Musical America Blogs

It was appropriate. A visit to New York over the Thanksgiving holiday started off musically with Dvorak’s New World Symphony with its famed Largo  -  the one with the “Goin’ Home” tune.

It has been years since my last visit with the New York Philharmonic in their hall and I did not remember the wicker basket-like decorations the last time. Over my lifetime there has been a serious number of acoustic adjustments which change the stage appearance but do not seem to alter the dry but otherwise reasonable acoustics. New York is missing a acoustically excellent hall for their principal orchestra but the problem is not unique. Paris, Munich and London, for example, have the same issue.  The program reminded us that, when the From the New World Symphony received its world premiere, the Philharmonic had their seasons in Carnegie Hall. That was then.

Andrey Boreyko is, since September, the chief conductor of the National Orchestra of Belgium and I was happy finally to hear him conduct. On November 20 he was energetic and focused and the results receive high marks. His brass-heavy interpretations might have been to show off the Phil’s gifts in that area and the orchestra’s smudged entrances might be due to holiday distractions (the four performance surround Thanksgiving day). The opening overture, Mendelssohn’s Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde, was pleasant but did not engage.

The real star of the evening was the German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann. His virtuoso performance of the Shostakovich First Violin Concerto, a devil of a piece, was remarkable. Within the past few months I have already heard this concerto twice with famed soloists but this was a clear cut above. The second movement – the fiendish scherzo with Shostakovich at his best “bad boy prodigy” mode – was played with lusty, generous scope that almost equalled David Oistrakh’s iconic recording. Zimmermann is now on my “can’t miss” list.

Paris is still on track with their contender for a major league concert hall. The Philharmonie was due this year but now the best estimate is 2014. Yes it is way over the original budget but the project has, as the French Minister of Culture has assured the public, the government’s full support. It is still very far from Hamburg’s never-ending construction and ever-ballooning cost with their attempt to join the “Top Concert Hall” club.