NY Philharmonic Performs Beethoven #5

This article was originally published on February 3, 2013

The NY Philharmonic had a great idea in creating a Saturday matinee series in which one portion of the program was devoted to chamber music while the other was given over to the usual performance of orchestral works. The move not only allowed the audience to listen to their favorite musicians play chamber pieces all too rarely heard, but it also permitted the musicians themselves to express their talent in a different format than the purely orchestral. 

The big problem, though, in having selected members of the orchestra join together on a chamber piece is that they do not possess the requisite experience playing together as a unit. One thinks of the great chamber ensembles such as the Guarneri Quartet, the Beaux Arts Trio and the still extant Juilliard Quartet whose members played together for decades. This is a difficulty the Philharmonic members have easily overcome in the past through their sheer musicianship. But not so yesterday. Throughout Brahms' Sextet No. 2 in G, the musicians played as six individuals rather than as an ensemble. This was particularly unfortunate in a piece requiring total cohesion among its performers in the interaction of the string instruments. The problem may have been exacerbated by a last minute change in personnel which had Lisa Kim sitting in for the absent Marc Ginsberg.

The problem was all the more pronounced at yesterday's concert because the chamber portion of the program followed, rather than preceded, the orchestral portion in which Christoph von Dohnanyi led the orchestra in a rousing performance of Beethoven's Overture to Prometheus and Fifth Symphony. Once again, as at an earlier performance this season of the Fifth by the Juilliard Orchestra, the use of the composer's original metronome markings made the performance much more exciting than it would othewise have been.

Von Dohnanyi's appearance underscored the great problem now confronting many major orchestras. Though the great conductor was as vigorous as ever on the podium, he is now approaching age 84. As the small cadre of excellent conductors still active inexorably ages, there are no new great talents stepping forth to take their place. This has been an especially acute problem for the Philharmonic which has long struggled unsuccessfully to locate a worthy replacement for the late Leonard Bernstein. The lack will be all the more noticeable after next season when the concert master Glenn Dicterow retires. One of the world's greatest violinists, he has been a mainstay of the orchestra and the face of continuity for many years.