The New Guy’s Last Tour

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The New York Sun

It seems like only yesterday – at least to me – that Sir George Solti retired as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, being replaced by Daniel Barenboim. That was in 1991, and Solti – who died in 1997 – had been there 22 years. For what seemed ages, Mr. Barenboim was “the new guy.” At the end of the present season, the new guy himself will leave the CSO, after 15 years’ service.


There was a lot of squawking – in Chicago and elsewhere – when Solti was replaced by Mr. Barenboim. “No one can equal the old man!” they said. But nostalgia and emotion play tricks. When Mr. Barenboim is replaced, they will probably say, “Oh, Danny, where have you gone?”


Well, you could have found him in Carnegie Hall, for three concerts last week. Each of the programs ended with a long and weighty symphony (by an Austrian, as it happened): On Thursday night, it was the Bruckner Fifth; on Friday night, it was the Schubert “Great” C major; and on Saturday night, it was the Mahler Fifth.


Thursday’s concert started with a Mozart work not often heard: his Sinfonia concertante in E flat for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn.The provenance of this work is slightly shady, but I doubt anyone but Mozart could have written it.And the CSO had a chance to show off some of its first-deskmen: the oboist Alex Klein; the clarinetist Larry Combs; the bassoonist David McGill; and the hornist Dale Clevenger. (Actually, Mr. Klein is the orchestra’s former principal oboe. He had to retire owing to a neurological problem; he now plays for relatively brief periods, and he plays well.)


When the CSO began the Mozart, its sound was startlingly rich and beautiful. What was this, the Vienna Philharmonic? Mr. Barenboim’s Mozart is substantial and fairly bold, though sufficiently graceful. He breathed nicely in the Sinfonia concertante, conveying a sense of peaceful order.And those principals played very well, both as individuals and as an ensemble. Mr. Clevenger – first horn of the orchestra since 1966 – was both aristocratic and virtuosic. Really, he is one of the outstanding orchestra players in recent history.


I might add that three members of Thursday night’s quartet – the exception is the bassoonist, Mr. McGill – have silver or white hair. Wind and brass playing is supposed to belong to the young. But not always.


The Bruckner Fifth is a grand, vaulting, transcendent work, like just about all of this composer’s symphonies. It shows him at his most Bach-besotted. A good performance of the Fifth should leave a listener sort of numb with inspiration.


About Mr. Barenboim, I have often made a queer statement: He can conduct like a football coach. That is, he can be blunt, no-nonsense, hard-charging, a little bluff. You can almost see him in a T-shirt and with a whistle around his neck. If Bo Schembechler conducted the Bruckner Fifth …


This reading was not especially profound or spiritual – but at least it was unpretentious and undawdling. Mr. Barenboim was generally muscular, energetic,and efficient.Unfortunately,the orchestra was not at its best, technically. Pizzicato playing, for example, was stubbornly sloppy. But the orchestra produced gratifying warmth,particularly in the slow movement, with those great, healing melodies.The Scherzo was nearly jet-propelled – Mr. Barenboim, as usual, had no time for the niceties. But, again, that is not a bad approach.


Before beginning the sublime Finale, Mr. Barenboim waited quite a bit. It was as though he wanted the hall to be ready. That was both unusual and wise. In his hands, this movement was a little fast,and a little glib,and you might have wanted it more deliberate and purposeful. But – to say once more – at least Mr. Barenboim didn’t wallow. On the clarinet, Mr. Combs contributed some fine, Brucknerian licks. (What an odd phrase – “Brucknerian licks”!). On the horn, Mr. Clevenger began to wobble, but he had had a long (and good) night.


Even if you didn’t care for this performance, you had to count it a privilege to hear the Bruckner Fifth, in a great hall, from a top orchestra, led by a talented and knowledgeable conductor. This symphony is, simply, a gift from God, as Bruckner knew better than anybody.


***


Making his New York Philharmonic debut last week was a young Finnish conductor, Mikko Franck. Mr. Franck is music director of the Orchestre National de Belgique, and he will soon take over the Finnish National Opera. Short of stature, with a puckish air, he looks not unlike Truman Capote. On Friday afternoon, he conducted from a chair, or at least he did most of the time: He was on it and off it, shifting for no apparent reason.This was distracting, but also sort of fascinating.


He began the program with one of Beethoven’s best pieces (no less!), the “Leonore” Overture No. 3, Op. 72b. In Mr. Franck’s reading, it was grand, solid, and stirring. Phrasing was natural, and rhythm was exact. Beethoven seems to incorporate all of his opera in this overture, and, when Mr.Franck was through, we felt that we had had a full operatic experience.


The other purely orchestral work on the program was Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 – and here Mr. Franck was rather unusual.This was a beautiful, relaxed, almost Brahmsian account. Largely missing were Shostakovich’s tension, rawness, and anxiety (to say nothing of terror). A listener had nothing to fear – but he ought to have something to fear! Too often, the playing was way too pretty. The Largo, it must be said, was very good: appropriately beautiful and moving. But one of the things we love about this movement is that it provides relief, and, in this account, we needed no relief.


The final movement was practically festive, which is, of course, wrong. It lacked Shostakovich’s bite, to say nothing of his midnight cackle. What did Mr. Franck think this was, the Brahms Second? But maybe he is simply made of sun, lucky guy.


Before intermission, the Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer had played the Concerto grosso No. 5 of Alfred Schnittke, the late Russian-German composer. Despite its title,there is nothing terribly Baroque about this work (although it does employ a harpsichord). It is essentially a violin concerto,and a distinctive, brilliant one. Like much Schnittke, it contains various types of music, including the burlesque. In the end, it is overwhelmingly dramatic, intensely human.


Mr. Kremer was, as usual, austere, controlled, insightful, and superb. His technique is dazzling, and in a Schnittke cadenza – or at least an unaccompanied stretch – he was positively electric. Mr. Kremer is not necessarily known for beauty of sound, but, in the upper reaches of his instrument, his sound was really beautiful, even otherworldly.The final section of the concerto has an otherworldly feel: An amplified piano is heard from offstage, while the violinist and the orchestra’s strings play what seems an eternal C. The work ends with heavenly, upward squiggles from the soloist.


Gidon Kremer can seem a mad musician, and adding to this picture was his refusal to pluck loose strings from his bow – his concentration seemed too great for that. Mr. Kremer premiered Schnittke’s Concerto grosso No. 5 (1991), and it is hard to see how anyone can play it better. In a September article, I guessed that Mr. Kremer’s performance would be a highlight of the season. I’m glad to report that it was – is.


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