Lincoln Center Festival: Complete Works of Edgard Varese, Part II (NYP)

Tonight the New York Philharmonic presented the second part of the Lincoln Center Festival's restrospective of the music of Edgard Varese (1883-1965) in Avery Fisher Hall, led by its musical director, Alan Gilbert.  This concert comprised the full orchestra works - Arcana and Ameriques - and some pieces for slightly smaller ensembles, including the all-percussion piece, Ionisation, which called for rather a larger percussion array and group of performers than were available for last night's installment at Alice Tully Hall.  Also on the program were the chamber piece for winds, Octandre, the short "Tuning Up" as completed by Chou Wen-chung, and Varese's final composition, Nocturnal, for soprano, male chorus, and instrumental ensemble, as completed by Chou Wen-chung.  So between yesterday and today, this also turned into a "completed by Chou Wen-chung" Festival, and we can thank Dr. Chou for the chance to hear incomplete works by Varese that would otherwise be unavailable.

I have a mixed reaction to tonight's concert.  While there was still a sense of specialness to the event, it seemed less than at last night's event, and the playing seemed less intense, less tightly-knit, and less urgent.  Perhaps this is to be expected.  Last night's performers were contemporary music specialists, being led by someone for whom Varese is a consuming interest and passion. Last night we had performers for whom a concert under Lincoln Center auspices at Tully was a big event, and they played that way.  On the other hand, the Philharmonic are generalists who only dip into this kind of music from time to time, true as well of their music director, and the same sounds that seemed intense and present in the moderate-sized space of Tully were more diffuse and less impactful in the aircraft hangar that is Avery Fisher.  (My impression may also have been affected by my seating - center orchestra Row K at Tully, center first tier back row at Fisher - so the difference in acoustic was emphasized by the much greater distance from the musicians at Fisher.)

That said, these were all very fine performances to a high professional standard.  I was especially taken by Tuning Up, a scrap of music that Varese was asked to write for a film centered on Carnegie Hall (and which, in the event, wasn't used) that has been shaped into a concert piece by Chou.  The big pieces on the program, Arcana and Ameriques, make their effects by big blocks of sound.  They both show heavy influences of early Stravinsky -- especially Ameriques -- and so one hears, as a friend commented to me at intermission, what Stravinsky might have written had he continued on the path of Le Sacre rather than veering off into neoclassicism. 

I'm glad that the Philharmonic participated in this, and, as I commented yesterday, I hope they decide to capitalize on what rehearsal time was expended by incorporating these pieces into their regular season repertory.  I suspect that with repeated performances in balanced programs with contrasting works by other composers, they could have a bigger impact than they had tonight.

Surely, the audience seemed appreciative.  My impression from tonight and last night was of a younger audience than one usually encounters at Lincoln Center, which suggests that the NYP, in its search for renewal of its audience might do well to pay attention to what draws them in.  Present something unusual, even a bit strange, from time to time, and eventually a younger audience will emerge.