BWW Reviews: The New York Philharmonic Takes to the Stars!

The New York Philharmonic Takes to the Stars!

"THE PLANETS - AN HD ODYSSEY"

The New York Philharmonic Conducted by Bramwell Tovey Avery Fisher Hall July 7th, 2013

By Peter Danish

Take a dash of multimedia imagery, a double dose of English comedy and a healthy helping of superlative musicianship and you have what the New York Philharmonic is billing as its "Summertime Classics: The Planets - an HD Odyssey."

Conductor Bramwell Tovey, who has been leading the "Summertime Classics" series since its inception in 2004, could easily host a talk show with his clever and quick-witted banter. He was listed in the program as not merely the conductor but the host as well, and from the start of the performance, it was clear he was the star, providing extended introductions of historical and anecdotal material before each piece. He also wore his British pride on his sleeve mentioning fellow Brit Andy Murray's win at Wimbledon earlier in the day an astonishing four times during the show!

The concert began with a hectic and hyperkinetic run at John Adams' wonderful "Short Ride in a Fast Machine." Living up to its name, the delightful little piece was over seemingly just as it was getting going.

A Philharmonic premiere followed the Adams' piece, Jacques Offenbach's "Ballet of the Snowflakes" from his little known 1875 operetta "Les Voyage Dans la Lune." The charming piece was broken into seven brief but enjoyable sections - the finale of which, a gallop, featured an antique wind-machine effect that Tovey took great pleasure in highlighting. "Eight years at Juilliard and this is your big moment," he said to the wind-machine player, while asking him to take a special bow.

Maestro Tovey explained that the Strauss family was to Vienna "what Macy's is to New York," and that Josef Strauss (grandson of Johan Strauss) was also a waltz-master. His lovely "Music of the Spheres" was a pleasant if somewhat typical "Straussian" offering.

The second half of the performance was dedicated to Holst's evergreen "The Planets Suite", complete with HD images of the galaxy courtesy of NASA. The images and video were not the super-saturated, color-enhanced photographs seen on PBS and at the Hayden Planetarium. They were a combination of stunning color images alongside more grainy black and white images and several sections of computer-generated extra-terrestrial landscapes. The hyper-reality of the grainy images added a stark element to the more mystical aspects of the Holst.

While much has been made of the spectacular visual elements of the concert, the real magic was being made on the stage, not on the screen above it. Hard to believe as it may seem, the Philharmonic has not performed this popular repertory standard in nearly a decade. Despite the space (pardon the pun) between performances, the Philharmonic brought an immediacy, a freshness and an enormous amount of energy to the material.

The iconic first movement, "Mars the Bringer of War," has spawned so many Hollywood composer sound-alikes that it is hardly worth mentioning them ("Star Wars," "Star Trek," "The Omen," "Close Encounters," etc.). Maestro Tovey brought forth a level of volume in the final part of this movement that was both thrilling and frightening (in fact, severAl Small children sitting in front of me burst out crying at that moment).

After the bombast of "Mars," the quiet "Venus, the Bringer of Peace" is often just a chance to rest and catch your breath, but Maestro Tovey elicited such ravishingly delicate playing that it was a highlight of evening. "Mercury" was reminiscent of the Adams' piece in the first half both in terms of its tempo and its brevity.

"Jupiter" is probably the best known section of the suite, with its famous center section melody providing the musical bed to the popular post-WWI English hymn: "I Vow to Thee My Country." Tovey took a particularly brisk pace with this movement, which worked well in the more lively sections, but robbed the slower bits of some of their splendor. The brass of the Philharmonic gets special notice for their performance in this movement; playing with exceptional tenderness and majesty in the hymn-like center, then playing positively explosively during the final section.

"Uranus" and "Neptune" are the most mysterious and enigmatic movements of the suite and are aptly named "The Magician" and "The Mystic." The female voices of the MSM Chamber Chorus and Oratorio Society of New York joined the Philharmonic for the finale, as off-stage choir. They provided the eerily distant and evocative effect at the end of the piece as the universe drifts away into silence.

The sold-out house burst into wild applause at the end of the performance, and Maestro and Orchestra answered with a rare encore. In keeping with the theme of the evening they gave a spirited rendition of John William's "The Imperial March" (Darth Vadar's Theme) from Star Wars. The piece felt like a flimsy throw-away after the Holst material preceding it, but the audience went wild for it.

These multi-media performances are cropping up all around the country these days and appear to be, at least on the surface, a successful outreach to a more popular audience (all three performances this week were complete sell-outs). There can be no question that the images projected at the HD Odyssey Concert were stunning and powerful. It can also be said that they certainly benefited greatly from the ravishing musical accompaniment provided for them. However, one wonders if the music actually gained anything from the visual accompaniment? Or did it simply distract from it? It seems to me that music this magical played with the power and the passion of the New York Philharmonic at the height of its powers needs no further decoration.

Peter Danish

Editor-in-Chief

BWW Classical Music

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