HOLY SH*T, WHAT A CONCERT!!! (I hope I didn’t steal that from Bernard Shaw.)
I’m elated to report The Philadelphia Orchestra was in fine fettle on Friday afternoon, under the baton of guest conductor Roderick Cox.
I venture to guess, the big draw for most was Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Organ” Symphony, but for me, what really ensured a fool and his money would soon be parted was the inclusion on the program of Bohuslav Martinu’s Rhapsody-Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, a work I had not heard in concert for 36 years. The last time, also in Philadelphia, was with Joseph de Pasquale, the soloist, and Riccardo Muti on the podium. Of course, now I own at least three recordings. Back then, De Pasquale was Philly’s principal violist. Today the work was played by the orchestra’s current principal, Choong-Jin Chang.
If you don’t know anything about Martinu, and you’re at all squeamish about 20th century music, there is no better place to start. A few mildly anxious passages aside, the Rhapsody-Concerto is pure Dvořák in Iowa. Incidentally, this sleeping giant of Czech music will also be the focus of next summer’s Bard Music Festival. Fight me!
I showed up with the expectation of the Saint-Saëns being mere icing on the cake. The “Organ” Symphony has always been a Philadelphia Orchestra specialty. The musicians could probably play it in their sleep. Today, they were a good deal more committed than that. Raphael Attila Vogl was at the console of the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ. The organ part of Saint-Saëns’ symphony is not a virtuosic one, but it sure does make an impression! There’s a reason certain pieces become warhorses. The last movement was one sustained goosebump – positively spinetingling! That Saint-Saëns really knew how to give an audience its money’s worth.
The program opened with a suite from Béla Bartók’s feel-good ballet, “The Miraculous Mandarin.” The scenario is about a prostitute who lures unsuspecting men to her room so that three desperate characters can rough them up and steal their money. The most peculiar of her would-be clients is the titular mandarin, who the desperados attempt to murder, but he turns out to be more resilient than Rasputin.
Unfortunately, I was stuck in traffic on I-95 South, so I can’t tell you anything about the performance. I blew into the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and took the elevator to the third tier with just enough time only to catch the last minute or two on a monitor. But having experienced the rest of the concert, I can say with confidence that, under the circumstances, it could well have been Bartók, and not Saint-Saëns, who wound up being the icing.
The program will be repeated at the Kimmel on Sunday afternoon at 2:00. No concert tomorrow, presumably because of Yom Kippur.
PHOTO: Love me some Martinu
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