Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, N.Y.; December 27, 2005
German violinist Julia Fischer delivered a fearless performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto that was the indisputable highlight of the evening’s New York Philharmonic concert. Fischer attacked the Concerto—declared “impossible to play” by its original dedicatee in 1878—with youthful abandon. During silent passages, she shifted anxiously on stage with relief pitcher–like tics, eager to return to action. Purposeful if not all-powerful, her only shortcoming surfaced during the broad passagework, which begged for a bit more expansiveness. Fischer elicited a fine lyrical tone from her Guadagnini, shimmering throughout the registers; neither ruddy nor bright, her sound was assuredly warm. Lorin Maazel and the Philharmonic fed off Fischer’s excitement and sustained the buzz. Concertgoers could not contain their applause following the first movement, and ovations were plentiful following the last.
The concert opened with Carl Maria von Weber’s inane Bassoon Concerto, the value of which is limited to providing a fine player a fine outlet for speedy scales. NYP principal bassoonist Judith LeClair was more than up to the challenge, and her fresh tone brought a bit of spring to the winter’s night. LeClair’s runs were crisp and delightful, and if she lacked a bit of power to compete with the orchestration, well, she was playing a bassoon in Avery Fisher Hall.
Apart from some fine moments in the brass, Maazel and the Philharmonic failed to deliver Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony. The playing was muddled, the balance was poor, pitch was tenuous, and the orchestra was unable to generate the momentum in Sibelius’s glorious closing movement they had achieved so facilely earlier in the Tchaikovsky, a performance which more than made the evening worth while.
Ben Finane
