The Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle played the final of three
NYC Carnegie Hall performances on Friday night, and OC was in Carnegie's elegant, white & gold auditorium to catch it. Coupling Brahms twin-set symphonies 3 & 4 with a short Schoenberg interlude, the program was an easily digestible menu of Brahmsy goodness.
The concert is part of the (really freaking awesome)
International Festival of Orchestras I series hosted by Carnegie hall (Barenboim & the Vienna Philharmonic in January, Mariss Jansons & the Royal Concertgebouw in Februry, and Gergiev & the Mariinsky Orchestra in March) allowing NY'ers to save $$$$ on plane tickets and catch the international orchestras in our own backyard.
NYC was the first stop on the Berliner Philharmoniker's American tour with principal conductor Sir Simon Rattle as jungle guide -- the Big Apple a warm-up for Boston, Chicago, Ann Arbor, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Brahms and Schoenberg comprise the set lists with soprano Evelyn Herlitzius as the tour's soloist. After the German invasion of the US, the Philharmoniker returns to Berlin on December 4th.
That bearded genius Brahms wrote his four symphonies in (about) a decade while in his early 40s. From his Beethoven-esque First Symphony to his pastoral Second, his four symphonies match up well -- the final two like ebony & ivory, Star Wars geeks & Wookieepedia, Britney Spears & bad weaves, and anolini & brodo ristretto.
OC's favorite, Brahms's Third, written six years after the Second and premiered in 1883 (Hans Richter conducting in Vienna), was his most popular symphony in his day -- now, not so much, unfortunately. With its emotional outbursts, the Third is a complex rendering, full of busting rhythms and surging musical themes. Strains of Schubert and Schumann and brisk textures round out the four movements.
Rattle had OC on board with his first two movements: She likes her Brahms Third full of creamy, honeyed legatos (much unlike Bruno Walter's crisper, linear vision), and Rattle delivered.
But Rattle's Brahms's Third progressed into a reading that was weighed down with monumentality, too many eclectic markings, too shaded and affectionate -- crankily romantic. Rattle took his time, shaping musical phrases with introspection, slowing-down tempi to the speed of trickling molasses (especially in Andante's pastoral tempi that scarily almost came to a standstill) in order to build Brahms's crescendi. Effective, yes -- but too showy and pushy for OC's taste.
She prefers Brahms as she heard it in Parma's Auditorium Niccolò Paganini with Harding and the Mahlers -- an ethereal, soaring, laid-back version where Harding allowed breath and light. Rattle's geekiness was strangled in that "Brahms is soooooo autumnal" mindset. OC can only repeat what she said before about Brahms:
But Brahms symphonies in general -- not to mention his chamber work -- have been condemned to be interpreted as sad-core, as the perfect soundtrack for a twilight time (it's the approach given to it even by a giant such as the Glorious maestro Barbirolli -- his Third is so elegant, so burnished, OK, but...).
The Third, actually, is very much the opposite -- just like much of Brahms's work: the Third has a nervous, powerful soul that is reluctant tho manifest itself -- too bad so many conductors muffle that fury, and that originality, in an analysis that's just too melancholy. The Third does not go gentle into the night -- in fact, it isn't even a nocturnal work, and its famous coda is anything but peaceful. It's a work of elusive complexity that, to Opera Chic, appears to be the key to unlocking Brahms's secrets and, at the same time, forever condemned to be misunderstood. It's Brahms's Alice in Wonderland.
Although Rattle turned Brahms into emo, it was thoroughly controlled, mastered and practiced. His reading almost tortuously emotional, switching at whim to swingy brio and surging temperaments while the Berliner soloists were insanely strong and confident.
Schoenberg's work and Brahms's Fourth after the cut!
