By David Amos
SAN DIEGO — What could be a greater pleasure than another visit to a favorite destination? It is to be there with someone who is there for the first time. This was the joyous occasion when we visited New York City together with our recently Bar-Mitzvah’d grandson, Zander. This gave us the opportunity to re-visit many places we cherish, but through Zander’s eyes and wonderment.
There were the expected experiences, such as the Empire State Building from its stratospheric observation deck, The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the mid-town Museum of Modern Art.
But there also is where Manhattan can be so much fun: In the unexpected moments. While walking on 57th Street in the early evening, we noticed that the doors to Steinway Hall were open and the lights were on. We quietly walked in and found ourselves in the middle of a two-piano recital with duo-pianists Barbara Podgurski and Konstanza Chernov. We arrived at the second half of the program, and enjoyed hearing the Symphonic Dances Op. 45 by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Later in his career, Rachmaninoff orchestrated this three-movement work to full orchestra, and that is what we hear more frequently today. It reminded me that I would like to program these dances soon with the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra.
The two piano performance was superb.
The next morning, we took a guided tour of Carnegie Hall. It was very informative, and emphasized the weight of tradition and history of this great concert hall.
Not to be accused of only attending classical music events, one fine evening we took the subway to the Bronx and saw an entertaining game at Yankee Stadium between the Yankees and Red Sox. The sounds and flavors of New York were memorable. Who won?
Boston 8, New York 5.
You may have your favorite deli, but how can you go wrong with the Carnegie Deli? Everything met our expectations from previous visits, but the size of those servings were enough to feed the whole army of some Baltic countries!
Zander has taken a serious interest in learning about stock option trading. He is cautiously starting to be active with actual stocks. To this end, we took him to the war room of two wealth management divisions of prominent companies: Bank Leumi, and Bernstein. He was given a detailed tour and had the opportunity to meet with the various investment specialist gurus.
We walked and walked, on a couple of days exceeding six miles. But the horse and buggy ride in Central Park was idyllic and picturesque. (Remember that hilarious episode of Seinfeld on this subject?)
We walked slowly through the Lincoln Center and Juilliard area, but on July 3, we attended a concert at Avery Fisher Hall with the New York Philharmonic playing one of its “Summertime Classics” series. The conductor was Bramwell Tovey and the solo pianist Joyce Yang. I confess to not having heard about these two artists before, but the performances throughout the evening were magnificent.
The “music on the lighter side” included The Festive Overture By Shostakovitch, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and the famous Vocalise, Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, Tchaikovsky’s March Slave, and the Waltz of the Flowers, from the Nutcracker.
One curious thing that I noticed: The roster of the players in the N.Y. Philharmonic were, as usual in the printed program. But, I know several of the players and clearly recognize their faces. They were not there. Then it dawned on me: These first chair players are performing in Summer Music Festivals everywhere, doing solo recitals and chamber music. What we were watching and listening was a slightly different orchestra, liberally sprinkled with substitutes and re-seated regular section players.
But, was there a drop-off in quality? Not in the least. The sound and polish of the orchestra, the precision and musicality was all there. This is what years and years of tradition and musicians’ pride will get you. Maestro Tovey, originally from England, is the resident conductor of the Vancouver Symphony. He was able to bring out many wonderful sounds from the orchestra. His not brief, but very entertaining comments to introduce each selection were delightful.
We also visited the 9-11 Memorial Museum, on the site of Ground Zero. It was sensibly done, very moving and informative. Highly recommended.
Our walk through Times Square was quick and hectic, due to the large crowds, and suffocating heat and humidity.
We attempted to visit the Central Synagogue on Lexington Avenue. We had heard that it is a monumental experience to tour and visit the facilities. But, unfortunately, the day we were there it was not open to tours. We’ll do it next time.
A tour of the USS Intrepid is well worth your time. It is similar to the USS Midway, but with the additions of a submarine tour, the space shuttle Enterprise, and a British Airways Concorde.
The logistics of the trip were wonderfully organized by Cindy Newman of Travel Design on Navajo Road. Our hotel was the Quin, on the corner of 57th and 6th. This hotel used to be an apartment house, and in its past and present, has seen residents and guests such as Paderewski, Dimitri Tiomkin, Regina Resnick, Hershey Felder, Lang Lang, Renata Tebaldi, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Victoria de Los Angeles. You could hardly ask for a better location.
On July 4th we crossed over the Hudson River, and spent the day with good friends. In the evening, we saw the spectacular fireworks from Westchester.
A memorable trip.
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Amos is conductor of the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra (TICO) and has guest conducted professional orchestras around the world. He may be contacted via david.amos@sdjewishworld.com