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Dan Coren
Let them eat chestnuts!
DAN COREN
Last August, Dan Rottenberg posed the question, “Once this ‘One really big season’ is over, how will the Orchestra characterize the next one?” Well, now that Charles Dutoit has announced the 2008-2009 season, here’s a suggested theme for an ad campaign:
“Qu'ils mangent des chậtaignes!” (“Let them eat chestnuts!”)
Honestly, I was ready to be open-minded about the Philadelphia Orchestra’s new season. And I suppose it’s grumpy of me to complain about an opportunity to hear Tchaikovsky Pathetique Symphony paired with Andre Watts playing Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto. But this program is typical of far too many of next season’s concerts. The Orchestra’s 2008-2009 repertory reaches levels of stodginess unheard of in Philadelphia since the Ormandy era.
An even bigger problem— one that Beeri Moalem eloquently complains about in his recent review of Dutoit conducting Mozart and Strauss — is the inexplicable pairing of unlikely companion pieces.
My delight was tempered
To point to the most extreme example: I was at first delighted to see that the season includes three of the greatest Mozart Piano Concertos: the 22nd, 24th, and (be still, my heart!) the great C major 25th. My delight was, shall we say, somewhat tempered by the pairing of these works with, respectively, the Bruckner Fourth Symphony, Strauss’s Symphonia Domestica, and Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony. In short, three of Mozart’s greatest works are being used as curtain raisers— as canapés preceding gigantic late-19th-Century works.
It doesn’t help that, as luck would have it, I abhor Strauss and Bruckner. But believe me, pairing these concertos with great Mahler symphonies wouldn’t make me much happier. Since these combinations come on the heels of several years of vital programming by the Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach— programming that for the most part struck a good balance between tradition and novelty and which has apparently attracted many new paying customers– I must say my worst fears about Dutoit may be realized.
I cannot find a single concert in next year’s repertory that I’m eager to hear.
The Chamber Orchestra alternative
Luckily, classical music lovers have many alternatives to the Orchestra these days, none more attractive than the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Its concert of Friday, February 22 was, from first note to last, an unalloyed delight, pairing two works for brass and percussion by composers I’d never heard of with two works for strings that have become icons of the 20th-Century repertory.
In a few weeks, Terry Riley himself will be present at a premiere of his own work. This Chamber Orchestra is the same group that will conclude its season with its music director, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, playing the Mozart 21st Piano Concerto, paired with– wait for it!– Beethoven’s (no, not Bruckner’s) Sixth Symphony.
I think I already know where a chunk of my concert budget will be spent next season.
Speaking of Mozart’s Piano Concertos, they are the subject of the next installment of my sonata-form series. Now that February’s flurry of concerts is over, I hope to finish it soon.
To read a response, click here.
DAN COREN
Last August, Dan Rottenberg posed the question, “Once this ‘One really big season’ is over, how will the Orchestra characterize the next one?” Well, now that Charles Dutoit has announced the 2008-2009 season, here’s a suggested theme for an ad campaign:
“Qu'ils mangent des chậtaignes!” (“Let them eat chestnuts!”)
Honestly, I was ready to be open-minded about the Philadelphia Orchestra’s new season. And I suppose it’s grumpy of me to complain about an opportunity to hear Tchaikovsky Pathetique Symphony paired with Andre Watts playing Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto. But this program is typical of far too many of next season’s concerts. The Orchestra’s 2008-2009 repertory reaches levels of stodginess unheard of in Philadelphia since the Ormandy era.
An even bigger problem— one that Beeri Moalem eloquently complains about in his recent review of Dutoit conducting Mozart and Strauss — is the inexplicable pairing of unlikely companion pieces.
My delight was tempered
To point to the most extreme example: I was at first delighted to see that the season includes three of the greatest Mozart Piano Concertos: the 22nd, 24th, and (be still, my heart!) the great C major 25th. My delight was, shall we say, somewhat tempered by the pairing of these works with, respectively, the Bruckner Fourth Symphony, Strauss’s Symphonia Domestica, and Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony. In short, three of Mozart’s greatest works are being used as curtain raisers— as canapés preceding gigantic late-19th-Century works.
It doesn’t help that, as luck would have it, I abhor Strauss and Bruckner. But believe me, pairing these concertos with great Mahler symphonies wouldn’t make me much happier. Since these combinations come on the heels of several years of vital programming by the Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach— programming that for the most part struck a good balance between tradition and novelty and which has apparently attracted many new paying customers– I must say my worst fears about Dutoit may be realized.
I cannot find a single concert in next year’s repertory that I’m eager to hear.
The Chamber Orchestra alternative
Luckily, classical music lovers have many alternatives to the Orchestra these days, none more attractive than the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Its concert of Friday, February 22 was, from first note to last, an unalloyed delight, pairing two works for brass and percussion by composers I’d never heard of with two works for strings that have become icons of the 20th-Century repertory.
In a few weeks, Terry Riley himself will be present at a premiere of his own work. This Chamber Orchestra is the same group that will conclude its season with its music director, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, playing the Mozart 21st Piano Concerto, paired with– wait for it!– Beethoven’s (no, not Bruckner’s) Sixth Symphony.
I think I already know where a chunk of my concert budget will be spent next season.
Speaking of Mozart’s Piano Concertos, they are the subject of the next installment of my sonata-form series. Now that February’s flurry of concerts is over, I hope to finish it soon.
To read a response, click here.
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