NY Philharmonic Open Rehearsal

Great Russian composers & artists was the theme for both the NY Philharmonic & the NYC Ballet this week.  NYC Ballet had an all Balanchine/Tchaikovsky program Wed. night & Thursday, The NY Philharmonic's program featured Tchaikovsky's Romeo & Juliet Overture & Shoshtakovich's Symphony No. 5.  Tchaikovsky is heralded as the great romantic Russiam composer.  The music to Romeo & Juliet is one of the seminal compositions from the Romantic era.  Shostakovich's music was both lauded & denounced by the Communist authorities as "bourgeois decadence" & irreverant in regarded to Russia's military successes during WWII.  Shostakovich's 5th Symphony is regarded as his most influential work both for its continuous powerful momentum breaching classical restraints mowing towards a neo-classical format.  The middle piece by Polish composer, Witold Lutosklawki, Chain 2: Dialogue for Violin & Orchestra (1985) was a contemporary.  The violin is discordant with the structure of the symphony as if in a defiante discourse. The violinist was Jennifer Koh who played majestically.  Lorin Maazel was welomed back conducting for a full-house.