On Thursday November 19th, 2009 I was in the presence of the world-known Italian conductor Riccardo Muti. The atmosphere was one of angst to see the conductor and hear the famous orchestra. The repertoire included Franz Liszt’s Les Preludes, Symphonic Poem No.3, Edward Elgar’s In the South Overture, and the highlight of the three, Selections from Romeo and Juliet by Sergei Profokiev. The three pieces, although their composition ranged over a century, were each epitomical works of program music.
Many in the audience would have left Lincoln Center fixated with pieces from Romeo and Juliet. It without a doubt was the main feature, however Franz Liszt’s Les Preludes, Symphonic Poem No. 3 served as an incredible headway into the program music. Despite the fact that it was only a fragment of a set, the use of the orchestra to create or depict the emotions, development, and scene he wanted was amazing. The 6- minute piece was broken down into four parts -according to Liszt- which were love, war, beauty of the countryside, and destiny. Muti actually extended the piece an extra minute or so, because the original would have been five minutes. Nevertheless the music was complemented greatly by Muti’s control of the huge orchestra that made use of tone color as exactly Romantic composers did.
The piece began with merely the string the entering. The lower ones began followed by ultimately the violins. This string intro immediately incorporated the brass section with a pushing and ‘all-over’ the place melody which reached its peak with a build up in fortissimo dynamics that lead to a hard drop to a soft tutti phrase. The flutes accentuated the ‘love’ part of the poem with held graceful legato lines. The ritornello phrase that was focused on throughout made its way back into the piece by individual instruments at a time, and even sections at a time. Dynamics built up intensely in the ‘war’ and ‘destiny’ portion as did the tone color especially with the brass. Muti’s control of the brass section in this piece was unparalleled. He was able to successfully get the most out of them without hurting them too much. The same ritornello fragment that was originally used in ‘love’ was used in the ‘war’, just much at much faster tempos and volumes. In each part of the poem one could tell how Muti followed Liszt’s notation of alternating instrumentations to create the emotions in his sequence. Experiencing the ‘beauty of the countryside’ was the most rewarding. Muti focused on this one more than the other parts and used the delicate woodwinds, and violins to elongate sound. There weren’t many climbs and the brass was hardly used. However, even the powerful brass took turn to beautifully create the ‘natural’ countryside at the conductor’s whim. It was very waltz-like. Muti’s transitions were the most extravagant. In them he explored dynamics and tone color the most. In the last part ‘destiny’ he dictated a fuller sound with the entire orchestra showing off their versatility along with strong percussive accents. Drum rolls, the tympani, and cymbals make the last part the strongest. From his legato ‘love’ piece, to his march-like climb to ‘war’, to the ‘Bambi’-like countryside, and ultimately the extravagant ‘destiny’ he was able to experiment with what Romantics did most, expressiveness and color.
The theme throughout the entire poem was never lost. Muti truly dictated the tempos beautifully as they changed from love, to war, nature, and destiny. The moods of the piece were conveyed even more successfully with the power of the brass even when it was used in lyrical rhythms. That was the most impressive technique, the fact that in one moment instruments that sounded graceful, like the strings, were played vivace to create an eerie sound and vice versa.
Overall, Muti’s casual, yet concentrated demeanor proved that he was worth the money to see. His brilliance as well that of the orchestra was superb. Both he and that ‘animal’ he controlled were in the lime-light that morning, and nothing could stop them. Not even a pink sweater.
