[Dixielandjazz] NYPhil. presents Marsalis' "Swing Symphony"

[Norman Vickers]

To:  DJML, Musicians and JazzFans List, Pensacola Mencken list

 

This should cover a wide range of interests.  Here's review of  New York
Philharmonic's premier of Wynton Marsalis' "Swing Symphony."

Mr. Menken, presumably, wouldn't have liked it.

 

 

 

 

 

September 23, 2010


At Philharmonic, Jazz Blended Unevenly


By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/t/anthony_tommas
ini/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 


What better way to open an orchestra's new season than with a new piece?
That was Alan Gilbert
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/arts/music/18phil.html> 's reasoning last
September, when he inaugurated his tenure as music director of the New York
Philharmonic
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/new_yor
k_philharmonic/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  with the premiere of "EXPO," an
exciting work by Magnus Lindberg, the Philharmonic's composer in residence. 

On Wednesday night at Avery Fisher Hall, Mr. Gilbert began his second season
at the helm of the Philharmonic. Again the program, broadcast on PBS
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/p/public_
broadcasting_service/index.html?inline=nyt-org> 's "Live From Lincoln
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/l/lincoln
_center_for_the_performing_arts/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  Center," began
with a premiere, this time of a sprawling new score by Wynton Marsalis
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/wynton_marsali
s/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , "Swing Symphony" (Symphony No. 3), written
for and performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center
<http://www.jazzatlincolncenter.org/concerts/c_rose-allen.asp>  Orchestra
and the Philharmonic. 

This was actually the American premiere. The piece was jointly commissioned
by the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/b/berlin_
philharmonic/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , the Los Angeles Philharmonic
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/l/los_ang
eles_philharmonic/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  and the Barbican in London.
The first performance took place recently in Berlin. Still, an American
premiere counts as new. And sharing is a good thing, especially in
recessionary times. 

Mr. Marsalis has described "Swing Symphony" as a symphonic meditation on the
evolution of swing. The concept had great potential and possible pitfalls,
and Mr. Marsalis's piece both fulfilled some of the potential and succumbed
to some of the pitfalls. The five movements of this 45-minute work evoke,
pay homage to and juxtapose styles of jazz and pop: ragtime, mambo, bebop,
black American church music. And bringing the 15 virtuosos of the Jazz at
Lincoln Center Orchestra, including Mr. Marsalis, together with the players
of the Philharmonic was, in theory, an inspiring idea. 

Still, during long stretches the music, as orchestrated here, hovered
uneasily in some middle ground, sounding at times like a jazz ensemble
beefed up with an orchestra and at other times like an orchestra jolted by
jazz. Though it made acoustic and dramatic sense to place the jazz musicians
in the center of the stage, surrounded by the Philharmonic players, this
enhanced the impression that the jazz artists were more of a solo ensemble
than true collaborators. I liked the piece best whenever Mr. Marsalis worked
hard to blend the two instrumental contingents and when the music seemed not
just a homage to old jazz styles but a transformed synthesis, something
fresh, subtle and startling. 

Actually, there are six movements to this symphony. But at the Berlin
premiere the piece lasted nearly an hour. The Philharmonic had commissioned
a score of about 40 minutes or so, since the gala was being televised and
had to clock in under two hours. So one movement was dropped for this
occasion, the only performance of the work this season. (Next season the
entire piece will be performed in a subscription series program.) 

The first movement, "St. Louis to New Orleans," builds quickly into a
growling, organic blast from the joint forces. Then the music segues
smoothly into a perky, syncopated march. But Mr. Marsalis lays things on
thick. The textures were sometimes so dense that the chords were indistinct
and lost their punch. I was relieved when the second movement, "All-American
Pep," a homage to early-20th-century pop music, began, because the textures
thinned out and you could hear many more of the music's nuances and
intricacies. Riffs and bits of tunes are tossed from section to section of
the orchestra; the music is scored with clarity and, at times, welcome
delicacy. In a captivating episode for solo baritone saxophone -- played
here by Joe Temperley, a master -- a sensual, unabashedly romantic melody is
cushioned by pungent string chords. 

"Midwestern Moods," the third movement, had engrossing moments, especially a
mellow episode for subdued yet restless strings backing up solo turns by the
jazz musicians. "Manhattan to L.A." pulses with rippling bebop. "The Low
Down Up On High," the finale, flows with muted brasses and woodwinds, like
bittersweet gospel. A hymnlike section featuring the five saxophones ushers
in the surprise ending, where the music just slips away. 

Mr. Marsalis is a staggeringly talented musician and a Pulitzer
Prize-winning composer
<http://www.wyntonmarsalis.org/hidden/jazz/blood-on-the-fields/> . 

Still, just evoking older styles of music, however astutely and sensitively,
seemed not enough. You could have believed that this work was from, say,
1959 and had been introduced by Leonard Bernstein
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/leonard_bernst
ein/index.html?inline=nyt-per> . 

Mr. Gilbert seemed totally in his element, conducting with a mix of cool
command and jazzy swing. The Philharmonic players should be proud. They
played with verve and color, never sounding like classical music stiffs.
Quite a few players looked as if they were enjoying themselves immensely, as
did members of the audience, which gave Mr. Marsalis and the musicians a
standing ovation. I have never seen so many people at a Philharmonic concert
tapping their feet and hands. And this time it was entirely appropriate, not
at all a distraction. 

After intermission, the program became like an entirely different concert.
Mr. Gilbert led a blazing, rhapsodic and impressively lucid account of
Strauss's voluptuous tone poem "Don Juan." 

He ended with a work that the Philharmonic introduced in 1944, Hindemith's
"Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber." Once a staple,
this piece does not turn up that often these days. The title may sound a
little convoluted, but it describes what goes on. Hindemith borrowed obscure
tunes from Weber and, in a true metamorphosis, generated a delightful,
dazzling and ingenious four-movement symphonic suite. The score proves that
sometimes a tune is just a little thing a composer can use to get a piece
going. 

Mr. Gilbert and the Philharmonic played it to the hilt. The Hindemith and
Strauss works will be repeated as part of the Philharmonic's first
subscription program through Tuesday at Avery Fisher Hall. There will also
be a work by Dutilleux and Mendelssohn
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/felix_mendelss
ohn/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 's Violin Concerto with Itzhak Perlman
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/itzhak_perlman
/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , no less, as soloist.