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Stravinsky Conflagration New York
Wu Tsai Theater, David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center
04/09/2025 - & April 10, 11, 2025
Jessie Montgomery: CHEMILUMINESCENCE (World Premiere)
Igor Stravinsky: Violin Concerto
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C Minor
Patricia Kopatchinskaja (Violin)
New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Jakub Hrůsa (Conductor)
P. Kopatchinskaja/J. Hrůsa (© Courtesy of the Artist/Petra Klacková)
“Chemiluminescence is the emission of light (luminescence) as the result of a chemical reaction, i.e. a chemical reaction results in a flash or glow of light. A standard example of chemiluminescence in the laboratory setting is the luminol test. Here, blood is indicated by luminescence upon contact with iron in hemoglobin.”
Wikipedia
“I do not like the term ‘neoclassicism’. The word is overused. It means nothing at all. The composer can re‑use the past and at the same time move in a forward direction.”
Igor Stravinsky
While this was Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s New York Philharmonic debut last night, she was here last year with the London Philharmonic. And the words I wrote about her then still stand: “Patricia Kopatchinskaja is not the usual Force of Nature. She is a force of tsunamis, earthquakes the knightly turrets on the isle of Rhodes and the volcanos of Mexico.”
That was her performance, Shostakovich’s popular First Concerto. Last night, under the nimble baton of Jacub Hrůsa, she essayed a rarer work, Stravinsky’s only Violin Concerto.
And while this music could be sometimes austere and certainly enigmatic, Ms. Kopatchinskaja transported the music to dance and jauntiness and fun and the high spirits of Ms. Kopatchinskaja herself.
Her transport started with her show-biz entrance. If Roma people wore dirndls, this would be Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Extravagant orange and blue and crystal white, with a skirt virtually surrounding her, she strode on stage holding fiddle and music‑score high above her head, almost hugged Concertmaster Frank Huang, and launched into Stravinsky’s slap of a first note. (Actually an almost unplayable D to E to an excruciatingly high A.)
That first movement was a mirror of Ms. Kopatchinskaja herself. She didn’t exactly dance, but her movements were happy, bustling. She dipped and dived, her fabulous colors didn’t stand out concerto style. She was under and over the Phil. Her violin peeped between horns and winds, and her regalia (which made Yuja Wang almost seem like a fishwife) flew around her body.
The other three movements–which Ms. Kopatchinskaja later turned into a fifth–were stunning. The Aria was Stravinsky’s re‑birth of strange sounds. Not the sounds of Sacre but of Ms. Kopatchinskaja’s violin, changing timbres with each measure.
The finale was where the composer (who insincerely confessed that he didn’t know much about violins) turned to straight‑old humor. Ms. Kopatchinskaja not only got the joke, but she sassily, non‑stoppingly joyously got the joke, and played it as if her violin’s life depended on it.
Two encores were called for–especially after asking the full‑house audience whether they liked modern music. Crin by Jorge Sánchez‑Chiong, was a crazy minute containing every trick in the book. The second was the apparent fifth movement of the Stravinsky Concerto. Since the whole work was like a single cadenza, Ms. Kopatchinskaja arranged the movement into a single cadenza, played with Mr. Huang.
It was, yes, a tapestry to match her regalia. Glittering, enigmatic, ear‑catching and inventive. So one must ask when will Ms. Kopatchinskaja will give us a whole recital?
One can hardly imagine a more inappropriate pairing than Stravinsky and Brahms, but an intermission was the necessary respite. Besides that the youthful Mr. Hrůsa was up to the task. The Czech conductor gave a brisk, full‑throated energetic performance. And one’s only regret is that our familiarity almost–almost–erased the glorious pleasure of Ms. Kopatchinskaja herself.
Harry Rolnick
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