NY Philharmonic Summertime Classics: From the Danube to the Rhine

The third installment of this year's Summertime Classics series at the NY Philharmonic, conducted by Bramwell Tovey, features central European music under the title "From the Danube to the Rhine."  Although the composer picks are safely mainstream - Johann Strauss Jr, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss - the repertory is a bit less common than the previous two concerts.  For a Strauss overture, they picked Zigeunerbaron rather than the ubiquitous Fledermaus.  For the Liszt Concerto, we had No. 2 rather than the more popular No. 1.  For the Brahms, we had two of the less frequently encountered Hungarian Dances, Nos. 4 & 10 (with the most frequently encountered one as an encore at the end), and from Richard Strauss the extended Rosenkavalier Suite generally attributed to former NYP music director Artur Rodzinski as arranger.  Most of the program had not been played by the Philharmonic in recent seasons.  So this was a refreshing change.

And the program was very well played.  Simone Dinnerstein made her NYP debut in the Liszt.  Although conductor Tovey said in his introduction that the second concerto was the better of the two in terms of structure and sophistication, I've always found it the less interesting.  Despite its clumsiness, the first concerto just has better tunes and its bombast is more entertaining.  But No. 2 can be a pleasant piece to hear, and Dinnerstein was a persuasive interpreter.  She produces a very beautiful sound from the piano, which is a prerequisite for success in this music and not as frequently attained as one might hope.  I enjoyed hearing her, and so did the rest of the audience, to judge by the strong ovation.  Too bad this format does not seem to leave room for soloist encores.  They should think about changing that...

The Strauss overture and Brahms dances were played with suitable flair, and the orchestra sounded like they were actually having fun.

With the Rosenkavalier suite, we were in a different world entirely.  This is big league orchestral writing by Strauss, who was a master of orchestration beyond dispute.  I found myself thinking again and again that this was the kind of music for which the large symphony orchestra was invented - the big, colorful late romantic effusion of emotion.  It was all quite wonderful.

And pity the impatient who just jumped up and scampered out as the final chords were dying -- they missed the encore, a splendidly vivacious run through the familiar 5th Hungarian Dance.  Patience, friends, patience....  (And the NYP could reconsider their practice during the regular season of eschewing encores... these tasty extra morsels are very much appreciated by the audience, and can include repertory not normally encountered on regular symphony programs, precisely because they are short and the fashion these days is to play one long, serious works on regular subscription concerts - a fashion I decry from time to time.)

Thanks Maestro Tovey, Dimone Dinnerstein, and NYP for a wonderfully entertaining evening.  Can you top this later in the week with the French program?  We'll see and hear....