If you consider how far in advance artists are booked at major American orchestras, it did not take the New York Philharmonic long to schedule the fast-rising Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden’s debut with the orchestra , which took place on Thursday night at Avery Fisher Hall. Mr. van Zweden, an accomplished violinist who came later to conducting, is not widely known in America. Now 51, he has been thriving as the music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 2008, and he brought the orchestra to Carnegie Hall last May for an impressive program as part of the Spring for Music Festival.
New York Phil 定期デビューのYuja Wang [音楽時評]
若き新世代天才ピアニストYuja Wang は，これまでもNew York Philharmonic と協演してきましたが，ツアーに同行するなどでしたから，その本拠地での定期公演への出演は，今回が初めてだったそうです．
指揮者はオランダ出身で51歳のJaap van Zweden ，the music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 2008で，たいへん評判の高い人です．
プログラムは，
her signature piece: Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, a formidably challenging Neo-Classical work
Mahler’s popular First Symphony
の２曲でした．
Ms. Wang is not above virtuosic stunts, like her hyperfast rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumble Bee.” But at her best, she is a thoughtful musician with an ear for color, texture and harmony.
After the tranquil orchestral introduction, Ms. Wang jumped into the main section of the bustling first movement, tossing off the busy passagework with brio, dispatching bursts of chords and arm-blurring octaves with ease.
There were insightful musical touches in her playing, as in the grim episode with weighty chords that leads to a contrasting playful theme. Ms. Wang punched out those chords with steely sound, while also highlighting a sly inner voice.
Her tempos over all, especially in the finale, were brisk to the point of breathlessness.
と自分流のすごく早いテンポで押し通したようです．
Mr. van Zweden provided consistent backing, but sometimes rhythmic details sounded rushed and clipped. In a performance of this work with Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, available on a EuroArts DVD, Ms. Wang takes swift tempos, but Mr. Abbado reins her in just enough so that her playing has a little more grace and articulate rhythm. Yet Ms. Wang is a wonder. The audience stood and cheered her.
つまり，van Zweden も精一杯にリズムに合わせていましたが，どうしてもsometimes rhythmic details sounded rushed and clipped.になってしまったそうです．
引き合いに Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra,が上げられて，Abbado は，Mr. Abbado reins her in just enough で，a little more grace and articulate rhythm. だったのに，この夜は早すぎたと示唆しています．
それでも聴衆の熱狂はたいへんなもので，スタンディング･オベーションが続いたようです．
マーラーの熱演の後には，van Zweden も，同様の聴衆からの喝采を浴びたようです．
この音楽評のタイトルが，Star Pianist Establishes the Tempo of the Night となっていることにご留意下さい．
Music Review
Star Pianist Establishes the Tempo of the Night
Philharmonic, With Jaap van Zweden Conducting Yuja Wang
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published: April 13, 2012
Ruby Washington/The New York Times
New York Philharmonic, with the pianist Yuja Wang, in a performance conducted by Jaap van Zweden at Avery Fisher Hall on Thursday.
Mahler’s popular First Symphony was the major work he chose for his Philharmonic debut. From the dynamic, all-out performance he conducted, it seems clear that he came to town determined to make music and make an impression. He did both on Thursday. If the performance was sometimes too feisty and intense, it was certainly exciting.
But before the Mahler, Mr. van Zweden showed his ability to work with a young virtuoso. The pianist Yuja Wang made her subscription series debut with the Philharmonic in this program, having twice performed with the orchestra on the road in 2006. A technically phenomenal performer with a flair for fashion, she has become a YouTube sensation.
Ms. Wang is not above virtuosic stunts, like her hyperfast rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumble Bee.” But at her best, she is a thoughtful musician with an ear for color, texture and harmony.
For this debut she played a signature piece: Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, a formidably challenging Neo-Classical work. After the tranquil orchestral introduction, Ms. Wang jumped into the main section of the bustling first movement, tossing off the busy passagework with brio, dispatching bursts of chords and arm-blurring octaves with ease.
There were insightful musical touches in her playing, as in the grim episode with weighty chords that leads to a contrasting playful theme. Ms. Wang punched out those chords with steely sound, while also highlighting a sly inner voice.
Her tempos over all, especially in the finale, were brisk to the point of breathlessness. Mr. van Zweden provided consistent backing, but sometimes rhythmic details sounded rushed and clipped. In a performance of this work with Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, available on a EuroArts DVD, Ms. Wang takes swift tempos, but Mr. Abbado reins her in just enough so that her playing has a little more grace and articulate rhythm. Yet Ms. Wang is a wonder. The audience stood and cheered her.
In the Mahler Mr. van Zweden put a higher priority on musical character and dramatic impact than on flawless execution and textured sound. In the first movement his muscular, insistent interpretation lacked the autumnal cast I associate with this music. In the second movement, a sort of hardy scherzo, Mr. van Zweden captured the heavy-footed, folk-dance spirit, though the playing was almost rigidly emphatic.
The slow movement, seemingly a funeral march, was very good, played with rustic character and just enough rawness to convey the implied parody. Mahler marks the opening of the finale “With violent movement,” and for that, the kinetic Mr. van Zweden is your man. He drew blazing playing from the orchestra, which contrasted with the dreamy beauty of the lyrical midsection.
After the rousing brassy fanfare brought the piece to an end, the audience erupted in an ovation that rivaled Ms. Wang’s, which is saying something.
NY:内田光子played Schubert's Last 3 Sonatas [音楽時評]
2011年11月７日に，サントリーホールで，シューベルトが死の年に一気に書き残したいわば遺作の３曲のピアノ・ソナタを，内田光子さんの演奏で纏めて聴いたのが，忘れがたい記憶として私の脳裏に焼き付いています．そのリサイタルは，時間を要するので，１８時半から始められたモノでした．
同じ３曲を纏めた演奏会を，私はアルフレッド・ブレンデルで，ロンドンのフェスティバル･ホールで聴いた記憶がありますが，それ以来私は，この３曲は是非纏めて弾いて貰いたいと考えています．
この４月11日の水曜日の夜，New York のCarnegie Hall で，内田光子が昨年11月17日のサントリーホール公演とまったく同じプログラムで，素晴らしい演奏会を開いたことがNew York Times に論評されていましたのでご紹介します．
演奏内容如何よりも何よりも，この３曲の間には論理的関連性があって，一緒に弾かれることが望ましいと書かれていていたことを特記したいと思ったのです．
Among several major composing projects during his final months, Schubert wrote his last three piano sonatas. Working with intense focus, he completed the scores in September 1828, about six weeks before he died in delirium at 31.
He must have known that there would not be a ready market for these long, mercurial and complex works. Clearly he was driven to write them, and he conceived them as a set. Theorists have uncovered thematic links among the scores.
New York TimesのANTHONY TOMMASINIが絶賛しておりますが，私は昨年11月17日の演奏会についてのブログで，一度書いておりますので，特に訳出することは控えます．
ただ，A Composer’s Score For a Dance With Death という記事のタイトルには，深い共感を覚えます．
どうぞ，あとはご自由に，ご渉猟下さい．記事に内田光子さんの年齢がずばっと書かれていますが，なるべく早い機会に，再来日してまた名演を聴かせて欲しいと切に願うモノです．
Music Review
A Composer’s Score For a Dance With Death
Chad Batka for The New York Times
Mitsuko Uchida: The pianist performed Schubert’s last three sonatas in a concert at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night.
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published: April 12, 2012
In March 1828, the last year of his life, Schubert enjoyed a success with a public concert of his works in Vienna. He attracted the interest of publishers, but nothing much came of it. Before long he was again penniless and miserable. His health, which had been terrible since he contracted what was almost surely syphilis in his mid-20s, steadily deteriorated.
Among several major composing projects during his final months, Schubert wrote his last three piano sonatas. Working with intense focus, he completed the scores in September 1828, about six weeks before he died in delirium at 31.
He must have known that there would not be a ready market for these long, mercurial and complex works. Clearly he was driven to write them, and he conceived them as a set. Theorists have uncovered thematic links among the scores.
On Wednesday night the masterly pianist Mitsuko Uchida gave an overflow audience at Carnegie Hall (including some in stage seats) a rare chance to hear these last three sonatas, published after Schubert’s death, performed as a group. Ms. Uchida, who at 63 is among the most respected artists of our time, gave probing and magisterial performances.
She is renowned for the refinement of her playing. But as if to shake up preconceptions, she tore into the ominous opening of the first movement of the Sonata in C minor (D. 958), with its theme of assertive chords and scale passages that shoot across the keyboard. She played with crackling intensity and steely fortissimos.
Yet Ms. Uchida soon guided us through a mood shift to the eerily calm music of a long transitional section, where a fidgety melodic line spins out over rippling accompaniment, which she played with milky textures, letting dissonances blend into the harmonic haze. Her way with the Adagio kept you on edge: every time the tranquil theme seemed to settle into a contemplative mode, something terrifying would happen, like the pummeling triplet figures that drive the music through wayward harmonic realms.
On its surface the finale seems to be a dark, dancing tarantella, and Ms. Uchida conveyed its restless, brimming vigor. But without being a bit didactic, she brought out the crazed flights and harmonic discontinuities.
The next work, the Sonata in A (D. 959), is generally considered a noble piece and, in the scherzo, even fanciful. But hearing it in this context, and as played by Ms. Uchida, I was drawn to its dark side, which comes shortly after the stately opening theme, when a long transitional section is run through with a hammering short-long rhythmic figure.
And the Andantino, which starts like a forlorn song with a simple tune and accompaniment, evolves into an episode of wrenching torment and terror, all the more gripping here for the balance of sinew and sensitivity in Ms. Uchida’s playing.
The final Sonata in B flat (D. 960) is a work ideally suited to Ms. Uchida’s elegant artistic temperament. She brought exquisite shadings and wondrous serenity to the first movement. Yet the calm was deceptive, for just below the surface the ominous stirrings and fitful mingling of inner voices told a deeper story. And so the performance continued. You could detect the gremlins hovering over the high spirits of the scherzo and the restlessly energetic finale.
The ovation was tremendous. But Ms. Uchida played no encore. What could have followed these sonatas? In a larger sense, that truly was the question. Schubert was heading into some realm new for him, and for all of music. Just days before his death, he spoke to a friend of the “absolutely new harmonies and rhythms” running through his head.
