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Bait and Switch at San Diego Symphony
Concentric contemporary dims Dvorak
Antonin Dvorak
The struggle session returned with a vengeance at the San Diego Symphony Orchestra concert on Saturday, November 16. The previous concert weekend featured a program without any contemporary pieces to struggle through as an audience member and it felt so good.
This concert began with “The Chairman Dances” from Nixon in China by John Adams. While I like John Adams, I don’t need to hear this piece twice within any given year and it feels as if the symphony just performed this just the other day at The Shell.
The second piece of “music” was a violin concerto by Thomas Adès entitled Concentric something or other. I can’t be bothered to remember the title because this music is utterly forgettable. In fact, I am actively trying to forget that I ever heard the thing.
Violinist Leila Josefowicz gave a quirky but ultimately useless introduction to the piece. Apparently, there were spaceships and waves and dinosaurs in the music. Needless to say, I and the audience had different ideas about what these things might sound like.
Hears the thing with contemporary music. The organization has to pay royalties to the publisher. The music is usually unpalpable and it costs more to perform but hey, at least Thomas Adès and his publisher made a little money. Albeit in what amounts to a bait-and-switch maneuver.
The entire audience was there to hear Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9. I wonder what the attendance would have looked like without the Dvorak. What if the concert had been all Thomas Adès?
I must say that Josefowicz played the hell out of the piece. She is an amazing musician and a fierce performer.
The Dvorak, as conducted by Elena Schwarz, was straightforward. There is something to be said for this approach. It could be considered a way to restore Dvorak’s music to its original intentions and to remove any pretentious performance practices that have choked the piece.
On the other hand, it there is to be no push and pull. If there are to be no risks taken, then why is the conductor there?
For instance, the brass chorale that starts the second movement can be ponderous. In Schwarz’s hands, it was not stagnant but it also bordered on being perfunctory. The entire performance sat on the edge of being too breezy, too slim. However, everything worked. The orchestra played brilliantly. Dvorak’s Ninth is one of the world’s favorite symphonies and no one could have been disappointed with this performance.
Video:
Dvorzak: Symphony No. 9
Here's something you might be interested in.
Bait and Switch at San Diego Symphony
Concentric contemporary dims Dvorak
Bait and Switch at San Diego Symphony
Concentric contemporary dims Dvorak
Antonin Dvorak
The struggle session returned with a vengeance at the San Diego Symphony Orchestra concert on Saturday, November 16. The previous concert weekend featured a program without any contemporary pieces to struggle through as an audience member and it felt so good.
This concert began with “The Chairman Dances” from Nixon in China by John Adams. While I like John Adams, I don’t need to hear this piece twice within any given year and it feels as if the symphony just performed this just the other day at The Shell.
The second piece of “music” was a violin concerto by Thomas Adès entitled Concentric something or other. I can’t be bothered to remember the title because this music is utterly forgettable. In fact, I am actively trying to forget that I ever heard the thing.
Violinist Leila Josefowicz gave a quirky but ultimately useless introduction to the piece. Apparently, there were spaceships and waves and dinosaurs in the music. Needless to say, I and the audience had different ideas about what these things might sound like.
Hears the thing with contemporary music. The organization has to pay royalties to the publisher. The music is usually unpalpable and it costs more to perform but hey, at least Thomas Adès and his publisher made a little money. Albeit in what amounts to a bait-and-switch maneuver.
The entire audience was there to hear Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9. I wonder what the attendance would have looked like without the Dvorak. What if the concert had been all Thomas Adès?
I must say that Josefowicz played the hell out of the piece. She is an amazing musician and a fierce performer.
The Dvorak, as conducted by Elena Schwarz, was straightforward. There is something to be said for this approach. It could be considered a way to restore Dvorak’s music to its original intentions and to remove any pretentious performance practices that have choked the piece.
On the other hand, it there is to be no push and pull. If there are to be no risks taken, then why is the conductor there?
For instance, the brass chorale that starts the second movement can be ponderous. In Schwarz’s hands, it was not stagnant but it also bordered on being perfunctory. The entire performance sat on the edge of being too breezy, too slim. However, everything worked. The orchestra played brilliantly. Dvorak’s Ninth is one of the world’s favorite symphonies and no one could have been disappointed with this performance.
Video:
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Dvorzak: Symphony No. 9