Word: brasses
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...concert was closed with Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra (1943), an alternately morose and satirical exploration of the space of the modern orchestra. The first movement began peremptorily, and gradually built to a climax of off beats and brass reminiscent of Holst...
...second movement offered the sharp contrast of a defective military drumbeat followed by a quirky bassoon solo. In a mix of styles, the muted trumpets that became a favorite of Shostakovich were soon followed by a deep brass hymnal that brought the listener back to Brahms. Here, the Philharmonic's brass section finally showed its depth...
Similarities to Shostakovich also spread into the third movement, where a two-note third was the subject of extensive development. Isolated events in the winds, often based upon a motif of rolling scales up and down, set off punctuation in the brass and strings. At the tranquil end of the movement, the drumbeat returned with a soft flute trill. The wind soloists were all more than competent...
...walking tempo that gathered speed and supported a whimsical clarinet solo inevitably finished in an abrupt minor cadence to start the fourth movement. (This is Bartok, after all.) Throughout the third and fourth movements, Mehta conducted from soloist to soloist in the winds and brass. He often adjusted the meter of his baton strokes to fit the parts that became a continuous string--a real concerto for an orchestra...
...fifth movement, the strings made it clear that they could play off the winds more easily than the brass that sometimes seemed altogether incongruous. The violins did display incredible volume control, slowly ascending to the finale. Mehta became more animated, cutting circles from the air to cue the violin pizzacati. Mehta did not use his left hand, though, until the very end, when the Bartok brought the full magnitude of the orchestra into being...