Orchestra of St. Luke’s Present Haydn at Carnegie Hall

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Monday, 02 March 2026 14:37

Written by Jack Angstreich

 Photo by Chris Lee

At the wonderful Stern Auditorium, on the night of Thursday, February 12th, I had the privilege to attend a superb concert—presented by Carnegie Hall—featuring the excellent Orchestra of St. Luke’s under the accomplished direction of Andrew Manze. 

The event started auspiciously with a sterling account of Franz Joseph Haydn’s marvelous Symphony No. 47 in G Major, “The Palindrome,” from 1772. The initial Allegro is charming and elegant, with more urgent moments, while the ensuing slow movement, marked Un poco adagio cantabile, is more subdued with a greater solemnity and an increasing intensity—its intricate contrapuntal writing is especially impressive and it finishes quietly. 

The succeeding Menuetto e Trio provides the work with its familiar name since it is structured to “mirror itself backward and forward,” as explained by Ryan M. Prendergast, the program annotator; it is brief and more spirited, with a slower and statelier Trio section. The ebullient Finale, with a tempo of Presto assai, is the liveliest of all the movements and it concludes happily. The first half of the evening closed splendidly with an admirable rendition of the engaging Fearful Symmetries by John Adams from 1988, which was commissioned by this orchestra.

The second part of the program was equally strong, consisting of an extraordinary realization of Ludwig van Beethoven’s terrific Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 68, which was completed around 1806 and was here played by the exemplary virtuoso, Paul Lewis. The opening Allegro moderato begins with a brief, solo piano introduction echoed by the ensemble; the movement quickly builds in excitement but there are many less extroverted passages, even of sheer lyricism—after a dazzling cadenza, it ends with an enchanting coda. The Andante con moto that follows starts with pronounced gravity but the soloist’s part has a contrasting gentleness on the whole. The finale, marked Rondo vivace, is dance-like and exhilarating with some very passionate measures but with some very beautiful pianism sometimes in a more reflective, even song-like, register; it concludes exultantly.

The artists deservedly received a standing ovation.

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