Concert Review: The Hero of the Audience

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducts the New York Philharmonic.

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos.
Photo by Chris Lee © Chris Lee Photography.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

The return of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos to the podium at Avery Fisher Hall is an annual tradition at the New York Philharmonic. The Spanish conductor always offers unique interpretations of the repertory in a firmly conservative style, beloved by the orchestra's subscriber base. This week's concert program featuring the music of Beethoven and Richard Strauss was also part of the season-long valediction for concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, who is wrapping up his three decades in the position. Friday's afternoon audience, more conservative than most, were thrilled at the prospect of two works written in firm tonal language.

Mr. Fruhbeck elected to open the concert with Beethoven's Eighth Symphony, the shortest and most quicksilver of the composer's nine. From the downward slash of the opening chords, this was an unabashedly Romantic performance. Mr. Frühbeck chose a slightly larger orchestra, giving the dance rhythms an unusually thick texture. This was most apparent in the Allegretto. First violinist (Sheryl Staples) set the metronome pace at quick but moderate, not the pell-mell playing that has become popular among more modern Beethovenians. 

Concert Review: The Leftovers

The Boston Symphony Orchestra serves up Beethoven and Brahms.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Door busters: Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (left) and Peter Serkin serve up Beethoven and Brahms.
Photo by Sam Brewer © 2013 Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Black Friday is a weird tradition. Since the 1960s, American consumers gathered at the malls and "big box" stores on the day after Thanksgiving for so-called "door-buster" deals. All this consumerism an have injurious, or even fatal consequences. But for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its audience, today was just another Friday matinee at Symphony Hall, a civilized pause for high culture in the middle of all the holiday hype.

The program for this week's concert featured a crowd-pleasing pairing of Brahms (the Piano Concerto No. 2 with soloist Peter Serkin) and the Beethoven Seventh Symphony. With the sturdy conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos on the podium, this looked to be safe serving of holiday fare, sure to please the musically conservative audiences that attend the BSO's Friday concerts.

Concert Review: Just Desserts

The Philadelphia Orchestra indulges its sweet tooth.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. Photo by Steven J. Schwartz, courtesy of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Sometimes you just get to see an orchestra do what they do best.

On Friday afternoon, the Philadelphia Orchestra offered the second of three concerts under the baton of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, the 80-year-old Spanish conductor whose specialties include the music of the late Romantic era and the early 20th century. This program of Lalo, Debussy and Ravel displayed all of its performers at the highest possible level. It is also a milestone for Mr. Frühbeck's storied career, as this year marks his 150th appearance with this storied orchestra.

Concert Review: Horns of Plenty

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducts Mozart and Mahler.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The man with the horn: Philip Myers

On Friday afternoon, the Spanish conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos led the New York Philharmonic in a concert that focused squarely on the orchestra's famous horn section. This was the second concert to feature second program of Mr. Frühbeck's two weeks at Avery Fisher Hall this season, pairing lighter works by Mozart with Mahler's First Symphony.

With the Serenata Notturna, the Philharmonic players sounded much more at ease for Mr. Frühbeck then they had in the orchestra's previous Mozart concert this season. The Serenata borrows ideas from baroque music, pitting a small "Salzburg quartet" (two violins, viola and double bass) antiphonally against the rest of the orchestra.

Conducting from his customary stool, the 79-year old Mr. Frühbeck brought out the wit and good humor in this three-movement Serenade. Particularly entertaining: the last movement with its abrupt, seemingly random changes of phrase and tempo, its whiplash changes designed to trick the ear, and its virtuoso parts for the Salzburg quartet, whose contrast against the main orchestra is a forerunner of the Act I finale from Don Giovanni.

Concert Review: The Frantic Romantic

Lalo and Berlioz at the Philharmonic
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A man and his Stradivarius: Augustin Hadelich.
Photo from the artist's website.

The Spanish conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos opened a two-week stand at the New York Philharmonic on Thursday night. The program played to this conductor's strengths, exploring two intricately connected works of 19th century French repertory: the Symphonie espagnole by Édouard Lalo and Hector Berlioz' evergreen Symphonie fantastique.

Despite its title, Lalo's "symphony" is actually a violin concerto, written for (and premeired by)  violinist Pablo de Sarasate in 1875. Lalo's work falls in with the French craze for music with Spanish seasoning, incorporating the solo violin part in five sunny movements that evoke the most picturesque aspects of Iberian life.

The solo part was played by the talented Augustin Hadelich, a violinist who overcame serious injuries from a fire in his teenage years to emerge as a brilliant artist. Mr. Hadelich played with a clean, rich tone that soared into the highest registers of the instrument before diving earthward in a series of ever-more-complicated runs. Sensitively accompanied by Mr. Frühbeck, this performance made a good case for works by Lalo to be heard more often.

Concert Review: Middle Ages, Spread

The Philharmonic takes on Carmina Burana.

The caption reads: "Virtue lies defeated."
(Note the wheel in the background.)
From El Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Réverte,
© 1993 Random House.

by Paul J. Pelkonen
The performance of choral music is not the primary mission of the New York Philharmonic. In its long history, the orchestra has taken advantage of skilled choral ensembles and music directors (Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur) with a penchant for choral repertory.

On Thursday night, the Philharmonic presented the first of three concerts led by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, a veteran conductor acclaimed for his interpretations of choral and dramatic music. The program paired Atlantide, the final, unfinished cantata by Manuel de Falla, with Carl Orff's mighty Carmina Burana, an audience favorite. This was the orchestra's first performance of the Orff work since 1995.

In the interests of time and authenticity, Mr. Frühbeck chose to present Falla's completed, performable sketches instead of the whole three-act work. Atlantide requires two pianos and lush orchestration for its rich portrait of ocean exploration and the journeys of Christopher Columbus. Juilliard-trained soprano Emalie Savoy sang the pivotal Queen Elizabeth with rage and inner magnetism. However, despite the conductor's best efforts, the disconnected segments of the cantata failed to jell into a dramatic whole.