I went to hear the Berlin Philharmonic perform at Carnegie Hall. The first piece was Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances". Normally, I would avoid Rachmaninoff; the Symphonic Dances did indeed have their moments of syrupy movie music and the inevitable Dies Irae, but Rattle brought out some of the quirkier rhythmic transitions and orchestral textures to make it more interesting. And when was the last time you heard an long alto saxophone solo in a work performed by an orchestra like the Berlin Philharmonic?
The chief attraction was, however, Stravinsky's "Firebird", in the complete original version, with its huge orchestra (3 harps, 6 trumpets, etc.) I know this piece rather well, since I once arranged it for a chamber orchestra, so I was eager to here the original orchestration as played by an orchestra of the caliber of the Berlin Philharmonic, as conducted by Simon Rattle. And it really was awesome; I can't imagine ever hearing it sound better. All of the wonderful details of Stravinsky's elaborate orchestration were beautifully clear, and the precision and vigor of the fast sections knocked me out. The piece does have its weaknesses as a concert work; there is quite a bit of meandering, mimetic music which is there for the ballet scenario, but doesn't really function that well as concert music. If you know the original ballet, every detail of the scenario is right there in the music. (A practice that Stravinsky abhorred, and would soon avoid rigorously. Mimesis being a common fault of inexperienced dance composers; I did some very embarrassing things in my early days.) The Infernal Dance was taken at an very fast clip, and the accents were razor sharp, sending a real jolt to my body. And the grand chords at the end were magnificently loud in Carnegie Hall's radiant acoustic. Ear candy!
