When World Frozen in Fear, Music Melts the Heart

We were holding champagne in our hands and waiting for the moment. “Five, four, three, two, one, Happy New Year!” My partner and I were counting down in Paris with friends. When the clock passed midnight and with magnificent fireworks in the sky, we exchanged wishes for the new year. 2020 has turned out to quite different from those wishes. A mysterious virus started attacking people around the globe. The world froze in fear. Right before the concerts were canceled and public gatherings were prohibited, and when this contagious disease started approaching New York in early March, my partner and I luckily attended a classical music concert by the New York Philharmonic. Recalling the beautiful melodies in the midst of the pandemic is a feast for my ears and breathes a warm breath in this frozen world.

The concert was performed at David Geffen Hall, a concert hall at New York’s Lincoln Center. Different from the classical music concert venues I have attended before, the interior of David Geffen Hall is minimalist and modern yet still inviting. The 2,738 seat capacity is divided into four levels. When we were queueing up to enter the gate to our seats, we ran into two friends. I remember someone once said that it is time to call a new city home when you start to occasionally run into friends on the street. I guess I should consider we are now New Yorkers, a few years after my partner and I relocated here. We briefly greeted our friends, seated, then waited for the concert to start.

The first half featured the French impressionist musician Claude Debussy. When the lights dimmed, a melodious flute solo kicked off the concert with Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun). This symphonic poem was composed and premiered in Paris in 1894 as a dreamlike musical response to the French poet Stephane’s poem Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. Paris was the place that truly nourished Claude’s music talent and turned this boy born-destitute into a world-known musician.

At the beginning of this piece, the sinuous flute smoothly dribbled up and down the scale, then its vibrant descents and ascends were accented by woodwinds. The poetic melody continued changing like a rotating kaleidoscope. Shimmering violin, viola, and cello harmonies melted with exquisite oboe, bassoon, clarinet and French horn, then elegantly transitioned into the smooth and soft touch of a flute lightly mixed with harp at the end. The music breaths warm breath even though it was March and New York was still cold. The music conveyed the picture of a summer afternoon spent in Central Park, perhaps jogging or biking, canoeing or sunbathing. I started looking forward to summer.

A magical night replaced the charming afternoon as Debussy’s Nocturnes (Nocturnal) followed Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. (Prelude to the Afternoon). Nocturnes includes three movements: Nuages (Clouds), Fêtes (Festivals), and Sirènes (Sirens) featuring a female chorus. Debussy competed Nocturnes between 1897 and 1899. The impressionist musician used his oratorical palette and painted the moving clouds, the boisterous festivals and a beautiful mermaid by the moonlit Greek seaside.

The three moments in the work are independent from each other in tone and portray completely different feelings. The gentle movement Nuages gently opened Debussy’s nocturnal musical kingdom. The amorphous sound delivered by muted strings and woodwinds conveys a picture of slowly and smoothly moving clouds floating in the quite night, just before carnival. Then began the Festivals. The excitement, the passion, the jubilation, were fully captured by the swirling rhythms played by timpani, harps, snare drums and so on. Finally, in the third movement Sirènes depicts “the sea and its countless rhythms; presently, among the waves silvered by the moonlight, is heard the mysterious song of the Sirens as they laugh and pass on,” so said the composer, Debussy. The female wordless background chorus sent through the air a simultaneously solemn and radiant emotion.

I enjoyed Nocturnes. Although I generally prefer classical music with gentle, dreamy, clam and fairy-like melodies, such as those delivered by Nuages and Sirènes in the first and last movement, the strong and inspiring second movement Fêtes resonated with me. I heard the music express the vivid image of a crowded carnival. The repititious metallic and almost noise-like sound of snare drums demanded that you enjoy this moment of the festival. What do we need more in a time of pandemic other than endless laughs, thrill and determination?

The second half featured Marurice Ravel’s Asie (Asia), La Flûte enchantée (The Magic Flute), L’indifférent (The Apathetic Fellow) and a Russian musician Alexander Scriabin’s Le Poème de l’extase, Op. 54 (The Poem of Ecstasy). Even though both Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel both are French impressionist composers, I connect more with Debussy’s music. In the second half, I enjoyed Scriabin’s Poème de l’extase, Op. 54 the most.

Poème de l’extase, Op 54 was written in 1908. Similar to Debussy’s works in the first half, this delightful impressionist symphony exhibited the sinuous outlines of melodic curves. The work lasted about 20 minutes delivering two different perceptions. It started with a slow and gentle chromatic winding and gave a sense of calmness and peace. It then moved onto an arousing theme and presented a somewhat intense emotion and thrill. The homophonic and surrounding texture was introduced by English horns, clarinets, bassoons, bass drums. The buzz lasted until the end and it essentially sounded like a paean to reassure with breaths of courage, inspiration and fearlessness. The emotion that the music sent was timely in the health crisis as we fight the invisible enemy.

The concert was conducted by French conductor Louis Langrée who is certainly experienced and masterful in his profession. Although he never had formal conducting training, he has successfully conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, and others. According to the conductor, “New York City was more than a city” to him “[and] it represented a fantasy.” Louis made his career in New York and became the music director of the Mostly Mozart Festival in 2003. During the concert, he appeared to have completely melted into the music. His passion and dedication to the music was almost visible. In addition, the performance of the women’s Chorus from The Julliard School was truly the icing on the cake. The heavenly sounds surely added a layer of color to the concert and disconnected me from the rest of the world, if only for a moment.

I have to admit I was distracted for quite a while in the second half mainly because the singer was singing some Ravel’s works in German, such as La Flûte enchantée (The Magic Flute), a language that is completely foreign to me. Even though my attention was diverted from the present performance, I was in fact comparing the earlier works to another recent classical music concert I attended at Vienna’s Musikverein in January. The performers included some humorous acting to interact with the audience and resulted in the audience clapping with the rhythms at the end. Imagine how we stayed up late the night before and had had a long day walking around the city; the sense of humor and interaction at the concert were rightly appropriate and prompted us to engage with the music.

I have not had many experiences at a classical music concert where the orchestra interacts with the audience, and I wished there were some engagement at David Geffen Hall. Ignoring the part when I was distracted and not actively listening, I enjoyed the concert and I did appreciate the performer’s genuine effort to bring such enjoyment to the attendees. It was a pleasant moment for us the escape from the harsh pandemic.

Like others, we are now cooped up in our Manhattan apartment. The invisible disease can easily bring forth emotions of anxiety, vulnerability and futility. The world has paused with panic. In this ocean of fear, music can be spiritually comforting and help us navigate these difficult times. Even though we cannot witness this Spring’s cherry blossoms; the music blossoms and I know we are not far from seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.