Music Review: Dudamel at the NY Philharmonic

New York Philharmonic Orchestra

Gustavo Dudamel, conducting

Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, Manhattan

January 23, 2020

Gustavo Dudamel recently signed a long term extension of his contract to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, which has grown in prestige and excitement during his tenure since 2009 and during that of his predecessor Esa Pekka Salonen (the conductor from 1989-2009). These are two of the conductors most likely to perk up audience excitement when they tour. This kind of buzz has recently occurred in New York when Dudamel visited for a two week stint at the New York Philharmonic. The concert I saw included the Fourth Symphony of Schubert and the quasi-symphony Das Lied von der Erde by Mahler. The surprising result was that the Schubert outshone the Mahler.

The Fourth Symphony of Franz Schubert was composed in 1816, when the composer was nineteen year-old. He was part of the wave of child prodigy composers like Mozart and Mendelssohn that crested in the early 1800s. Because of it’s “youthful” tag, the symphony is often underestimated. It should not be. Schubert composed it just before Beethoven entered his experimental final phase (Hammerklavier sonata, late quartets), and a full eight years before Beethoven’s revolutionary Ninth Symphony. Yet it already seems like Schubert has moved beyond the classical period into neo-romanticism, including some unexpected modulations and Beethoven-like rhythmic pulsation in the inventive off-beat laden scherzo.  What I most appreciated is that Schubert has already found a unique voice, being polished by his already obsessive generation of songs. Dudamel seemed very at home with this piece. The introduction of movement one felt a bit “Tragic” (the label that the composer attached to the piece) and the movement then unfolded with clarity and drive. The scherzo was propulsive, dynamic, and fun. The final movement, with fast note passages often tossed off by conductors, was taken at a brisk pace that challenged the players enough to add a bit of edge to the performance. I left this performance wishing this piece were performed more often by top level orchestras, and by conductors with Dudamel’s insights.

Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth, 1909) was more of a mixed bag. Part of an early twentieth century intellectual obsession with Asia (think Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (1904) and Turandot (1926)), the texts of Das Lied are based on a modern German poet’s reworking of ancient Chinese poetry. The texts are vague in intent, but seem to call for a merging of the human being with the Earth as part of a process of renewal or rebirth. This ties into twentieth century fascination with reincarnation and eastern religions that peaked in the 1960-70s.

The structure is of a heavily orchestrated song cycle for tenor and mezzosoprano, who alternate contemplating about life’s journey in six movements. It is really Mahler’s 8.5^th Symphony, and he perhaps did not label it as such based on superstition about not writing a ninth symphony to trump Beethoven. Of course he did later go on to write a ninth symphony, and start a tenth. The piece, like his Eighth Symphony, uses voices as equal partners with the orchestra, following the model set by Wagner fifty years before. Said another way, if Wagner enhanced the orchestra’s role in opera, Mahler enhanced voices’ role in the symphony. That said, the long orchestral funeral march interposed in the final movement is a wonderful tone poem in itself, rivaling the funeral march in Beethoven’s Third Symphony. Mahler’s orchestration is, as always, huge and varied (including mandolin), but often condensed with great subtlety to 1-2 instruments. Dudamel’s interpretation was spotty. He was best in the more extroverted, rapid movements like the tenor drinking songs. But in the transcendent long (30 minute) final movement The Farewell he missed the ethereal out-of-body experience heard on the greatest recorded versions (such as Otto Klemperer with Elizabeth Schwartzkopf). Part of this is the dry acoustic in Geffen Hall, and the NY Phil’s tendency for brightness over atmosphere, but part was due to the conductor’s inability to relax fully. His affect and body posture remained more tense during this long “farewell” than would best communicate the affect of the piece. Mezzo Michelle de Young was expressive but had a big, vibrato-laden voice that sometimes lacked the variety of timbre and plaintiveness needed here. I was really impressed by last-minute-fill in tenor Andrew Staples (above), on loan from the Metropolitan Opera, where he was singing Andres in Wozzeck. I was not expecting much. The loud, high passages in Das Lied have defeated many tenors, who often descend into throaty barking under the duress of the heavily accompanied writing. Staples handled it with seeming ease, and his voice maintained its expressive beauty even in the initial Drinking Song of Earth’s Sorrow where he somehow has to sing like a vaguely superhuman man drunk with grief. This was a wonderful NYPO debut. I hope we see Dudamel more (he comes to Carnegie to open the season with his LAPO next year), and I hope that he grows a bit more into softer, slower pieces.