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Dan Coren
Eschenbach to Philadelphia:
I'll make you miss me
DAN COREN
Last April I wrote a piece here titled Why I Canceled My Orchestra Subscription. A year later, I still stand by my main complaint: “The boring and staid timidity” of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2006-2007 season. It seems obvious to me, as it must to any reasonable reader of this journal, that upon reading my article, Maestro Eschenbach met with Orchestra management and said, “We must do something to assuage this Dan Coren guy. Keep this up, and we’ll be out of business in three years.” Their solution was to put together the recently announced 2007-2008 season.
The coming season includes a wealth of favorites, including Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and his Emperor Concerto, the Brahms Second Piano Concerto, and many more standards. The 20th and 21st Centuries are particularly well represented. There are seven different works by Stravinsky, including The Rite of Spring and Petrushka. Plenty of Debussy and Ravel. Also a Leonard Bernstein mini-festival. Local heroine Jennifer Higdon has been commissioned to write a new work.
A rarely heard Bartok, and Simon rattle too
One particular concert jumped out at me. Next February, Emanuel Ax will join the Orchestra’s percussionists in Bartok’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion, the composer’s arrangement of his own sonata for the same players. (The Orchestra website offers a link to a sound clip of this rarely-heard work. Great idea. Too bad the link is to Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.) The Bartok is paired with the works of two Danish composers: Carl Nielsen’s Second Symphony and a work by the contemporary composer Anders Hillborg.
Simon Rattle, who can fill the house just by showing up, is conducting another rare piece of esoterica, Schumann's oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri.
Something for everyone (except Robert Zaller)
Late in the season Eschenbach is conducting the two most problematic Mahler symphonies, the Seventh (which, as far as I’m concerned, must be played in a locked concert hall lest anyone try to escape during its grimly celebratory finale) and the gigantic Eighth, truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. There’s something here for everyone. (Well, maybe not for my colleague Robert Zaller: There’s absolutely no Shostakovich. But after the current season’s riches, Robert has little reason to complain.)
Who would have expected such a blend of tradition and adventurousness from the Orchestra? Then again, who expected it to be Eschenbach’s last hurrah?
Going out with all guns blazing
Shortly after the two Mahler concerts, Eschenbach will end his tenure with the Schubert Eighth and Ninth symphonies on a single program. Imagine what those evenings will be like! If there were ever a concert designed to show off Eschenbach’s greatest strengths and idiosyncrasies, it’s this one. What will he do with the dramatic climax of the Ninth’s slow movement? With the hypnotic second movement of the Eighth? What will it be like as the massive chords near the end of the Ninth fill Verizon Hall and Eschenbach goes out with all guns blazing? By that time, at the end of what looks like a spectacular season, I’m betting Charles Dutoit’s imminent tenure as caretaker won’t look like such a good idea.
I find the general acquiescence in Dutoit’s arrival disappointing. Why this enthusiasm for the musical equivalent of a return to the Eisenhower administration? Perhaps Dutoit is right in saying it’s time to give Mahler and Shostakovich a rest for a while. But I’m alarmed that for the next few years the Orchestra will be led by a conductor who explicitly points to Eugene Ormandy as an ideal. Philadelphians may not get another rich symphony season like the next one for a long, long time to come.
To read responses, click here.
I'll make you miss me
DAN COREN
Last April I wrote a piece here titled Why I Canceled My Orchestra Subscription. A year later, I still stand by my main complaint: “The boring and staid timidity” of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2006-2007 season. It seems obvious to me, as it must to any reasonable reader of this journal, that upon reading my article, Maestro Eschenbach met with Orchestra management and said, “We must do something to assuage this Dan Coren guy. Keep this up, and we’ll be out of business in three years.” Their solution was to put together the recently announced 2007-2008 season.
The coming season includes a wealth of favorites, including Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and his Emperor Concerto, the Brahms Second Piano Concerto, and many more standards. The 20th and 21st Centuries are particularly well represented. There are seven different works by Stravinsky, including The Rite of Spring and Petrushka. Plenty of Debussy and Ravel. Also a Leonard Bernstein mini-festival. Local heroine Jennifer Higdon has been commissioned to write a new work.
A rarely heard Bartok, and Simon rattle too
One particular concert jumped out at me. Next February, Emanuel Ax will join the Orchestra’s percussionists in Bartok’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion, the composer’s arrangement of his own sonata for the same players. (The Orchestra website offers a link to a sound clip of this rarely-heard work. Great idea. Too bad the link is to Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.) The Bartok is paired with the works of two Danish composers: Carl Nielsen’s Second Symphony and a work by the contemporary composer Anders Hillborg.
Simon Rattle, who can fill the house just by showing up, is conducting another rare piece of esoterica, Schumann's oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri.
Something for everyone (except Robert Zaller)
Late in the season Eschenbach is conducting the two most problematic Mahler symphonies, the Seventh (which, as far as I’m concerned, must be played in a locked concert hall lest anyone try to escape during its grimly celebratory finale) and the gigantic Eighth, truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. There’s something here for everyone. (Well, maybe not for my colleague Robert Zaller: There’s absolutely no Shostakovich. But after the current season’s riches, Robert has little reason to complain.)
Who would have expected such a blend of tradition and adventurousness from the Orchestra? Then again, who expected it to be Eschenbach’s last hurrah?
Going out with all guns blazing
Shortly after the two Mahler concerts, Eschenbach will end his tenure with the Schubert Eighth and Ninth symphonies on a single program. Imagine what those evenings will be like! If there were ever a concert designed to show off Eschenbach’s greatest strengths and idiosyncrasies, it’s this one. What will he do with the dramatic climax of the Ninth’s slow movement? With the hypnotic second movement of the Eighth? What will it be like as the massive chords near the end of the Ninth fill Verizon Hall and Eschenbach goes out with all guns blazing? By that time, at the end of what looks like a spectacular season, I’m betting Charles Dutoit’s imminent tenure as caretaker won’t look like such a good idea.
I find the general acquiescence in Dutoit’s arrival disappointing. Why this enthusiasm for the musical equivalent of a return to the Eisenhower administration? Perhaps Dutoit is right in saying it’s time to give Mahler and Shostakovich a rest for a while. But I’m alarmed that for the next few years the Orchestra will be led by a conductor who explicitly points to Eugene Ormandy as an ideal. Philadelphians may not get another rich symphony season like the next one for a long, long time to come.
To read responses, click here.
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