Word: orchestras
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Romantic era packed into a nine-minute punch that should simply overwhelm you with its sheer volume of sound and feeling. Sound right? Not if you were Christopher Hogwood and you were directing the Handel and Haydn Society's all-Beethoven concert last Friday. Hogwood's Period Instrument Orchestra presented Beethoven as he would have been heard in the early 1800s, offering the listeners a challenging yet very satisfying way of experiencing his music...
...incidental," as just some minor work, secondary to some greater artistic creation? Modern audiences are so used to hearing this piece by itself, that we forget it was meant to summarize the important themes of a play and to warm up the audience. Even if at times the orchestra's execution lacked a certain precision, Hogwood's interpretation gave credence to the label "overture" and prepared the audience, and the orchestra as well, for the rest of the concert...
...treat, you may want to consider a seat on a bateau-mouche, one of the many boats that cruise the Seine serving up romantic dinners and gorgeous views. Or try to reserve a table at Maxim's, where diners can enjoy a night of dancing with a live orchestra. Warning: a taste of the good life on this particular night could set you back $1,000--and that's before you figure in the hotel bill...
Starting with the downbeat of the first movement of the symphony, though, critique becomes superfluous. Under Cortese's expert, if nervous, direction, the orchestra sailed confidently through the misty opening, the playful hints of the "Ode to Joy" theme to come, the fiery and furious scherzo, the graceful sweeping themes in the violins, the lyrical woodwind solos. The opening movements were filled with as much mystery and grandeur and promise as they ever were...
...third movement as well as the fourth. The audience thundered applause, and paused the symphony for several grateful minutes. Ozawa's direction of the third "slow" movement and the final movement was much more luxurious than Cortese's probably would have been; Ozawa somehow hovered over the orchestra, distilling each phrase into crystalline clarity and infusing his boundless energy into the performers. The Tanglewood Festival Chorus and superb cast of soloists carried the "Ode to Joy" theme to breathtaking heights of expression, and the audience, riveted, thrilled in every moment...