Last night, I was at Philadelphia's Verizon Hall for one of Christoph
Eschenbach's final performances as music director. Despite the internal
dissension that shortened his tenure in Philadelphia, I have had only
positive feelings about his choice of music, and the performances
themselves. His style on the podium is almost balletic in nature. But
most
important, he refused the easy course of giving the somewhat aged audience
the comfort of familiarity, instead championing new music, such as that of
Jennifer Higdon, while mentoring young performers.
But to the question. The orchestra for the 6th was huge, the stage packed
end to end with strings. The cellos, which were normally conductor-right,
were clustered just in front of the podium. The bases, which were normally
far conductor-right, were not within my view, since my low vantage
restricted the sightline. While there seemed a roughly equal concentration
of violins on the left and the right, Eschenbach's conductorial finesse
was
significantly biased toward his left, while the entire "right" of the
orchestra received far less attention.
Would you be so kind as to explicate?
Bob Morein
(310) 237-6511
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