REVIEW: Labèque Sisters Join Sensuous and Boisterous NY Phil
Above photo by Chris Lee.
November 30, 2023
A week ago, composer and guitarist Bryce Dessner appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as member of the rock band The National. And this week, the New York Philharmonic gave the local premiere of his 2017 concert work Concerto for Two Pianos, composed expressly for the glamorous piano duo of Katia and Marielle Labèque.
Dessner’s Concerto formed the sensuous core of the evening, bookended by Don Juan, Richard Strauss’s 1888 symphonic poem “After a Poem by Nicholas Lenau,” and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, Op. 45. Semyon Bychkov was a beacon on the podium, emanating a love for the music. With a floating stance, and the hypnotic assurance of a wizard conjuring a spell, Bychkov extracted luxuriant playing from the musicians, suffusing David Geffen Hall with tidy sumptuousness.
Photo by Chris Lee
Don Juan, a youthful work, is German fin de siècle at its most ecstatic, like Wagner on coke. Bychkov tempered Strauss’s swashbuckling virility and high-wire anxiety by slyly revealing a composer wearing his heart belligerently on his sleeve. There was steely vulnerability in the score’s violin solos, and a sincere, sustained oboe solo channeled the proverbial mistress Donna Anna. The Philharmonic brass supplied muscular nobility in the work’s rousing climax.
This alacritous reading was plush and polished, like an epic nineteenth-century oil painting. Bychkov seemed to emphasize the broader emotions in the piece, even if more pin-prick detail and intricate drama might have been mined from the score’s nooks and crannies. But the Maestro’s broad-strokes approach proved more convincingly persuasive in music with less maximalist qualities.
The Labèque sisters are superstars in the world of duo piano, and Dessner’s Concerto for Two Pianos is an important addition to the limited repertoire featuring two solo pianos and orchestra. Consistent with the current Zeitgeist’s flavor de jour, Dessner’s aural tapestry is a close relative of the output of post-minimalist John Adams (with Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring contributing ancestral DNA).
Dessner’s approach to writing for two pianos versus orchestra (plus ample percussion) is almost concerto grosso: the paired pianists provide more in the way of glue and texture than melody. His harmony is familiarly tonal, but he relishes dissonance and tension, and dances with a visceral rhythmic playfulness. He seems to enjoy turning harmonies upside down, and bouncing them around, examining how they reflect light.
Photo by Chris Lee
The three continuous abstract movements could be an emotional underscore for modern life’s anxieties. The Labèque sisters, a force of nature dazzling in colorfully iridescent gowns, deftly navigated the athletic piano parts, volleying and taking punches at their keyboards, like tennis champions on the court.
Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances might have seemed old-fashioned at its 1941 premiere, but tonight it proved more lasting than its critics. The first movement, Non-allegro, begins with portentious pulses that build into an earthy, machinelike bop until the beat relents into lush lyricism. In the second theme, Bychkov stirred the contrasting ingredients — syrupy string melodies peppered with flowery piano and harp counterpoint — into an intoxicating brew.
The alto saxophone solo lacked the warmth of vibrato, but in the second movement, Andante con Moto (Tempo di valse), triumphant solos abounded, especially from the double reeds. Acidic chords in the brass section were biting and perfectly tuned as the tempestuous waltz built to dizzying heights, and the percussion section was tightly supportive in the scintillating finale. Bychkov sculpted a ravishing, agile take on Rachmaninoff’s dances that seemed to have the Philharmonic musicians hearing each other better than ever before.
Photo by Chris Lee
***
Next week at the New York Philharmonic:
