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Those light summer evenings just got lighter
Philadelphia Orchestra's lightweight Mann season
Tom Purdom
The Philadelphia Orchestra closed its regular subscription season with an intense Mahler's Third led by Charles Dutoit and opened its summer season at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts with a moving Beethoven's Ninth led by Rossen Milanov. In between, as the curtain raiser at the Mann, the Orchestra threw in a performance of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto that demonstrated young Haochen Zang deserves the kind of career he's been carving out since he was five years old.
Zang is a Gary Graffman student who started his rise in the crowded, staggeringly competitive Chinese forcing houses. You can assume a pianist with that kind of credentials can hit the right keys at the right moment. But Zang's technical prowess is linked to something that's much rarer, and much more valuable.
He's a 19-year-old artist who can shape a slow movement that's truly lyrical and reflective, and follow it with a finale that shows he understands the difference between true intensity and superficial showiness.
"'Crossover music' triumphs
In the past, the Orchestra's opening night at the Mann initiated a group of programs that resembled the concerts it presents during its regular subscription season. The schedule may have been tilted toward ultra-familiar works and established stars, but most items on most programs had won a place in the standard orchestral repertoire.
Those days seem to be over. The Orchestra's "summer season" in Fairmount Park has been reduced to nine concerts, and most of the programs feature the kind of thing popular culture gurus call "crossover" music.
This season, the Mann is only offering three Philadelphia Orchestra programs that resemble the Orchestra's summer evenings of the past. The other two retro entries, after the high point of the opening night, are the annual "Tchaikovsky with Fireworks" happening and a concert devoted to Barber, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff, with Andre Watts as soloist.
The Tchaikovsky had previously been considered one of the lightweight evenings on the schedule— a summertime romp that ends with fireworks and the 1812 Overture. This summer it's a major contender in the heavyweight division.
Regis and Joy and a marketing ploy
The schedule could be defended as a marketing ploy: Some people who came to hear TV's Regis and Joy Philbin narrate Peter and the Wolf may decide they like the Orchestra's strange sounds and join the regular customers in Verizon Hall.
Tactics like that always suffer a drawback: The programs that attract new customers may repel your existing customers. But that may not be a big consideration in this case. Most of the dedicated concertgoers I know don't patronize the Mann. They find it inconvenient, and they seem to share my feeling that a decent seat in a real concert hall trumps a blanket on the grass.
The real losers are the Philadelphians who've looked to the Mann for their major contact with the Orchestra's repertoire. They don't subscribe to the Orchestra's regular season and they don't buy many single tickets, but they treasure their memories of the summer concerts in Fairmount Park.
Another time, another audience
When I first arrived in Philadelphia more than 50 years ago, such folks diligently clipped coupons from the newspapers so they could order free tickets to the Orchestra's old Robin Hood Dell venue. When the Mann replaced the Dell in 1976, they settled for a spot on the grass in front of the big loudspeakers. Some of them even bought tickets in the shed.
They didn't trek to Fairmount Park because they wanted to hear mashups that combined popular music with an orchestral backdrop. They came to hear their Orchestra play the masterpieces created for its unique repertoire.
Audiences in Vail, Colorado can still hear the Philadelphia Orchestra play the same music it plays in the winter, when the Orchestra fills its new annual stint at the Vail Valley Music Festival in July. In Philadelphia, the Orchestra's hometown fans must settle for less exalted fare.
Zang is a Gary Graffman student who started his rise in the crowded, staggeringly competitive Chinese forcing houses. You can assume a pianist with that kind of credentials can hit the right keys at the right moment. But Zang's technical prowess is linked to something that's much rarer, and much more valuable.
He's a 19-year-old artist who can shape a slow movement that's truly lyrical and reflective, and follow it with a finale that shows he understands the difference between true intensity and superficial showiness.
"'Crossover music' triumphs
In the past, the Orchestra's opening night at the Mann initiated a group of programs that resembled the concerts it presents during its regular subscription season. The schedule may have been tilted toward ultra-familiar works and established stars, but most items on most programs had won a place in the standard orchestral repertoire.
Those days seem to be over. The Orchestra's "summer season" in Fairmount Park has been reduced to nine concerts, and most of the programs feature the kind of thing popular culture gurus call "crossover" music.
This season, the Mann is only offering three Philadelphia Orchestra programs that resemble the Orchestra's summer evenings of the past. The other two retro entries, after the high point of the opening night, are the annual "Tchaikovsky with Fireworks" happening and a concert devoted to Barber, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff, with Andre Watts as soloist.
The Tchaikovsky had previously been considered one of the lightweight evenings on the schedule— a summertime romp that ends with fireworks and the 1812 Overture. This summer it's a major contender in the heavyweight division.
Regis and Joy and a marketing ploy
The schedule could be defended as a marketing ploy: Some people who came to hear TV's Regis and Joy Philbin narrate Peter and the Wolf may decide they like the Orchestra's strange sounds and join the regular customers in Verizon Hall.
Tactics like that always suffer a drawback: The programs that attract new customers may repel your existing customers. But that may not be a big consideration in this case. Most of the dedicated concertgoers I know don't patronize the Mann. They find it inconvenient, and they seem to share my feeling that a decent seat in a real concert hall trumps a blanket on the grass.
The real losers are the Philadelphians who've looked to the Mann for their major contact with the Orchestra's repertoire. They don't subscribe to the Orchestra's regular season and they don't buy many single tickets, but they treasure their memories of the summer concerts in Fairmount Park.
Another time, another audience
When I first arrived in Philadelphia more than 50 years ago, such folks diligently clipped coupons from the newspapers so they could order free tickets to the Orchestra's old Robin Hood Dell venue. When the Mann replaced the Dell in 1976, they settled for a spot on the grass in front of the big loudspeakers. Some of them even bought tickets in the shed.
They didn't trek to Fairmount Park because they wanted to hear mashups that combined popular music with an orchestral backdrop. They came to hear their Orchestra play the masterpieces created for its unique repertoire.
Audiences in Vail, Colorado can still hear the Philadelphia Orchestra play the same music it plays in the winter, when the Orchestra fills its new annual stint at the Vail Valley Music Festival in July. In Philadelphia, the Orchestra's hometown fans must settle for less exalted fare.
What, When, Where
Philadelphia Orchestra: Mahler, Third Symphony. Mihoko Fujimura, mezzo-soprano; Charles Dutoit, conductor. June 10, 2010 at Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center, Broad and Spruce Sts. (215) 893-1955 or www.philorch.org.
Philadelphia Orchestra: Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor (Haochen Zang, piano). Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 in D minor (Heidi Melton, soprano; Katherine Lerner, mezzo-soprano; Kevin Ray, tenor; Jonathan Beyer, baritone; The Philadelphia Singers Chorale). Rossen Milanov, conductor. June 15, 2009 at the Mann Center, Fairmount Park. (215) 878-0400 or www.manncenter.org.
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