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Pretty like you never heard it before Philadelphia
Marian Anderson Hall, Kimmel Center
02/27/2025 - & February 28*, March 1, 2025
Julia Wolfe: Pretty
Louise Farrenc: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 32
Johannes Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15
Hélène Grimaud (Piano)
The Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Conductor)
Y. Nézet‑Séguin, J. Wolfe (© Allie Ippolito)
A gripping presentation of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 concluded a long, but immersive concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra on February 28. Led by Yannick Nézet‑Séguin in the orchestra’s home in Marian Anderson Hall, the program began with a powerhouse statement on the objectification of women and shifted into an effusively romantic 19th century symphony before concluding with the Brahms. Hélène Grimaud was the piano soloist as the Philadelphia Orchestra launched into one of the most startling renditions of the Brahms First that I can recall. It wasn’t an easy start, as Nézet‑Séguin and Grimaud initially had a few moments of struggle before landing on common ground. But once they clicked, the music soared, launching those distinctive in‑your‑face trills like rockets. The second movement was a crazy quilt of tender moments, with heartfelt solo passages by the oboe, so full of yearning for some unidentified good, seeking to make sense of life. Conducting with a baton, the conductor opened his arms as though giving the world a warm embrace. The two artists themselves were visually part of the theater of this carried‑away musical event, Nézet‑Séguin in a black leather jacket, Grimaud in a lively print blouse and black vest and pants, her hair secured in a low topknot. The rhapsodic final movement was literally spine‑tingling, with glorious French horns, that surprisingly dainty little fugue in the strings, then the transition to bright major chords with an affirmative eruption of sound.
Whew! Let’s tone down the intensity a bit and back up to the second work on the program, Louise Farrenc’s Symphony No. 1, composed in 1841, some 17 years before Brahms composed the Piano Concerto No. 1. Nézet‑Séguin continues to champion nearly forgotten women composers of the past, and Farrenc is one of the best. Her work reveals not only artistry and technical skill, but expresses deep feelings, and encourages us to reflect deeply on the worlds opened to us by great art. Farrenc is not someone about whom you can say, “Well, she’s sort of like Franck” or “She sounds like Saint‑Saëns.” She offers us a unique sound that is her own musical marker. Born in 1804, making her a few years older than Chopin, Schumann, and Liszt, Farrenc became the first woman to hold a full professorship at the Paris Conservatoire (although she was paid less than her male colleagues). The Symphony No. 1 is a fine work, four movements with a classical architecture, but also a real individuality and originality of feeling and expression. However, the symphony came close to being lost in this program, overshadowed by the opening work and by the concluding Brahms.
The opening selection, Wolfe’s Pretty (2023) would overshadow just about anything. It’s a rich, almost combative composition, unrelentingly percussive and, at times, earsplitting. I heard it as a howl against the petty‑fication (sic) of women, that is to say, shoving women into a corner of mediocrity and then praising them for not so impressive achievements. In a work that lasts as long as a classical symphony, Wolfe pounds at the way women have been judged by the standards of “pretty,” and asks who sets the standard for such judging. “Pretty” is not the same as beautiful. “Beautiful” has a grandeur about it, like a golden sunset, while “pretty” gets a pat on her cute little head and is sent dismissively on her way. It can even demolish a compliment: “That’s a pretty good symphony you wrote there, young lady.”
Wolfe came out of the Yale School of Music in the 1980s. She is co‑founder of Bang on a Can (along with husband Michael Gordon and David Lang), which stages new music productions and has had an incalculable impact on modern classical music by encouraging new ideas from outside the academy.
Pretty takes a different approach as to meaning. This harsh yet joyful leap of the heart roars and rumbles, with passages that sound like rock guitar riffs and bluegrass fiddling gone berserk. The energy hardly ever stops, thundering so wildly in the percussion section I’m sure the performers would need to soak their wrists in Epsom salt at day’s end. There are instruments in this work I never heard of before, like the hi‑hat and large guiro, all wailing out a cry of defiance with verve. Through it all, the conductor was in control and the musicians responded with a kind of wildfire elegance. The audience? Screams of approval and plenteous applause. Thumbs up to Pretty: this sound jam is more than pretty good!
Linda Holt
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