Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra - November 13, 2009

I wrote this last week but it got lost in the place where messed up computers send things. I will recreate my thoughts as best I can.

I have been trying to discern themes at these shows or at least currents within them. This one had some kind of Asia Minor/West Asia theme. Richard Danielpour's Concerto for Orchestra (Zorastrian Riddles) was half played (First two of the four movements), Mozart's Fifth Violin Concerto with it's Turkish bit in the third movement finished the first half, and Richard Straus' Also Sprach Zarathustra was the second half. Zoraster and Zarathustra are names that refer to the same ancient Persian mystic/holy man. In addition, Danielpour notes in an interview in the cd booklet for the PSO recording of his piece that the riddles idea came from an account of Mozart, in costume, reading elaborate riddles to the audience between musical pieces.

That said, I do not discern anything musical that connects these pieces. For me, the real riddles were: Who is Andris Nelsons (the conductor); Who is Stefan Jackiw (the violinist); and most important, why do half a piece that was clearly concieved as a whole piece, particularly when the show was not overly generous in terms of ammount of music?

I have no answer to the first question but it seems a lousy way to treat their "Composer of the Year". I found the Danielpour interesting but the influences seemed obvious, Bernstein, Copland, Stravinsky ala Petrushka. Maybe I will get to hear the rest when they randomly program the second half of the piece someday.

Stefan Jackiw has been getting good notices where he has played but is not known otherwise to me as he has not had any reordings released yet. I am not sure I would grab a recording unless the repertoire was interesting but I was impressed with his playing. I have been told by violinist friends how deceptively difficult Mozart's violin concertos are. I believe this is because you have to be musical first and a virtuoso second (does that make sense?). Jackiw did a good job not jumping all over the piece but giving it space, particularly in the slow middle movement. His encore of the first movement of Bach's third partita was quite a treat, especially as I had just heard Jennifer Koh play the entire piece just weeks before (see my earlier entry for that). The differences between the two reminds me of the importance of context in performance, Jackiw was showing off with this piece after the relative restraint of Mozart (and showing off in a good sense, brilliant playing) while Jennifer Koh's performance was restrained and beautiful, setting up the intense performace of the Ysaye piece that followed.

Also Sprach Zarathustra was well played, the brass being outstanding as always. The guest concertmaster (from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra) was excellent in the solo violin bits. Nelsons conducted with a good bit of animation though the reading was a fairly broad one, clocking in at about 34-35 minutes. I sometimes have trouble with this piece because I know Nietzsche too well. Straus' piece seems a bit sentimental and that does not seem a good fit for Nietzsche. And the best part of the piece really is that incredible beginning made famous by Kubrick. I was able to set those things aside and enjoy the show.

Overall an excellent show, with two new performers showing potential. But PSO programers, please go ahead and play a whole piece, especial as a way to support new music.

Pittsburgh Symphony - Friday October 23, 2009

This was a regular PSO subscription concert. Named "Made in America" for obvious reasons, Copland's 'El Salon Mexico', Sam Barber's Overture to the School for Scandal, Adagio for Strings and Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengence comprised the first half of the show. John Williams' Horn Concerto played by our own Bill Caballero and a return to Copland with the Four Dance episodes from 'Rodeo' finished up the show.

I prepped for the show by listening to Thomas Schippers on the Barber pieces, Copland conducting his own work, John Williams Oboe and Violin Concertos (since his Horn Concerto hasn't been recorded). I do like preparing for shows, classical, jazz or whatever, but it can be a set up for disappointment. Schippers is one of the great Barber guys and Copland has some authority with his own music. Not to worry though as Leonard Slatkin is another of the great ones with this kind of American classical music, that I would call mainstream conservative. And the PSO seems to have always done this kind of music well as long as I have been coming to shows here (since 1981).

So how did things work out? I was not disappointed except by the fact that Anita was not feeling well and I had to go solo. I only spoke with one fellow who was sitting behind me who asked me what it meant in the program that Barber's music was called 'lyrical'. I came up with some quick answer about Barber writing recognizable melodies as opposed to Beethoven who likes fragments of melodies. This seemed to satisfy him.

Copland and Barber certainly have much in common, including, I think, that while they may be lyrical and melodic, being incisive and precise is extremely important. Barber especially has lots of little delicate interweavings through his pieces that Slatkin and the PSO captured. Barber's Overture to the School for Scandal is a favorite of mine. My one quibble is that I would have liked the achingly beautiful Oboe solo in the middle to have gotten more emphasis. Slatkin instead emphased the clarinet phrase that comes shortly after. I think my slight disappointment is something I did to myself by wanting it a certain way. This piece does need to explode at certain moments and it did. The strings were beautiful in the Adagio. The Medea piece was excellent as well though I have always felt that Barber did not capture to horrors of a mother murdering her children. He may have been too gentle of a soul to do so.

The John Williams Horn Concerto was the longest piece on the program, played by PSO principal horn, William Caballero. It is hard to believe he has been the principal here for 21 years. His predecessor here, Howard Hilyer, had a beautiful tone but was so completely unreliable at the end of his time that horn solos were painful and cringe filled events. Bill Caballero is and has been so reliable that it might be easy to take him for granted. Williams' concerto is in five movements and seems more like a tone poem for Horn and Orchestra in that it doesn't follow traditional form and doesn't end with a big finish. Each movement has an extra-musical name and bit of poetry attached. The music itself fits in well with the rest of the mainstream conservative rest of the program. John Williams seems to keep his movie music consciousness separate from his writing of regular classical music. I wonder how he actually does this but this concerto fits in well with the other concertos of his I have heard, serious and somber, well crafted but not necessarily much fun. Bill Caballero brought it of seemingly effortlessly. I can't imagine even it's dedicatee, Chicago's Dale Clevenger, playing it better. It was great to hear a modern horn concerto as opposed to Mozart and Straus yet again.

Overall, a great show, amazing horn player who we are lucky to have here, great orchestra and conductor working together on music they could probably play in their sleep but instead made sound fresh and brilliant.