Concert in Bydgoszcz

We went to Bydgoszcz on the night of Friday the 21^st of September in order to hear the Filharmonia Pomorska directed by Takao Ukigaya and joined by soprano Olga Pasiecznik perform the Mozart concert arias “Ah, lo previdi!” (k. 272), “Chi sa, chi sa, qual sia” (k. 582), and “Vado, me dove, o dei” (k. 583). The orchestra also performed the overture from The Marriage of Figaro (k.  ),  and Beethoven Symphony no. 3, “Eroica”, in E-flat minor, op. 55. I had not heard any of the Mozart arias, to my knowledge, though one of them did sound suspiciously familiar. The program took place in Artur Rubenstein Hall of the Ignacy Paderewski Concert Hall. 

The concert hall itself definitely had an Eastern Bloc feel to it, but it represented probably the better tendency of that period of time towards monumental public architecture. The hall itself was actually rather small: I would estimate the full house at around 600-800 people, and there was only orchestra-level seating, with no balcony. The lobby at the back end of the hall was clearly intended to hold smaller recitals, and the lobbies in general were well-apportioned with portraits of famous composers, abstract tapestries, and sculptures. It really was a fine public space, and the lobbies were fairly well-designed for their purpose of letting people see and be seen during intermission. Granted, the staircases were not especially grand, but they did not clot up either. The acoustics of the hall itself were unremarkable, either good or bad, but the small size of the hall rendered this a mostly moot point.

What was also noticeable was that there were differences in the performance conventions between this concert and most every concert one might attend in the States. For one thing, there were no paper programs. The program notes were done instead by two speakers who talked for 10 minutes. Also noticeable was that I saw no evidence of corporate or other sponsors, which is typically underscored back at home. Based on what I saw, it seemed to be that the philharmonic was underwritten by the Voivodeship government as well as the national Ministry of Culture. At 30 PLN (about $10), I don’t know how much my ticket was defraying costs, especially considering that my seat was in the eighth row. 

When the concert began, the stage was entirely bare, and the orchestra walked out to take their seats to the applause of the house. The concertmistress did not walk out separately to her own round of applause. Both of these are entirely different in the States, where the orchestra is seated before the concert begins, except for the concertmaster who steps out separately. While the concertmistress did lead the tuning as she would have in the states, the oboist actually played three notes rather than just an A. The concert A was also noticeably higher than it is in the States, and might have been more like 470 Hz compared to what we’re used to hearing at 440 Hz. While this is probably not very interesting to non-musicians, it was quite noticeable to me. 

The Mozart arias were quite delightful, unmistakably written by that composer from a stylistic standpoint. There was some terrific writing for oboe, flute, clarinet and bassoon, sometimes individually and sometimes in combination. While some might argue that Mozart is easy, it is the very simplicity of his works that leads to great difficulty as all mistakes are noticeable and some pieces are fragile as glass: if not extremely well-performed, the shortcomings become obvious.  I will confess that Eroica is not my favorite Beethoven symphony, but once the secondary theme is introduced at about 4 minutes into the first movement it’s still a great piece of music and an important stepping-stone between the Classical and Romantic periods.  

The performance itself was somewhat mixed, with the second half of the program (Eroica) being generally better executed than the first. In the top half of the program, the violins had a number of intonation issues and did not sound clean. It almost lead me to wonder whether or not the strings had tuned thoroughly. Furthermore, the entrances of the strings were at times a bit shoddy, and at one point during the Figaro overture the violins and woodwinds were about half a beat ahead of the rest of the orchestra. The soloist herself was quite good, with a crisp tone, good phrasing, a light tone appropriate for Mozart and a small hall, and a good dynamic range. The orchestra had a much more successful second half, after the smaller setup of the first half (a Mozart-type orchestra) was augmented by additional players. The main issue in the second half was, somewhat surprisingly, balance, with the woodwinds and brass occasionally being a bit too soft. There was also the occasional issue with the French horns, particularly in the third movement where they have a prominent set of duets. Mr. Ukigaya’s interpretation of the piece was also noticeable for striking a balance between the excessive romanticism of certain conductors and the businesslike approach of others. In general, the tempo was kept relatively steady in each movement, and certain rests which tend to be extended in many interpretations had a somewhat “clipped” quality to them in this one. It appeared to me that the conductor was not trying to impose himself excessively upon the piece, which was appreciated.

In general, a fine time was had by all. What was surprising was the great range of experience that our group had with classical music and concert-going in general. A few of us probably are at the symphony every weekend, a few of us (myself included) go only from time to time but listen to a fair number of recordings, and I would not be surprised if this was the first symphonic concert for at least a couple of us.

I realize that I have skipped ahead a considerable bit in the chronology of my time here in Poland. I haven’t even written about Malbork Castle, and that took place a week ago. However, I did want to let my loyal readers know that I am getting a full dose of culture here in Poland, and write about the concert while it was still fresh in my memory. The stale crumbs of my remembrance of the rest of the week will follow shortly.