Mostly Mozart Festival in reorganized Avery Fissher Hall

このところ欧米ではSummer Festival 続きで，あまり話題を提供できなかったのですが，日本でも10年間くらいは行われてご記憶の方も多いと思われる The Mostly Mozart Festivalにかかわって，たいへん興味深い記事に出会いました．

The Mostly Mozart Festival の会場の Avery Fissher Hall はNew York Philharmonic の定期演奏会場でもあるのですが，そのshoe box 型で，４階建て，２６９８人収容というのが，音響の点でとりわけ Mostly Morzart で取り上げられるバロックや古典派音楽には不向きで知られていました．

ところが今年は一工夫して，ステージを前に出して，その両脇と後方にも客席を作って，２５００人くらいの収容力は維持して，Bach, Mozart and Mendelssohn にはたいへん好ましい音響を提供したというのです．
これは日本でも余りに細長すぎるオペラ・シティなどでも応用出来るのではないかと考えられますから，ご紹介させて頂きます．

There are many reasons to like Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. But one of the best is its subtle yet crucial transformation of the chronically woeful Avery Fisher Hall, the home base of the festival’s orchestra, which played a program of Bach, Mendelssohn and Mozart on Tuesday evening, led by Andrew Manze, making his festival debut.

The intimacy of Baroque and classical music, which makes up most of the ensemble’s summer repertory, projects in the big shoe box of Avery Fisher only with difficulty. So Mostly Mozart cleverly pulls the stage closer to most of the audience, adding a few rows of seating on either side of it and a large section behind.

The result is far more immersive than usual for the hall, an experience closer to that of Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and other great music spaces of the 21st century. It is a rough model for what Avery Fisher could be after its long hoped for, perpetually deferred renovation.

ここでは，長年待ち望まれてきたAvery Fisher Hall の改装のおおよそのモデルになるとまで述べています．

プログラムは，
Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3
Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor　Stephen Hough played the solo part
Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony
だったようです．

In Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony the orchestra was focused and bright. In the fourth movement there is an unexpected series of crazily chromatic chords; but in this performance, given the vibrancy of what had preceded it, it seemed utterly natural. The audience was ready for anything under Mr. Manze’s exciting direction.

と，ジュピター交響曲の終楽章で音をミスった点についても，in this performance, given the vibrancy of what had preceded it, it seemed utterly natural. と音をミスったことまで，許容範囲だとして，演奏会の好演を評価しています．

 

 

Music Review

Melodies, Immersive and Vibrant

Mostly Mozart Festival with Stephen Hough and Andrew Manze

By ZACHARY WOOLFE

Published: August 22, 2012

There are many reasons to like Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. But one of the best is its subtle yet crucial transformation of the chronically woeful Avery Fisher Hall, the home base of the festival’s orchestra, which played a program of Bach, Mendelssohn and Mozart on Tuesday evening, led by Andrew Manze, making his festival debut.

Ruby Washington/The New York Times
Intimate encounter: Andrew Manze leading the Mostly Mozart orchestra in his festival debut Tuesday night at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall.

The intimacy of Baroque and classical music, which makes up most of the ensemble’s summer repertory, projects in the big shoe box of Avery Fisher only with difficulty. So Mostly Mozart cleverly pulls the stage closer to most of the audience, adding a few rows of seating on either side of it and a large section behind.

The result is far more immersive than usual for the hall, an experience closer to that of Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and other great music spaces of the 21st century. It is a rough model for what Avery Fisher could be after its long hoped for, perpetually deferred renovation.

The festival orchestra and its music director, Louis Langrée, have responded to this setup with playing of polish and flair in recent seasons. On Tuesday the performance was shining and tight, responsive and lively but never exaggerated.

Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D featured coppery solos from the concertmaster, Ruggero Allifranchini, including in the famous Air. In the fourth-movement Bourrée, Mr. Manze brought out the dotted rhythm in the winds that lies under the flowing passagework in the upper strings, one of many occasions when he emphasized inner lines without distorting the larger phrases.

Stephen Hough played the solo part in Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor with intensity in its virtuosic passages and a willingness to restrain his sound within the orchestral textures.

In the first movement the pianist has a short duet of sorts with the cello section, then plays a series of grand chords before repeating the melody alone. Mr. Hough handled the chords with strength and delicacy, as if gently moving the cellos aside.

At a preconcert recital he played the New York premiere of his own 2010 “Sonata for Piano (broken branches).” A pianist-composer is nothing new, but Mr. Hough is also part of a generation of artists schooled in social media; he is active on Twitter and writes a clever, illuminating blog on the Web site of The Daily Telegraph. (There, in a characteristically witty and true moment, he recently described Ravel’s “immaculately tailored suits, his fastidious cleanliness repelling intimacy — the love that dare not tweak his mane.”)

In Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony the orchestra was focused and bright. In the fourth movement there is an unexpected series of crazily chromatic chords; but in this performance, given the vibrancy of what had preceded it, it seemed utterly natural. The audience was ready for anything under Mr. Manze’s exciting direction.