When you live in New York, where we’re spoiled by a never-ending stream of visiting international orchestras, not to mention our very own world-class orchestra, it’s easy to forget that there are very good – if not great – orchestras all across the U.S. But they all suffer from the same problem as the proverbial tree in the forest: if you’re not there to hear them, do they make a sound? To some degree, recordings can help get the word out, though it’s hard to break through the clutter these days unless your music director is tied to one of the major classical labels, or you’ve invested in your own in-house label with access to all of the major streaming services.
If an orchestra really wants to expand its footprint beyond its home, it needs to tour. And, for most orchestras, that eventually means coming to New York which, until recently, had two concert halls to choose from and multiple influential media outlets ready to cover their concerts. Unfortunately, NYC is now down to one hall thanks to Lincoln Center’s abdication of its longstanding role presenting orchestras through its Great Performers series, replacing it with a hodgepodge of questionable presentations across various genres. And, with the NY Times and other local newspapers gutting their classical music coverage, the only ones covering most concerts these days are online outlets. At the risk of selling myself short, most orchestra communications directors don’t yearn for a pull quote from a music blogger.
Yet, still these orchestras come, mostly for the experience of performing at Carnegie Hall, whose reputation outside of New York remains sky-high – something I’ll try to remember the next time I’m schlepping there on the subway. In December, the Pittsburgh Symphony, which some have called “the world’s best kept orchestral secret,” returned to Carnegie for the first time since 2014; as of this writing, they still have the glowing Times review from that concert prominently displayed on their homepage.
Which begs the question: if performing at Carnegie means so much to these orchestras, why don’t they come more often? One big reason is money: even though their concert was a Carnegie Hall presentation, the amount Pittsburgh was paid was nowhere near enough to cover their travel expenses.
“The number of cities in the U.S. that are bringing orchestras (to New York) are shrinking because of the economics,” PSO president and CEO Melia Tourangeau told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “[The Philadelphia Orchestra] has a residency at Carnegie, but it’s economically feasible for them.” (Translation: they don’t need to fly in or stay overnight.)
It costs even more if you have to rent out Stern Auditorium for your concert. Nota bene: there’s a perception among concertgoers that Carnegie’s rental shows risk a lower barrier to entry than their own presentations: that anyone with the means can rent out Carnegie Hall, regardless of how good (or bad) they are. But, that’s a fallacy: I’ve seen numerous top-notch concerts at Carnegie that were not CH presentations, including last week’s debut by the superb Prague Philharmonia. As it stands, Carnegie can only afford to present a fraction of the orchestras that want to perform there each season, and most of those dates are tied up with long term commitments to the Boston and Chicago Symphonies, the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, and an increasing number of European ensembles, including its annual presentations of the Vienna Philharmonic.
“It’s fair to say that there has been a shift over the last 20 years, with Carnegie Hall broadening the list of ensembles that have been presented each season to include a greater variety of orchestras, including our invitations to international ensembles,” Synneve Carlino, Carnegie Hall’s chief communications officer, told the Post-Gazette in December.
On Sunday afternoon, the Colorado Symphony became the latest orchestra to pay/play their way onto the Carnegie stage, marking their first return to New York in more than 50 years. Based in Denver with a history stretching back more than a century, the CSO is Colorado’s flagship orchestra and the only full-time professional orchestra for hundreds of miles. While its reputation may not be that of its more famous American brethren, the CSO has made great strides over the past thirty years thanks to a string of quality music directors including Marin Alsop, Andrew Litton and former Cleveland Orchestra associate Brett Mitchell.
The orchestra has also invested heavily in its future: since 2019, the CSO has more than quadrupled its endowment to more than $100 million and significantly increased its operating budget, such that it’s now considered a Group 1 orchestra as defined by the League of American Orchestras. In November, Colorado voters passed a measure allocating $25 million to renovate Boettcher Concert Hall, built in 1978 as the first in-the-round concert hall in America. And this season, it elevated Peter Oundjian, former music director of the Toronto Symphony and Royal Scottish National Symphony to the role of music director.
Part of the CSO’s path to riches has come from presenting a whole lot of crossover concerts, both in Boettcher and at the famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Following that thread, the CSO spent Friday and Saturday nights over at Radio City Music Hall, backing Boulder singer-songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov in a pair of sold-out concerts led by resident conductor Christopher Dragon. In a 2022 essay reprinted in the program, CSO Communications Director Nick Dobreff offers a salient argument in favor of expanding the orchestra’s repertoire, suggesting that the thunderous symphonies of Beethoven and Mahler were the amplified rock shows of their day.
“We’re committed to the notion that a Symphonic ensemble can do many things well in addition to performing classical music at the highest level,” argues CSO Chief Artistic Officer Anthony Pierce. (I’m not familiar with Isakov, but his mellow, laid back brand of music seems harmless enough, at least compared with some of the CSO’s other recent collaborations, including Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, and Tenacious D.)
Sunday’s Carnegie concert, a traditional program led by Oundjian, was also sold out. It didn’t hurt that there were lots of Denver patrons in the hall along for the ride; it helped far more that Oundjian – formerly first violinist of the Tokyo String Quartet – is good friends with violinist Itzhak Perlman, who was the featured guest on Sunday’s program. At 80 years old, Perlman is probably the world’s best-known violinist: even if he no longer plays the great Romantic concertos of Brahms and Sibelius, his reputation alone more-or-less guarantees a packed house.
As has become routine at a Perlman concert, the entire audience rose in unison as he wheeled onstage in his red electric scooter. (For those unaware, Perlman has been unable to walk since he contracted polio at 4 years old.) He and Oundjian, who’ve known each other for 50 years, soon fell into an easy banter that often resembled a comedy routine.
“What are we playing now?” Perlman said before almost every piece. “We didn’t rehearse this one.” And so on.
All of the works Perlman played were shorter pieces for violin and orchestra. (“See, this way I don’t have to play any encores,” Perlman joked. “They’re all encores!”) At 13 minutes, Dvořák’s Romance in F minor was the most substantial work Perlman played, his singing, sweet-sounding violin blending with the dark, burnished sound of the orchestra. That was followed by three showpieces by Fritz Kreisler: the light, effervescent “Beautiful Rosemary”, the innocently romantic Liebesfreud (“Love’s Joy”) and the exotic, lively Tambourin Chinois (“Chinese Drum”), with some deft fast fingering that proved Perlman’s ability is still intact.
Before he performed his signature work, John Williams’ Oscar-winning Theme to Schindler’s List, Perlman told the story of how Williams called him up as he was writing the score. “Itzhak, I think I hear a violin. Do you think you could do it?”
“Eh, I’ll think about it,” Perlman told Williams.
After Perlman told his wife about the call, she freaked out. “You said you’ll think about it? Are you out of your mind? Call him back and say you’ll do it!”
As Perlman played the instantly recognizable music with his familiar warm tone and deep feeling, I could feel the crowd around me heaving with emotion. The music only lasted four minutes, but seemed to hang in the air forever: a shared moment of sadness and grace that I won’t soon forget.
Perlman finished on an upbeat note with the tango Por una Cabeza (“By a Head”) by Carlos Gardel that Williams’ orchestrated for Scent of a Woman. After 10 minutes of wheeling offstage and on, Perlman finally mouthed, “I have to go! I’m hungry and need to eat!”
As much as I treasured the opportunity to see Perlman, by far the most compelling music on Sunday’s program was the opener: John Adams’ Frenzy (2023) presented here in its first NY performance. Premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra in 2024, Adams describes Frenzy as a short (18 minute) symphony in one movement, taking a melodic fragment from his opera Antony and Cleopatra “through an extended hall of mirrors, twisting it, turning it, reshaping it.” Adams considers Frenzy an evolution in style, melding the pulsing, minimalist repetition of his earlier works with a more traditional motivic development. The propulsive, rhythmically challenging music really got going in the final sequence, with staccato strings and waves of brass that Oundjian led with bristling intensity. (If you happen to live in Cleveland, you can hear Adams conduct it with the Cleveland Orchestra Feb 19-21.)
Unfortunately, I had to leave at intermission and so missed the Mussorgsky/Ravel warhorse Pictures at an Exhibition, but reports are that Oundjian led a strong performance – aside from a few horn flubs – admirably resisting bombast in favor of grandeur.
So, where does Colorado stand amongst the panoply of orchestras regularly competing for time on Carnegie’s stage? I would say they were absolutely solid, if slightly less than Wow. If they were a bit overshadowed by their starry guest soloist, the CSO played to their strengths in the Mussorgsky and bravely conquered a challenging new work by one of our greatest composers.
In the end, what really matters is that they made it back to New York after too long of an absence, and now return to the mountains of Colorado with a suitcase full of pride and confidence. Which will hopefully carry them forward to even more ambitious pursuits, beyond just booking the latest Grammy winners.
“This tour is not a money maker for us,” Colorado Symphony CEO Daniel Wachter told Colorado Public Radio. “I look at it as an investment, as an investment into the motivation and the morale building of the orchestra and the team, as an investment into our reputation as a symphony orchestra.”
Whatever it cost, I’m sure it was worth it.
More pics on Instagram.