Bernstein 65th Anniversary Gala at Carnegie Hall
Alan Gilbert Conducts the New York Philharmonic to Celebrate Lenny
Nov 25, 2008 Sarah Canice Funke
An orchestra bursting with palpable energy is a recipe for attention-grabbing success. Put that same orchestra behind a soloist, however, and disaster ensues. The New York Philharmonic's performance of Leonard Bernstein's music at Carnegie Hall certainly showcased the orchestra's cohesive musicianship, but ultimately came off as a tug-of-war between tight ensemble work and lackluster soloing.
Celebrating the 65th Anniversary of Bernstein's Carnegie Hall Debut
The event suggested every intention of delivering an exciting program. The date--November 14, 2008--was exactly 65 years since the 25-year-old Leonard Bernstein had nervously stepped to the conductor's podium in Carnegie Hall, filling in for Bruno Walter. The pre-concert talk provided listeners with a touching backstage perspective on Bernstein's career-launching Carnegie Hall debut, related by Bernstein's own brother Burton.
Appropriately, the Music Director Designate of the New York Philharmonic was conducting the concert. Like Bernstein, the youthful Alan Gilbert promises to reinvigorate American pride in national music and to invest in the future of music. And just as Bernstein was the first American Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, so Alan Gilbert is the first New York Philharmonic Music Director to be a native New Yorker.
"Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront"
With such expectations hovering in the background, the orchestra opened with "Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront," a work based on music Bernstein composed for the 1954 Elia Kazan film. Because Bernstein felt his music played a subservient role in the film, the symphonic version offered an avenue in which the sheer drama of the score could stand alone, unhampered by actors' lines and ambient sounds.
From the lonely horn calls to the shy flute and harp duet to the passionate full orchestra responses, the New York Philharmonic's ensemble work was electric and urgent, highlighting the contrasts in the work and conveying a sense of high drama.
A Violin Concerto: "Serenade (After Plato's Symposium)"
Next came the "Serenade (After Plato's Symposium) for Violin, String Orchestra, Harp and Percussion." Really a violin concerto in disguise, the piece takes a more rhetorical approach to the topic of love. Each of the five movements personifies a speech by one of Socrates' friends. The final movement unveils Socrates' own weighty thoughts, suddenly interrupted by capering (and somewhat jazzy) party-goers, who rush into the banquet hall and sweep everything along in their wake. The violinist Glenn Dicterow played a restrained solo, beautiful but unable to match the bursting energy of the orchestra behind him.
"West Side Story" Suites: Broadway Vs. Opera
Unfortunately, this disparity between soloist and ensemble simply worsened after intermission. For many, "West Side Story" is the most familiar of Bernstein's works, a Broadway musical born of the composer's conviction that music theatre was America's opera. The tenor Paul Groves, the soprano Ana María Martínez and the New York Choral Artists joined the orchestra to act out this modernized tale of star-crossed lovers.
These were top class singers-for opera. Yet whenever Broadway meets opera, both genres invariably suffer. The opera half of the mash-up comes off as stiff and pretentious. The show tune half just doesn't come off at all, swallowed up somewhere in the singer's larynx. In addition, the chorus garbled most of Sondheim's witty lyrics and Gilbert struggled to keep them in synch with the orchestra.
Yet the evening did not end on these disappointments. The New York Philharmonic encored with the "Overture" to Candide and the "Mambo" from West Side Story. If Gilbert can figure out how to inspire his soloists with the same vigor he has infused in the orchestra, the New York Philharmonic promises to deliver some exciting performances in the seasons ahead.
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