Classical Music: The best orchestra I have heard
Wednesday night in Carnegie Hall I heard the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO) conducted by Semyon Bychkov in a program of the contemporary composition Theatrum bestiarum by German composer Detlev Glanert and the Gustav Mahler Fifth Symphony. The combination of peerless orchestra, inspired conductor, and first rate music made this a memorable concert.
The RCO has performed since 1888, under only seven music directors. The most recent, Daniele Gatti, was appointed in 2016, so is not yet performing with them full time, ergo the guest conductor for this tour. They have a nice balance of young-old, men-women in the orchestra, with several Russians in first chair wind positions. The sound, like Berlin and Vienna, is rich, foundational on the bass sonority, and fills the hall with balanced sound unlike most orchestras. The range of dynamics is wonderful, and the piano dynamics sound as rich as the fortes. What set this orchestra apart from other Carnegie Hall all star touring bands is the flexibility and responsiveness. The conductor took a risky, flexible approach to the Mahler, creating some terrifying moments for orchestral players--but the orchestra not only handled these with assurance, but with stunning musicality, as if this were the only way the symphony should be played. The Vienna and Berlin orchestras sometimes sound as if they are playing the conductor, who sort of gets on the luxury train. This was a real collaboration. The famous opening trumpet solo in the first movement funeral march is a good example. It is normally played in strongly, in a fairly regular tempo, with a stentorian march-to-doom affect. Instead, RCO first trumpet Omar Tomasoni played it and the following iterations softer, but with a resonant, warm tone and considerable flexibility (rubato). It was as if you were trying to summon the courage to march to the cemetery, but were so overwhelmed with grief that you could not quite keep up a steady pace. This set the stage for a comparably flexible yet relentless first movement. I normally favor more rhythmic treatments of this march, but this approach was a wonderful vision by the conductor. The remainder of the 90 minute symphony was equally risky, with many sustained, slowing cadences that left solo players cruelly exposed on soft notes, but again, all players handled this with aplomb. The wacky third movement scherzo/laendler is filled with orchestra solos, often on angular off beat entrances (especially first horn, superbly played by Laurens Woudenberg), and Bychkov's many tempo fluctuations made it even more quirky, but it sounded intentional and right played by these musicians. At concert end, Bychkov did something very unusual. After shaking hands with the usual first chair string players (in the front row), he walked within the large orchestra to thank individual players in the basses, horns, and trumpets, all the way in the back, and looked truly appreciative to have conducted such a group. I agree--this was the best orchestral performance I have heard.
Conductor Bychkov is an interesting guy. He was trained in the famed Soviet Leningrad Conservatory, but left the Soviet Union in 1974, at age 22, due to antisemitism in the USSR music culture and seeking more opportunity in the west. After slogging through 10 years of conducting in Grand Rapids and Buffalo, he hit the big time in the mid 1980's and has since led orchestras in Paris, Dresden, and Cologne, with guest appearances such as this one with all the big orchestras and opera companies. While not overly-represented on recordings, he is a great Mahler conductor--he led a terrific Sixth Symphony last year with the New York Philharmonic, and this Fifth was even finer, reflecting ample preparation time (there were several concerts in Amsterdam prior to the tour) and a finer orchestra, attentive to his every whim. He has a personal vision of these long symphonies that is risky (see above) but compelling. Mahler wanted his symphonies to embrace the whole world: emotionally, spiritually, and realistically (e.g. cowbells, cannon shots, thudding axes), and Bychkov embraces this fully. Unexpected inner voices emerge during familiar passages, heightening the tension. This five movement symphony inverts the usual Mahler symphonic progression into ultimate death/tragedy/ethereal spirituality, instead beginning with darkness (the funeral march), and ending with a buoyant, even witty finale that requires players to communicate fun and sprightliness during severely testing contrapuntal orchestral writing. Bychkov achieved the overall progression of the symphony quite well, only missing a little lightness during the finale. He is a conductor to see if he comes to your town.
It's always hard to figure out what else to do on a program which includes a 60-90 minute Mahler symphony. If you have the world's largest killer whale in your aquarium park, where do you put the penguins and seals, as fun as they are? The Fifth Symphony is just short enough that it seems like too brief of an evening if it stands alone on the program. Yet any piece put before it in a quick first half seems like an afterthought. Bychkov came up with a good solution with the aggressive, colorful 2005 Theatrum bestiarum. While lacking the forward motion and structure of the best new pieces, it featured lots of cool animal-like orchestral growling, squawking, and tweeting, mixed with machine-like sections. There were little bits of Shostakovitch, Ligeti, and Messiaen scattered about. I'm not sure I would seek out the piece again, but it was a good prelude to the romantic-yet-modern Mahler, who in 1900 foresaw these special effects and the idea of symphony-as-world zoo.
Miscellaneous notes: I always enjoy seeing the hidebound orchestra traditions differ a little from group to group. The RCO violates convention by placing the bassoons to the left of the clarinets, by having the first oboe stand and face players during the opening tuning, and by walking on together immediately before the start of the concert, rather than sitting on stage practicing in audience view (Berlin, on the other hand, walks off together at the end). My random NYC observation this night was that, in the older-than-average Carnegie audience, mens' hair was uniformly gray, where womens' hair never was, and often takes on alarming not-quite-natural hues. A certain type of demented colorist obviously dominates in Manhattan Upper East Side beauty salons.
The RCO has performed since 1888, under only seven music directors. The most recent, Daniele Gatti, was appointed in 2016, so is not yet performing with them full time, ergo the guest conductor for this tour. They have a nice balance of young-old, men-women in the orchestra, with several Russians in first chair wind positions. The sound, like Berlin and Vienna, is rich, foundational on the bass sonority, and fills the hall with balanced sound unlike most orchestras. The range of dynamics is wonderful, and the piano dynamics sound as rich as the fortes. What set this orchestra apart from other Carnegie Hall all star touring bands is the flexibility and responsiveness. The conductor took a risky, flexible approach to the Mahler, creating some terrifying moments for orchestral players--but the orchestra not only handled these with assurance, but with stunning musicality, as if this were the only way the symphony should be played. The Vienna and Berlin orchestras sometimes sound as if they are playing the conductor, who sort of gets on the luxury train. This was a real collaboration. The famous opening trumpet solo in the first movement funeral march is a good example. It is normally played in strongly, in a fairly regular tempo, with a stentorian march-to-doom affect. Instead, RCO first trumpet Omar Tomasoni played it and the following iterations softer, but with a resonant, warm tone and considerable flexibility (rubato). It was as if you were trying to summon the courage to march to the cemetery, but were so overwhelmed with grief that you could not quite keep up a steady pace. This set the stage for a comparably flexible yet relentless first movement. I normally favor more rhythmic treatments of this march, but this approach was a wonderful vision by the conductor. The remainder of the 90 minute symphony was equally risky, with many sustained, slowing cadences that left solo players cruelly exposed on soft notes, but again, all players handled this with aplomb. The wacky third movement scherzo/laendler is filled with orchestra solos, often on angular off beat entrances (especially first horn, superbly played by Laurens Woudenberg), and Bychkov's many tempo fluctuations made it even more quirky, but it sounded intentional and right played by these musicians. At concert end, Bychkov did something very unusual. After shaking hands with the usual first chair string players (in the front row), he walked within the large orchestra to thank individual players in the basses, horns, and trumpets, all the way in the back, and looked truly appreciative to have conducted such a group. I agree--this was the best orchestral performance I have heard.
Conductor Bychkov is an interesting guy. He was trained in the famed Soviet Leningrad Conservatory, but left the Soviet Union in 1974, at age 22, due to antisemitism in the USSR music culture and seeking more opportunity in the west. After slogging through 10 years of conducting in Grand Rapids and Buffalo, he hit the big time in the mid 1980's and has since led orchestras in Paris, Dresden, and Cologne, with guest appearances such as this one with all the big orchestras and opera companies. While not overly-represented on recordings, he is a great Mahler conductor--he led a terrific Sixth Symphony last year with the New York Philharmonic, and this Fifth was even finer, reflecting ample preparation time (there were several concerts in Amsterdam prior to the tour) and a finer orchestra, attentive to his every whim. He has a personal vision of these long symphonies that is risky (see above) but compelling. Mahler wanted his symphonies to embrace the whole world: emotionally, spiritually, and realistically (e.g. cowbells, cannon shots, thudding axes), and Bychkov embraces this fully. Unexpected inner voices emerge during familiar passages, heightening the tension. This five movement symphony inverts the usual Mahler symphonic progression into ultimate death/tragedy/ethereal spirituality, instead beginning with darkness (the funeral march), and ending with a buoyant, even witty finale that requires players to communicate fun and sprightliness during severely testing contrapuntal orchestral writing. Bychkov achieved the overall progression of the symphony quite well, only missing a little lightness during the finale. He is a conductor to see if he comes to your town.
It's always hard to figure out what else to do on a program which includes a 60-90 minute Mahler symphony. If you have the world's largest killer whale in your aquarium park, where do you put the penguins and seals, as fun as they are? The Fifth Symphony is just short enough that it seems like too brief of an evening if it stands alone on the program. Yet any piece put before it in a quick first half seems like an afterthought. Bychkov came up with a good solution with the aggressive, colorful 2005 Theatrum bestiarum. While lacking the forward motion and structure of the best new pieces, it featured lots of cool animal-like orchestral growling, squawking, and tweeting, mixed with machine-like sections. There were little bits of Shostakovitch, Ligeti, and Messiaen scattered about. I'm not sure I would seek out the piece again, but it was a good prelude to the romantic-yet-modern Mahler, who in 1900 foresaw these special effects and the idea of symphony-as-world zoo.
Miscellaneous notes: I always enjoy seeing the hidebound orchestra traditions differ a little from group to group. The RCO violates convention by placing the bassoons to the left of the clarinets, by having the first oboe stand and face players during the opening tuning, and by walking on together immediately before the start of the concert, rather than sitting on stage practicing in audience view (Berlin, on the other hand, walks off together at the end). My random NYC observation this night was that, in the older-than-average Carnegie audience, mens' hair was uniformly gray, where womens' hair never was, and often takes on alarming not-quite-natural hues. A certain type of demented colorist obviously dominates in Manhattan Upper East Side beauty salons.
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