CONCERTS IN THE PARKS
JOSHUA BELL AND THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC
Van Cortlandt Park, The Bronx, tomorrow; Cunningham Park, Queens, Friday; Westchester Community College, Valhalla, N.Y., Saturday. Show times are 8 p.m. and fireworks follow all performances. Free. (212) 875-5709.
IF Tuesday’s 37th annual New York Philharmonic opener in the park had a theme song, it was “Tonight.”In the shadow of Leonard Bernstein’s Central Park West home, in a concert in his honor on the Great Lawn, with one of the greatest bands in the land, it wasn’t just any night, it was pure New York, New York – indomitable, proud and inspired.
Conductor William Eddins was in the driver’s seat, making his debut with our hometown orchestra. Grammy-grabbing Joshua Bell was the solo fiddler, and sexy Broadway and TV star Kristin Chenoweth was the surprise guest vocalist on the program, which was split 50/50 between the best of Bernstein and Prokofiev’s “Symphony No. 5.”
Eddins is an unusual conductor. First and foremost, he’s not an egghead. He swung his baton to create a serious sense of humor within the music. While it’s tough to pinpoint how he did it, the result was people’s music. You could’ve been a kid, a Wu Tang fan or a lockjaw WASP and still appreciated this performance.
With Bell bowing his ancient Stradivarius to Bernstein’s modern classical melodies, the magic was in place. Bell rang so true in this program because he has a knack for making the violin a voice in the music.
So, in the “West Side Story Suite” – a patchwork of melodies from the Bernstein classic – when you heard instrumental tidbits of “Maria,” “I Feel Pretty” and “Tonight,” the words of those American standards filled your head.
Chenoweth – whose soprano is a little bit classical and a little bit Broadway – made her biggest splash singing “Glitter and Be Gay” from “Candide,” Bernstein’s only true opera. Chenoweth was outrageously campy (especially in the tune’s bridge), yet totally in control of the demanding piece, which calls for a voice that can shatter glass.
If this concert had a problem, it was that the Bernstein set – played before the intermission – was so terrific that the Prokofiev paled by comparison.
And it wasn’t as if the Philharmonic didn’t know what it was doing and how powerful a start it had: PBS – which filmed the show for an Oct. 10 broadcast – turned its cameras off when Lenny’s tribute was finished.