Concert Review: Lamentations and Fabulous Triumph

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Messiah complex? Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Photo from the conductor's official website.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin is riding high as the 2016-17 season gallops to a close. The French-Canadian conductor is in the middle of his first New York Wagner run, leading Der fliegende Holländer at the Metropolitan Opera, where he is scheduled to become the company's next music director in the 2020 season. On Tuesday night, Mr. Nézet-Séguin returned to his other job, leading the Philadelphia Orchestra in the last of their spring concerts at Carnegie Hall.

Concert Review: The Return of Mr. Incredible

Yannick Nézet-Séguin (finally) conducts at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Photo by Marco Borggreve.
Image © Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

The arrival and installation of Quebec-born conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra has been one of the most important stories in concert music this decade. This exciting young conductor has shouldered the burden of transiting this venerable organization out of bankruptcy while providing fresh energy and innovative programming to keep the lights lit on Broad Street. However, a strike by Carnegie Hall stage hands nixed this year's opening gala concert, and an illness in December forced Michael Tilson Thomas to serve as a last-minute replacement.

Concert Review: Taking the Beethoven Cure

Christoph von Dohnányi returns to the New York Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Christoph von Dohnányi. Photo © Decca Classics/Universal Music Group.

When Beethoven's Fifth Symphony was first heard by a Vienna audience, it was on a freezing cold night in the Austrian capital and part of a four and a half hour concert that also featured the premiere of the Sixth. So perhaps it was fitting that temperatures outside Avery Fisher Hall were bitter cold on Friday night for an all-Beethoven concert at the New York Philharmonic.

The program started with Beethoven's Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus. The venerable Christoph von Dohnányi (he's 83 and vigorous) led this brief work with vigor, creating clean orchestral textures to support Beethoven's rhythms and melodic ideas. It was the epitome of this veteran conductor's style: every note of the work's architecture crisply played, clearly balanced and driven forward with firm purpose.

If Prometheus was the young Beethoven's first public success, then the Piano Concerto No. 1 cemented his reputation as a budding orchestral composer and piano soloist. Here, Mr. Dohnányi was joined by pianist Radu Lupu, the eminent Romanian virtuoso who applies his skills strictly to music of the Classical and early Romantic eras.

Concert Review: Old School Brahms and Dvořák

Radu Lupu.

The venerable Christoph von Dohnányi capped his two-week stand at the New York Philharmonic with Saturday night's concert, featuring Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1, appealingly paired with Dvořák's Symphony No. 8. The Brahms concerto featured soloist Radu Lupu, a Romanian pianist who specializes in Romantic repertoire.

Mr. Dohnányi rearranged the Philharmonic for this concert, positioning the basses and cellos on stage right--the better to blend the sound with Mr. Lupu's piano. The new seating arrangement did not adversely affect the musicians, who played Brahms' long orchestral introduction to the concerto, tearing into the five-chord opening sequence with a muscular energy.


Mr. Lupu's entrance was quiet, almost subdued. He played with old-world elegance, using a light touch and fluid legato that recalled Mozart. His piano integrated smoothly with conductor and orchestra, echoing and commenting through the development, before breaking out for a lengthy, eloquent passage: a soliloquy in notes without the benefit of orchestral accompaniment. It ascended to a starry height before crashing back to earth amidst the recapitulation of the opening theme.

The best playing of the night came in the soulful slow movement, a work that cements Brahms' reputation as the heir to Beethoven. This Adagio explores the same cosmic territory as the slow movement of the Ninth, adorned with a ruminative piano part that only adds to its profound beauty. By contrast, the final Rondo was much more athletic, as pianist and orchestra charged home to the final resolution of the opening theme.

Dvořák's Eighth resounds with military fanfares, bird-calls and a boundless enthusiasm that markshis best work. The Eighth is one of his most famous symphonies, coming right before Dvořák's two year sojourn in America and subsequent change in style. It is a paean to life and nature, expressed through scenes from Bohemia's forests. The second movement, with its bird-call flute solos and lengthy violin solo, is one of the composer's most joyous, and featured fine playing from the Philharmonic soloists.

Mr. Dohnányi's interpretation lacked that last sense of gut-wrenching Bohemian rhapsody. However, this was four movements of honest, powerful music-making infused with a welcome energy. The Philharmonic's brass were at their best in the final movement, bursting forth into the main theme with a Mahlerian enthusiasm. The conductor kept a firm grip on the tempo through the final Rondo, which includes an impressive fugue that may surprise listeners unfamiliar with Dvořák's contrapuntal skill. As the brass returned to blast through the final pages, the Eighth thundered to a close in a celebration of life.