But two different venues—Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College and LaGuardia Performing Arts Center at LaGuardia Community College. First off, thank you, colleges, for providing such wonderful performance spaces. And college students, take advantage of them!
3/5/17
Ruslan and Lyudmilla Overture (1837–42) – Mikhail Glinka (1804–57)
L’Ascension, Four Meditations for Orchestra (1932–33) – Olivier Messiaen (1908–92)
Symphony No. 4, Op. 36 (1877–78) – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93)
Zachary Schwartzman, conductor
4/2/17
North by Northwest Overture (1959) – Bernard Herrmann (1911–75)
Symphony No. 3 (1938) – Roy Harris (1898–1979)
Symphony No. 1, Low (1992) – Philip Glass (b. 1937)
James Bagwell, conductor
Since this is a two-fer, I’ll do a little less in-depth discussion than usual. On the plus side, both concerts had TON’s trademark Concert Quick Guide, which handily lists the pieces, composers’ dates, info on the premiere of each piece, and the (estimated) length of each piece (more about that later).
The March 5 overture was a solid opening, very brisk, building excitement from the get-go. The Messiaen had modern harmonies that were gentle yet brash at the same time. The second movement had slightly discordant phrases from the winds, sounding sort of mystical. The third was fanfare-like, while the last movement had serene strings to start with, though still with modern harmonies, ending with a literal sense of ascension as the violins played higher and higher in their registers.
The Tchaikovsky had a lengthy first movement with varied themes and sections including a brass fanfare to start with that made several returns. The second movement was a calm respite although it had drama of its own. The third was brisk but a bit subdued because of light pizzicato phrases. The fourth opened with a bang and then just kept on going. After a brief calm section, the fanfare from the first movement was reintroduced, followed by new material to round out the work.
The April 2 overture was more of a pastiche of the themes from the movie North by Northwest worked into a single composition. The mix of themes included phrases in 3/4 time as well as 6/8 time (think “America” from West Side Story). There was also a nice mix of percussion sounds including tambourine and castanets. The single-movement Harris symphony had an interesting build—strings (cellos front and center) joined by basses and violas, atonal but not harsh. Then welcome the brass and violas, with the woodwinds sneaking in, too. The music had touches of drama as well as touches of real beauty, including one section that was very reminiscent of the Aaron Copland sound (western motif/beef, it’s what’s for dinner).
I promised myself that I would give the Glass a try. I also chose an aisle seat, just in case. According to written and spoken program notes, the Glass symphony was based on (and indeed quoted material from) the 1977 David Bowie/Brian Eno album, Low. This meant next to nothing to me. Consider this—the Hermann overture was three minutes long. The Harris one-movement symphony was eighteen minutes long. The first movement (of three) of the Glass symphony was sixteen minutes long. Sixteen minutes of repetitive, repetitive, repetitive phrases that sounded like, “Someday I’ll wish upon a star” over and over and over and over. A second theme was eventually introduced that had a different motif repeated over and over and over again. And … that was it—I was out of there. Movements two and three were reportedly eleven and eighteen minutes (Harris’ entire symphony!) long, and I knew that it would not be enjoyable, enjoyable, enjoyable for me. But at least I did give it a try.
What was enjoyable was hearing this orchestra in a pair of very interesting programs. They’ll definitely stay on my radar (duh! I’m on their email list). As a side note, this entire post was written while listening to a free concert from Carnegie Hall, courtesy of WQXR (my local classical music station), which regularly presents Live from Carnegie Hall concerts. There’s lots of free stuff out there, in various guises, so get out there and explore.
ConcertMeister
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