In 2006 I wrote an article in Curator: The Museum Journal alleging that these days everything is a museum. I admit that the concept was generated by passing maple syrup museums in drives around New Hampshire and Vermont. But my ‘museum’ citations ended up ranging from Judy Garland to department stores to cabaret. However, I was especially interested in how the term was used in connection with music, and cited both NYTimes critic, Bernard Holland and conductor, Marin Alsop, respectively referring to a Mozart opera and orchestra music as “a museum.” That thought came rushing back at Thursday morning’s New York Philharmonic open rehearsal — the first of three Tchaikovsky-centered concerts: does this sort of programming suggest that the NYPhil is turning into (God forbid!) a museum?
Let’s get the irrelevant stuff out of the way. I realized that The Donald (do I really have to call him my President?) was correct in his comments about the difference between his and Obama’s Inauguration crowds. Looking out at the sea of white hair in David Geffen Hall (do I really have to call it that?) — because who else can attend an open rehearsal on a weekday morning — I had a revelation: that white you saw on your TV screen was really the vast senior citizen section on the Mall, and it was packed with white haired older folks (the bald heads didn’t glisten because it wasn’t a sunny day). So let’s stop discussing alternative facts. You win, Sean Spicer!
Guest conductor Semyon Bychkov really manages Russian music persuasively, despite looking a bit like Harpo Marx, if we had ever gotten to see an aging Harpo. (His curly mop is not to be confused with that of his conductor colleague, Simon Rattle, 
whom I’ve nominated to play Ann Freedman, 
if they ever make a movie out of the Knoedler art forgery debacle: totally different hair!) The combo of conductor Bychkov and pianist Yefim Bronfman (I’m assuming no relation to the rum-running-turned-mogul-turned-big-time-Canadian/American Jewish philanthropy-family) definitely raised the question about whether Russians do better with Russian music than ordinary musical interpreters. A sensitive issue in the cultural realm! Are African-Americans best positioned to explicate African-American art? The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian delegated the creation of its exhibition content to Native Peoples, on the assumption that only they can really tell their own stories. Thorny issues, which perhaps I’ll address in another post sometime. But Semyon sure does make a persuasive case! And I should add that my late mother adored him during his time at the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (where I cut my music-listening teeth).
However, that’s not the museum issue that interests me here. Rather, I was forcefully struck by how Tchaikovsky brought out the crowds. I’m a regular at open rehearsals, so I can tell when the audience suggests we’re moving into blockbuster territory. I’m relieved to know that he’s a draw even a month after Nutcracker season is over. And I can’t help but think of museum analogies. London’s National Portrait Gallery did a credible Picasso Portrait show (which I reviewed for the WSJ) that or may not have brought the anticipated crowds which presumably provided a rationale for this exhibition (I don’t check on numbers). I’m not sure whether three shows invoking the sacred name of Caravaggio – in London, New York, and Milan did as well, since the lure was a bit of a stretch. (The London and New York exhibitions, however, were each interesting and important in different ways, even if people didn’t queue up for them.) Never underestimate the power of a lure! It’s advice I regularly give my mouse friends.
So while listening to Tchaikovsky’s lush and dramatic 5th Symphony, I remembered [Vitaly] Komar and [Alexander] Melamid — once an artist team but now split — and their “Peoples Choice” art. The artists commissioned polling companies in the 11 countries—including the United States, Russia, China, France, and Kenya—to conduct scientific polls to discover what they want to see in art. The use of polls was meant to mimic the American democratic process. Komar said, “Our interpretation of polls is our collaboration with various people of the world. It is a collaboration with [sic] new dictator—Majority.” (this a Wiki-citation). I love Tchaikovsky’s 5th, but it seems to fit perfectly the ideas one might have about what kind of music would appeal to an international crowd — albeit one with the sitzfleisch to manage about 45 minutes of noisy drama. Almost like a Rogers & Hammerstein musical: you can actually walk out humming the tunes. Bychkov milked it beautifully for all it was worth, and the orchestra responded to him. Because my aural sensibilities work better when visually enhanced, I tend to zoom in on certain parts of the orchestra, and today it was the double basses (8 of them!), and a new understanding of how critically they underpin much of Tchaikovsky’s drama, along with NYPhil tympanist Markus Rhoten (I often zoom in on him). I assume someone will be taking attendance to check on whether a three concert series of Tchaikovsky gives the NYPhil the [presumably] anticipated blockbuster boost.
The rest of the program wants a somewhat more serious listener. To call Glinka’s Valse-Fantasie ‘slight’ may be giving it more than its due. Pleasantly melodious, it still seemed longer than the six minutes announced in the program notes. But as an important Russian predecessor composer, Glinka (1804-57) apparently loomed large for Tchaikovsky (1840-93), so it was a fitting way to begin the program and the series. More puzzling to me, but infinitely more rewarding, was Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (G major, Op. 44) with Yefim Bronfman soloing. I’ve only heard it on the radio, so was excited to hear it in the real. I’m not usually highly critical of the hall’s famously-problematic acoustics, but felt that the orchestra often drowned out the piano during the first movement, perhaps over-accentuating those many sections when the piano has brilliant solo passages, which Bronfman performed with dazzling ease. Accustomed to concertos in which the interplay between ensemble and soloist feels more natural, this first movement is somewhat jarring. On the other hand, the second movement is so sublime that it’s worth going to the concert just to hear it. Rich solo violin and cello parts play against the piano and the orchestra in a rich, subtle, and lush array that makes the 5th Symphony feel even more bombastic. (This was a rehearsal, so the symphony was played first.) My usual favorite object of zooming-in devotion, first chair Carter Brey, played beautifully, as did newish concertmaster Frank Huang, and while there were a few gorgeous moments of them as a duo, it never quite made it as a piano trio — even when I kept anticipating that, having in mind Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio (in A minor), one of my all time favorites in the gloppy music realm. (I have long favored piano trios by practically everyone.)
The concert’s program notes include a fascinating series of anecdotes about Tchaikovsky’s April/May 1891 visit to New York for the opening of Carnegie Hall. The NYPhil will probably return part-time to Carnegie Hall soon, as the next iteration of [Philharmonic Hall/Avery Fisher Hall/] David Geffen Hall starts next year. What goes around comes around. Yet another connection to this brief Tchaikovsky celebration. Does it suggest that the NYPhil is stuck in musty museum-land? Or is it like museum-related blockbusteritis? Probably a bit of both. But that shouldn’t make us dismissive of the enormous pleasures gained. And for me the concerto’s second movement alone justified the program. Moreover, Alan Gilbert (I’m a big fan of his programming!) has been fairly ambitious in promoting new and interesting musical experiences that actually enrich our listening to the museum pieces — most recently the extraordinary Fourth Symphony by Wynton Marsalis. Looking at older, even much-derided and unfashionable art (e.g., the once-celebrated Lawrence Alma-Tadema,whose work is currently on view in the Netherlands), enlarges our vision and refines our sensibilities. That’s just as true for listening to a wide range of musical experiences. So let’s hear it for the NYPhil’s important museum role!