Konzerthaus Berlin. Grosser Saal (Seat 11-17, 63 euros).
Tetzlaff performed the Dvorak violin concerto with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, conducted by Simone Young.
Program
Konzert fur Violine und Orchester a-Moll Op. 53 by Dvorak.
Sinfonie Fis-Dur Op. 40 by Korngold.
This concert certainly has the name recognition of its headliners: Young and Tetzlaff. And the Dvorak violin concerto.
If you ask me what are the most favorite violin concertos on the concert stage, I would name Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius, Mendelssohn, Bruch (even), Lalo (maybe), and Saint-Saens before I come to Dvorak. (I generated this list without consulting "the literature.")
Today's performance actually helped explain why. No doubt the violin concerto contains a lot of brilliant passages, nice melodies, and technical challenges, but it is also a lot of hard work for the perceived return. Just the opening passage, with it's high notes and double stops, would present a huge challenge for the soloist, and it gets more difficult as the piece proceeds. It's no doubt a thrilling concerto to listen to, but one gets an equal amount of thrill without the soloist having to work so hard at the piece. I looked at some random listing of popular concertos (actually two lists) on the web, Dvorak isn't even listed. Somewhat proves my point.
Dvorak is Dvorak. Folksy, melodic, and hummable. In this blog I have three instances of listening to it, twice by Joshua Bell. Tetzlaff came through brilliantly. Our seat in Row 11 gave us a good view of what was going on, and it was impressive.
My first reaction, however, was "wow, the acoustics are not good." A large orchestra was used, but I didn't expect the soloist to be so overwhelmed. But often he was. Which brings me to Tetzlaff's violin. He famously stopped using a Stradivarius and now goes with a modern violin made by Greiner. On previous occasions I heard him the violin was more than adequate, but today its sound failed him, at least for those sitting in my area.
We were seated in Row 11 of the main floor. The acoustics were surprisingly muddled in that area.
For encore he played first an adaptation of a piece originally written by Bach, followed by the way Bach actually wrote it. I wish he would explain that at the outset so I could be mentally prepared to make the comparison. Of course he would have done it in German, which wouldn't help.
Later I found out from Gemini AI that the part of the concert hall I was in indeed has bad acoustics, and from Wikipedia that Tetzlaff has a condition that makes it painful to play the instrument. Respect. He looks considerably younger than his 60 years, though.
I have heard a Korngold piece here or there, but can't really pin down his composition style. This symphony, at close to an hour in length, still didn't teach me much on the subject. A few noticeable traits, if they can be called such. First, it's form is very classical, we indeed have a four movement work marked fast, scherzo, slow, and fast. (The actual movement markings are Moderato, ma energico; Scherzo: Allegro molto; Adagio: Lento; and Finale: Allegro.) Indeed the individual movements also hew close to the classics. For instance, the first movement is clearly in sonata form, and the scherzo also follow an ABA form. Most - if not all - movements end with a well-marked coda. On the other hand, I can't say I find any of the melodies - if there are any - to be singable.
The slow movement was a tribute to Teddy Roosevelt. It contains a three-note theme that I am quite sure got quoted in the last movement.
The piece certainly looked very difficult, and I also got the feeling that the result was modest compare to the hard work involved. We were close enough to the stage to notice the principal cello had a lot of solo lines, but I frankly couldn't pick out the notes. Surprisingly the violas often came across clearly.
A rather large orchestra was used for the Korngold symphony.
I had seen Simone Young conduct several times before. At Bayreuth the conductor isn't seen, so maybe not that many times. In any case, I was surprised how energetic she was, with her feet off the platform on many occasions. She often had her left arm down, so I wonder if she could be seen by musicians in the back.
Last time we attended a Konzerthaus event we could get seats only behind the stage. Today there were quite a few vacant seats on the main floor (what Europeans call the Parkett level), which was a bit surprising.
The concert ended at about 10:15 pm.
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