By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
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New York Philharmonic, Marin Alsop, conductor; Rafael Blechacz, pianist
October 7 • Avery Fisher Hall; New York
Bartok: The Wooden Prince suite; Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2; Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 (From the New World)
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Anyone in New York City this week has a surfeit of musical riches from which to choose. Consider last night, for example. The Philadelphia Orchestra played at Carnegie Hall; the Metropolitan Opera performed Richard Strauss' Salome, complete with Karita Matilla (and her nude scene completing the Dance of the Seven Veils); Broadway has a number of hits ongoing; and the New York Philharmonic performed at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center.
In part because tickets for the Philadelphia Orchestra were sold out, I journeyed to Avery Fisher Hall to check out the New York Phil. The decision turned out to be serendipitous.
For many in the audience, it was a case of what might have been. A couple of years ago while the NYPO board was contemplating how best to replace Lorin Maazel as the orchestra’s music director, it could have taken a bold step by selecting Marin Alsop for the job. After all, she had mentored by former NYPO Music Director Leonard Bernstein and has ties to the Big Apple.
Instead, in 2007 Alsop joined JoAnn Falletta (music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic) as the only women to head a major American orchestra when she took over at the Baltimore Symphony; the Phil eventually selected 40-year-old Alan Gilbert, another conductor with deep NY Phil ties, as its next music director.
Alsop, who turns 52 next week, brought with her a program that played to her strengths and allowed the NYPO to shine. Whatever you may think of Lorin Maazel as a conductor/interpreter, during his tenure the orchestra has regained its luster as one of the world's preeminent ensembles, all the more impressive when you consider its home is the acoustically challenged, aging Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center.
Last night, Alsop and the orchestra opened with Bela Bartok's Suite from The Wooden Prince: A Dancing Play in One Act. Alsop's reputation has been built for many years on her affinity with 20th century music and this little-played piece demonstrated that it’s a reputation with teeth.
The backstory to the composition is rather interesting. Bartok wrote the ballet from 1914 to 1916 and orchestrated it in 1917. In 1924, he submitted a suite for with a different ending to his publisher (Universal Edition) who failed to publish it. In 1931, a different suite was performed in public but also wasn't published. Nor was a revised edition of the ballet. "Fortunately," writes James M. Keller, the NY Phil's program annotator, "copies of these materials accompanied Bartok when he emigrated to the United States, and they remained in his archives following his death. His intentions for The Wooden Prince Suite, which he proposed in 1932, were finally realized in 2005 when a score was produced by the composer-and-editor Nelson O. Dellamaggiore and Peter Bartok, the composer's son, who published the suite in 2006."
This was apparently the first NYPO performance of the suite. The program says that Pierre Boulez conducted ballet excerpts in 1975 and Kent Nagano led excerpts in 1987, the last time the orchestra had played the music. After listening to Alsop's winning interpretation, one wonders what took so long. She expertly melded sumptuous melodies with Bartok's angular, percussive moments and capped off the 20-minute performance with an elegant ending that evaporated into nothingness.
The soloist for the evening was 23-year-old Polish pianist Rafa Blechacz, who in 2005 won first prize at the 15th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, one of the most prestigious of these contests (previous winners include Maurizio Pollini, Martha Argerich, Krystian Zimmerman and Yundi Li). Blechacz also won four special prizes: the Polish Radio Award for best performance of the mazurkas, the Polish Chopin Society Award for best performance of the Polonaise, the Warsaw Philharmonic Award for best performance of a concerto, and the award founded by Zimerman for best sonata performance.
Given all of that, it's no surprise that Blechacz chose Chopin's F minor Piano Cas his calling card in New York. It's commonly called the second concerto although, in fact, it was written a year before the E-minor concerto, which was published first.
Blechacz looks younger than he is, in some measure because he's slight of build (Alsop -- no giant, herself -- was taller than the pianist). The woman sitting next to me commented (insert appropriate New York/Jewish/Grandmother accent here), "This boy needs to get some meat on those bones."
Could be, but Blechacz delivered a performance that was a winning mixture of athleticism and poetry. He clearly has the technical chops (any competition winner would) and he sailed through the runs, trills and octaves of the final movement with seemingly effortless ease. More importantly, he had his own individual take on this work, one that will surely broaden with age but interesting in its own right at this point in time. This is definitely a young pianist to keep an eye and ear on.
Blechacz got plenty of assistance from Alsop, whose robust vision of the accompaniment matched the view of the soloist. It was also a concept that carried over into Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 (from the New World), which concluded the concert. Unlike the Bartok, this is ultra-familiar material for the NYPO. Anton Seidl conducted the world premiere in 1893 and Maazel and the orchestra played in North Korea last February.
When Alsop was named to the Baltimore Symphony post, there were questions about how well she handled mainstream, 19th century romantic-style pieces. Now into her second season, no one is complaining any more; to the contrary, she has received rave reviews in symphonies by Brahms, Dvorak, etc. and tonight showed off her skill and passion.
Watching Alsop lead this work (which she conducted without a score), I was reminded of her mentorship with Bernstein. Like Lenny, she's elegantly active on the podium; unlike Lenny in his later years, all of her gestures make musical sense.
She led an exhilarating performance of this familiar piece. I was particularly struck by how incisively she conducted the second ("Largo") movement with its ultra-familiar English horn melody that eventually became the tune, Goin' Home (not the other way around, by the way). Many conductors let this movement dissolve into languor; not Alsop. She conducted it with propulsive forward movement that in no way hampered the breathtaking elegance of English horn soloist Thomas Stacy. Moreover, on the final recapitulation, she gave Stacy a tad more leash so he could revel in the melody. It was truly magical.
There must be an incredible sense of power when a conductor gets to unleash the NYPO brass section for their majestic clarion chords in the final movement. Like all of the performance, Alsop’s tempos were rapid, they never seemed rushed and she was able to continue building Dvorak's long arching lines to the fake-em-out climax that often brings premature applause but did not this time. Alsop and the orchestra received a well-deserved standing ovation after finishing the performance but there must have been a touch of wistfulness from those in the audience who were pondering what Alsop would be like as music director. Lucky Baltimore.
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Hemidemisemiquavers:
• Every time I attend a concert at Avery Fisher Hall (this was about my sixth), I'm extremely grateful for Walt Disney Concert Hall, not only from an acoustic point of view but also for other reasons. I always feel lost when I come into the building — there’s just no sense of grandeur or anticipation when you come in the main doors and are facing the massive box office. Moreover, I never remember exactly how to get into the auditorium (which is on the second and higher levels). To quote Gertrude Stein: “There’s no there there.”
Despite all of the add-ons above the stage, the dry acoustic remain a significant problem. There’s just no presence in the hall, even from a center orchestra seat two-thirds of the way back in the hall, the orchestra (and, in particular, the soloist) sounded like they were playing in Staten Island. Of course, we who enjoy Walt Disney Concert Hall are spoiled; there are still ongoing discussions about what to do with the hall.
• The orchestra lists two pianists and an organist on its roster; the latter is particularly interesting since Avery Fisher Hall has no organ.
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(c) Copyright 2008, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.
