For the final concert triptych of his first season as music director of the New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert et al chose a program that juxtaposed the old and the new, a commission by composer-in-residence Magnus Lindberg and Beethoven’s epic Missa Solemnis, a reiteration of Gilbert’s optimism in new and contemporary music and the presentation of a nearly 200 year-old choral staple. The decision creates a cyclical conclusion to the season, which commenced with a world premiere by Lindberg and Berlioz’ popular Symphonie Fantastique.
Lindberg described the unusual title of his orchestral work, Al largo, in the program notes: “Al largo is an unusual title. This is the fastest music I’ve ever written, yet deep down there is a feeling of a very slow undertone and a very slow momentum, something large and wide in terms of expression…Al largo means being offshore, referring specifically to that moment when you reach the open sea, you don’t see the coast anymore, and what’s before you is vast.” Indeed the work, spanning twenty-five minutes, seemed like an endless ride across present but ambiguous tonalities, undulating between great rises in volume and thin, subdued passages. Although twenty-five minutes can pass by quickly in symphonic music (Mozart’s “Jupiter” flies by when I listen to it), Al largo seemed monumentally long. There was, in my opinion, a little too much going on. Rich string textures give way to an extended oboe solo midway through, giving way to more climaxes. Melody does not play a dominant role in Al largo; the music is propelled forward by rises and falls in pitch, dynamic, and speed.
One can easily recognize an influence of the past in Lindberg’s writing. Motives are presented in parallel chords a la Debussy. Lindberg himself identified Schoenberg’s Verklaerte Nacht as an influence, even working in a quote towards the end. He was also aware of his work’s preceding the Missa Solemnis, even throwing in a recurring four-note motive that cannot help but recall a certain Beethoven symphony.
Both modern in his elastic form and traditional in its timbral influences, Al largo is a formidable work. However, I would need to hear it multiple times to appreciate it. So would the audience, it seemed, who greeted the conductor and composer with warm but perfunctory applause.
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Beethoven placed so much emphasis on the composition of Missa Solemnis that even his monumental Diabelli Variations and Ninth Symphony were temporarily shelved so he could focus on his Mass. Even the promotion of his beloved Archduke Rudolph to cardinal, the original impetus for the Mass, could not push Beethoven to finish on time. Missa Solemnis was eventually considered by Beethoven to be his greatest work. Its 70 minutes are full of sensitively scored passages, sophisticated counterpoint, and triumphant choral flourishes that at times recalled his work on the Ninth. Gilbert led the Philharmonic and the New York Choral Artists in a vivid, energy-driven, and dynamically diverse performance.
My impression of Beethoven’s setting of the Mass text was that he characterized the liturgy’s ideas. He divided the Kyrie (“Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy) into distinct sections, forming an ABA form. Where the outer pleas are directed towards the celestial God, Beethoven wrote homophonically and in the major key. The middle petition, addressed to God the Man, sounds more terrestrial and less “perfect”: the music changes into the minor, and the chorus divides into four. Did Beethoven wish to distinguish the celestial from the human, perfection from suffering?
In the Gloria, we hear again the contrast between the tutti majesty of “Glory to God in the Highest” and the lightly scored, dynamically subdued “..And on earth peace to men of good will.”
Beethoven’s setting of the Credo is unusual in its dramatic portrayal of the text. The music is not constant; instead, there are detached sections of quiet, harmonically unstable music (recalling the crucifixion) and elated homophonic choral passages (recalling the rising after the third day).
There is, of course, the “solemn” transition between Sanctus and Benedictus, the portion of the Mass where the priest silently “converts” the bread into the Christ’s body. Beethoven makes a big deal out of this moment, where in some cases (Verdi) the Sanctus and Benedictus are dashed off as one movement. Beethoven even introduces a fifth soloist: the solo violin, played sensitively by Glenn Dicterow. Beethoven makes this transfiguration of bread into God the dramatic epicenter of the work.
The New York Philharmonic repeats this program tomorrow night, at the last concert of its subscription season.
