More than 2,300 people turned out at Symphony Hall in downtown Springfield for the SSO's first performance of the new year.
Cellist Julian Schwarz performed on Saturday with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.SPRINGFIELD – The Springfield Symphony Orchestra charged full steam ahead into 2012 on Saturday, treating 2,337 concertgoers to an abundance of beautiful melodies and supercharged Beethovenian energy.
In place of the pre-concert Classical Conversation, the Springfield Youth Orchestra, led by conductor Jonathan Lam, laid the groundwork for a night of romantic melody with an admirable reading of Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” Overture-Fantasy.
Maestro Kevin Rhodes and the SSO opened the concert with Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll,” one of the most beautiful works in the western canon. Before playing the piece, Rhodes set the scene by describing Wagner’s composition of the piece as a gift for his wife, Cosima, first played by 15 musicians on the steps of their home on the morning of her birthday.
As Mahler’s Wunderhorn songs would wend their way into his symphonies, tunes from Wagner’s “Idyll” would later make their appearance as leitmotifs in his magnum opus Ring Cycle. In the birthday gift, the melodies are still simple, clear impressions of a spring morning; bird-songs, musical sunlight, sweet-scented air. Wagner’s innocent rolling triplets and languid, lean melody would barely have awakened his spouse. Perhaps their sounding was more inclined to sweeten her dreams.
Saturday’s guest artist, cellist Julian Schwarz, thrilled the audience with an expert rendition of Tchaikovsky’s “Variations on a Rococo Theme,” then charmed them further with Dvorak’s “Waldesruhe,” or “Quiet Forest.”
Schwarz, who just turned 21 a week ago, played with the insight and understanding of the fully seasoned interpreter that he is. Being immersed in music from his earliest days, observing father Gerard conducting rehearsals and performances with the Seattle Symphony, meeting the great cellists of the 20th century like Rostropovich and studying with leading artists like Lynn Harrell and Joel Krosnick has set the young Schwarz on a fast-track to significant music-making.
His account of the “Rococo Variations” was elegantly nuanced, balancing plummy decorum with impetuous fervor in perfectly conceived measure. Rhodes and the SSO trod lightly around him in the nimble, delicate ballet between soloist and orchestra.
It was obvious from the standing ovation accorded the Tchaikovsky that the audience would appreciate an encore, and Schwarz, Rhodes and the orchestra were clearly prepared to give one. The simple, heartfelt lines of Dvorak’s “Waldesruhe” proved the perfect companion to the decorative excesses of the Variations.
What is best described as a “rip-snorting” performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony wrapped up the evening’s activities. The energy blasting off the Symphony Hall stage at the end of Beethoven’s galloping finale had all the punch of the legendary NBC Symphony recordings by Toscanini, from which many of us learned these life-altering compositions.
The tempos were incisive interpretations of the composer’s markings. The subdivided introduction never seemed stodgy, but preserved Beethoven’s instruction of sounding “a little sustained.” The manic, obsessive “Vivace,” bursting with the joyfully skipping dotted figure that infests nearly every bar, crackled with life, coming nearly off its axles in the free-wheeling development.
The second movement’s solemn two-four (not 4/4 as was mistakenly asserted in the program notes!) march thankfully refused to wallow in gloom. While much has been written about the dirge-like quality of it’s inevitable a-minor stride, it is marked “Allegretto,” the diminutive of “Allegro” – thus, somewhat less than cheerful, but not maudlin.
Rhodes nailed the tempo relationship between Scherzo and Trio in the “Presto.” Many play the Trio too slowly and it loses the momentum gained by the Scherzo. Rhodes related the basic pulse of the two sections seamlessly, a master-stroke in leading such a large ensemble in such nimble music.
As stated above, the finale dusted out the back corners of Symphony Hall with what English musicologist Donald Tovey aptly described as “Bacchic fury.” The smiles on players’ faces as they swung their bows spoke volumes about the great fun of making this music.
Every movement of the Beethoven Seventh was deservedly applauded. After all, in the first performance, the second movement was so much appreciated it had to be encored before Beethoven could proceed to the Scherzo.