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Welcome to a World Treasure New York
Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall
11/17/2024 - & November 6, 7, 8 (Berlin), 2024
Sergei Rachmaninoff: The Isle of the Dead, Opus 29
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Violin Concerto in D Major, Opus 35
Antonín Dvorák: Symphony No. 7 in D Minor, Opus 70, B. 141
Vilde Frang (Violin)
Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko (Chief Conductor)
K. Petrenko (© Monika Rittershaus)
“My musical creed may be called the inspired idea. With what displeasure one hears this concept nowadays! And nevertheless: how could the artificial construction, the most exact musical mathematics, triumph over the moving principle of the inspired idea!”
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Interview, May 1926)
“To have a wonderful idea is nothing special. The idea comes of its own accord and, if it’s fine and great, man cannot take the credit for it. But to take a fine idea and make something great of it, that is the hardest thing to do; that is what real art is!”
Antonín Dvorák
Rarity is the good and bad side of the Berlin Philharmonic. Rare are those strings and brasses, rare the unanimity of all the players. Even rarer is their Russian‑born Artistic Director and Chief Conductor, Kirill Petrenko. Never has he attempted to transform this 132‑year‑old World Treasure into a Slavic orchestra. No matter how much the trumpets and French horns blast, they never give hard tones, blaring Russian notes.
The von Karajan touch was simply the continuation of a history at the helm of the Russian.
The other rarity? They almost never come to New York. Petrenko has come here with other orchestras, but the Berliners have stayed away for decades. Until this afternoon.
Unlike other visitors, who usually include a 21st Century selection, Petrenko kept to familiar names. Rachmaninoff and Dvorák, of course. And over the past decade, Korngold’s “serious” works are as treasured as his wonderful movie scores.
The real surprise today–and my absolute favorite–was Rachmaninoff without piano. In fact, his Isle of the Dead, based on Poe and a few ghostly paintings, is totally different than what we could imagine.
Rather, imagine the waves and pulsing of La Mer composed by a vampire. Rather again, imagine a twelve‑minute haunting and haunted tone‑picture an island overrun with rats, with gnarly trees, a few corpses in the stunted forest. Imagine it under a perpetual moon, with dangerous tides lapping at its shore.
Could one imagine Sergei Rachmaninoff composing such a picture? He did, Kirill Petrenko provided the dark strings, the phantasmal trumpets out of nowhere, the Dies Irć.
Though in this case, it wasn’t a day of fire, but a night of spirits and ancient animals. Brrrrr....
The second work was sunlit, joyous and even cinematic.
Last night, composer-conductor John Adams gave his personal version of the Warner Brothers film noir music with the New York Philharmonic. This afternoon, the Berlin Phil produced the other face of Warner Brothers, the Errol Flynn/Olivia de Havilland swashbuckler.
John Adams gave homage to pre-John Williams American composers. The Berliners gave the actual Hollywood composer. And indeed, his Violin Concerto has moments where one can almost see the old Warner Brothers movies. More on that later.
Korngold, the Austrian enfant terrible never thought that he had “sold his soul’ to Hollywood. Although Jewish, he moved there voluntarily before the Nazi exterminations.
And told anybody who wanted to listen, “I have the same integrity, the same inspiration, the same drive for motion picture music as I did in writing the Violin Concerto.”
V. Frang (© Marco Borggreve)
I imagine that a good part of the audience this afternoon came to hear Hilary Hahn play the Korngold, since this magnetic star has made the Korngold and Barber her own. Ms. Hahn, though, has canceled all November concerts due to a double pinched nerve.
Instead, the fine Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang gave a more than creditable appearance. This was not the usual tale of unknown-fiddler-makes-substitute-performance-overnight-success. Ms. Frang is not a household name here, but she is celebrated throughout Europe, and among her many recordings is the Korngold Concerto itself.
I haven’t heard this record, but her performance this afternoon was stunning–and cinematic. Korngold was working on a film then (Another Dawn) and the themes were used in both Concerto and movie.
You could tell that immediately, with Ms. Frang sweeping through that opening movement. The Romance: Andante was exactly that. Though not a slurpy syrupy movie way. This was a movement where colors change, and where Ms. Frang gave a rich and almost passionate performance.
I am definitely in the minority when enjoying the finale exactly for its bravura tone, and its theme of triumph. I confess, with no embarrassment, that–outside of some luscious opera arias–I prefer his movie scores. In this movement, Ms. Frang offered swordplay between Flynn and Basil Rathbone, or British Legionnaires marching over the sands to rescue... well, probably Olivia de Havilland or Bette Davis.
The finale was my favorite (and the second most popular) Dvorák symphony, the Seventh. Czech conductors like Kubelík and Ancerl bring a rural charm to each movement. Kirill Petrenko brought the Berlin Philharmonic.
Those strings brought the most gorgeous sheen to the slow movement, the brassy blasts brought excitement to the first and last movements. The scherzo was unfortunately almost as heavy as the opening and closing. That brought, yes, a cohesion to a rather incohesive work. But one prefers in this work, the light dance, the almost iridescent (for Dvorák!) glow.
Never mind. Trying to hang that whole Symphony with pedantic coherence is a losing battle. Petrenko’s love affair with the Slavic music–and the indefinable wonder of his orchestra–were their own reward.
Harry Rolnick
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