Concert Review: ...And Carry a Small Stick

Valery Gergiev conducts Debussy, Schubert and Mahler.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

An intense moment with Valery Gergiev.
Photo © 2017 Mariinsky Opera.

Any concert under the leadership of Valery Gergiev can be an uncertain affair. His unconventional conducting style, with fingers a-tremble, an impetuous beat and miniscule baton (sometimes no bigger than a toothpick!) gets results, and they're always at least worth writing about. On  Wednesday night at Carnegie Hall, Mr. Gergiev, the newly installed principal conductor of the Munich Philharmonic led his troops in exploration of Debussy, Schubert and Mahler, using his unique podium style to offer fresh and yes, successful insight into these three different composers. For this concert, he used a conventional, (although small) baton.

Concert Review: He Carries a Big Shtick

The Philadelphia Orchestra plays Haydn and Bruckner.

By Paul J. Pelkonen

On the podium: Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Image courtesy the Philadelphia Orchestra.

The concert began with a little bit of theater. 

As music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin stepped onto the podium at Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia Orchestra principal timpanist Don Liuzzi unleashed the opening notes of Haydn’s Symphony No. 103,  Mr. Nézet-Séguin jumped back in mock shock, clutching the brass rail of the podium, before giving the strings their downbeat to launch the opening bars of this symphony, which is nicknamed the "Drum Roll."

Concert Review: The Start of Something Big

The London Symphony Orchestra returns to Lincoln Center.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Bernard Haitink returned to Lincoln Center with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Photo by Todd Rosenberg, courtesy Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

The meteoric rise of Dmitri Shostakovich as one of Soviet Russia's most brilliant composers came to a screeching halt in 1936, when the dictator Josef Stalin attended one of his operas, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. The fall-out from Stalin's displeasure (which included an infamous Pravda editorial) led Shostakovich to quietly withdraw his Fourth Symphony from rehearsals. Locked away in a desk drawer, the work would not be heard until 1961.

On Sunday afternoon at Avery Fisher Hall, Bernard Haitink and the London Symphony Orchestra made a good case for the long, difficult Fourth as one of the composer's finest compositional achievements--and its composer's first important statement as a symphonist. (The First is a student piece, while the Second and Third are examples of Party propaganda.) It was fitting that this work was paired with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9--that composer's first mature statement in a genre that he would come to master. This concert was the first of this year's Great Performers at Lincoln Center, an annual series of orchestral concerts and chamber works.

Concert Review: The California Effect

Alan Gilbert and the Philharmonic give fresh legs to familiar music.

by Paul Pelkonen

Back from California: Philharmonic music director Alan Gilbert.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2012 The New York Philharmonic.

Last week, the New York Philharmonic returned to Avery Fisher Hall from a rare tour of California. It could be the water in the Golden State. It could be the fact that the orchestra just began the last act of a long season. Either way, Tuesday night's concert under the baton of music director Alan Gilbert showed an ensemble that sounded renewed and rejuvenated.

It's not often that a reviewer hears the same orchestra play the same music three weeks apart. The pieces in question: Antonín Dvořák's Carnival Overture and the Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 were played at the start of the month, book-ending composer-in-residence Magnus Lindberg's new piano concerto.

The rekindling of the band's inner fire was apparent from the opening bars of the Carnival Overture. Mr. Gilbert drew potent, muscular rhythms and clear textures from the skilled woodwind soloists of the Philharmonic. The second section, with its folk melodies for woodwinds and cellos was a study in the Philharmonic's rich, satisfying sound. 

Concert Review: Agon and Ecstasy

Stravinsky meets Tchaikovsky at Severance Hall.

Franz Welser-Möst leads the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall.
Photo by Roger Mastroianni © 2010 The Cleveland Orchestra.

The Cleveland Orchestra's Saturday evening subscription concert explored the divide between reason and passion. Two cerebral pieces by  Igor Stravinsky were followed by Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. Music Director Franz Welser-Möst made this program a cogent argument for pairing these very different Russian composers.

The program opened with Stravinsky's Concerto in D, written solely for strings.  This is a concerto in the baroque style, with entire sections offering commentary instead of pitting a soloist against the whole orchestra. It is in the composer's neo-classical  style. Stravinsky creates dialogue between the five sub-sections of the strings. Each principal  player held forth independently, creating a conversation among the strings that made for fascinating listening. Mr. Welser-Möst led the work in his customary, efficient manner.

The Concerto was followed by Agon, the thorniest of Stravinsky's ballet scores. This is an example of Stravinsky's serial style, where music is built from predetermined tone-rows instead of the typical scale. However, Agon is melodic, and its sardonic wit is unmistakeable Stravinsky. The twelve-part work uses the entire orchestra as its palette, calling for solo parts from all four sections and emphasizing some unusual instruments.

Mr. Welser-Möst brought maximum clarity to this work, which had not been heard at Severance Hall in nearly four decades. The orchestra responded brilliantly, as the knotty musical lines untangled themselves and the work coalesced. The brass, asked to make difficult contributions in this work, responded admirably, as did the superb woodwind section.


The Tchaikovsky Fourth finds the composer setting aside naturalism and nationalism for an unyielding exploration of his own psyche. Mr. Welser-Möst tackled the opening movement head-on, opting for a bold, aggressive approach in this famous movement. The blast of brass that opens the work became a strident expression of rage at this fast speed, clashing with the folk-like second theme.

The second movement features a sad oboe theme against the strings that builds to a quiet chorale in the brass. Mr. Welser-Möst slowed the tempo accordingly for this more contemplative music, which featured fine playing from the principal oboe and the English horn. Pizzicato strings led off the Scherzo as the grim mood started to lift in anticipation of the finale.

The last movement brings the struggle to a head, as the violent brass theme from the first movement attempted a comeback. This was ultimately rejected in favor of a more optimistic rising theme, that brought the symphony to a flowing finish. Again, fast tempos were taken, emphasizing the war inside Tchaikovsky's head, one ultimately won by the forces of light.

The enthusiastic reception of this bold Fourth led to a magnificent encore: the slow Prelude to Act III of Die Meistersinger. Reflective playing from the cellos gave way to a hushed choir of horns, creating tones that might have been created on Severance Hall's pipe organ. The Wagner piece ended with a simple, added cadence. This was either a teaser for a future Cleveland Meistersinger, or a measure to prevent playing the full two-hour act.

Concert Review: Dancing With the Decadence Dance

Daniel Harding conducts Mahler's Fourth; Szymanowski's Violin Concerto No. 1.

Daniel Harding. Photo by Eisuke Miyoshi © 2010 DanielHarding.com

Daniel Harding made an auspicious New York Philharmonic debut this week, conducting a program that glittered with that peculiar decadence that defines the late Romantic works written in the early 20th century. Friday's afternoon concert featured Karol Szymanowski's one-movement First Violin Concerto, paired with Mahler's Fourth Symphony.