SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL CONCERT  REVIEW
 

The Tchaikovsky Experience: A Philharmonic Festival:  Johannes Moser (cello), New York Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel (conductor), Avery Fisher Hall, 10.10. 2007 (BH)

Tchaikovsky: Selections from Swan Lake, Op. 20 (1875-76)

Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra, Op., 33 (1876)

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 (1888)

 

New York Philharmonic

Lorin Maazel, Conductor

Johannes Moser, Cello

It had been years since I’d heard any of Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky’s ubiquitous ballet, and I had forgotten how violent it is.  As Lorin Maazel presented it, with slashing strings and the brass unleashed, I pictured a sky teeming with vultures and pterodactyls rather than a lake dotted with swans.  The finely honed orchestral playing held some gems: strikingly sensitive harp work, and sweet solos by concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and principal cellist Carter Brey.

In his debut with the orchestra, the young cellist Johannes Moser offered foward, slightly nasal sound in the Variations on a Rococo Theme, which in 2002 he played to win the 12th Tchaikovsky Competition’s Special Prize.  Here Moser seemed to be enjoying himself immensely, completely confident in the skittering runs and harmonics, and turning now and then to smile at the orchestra behind him. If at times his elegance was overpowered by the ensemble, mostly his big sound made me imagine what else he might play.  His deftness indicates he might be an eloquent Mozart interpreter.

I hope the rousing Fifth Symphony after intermission healed the hordes of sick folks in the audience.  Having experienced raptly quiet halls just a few days prior, for a choral concert in Philadelphia and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the waves of insensitive coughing and throat-clearing here had me writing the word “INFIRMARY” in large block letters on my program.  Phil Myers’s lovely horn line in the second movement was capped by someone blowing his nose.  Still, there was much to enjoy, such as aching bass clarinet solos, and the occasional brass apocalypse.  The third movement waltz had the strings showing luster and unanimity, and in the finale Maazel made sure that the martial theme had new life, supported by keenly played internal details.  If that strategy also included some trademark Maazel theatrics (leaning forward on one foot, baton frozen vertically), the audience loved it.  Many were standing and cheering afterward.

It has to be said: while there’s nothing wrong with a festival focusing on Tchaikovsky, why not include some of Tchaikovsky’s contemporaries, to put his brilliance into perspective?  I enjoyed the evening immensely, but with Maazel’s extravagant musical gifts, not to mention a blazingly athletic orchestra at his disposal, he could do everyone an even greater service by pouring energy into programs with  more imagination.  At times I imagined a few days with all six symphonies of the prolific, under-valued Bohuslav Martinů, or second hearings of commissions from the orchestra’s last ten or fifteen years.  The following week, the orchestra is presenting A Florentine Tragedy by Zemlinsky, a composer that could show up in the concert hall more often as well.

 

Bruce Hodges