NY Philharmonic - Summertime Classics Finale - Bolero & Other French Delights

The last program for this summer's installment of the NY Philharmonic Summertime Classics Series conducted by Bramwell Tovey was titled "Bolero and Other French Delights," but the odd thing about the program, which I heard Thursday night, was how "un-French" it really was.  That is, all of the composers were French, but they were all treating subjects from outside the country.  Bizet's Carmen, from which we heard the March of the Toreadors and two arias, is set in Spain.  Saint-Saens' Samson et Dalila, from which we heard the Bacchanale and one aria, is of course set in the Holy Land of the Middle East.  Berlioz "Le Corsaire" Overture is inspired by the privateers of the Mediterranean Sea.  And, finally, Ravel's Bolero also has a Spanish flavor.  There were two encores, and the first, by an Italian composer, provided the only French place connection on the program!  An aria from Cilea's Adriana Le Couvreur, which is set in Paris.  The second encore was Berlioz's Hungarian Dance from The Damnation of Faust, which is of course intended to invoke Hungary!  (Berlioz wrote it, supposedly, on Liszt's recommendation that he write something with a Hungarian flavor for a concert tour to that country.)

Despite all these geographical and ethnographical oddities, it was a terrific concert.  Indeed, the best of the four, I thought.  Perhaps it is just that this particular aggregation of musicians, many NYP regulars but also many substitutes and temps used to fill out the orchestra for this summer series, had now been playing together for almost two weeks through various programs and had really come together quite nicely under Tovey's genial leadership.  It occurred to me while listening to Bolero - a repetitious work during which one's mind tends to wander - that this was the "real thing" - that is, that this was the truly gorgeous NYP at full cry.  All the big moments in this concert were stunningly well played.

Denyce Graves, a mezzo-soprano familiar to New Yorkers from her work at the Metropolitan Opera, sang the various arias.  She seemed to take the opportunity of singing with an orchestra on her own (as opposed to being part of an ensemble on the operative stage) to really go wild with her interpretations, very individualistic and perhaps beyond what a firm-handed operative conductor would have allowed.  It was great fun, and she projected fantastically well in a sometimes problematic hall.  Indeed, when she provided the spoken introduction for the St. Saens and Cilea arias, her voice projected quite clearly through the hall without any need for the microphone that Tovey was otherwise working like a pro.

Due to the format, there is not actually a lot of music on these programs.  Starting late, stretching out the intermission, speaking between numbers, and bringing the entire show in at under 2 hours (unlike the typical subscription concert these days, which tends to run about 2 hours and 15 minutes), doesn't leave much time for actual music.  Even with the two encores factored in, they finished under the 2 hour mark and the total amount of music played barely surpassed an hour.  This was understandable given the circumstances - two different programs in one week does not leave enough rehearsal time to do justice to 2 full-length programs - and in fact this concert did not feel unduly short, unlike some of the prior ones in this series.  This was a "lazy" program in the sense that everything was very mainstream and most of the music had been played relatively recently by the orchestra.

With the series over, I want to congratulate Tovey and the Philharmonic on a very pleasant two week run of concerts, but to be slightly critical at the end over their having pretty much deserted what I thought most enticing about earlier renditions of Summertime Classics - the search for listener-friendly novelties.  That was pretty much abandoned.  Everything played was out of the standard list of greatest composers and the central orchestral repertory, if one takes into account pops concerts, etc.  Much of the repertory had been played by the orchesta in recent seasons, some of it in the summers led by Tovey in fact.  The hall seemed pretty full for all the concerts I attended, which suggests that if the hall is available they will want to do this again next year.  I would suggest a little more imagination in programming, a return to some of the adventurousness of earlier season would be most welcome in this quarter.