NEW YORK, NY.- There’s often a bias against the idea of flashiness, especially in classical music circles, as if it must always be preceded by the word “empty.”
But not Wednesday at David Geffen Hall, where conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada and cellist Edgar Moreau were making their New York Philharmonic debuts. If anything, the word that accompanied their kind of flashiness was “fun.”
By offering plenty of buoyancy — and largely skirting grave weight — the programming communicated this conductor’s zealous pursuit of entertainment. It ran from a rousing take on Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” Overture-Fantasy to a graceful (and yes, occasionally flashy) Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1, then, after intermission, a truly aggressive reading of Bartok’s “Miraculous Mandarin” Suite and a boisterous finale in Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody No. 1.
That’s an evening built to dazzle and entertain. But there was substance as well. From the outset of Tchaikovsky’s crowd-pleaser, Orozco-Estrada had the Philharmonic players in fine balance: Plucked strings had presence; entrances of flute or harp came across clearly; a roll of percussion heightened tension without calling too much early attention to itself.
And then a dam burst. With Orozco-Estrada essentially dancing in front of the Philharmonic, the musicians responded with kinetic, swaying ensemble playing — crisp and full of jousting fervor. All this, before the first appearance of the work’s famous love theme, which under Orozco-Estrada’s baton was never rote in execution.
Less famous is Haydn’s First Cello Concerto, which was discovered only in 1961. On a 2015 recording of the piece, Moreau relishes in athleticism, teasing a Baroque sensibility. (It’s clear, after Wednesday, that this is his regular preference.) Trickier still is that, when pushing his limits in finger-busting ways, he seems to sacrifice nothing in the singing gracefulness of his intonation and phrasing.
In some higher-range passages, taken speedily, Moreau’s pushing of his limits resulted in stray, subtle infelicities; one bow stroke in the first movement produced a rare trace of unlovely sound. In the third movement, he looked displeased at the tail end of one brisk figure, shaking his head before recovering.
Most transporting was the middle-movement Adagio. Orozco-Estrada and the Philharmonic, game partners throughout, seemed to be on tenterhooks, listened attentively to Moreau’s beautiful playing. And, yes, there was some flash here, too: Moreau’s appoggiatura playing provided a stretch of incredible yearning directly before an exposed aria.
As the crowd cheered Moreau warmly, he was intent on steering the applause to Orozco-Estrada, and did not offer an encore. Maybe next time. After intermission, the focus was solely on the conductor and the orchestra, which got loud, and fun, in the Bartok — particularly among the brasses, a section that excelled throughout the night. As with another recent Philharmonic podium debut — that of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla — there was the sense, a year later, of the ensemble having found its footing inside the acoustics of its renovated hall. During the “Miraculous Mandarin” Suite, there was admirable transparency, even amid heaving, dense writing.
Quieter moments also had character. In some interpretations, these pass by in obligatory fashion, marking time between big orchestral yawps. But on Wednesday, they were standouts, in part because of the playing from the principal clarinet, Anthony McGill. And if this impressive display of Bartok’s range managed to overshadow the more straightforward, folk energy of Enescu’s work, well, that piece managed to charm as well. All told, this was a debut that should earn Orozco-Estrada a return engagement.
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New York Philharmonic
This program repeats through Saturday at David Geffen Hall, Manhattan; nyphil.org.
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.
