Based upon the urgings of a few posters to the Internet, I drove over
to George Mason University's Concert Hall, 15 miles but 40 minutes away
(compared to the Kennedy Center, which is 22 miles but only half an hour
away) to hear Daniel Harding conduct the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie w/
Emanuel Ax playing the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in d minor.  The
orchestral pieces were Ives' *Three Places in New England* and, after the
intermission, Beethoven's Symphony No. 4.  I couldn't see the balcony, but
from where I sat in the second row of the orchestra, the orchestra level
seemed sold out.

As an aside, one cannot buy tickets from the Concert Hall box office, I
was told, unless one buys a series.  One is therefore relegated to the Web
or a ticket service, both of whom impose a "service charge" of I think $3
on each ticket.  I bought my ticket on the Web, specifying "best location"
available and was assigned seat E-9.  No seating chart was provided on the
web, so I had to go upstairs and check the seating chart in our Yellow Page
telephone directory.  Since E-9 was away from the keyboard, I was reluctant
to buy the ticket on the web but ran a tentative purchase through again and
got seat F-19.  This seemed better and I ordered it.  I didn't know that
Row E was the first row.  And seat 19, while not putting me on the side
away from the keyboard, put me just about dead center, but even from a seat
farther to the left, I wouldn't have been able to see the keyboard because
my eye level was about even w/ the bottom of the stage.  If the passage of
about twenty minutes hadn't changed the "best available" seat from first
row, right side, to second row, middle, I could have attributed the awkward
seating to the program's having been almost sold out.  I would have
thought, however, that the "best available" seats would have been marketed
in the opposite order.

Before the performance there was a pre-performance discussion, which I did
not see announced on the Web site, and I did not arrive in time to attend
from the beginning.  I got there, just in time to hear Albert Schmitt the
Orchestra Manager, wind up his account of the orchestra's history, after
which he took some questions.

This was the first time I saw an orchestra make a grand entrance onto
the stage, to audience applause.  There followed the ritual tuning, and
arrival of Daniel Harding, who was also welcomed, and he began the Ives.
The first "Place" is the "Saint Gaudens" in Boston Common.  It was a work,
new to me, and unlike the second "Place" (Putnam's Camp, Redding,
Connecticut) it didn't make enough of an initial impression upon me for me
to recall it now.  I associate Saint Gaudens w/ various statues to be found
in DC, including a tombstone for Henry Adams' wife, an unexplained suicide.
The Putnam "Place" was an exhilarating piece sounding as though for
competing bands, w/ competing rhythms and I think the orchestra was having
as much fun playing it as I, listening to it.  Israel Putnam was a soldier
in the French and Indian (Seven Years') War and in the Revolutionary War,
having been something of a hero in both.  A college room mate said he was
a descendant of his and maintained that Putnam had once won an unusual
duel.  He and his opponent sat on a powder keg, the fuse of which had been
lit.  Whoever jumped off the keg first lost the duel.  Unfortunately I
don't remember much of the third "place" (The Housatonic at Stockbridge).
My failure to recall some of this music doesn't mean I didn't like it.
It's just that I'm unable to write anything about it now.  While there
was applause at the end, I thought it was restrained.

The Mozart Concerto came next.  It lived up to expectations, particularly
the cadenza at the end of the first movement.  I think it was the Beethoven
cadenza; I certainly recognized it and, if it's the only one generally
played, that was it.  Ax was apparently vocalizing during the slow
movement, although I, unlike some of my neighbors, couldn't hear him, even
though I could see him move his lips!  The concerto ended w/ extended,
standing applause for soloist, conductor and orchestra.

I guess the highlight for me was the Beethoven Fourth Symphony after
the intermission.  I thought that the ominous beginning and the Allegro
vivace into which it leads were both played w/ vigor and gusto.  The second
movement, where in the beginning the second violins seem to be playing a
repeated "Aha!" while the first are playing the melody, followed by other
string sections playing the two-note background as the winds pick up the
melody until the two notes become the main theme (perhaps presaging some
elements not to be heard until LvB wrote his next symphony) was
magnificent.  The last two movements were similarly fine.  I can understand
the praise that has been heaped upon Daniel Harding, the conductor who
looks as young, if not younger, than he is.  His music sounded precise,
transparent, and never boring.  During the continued applause at the
concert's end, he made sure every group of instrumentalists got their
share of deserved recognition.

Walter Meyer <[log in to unmask]>