Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Opposite sides of the same state, separated by Amish country.
Both cities have too many potholes, some of which mutate into peckish sinkholes with a taste for swallowing cars or buses. Both cities have staple foods: the Philly cheesesteak and, in Pittsburgh, the humble pierogi. The City of Brotherly Love has a reputation for rudeness; Steel City residents are notoriously unfashionable.
Despite the chips on their shoulders, both cities have world-class symphony orchestras, grand sentinels of fine art and culture. In this case, world class isn’t an empty platitude. Both orchestras are regularly invited to play in prestigious concert halls worldwide and at distinguished classical music festivals. (Pittsburgh actually just announced its next jaunt to Europe.)
Now, because of their proximity, these two ensembles sometimes share performers. Pianists, violinists and other classical music soloists often perform the same pieces with different musical groups on tour.
In recent weeks, Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes performed the Russian composer Rachmaninoff’s third piano concerto, a massive feat of technique and stamina and heart, with both orchestras.
I heard both concerts. Both were excellent, in every sense of the word. But whose was better, in terms of raw performance power?
Stacked odds
In both cities, it’s worth noting, Andsnes has mere hours to rehearse more than 40 minutes of intensely complex music with the orchestra.
“If an orchestra can be the pride of the local audience, that’s one of the most important things it can do,” Andsnes said in a conversation after both concerts had taken place.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is the underdog, here, at least in terms of finances. Its $30 million budget is dwarfed by the Philadelphia Orchestra’s more than $50 million. This isn’t too surprising. Philadelphia is a much larger city, with 1.6 million residents, compared to the Steel City’s 300,000.
Philly can pay its players better, maybe one of the most important metrics in attracting top musical talent.
Nevertheless, there’s still something special about Pittsburgh’s orchestra. With music director Manfred Honeck calling the plays, the orchestra was spirited and volatile, if a little messy, matching the fire of Andsnes’ playing note for note in their April 20 performance.
Some technical issues are completely forgivable. Too many distract from the emotion of the piece. This orchestra toes the line.
How does this volatility shape a performance? The extreme contrasts of the players’ sudden, synchronized shifts from loud to soft and back, and Honeck constantly pushing the tempo faster and faster gave the music an air of spontaneity and life and abandon, as though it could spin out of control at any moment and grow teeth and swallow a car.
This feeling wouldn’t always be appropriate, but it well complemented this titanic concerto. (As a composer Rachmaninoff could be quite a showoff — he literally wrote this concerto before an American tour to demonstrate his superiority as a pianist.)
Control variable
Rachmaninoff himself had a clear bias for the musicians in Philly: “I don't know that I would be exaggerating if I said that it is the finest orchestra the world has ever heard,” he once said.
In Philadelphia on May 2, Andsnes and the orchestra were more subtle in their take, seemingly more focused on exploring shades of color in the sound than Pittsburgh’s rawer take. The tempos felt a little more stable, even in the finale.
The tranquility of the opening piano melody was delightfully at odds with the orchestra’s initial storminess. Under the baton of guest conductor Dalia Stasevska, Philly’s strings had a commanding presence, and woodwinds were relegated to shading in colors and adding flourishes rather than playing with equal weight.
Enjoyable as some of those dark, woody orchestral textures were at times, I preferred Pittsburgh’s more hair-raising take on the piece. It’s not as simple as saying, “it was faster.” It’s about the speed and energy and emotion their style conveyed.
Both were superlative. I simply found Pittsburgh’s a little more electric, which I find suits this particular piece well.
Sinkholes and symphonies
“Your perspective might be clearer than mine,” said Andsnes.
He’s a gentleman and a scholar, and as he’ll continue to play with both orchestras he was understandably demure about voicing any sort of preference.
However, he did agree with my overall take: “There is something in Philadelphia string sound which is very seducing, but I think you might be right that Philadelphia is a bit more... well behaved... and controlled than the Pittsburgh Symphony sometimes.”
Maybe my six years here have led me to develop an affinity for the way this orchestra plays. Maybe the cost of living difference between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh negates some of the difference in base salary.
A musician’s base salary is around $150,000 in Philadelphia and around $110,000 in Pittsburgh, but that $110,000 goes quite a lot further in the Steel City. (Salary.com says that Philly’s cost of living is 18% higher, but take that with a grain of salt.)
Indeed, this could be a simple, quantifiable reason why the Pittsburgh Symphony punches above its weight, but it doesn’t explain everything.
After all, if it were only about the money and cost of living, Pittsburgh’s peer orchestras in terms of budget — St. Louis, Baltimore, Seattle, less buzzy but still superb orchestras all — would be able to achieve similar success.
Certainly, much credit must go to Honeck, who has led the orchestra for more than 15 years and injected much of the animation and nuance that has helped the orchestra rise to prominence. (Remember The New Yorker’s article about Pittsburgh’s savage precision from a couple years ago?)
“Everybody speaks about Pittsburgh when they talk about the great American orchestras now,” Andsnes says. “They say, ‘Ah, New York and Chicago and Philadelphia and so on, but also have you heard Pittsburgh lately? It’s a known thing.’ And I’m not just saying that to you because you live there now.”
“There’s really something to be proud of, there.”
Jeremy Reynolds: jreynolds@post-gazette.com. His work at the Post-Gazette is supported in part by a grant from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Getty Foundation and Rubin Institute.
First Published: May 10, 2024, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: May 10, 2024, 4:19 p.m.