With his low-key, affable charm, the Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck rarely draws attention to himself. But the stellar work he has done with the Pittsburgh Symphony and a few highly successful guest stints with the New York Philharmonic have made him one of the contenders to succeed Alan Gilbert in New York when he vacates the job of music director. Players and audiences can test the chemistry this week at a series of concerts beginning on Thursday, featuring the magnificent violinist Augustin Hadelich in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 “Turkish,” Brahms’s Fourth Symphony and the overture to Strauss’s “Die Fledermaus.” Tonight we sat on Row D in the center of the center section. It was great for watching the soloist, the conductor, and many of the players. We normally sit further back to see more of the orchestra and to give the sound a chance to merge.
A word about dress... New Yorkers come casual. Only visitors dress up. Tonight, literally, we saw two men dressed in shorts, many in Levi's, most in comfortable shoes, and all dressed to either ride the subway or walk to the concert.
Review: Manfred Honeck Coaxes a Burnished Sound From the New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic played Mozart, Brahms and Johann Strauss on Thursday night at Avery Fisher Hall. A program so crustily traditional almost feels like news, given the orchestra’s innovative track of the last few months, with intriguingly balanced programs and new(ish) works by Thomas Adès and John Adams, Thierry Escaich and Peter Eotvos. Under Alan Gilbert, evenings of Old World heft are no longer the norm.
But this conventional billing became spectacularly unconventional in the hands of Manfred Honeck, the music director of the reinvigorated Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and potentially a candidate for the same role in New York in the near future. A modest man with immoderate talent, he inspires a rare concentration in these players. In Brahms’s Fourth Symphony, he coaxed a sound much closer to the deep, golden hue of the Vienna Philharmonic — in which he was a violist from 1986 and 1992 — than the glossier, glassier tone this orchestra usually exudes. Strauss’s overture to “Die Fledermaus” had bite and snap, an evocative swoon to its waltz and a rampaging glee in its coda.
Mr. Honeck has ideas and charisma. But he’s become typecast in the standard repertory at the Philharmonic. Aside from performances of Claude Vivier’s “Orion,” when he led the orchestra as a very late substitute for Gustavo Dudamel last year, his four appearances with the ensemble have involved nothing written after World War I. Whether that’s what the Philharmonic asked for in engaging Mr. Honeck or it’s simply what he wants to conduct, you get the sense that he’s comfortable in the role.
In Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, he seemed to caress every phrase of the orchestral part into a sepia elegance, producing a poignancy that stayed buoyant, a contentment that still yearned for something more. That searching quality matched the eloquence of the violinist Augustin Hadelich, whose slight toughness of attack suggested unease under the jollity and poise of Mozart’s surfaces. His encore, Paganini’s Caprice No. 5, was finger-flying fast.
The Brahms was thoughtful, deliberate and provocative. Rooting the sound in the cellos and basses and demanding precision with his stylish, meticulous movements, Mr. Honeck made the Fourth something shadowy and equivocal. Long, legato lines in the first movement flowed but had a tensile strength; the second was dragged out daringly, as if concealing worry. Not for him the glitter and playfulness others find in the scherzo, but rather weight and menace, as if to pre-empt the passacaglia finale, itself engrossing yet ambivalent here.
Familiar repertoire or not, I haven’t often walked away from a Philharmonic concert thinking so hard, pondering what an interpretation meant. Clearly inspired, and despite his protests, the orchestra refused to let Mr. Honeck get away without a solo bow. Read into that, and the unanimity of its applause, what you will.
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