REVIEW: Salonen Steers German Engineering Toward the Stars
Above: Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the New York Philharmonic. Photo by Chris Lee.
November 7, 2019
By Brian Taylor
Esa-Pekka Salonen is not only one of the today’s most sought-after conductors, but one of our most exciting composers of new orchestral music. This week he brings both of his talents to the New York Philharmonic, where he served as composer-in-residence 2015-2018. The New York premiere of Salonen’s new Gemini anchors a high-energy program bookended by thrilling, too-rarely heard music of Hindemith.
Salonen bounds on stage with enviable vigor. His opening set, Hindemith’s Ragtime (Well-Tempered) — surprisingly, the New York premiere of the German composer’s winking 1921 paraphrase of Bach’s C Minor Fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier — followed immediately by Schoenberg’s alternately colorful and leaden orchestrations of two Bach Chorale Preludes, is admirable for creativity of concept, if more enticing on paper than in reality.
Salonen pilots a great ride with the Philharmonic; the orchestra responds to his enthusiasm with sensitivity and horsepower. He conveys almost manic creativity, ease in front of the public, and an ability to connect the audience’s experience to the music. Introducing his newest composition, he had the low brass section illustrate the “post-grunge” bass line he heard in a Paris restaurant and found so obsessive he scrawled it on a napkin (“paper, not linen…”). It became the germ of the piece.
Gemini pairs two movements named after the mythological twins Pollux and Castor. Salonen’s music might be described as minimalism-adjacent — a kaleidoscopic canvas of churning harmonic textures. But, labels do not suffice nor matter. Ingeniously orchestrated, this is scoring of Stravinsky-like mastery. The orchestra assails the nervous, dense rhythms, and dynamic harmonies with a sense of adventure. I came away with a vague sense of the skeleton or structure of what we heard — more a shapeless, at times dizzying journey through light and color. Magenta and green.
The last time the Philharmonic performed Hindemith’s Symphony, Mathis der Maler was on tour in Hong Kong in 2002. It’s a shame that Hindemith, best remembered for his sonatas for almost every instrument, doesn’t appear more often in concert halls. This symphony from 1934 of instrumental ideas related to his opera inspired by sixteenth century German painter Matthias Grünewald, contains as much visceral and intellectual pleasure as anything Hindemith’s peers composed.
Under Salonen’s visionary baton, the Philharmonic takes Hindemith’s masterpiece of vertical and linear engineering for a gripping joyride. The woodwind section is in top form, and the brass section soars in the third movement’s gleaming final chords. The program is repeated Tuesday, November 12 at David Geffen Hall, and not to be missed.
Photo by Chris Lee.
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