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Paradox, Irony and Eruptions New York
Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall
05/22/2025 - & May 23*, 24, 27, 2025
Igor Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements
Kate Soper: Orpheus Orchestra Opus Onus (World Premiere)
Philip Glass: Symphony No. 11
Kate Soper (Soprano)
New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Gustavo Dudamel (Conductor)
K. Soper (© Marco Giugliarelli)
“If, as is always the case, music appears to express something, this is always an illusion, and not a reality.”
Igor Stravinsky
“There’s almost no content in terms of language at all. I don’t like using language to convey meaning. I’d rather use images and music.”
Philip Glass
If this week’s New York Philharmonic concerts presage next year’s Gustavo Dudamel stewardship, then New York should be ready for one of the dynamic (and probably accessible) season since Leonard Bernstein.
The three works this week were not only different, but they contradicted themselves in import. But even at the most boring sections (and Philip Glass’s 11th Symphony was filled with them), one could never take one’s eyes from Dudamel’s directions. In the Stravinsky Symphony, he punctuated every measure, every hemisemidemiquaver with sharp mighty blows. In Kate Soper’s work–vocal, orchestral, polemic, didactic–the solo/orchestral interludes between Ms Soper’s vocal/poetic utterances were spot on.
As for Philip Glass, he may have had an easier time of it. Inane as this may initially sound, his latest works follow the structure of La Valse or Boléro. Each of the outer movements started with a whisper, and then oh‑so‑gradually turned the whispers into conversations, (and the traditional Glass leitmotif of descending scales), all based on a background chuga-chuga-chuga, and winding up with an fffff of drums, tubas, brass and all the other orchestra stuff.
This invariably brings the audience to its feet (his endings prompt the vociferous plaudits of a loaded‑base home run). And in a way, he deserves it.
Mr. Glass is a master of piano works, of operas (my favorites) and a variety of symphonies. In the 11th, if one ignores the chuga‑chuga and the repetition of each measure two or three times, he produced a work of glowing emotional intent, of unashamed feeling, sculpted for the likes of Maestro Dudamel.
I. Stravinsky, drawn by P. Picasso
The originality of the program started with Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, its first three measures a volcanic eruption. Mr. Dudamel was fine in his Philip Glass conducting, yet that was a beautifully coiffed model. The Stravinsky is eccentric, winding, unexpected. And Mr. Dudamel pressed all the right buttons.
The Stravinsky quote above is Hamlet’s “Words, words, words.” The reality, the composer confessed, was that this was a reflection of the (Second World) War. The music, up to the finale Japanese marching, has not a measure of lovely, cantabile respite. (Though the second movement is meditative enough.)
And that was how Mr. Dudamel led the New York Phil. A clarity from the Phil, unending energy, whip‑sharp brass–and in the first and last movements every note was staccato, dagger‑sharp, piecing.
In between the Glass and Stravinsky was a world premiere by the ultra-multi-talented Kate Soper. Like Caroline Shaw, she is both composer and stunning singer. Yet Ms Soper is a dramatic poet as well. Her drama–first on the meaning and non‑meaning of music; second on the story of Orpheus–was both poetic and deeply probing into aesthetics itself.
The 40-odd minutes seemed far shorter here. She could mention the word “orchestra” and we heard a sharp chord. A “lyre” produced notes from the harp. Basically, she spoke and sung. Though credo was not the credo of Orpheus. For music does not make the stones cry, it does not move mountains, it doesn’t even help Orpheus rescue his wife.
All the music of Orpheus, from Gaité parisienne to Monteverdi and Gluck. (What?? No Stravinsky “Orpheus”??) was played when mentioned. A happy smorgasbord for the world’s first musician.
Ms Soper managed to blend Pythagorean theory, the poet’s irony, songs and threats against sophistry. And Mr. Dudamel well played his role.
So what is music? Ms. Soper comes close, in saying that music is “a sublimity” in our lives. And at the end, we knew she was speaking of her own magnetic word/song/orchestral concept itself.
Harry Rolnick
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