Since 2024, when Jaap van Zweden ended his tenure as music director, the New York Philharmonic has been in a transitional period and will remain so until 2026, when Gustavo Dudamel assumes the directorship. With a constant rotation of guest conductors, the playing has been at a consistently high level. A key factor in the improved sound has been the 2022 renovation of David Geffen Hall, which changed the acoustics, bringing in increased clarity, warmth, and resonance. This was dramatically evident in this concert, the second of two honoring the centenary of Pierre Boulez (Music Director from 1971 to 1977), both designed and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Boulez himself led the Philharmonic in the January 13, 1977 New York premiere of Rituel in memoriam Bruno Moderna. This season’s Oct 8, 9 and 10 concerts feature the first NY Phil performances with choreography and pair the piece with two works championed by him.
Opening with the Stravinsky – scored for flute, clarinet, two bassoons, two trumpets, and two trombones – Salonen made the Philharmonic musicians shine in a perky, well-balanced, and metrically precise account. In the central Tema con variazioni, the dynamic, penetrating sounds of the bassoons stood out against the rhythmically intricate textures of the flute and the clarinet.
Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, with its soloistic distribution around the orchestra, came across as an especially appropriate pairing with the Stravinsky. After an incredibly hushed opening, the musicians skillfully moved through the terraced structures, deftly responding to Salonen’s wide-ranging dynamic changes and numerous tempo manipulations, always aware of their place in the sound. With minimal gestures, he elicited a brilliantly transparent rendition, highlighting the ensemble’s precision and virtuosity, eliciting all the angularity and humor in the score, and ending with a brilliant and bubbling finale.
For Rituel, a tribute to Boulez’s friend and fellow-composer-conductor, choreographer and dancer Benjamin Millepied featured the L.A. Dance Project. Planted in three groups across the back of the stage, and in another five locations around the three tiers of the Wu Tsai Theater, the players created a constantly shifting soundscape as brief motifs, interspersed with strokes of tam-tams and gongs, popped up from different spots in the auditorium. As soon as the music began, the six dancers entered, taking over most of the stage as they visually interpreted the complex score in a dynamic dialogue of music and movement. Millepied’s choreography features a couple interacting with four characters – sometimes united, other times at odds – using curving, slithering motions, along with movements triggered by percussive and other types of instrumental outbursts. The immersive effect was enhanced by the dancers frequently integrating with the musicians, and the use of lighting, including long light tubes around the edges of the performance space. Salonen, wearing gloves, one red and one blue, conducted from a podium placed on stage in front of the largest instrumental group, using stylized gestures that connected with the choreography. The music, always appealing, mounted in intensity until the midpoint and then dissipated into thinner textures. The performance concluded with the lead dancer draping herself around the conductor’s feet and remaining motionless until the music melted away, bringing a marvelous night of music and creative presentation to an end.
