NY Philharmonic Summertime Classics Begins - Moscow on the Hudson

Tonight the NY Philharmonic kicked off its brief Summertime Classics series with its Moscow on the Hudson program.  Bramwell Tovey led performances of Shostakovich's Festive Overture, Op. 96, a selection of scenes from Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet ballet music, and Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto, with the young Korean pianist Joyce Yang, who already made a big impression a few years ago in her debut with the orchestra.  This program will be repeated tomorrow night.

It was a good launch for the series, a collection of pieces that worked well together, although one could have hoped for slightly more adventurous programming.  One of the interesting features of the Summertime Classics series, since Tovey inaugurated it five years ago, has been the opportunity to hear some lighter classical music a bit off the beaten repertory path, but tonight we had pieces that are central to the regular concert repertory of the orchestra and have all been played at subscription concerts in recent seasons, so that was a bit of a letdown.  But it does not detract in any way from the success of the program heard on its own.

Tovey is a very exciting conductor in this repertory, and the Shostakovich opened things with a big splash.  Then he came out and did some of his entertaining patter to introduce the Prokofiev, providing some context for the scenes he had selected and then leading the NYP players through a very effective rendition.  The short suite provided nice contrasts and a capsule view of the ballet.

The Rach 2 is quite the warhorse of a piano concerto, but it always seems fresh when as thoughtfully played as it was on this occasion.  I found myself reflecting on how tempi have changed.  Half a century ago, this concerto would have been played much faster, as recordings from the 1950s will show.  Tempi in romantic music have generally gotten slower, and there were times I was thinking that we were all really wallowing in ultra-lush Rachmaninoff.  The music can take it, it's sturdy stuff and the big tunes just keep coming, one after another.  Rachmaninoff had a genius for writing big tunes, even if some of the filler between them is more gorgeous than substantive, and at times a bit repetitious, but the piece as a whole really holds the attention and gets the blood rushing at the big moments.  Joyce Yang has a nice, big technique sufficient for this work, but more importantly she has good musical instincts and plays with restraint -- actually, more restraint than Tovey and the orchestra showed on this occasion, and there were times when I felt perhaps he was still getting reacquainted with the acoustic of this hall, which is very live, especially when full of audience members, and the brass and low strings really have to be restrained a bit by the conductor to give the soloist a fair hearing.  I suspect balances will be a mite better tomorrow night as Tovey adjusts and gets feedback from orchestra staff.

The Rach 2 ended with a big bang, and the audience response was sufficiently effusive to justify an encore from Ms. Yang, so we had a very impressive performance of Liszt's transcription of a Chopin song, "My Joys." 

I'm looking forward to the remaining programs, a European smorgasbord with showpieces for violin and orchestra played by James Ehnes, the excellent Canadian violinist, and a final concert collaboration with a band in American marches together with some Copland and a new piece specially commissioned from Tovey himself, in his composerly-capacity, which should be quite interesting.  Anybody in town the next few weeks looking for some delightful orchestral entertainment should head over to the Avery Fisher box office (or the nyp website) to see if tickets remain.  It was rather full tonight, but I spotted a few empty seats here and there.  This series is lots of fun, and the orchestra is in fine form.

Two things I noted that were different from last year:  First, instead of crowding the stage with plants and fancy backdrops, they just used some lighting effects to give the stage a different feel and so didn't crowd the musicians or put a barrier between them and the audience.  Second, we seemed to have the A list orchestra tonight.  I noted last year that many of the principals and other regulars were missing and there were lots of strange faces on the stage -- as if it was a substitute for the NY Philharmonic.  That was not the case tonight.  A few principal players were missing, but most of the principals were there, the regular concertmaster and leading string players all in place, and most of the usual solo winds, so it was the real thing, not some ersatz NY Philharmonic composed heavily of substitutes that performed at last year's series.... but let's see how much of this carries through the remaining two concerts...

Final observation: Walking home afterwards, I noted that the new Circuit City store is readying for their grand opening in the space vacated by Tower Records a block north of Lincoln Center.  I noted a bad judgment call already - the store hours listed by the window indicate they plan to close at 9 pm every night.  That's not in sync with the neighborhood.  Across the street Barnes & Noble is open late every night, shows let out from Lincoln Center until rather late most nights of the week, and they are in the midst of a residential neighborhood, not a commercial district with office buildings emptying out and deserted streets.  The Lincoln Square area is alive with foot traffic until after 11 most nights and later on weekends.  Closing at 9 pm is not a good business decision -- if perchance any Circuit City execs chance to see this....