RPO at Carnegie Hall

It isn’t often that your local philharmonic orchestra plays an ‘away game,’ and at Carnegie Hall, no less!  As soon as tickets went on sale, I bought two for my husband and me, and made arrangements to spend a few days in New York City.  Did I neglect to inform him that they’d be performing an opera?  Oops.  We’re not particularly opera lovers, despite our second ‘first date’ occurring at a Met performance of Wozzeck (or perhaps because?!).  Never mind – it was the RPO at Carnegie Hall!

I was excited to learn that 700 Rochesterians would be attending this concert as well.  Most of them purchased tickets from the RPO, and were rewarded with lilac (of course) handkerchiefs to wave at the performance, in a show of support.  The week's program, Spring for Music, included the New York Philharmonic, as well as the Seattle, Winnipeg, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh Symphonies. 

Howard Hanson was a fixture at the Eastman School of Music for 40 years, and composed Merry Mount in the early 1930s for the Metropolitan Opera.  It received mixed reviews, and has seldom been performed since. Although he had composed choral and symphonic works, this was his first, and last, opera.  Hearing the pared down concert version (conductor Michael Christie mercifully cut roughly an hour from the score), I was impressed with the orchestral and choral music.  Part of me wished they could have dispensed with the soloists - to me they just distracted from the orchestra, and placed them in a supporting, rather than starring role.  As a friend commented on our way out, it would have been more enjoyable, and a better representation, to hear the RPO play a piece of Mahler's.  On the other hand, performing a work by such an illustrious Rochesterian, and presenting a collaboration with the Eastman-Rochester Chorus and Bach Children's Chorus of Nazareth College, displays the true Rochester spirit.  And the musicians weren't just playing to a transported Rochester audience.  The 2800 seat Carnegie Hall was at least two-thirds full, so there were definitely some New Yorkers who were getting the message that our city has a plethora of quality performing arts organizations. 

Merry Mount is rather an odd opera, about repressed religious zealots and their fanatical persecution of those not of their faith.  It surprised me that this is a description of the Puritans, who I grew up believing settled in the New World to escape religious persecution, rather than perpetuate it.  The music is fairly traditional and not memorable. But the RPO performed wonderfully, as did the huge chorus, whose enunciation and dynamics were enviable.  The children's chorus was adorable.  The soloists were fine, but unfortunately not all from Rochester.  It was disappointing that they couldn't have found more local opera talent, or at least those who had some tie to our community.

Sadly, the New York Times reported on May 4 (in an article about the future of classical music, discussing how "orchestras in Albany, Buffalo, and Rochester stay nimble") that this will be the last year for this series, due to lack of financial support. I'm glad the RPO was able to participate this year and that we were able to share in the experience.