New Esa-Pekka Salonen Cello Concerto @ The NYPhil

[allenh]

Last night I attended the NY Premier of the Salonen Cello Concerto with the NY Phil. Gilbert conducting (though Salonen was in attendance and spoke about the piece while the orchestra was setting up), with Yo-Yo Ma on cello. Have to say, it was a very unusual nouveau piece that introduced looping (yes looping) and surround sound in a Concerto. After the piece was over, I looked around and saw the surround speakers setup on the sides and the back of the hall. There was a sound box in one corner of the hall, I presume doing the looping for Yo-Yo. Really enjoyed the first two movements, the last being a bit eclectic for my taste, but interesting just the same. It was definitely enjoyable to see Yo-Yo build up a huge sweat during the last frantic movement. If you are looking for something different, check out this Salonen Concerto some time!

Here's a story by the NY Times about the piece:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/a...-concerto.html


Some photos from the evening:




You can see the surround speakers they installed at each level of the hall.

[MylesBAstor]

Ha! One of my clients who is a semi-professional violinist was just telling me about the concert. She said the Esa-Pekka Salonen piece was stupendous!

[allenh]

My wife and I really enjoyed the first two movements. The last movement was, er, interesting...

[MylesBAstor]

My wife and I really enjoyed the first two movements. The last movement was, er, interesting...

That was the amplifier section?

[astrotoy]

Of course, its going to be difficult to judge now, whether this is a great concerto or not. We need a little distance, especially if the harmonies are not from the standard tonal palette that we have become used to. After all Beethoven's most popular symphony through his entire life was his first symphony. And now most people would rank it at or near the bottom in popularity today. We heard the new Mason Bates Cello Concerto a few weeks ago, played by the Berkeley Symphony. It is very tonal - quite immediately accessible and a crowd pleaser. However, I don't know whether it will be regard like Manfredini or Salieri rather than Vivaldi or Mozart with the perspective of time.

Allen, at least you can tell your grandchildren you were there at the premiere, if it turns out to be a great concerto.

Larry

[allenh]

Interesting you say that Larry. Salonen pointed out that he had the cello hit B+, which he noted was probably the highest register you can get a cello to play it (symbolism for some entity breaking out of its boundary). Have to say, was unusual to hear a cello hit that note.

Larry, was the cello drowned out by the rest of the orchestra sometimees? It seemed to happen every now and then with the Salonen piece. You can see Ma playing, but his notes barely came through.

The John Adams piece, a composer Gilbert seems to favor, was excellent. Will look to purchase a recording of that when available. And Symphonie Fantastique never sounded so good on my system! Overall a great night!

[astrotoy]

Allen, sounds like a very interesting program. John Adams is, I believe, by far the most popular classical composer alive. He lives in the Bay Area and almost always attends concerts where his pieces are performed, which is quite frequently, so we see him fairly often, coming up to acknowledge the applause for his pieces. He was a couple of years behind me in college and I saw him conduct one of the Harvard orchestras when he was a sophomore. I lived in Adams House which was named after his namesakes, the two John Adams who were presidents and Harvard grads. But he didn't live there. (BTW, both Alan Gilbert and Yo-Yo ma went to Harvard also - probably all a coincidence). The piece you heard came from the opera he wrote, "Nixon in China", which was recorded some time ago. I think the excerpt you heard, "The Chairman Dances" is probably the most popular part.

Not sure what a B+ is on a cello. The top string of a cello is an A, but, of course, one can play extremely high notes if you go way up near the bridge on the A string.

Take care, Larry