Yale Philharmonia Photo
If a nation’s music matches its cuisine — from Jean Sibelius and chilled vodka to Giuseppe Verdi and marinara sauce — then this Friday is German night at Woolsey Hall, with the Yale Philharmonia serving up meat and potatoes at 7:30 p.m.: just Brahms and Bruckner, which is to say heavy and heavier.
It’s an appropriate pairing but an odd program, with a brief first half limited to two Brahms overtures, then Bruckner’s massive fourth symphony, known as the Romantic and a concert by itself, after intermission.
The Brahms pieces are a perfect match, composed together and displaying both sides of the composer: the serious-minded classicist in the propulsive Tragic Overture, the unbuttoned bon vivant in the Academic Festival.
Four catchy student songs take turns in the latter piece, with the grand graduation song “Gaudeamus igitur” emerging in the end triumphant. In little more than ten minutes, the music moves from reverie and yearning through conflict to triumph. The verve, humor, and good nature of the music have made it a perennial favorite.
Conductor Yongyan Hu.
The Brahms overtures offer steady action but just one real climax each, as one might expect. The Bruckner Romantic reaches climax repeatedly, thrillingly, exhaustingly. From a static and nearly inaudible opening, the first eruption arrives not three minutes into the symphony, with another half-dozen to come in the first movement alone.
Understand I’m not complaining: I like a big bang as much as the next concertgoer. Bruckner uses short, insistent rhythmic patterns and melodic phrases to build, brick by brick, the sustained lines of a vast musical structure. It takes time, and there are quiet stretches when the listener might (as they say) feel left in the cathedral alone.
But a cathedral it is, music of spiritual seriousness which demands patient attention but delivers thrills.
Friday’s concert is a tribute to Otto Werner Mueller, who led the Philharmonia from 1973 to 1987. This reporter saw him many times, with great pleasure; he was the model of a Nordic quester, Max von Sydow but more so — tall, gaunt, and inward. Brahms and Bruckner were at the heart of his work, and the evening’s guest conductor, Yongyan Hu, was a student of his. This has the makings of a memorable concert.
The Yale Philharmonia’s concert of Brahms and Bruckner occurs at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., at 7:30 p.m. Standard tickets range from $10 to $15. To buy tickets and for more information, visit the Philharmonia website.
