It's always dramatic when there's a cancellation and replacement as there was this afternoon at Carnegie Hall. But all went well, and mezzo Michelle DeYoung gave a strong performance of Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder after having taken the place of ailing Eva Maria Westbroek. This piece followed the powerful Tannhauser Overture. It was the second time within a week that I had seen Semyon Bychkov conduct the orchestra, and he showed terrific command of the huge number of instruments (125 - 150) required for the Strauss in the second half.
As for Eine Alpensinfonie itself, it's the ultimate self indulgence for any composer to create a piece so extravagantly decadent. It was written between 1911 and 1915, according to the program notes, which would have been immediately before and after the outbreak of World War I. Did Strauss sense the cataclysm about to engulf Germany? After this piece, Stauss never again attempted a heroic tone poem. This may have partly been due to a change in focus from orchestral music to opera, but I suspect he must also have realized there was no longer a place in Europe for such narcissistic music as he had previously composed.
In other news related to the orchestra, The New York Times reported last week on its front page that James Levine would return for the May 19 concert at Carnegie Hall. Levine is an incredible conductor, and I've been lucky to have seen him conduct at the Met many times over the past decades. He's 69 now, but hopefully has many productive years ahead.
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