Prom 61: Vienna Philharmonic and Andrés Orozco-Estrada 4.09.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:00 Wednesday 4 September 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Antonín Dvorák: The Noonday Witch
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Violin Concerto
Antonín Dvorák: Symphony No 9 in E minor, ‘From the New World’

Leonidas Kavakos violin
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor

Dvořák’s ‘New World’ Symphony, with its wistful slow movement, is the centrepiece of the second concert from the Vienna Philharmonic – a programme of Central European works that showcases the orchestra’s distinctively rich sound. Andrés Orozco-Estrada pairs it with the composer’s colourful, folk-infused tone poem The Noonday Witch, in which a mother’s threats inadvertently summon a witch into her home. Cinematic drama is also a hallmark of Korngold’s richly orchestrated and unashamedly romantic Violin Concerto, performed here by soloist Leonidas Kavakos.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What continues to puzzle me is why this great orchestra makes so few recordings nowadays. There was a time when Decca, CBS (Sony) and DG were fighting over the VPO.

[Barbirollians]

Cost I assume.

[richardfinegold]

The Berlin Philharmonic has done such a great job promoting themselves with a Digital Concert Hall, releasing on vinyl and Blu Ray, etc. The VPO seems not to be adapting to the current environment

[jayne lee wilson]

What a glorious sound in the Dvorak, and what gloriously indulgent fun the Korngold Violin Concerto is, and was especially tonight...Kavakos gave me all I desired in sensual Hollywood gorgeousness.....

"You can see where John Williams got his ideas from".....said Martin Handley.... just so, and what extravagant pleasures the lineage has offered....

If only it were any other Dvorak Symphony next..... long, long ago, the 9th turned me into a classical music fan, but it is beyond the pale of familiarity now....
The exhilarating 6th nearly always comes off brilliantly live, such a wonderful successor to the Brahms 2nd....

[Barbirollians]

What a glorious sound in the Dvorak, and what gloriously indulgent fun the Korngold Violin Concerto is, and was especially tonight...Kavakos gave me all I desired in sensual Hollywood gorgeousness.....

"You can see where John Williams got his ideas from"...said Martin Handley.... just so, and what extravagant pleasures the lineage has offered....

If only it were any other Dvorak Symphony next..... long, long ago, the 9th turned me into a classic music fan, but it is beyond the pale of familiarity now....
The exhilarating 6th nearly always comes off brilliantly live, such a wonderful successor to the Brahms 2nd....

It was a fine New World and sitting in the choir seats one could see what a demonstrative balletic conductor Orozco Estrada is. Full of smiles and gestures for the VPO.

The Korngold definitely the highlight .

[kernelbogey]

What a glorious sound in the Dvorak [...] If only it were any other Dvorak Symphony next..... long, long ago, the 9th turned me into a classical music fan, but it is beyond the pale of familiarity now....

I find the way to overcome this issue, Jayne, is simply to limit my exposure to such works: Schubert 8, Beethoven 3 & 5..... et al.

[cloughie]

What a glorious sound in the Dvorak, and what gloriously indulgent fun the Korngold Violin Concerto is, and was especially tonight...Kavakos gave me all I desired in sensual Hollywood gorgeousness.....

"You can see where John Williams got his ideas from".....said Martin Handley.... just so, and what extravagant pleasures the lineage has offered....

If only it were any other Dvorak Symphony next..... long, long ago, the 9th turned me into a classical music fan, but it is beyond the pale of familiarity now....
The exhilarating 6th nearly always comes off brilliantly live, such a wonderful successor to the Brahms 2nd....

Yes, Jayne, but the New World in anybody’s world is a World Class symphony and there are a many magnificent recordings of it. But I think I understand your viewpoint as there are other great works which I think - no not again - Elgar CC, Sibelius VC ...

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, Jayne, but the New World in anybody’s world is a World Class symphony and there are a many magnificent recordings of it. But I think I understand your viewpoint as there are other great works which I think - no not again - Elgar CC, Sibelius VC ...

Have you heard the original of the Sibelius?

https://www.eclassical.com/performers/kavakos-leonidas/sibelius-violin-concerto-in-d-minor-op47.html

Slow movement almost identical, others with many differences.......It might wake it up for you again....see the notes for details...
(1903/4 Vn Cto is a far more convincing work in its own right than the original 5th Symphony, I feel...)

[jayne lee wilson]

I find the way to overcome this issue, Jayne, is simply to limit my exposure to such works: Schubert 8, Beethoven 3 & 5..... et al.

Absolutely - that worked brilliantly for me in the Schubert 8th - which I now only listen to in the complete form (Venzago or Gottfried, both stunning)...
And with Bruckner, by homing in on original versions etc....
The other thing is always to try new or different recordings.... Mendelssohn Symphonies with JEG/YNS/Gardner have been a terrific thrill for me...

But with the Dvorak 9th, it is probably unredeemable, because of how I got to know it in the first place.... still, place in my heart, etc...

[bluestateprommer]

It was a fine New World and sitting in the choir seats one could see what a demonstrative balletic conductor Orozco Estrada is. Full of smiles and gestures for the VPO.

I wonder if the previous night also had some effect on the 'New World' interpretation, because it struck me as fairly spacious and relaxed in feel, where AO-E avoided obvious hard-driving pyrotechnics in his pacing. Good of him to include the 1st movement repeat :) . AO-E did a fine job leading The Noonday Witch at the start as well. Kavakos was peerless, as always, in both the concerto and the encore.

It says something about the timbre of the VPO that in the Josef Strauss encore, hearing the timpani strokes during the first main theme, clearly with hard sticks, immediately put me back in mind of Karajan's 1987 New Year's Concert reading of the same piece, namely that they sounded just the same, and just so. Evidently, though, some in the audience who tried to clap along didn't realize that "Ohne Sorgen!" is not the Strauss family piece to clap along to in the New Year's Concert. Perhaps Barbirollians can confirm if AO-E did his bit to silence the audience then.

[Master Jacques]

Evidently, though, some in the audience who tried to clap along didn't realize that "Ohne Sorgen!" is not the Strauss family piece to clap along to in the New Year's Concert. Perhaps Barbirollians can confirm if AO-E did his bit to silence the audience then.

Why shouldn't they clap along to Ohne Sorgen? It's a free country, so I'd have thought audiences can clap along to whatever they wish - without necessarily having an encyclopedic knowledge of customs at Vienna's New Year's Concert (a fake institution, by the way, quite as clapped out as the Last Night of the Proms!)

[cloughie]

Absolutely - that worked brilliantly for me in the Schubert 8th - which I now only listen to in the complete form (Venzago or Gottfried, both stunning)...
And with Bruckner, by homing in on original versions etc....
The other thing is always to try new or different recordings.... Mendelssohn Symphonies with JEG/YNS/Gardner have been a terrific thrill for me...

But with the Dvorak 9th, it is probably unredeemable, because of how I got to know it in the first place.... still, place in my heart, etc...

I recommend you to put your past thinking of the New World and listen to VPO Kertesz from 1961 - just try it !

[jayne lee wilson]

I recommend you to put your past thinking of the New World and listen to VPO Kertesz from 1961 - just try it !

Thank you for your belief in the redeeming power of.....

But.... sorry.... it really is over for me. I have tried.
That Kertesz LP was the very recording I played, over and over, every week for so long in the early 70s.... instead of Zep & Purple etc...
..... I could tell the tale again one day......if you want....

[Master Jacques]

Thank you for your belief in the redeeming power of.....

But.... sorry.... it really is over for me. I have tried.
That Kertesz LP was the very recording I played, over and over, every week for so long in the early 70s.... instead of Zep & Purple etc...
..... I could tell the tale again one day......if you want....

What about giving Harnoncourt a spin? I always find something new and surprising there, myself.