Orchestra's long, lauded night in Budapest
BUDAPEST, Hungary - The Philadelphia Orchestra's Hungarian debut last night already was long overdue, considering that Budapest is one of the world's music capitals. But it was made even more so when delays caused by touring logistics turned a by-the-book evening into a four-hour concert that included a quickly assembled chamber-music prelude.
BUDAPEST, Hungary - The Philadelphia Orchestra's Hungarian debut last night already was long overdue, considering that Budapest is one of the world's music capitals. But it was made even more so when delays caused by touring logistics turned a by-the-book evening into a four-hour concert that included a quickly assembled chamber-music prelude.
The problems were caused by snow outside Luxembourg, the previous stop on the orchestra's two-week-plus tour of Europe and the Canary Islands. Although the musicians flew into Budapest with ample time to prepare, the truck containing their instruments and formal wear was slowed by weather, and wasn't expected to arrive until 7:30 p.m., the designated start time at Bela Bartok National Concert Hall.
So with a few hours' notice, maestro Christoph Eschenbach, at the keyboard, rehearsed Schumann and Bach with oboist Richard Woodhams and violinists Juliette Kang and Jose Blumenschein, who hadn't surrendered their instruments to the truck. The chance had to be taken, though the quick practice session left Eschenbach making noises about his hands not being in their best shape. "But otherwise," he said, "the audience would've waited an hour and a half" for the full orchestra, with nothing to divert it.
By the end of the long night, the applause had been the loudest, longest and warmest so far of the tour, which concludes in Vienna with concerts tonight and tomorrow.
Although the instruments did arrive and were unloaded so efficiently that an earlier decision to perform in street clothes was rescinded, the orchestra launched into the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the tour's much-admired soloist, Leonidas Kavakos, only to have one of the pegs on his fingerboard go awry. He attempted to continue with on-the-spot re-fingerings but eventually exchanged instruments with the nearby Blumenschein.
Although he had his own instrument back for the final movement, Kavakos never quite recovered his composure. Still, the audience demanded an encore, and then another, following Schubert's Symphony No. 9.
Good acoustics didn't hurt. "The hall was new to me, and I found it wonderful," Eschenbach said afterward. The venue shared the same acoustician - Russell Johnson - as the Kimmel Center's controversial Verizon Hall.
"But this hall is good!" the maestro exclaimed. Did they have any acoustical similarities? No, he said.
After it was all over - near midnight - Eschenbach admitted he had never done this before: "Improvised? Not! On tour? Not!"
