$10 Turangalîla Friday
The other big St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert at Carnegie Hall this weekend was the "Discovery Concert" presenting Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie on Friday night, with David Robertson giving a 20-minute talk about the work before intermission. (I would have branded this as "$10 Turangalîla Friday," that being the price of the cheapest tickets. I actually reached deep into my pockets for $15, to sit in the center balcony.) I like hearing Robertson talk; he has a very appealing, unpretentious bearing as well as a friendly sort of refinement. When he spoke he had the orchestra onstage with him, to play through musical examples ranging from a single idea to stretches of a few minutes of music.
I know this piece fairly well, but the talk did frame the performance a bit differently and I feel like I took more away from it than I had in the past. Robertson did a good job pointing out Messiaen's compositional tricks, smartly emphasizing the layering effects and untraditional developmental techniques that make Messiaen's music move so differently than other composers'. He spoke frankly to the audience about the difficult aspects of listening to the symphony, and sympathetically; this was a good move. (Towards the end of his talk he urged everyone not to leave before the end, and played through a few minutes of the last movement as an incentive.) A projection at the back of the stage displayed the occasional picture (though no examples from the score) and some artworks that Robertson thought resonated with Turangalîla.
(And, of course, he brought up the Matt Groening connection, not just the Futurama reference but that the ondes Martenot player had performed on the soundtrack of several of the Simpsons Halloween episodes, which I did appreciate as a data point.)
Sitting in the center balcony at Carnegie Hall robs you of a surprising amount of Turangalîla's visceral impact; I've sat up there a bunch of times and haven't felt that way before. (A few years back I heard the Philadelphia Orchestra do Turangalîla at Carnegie Hall from the back of the orchestra section -- this is back when I had my comp ticket hookup, of course -- and from there the sheer volume gets nicely overwhelming.) The performance was a very good one; the busier sections seemed a little daunting for the orchestra, but the slower, plusher music was absolutely gorgeous. Robertson has a great way with letting slow music stream along in what feels like an inherent and naturally occurring sense of time. This makes for good Messiaen; on Saturday night the phenomenon was also well evidenced by the spellbinding last ten minutes of the Berg concerto, and even in the quieter parts of the Brahms overture.
Before the fifth movement Robertson turned to the audience from the podium and announced, "I just want to go on record that it's okay to clap after this movement"; people did, long and enthusiastically. Thus emboldened, the audience (or parts of it) also applauded after the sixth movement and the eighth movement, and of course for a really long time at the end of the piece. I'll say again that I am a big fan of applause between movements, and especially in a long affair like Turangalîla it's nice to breathe easy for a few moments and relax your attention a little, and also to confirm that the other people in the audience are also enjoying the performance.
The balcony seats had sold respectably, but far from completely; I'm not sure how full the rest of the hall was. There were definitely more young people there than usual. I'm curious, given the "Discovery" angle to the concert, how many less-than-likely attendees were attracted to it (as opposed to 20th-century-music afficionados), but there's no real way of finding this out.
Alex Ross has an interesting post contrasting this concert with a similar one in the late 1990s. One will note that the "dumping on unsuspecting subscribers" method of concert presentation compares less favorably. Also interesting is Andrew Druckenbrod's account of a much less successful Turangalîla talk in Pittsburgh last year that was delivered by conductor Andrew Davis. Pre-performance talks are all well and good, but unfortunately it's not easy to find someone who's got a gift for it; chalk up another big point for Robertson there.
I know this piece fairly well, but the talk did frame the performance a bit differently and I feel like I took more away from it than I had in the past. Robertson did a good job pointing out Messiaen's compositional tricks, smartly emphasizing the layering effects and untraditional developmental techniques that make Messiaen's music move so differently than other composers'. He spoke frankly to the audience about the difficult aspects of listening to the symphony, and sympathetically; this was a good move. (Towards the end of his talk he urged everyone not to leave before the end, and played through a few minutes of the last movement as an incentive.) A projection at the back of the stage displayed the occasional picture (though no examples from the score) and some artworks that Robertson thought resonated with Turangalîla.
(And, of course, he brought up the Matt Groening connection, not just the Futurama reference but that the ondes Martenot player had performed on the soundtrack of several of the Simpsons Halloween episodes, which I did appreciate as a data point.)
Sitting in the center balcony at Carnegie Hall robs you of a surprising amount of Turangalîla's visceral impact; I've sat up there a bunch of times and haven't felt that way before. (A few years back I heard the Philadelphia Orchestra do Turangalîla at Carnegie Hall from the back of the orchestra section -- this is back when I had my comp ticket hookup, of course -- and from there the sheer volume gets nicely overwhelming.) The performance was a very good one; the busier sections seemed a little daunting for the orchestra, but the slower, plusher music was absolutely gorgeous. Robertson has a great way with letting slow music stream along in what feels like an inherent and naturally occurring sense of time. This makes for good Messiaen; on Saturday night the phenomenon was also well evidenced by the spellbinding last ten minutes of the Berg concerto, and even in the quieter parts of the Brahms overture.
Before the fifth movement Robertson turned to the audience from the podium and announced, "I just want to go on record that it's okay to clap after this movement"; people did, long and enthusiastically. Thus emboldened, the audience (or parts of it) also applauded after the sixth movement and the eighth movement, and of course for a really long time at the end of the piece. I'll say again that I am a big fan of applause between movements, and especially in a long affair like Turangalîla it's nice to breathe easy for a few moments and relax your attention a little, and also to confirm that the other people in the audience are also enjoying the performance.
The balcony seats had sold respectably, but far from completely; I'm not sure how full the rest of the hall was. There were definitely more young people there than usual. I'm curious, given the "Discovery" angle to the concert, how many less-than-likely attendees were attracted to it (as opposed to 20th-century-music afficionados), but there's no real way of finding this out.
Alex Ross has an interesting post contrasting this concert with a similar one in the late 1990s. One will note that the "dumping on unsuspecting subscribers" method of concert presentation compares less favorably. Also interesting is Andrew Druckenbrod's account of a much less successful Turangalîla talk in Pittsburgh last year that was delivered by conductor Andrew Davis. Pre-performance talks are all well and good, but unfortunately it's not easy to find someone who's got a gift for it; chalk up another big point for Robertson there.
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7 Comments:
Just wondering what you thought of the New York Sun review by Fred Kirshnit here, diametrically opposed to Tommasini's NYT review.
It's funny to me that he refers to St. Louis as "the provinces." This is America. All of our orchestras are provincial.
Kirshnit and Tommasini's reviews do create something of a Rashomon effect. I have to say that even as an avowed Robertson fan, my conflicting review tiebreaker goes to the writer who sounds less like a fuddyduddy. Point, Tommasini.
I've never read the NY Sun, and I'm not familiar with Kirshnit. (Haven't heard anyone write about, talk about, or even refer to him either. I don't think he's got any kind of major critical presence.) Anyway, here he's deliberately misconstruing Robertson's talking from the podium mid-Turangalila -- which was only a quick invitation to applaud -- and he's way off about the SLSO sounding provincial. So I'd pretty much throw out everything he says.
FWIW, Kirshnit has a somewhat erratic reputation for those who read his reviews in the context of the NYC critics. His main local cause that he always champions is Bargemusic, from what I can tell. (BTW, I just saw his review of Brendel's Carnegie farewell, and he's trying to be the non-worshipping semi-gadfly in that one too.)
In a way, though, back at the NYT, Tommasini is hardly the most objective critic when it comes to Robertson, as he has been consistenly positive in his reviews of Robertson's concerts. One can very easily read from his past reviews with the NY Phil that he wanted Robertson as first choice to take over from Maazel.
Having heard other US orchestras, I know pretty well that St. Louis can hold its own with any top band. It might not have the warmest or sweetest sound compared to the Philadelphia strings, for example, but technically, it's well up there.
It wasn't any secret that most of the NY critics wanted Robertson at the Philharmonic. I don't think there's any bias involved about Tommasini evaluating Robertson's performances now -- that's just a matter of Robertson being consistently good.
And yes, the SLSO is way up the charts technically. Playing that program last Saturday as well as they did -- especially the Adams premiere -- was a real feat.
I knew that Tommasini was very pro-Robertson, but I wasn't aware that other critics were in the same camp, regarding succession to Maazel. Robertson isn't on the Chicago roster next season, but he is on for Philadelphia. Tommasini did say very briefly that Robertson has the reputation of talking too much to orchestras. It's just the way he is, but it is a turnoff for some. Robertson will be doing his run of Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio later in the season, which is why he won't finish this season here in St. Louis, and I'm guessing that you guys will check that out during the run.
It was kind of interesting to see the comments in response to the Kirshnit article, which are pretty much trashing the review. One was even from an SLSO musician. Still, slings and arrows aside, the SLSO will be back at Carnegie next season, presuming of course that human civilization is still intact by then.
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