Very interesting program at The Philadelphia Orchestra this weekend. Naturally, all promotions emphasize Trifanov and Beethoven (after all, they want to get butts in the seats), but I would like to shower the entire organization with rose petals for allowing the bulk of the concert to be devoted to music by Lili Boulanger and especially Louise Farrenc.
If you’re unfamiliar with Farrenc, she was the only female professor at the Paris Conservatory in all of the 19th century. I have a preference for her Third Symphony, myself, but it was so good to be able to hear the Second performed live. It doesn’t always have to be Berlioz (her exact contemporary), for as much as I enjoy his music!
Yannick, please check out Farrenc’s Symphony No. 3. And more adventurous programming, please! I understand the importance of new commissions for women composers, but there is still also plenty of worthwhile music by historical women that right now can only be experienced through recordings.
The next time you have the urge to do Elgar, try your hand at Ethel Smyth. The overture to “The Wreckers” would make for a dynamic curtain-raiser. The “Serenade in D” is a symphony in all but name, with some pretty good tunes. If you prefer Czech, try Vítězslava Kaprálová. She inhabits a similar sound world to that of Martinu. And Poland’s Grazyna Bacewicz can stand toe-to-toe with just about any of the 20th century’s greatest composers.
For the present, thank you, Philadelphia, for performing Boulanger and Farrenc. Now there are more, and perhaps even greater, treasures to be mined.
As for the Beethoven concerto, of course the solo part held no terrors for Daniil Trifanov, the Rachmaninoff pianist du jour. But the orchestra also played with plenty of punch, under the muscular direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and bubbled over with dynamism to the driving timpani of Angela Zator Nelson.
The program is presented under the umbrella of the orchestra’s BeethovenNOW series. I’d be dismissive of the venture as a tired rehash of music that already gets raked over every year, all over the world, but if these musicians are energized by Beethoven the way they were on Thursday, then it will all probably be worth hearing, even by a jaded old bastard like myself. You can find more information at the orchestra’s website, philorch.org.
PLEASE NOTE: For remaining performances of this particular program, tonight at 8 p.m. and tomorrow at 2 p.m., Trifanov will swap out Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 for the Piano Concerto No. 5, the popular “Emperor.”
I am not able to access the review, since it’s paywalled, but if you already subscribe to the Philadelphia Inquirer, you can check out David Patrick Stearns’ impressions of the Thursday concert. From the headline, it looks as if he too was pleased to be able to hear Farrenc.
