Thursday night’s concert with the London Philharmonic Orchestra paired well-loved Beethoven with lesser-known Tchaikovsky, for an interesting contrast of two great Romantics. For the second program of this season’s visit to Carnegie Hall, Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic opened with Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto, the last of his five concertos for piano. This is the one that listeners know even if they think they’ve never heard it before. Catchy tunes, imposing moments, piano curlicues to spare.
In Vladimir Jurowski’s hands, the orchestra was energetic and refined, with every phrase meticulously shaped and a well-blended sound overall. Emanuel Ax’s tone balanced brilliance with softness, and his phrasing was appropriately assertive or fleet. He and Jurowski kept tempos lively, yielding a performance so refined that it lacked spontaneity. Still, no one expects an experimental interpretation from a venerable artist and a well-known piece. Ax delivered beautifully, the orchestra played energetically, and the ear, knowing how the story ends, went on auto-pilot and enjoyed it all.
Called to the stage several times, Ax played Schubert’s Impromptu in A flat, Op. 142 no. 2. He took an unusually quick tempo, but it made the piece dance, and Ax poured drama into the middle section.
It is something of an occasion to hear Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony, the composer’s attempt at integrating a literary program into the symphonic form. The work enjoys much less stage time than the composer’s six other, numbered symphonies, largely due to its sprawling last movement, whose flaws threaten to overshadow the lovely moments earlier in the work. It’s a pity, as the first three movements represent some of Tchaikovsky’s best symphonic writing.
The symphony is based on Lord Byron’s verse play Manfred, which was wildly popular among audiences and artists in the Romantic era. In the first movement, the title character wanders the Alps to mourn some sin associated with his beloved Astarte. (This element of the story may have been inspired by Byron’s alleged affair with his half-sister.) In the second, an Alpine fairy appears before Manfred in a rainbow rising from a waterfall. The third is a pastorale whose middle section hints at Manfred’s despair. Action begins in the fourth movement, when Manfred confronts an “infernal orgy” at the cave of the evil spirit Arimanes, where he has gone to seek Astarte and gain her forgiveness.