Concert Review: 2 French Masters a Century Apart, at Lincoln Center, NYC

Two Saturdays ago, I did something I cannot recall doing before: attending an afternoon matinee concert by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. I had seen two operas at Lincoln Center (Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, both nearly 40 years ago, when I was in college). But it was only when I saw a musical on the grounds a couple of weeks ago, My Fair Lady, that I thought of seeing a classical music concert.

The matinee on that Saturday worked well with my schedule. I can’t say that I know much about the composers featured in the program, but in a way that worked to my advantage, too, because my impressions would be fresh even as I learned more about the periods they represented: the Baroque and Romantic eras. 

David Geffen Hall, the concert venue, was built decades after the operas I saw here, courtesy of entertainment mogul David Geffen. While certainly a beautiful space, enough problems existed with the acoustics that a very expensive renovation plan was formulated. The price tag for that was so steep (a half-billion dollars) that it has been shelved, for now. However, I like one idea floated in connection with it: decreasing seating to increase audiences’ intimacy with the musicians. 

The first half of the show consisted of Piano Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, by Gabriel Faure, late in the Romantic Era. The Adagio movement was so melancholy that at least one associate and biographer of the composer, Emile Vuillermoz, angrily denied that it was inspired by Faure’s broken engagement with a fiancée. Whatever the case, the quartet provided plenty of opportunities for impassioned playing by cellist Carter Brey, violinist Sheryl Staples, pianist Shai Wosner, and, on the viola, Cynthia Phelps.

In the second half of the concert, the full orchestra came out to tackle Selections From Dardanus, by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Guest conductor Emmanuelle Haim was at pains to communicate her passion and affinity for this Frenchman of the late Baroque period to these New York musicians. (When not wielding the baton, she was playing the harpsichord, the closest Baroque approximation to the piano.) While Faure was able to take advantage of 150 years of instrumental improvements since Rameau’s time, Rameau could draw on dramatic elements of his opera, especially a magic ring, a sea monster, and a total eclipse.

It might have been all to the good that the Rameau portion of the program dispensed with lyrics, as the opera from which it came sounds, in its entirety, like a bear to play (let alone to mount). Instead, the instrumental portions played here conveyed moods, especially Entrée por les guerriers (Entry of the Warriors) and Bruit de guerre (Notes of War).

Zachary Woolfe’s New York Times review of a concert from a few nights before, similar to what I saw (just replacing Faure with Handel’s Water Music) allowed that the Philharmonic had played with “lean grace,” but with “little surprise or delight, essential in this repertory.” 

I guess restraint is not in favor these days at the Good Gray Lady. But at least I (and, I believe, other listeners) heard an ensemble playing with precision and skill. 

It was also, I discovered in a post-show discussion moderated by Philharmonic librarian Lawrence Tarlow, an ensemble with deep understanding of the two wildly disparate musical eras on the program that day. The talk revolved around what it meant to have a “historically informed performance,” with featured members of the orchestra (oboeist Robert Botti, bassoonist Kim Laskowski, and violinist Kuan Cheng Lu) highlighting the challenges of different instruments, eras, and conductors:

*There are 45 keys in the modern oboe, for instance, but in the Baroque period there were only three, and there were difficulties with the instrument not found now.

*Kuan held up a violin bow, demonstrating   how in the Baroque, the wood curved outward, while later, with a “transitional” bow, the wood curved inward. 

* Laskowski observed that in the Baroque era, there were only two keys in the bassoon, with fingernails often tearing on holes in the instrument.

*The clarinet was only a single reed in the Baroque period, and with composers not yet writing for the instrument it was effectively not part of the music scene.

*Even without looking straight ahead, the musicians were well aware of Haim’s directions. Botti observed that her movements were still visible just above their instruments, and Kim noted that it was “not every day we play Baroque music,” so they “couldn’t help but feel” Haim’s energy.

*Newer instruments differ from earlier ones not so much by the age of the wood but the set-up of the instrument, according to Kuan. Kim noted that instrumentation is not static, but continues to improve all the time.

This concert was part of a series of four Saturday matinee post-show “talk-backs” with the Philharmonic’s musicians. Based on the informative nature of this one, I will try to attend the next one in February 2019.