{"id":3187,"date":"2011-11-09T02:57:23","date_gmt":"2011-11-09T06:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=3187"},"modified":"2011-11-17T23:15:08","modified_gmt":"2011-11-18T03:15:08","slug":"dutoit%e2%80%99s-shostakovich-in-carnegie-and-verizon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=3187","title":{"rendered":"Dutoit\u2019s Shostakovich in Carnegie and Verizon"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sedgwick Clark<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lang Lang got the flowers, but a\u00a0blistering Shostakovich Tenth Symphony dominated the Philadelphia Orchestra\u2019s first Carnegie Hall concert this season under Charles Dutoit (10\/25). It\u2019s his fourth and final season as the orchestra\u2019s interim \u201cchief conductor,\u201d between the unfortunate five-year tenure of Christoph Eschenbach and Philly\u2019s music director-designate, the 35-year-old French Canadian Yannick N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin. Having conducted the ensemble regularly for three decades now, Dutoit knows how to get the best from these players, as European critics affirmed repeatedly during the ensemble\u2019s summer tour of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, and Britain. Some expressed surprise that an orchestra with its financial duress could play so superbly. Perhaps they had taken seriously Gramophone<\/em> magazine\u2019s ludicrous dismissal of the Philadelphians in its December 2008 rating of \u201cthe world\u2019s best orchestras.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dutoit has always been at his best in Shostakovich, moving the music along judiciously and avoiding post-Testimony <\/em>point making. The desolate end of the Tenth\u2019s opening movement can seem interminable, for example, but here the composer\u2019s gravitas registered without dragging. The Swiss conductor was equally adept in the first half\u2019s lovely Faur\u00e9 Pavane<\/em>, Op. 50, and the crisp, reduced-forces accompaniment to Beethoven\u2019s Second Piano Concerto, with Lang Lang\u00a0a capable\u00a0soloist. From the viewpoint of one who hears the Philadelphians each year in New York\u2019s Carnegie Hall, Dutoit deserves all possible laurels from the orchestra.<\/p>\n

Hearing these musicians under Dutoit on their home turf, as I did 13 months ago, is no less impressive. In a dynamite performance of Shostakovich\u2019s Fourth Symphony in the Kimmel Center\u2019s Verizon Hall, the absolute unanimity and tonal resonance of fortissimo<\/em> Philadelphia pizzicatos was an awesome experience, and the depth and power of the lower strings when they entered in the Shostakovich\u2019s third-movement Allegro was staggering.<\/p>\n

What is most important to report, however, is that the acoustics of Verizon Hall now seem worthy of the Fabulous Philadelphians. Yes, this is the same hall that received mixed reviews on its official opening night, ten years ago, on December 16, 2001. Some thought it lacked resonance; others wrote that the sound was coarse. Even acoustician Russell Johnson said in a press conference the day before, \u201cThe hall is not ready to open.\u201d The late acoustician\u2019s design philosophy allows a hall\u2019s sound to be \u201ctuned\u201d for varieties of repertoire, and he was at a performance of the Mahler Fifth under Simon Rattle that I attended in Verizon a year later. When I opined that the strings sounded richer, Johnson agreed hesitantly but said there were still improvements to be made.<\/p>\n

Shostakovich\u2019s pile-driving opening bars in the Fourth last October made instantly evident that improvements had<\/em> been made. The winds, brass, and percussion had retained the remarkable clarity and presence I had noted at the hall\u2019s opening night, and the strings were now in proper focus and balance. Moreover, the resonance was quite sufficient to display the famed \u201cPhiladelphia Sound,\u201d which the orchestra\u2019s prior home, the\u00a0deadly dry Academy of Music, could never do.<\/p>\n

Verizon Hall deserves a rehearing from all those critics who were negative on opening night.<\/p>\n

Looking Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

My week\u2019s scheduled concerts:<\/p>\n

11\/10 Kaplan Penthouse. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Harbison: Six American Painters<\/em> for Flute, Violin, Viola, and Cello. Schnittke: Piano Quartet. Kurt\u00e1g: <\/strong>Hommage \u00e1 Robert Schumann<\/em> for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano, Op. 15d. Penderecki: String Trio. Harbison: Songs America Loves to Sing<\/em> for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, and Piano (2004).<\/p>\n

11\/15 Avery Fisher Hall. New York Philharmonic\/Bernard Haitink; Carter Brey, cello; Cynthia Phelps, viola. R. Strauss: Don Quixote. Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 (\u201cPastoral\u201d).\u00a0 (Also 11\/10, 11, 12.)<\/p>\n