In the weeks leading up to the Philadelphia Orchestra’s opening night concert, a cloud of uncertainty hung over the typically joyous occasion. The union representing the musicians authorized a strike last month, citing a lack of pay parity with other major orchestras in the United States. Several key positions remain vacant, including the Principal Trumpet chair, with members citing low wages as a key detriment to recruiting new hires. The orchestra’s previous contract expired on 10th September. I went in wondering if the musicians would stage a walkout, as they did at the season-opening concert in 2016, when they left the stage to distribute leaflets on Broad Street.
Crisis averted. When Yannick Nézet-Séguin gave the downbeat, the bustling percussion of Jennifer Higdon’s Fanfare Ritmico signaled a momentary détente. The rhythmically energetic curtain-raiser set an ebullient mood for the evening, and it’s always nice to see the orchestra celebrate one of Philadelphia’s favorite musical citizens. Unlike many of Higdon’s other works, though, it’s hard to find a harmonic grounding to grab hold of in this six-minute piece. Instead, it was best to appreciate the small details that emerged from the bombastic whole: a subtle woodwind trio for clarinet, oboe and flute near the middle of the piece was especially winsome.
For the second time in three years, Yo-Yo Ma served as the star soloist for the evening’s festivities. The veteran cellist received a hero’s welcome and performed Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto no. 1 in E flat major without a hair out of place. Yet his customary elegance seemed ill-suited to a work with as many psychological dimensions as this. Ma’s mellow tone lacked a necessary edge in the opening Allegretto, especially amid the foreboding strings and the tense woodwind underpinning. At times, his tone turned buzzy and bantamweight, and Nézet-Séguin allowed the massed forces to subsume his sound. The most memorable details came not from Ma but from stalwarts within the orchestra: Jeffrey Lang’s elegiac horn solo in the Moderato movement, Kiyoko Takeuti’s late contributions on the celesta. Ma appeared more at home in his encore, Albéniz’s Duo Tango for Violin and Cello, played with concertmaster David Kim.
Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances always acts as a good barometer for the orchestra’s current sound profile. The overall quality was leaner and more pointed than when I last heard Nézet-Séguin conduct the work, in 2018, with the repeated motifs in the Non allegro gaining a muscular, aggressive quality. There was still an appropriate sense of sweep, although with more acerbic strings, nervy woodwind and punchy brass than usual. Nézet-Séguin didn’t strive for blending at all costs, and the waltzing quality of the Andante con moto was more Mahler than Strauss, slightly distorted and disturbed. The Allegro vivace closed the evening on an appropriately mysterious note.
Despite some questionable interpretive choices, the orchestra members played at an unimpeachably high level. With the next round of concerts scheduled to begin on 6th October, the musicians will vote to approve or reject their latest contract offer this weekend. The immediate future remains uncertain, but at least for one night, the music played on, and the Philadelphians reminded their audience just how much they’re worth.
