David Robertson – New York Philharmonic – Korngold

David Robinson is a highly respected conductor in New York, party on the basis of his willingness to program contemporary music. Last February when he came with his Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra he programmed works by John Adams and Alban Berg. In the second week of his New York Philharmonic guest stint he will conduct Berio. But in the first week, ending Saturday May 27, he played a curiously conservative program.

The first piece he played was the Symphony in B minor, Unfinished. With its lovely melodies it is one of the most popular pieces in the repertory. The Philharmonic under Mr. Robinson played a nice lean version that never was mawkish but didn’t deny its sentimentality either.

Next up was the Korngold Violin Concerto with NY Phil concertmaster Glenn Dicterow as soloist. Besides his opera ‘Die tote Stadt’, Erich Wolfgang Korngold is mostly known as a writer of film music, if he is known at all. His film scores are immensely influential; John Williams is influenced by Korngold to the extent that he would be selling popcorn in a concession stand if he had never heard Korngolde’s music. The violin concerto is pleasant enough, clearly it was written to allow the solo violin plenty of space to show off. Mr. Dicterow was prepared to impress us. It was kina of fun listening to it but it helped to screen a Steven Spielberg film in your mind. The audience loved it with a long standing ovation and some raucous cheering from the third tier. My wife and I decided the cheering must have come from Mr. Dicterow’s Juilliard students.

After the intermission another conventional piece, Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1. It was played well and I enjoyed it as did most of the audience. Sibelius’s music is very well crafted and always worth listening to but his dependence on Tchaikovsky is in some way troubling. I felt I could be listening to Tchaikovsky instead of a good copy. Sibelius may have agreed, after 7 symphonies he simply quit composing for the 26 years that remained in his life.