LINCOLN CENTER

Avery Fisher Hall
New York Philharmonic

Alan Gilbert - Conductor
Yefim Bronfman - Piano

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 1
Anthony Cheung - Lyra (World Premier)
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mazIpyJRrqM#t=13

Meet Beethoven as youth and master. First, the 26-year-old pens his delightful First Piano Concerto; then, 10 years later and his reputation secure, Beethoven is soloist to premiere his Fourth Concerto — his most acclaimed to date, even as his hearing is failing. Also: Lyra by Anthony Cheung, who “creates a shimmering, shifting sound world” (The New York Times).

MUSIC | MUSIC REVIEW

Orpheus Descending and Arising

Contrasts Illuminate Beethoven in Philharmonic Festival

By CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIMJUNE 12, 2014

The indomitable Yefim Bronfman stars in the New York Philharmonic’s minifestival of Beethoven’s piano concertos unveiled on Wednesday at Avery Fisher Hall with glowing performances of the first and fourth concertos.

With music as richly layered as Beethoven’s, there are always discoveries to be made on repeated hearings, and the chance to listen to all five of the concertos in succession — as well as the Triple Concerto for piano, violin and cello, which closes the festival — is not to be missed. For Mr. Bronfman, long associated with powerful readings of the Romantics, it is also an opportunity to show off other facets of his art — some of them delicate, sweet and emotionally probing.


The three-weekTThe three-week festival is conducted by Alan Gilbert and includes world premieres of works which, tucked in between the concertos, serve as focal lenses for re-examining Beethoven. On Wednesday this task fell to the young San Francisco-born composer Anthony Cheung. His multifaceted “Lyra” is inspired by the Orpheus myth, which is often said to be at the heart of Beethoven’s fourth concerto.

The 20-minute work features subtly warped tuning in the wind section and a harp part that sometimes takes on the guise of lyrelike instruments from around the world. Added to musical flashbacks of Orpheus settings by earlier composers, including Monteverdi and Gluck, these underline the archetypal nature of the myth. Though there are glimpses of specific sound painting — a rattlesnake motif in the percussion section brought to my mind the deadly viper that kills the hero’s betrothed, setting off his quest — Mr. Cheung’s shimmering score makes a persuasive case for the Orpheus myth as part of a global collective consciousness.

Memories of Orpheus lingered in my mind during the performance of the fourth concerto, the concert’s emotional and musical highlight. With the help of Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Bronfman brought out the tension between the serenity of the opening statement and the nervy pulse that repeatedly tries to edge it onward. The cadenza became, in Mr. Bronfman’s beautifully shaded reading, a grateful return to the self-absorbed solitude of that first statement. The Andante came through as a riveting and moving Orphic drama with the orchestra’s sternness contrasted, and gradually softened, by the plangent lyricism of Mr. Bronfman’s playing. The concerto ended with a sprightly, energetic rendition of the finale.

There was plenty of vigorous energy in the proud Piano Concerto No. 1, which opened the concert. Occasionally I found Mr. Bronfman’s articulation, particularly in the left hand, hard where it needed only to be crisp. But there were also moments of exquisite subtlety, such as the shiver of a downward chromatic scale that Mr. Bronfman delivered in the first movement, and zesty playfulness in his variations, which was mirrored in the exuberant performance of the orchestra.