As the US approaches its 250th birthday, the New York Philharmonic celebrated the opening of Gustavo Dudamel’s season as Music and Artistic Director Designate with an American-themed program featuring a world premiere, a Bartók concerto and a symphony by Ives.
The evening began with a mostly tepid performance of Hawaii-based Leilehua Lanzilotti’s Of light and stone, a 15-minute tribute to the Kalākaua royal dynasty who ruled the Kingdom of Hawaii in the late 19th century. Each of its four movements was inspired by a different interpretation of the word “haku”: to compose; core, as in stone; to rise up, as the moon; and to braid, as a lei. There were some admirable moments – the increasingly dynamic brass chords in the first movement; the triangle’s evocation of a ship’s bell and the wistful clarinet solo in the second; and the sweet melody winding among the woodwinds in the third -- but overall this came across as a lackluster introduction to a less than totally cohesive composition.
In contrast, pianist Yunchan Lim’s charismatic rendition of Béla Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto was utterly captivating. Composed in New York City in 1945, five years after the composer emigrated to America from Hungary, it is the most popular and accessible of his three piano concertos. Left unfinished at his death, its final 17 measures were completed by his friend and pupil, Tibor Serly. Unlike his first two piano concertos, written for himself, his Third was a birthday present for his wife, pianist Ditta Pásztory, who had struggled with the technical challenges of his notoriously difficult Second. Although undeniably demanding, and as admirable as any other work in Bartók’s mature oeuvre, the music is lighter and more lyrical than that in his other two concertos.
With excellent support from Dudamel and the Philharmonic, Lim revealed all the elegiac beauty and mischievous exuberance of the felicitous creation, especially in the magical opening of the first movement Allegretto, the enigmatic outer sections of the meditative central Adagio religioso, and the bustling Rondo and Hungarian folk rhythms of the finale. As an encore Lim offered something more modest: a gentle, lilting version of This quiet summer night, a 19th-century waltz by Feofil Tolstoy.
Charles Ives’ Second Symphony, one of the anarchic Yankee’s most enduring creations, merges modified snippets of well-known American melodies – gospel songs, marches, patriotic odes, folk songs and Stephen Foster tunes – with references to Brahms, Bach, Wagner and Dvořák, and a range of surprising harmonies and dissonances. Completed in 1901, it was unperformed until 1951 when Leonard Bernstein delivered its world premiere with the Philharmonic.
In contrast to Bernstein’s notoriously free-wheeling, highly emotional interpretation (he led the piece 20 times during his decade with the ensemble and also recorded it), Dudamel took a more light-textured approach. Conducting from memory, he allowed Ives’ score to speak for itself and the orchestra responded with their characteristic style and spirit. Among the many gorgeous solo passages, the shapely contributions of principal cellist Carter Brey and principal flutist Robert Langevin stood out. With his intensely expressive conducting style, Dudamel elicited an inspired interpretation, bringing out all the warmth in the opening Andante moderato and the nostalgia of the Adagio cantabile third, but it was the Allegro molto vivace finale, with its majestic peroration of Columbia and its abrupt and dissonant final chord, which made the greatest impact on the listener.
