It needed to finish sooner or later.
For the previous month, the New York Philharmonic has been an surprising supply of novelty: premieres, queer cabaret, the orchestra’s first performances of works by Eastman, Kodaly and Martinu. However final week, Strauss’s uncommon “Brentano-Lieder” was adopted by the acquainted creeping again within the type of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony.
And now comes a program (regardless of a quick opener from the underrated Erwin Schulhoff) of well-worn items by Mendelssohn and Dvorak that have been most lately heard right here in 2019 — which, with pandemic closures, would possibly as nicely have been final yr. Happily, there are few conductors as reliable in the usual repertory as Manfred Honeck, who led the Philharmonic on Thursday on the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Heart.
The Czech-born Schulhoff crossed paths with the likes of Dvorak and Debussy earlier than embarking on a promising profession that was minimize quick: first by Nazi blacklisting, then by his loss of life, at 48, within the Wülzberg focus camp. His 5 Items for String Quartet, from 1923, is a contemporary therapy of a Baroque suite, with every motion impressed by a particular dance type. The work’s chamber scale got here to the Philharmonic remodeled, in an association for full orchestra by Honeck and Thomas Ille, who’ve additionally collaborated on symphonic assemblages from operas similar to “Jenufa” and “Rusalka.”
All preparations are acts of translation, and right here Schulhoff’s humor was misplaced alongside the best way. With a large sound from added brass and percussion initially, this 5 Items was much less evenly playful and extra Mahlerian — witty and ironic, however with martial heft. As soon as tinged with Debussian sonorities, the third-movement Czech dance was a darkish reminiscence of Dvorak. Within the tango that adopted, what was beforehand implied in rhythm grew to become literal in exotic-Spain castanets, and the closing tarantella took itself too critically.
There’s nothing inherently unsuitable with preparations, an artwork type in themselves. However this tackle Schulhoff felt like a missed alternative. Among the many classes we’ve got realized from the pandemic is that orchestral programming doesn’t have to be formulaic, {that a} string quartet can simply share the stage with a symphony. And Schulhoff — chronically underrepresented, particularly on Philharmonic subscription concert events — would profit from advocacy for music that’s actually his.
Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor is a standard ceremony of passage for violinists, and on Thursday it was the car for Ray Chen’s Philharmonic debut. Charismatic and expressive, he took up the work like a Romantic hero whereas Honeck maintained a modest, if vague, accompaniment within the orchestra. That may have left room for any soloist, however Chen not often dipped beneath mezzo forte in quantity, his power evident within the many bow hairs he broke through the efficiency.
Chen’s full-bodied lyricism nonetheless made for fantastically contoured phrases within the violin’s highest, riskiest registers. The concerto requires that always, however not at all times, and his interpretation, delivered as if with a sticky, heavy bow, not often mined the contrasts of flowing melody and bouncing agility. Solely within the sprinting theme of the finale did he eventually discover a lighter contact. Extra relaxed but was the encore, his personal fantasy-like association of “Waltzing Matilda,” the unofficial nationwide anthem of Australia, the place he grew up.
Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony clocked in longer right here than in lots of different accounts. However Honeck’s studying was one which rewarded persistence — the introduction making up in ambiance what it lacked in drive. That was simply the beginning of a completely contemporary efficiency, one during which loudness, for instance, was by no means merely loud; it signified festivity or tumult, or each directly. His Adagio, begun with Brahmsian lushness, was unafraid of silence, revealing the holy within the pastoral. The finale had the texture of a dance suite, a delicate nod again to the Schulhoff, with Dvorak’s collection of repeated phrases a journey from the lofty to the frisky and affectingly wistful.
As visitor conductors have handed via lately — with Herbert Blomstedt and Gustavo Dudamel on the best way — the Philharmonic gamers have proven a promising malleability typically lacking from concert events with their music director, Jaap van Zweden, who leaves in 2024. And underneath the appropriate baton, they will even be forgiven for placing on the classics. As they proved with Honeck, normal doesn’t need to imply stale.
New York Philharmonic
This program continues via Saturday on the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Heart, Manhattan; nyphil.org.
