Havana Lyceum Orchestra
José Antonio Méndez Padrón, conductor
Simone Dinnerstein, piano
Punto y Tonadas (1980–1981) – Carlos Fariñas (1934–2002)
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467 (1765) ‘Elvira Madigan’ – I. Allegro maestoso; II. Andante; III. Allegro vivace assai – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488 (1786) – I. Allegro; II. Adagio;
III. Allegro assai – Mozart
Appalachian Spring (1944) – Aaron Copland (1900–1990)
OK, how cool was this? (Actually, it was really hot and muggy, but I digress.) Tuesday evening was the opening concert of Naumburg’s 112th season and it featured the United States debut of the Havana Lyceum Orchestra. As always, the concert was also broadcast live on WQXR, with Jeff Spurgeon as the host for this one.
The Fariñas was dance-like, with open-sounding scoring, not surprising since the composer also studied with Aaron Copland. There was a cello?/viola? solo line interspersed with string orchestra writing. Then each upper string section of the orchestra was treated as soloist, and this compositional idea was repeated. A little too often as far as I was concerned but I liked the piece, in general.
The first movement of the first Mozart concerto was gentle and sweet, and adding brass and winds to the string orchestra from the first piece seemed to bolster the sound of the strings. I learned at the intermission that the microphones on stage were also being engineered, in terms of sound. It was done well, except for the fact that I was aware of it. The entrance of the piano was actually a part of the extended intro to the movement. There was a very nice balance between orchestra and soloist, leading to a sort of dreamy/bluesy cadenza culminating in fancy finger work. The second movement opened with a well-known (to me, at least) theme—hence the Elvira Madigan moniker? (I don’t really know the movie.) The music was sweet for both piano and orchestra, but not cloying. An aside here—it was about this time in the evening I noticed that the half-dome of the bandshell was gently lit. It’s such a nice little treat to see and be aware of. The final movement was brisk and bold from the orchestra, followed by the piano, just as brisk and bold. Then there was just theme after theme, cute and interesting, laid out one after the other, some fleshed out quite nicely. All in all, very enjoyable.
Now take a moment to go back to the top of the post, and compare the movements of the first Mozart concerto to the movements of the second Mozart concerto. They’re very similar, right? And while I don’t actually hate Mozart, he’s not one of my favorites because of this similarity which seems, to me, to be on display a lot. OK, off of my soap box now. The first movement was familiar, but not overly so. It had a lengthy orchestral intro followed by the piano with nice tunes, nicely played (see first movement, above). The second movement had the piano from the start, and when the orchestra joined, it was with a fuller sound, with different ideas and a better flow of ideas. Perhaps this was a more mature Mozart. The third movement, with its brisk tempo, was also fuller and bolder that its predecessor. Did it win me over? Almost.
An interesting note about the Appalachian Spring that followed. This orchestra was made up of very young people, and this was their first exposure to this work by
Mr. Copland (which includes the ubiquitous Simple Gifts theme). There was an extended calm opening followed by an introduction to bolder writing and rhythms. It also featured the open writing style that is associated with Copland—think of chords where there is a lot of space between the individual notes. Taken as a whole, the work is a little too amorphous for me, as in, the different sections didn’t quite link together. Ms. Dinnerstein was also the orchestral pianist for this work and, in fact, it was because she heard this orchestra when she was in Cuba, that she determined to bring this cultural institution to the United States. And that’s the only political thing I will say about it.
ConcertMeister
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