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I wrote a post several years back (4/1/2012) about a music marathon, five concerts in five days. (Read here if you wish). Well, tomorrow I will attend my fifth concert in four days, an even more intense schedule. This time I'm in the music capital of the world: New York. (Sorry, Nashville, Memphis, Chicago, New Orleans and LA).
Ransom had to be here for his Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center concert earlier this afternoon, so I thought I’d make a mini-vacation of it. I arrived Friday in time to have an early supper with him and then headed to Carnegie Hall to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by the irrepressible Yannick Nézet-Séguin, new Music Director of the Met Opera, as well as music director for the Philly ensemble.
The program began with Nico Muhly’s Liar a suite from his opera Marnie. I didn’t much like the music of the opera when I saw it on The Met in HD and this short piece was no great shakes either. The revelation of the evening though was Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1, with Jan Lisiecki at the keyboard. It, and he, were stunning. I didn’t know this work and was blown away by the pyrotechnics on the 88s. Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, the “Great,” ended the program with all the usual excitement that piece carries. And speaking of excitement, there’s no better word to describe the feelings that emanate from the podium when Nézet-Séguin conducts. The energy in his music-making is palpable and contagious. I look for great things at the Met.
It was an excellent concert, but, truth be told, one of my last at Carnegie. The hall is just too uncomfortable and the tickets too expensive; I’m sticking with the New York Philharmonic, to whom I returned on Saturday for a fascinating concert centered on a new concerto for cello and pipa (pictured) by Zhao Lin, played by Wu Man and Yo-Yo Ma. It was perhaps the most accessible piece of new music I’ve ever heard, alternately thundering and powerful and soft and evocative. The pipa sounds somewhat like a banjo and is certainly something we rarely (ever?) hear in the concert hall; it was charming. The second half was devoted to Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, the Pathétique, in a thrilling performance that brought the house down.
Then today at 3pm I was back in David Geffen Hall to hear the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen, play Bruckner’s monumental Seventh Symphony. It was incredible; the sound filled every space of this acoustically-challenged hall and brought on one of the biggest and longest ovations I’ve ever seen from a New York audience. Salonen took five bows and could easily have taken six or more but chose to end the performance by taking his concert master off the stage with him. It was brilliant.
Two hours later I was in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center’s most refined and beautiful performance space, to hear Ransom and his colleagues of the Chamber Music Society perform a fun and somewhat light program of music new to me -- music by Glinka, Glazunov, Balakirev, Schnittke and Rachmaninov, whose Suite for Two Pianos ended the program on a bombastic and powerful note -- or rather, on many, many such notes. Ransom played on the Balakirev, an odd piece for an octet of strings, flute, oboe, horn and piano. Not a piece I’ll probably ever love, but I surely did love seeing my husband back on this perfect stage.
Tomorrow? While Ransom flies from Kennedy to Israel I’ll be back one last time in Geffen Hall to hear the Philharmonic Orchestra, again led by Esa-Pekka Salonen. This time it’s Salonen’s own Cello Concerto, along with Sibelius: The Oceanides and Stravinsky: The Firebird (complete). Sounds like another winner with something old, something new, something unknown.
The only question is, what am I going to do Tuesday night?
Ransom had to be here for his Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center concert earlier this afternoon, so I thought I’d make a mini-vacation of it. I arrived Friday in time to have an early supper with him and then headed to Carnegie Hall to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by the irrepressible Yannick Nézet-Séguin, new Music Director of the Met Opera, as well as music director for the Philly ensemble.
The program began with Nico Muhly’s Liar a suite from his opera Marnie. I didn’t much like the music of the opera when I saw it on The Met in HD and this short piece was no great shakes either. The revelation of the evening though was Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1, with Jan Lisiecki at the keyboard. It, and he, were stunning. I didn’t know this work and was blown away by the pyrotechnics on the 88s. Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, the “Great,” ended the program with all the usual excitement that piece carries. And speaking of excitement, there’s no better word to describe the feelings that emanate from the podium when Nézet-Séguin conducts. The energy in his music-making is palpable and contagious. I look for great things at the Met.
It was an excellent concert, but, truth be told, one of my last at Carnegie. The hall is just too uncomfortable and the tickets too expensive; I’m sticking with the New York Philharmonic, to whom I returned on Saturday for a fascinating concert centered on a new concerto for cello and pipa (pictured) by Zhao Lin, played by Wu Man and Yo-Yo Ma. It was perhaps the most accessible piece of new music I’ve ever heard, alternately thundering and powerful and soft and evocative. The pipa sounds somewhat like a banjo and is certainly something we rarely (ever?) hear in the concert hall; it was charming. The second half was devoted to Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, the Pathétique, in a thrilling performance that brought the house down.
Then today at 3pm I was back in David Geffen Hall to hear the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen, play Bruckner’s monumental Seventh Symphony. It was incredible; the sound filled every space of this acoustically-challenged hall and brought on one of the biggest and longest ovations I’ve ever seen from a New York audience. Salonen took five bows and could easily have taken six or more but chose to end the performance by taking his concert master off the stage with him. It was brilliant.
Two hours later I was in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center’s most refined and beautiful performance space, to hear Ransom and his colleagues of the Chamber Music Society perform a fun and somewhat light program of music new to me -- music by Glinka, Glazunov, Balakirev, Schnittke and Rachmaninov, whose Suite for Two Pianos ended the program on a bombastic and powerful note -- or rather, on many, many such notes. Ransom played on the Balakirev, an odd piece for an octet of strings, flute, oboe, horn and piano. Not a piece I’ll probably ever love, but I surely did love seeing my husband back on this perfect stage.
Tomorrow? While Ransom flies from Kennedy to Israel I’ll be back one last time in Geffen Hall to hear the Philharmonic Orchestra, again led by Esa-Pekka Salonen. This time it’s Salonen’s own Cello Concerto, along with Sibelius: The Oceanides and Stravinsky: The Firebird (complete). Sounds like another winner with something old, something new, something unknown.
The only question is, what am I going to do Tuesday night?
