Program: Barber - Second Essay for Orchestra, Copland - Billy the Kid Suite, and Bernstein - Symphony No. 2 (The Age of Anxiety).
Not two seconds after maestro Ken-David Masur’s cutoff, a BUTI piano student (whose name will not be mentioned, for the sake of his noble integrity) made a cry that resounded through Ozawa Hall. I don’t think that level of exhilaration was completely merited, but the Tanglewood Music Center (TMC) Orchestra put on a formidable performance.
Masur was masterful, and although I don’t know much about conducting technique, his sweeping figure built an impressive, cohesive orchestra out of people who had not known each other a few weeks previous. He must have put the group through intensive rehearsal to shape the single musical entity that I saw onstage.
Seriously, the TMC ensemble was amazing — on par with many a professional orchestra that I’ve seen. Intonation was practically impeccable, and the orchestra moved together like it had been formed years instead of weeks ago.
I’ve never met a Samuel Barber piece I didn’t like, and the first piece the orchestra played — his Second Essay for Orchestra — is one of my favorites. I felt they did it great justice, and many BUTI students said it was their favorite piece on the program. One percussionist in the Young Artists Orchestra did have a few criticisms, all of which I had missed. “The timpanist was horrible,” he said. “It was very ticky, and he had poor mallet choices. The brass’s dynamic contrasts could’ve been more drastic, too.” The cello section, and all the strings and woodwinds for that matter, were spot on.
My composition student friend and I both agreed — and I don’t know how it’s possible to explain why we felt this way — that the bass drum player during Aaron Copland’s Suite from the ballet “Billy the Kid” was the best we’d ever heard. I mean, how do you determine one good bass drum player from another? For some reason, we just knew. I’d never heard the piece, but I was absolutely blown away; I liked the piece better than any other Copland I’d heard. If you haven’t heard the piece, I’d go seek it out now, while you’re still reading this, so it’s fresh in your mind. There was not one negative comment about the Copland — to my ears it was impeccable.
Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety,” was not at all what I’d expected. I’d never heard the piece in its entirety, so I was surprised when I saw in the program that the piece was written for piano and orchestra, and is divided into two three-section parts as opposed to the traditional symphonic form. Part I begins with a Prologue and flows cleanly into 14 variations on the Prologue’s theme, “The Seven Ages” and “The Seven Stages” respectively. There is a break before Part II, which starts off with a “Dirge” begun as a solo piano tune. This fragile being bursts apart in “The Masque,” during which a bassist goes up to join the pianist in a rollicking and rather unsettling swing feel. The piece ends accordingly, with an insurmountable “Epilogue.”
The pianist was using music, although since it was a long piece (and since the remarkable pianist was a biochemistry major) it was understandable. I’m not the biggest Bernstein fan, but “The Age of Anxiety” made me respect him much more as a composer. The orchestra pulled the piece off, but it was probably the weakest of the three — although one must keep in mind that it was still a fantastic performance, the Bernstein wasn’t without noticeable mistakes.
It’s unbelievable, really, that we all get to see concerts like these — every day, if we want — for free. This concert proved that the center of America’s world of classical music during the summer is right here, in Tanglewood!
Thank you for the contribution Evan!
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