Concert Review: The Early Bird Gets the Mermaid

The New York Philharmonic plays Stravinsky, Zemlinsky and Mozart.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Detail from The Mermaid in the Sea by Edmund Dulac.
Image from WikiMedia Commons.

As the New York Philharmonic gears up for next week’s season announcement, there is no drop in the quality of music being made at Avery Fisher Hall. That’s the impression, anyway from Friday’s 11am matinee concert, the second in a concert weekend featuring the young Russian conductor Andrei Boreyko and three interesting works from dusty corners of the classical repertory. The two large orchestral pieces on the program had this in common both were based upon the fairy tales of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.