Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall. Balcony (Seat B56, $27).
Suzuki and Midori at the conclusion of Beethoven's Violin Concerto.
Program
Overture to Don Giovanni, K. 527 (1787) by Mozart (1756-1791).
Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 (1806) by Beethoven (1770-1827).
Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90, "Italian" (1833, rev. 1834) by Mendelssohn.
Although Orchestra of St. Luke's calls Carnegie Hall it's home, tonight was my second ever encounter with the ensemble. It's director Bernard Labadie retired a couple of years ago, today's concert was led by Masaaki Suzuki, a Bach and early music specialist per the Playbill. While there was no Bach for this evening, the three pieces on the program should make for an enjoyable evening.
A few notes into the Don Giovanni overture I was already wondering about the quality of the orchestra. Instead of light and crisp, what I heard was muddled, bothering on confusion. Not Mozart at all. I have remarked many times before it's difficult to tell a "great" Mozart performance from a "good" one, there definitely was no need to fret if tonight's belongs in either category.
At the end of the Don Giovanni Overture.
Things did get better, but not as much as I expected.
When she first came onto the music scene as a teenager (or even younger), Midori was one of these once-in-a-generation phenomena. I remember seeing her perform before my blogging days, and always came away thinking how that's possible. Other than an online performance during COVID times, I had seen Midori only once, about 20 years ago. I enjoyed the Prokofiev, but described a certain "dreamlike" effect in her style.
Beethoven works because of his genius in telling a coherent story with passages that require great, fundamental technique. (The one I heard performed by James Ehnes is a prime example.) I am sure Midori is fully capable of that, but she has chosen to infuse some ephemeral quality to the music, resulting in many passages being delivered differently than what I expected. So, subtly perhaps, some passages sounded different, bothering on "wrong." The cadenza was still superb.
She played an encore which I couldn't identify, and indeed don't remember much of two days later.
Mendelssohn's Italian symphony saved the day. I have heard it only a couple of times in the last twenty or so years, but somehow the piece sounded very familiar. Some tunes are catchy that way. To the orchestra's credit, the piece indeed sounded Italian, perhaps the Program Notes helped.
The concert ended with a lively rendition of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony.
A credit card I have provides a $150 credit on StubHub every six months. I used up all $150 to buy these partial view tickets in the balcony. I could see Midori's violin if I leaned forward, so it was not a good seat. Indeed they cost the original buyer $27 each. He didn't make all the difference, Ticketmaster and StubHub probably got the lion's share of the proceeds.
We managed to catch the 10:23 pm train back to NJ. That the concert started reasonably on time helped. (At about 8:06 pm, if I work backwards from the photo time stamps.)
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