Concert Reviews: The Children of Brahms

The Berlin Philharmonic explores the roots of atonality.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Sir Simon Rattle. Image © Berlin Philharmonic for the Digital Concert Hall.

Although the composer Johannes Brahms lived a long life, he went to his grave a bachelor and without issue. However, it can be argued that the composers of the Second Viennese School are in some ways his spiritual children. Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils Anton Webern and Alban Berg took Brahms' ideas to a logical extreme, with short, aphoristic orchestral pieces that themselves signalled a new kind of music. On Thursday night at Carnegie Hall, Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic offered an ambitious program at Carnegie Hall, placing all four composers side by side to see if this connection would become evident.

Concert Review: Brahms, More Brahms, Et Cetera

The New York Philharmonic plays...you know.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Brahmsian: Russian conductor Semyon Bychkov.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2015 The New York Philharmonic.

The modern symphony orchestra cannot survive without the music of Johannes Brahms.

On Friday morning, the New York Philharmonic and guest conductor Semyon Bychkov gave the third of four concerts this week focused almost entirely on Brahms' music. The performance opened with a modern work: the Brahms-Fantasie by contemporary German composer Detlev Glanert, followed by two major works from opposite ends of Brahms' career: the Double Concerto (which would be his last major orchestral work) and the First of his four symphonies.

Concert Review: Trading His Baton for a Bow

Alan Gilbert plays Bach, then leads Berg and Brahms.

Delicious! Soloist Frank Peter Zimmermann takes a bite of his 1711 Stradivarius.
Photo © 2010 Sony Classical/Frank Peter Zimmermann.

Friday's matinee concert at Avery Fisher Hall opened with the Bach Concerto for Two Violins, featuring Philharmonic 2011 Artist-in-Residence, joined by a talented young violinist...named Alan Gilbert. This may have been the boldest move of the Philharmonic music director's three-year tenure--picking up the violin and joining artist-in-residence Frank Peter Zimmermann for  Johann Sebastian Bach's Concerto for Two Violins.

I can't remember the last time this happened at the Philharmonic. (There is some precedent, as the orchestra was founded in 1842 by violinist Uli Corelli Hill.) History aside, Mr. Gilbert acquitted himself well, twining with Mr. Zimmermann in the eloquent opening. The long slow movement displayed the musical mind of the man who wields the baton with gorgeous figures from the twinned violins.

Alban Berg's moving Violin Concerto followed, with Mr. Gilbert resuming his traditional role on the podium. This is one of Berg's most mature, accessible works, and the last piece he completed before his untimely death. It is written in his 12-tone style but with such artistry that the serial technique never gets in the way of the listener's enjoyment.

Mr. Zimmermann led the choir of mourning from his violin. The Concerto was written following the death of Manon Gropius, the 18-year old daughter of Berg's friend Alma Mahler-Werfel, widow of the composer Gustav Mahler. He played the complex, dissonant figures with an almost operatic eloquence, soaring against the sometimes hushed, sometimes thnderous backdrop of the orchestration.

Berg ends the second and final movement of this concerto with a set of variations on a Bach chorale. (Happily, this fact tied together the two concertos on the program.) As he played the variations,  Mr. Zimmermann took an unusual step backwards on the stage, moving amongst the first violins and violas and playing as if he was part of their section. It was an unusual gesture for a soloist, and one that speaks of the bond between this violinist and the orchestra as he begins his year-long residency.

The concert ended with Brahms' Third Symphony, an heroic work that overcomes its opening storm and stress with rigorous classical thought in the mold of Beethoven. There is some evidence that Brahms' dense orchestral style influenced Berg's teacher Arnold Schoenberg, so a faint connection could be drawn between this work and the Violin Concerto.

This is Mr. Gilbert's favorite of the four Brahms symphonies, and he treated it royally. The opening had force. The slow movement flowed forth in rich tones but did not meander. And the very last pages, a hushed, but resolute chorale that anticipates the Bach-like ending of the Berg concerto by some 53 years, were played with magical, organ-like tone from the Philharmonic's wind and horn sections.

Concert Review: Two Paths, Two Rivals, Two Conductors

Kurt Masur Conducts the New York Philharmonic

Kurt Masur. Photo by Chris Lee © 2009 New York Philharmonic

When Kurt Masur comes back to the New York Philharmonic, it's always a big deal. The German conductor steered the orchestra through eleven acclaimed seasons from 1991 to 2002, expanding the repertory, breaking new musical ground, and honing the orchestra's sound in a successful term as music director.

This week's program featured two composers that are at the heart of Mr. Masur's repertory: Johannes Brahms and Franz Liszt. In 19th century Europe, Brahms and Liszt occupied seperate musical "camps". Brahms was pigeon-holed as the arch-conservative, steeped in the tradition of Beethoven. Liszt: the wild Romantic who created new musical forms and gave barn-storming, piano-breaking performances that caused extreme behavior in his doting fans.

Mr. Masur chose to bridge this gap with Two Paths, a double concerto for violas and orchestra by Sofia Gubudalaina, which was originally comimssioned by the conductor's wife, Tomoko Masur. Philharmonic principal violists Cynthia Phelps and Rebecca Young (the soloists at the work's 1999 premiere) were scheduled to play. But an eye infection has made Mr. Masur unable to read sheet music this week. Assistant conductor Daniel Boico stepped in.

Two Paths, inspired by the New Testament figures of Mary and Martha, is a set of seven variations. Mr. Boico juxtaposed jarring brass chords and unusual percussion with otherworldly orchestral textures. Ms. Phelps and Ms. Young played their slow dance of entwining violas, one soaring up the scale to represent the faith of Mary, the other spiralling downward as the more pragmatic Martha.

For the Liszt and Brahms works, Mr. Masur relied on a prodigious memory and six decades of podium experience. The concert opened with an elegaic performance of Les Preludes, the third, (and most frequently played) of Liszt's tone poems. Its pretentious subject matter (don't ask) stands in contrast to its compelling orchestral writing and elemental tone-painting. Mr. Masur skipped the program and focused on pure music, panning gold from Liszt's rushing rivers of sound.

Kurt Masur presented Brahms' First Symphony as the work of a secret progressive, demonstrating how Brahms used the conventional four-movement framework of the instrumental symphony to explore new textures and fresh ideas of rhythm and phrasing. From the steady rhythm of the introduction to  the finale (which quotes Beethoven's Ode to Joy), Mr. Masur led the symphony as a cohesive whole, giving cohesion to Brahms' big orchestral gestures.

The last two movements were played without a break, creating a momentum that drove the whole work home in true Romantic style. The connection between conductor and band may have been stormy, but this performance showed that, a decade later, it is still as strong as ever.