Yes, this blog is about lots of different things. Sometimes it will be about music, usually a review of a concert or other musical event. This one is about the Thursday, June 6, 2019 Chicago Symphony concert at Orchestra Hall.
Last night at the Chicago Symphony concert we saw guest conductor Simone Young lead the CSO in the Liszt tone poem “Prometheus,” Orchestral Excerpts from Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung” and Schoenberg’s orchestration of the Brahms G minor Piano Quartet No. 1.
Young is a most animated conductor, expressive, and sure in her direction. She clearly enjoyed working with this excellent band.
The uncommonly played Liszt “Prometheus” was, well, Lisztian.
The Wagner. Yes. That. Neither my wife nor I could be counted as Wagner fans, but we sat back to listen, hoping for enlightenment. About 1/3 of the way through, I thought, “I kind of like this.” Then it went on. And on. And repeated itself. And then it went on. I couldn’t wait for this throwback to sturm und drang to end. After it was over, I said to Judith, “Wagner says in 26 minutes what any other composer would say in 15.” I would, were I a different person, say, “Sorry, Wagner fans.” But I’m not and I won’t. He is a musical blatherer. That Liszt and Wagner were close collaborators (until a certain family episode) does not detract from Liszt.
There was, though, the use of the Wagner Tuba, a Wagner invention that is a sort of cross between a French horn and a regular tuba. It adds a throaty resonance to the brass which would have been quite delightful in some other piece by some other composer. But I digress.
The Brahms/Schoenberg is one of the conversion/orchestrations Schoenberg did to help himself make a living. He was really very good at this, and he did a wonderful job of dis-integrating (hyphen intentional) the piano part of this composition and redistributing it in various voices: strings, woodwinds and, especially, the brass. This is a powerful piece seldom played by the CSO. It proved very much worth their time and effort.
Some have said of the Brahms chamber work that the piano completely overwhelms the other instruments, a problem that Schoenberg solved, at least as I heard it, brilliantly. Young made the work cohesive and very exciting, showing great attention (visibly with her left hand) to the singular contributions of each orchestral section while making it flow to a stunning climax.
I was saddened that there were so many empty seats in the hall. The patrons who might have filled those seats missed a fine performance of at least two works (the Liszt and the Brahms/Schoenberg) they might not have the opportunity to hear again for decades.
Australia native Simone Young is an increasingly sought after conductor. The CSO “Sounds and Stories” piece about her says:
Although Australian conductor Simone Young is rooted in both the operatic and symphonic worlds, she got her start as a répétiteur (coach-accompanist) and remains most closely connected to that realm. “My first love is still the opera, and I have a long and very happy relationship with a few of Europe’s major opera houses,” she said. “So I spend probably about four or five months a year doing opera, and the rest is now doing concerts.”
Young, 58, is particularly noted as a specialist in the operatic music of Wagner and Richard Strauss and has led several complete performances of “The Ring” at the Berlin State Opera, Hamburg State Opera and Vienna State Opera. She also feels a closeness to those composers’ symphonic counterparts like Bruckner and Mahler, as well as the composers of the Second Viennese School, including Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern.
We look forward to future appearances of this exciting conductor.
© Edmund J. McDevitt
June, 2019