A Visit to Lincoln Center (Part 1 of 2)

Two recent evenings found us at Lincoln Center (pictured below).  We ventured there for music, then for dance.

Lincoln Center:  The David H. Koch Theater, The Metropolitan Opera House, David Geffen Hall (left to right)

The Revson Fountain in the plaza was lovely on the evening of our visit.

The New York Philharmonic:

Lincoln Center:  David Geffen Hall (exterior), home of the New York Philharmonic

Lincoln Center:  David Geffen Hall (interior)

The New York Philharmonic is a great symphony orchestra currently led by native New Yorker Alan Gilbert, Music Director.  The Philharmonic performs at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall, formerly Avery Fisher Hall.  

On the evening we attended, the Philharmonic performed three pieces.  The first was Jean Sibelius' Violin Concerto (rev. 1905), with violin virtuoso Leonidas Kavakos.  Put simply, Mr. Kavakos has skills.  The second piece was Dmitri Shostakovich, Suite from The Age of Gold (1930), wonderfully performed by the Philharmonic.  

The third and final piece was the kind of work that makes you consider leaving during intermission.  The Philarmonic's composer in residence Esa-Pekka Salonen created an original work Karawane, based on a Dada-ist poem by German writer Hugo Ball.  In the spirit of the Dada-ist movement and its principle tenet of meaninglessness, the 1916 poem is complete nonsense and has been named "sound poetry".  See below.  (For a reading of the poem, click here.  If you prefer a reading by Marie Osmond, click here.)

Naturally, the work was a choral composition.  With open minds and steely resolve, we returned following intermission to hear the Philharmonic play the original composition, accompanied by a 100-voice choir.  

Karawane, by Hugo Ball (1916), adapted as lyrics for Karawanre by Esa-Pekka Salonen (2016)

Hugo Ball reading Karawane in 1916.  Mr. Ball was apparently an early performance artist.  If the costume seems meaningless and nonsensical, then you are perceptive and you understand Dadaism.

Our "it can't be that bad" resolve was rewarded.  While the singing was unintelligible, it was melodic and beautiful, sort of like listening to a foreign-language opera.  The music was modern symphony at its best.  We thought we heard themes borrowed from West Side Story and modern Jazz.  Before the performance, the composer explained that he let the nonsense words of the poem rattle around inside his head until they coalesced into the music he composed.  He also mentioned he composed some of the music in the shower.  Who knew?  Did Beethoven compose while bathing?

A note about the conductor.  The conductor Alan Gilbert is not one of those stiff, nearly motionless conductors.  Instead, every part of his body gets into the act.  During the performance's more rambunctious moments, he was a hip-swiveling, gesticulating demon--a veritable Tasmanian Devil of the Warner Brothers genus.  He was the type of conductor who truly plays the orchestra to create something more than the music on the page.  Before he leaves the Philharmonic next year, he is a sight worth beholding.

NY Philharmonic conductor Alan Gilbert in action

The Tasmanian Devil.  A wannabe conductor?

Next up:  Part 2, Paul Taylor's American Modern Dance.