This Pittsburgh Symphony Concert indicated to me that the PSO management is clearly allowing Manfred Honeck to do what he wants to do. Perhaps this is the way with all great orchestras and their music directors. This has been decidedly a mixed bag here. I'm thinking of Previn's British and American music festivals as positives in this history while Maazel being commissioned to compose music for the Orchestra's 100th Anniversary decidedly negative. This particular show was a positive for me and I hope this bodes well for the future.
Beethoven's Coriolan Overture started things off in dramatic fashion. Right away I could see and hear how synced up were Honeck and the PSO. There were nice subtle touches that did underline that this is literally a dramatic piece, based on a literary work.
Walter Braunfels is a compser to me even though he has been decomposing now for 55 years. I do like being exposed to new things but this is the second time this year that the orchestra has done a piece of a piece. In this case, they performed a fifteen minute excerpt from Braunfels Te Deum. I don't know how long the entire piece is but if we are going to do it, let's do the whole thing. My reaction to this excerpt was that it was clearly not a forward looking piece. Romantic, not even late romantic. It was certainly well put together and a pleasant experience. I can't say that I am hoping for more of him. Reading about him does make me curious about his Berlioz Variations. One last complaint: the program booklet characterizes Honeck and other's attempts to revive interest in Braunfels music as "heroic". That kind of characterization of heroism is ridiculous and cheapens the term.
The second half of the show was a creative riff on Mozart's Requiem,his death, his views on death, the Holocaust, and Catholicism. I suppose that is my way of saying that it was rather all over the place - though in an interesting way. Gregorian Chants, dramatic readings by john Lithgow of bits from a letter from Mozart to his father, poetry dealing with the Holocaust from a Nobel Prize winning poet (Nelly Sachs) and a local boy (Matt May), the Book of Revelation, various Mozart pieces including much of the Requiem. Does it still sound like it is all over the place - of course. The important question is whether it worked. I have to say that it did, certainly much better than you might think given the disparate materials. Lithgow's readings were quite dramatic, particularly the one from Revelation that led into the Offertorium part of the Requiem. The Mendelssohn Choir seems to be maintaining high standards in the post-Page era. Honeck was in full command and appeared to get exactly what he wanted from everyone.
It was interesting to juxtapose Mozart, the Holocaust, Christianity/Catholicism. Mozart certainly represents a high point of German culture and the Holocaust the low. Christianity participated in both of these points. Mozart's expression of his faith through his Sacred music is extraordinarily beautiful and can be uplifting. Christians treatment of the Jews and other Others has often been horrific. How do we get more uplift and stop the horror?
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