I’m halfway through this week’s Classical series run (if you include the runout on Tuesday evening to Willamette University in Salem), and my thoughts are starting to turn back to what’s happened thus far in the performances and rehearsals, and looking forward to the two remaining performances.
First, the Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony. It’s an absolutely wonderful piece of music, and very well written for the orchestra, and a great showpiece for our orchestra as well. But it’s also an absolute slog for the violas. We almost never get to rest. The slow introductions to the first two movements find us playing along with the cellos and basses while the violins inspect their (resting) fingernails. And we don’t have the luxury of resting our instruments on the floor like the cellos do. Ok, I’m done whining. The temptation in all Tchaikovsky is always to overplay, to get overheated and overexcited and just throw caution to the wind. In fact, it is a piece that really demands thoughtful pacing on the part of the player, especially in cases where we don’t have a skillful conductor at the podium (unlike Carlos, who keeps things moving well), because wallowing is a specialty in this piece from many stick wavers. Sure, it’s fun to do the “C-string challenge” where the low-lying passages are played as far up the C-string as one will dare, with the winning stand partner lasting the highest. But that’s tiring to do, and intonation and tone can suffer even with the best of intentions.
The Sibelius Canzonetta that opens the program is a piece that I’d never heard of before, never mind actually heard, and it’s a nice little piece. The best part is that it gives the viola section an extended stint on the melodic part, a rarity in most pieces, and that makes it more fun for us, too.
Finally, the Sibelius Violin Concerto with Midori. I just don’t know where to come down on these performances so far. I respect her intense commitment and obvious thought that she’s put into her interpretation of the piece. There is no lack of intensity or integrity in the performance, and I guess for 9 out of 10 soloists that would be enough, but Midori has been in the top rank of violinists for most of her life, and I’m not sure if this is a Sibelius concerto performance to be put in that pantheon. Audience response has been terrific, but I’m not sure what my colleagues are thinking (well, I know what a few of them are thinking, but it’s hardly a representative sample, so mum’s the word) about the performances thus far. Either way, it’s an approach that’s causing me to think, and perhaps that’s ample praise. I do have to say that the slow movement of the Sibelius Violin Concerto is perhaps one of the most beautiful pieces of music that he wrote, and that’s in a catalog of many, many extraordinarily beautiful works.
7 replies on “random musings for monday”
Midori certainly has been gathering favorable reviews. I was lukewarm to her performance Saturday night but Sunday night I was much more favorably disposed toward it. I don’t know why that is. The performance was very similar. Perhaps I was not ready for such intensity Saturday night. I must certainly congratulate you and your colleagues for maintaining such a high level of energy and focus, not to mention skill, through both concerts. I couldn’t detect any slippage Sunday night. How would you compare the two nights?
Generally, Sunday is a bit more relaxed and musical, while Saturday tends to be a bit more uptight and perhaps tentative. Monday can be almost anything, depending upon how tiring the program is.
Heading to bed after a slog through Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony. Bravo! One of the best slogs Voice and I’ve experienced. Have a great slog tonight (that would be Tuesday) in Salem!!!
Since I’m in the other coast, I couldn’t hear Midori and the Sibelius. But my listening experiences with her before I retired as a reviewer were always intense. Never was this more so than when she played the Berg with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra when she was the same age as Manon Gropius. It was hair-raisingly angry as she totally immersed herself in the role and at the unfairness of dying so young.
But when I heard her do Mozart in a recital, I remember wishing that she would pull back a bit and touch the delicacy in the slow movement.
These two concerts were years ago, so it’s good, I suppose, that in reading your comments it seems Midori has remained consistently challenging.
Back then her management and that of Pam Frank were the same, and those idiots booked them each into a separate recital in Princeton not even a quarter mile apart (McCarter for Midori, Richarson for Pam). My editor gave me my choice of which to cover, and I didn’t even hesitate — I bathed in the artistic warmth of Pam Frank (oh, how I wish she could return to playing), while a colleague had his hair stand on end with Midori.
“The temptation in all Tchaikovsky is always to overplay, to get overheated and overexcited and just throw caution to the wind”
and isn’t that the meaning of life?
“Sure, it’s fun to do the “C-string challenge” where the low-lying passages are played as far up the C-string as one will dare, with the winning stand partner lasting the highest. But that’s tiring to do, and intonation and tone can suffer even with the best of intentions.”
this too is the meaning of life!!
…but for me, it is not a contest between stand partners, just myself! livin’ the dream! baby,
and no regrets!
Joël – you are right, and you picked up much joie de vivre in the south of France! But I am a Northerner, not yet exposed to such wonders, and so I will be cautious as my technique is more fallible in those upper reaches where only angels dare to tread!
this mere mortal will stay a bit more grounded