The Cancellation Concert

In a season of cancellations, Friday morning’s New York Philharmonic concert takes the laurel wreath. Dvorak’s “Carnival Overture” was originally announced to open the program. It did not.The orchestra’s principal hornist, Philip Myers, was originally announced to offer the concerto of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. He did not. Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow was scheduled to perform the Kabalevsky concerto. He did not.Violist Cynthia Phelps was to be featured in Berlioz’s Harold in Italy. She was not. And Lorin Maazel was to conduct. He, um … did not.Bramwell Tovey, who will lead many of the orchestra’s performances this summer, began with Mozart, specifically the overture to “The Marriage of Figaro.” It takes a lot of guts – and perhaps some bad judgment as well – to perform opera overtures in such close proximity to the Metropolitan house, where James Levine and his superior ensemble rule the roost. But this was a solid, if not crisp, rendition, somewhat lacking in accents and dramatic buildup; it was a little like settling in for an evening of “Le Nozze” at the Rome Opera rather than La Scala.Mr. Dicterow, having skipped the Kabalevsky, offered the third of Wolfgang’s five concertos. He traveled the twin paths of the alpha and omega Allegros quite expertly and produced a gorgeous singing tone for the middle Adagio.There were several busloads of high school students in attendance, and they gave this fine player three hearty rounds of applause, one after each movement. He deserved them all.If the reviewer from Variety had been in attendance, his headline might have read “Phil’s Phil Fills for Phil,” since principal trumpeter Philip Smith was pressed into service to front Ms. Taaffe Zwilich’s “American” Concerto.The stage crew spent a lot of time transforming the seating arrangement from that of the small Mozart ensemble to a configuration for full orchestra, but this labor turned out to be unnecessary. A Southern California novelty piece written for Doc Severinsen of “Tonight” show fame, this “concerto” was really just a pastiche of high ruf fles and flourishes for trumpet with timpani accompaniment. Meanwhile, the other musicians simply established meaningless undercurrents and held them ad nauseam.Mr. Smith did all that was asked of him in this set of faintly jazzy variants on Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” reaching stratospheric territory by occasionally alternating mouthpieces. Not even his high degree of proficiency could save this piece of fluff from itself, but the work was relatively brief and nonthreatening. When we broke for intermission, the impression of this concert was a distinctly pleasant one.But (there is always a “but” with the Philharmonic, isn’t there?) the realization of Cesar Franck’s Symphony in D minor that followed was prone to the excesses of that signature Philharmonic sound.What was new, and somewhat ironic considering Mr. Smith’s yeomanlike effort, was the haunting presence of a severely out-of-tune trumpet section that colored the outer movements significantly.The helplessly pedestrian violins of the Philharmonic did little to ameliorate the situation and I cringed whenever Mr. Tovey turned to face those trumpets. The pizzicato second movement, which features the harp rather than the brass, was well-executed and there was some fine solo work by hornist Jerome Ashby, but this was a weak effort overall. At least with Mr. Maazel missing in action, no phrases were harmed in the making of this production.The young crowd exhibited thoughtful discernment during the Franck. Rather than award it three rousing ovations, they barely registered a single tepid one at its conclusion.***Later that evening, Leon Botstein’s American Symphony Orchestra performed a concert of British music under the header of “The Gathering Storm.”This Churchillian title called to mind the impending hostilities and their undeniable effect on British music composed in the 1930s. There were three works on this program: Frank Bridge’s “Oration,”Arthur Bliss’s Piano Concerto, and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor.Bridge is most famous as the teacher of Benjamin Britten, and he imparted not only wisdom concerning sharps and flats to his apt pupil but also fervent pacifism. “Oration,” Bridge’s eloquent statement for cello and orchestra, was written in 1930 but not performed for more than 70 years. There is certainly the wounded cry of the slaughtered animal about this disturbing essay.This excellent performance featured Matt Haimovitz,a young cellist who was new to me but not unfamiliar to New Yorkers of a certain musical penchant. Mr.Haimovitz has been creating quite a stir around town by fusing rock elements and classical utterances in such downtown venues as the Knitting Factory. His technique is superb and his sound for this particular musical poetry was spine-chilling. Expect great things.I have heard the fine pianist Piers Lane several times and have always been impressed by his ability to enunciate a high concentration of individual notes in a short space with seemingly little effort. Bliss’s Piano Concerto was premiered in Flushing at the World’s Fair of 1939; written for the one-named Briton Solomon, the piece is a virtuoso’s dream. Mr. Lane handled it with aplomb. There was some sloppiness in the ASO accompaniment at isolated moments, but as a whole this was very fine music-making.Bliss was half American and, like Vaughan Williams, served admirably on active duty in World War I.Safely ensconced in California when the Germans invaded Poland, he left his cozy post at Berkeley in order to return home to England to show his solidarity. Quite charmingly, Lady Bliss, now 102, sent along her best wishes to Messrs. Botstein and Lane on the occasion of this fine performance.Critics have come to discover many rumblings of the conflagration to come in Vaughan Williams’s exciting Symphony No. 4, which premiered in 1934. The composer himself thought of this as balderdash, but Professor Botstein hit the mark by including it here. It was impossible not to listen to the two rarities that preceded the more familiar symphony without contemplating their place in the history of this antebellum era.

The Cancellation Concert

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