Concert Review: From the Inner Core to the Outer Atmosphere

The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony turns The Planets Inside Out
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Jupiter as photographed by the Juno satellite.
Photo © 2019 NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SWRI/MSSS/XAKARUS ALLDREDGE

The InsideOut concert series, held by the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony under the aegis of music director David Bernard, affords audience members the chance to hear major symphonic and orchestral works from a very different perspective. Where most concert audiences sit and face the orchestra, at InsideOut, the listeners seated in blocks, alternating with the players and sections of the ensemble.

Concert Review: First Cake, Then Ice Cream

The pianist Boris Berezovsky returns to New York.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

The pianist Boris Berezovsky onstage at the Mariinsky Theater..
Photo copyright 1996 mariinsky.ru.

When the Russian virtuoso pianist Boris Berezovsky last gave a recital in New York City, Bill Clinton was president and Zankel Hall didn't evenexist. So Tuesday night marked the pianists debut at Carnegie’s modern subterranean venture, billed with a finger-busting program of piano études by Bartók, Ligeti and Liszt.

Concert Review: Two Sides of the Baton

Alan Gilbert conducts Bartòk, Ligeti and Beethoven.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Since taking the helm of the New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert has always presented listeners (professional or otherwise) with a frustrating paradox. For the conductor, who is in the early weeks of his final season as music director seems to be two very different conductors. He is composed and confident in modern music, exposing his audience to composers lie Magnus Lindberg and Györgi Ligeti. However, in more traditional, "classical" repertory he has faltered with slow tempos and muddled interpretations, specifically in the symphonies of Beethoven and Brahms.

Concert Review: The 57th St. Experiment

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

David Bowman (Keir Dullea) listens to music by György Ligeti.
Image from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey
© 1968 MGM/Turner Entertainment.

This week's Sunday matinee concert at Carnegie Hall was the last formal program of the spring 2014 season at the historic venue. The last of three consecutive concerts featuring the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mariss Jansons, it was also something of an experiment: examining the development of modern music in central Europe by moving steadily backwards in time.

Concert Review: Man vs. Monolith

The New York Philharmonic plays 2001: A Space Odyssey.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Here's looking at you, Earth. The Star-Child (formerly David Bowman)
from the last scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Image © 1968 MGM/Turner Films.

It's not every day that the New York Philharmonic draws thunderous applause for performing the relatively obscure works of Gyorgi Ligeti, the iconoclastic Hungarian composer who remains one of the most important musical voices of the latter half of the 20th century.

It's also not every day that Avery Fisher Hall is invaded by man-apes, monoliths and mad computers with a tendency to commit homicide in the depths of space between Mars and Jupiter. To say nothing of secretive government bureaucrats, ice-blooded astronauts and a psychedelic light show that still confuses viewers 45 minutes after its premiere.

On Friday night, Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic performed the complete score of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. The concert, which featured a complete screening of the sci-fi epic above the Avery Fisher Hall stage was part of Film Week, a special concert series designed to drum up interest in the 2013-14 season of New York's oldest orchestra.

Concert Review: The Defense of the New

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Soprano Barbara Hannigan as the Police Chief from Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre.
Image from BarbaraHannigan.com.

Some composers still need an advocate. Today's audiences are filled with skeptics, put off by the idea of atonal music and names like Berg, Webern and Ligeti. On Friday night at Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra returned to Carnegie Hall under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, the current music director of the Berlin Philharmonic. This program cemented Sir Simon's reputation as a fearless advocate for these new sounds, interpreted through the rich, velvety texture of this top-flight ensemble.

Concert Review: The Great Leap Forward

Week 1 of Hungarian Echoes at the Philharmonic

Casual Friday with Esa-Pekka Salonen. Photo by Clive Barda © Esa-Pekka Salonen

The New York Philharmonic opened their three-week Hungarian Echoes festival this week, under the baton of Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. Friday morning's concert allowed listeners to hear the correlations between a genteel, early Haydn symphony, Györgi Ligeti's experimental Piano Concerto and Bártok's Concerto for Orchestra, a Philharmonic showpiece.

Haydn's Sixth, nicknamed Le matin) comes early in his canon of 104 symphonies. Part of a tryptich, (No. 7, (Le midi )and No. 8 (Le soir) will follow later in the festival) the work is concerto-like, allowing the soloists plenty of opportunity to demonstrate their skill. Mr. Salonen drew some beautiful phrases from the scaled-down orchestra, especially in the swelling "dawn" that introduces the first movement.

The program then jumped 223 years forward, to Ligeti's sole Piano Concerto,  written in 1984. These performance mark the Philharmonic premiere of this five-movement work, scored for chamber orchestra and solo pianist. The percussive piano part was played by Marino Formenti, a last-minute replacement for Pierre Laurent-Aimard. Mr. Formenti leapt into the opening Vivace molto, creating dense structures as he raced up and down the keyboard. Occasionally, he leapt up, repositioning himself at the other end of the piano bench to work at the treble or bass ends of the instrument, keeping up with Mr. Salonen's tempo and the demands of the score.

Mr. Ligeti's orchestration includes numerous percussion pieces, a slide whistle, and a police whistle. There are also parts for Chromonica (a pitch-shifting harmonica) the alto ocarina (played by the clarinetist) and the flexatone, the odd percussion instrument that shows up in '80s funk songs like Rick James' "Super Freak." This bizarre battery was used to good musical effect throughout the five movements, providing steady work for Philharmonic percussionists Daniel Druckman and Christopher Lamb as they enjoyed almost-equal status with the solo piano.

Béla Bartók wrote the Concerto for Orchestra in 1943, in the middle of the five-year American exile that had the composer living unenthusiastically in New York. The Concerto has remained a Philharmonic standby since the orchestra premiered it under George Szell in 1946. Mr. Salonen led a fiery, rhythmic account of the five movements, allowing soloists and clusters of instruments their turns in the spotlight. The most thrilling moment came with the brass fugato in the first movement, as trombones and tuba roared forth in a dramatic statement of the theme. It may not have been especially "Hungarian" in character, but this was the kind of music-making this orchestra does best.