nothin Philharmonia Doles Out Romantic Justice | New Haven Independent

Philharmonia Doles Out Romantic Justice

Bob Handelman Photo

Oundjian.

The Yale Philharmonia returns to the template of two contrasting masterpieces and a novelty this Friday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m. in Woolsey Hall, with a lineup of exceptional appeal.

The evening will end with my favorite composer’s greatest symphony, Johannes Brahms’s Fourth Symphony. In a recent conversation, Philharmonia conductor Peter Oundjian shared my enthusiasm for the piece. The Fourth reaches an unfathomable level of beauty and purity,” he said.

Beauty is a description much art merits; purity is another, rarer matter, especially in the works of the Romantic era. Brahms achieves it because he was at heart a craftsman, and by the time he wrote this final symphony had honed his art to its essence. For all its drama, the emotion is strictly controlled, growing in power because it is channeled by form.

The contrasting masterpiece to the Brahms is a magnificent piano concerto by Sergei Prokofiev, a modern giant from a different tradition. This Russian composer can sometimes seem a little facile, but his second piano concerto is as profound as it is challenging.

Prokofiev can really dig into his soul,” said Oundjian, and he does in this concerto.”

The solo part, entrusted to the young Chinese pianist Yang Liu, is among the most difficult in the concerto repertory. Both the first and last of the four movements feature an extensive and challenging cadenza for solo piano, and the writing throughout requires the leaps and hand-crossings that are so exciting to see executed.

The novelty on the program is novel indeed, a piece just two years old, by a man who will be in the audience: The Way It Goes, by Yale faculty member Martin Bresnick. The title is taken from lines in a Bertolt Brecht play, The Exception to the Rule:

When people say: that’s the way it goes”
Recognize injustice.
And where you find injustice
Find a remedy!

In the Brecht play, a wealthy businessman shoots his unarmed servant but is acquitted because he felt himself threatened. The music wordlessly follows the story, focusing particularly on the trial and its aftermath.

It’s important for all of us to hear new sounds,” Oundjian said. Martin Bresnick wrote me to say that he’d premiered a piece he was really happy with. Composers of course are always proud of their work, but they sometimes feel something special had happened, and that was the case with this piece.”

According to Oundjian, the variety of programming on display Friday is a natural consequence of the Philharmonia’s role as a teaching orchestra.

The students are there for just two or three years, playing seven or eight concerts a year,” Oundjian explained. We want to expose them to many different styles. Fortunately, that goes hand in hand with variable, eclectic, challenging programming.”

The Philharmonia’s high quality is a result in part of its generous practice schedule. We generally do six full rehearsals,” said Oundjian. The normal schedule of North American orchestras is four. It’s wonderful to spend this time building the sound of the orchestra.”

Asked about the difference between the top-flight professional orchestras he usually conducts and this great student ensemble, his answer was tactful but honest. It can be much more difficult to get the attention of a professional orchestra,” he said. With these great students, everything the conductor suggests is absorbed, not ever resisted.”

In an ideal world,” Oundjian added, we should always play with the same love that brought us to music in the first place.”

Tags:

Sign up for our morning newsletter

Don't want to miss a single Independent article? Sign up for our daily email newsletter! Click here for more info.


Post a Comment

Commenting has closed for this entry

Comments

There were no comments