Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – In her exceptional NY PHILHARMONIC debut, conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla firmly leads a program comprised of Schumann, Sibelius, and Šerkšnytė

• By drediman
• October 14, 2023
• No Comments

This past week at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla made an exceptional debut conducting the New York Philharmonic. Before stepping onto the podium to commence the music-making, the Latvian conductor announced to the audience that the forthcoming concert would be dedicated to the horrific events transpiring in Israel.

The program began with De profundis composed by Raminta Šerkšnytė, a Latvian compatriot of Gražinytė-Tyla’s. As the composer’s first work for orchestra, the 1998 work is a precociously mature composition. The New York forces – particularly the strings, which have rarely sounded better – animated Šerkšnytė’s ode to youthful passion and idealism with precision and painterly expression. Then came Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto featuring Daniil Trifonov, one of the classical music world’s superstar pianist. Always the preternaturally gifted technician, Trifonov’s playing has matured wonderfully over the last few years. His performance of the Schumann warhorse was burnished and insightful, forceful without leaning excessively into bravado. The bill ended with three excerpts from Sibelius’s relatively rarely performed Lemminkainen Suite (“Lemminkainen and the Maidens of Island”, “The Swan of Tuonela”, and “Lemminkainen’s Return”). Here, the conductor admirably tempered the cinematic tendencies of Sibelius’s vision of his Finnish folk heritage. The resulting performance was balanced and incisive, channeling the work’s underlying sentimentality in a measured manner.

Throughout, Gražinytė-Tyla led with a firm and confident hand, and the members of the New York Philharmonic responded with lucidity and uncommonly nuanced playing – characteristics far more apparent through the lens of the hall’s vastly improved acoustics. Although it was the Latvian conductor’s first time in the driver’s seat at the Philharmonic, I’m sure it won’t be the last given the quality of the performance.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC
Classical Music
David Geffen Hall
1 hour, 45 minutes (with one intermission)
Closed