Lately, I can’t stop posting about music, it seems. But this is time-sensitive. Via Marc van Bree, I just discovered that the CSO has free broadcasts of its concerts up on its website. Yo-Yo Ma playing Dvorak’s Cello Concerto and Betti Xiang playing the Butterfly Lovers’ Concerto (on gaohu instead of violin) are still available for listening until Apr 24. I am not a fan of the Butterfly Lovers’ Concerto, but it does sound good on the gaohu. With the violin it sounds like some Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto wannabe, with pretentious Orientalism thrown in to boot. The gaohu makes it sound much more natural, and the CSO does a surprisingly good job of not sounding like a Western orchestra trying to play Chinese music. OK, I’ll be more generous. The part near the end, where the strings come in gently with the main theme after the turmoil has died down, is done with just the right touch and flavour — it actually gave me goosebumps. If a recording of that performance is released, it’ll be the first “Chinese” music I’ll actually consider purchasing. The Dvorak concerto is a competent performance, but I still prefer Rostropovich’s. There isn’t cellist alive today who can match Rostropovich at his peak. My favourite moment in the first movement is not a cello part, but the horn solo that introduces the second subject. I always look forward to that, but Dale Clevenger (whom I assume was the principal that night) gave a rather, um, bland rendition. Maybe it’s just the acoustics. I haven’t yet found a horn solo to beat the Berlin Philharmonic’s principal’s in the Rostropovich/BP/von Karajan recording. Ma gets a little out of tune near the end of the finale, where all the high notes occur. Positives: The flute (Mathieu Dufour?) is gorgeous in the second movement. The last movement is as good as Rostropovich’s. The cello’s “dialogue” with the clarinet there is amazing; I’d never taken particular notice of that part before listening to this performance.
It’s great to be able to listen to a world-class orchestra for free without doing it illegally on YouTube. Definitely worth sitting through the annoying BP advertisements. That’s British Petroleum, not the Berlin Philharmonic.
May 4, 2007 at 11:46 am |
Is it Seifert playing principal in the Karajan recording? That ‘dialogue’ you mention is, I think, quite clear in the historic Casals recording with the Czech Philharmonic, my own favorite. Thanks for passing along the tip about CSO performances online.
May 4, 2007 at 11:57 am |
Another thought. I had a front row seat in Sanders Theater for what I believe was the first meeting between Ma and Rostropovich, a master class which R. gave at Harvard, just after he had won amnesty to stay permanently in the US. (He was in town in fact to perform the Dvorak with the BSO.) Everyone who knew Yo-Yo from the Harvard musical scene expected him to overawe R. Not so. Yo-Yo’s piece was the Dvorak, and, after he played his first excerpt, the opening bars for the cello from the concerto, R. tore up his playing relentlessly! This was surprising, because to my ears, and I think to everyone else’s, Yo-Yo’s playing seemed flawless. And yet it *could* be improved in all of the ways that R pointed out!
May 4, 2007 at 1:43 pm |
The CD notes give no clue as to who was principal. As for Ma and Rostropovich: I can completely believe that, having watched (on video) a masterclass where Barenboim tore up Lang Lang’s playing. LL couldn’t get more than a few bars at a stretch without being halted for criticism. I would say Lang Lang is more obviously raw than Ma, though.