The New York Philharmonic and Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker

I went to hear the opening program of the NY Philharmonic's new season under the new conductor of the orchestra, Jaap van Zweden.    I was curious to hear the new work by Ashley Fure, who "opera for objects" entitled "The Force of Things" I heard during the summer at Mostly Mozart.   I like Fure's work; she is an interesting composer.    The pieces I heard resembled in some ways the Ligeti sounds of the late 60's (think 2001), but with a more contemporary spin.   I was intrigued to learn that Fure has an academic pedigree, with a doctorate from Harvard and studies with European composers like Lachenman and Fernyhough.   In fact, she sounds a bit more European both in her music and in her conceptual underpinnings.   (I have occasionally made the broad generalization that if you are a European composer, you better have your philosophy chops in order, whereas if you are American, you better have your pop music references down pat.)  
The piece had a nice surround effect, with 15 singers with megaphones spread throughout the hall, and three amplified soloists on platforms, in addition to the orchestra.   Dissonant clouds of sound echoed and reverberated around the hall, and there was sufficient variety to keep my ears intrigued.
The Fure piece was followed by Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, with Russian star pianist Daniel Trifinov at the piano.   I must confess the I think Geffen Hall is too large for Beethoven orchestras; much of the detail of the sound gets lost in the reverberations in the hall (this also depends on where you are sitting).   I enjoyed the performance because it is one of my favorite pieces, but the performance seemed routine to me.
The Beethoven was followed by the Rite of Spring.   I have heard the orchestra under Alan Gilbert play this piece twice in the last few years, and both times I have been totally impressed by the orchestra and Gilbert's sense of the dynamics and momentum of the piece.   This time I was not so impressed.   Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy the performance.  There is always something new to be heard in Stravinsky's music.   But I didn't feel the same sense of forward momentum and direction that I heard in Gilbert's performances.   At the end, van Zweden did an orchestral encore, the "Ride of the Valkyries".  I was appalled.



We also saw and heard a new work by the choreographer Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker at the Park Avenue Armory entitled  "The Six Brandenburg Concertos".    Yes, she choreographed all six of them, set to a live performance by the Belgian early music group the B'Rock Orchestra.   This was a two hour work, with no intermission, set on a huge circular stage in the cavernous armory.   It might have been the largest dance stage I have ever seen.   It was a thrilling and engrossing work, though not without its problems.   Keersmaeker has a very particular aesthetic which is both austere and minimalist in some ways.   But I found that once I adjusted to the aesthetic, I was totally involved.  Keersmaeker is very musical, and I found myself thinking of Balanchine many times, especially in the subtle ways in which she plays with and against the music.   I felt she truly inhabited the spirit of Bach's music, and was constantly marveling at her constant inventiveness and imagination, in the same way I admire Bach.   Patterns of movement were repeated and varied, recombined and juxtaposed with the music in different ways.
There is also of kind of quirkiness  to her choreography.   At some points, she focuses on the subtle variations in the ways in which people walk; and then suddenly, there were two people waking a real live dog.  (Animals always steal the show.)
The musical performances were mostly excellent, though, unfortunately, the sound of a small baroque orchestra gets totally muddled in the vast acoustic space of the armory.   And, I think, the idea of doing all six of the concerti at once is ultimately too much.  I wonder if Bach meant them to all be performed as a set?

Here's the stage:

We went to hear the NY Philharmonic perform the world premiere of a work by Louis Andriessen, a Dutch composer I whose work I like.  Unfortunately, the work was pretty much a disappointment;  it seemed quite ordinary, without Andriessen's characteristic rhythmic vitality and brash sounds.  I almost felt it could have been written in the 1930's.  Though perhaps another hearing would reveal more.
For once, the program made musical sense, Andreessen's work being followed by two Stravinsky pieces, the Violin Concerto and the Symphonies of Wind Instruments.   I've heard the Violin Concerto many times recently as it is done by the NYC Ballet.  It was nice to hear a true world-class violin soloist, Leila Josefowicz, play it.   Josefowicz is nothing if not an expressive violinist; she puts her heart and soul into every note.  In the case of the Stravinsky, it seemed a bit much at times.
Both the performances of the Stravinsky works were adequate, but certainly not superlative.   The performance of the last work, though, Debussy's "La Mer", was extraordinarily good; for the first time in two concerts, I felt that van Zweden was a very good conductor.   All of the wonderful nuances that make Debussy's music work were there, and the orchestral playing was superb.   I went home happy, though I am not too sure how well van Zweden will do in New York.   Though I have been known to complain about conductors and the like talking too much to the audience, I was surprised that van Zweden didn't take up the chance to have either of the composers speak about their work before their premieres.