NYPhil Rehearses Tchaikovsky "Manfred Symphony after Byron, Op 58"

The tribute to Tchaikovsky continues at the NYPhil.  Today's bill fared the Manfred Symphony & Piano Concerto #1 Op 23.  I was disappointed the Piano Concerto wasn't 1st on the rehearsal.  It's more often that the featured guest artist rehearses first - as indicated on the evening's program.  Guest pianist, Kirill Gerstein is the guest pianist.  Gerstein (b Russian 1979) received the 2010 Gilmore Atist award & won the Arthur Rubinstein Piano competition in 2001.  I'm sorry not to have stayed to hear Gerstein's brilliant piano playing of Tchaikovsky's stirring piano concerto.  The Manfred Symphony was rehearsed under Maestro Semyon Bychkov (b Russian 1952.)  Bychkov conducted last week's Tchaikovsky program.  There were notable differences between the two rehearsals.  Bychkov rehearsed Tchaikovsky's Symph #5 by playing through the 1st 2 movements & then halting with a prolonged discussion after which the musicians replayed the movements.  The accentuations that varied were apparent.  The same was true with the the last movements of the symphony.  I found that rehearsal fascinating.  For today's program, conductor Bychov rehearsed the last 2 movements with frequent starts & stops which made the complex composition difficult to fully appreciate.  The historic background of "Manfred Symph" is tied in with both Lord Byron's poem & Russian composer Mily Balakirev (b 1837-1910.)  Balakirev had greatly influenced Tchaikovsky's composition of the "Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture.)  Balakirev is known more for directing other composers (Tchaikovsky & Berlioz) than for his own compositions.  Tchaikovsky was reluctant to use Byron's incestuous & mystic poem as a muse for his work.  He did aquaesce but did not submit to all of Balakirev's ministratiaons.  It believed Byron (b England 1837-1910) wrote Manfred as a semi-autobiographical admission to an incestuous relationship with his sister.  The Symphony is at times dynamic & defiant sounding.  It also contains softer/concilitory movements.   The Symphony, like many of Tchaikovsky's works has a storytelling aesthetic.  In the poem, Manfred confesses his sins to dark spirits who in turn demand of him his soul.  The orchestration has a lot of crashing symbols and strong drumming lending a bombastic  tone.  Then, the vivace con spirito interspersed saccharine orchestrations of harps & strings.  Perhaps, the frequent halting, or the macabre backstory or not hearing  the piano concerto contributed to fault finding with today's rehearsal.