NY Philharmonic Stravinsky Festival Program on April 22

Luck of the draw, I guess.  Because I teach on Wednesday nights this semester but wanted to hear the performance of "Les Noces" by Stravinsky - rarely performed live in concert - I bought my ticket for the second night of the opening concert program in the NY Philharmonic's Stravinsky Festival directed by Valery Gergiev - Thursday's repetition.   Then came the email and voicemail from the orchestra informing me that because of the air travel disruption in Europe (Iceland volcano eruptions), the Mariinsky Theater Chorus was delayed and "Jeu de Cartes" would be substituted for "Les Noces."  And so that's what the opening night audience heard on Wednesday.  But another email arrived during the day on Thursday, announcing that the chorus had arrived in town and "Les Noces" had been restored to the program.  I speculated that frantic rehearsing was going on.  And so I got to hear "Les Noces" after all.

And it was certainly worth the effort.  This is a most unusual piece, a sort of reminiscence of a traditional Russian peasant wedding, scored for four vocal soloists, chorus, four pianos, and large percussion ensemble.  The only participants actually drawn from the NY Philharmonic were the members of their excellent percussion section, supplemented with some guests.  So perhaps the only need to rehearse yesterday afternoon was to coordinate the percussionists with everybody else.  (I'm speculating, given their Russian names, that the four pianists may have flown in with the chorus....)  Presumably these vocal and piano forces have performed "Les Noces" with Gergiev in Russia.  In any event, this was a striking way to open a program in a festival dedicated to emphasizing the cosmopolitan composer's Russian roots.

My previous experiences with "Les Noces" have almost all been from recordings, and I have to say that the piece has been difficult for me to assimilate.  It seemed at me to be lots of impersonal shouting and piano pounding, punctuated with loud percussion interjections.  But not this time.  Under Gergiev's inspired leadership, what I heard instead was lots of overlap with the style and sound of The Rite of Spring (composed at around the same time), and a real emphasis on the Russian folk music roots of the piece.  In short, this performance was so musically enticing that, for the first time, I really enjoyed hearing the piece.  Which was what I had anticipated, and why my mood had gone from disappointment at the initial announcement that the chorus was delayed, to renewed excitement when informed that they had arrived.  And it does make a difference to have a Russian chorus, with their distinctive sound and ease with the words...

Then we had Symphonies of Wind Instruments, a one-movement homage to Debussy, performed by the NY Philharmonic's wind players with great panache.  I usually find this piece a bit of a trial as well, but not in this performance, where the players seemed very engaged and responsive to the conductor.

Finally, after intermission, the complete Firebird Ballet...  The familiar suite that Stravinsky drew from the ballet (about half the length of the full piece) definitely has many of the best moments, but those moments sound more interesting heard in the context of the complete ballet.  Stravinsky drew heavily on folk materials for his themes -- he was not really a melodist -- but his great accomplishment is in their arrangement and elaboration, clothed in inventive orchestration and subjected to rhythmic variation.  Again and again I was struck by how ingenious was his use of the orchestra, especially percussion.  This was musical genius on display, and this kind of piece draws out the greatest strengths of this orchestra.  When those powerful brass players piled on to the rest of the orchestra in the finale, I felt one of those spine-tingling moments, an actual feeling of awe.

So this was definitely a good start to the Stravinsky festival that will be continuing over the next two weeks.  I have tickets for the May 1 installment, when the highlight will be Oedipus Rex!