version Prokofiev reconstructed in 1923. Since Prokofiev thought it was fine, there is no debate. (Prokofiev considered the revisions to be substantial.)
No one would begrudge Wang if she chose not to do any encores. After all, she had an injury, and just performed two difficult concertos. But then we are talking about someone who did a Rachmaninoff marathon, "a 2 1/2-hour performance spanning 97,000 notes and featuring multiple costume changes." So we got to hear two encores. No additional costume changes, though.
The first encore was quite interesting. The soloist was accompanied by a few musicians in the orchestra, including one clapping his hands.
The concert started late, and the soloist always took her time coming on to the stage. That meant we caught the 11:23 pm train back to New Jersey. But it was a great concert.
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