Going to see a concert in Central Europe is generally a more sociable, more amiable experience than it is here in America. In Prague, for example, everyone dresses up – no matter what their social standing – and drinks pilsener and sekt at intermission. You’ll see entire families sitting together, in part because it is a vastly more affordable entertainment than what we have here. And, there are usually raucous ovations, followed by multiple encores.
I haven’t been to Budapest, but I imagine the atmosphere there is pretty much the same. The city’s main orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, brought some of that middle Europe charm stateside last weekend, with a pair of concerts at Avery Fisher Hall, part of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series.
Throughout the past century, Hungary has managed to produce more than its fair share of outstanding composers and conductors: Bartók, Kodaly, Ligeti, Kurtag, Solti, Szell, Dohnanyi. For all this musical wealth, the country was strangely without a major orchestra until the BFO was founded in 1983 by the energetic conductor Ivan Fischer, who continues to lead the orchestra and joined them in both concerts here.
Each program paired the music of Bartók with one of his contemporaries. Friday night was Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. 
The young Croatian pianist Dejan Lazic performed as a last minute replacement, and nailed the lush, leaping solo. Fischer departed radically from the standard orchestra setup: he put the basses up on risers in the back, split the violins left and right, and had the cellos sit left. The result was a rich, warm sound with none of the usual grating you hear in that troubled hall.
The orchestra followed with Bartók’s The Wooden Prince: a ballet about a young prince who woos a beautiful princess with a puppet in his own image. The musicians played with alternating fire and tenderness while supertitles projected the original stage directions so we could follow the story.
After about five curtain calls, Fischer finally consented to an encore.
"What would you like to hear?" he asked.
The audience erupted in laughter: since when do orchestras take requests? Predictably, folks tried to take full advantage of the opportunity.
"Brahms’ Second Symphony!"
"Bruckner!"
Finally, someone suggested a Hungarian Dance, and Fischer had the orchestra play Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 15. Then, he went back into the orchestra and pulled a bass, viola and violin to the front of the stage. They consulted for a minute before playing a rollicking Hungarian dance – the real kind. Fischer watched from the violinist’s empty chair, bobbing his head to the fiendishly fast figures. They finished with a flourish, and the hall exploded in cheers. The place felt more like a beer tent than a concert hall.
Sunday afternoon’s concert featured Richard Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, followed by the first waltz sequence from Der Rosenkavalier, which had a dark, menacing timbre. (It was written in 1944, at the height of WWII.)
As fine as they were, the Strauss’ turned out to be mere appetizers for the second half of the program:
Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, written three years prior Wooden Prince but premiered together with that work in 1918. Bluebeard’s Castle is Bartók’s only opera, written for two characters: a rich duke and his new bride.
The entire action of the hour-long work centers around Bluebeard showing his new wife, Judith, around his castle, using his keys to open a series of doors. The first five show increasingly wondrous aspects of Bluebeard’s wealth, culminating in the fifth door, reavealing "The Kingdom." I can’t remember ever hearing a louder, more stupendous climax: I could feel the exploding brass rippling beneath my feet, and the shimmering C major strings literally made my hair stand on end. Absolutely electrifying.
From there, the tale unexpectedly turns gothic, with Judith pleading with an unwilling Bluebeard to open the final two door: a retake on the Adam and Eve story, where the woman who has everything wants still more, resulting in her downfall. The sixth door revealed "The Lake of Tears," accompanied by strange, impressionistic bursts of color from the strings and winds. The final door reveals a room in which lay Bluebeard’s three murdered former wives, soon to be joined by Judith herself.
Performing with the orchestra were veteran Hungarian singers Laszlo Polgar (Bluebeard) and Ildiko Komlosi (Soprano), both of whom invested their roles with gravity, terror, and absolute authenticity. Both they and the orchestra received a well-deserved standing ovation. No encores this time: after such a total triumph, anything more would have been anti-climactic.
I, too, thought the Bluebeard was extraordinarily fine–one of the best concert performances of an opera I’ve ever heard. There’s an interesting note by Howard Kissel at The Cultural Tourist about Ivan Fisher fine tuning the acoustics in Avery Fisher Hall:
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/culture/2008/02/another-death-greatly-exaggera.html
It helps explain why the orchestra sounded so much better than what we’re used to hearing in that dreary space.
I, too, thought the Bluebeard was extraordinarily fine–one of the best concert performances of an opera I’ve ever heard. There’s an interesting note by Howard Kissel at The Cultural Tourist about Ivan Fisher fine tuning the acoustics in Avery Fisher Hall:
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/culture/2008/02/another-death-greatly-exaggera.html
It helps explain why the orchestra sounded so much better than what we’re used to hearing in that dreary space.
I, too, thought the Bluebeard was extraordinarily fine–one of the best concert performances of an opera I’ve ever heard. There’s an interesting note by Howard Kissel at The Cultural Tourist about Ivan Fisher fine tuning the acoustics in Avery Fisher Hall:
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/culture/2008/02/another-death-greatly-exaggera.html
It helps explain why the orchestra sounded so much better than what we’re used to hearing in that dreary space.
I, too, thought the Bluebeard was extraordinarily fine–one of the best concert performances of an opera I’ve ever heard. There’s an interesting note by Howard Kissel at The Cultural Tourist about Ivan Fisher fine tuning the acoustics in Avery Fisher Hall:
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/culture/2008/02/another-death-greatly-exaggera.html
It helps explain why the orchestra sounded so much better than what we’re used to hearing in that dreary space.
I, too, thought the Bluebeard was extraordinarily fine–one of the best concert performances of an opera I’ve ever heard. There’s an interesting note by Howard Kissel at The Cultural Tourist about Ivan Fisher fine tuning the acoustics in Avery Fisher Hall:
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/culture/2008/02/another-death-greatly-exaggera.html
It helps explain why the orchestra sounded so much better than what we’re used to hearing in that dreary space.
I, too, thought the Bluebeard was extraordinarily fine–one of the best concert performances of an opera I’ve ever heard. There’s an interesting note by Howard Kissel at The Cultural Tourist about Ivan Fisher fine tuning the acoustics in Avery Fisher Hall:
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/culture/2008/02/another-death-greatly-exaggera.html
It helps explain why the orchestra sounded so much better than what we’re used to hearing in that dreary space.
Peter, thanks for posting the link to that Kissel piece, with that revelatory bit about adjusting the Fisher acoustics. It made me wonder how many visiting artists take the time to do this–or whether they even know it’s an option?
PS, I agree: that “Bluebeard” (one of my favorite operas) was one of the finest versions I’ve ever heard.
Peter, thanks for posting the link to that Kissel piece, with that revelatory bit about adjusting the Fisher acoustics. It made me wonder how many visiting artists take the time to do this–or whether they even know it’s an option?
PS, I agree: that “Bluebeard” (one of my favorite operas) was one of the finest versions I’ve ever heard.
Peter, thanks for posting the link to that Kissel piece, with that revelatory bit about adjusting the Fisher acoustics. It made me wonder how many visiting artists take the time to do this–or whether they even know it’s an option?
PS, I agree: that “Bluebeard” (one of my favorite operas) was one of the finest versions I’ve ever heard.
Peter, thanks for posting the link to that Kissel piece, with that revelatory bit about adjusting the Fisher acoustics. It made me wonder how many visiting artists take the time to do this–or whether they even know it’s an option?
PS, I agree: that “Bluebeard” (one of my favorite operas) was one of the finest versions I’ve ever heard.
Peter, thanks for posting the link to that Kissel piece, with that revelatory bit about adjusting the Fisher acoustics. It made me wonder how many visiting artists take the time to do this–or whether they even know it’s an option?
PS, I agree: that “Bluebeard” (one of my favorite operas) was one of the finest versions I’ve ever heard.
Peter, thanks for posting the link to that Kissel piece, with that revelatory bit about adjusting the Fisher acoustics. It made me wonder how many visiting artists take the time to do this–or whether they even know it’s an option?
PS, I agree: that “Bluebeard” (one of my favorite operas) was one of the finest versions I’ve ever heard.