ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
The Israel Philharmonic was a very popular attraction during its debut appearance at Ravinia two years ago, a stop on its 50th anniversary tour with music director Zubin Mehta, but unfortunately the playing of the ensemble didn’t live up to the event itself. Given the extraordinary quality of the Philharmonic’s performances last weekend under Masur, it is now obvious that the problems two years ago emanated from Mehta, not the Philharmonic.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The Israel Philharmonic is a wonderful orchestra, improving all the time, but it has hardly reached its full potential. If this is not yet a world-class orchestra, under the tutelage of a conductor like Masur it could become one very soon. It was fascinating to watch the intense concentration and discipline of the musicians doing their best to rise to the occasion of having Masur, one of only a handful of the world’s truly great conductors, lead them so carefully. If Masur’s vision and the Philharmonic’s execution didn’t always mesh perfectly, it certainly was not due to lack of effort on the part of the Israelis, only to their lack of experience with solid musical direction.
Anyone who has ever heard Masur conduct Haydn knows to expect a large 19th-century-style sound, and his performance of the Haydn Symphony no. 104 in D Major (London) was no exception. The forces were large and the tempos were slow, but as is always so amazing with Masur, his control held it all together and made his approach seem appropriate. When romantic conductors such as Georg Solti or Erich Leinsdorf perform Haydn, they too get a large sound and take the works slowly, but ensemble playing and orchestral balance usually fall by the wayside. Not so with Masur–even the woodwinds were highly audible and only rarely drowned out by overvibratoed strings.
For some reason, the Philharmonic’s playing was far better Saturday night; Sunday afternoon the strings had a tendency to overplay, seemingly forgoing the somewhat lighter touch with which they had performed earlier. There was also too much vibrato present in the playing of the concertmaster, which in turn influenced several of the other first violins. The delayed syncopation between the horns and strings in the finale was, however, very well executed, to marvelous effect.
Mussorgsky’s piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition has been subjected to every conceivable form of arrangement–transcriptions for synthesizers and for rock group (with lyrics!), and several orchestrations, the most famous and interesting being the one by Ravel.
Still, Masur should be congratulated for finding a new way to perform something so familiar, and the Israel Philharmonic should be congratulated for so attentively rising to the occasion of having a great conductor lead them down a solid musical path. Let us hope it is a path that they will continue to explore.
