Martha Argerich, as they say, is available for a limited number of cancellations.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic has sent word that she’s canceling her appearances with the orchestra next week. Again. She was to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Dudamel and company. No reason was given for her withdrawal, and we hope she’s OK, of course.
Jeremy Denk will replace her (no complaints) and will perform the same concerto.
Classical Life 
Hmmm. I’ve had good luck w/ seeing Sra. Argerich (Ravel & Chopin piano concertos), so perhaps i was pushing my luck to think she’d show up. After being billed as playing “Piano Concerto TBD,” I took it as a good omen when they announced that she’d be playing the Beethoven 1st (as in, “if they know what she’s playing, she must be coming . . .”). Oh well.
Now,I’m kind of luke-warm on this concert. Don’t get me wrong, I like Mozart and Beethoven a whole lot, but I liked the prospects of the originally plan of Shostakovich with Martha playing pretty much anything a whole lot better.
“Martha! Martha!
Du entschwandest, und mein Glück
Nahmst Du mit Dir”
Coming back to say I was wrong, and that despite Martha’s absence, this concert turned out to be very enjoyable and very good evening of music and music making. Tim, not sure if you’re gonna be able to make it on this side of the Orange Curtain this weekend for any of these concerts, but here’s my $.02 . . .
I liked Denk a lot. He was quite a character with facial expressions and head bobbing and weaving, but his playing was beautiful and incisive and he never distorted the line like the way some other highly visual pianists can do (cough, Lang squared, cough, cough). His 1st movement cadenza was a trip — stylistically unlike any other I’d heard in a Beethoven concerto, expansive, harmonically creative, but always pulling back before it approached vulgar.
Dudamel’s Mozart, especially in the symphony, is still a bit too full-throated for my personal taste, but it was paced nicely, tempi were never extreme, and details came out clearly. LA Phil sounded lovely, woodwind principals especially doing there usual great work. Can’t complain one bit, very glad I was there.
Major bonus of the unexpected and unannounced playing of the Overture to “Marriage of Figaro” as an encore. Wonderfully played, brought huge smiles to my face and those around me. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it indoors at WDCH or DCP (not counting as part of an actual staged performance by LA Opera). What a treat.
CKDH – I don’t know why you give Denk a pass and cough at Lang. I thought Denk was way over the top with the emotionating. He’s a competent pianist but that’s it. The whole concert was a disappointment and the first time I’ve had that feeling with Dudamel on the podium. The ‘encore’ was mandatory since totting up the three programmed pieces gave an evening of under one hour.
RN – agree with you that the the Figaro overture brought the concert back to a “regular” amount of music played. Still, I wasn’t expecting it and they certainly were under no obligation.
I knew that Denk’s machinations would turn people off, and I was initially taken aback by them. I ended up dealing with it in the end because (a) it was quirky in a fun way, and more importantly (b) the facial contortions weren’t reflected directly in the way he played (cadenza not withstanding). I actually closed my eyes for a bit during the first movement to concentrate on the playing, and it sounded like Beethoven, not some quirky distortion of it.
in contrast, Lang emotes not only with his body movements and facial expressions but with his music-making as well and everything gets all gooey when he plays. When he played the Bartok 2nd with the local band, he screwed with it less than he does, say, Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninoff, but it still reinforced my own opinion that I never need to pay money to see him play again.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Denk’s performance was up there with what Argerich could have done with it, or what you and I have probably heard in the past from other “big-name” pianists. But the guy played it fine and with a little personality in the interpretation, and given that I expected run-of-the-mill and got quite a bit more than that. I’ve had many other last-minute replacements give me much less, so I’ll take it.
In the end, I was happy with the whole evening. Not thrilled, not blown away, not transported, but happy. I’m sorry you were disappointed — I’ve been there too, and it always sucks to leave the concert hall feeling that way.
CK: Do you know who wrote the cadenza? Also, have you heard Denk’s Ives recording?
CKDH – Interesting perspective. I’ve seen Lang a couple of times at WDCH as you have. I didn’t think he distorted pieces for his own purposes although he was clearly having a good time. That was a few years ago, maybe things have changed.
I disagree that the Phil was under no obligation to lengthen the concert. Typical evenings are 80-90+ minutes of programmed music with filler rounding it to 2 hours. 80-90 minutes is my expectation at the prices charged. Even with the encore, it came in thin. They’re making it a Friday Lite session tonight by eliminating the 6 min Masonic music.
The evening was announced last year to be Shostakovitch and Argerich. In the end, we got neither. I wonder why the wholesale switch to mini-Mozart and if a sub had to be arranged, why not a more interesting piece than Beethoven 1. Which, by the way, Fliter also played a few years ago when Argerich cancelled.
RN – we definitely agree on one thing: losing both Martha and the Shostakovich was a huge bummer. Would much rather have seen that concert.
Tim, I may be wrong but I’m pretty sure its the “regular” cadenza (I have a feeling it’s written out but I’m not sure). That said, for me, he played it very differently then it sounds in , say, my Murray Perahia recording. Same notes, perhaps, but shaded very differently. He seemed to really emphasize different parts of the harmonies than I’d typically hear.
I really like Ives orchestral and vocal works but I am woefully undereducated when it comes to his piano music. Is Denk’s CD worth piccking up?
Denk’s Ives recording is definitely worth getting. I reviewed it a while back. You can find a link to my review on this blog somewhere.
The timings for the three programmed pieces were 6+37+21=64 minutes which is definitely OVER an hour, not under. The encore added about 5 minutes to it.
The cadenza was by Beethoven but not the one that is usually played. This one is almost 5 minutes long and performed very rarely, but i have heard it before, though only once or twice – and perhaps so have you, CKDH, which is why it seemed familiar to you but somehow different, since we are all much more used to a different cadenza that is played about 95% of the time with this concerto.
MarK – you write with the authority of someone very close to the orchestra and most likely in it. Nevertheless, the program listed 6+35+18 so I computed that as 59m. Either way, it is far short of a full concert program. Nitpicking aside, we came expecting meaty Shostakovitch and Martha Argerich as did the people sititing next to us who drove down from Santa Cruz and couldn’t figure out what happened to the program they were expecting. We got a lot less. Not one of the orchestra’s finest 1 +/- 0.1 hours.
RN … yes, it has been established that MarK is very close to the orchestra.
My timings are of the actual performance. The stage crew keep precise records of all timings and they gave me those numbers.
The disappointment may be understandable but of course we all know that “programs and artists are subject to change” and for the record it must be noted that: 1) the program was changed over two months ago and was listed correctly on LA Phil’s website all that time, and 2) the originally scheduled soloist canceled her appearance very recently, replacement was found rather quickly, and that change was also listed on the website since about a week before the first performance. In case of Martha, it is common knowledge that unfortunately she cancels more often than she appears, so when she is on the program, it is always a good idea to check whether she is performing, up until the week of the concert.
For most “classical music lovers” changing from Shostakovich to Mozart does not mean “a lot less” in terms of musical quality. My guess would be that exactly the opposite may indeed be true. Of course, Denk is no Argerich, but his playing was quite good for a “last minute replacement”. He played his best on Sunday, was rewarded with a very enthusiastic standing ovation that was well deserved for a change, and responded with an encore that added five more minutes to the program. How often does one hear a soloist play a piece by Charles Ives as an encore? He did, which was nice and refreshing.
And by the way, some of the programs for the last few weeks of this winter season have been changed too and all those changes are on LA Phil’s website, so if you are interested, don’t forget to check them all now.