5/5 New York Philharmonic 1999 Opening Concert - Kurt Masur, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5, Movts 1 & 2

Описание: Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64
00:00 Valse. Allegro moderato
06:32 Finale: Andante maestoso – Allegro vivace – Meno mosso
Kurt Masur, conductor
New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center - New York, NY
September 25, 1999 / PBS - Live from Lincoln Center

MUSIC REVIEW: Open Arms at Season's Opening Night
By Bernard Holland Sept. 25, 1999

Greeting guests at the door with hard questions is not the New York Philharmonic's idea of hospitality. So Thursday evening's opening of the season at Avery Fisher Hall, a prelude to dining and dancing and a subject of scrutiny by public television, became instead what pop songs of old used to call ''a warm embrace.''

In they came: the dressed, the overdressed, with sprinklings everywhere of the fashion-free. (Hard-core classical music audiences are not known for their elegance.) Symphony subscribers form a kind of club, and given the cries of recognition and well-kissed cheeks, it was clear that old acquaintances were not forgot.

As Mr. Rostropovich orated, Mr. Masur's Philharmonic was scrupulous: a little dry but tender where necessary. The Tchaikovsky, in much the same way, came across as an earnest but loving lecture on sober living, a characteristic this music does not usually advertise. The sternness was tempered by lovely lingering episodes and rescued by the splendid qualities of the orchestra's soloists.

Philip Myers's horn solo in the second movement of the symphony was beautifully done. In both pieces, Glenn Dicterow, violinist, and Stanley Drucker, clarinetist, made lovely contributions.
Thursday night's composers occupied just about parallel life spans, though Tchaikovsky died in 1893 and Dvorak, living a more stable and less tortured life, lasted into the 20th century.

It is matters of temperament that separate these two pieces: the Dvorak, written in 1895, is assured and leisurely, with a horn solo in the first movement so languidly beautiful that it seems to descend from above. (Again the player was Mr. Myers.)

The symphony, finished seven years earlier, is the music of a troubled man unafraid of dramatizing his private turmoils for public consumption. Tchaikovsky predicts 20th-century anxiety. Dvorak celebrates a certitude that we have just about forgotten.