Friday December 6th, 2013 - Richard Goode (above) was the soloist in the Mozart Piano Concerto #18 tonight at the New York Philharmonic. Works by Thomas Adès and Felix Mendelssohn completed the programme.
Three Studies from Couperin (2006) reflect upon Thomas Adès's stated favorite pastime of playing Couperin on the harpsichord. Adès is not the first composer to draw inspiration from the music of Francois Couperin: we have Ravel's marvelous Tombeau de Couperin which led to the masterful Balanchine ballet of the same title. It seemed to me that the Adès score would make a fine dancework in the right choreographic hands: its courtly feeling invites dance. Musically it is all about textures as Adès very gently intrudes on the Couperin originals with subtle harmonic overlays whilst in the meantime preserving the melodic and rhythmic structures of the French composer. I especially loved the use of horns in the second movement.
Richard Goode was on peak form for the Mozart concerto; the pianist is a master of grace, and his light, silky fingering made the scale passages and the intricate curlicues of the cadenza ripple off the keyboard with a silvery sheen. In the central andante, pianist and orchestra brought a calm eloquence to the music which seemed to hold the audience under a spell. Throughout the concerto, Goode and Zinman maintained a stylish rapport: a joyful performance.
Felix Mendelssohn visited Scotland in 1829 and was inspired to write his third symphony after exploring the Scoottish countryside. The work is dedicated to Queen Victoria; it is well-known to ballet-goers in Balanchine's setting: Scotch Symphony, though Balanchine did not use the symphony's first movement for his ballet. There are no literal references to Scottish folk music in the score, but rather it seems an expansive embrace by the composer of a place that clearly made a deep impression on him.
Mr. Zinman and the Philharmonic gave a very polished performance, venturing from the swift dance-like scherzo to the burnished lyrisicm and somewhat wistful quality of the grandeur of the adagio cantabile and the imposing grandeur of the final maestoso with evident appreciation for the composer's melodic mastery. Individual voices - bassoon, horn, oboe - were woven into the tapestry of sound in this rich and pleasing rendition.