NY Philharmonic.

The New York Philharmonic over the years has changed and it keeps experimenting and changing. In the late 90's and well into the 2000's, I was a season ticket holder. The Phil at that time was experimenting with traditional pieces in the first act with new, more contemporary pieces for the second act. As a more traditionalist it led to me giving some Julliard student waiting outside hoping to get in to see the performance receiving two really good tickets!

As the years went on, the Philharmonic would sometimes put forth modern works in the second act; sometimes not. Don't get me wrong, you need to develop new works to keep the younger generations interested in something that is a real quality entertainment. What was The Avery Fisher Hall and now the Geffen is one of the very best venues in New York, and this is in a city that has more great venues for music and entertainment that you can mention.

In last nights performance we saw Mozart twice in the first act. Mozart was performed in a short piece: Scene and Rondo. K.505. Sung by Golda Schultz in Operatic, with Francesco Piemontesi making his NY Philharmonic debut on piano with Gianandrea Noseda as the conductor.

The second piece was Mozart's Piano Concerto No.25 in C Major, K503. In Allegro maestoso Andante, this piece was clearly the best of the evening. This in-depth, complex piece was done brilliantly and it showed off the prowess of Piemontesi and the prowess of Noseda as he conducted this masterpiece with a smaller, yet in sync orchestra.

Mozart, who is my favorite classical writer, is a deep, full master of music and story. Here we get one of his more brilliant pieces that takes the listener round and round. The audience was fully engaged in this rendition as it was done brilliantly.

In the end of the second piece, the audience was not informed of an encore and it had many people heading for the exits not knowing that there was more music to come. Even though the encore was short, it should have been in the program for the audience as a point of reference.

The New York classical music scene is a sophisticated one; whether it is at Geffen, Alice Tully Hall, or just across the street at the Julliard. When a performance is good you hear it in the ends applause; when it is great, the hall shakes with thunderous ovations. From the first acts applause there was no doubt that this was a audience favorite.

The second act was Mahler's Symphony No.4. In this performance it featured Golda Schultz coming back out after the third stop. She spend a great deal of time sitting front and center before singing a limited time at the shows close.

In this Mahler piece, it was bland and uninspiring. It was no surprise that about 7% of the audience had left at intermission. It seemed that the real knowledgeable concert goers knew more than the rest of us. As one audience member said after this performance "this was one of the more disappointing performances that I have seen".

This piece had high hopes, the orchestra expanded by 50% from the first two Concertos. The set-up was intriguing... how will this be conducted? Will it be brazen? Bold? Will it rattle our senses? No. No and No. It left us wondering why its orchestrations were so poor. It was confounding why it was designed this way. It was a great big thud to a brilliant first act.

New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center, Mozart, Mahler, Classical Music, Broadway, Chekhov, Uncle Vanya, Steve Carrell, Aladdin, The Lion King, Harry Potter.