I think it would be safe to say that Lang Lang’s Portland Oregon Symphony debut was a triumph.  The roar that came from the sold-out crowd at the Schnitz at the conclusion of the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto was well nigh deafening, such was the response from the audience.  I can’t say that I’ve ever heard such a thing in my 13 years with the OSO. [Read more →]

OK, the holiday weekend is over, a (slight) chance to relax was had, and now it’s time to take a retrospective look back at the 2007-2008 season from the point of view of an on stage musician.

Overall, my major impression from the season is that I had to learn quite a bit of unfamiliar music.  Not only music that I’d never heard before: [Read more →]

This past Friday, the St. Louis area was awakened by the shaking of a 5.2 magnitude earthquake.  That evening the St. Louis Symphony was led by OSO music director Carlos Kalmar in a performance that included the Fifth Symphony of Sergei Prokofiev.  According to this review and other accounts, this may have been an aftershock of its own.

Friday in St. Louis began with the tremors and aftershocks of an earthquake, and ended with an incandescent performance that shook the stage of Powell Symphony Hall.

The first half of Friday night’s concert by guest conductor Carlos Kalmar and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra was fine. The second half was remarkable: What a difference the right repertoire in the right hands can make to a concert.

That second half consisted of an incandescent performance of Serge Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, op. 100. Written during the waning days of World War II, the Symphony No. 5 is a symphonic masterpiece. This score has it all, from moments of big, sweeping grandeur to light humor, from passages of savage jeering to outright lyricism.

Kalmar and the orchestra invested it with a sense of excitement beyond that inherent in the score. Kalmar was fun to watch, with a leonine head of hair that moved dramatically as he danced around the podium, and angular body language perfectly matched to Prokofiev’s rhythmic world.

Read the complete review here.

Joshua Bell
Photo credit: Bill Phelps

Pianist/blogger Jeremy Denk made a big splash last year with what I’m told was a stunning performance of Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata.  Violinist  Joshua Bell will highlight the Oregon Symphony’s 2008-2009 season playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto.  Here’s a very positive review of their recent Carnegie Hall performance.

Jeremy Denk
Photo credit: J. Henry Fair 

This is the review that did it for me - New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini fairly wetting himself over the Philharmonic debut of conductor it-boy of this decade, Gustavo Dudamel. [Read more →]

Whenever you get a guest conductor back after a year’s absence or more, it’s often a good time to take stock of where the orchestra is at artistically, where the guest conductor is artistically, and what sort of trends you can divine from these observations. When the guest conductor is a former music director, in this case one who served in that position for 22 seasons, it’s all the more interesting. I don’t know if I’ve got anything really profound to say about the subscription series with James DePreist that concluded last night, but a few thoughts have crossed my mind in the five days of rehearsals and concerts.

The orchestra, I’ve noticed, has become much more responsive to conductor inputs. With us Jimmy has largely been a hands-off type of conductor. He prefers to give the larger gestures and let the solo winds and other melodic line-holders sort out the small stuff. “Don’t sweat the small stuff” could be his motto. The approach lends itself well to large-scale pieces that are Romantic in nature - the Rachmaninoff Second Symphony is a perfect case in point.

It was interesting to note that it took some time for us to get our footing in rehearsals (and concerts, I must admit) in the Rachmaninoff, despite the fact that it’s a piece that we’ve done many times (and recorded) with Jimmy. We’re used to the tension of fighting against a very determined will with Carlos - if we start to push, he really holds us back, and I think that there’s a healthy tension there - even if it might be a bit frustrating at times. With Jimmy, there’s not that sense of being held, it’s more like being gently herded - parts of the orchestra respond quicker than others, and some don’t respond at all, and the general sense of listening to other parts of the orchestra also goes by the wayside. When you have long, spun phrases, this can be ok - there’s more than enough time to let it gel. But the intricate filigree, that never really comes together, sadly.

Anyway, back to the responsiveness idea that I neatly took a tangent away from - when Jimmy gave a very clear and unmistakable cue or gesture that indicated a certain character or tempo or feeling, the orchestra gave it to him quickly and clearly. As soon as the focus from the podium waned - whether a miscue, or lazy upbeat or just a marking of time with no other inputs - you could feel the orchestra slacken as well. I remember from a New York Times article about 10 years ago concerning a conducting masterclass with Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra which was held at Carnegie Hall: the writer said that it was almost cruel to put a student conductor, no matter how talented, in front of the Cleveland Orchestra - they would do whatever she showed them, whether a good idea or not. I think we’re approaching that level where we can give very keen, brilliant, chamber-music like performances if we’re given that kind of leadership, but if someone comes in and gives less than 100 percent, we’re likewise likely to equal less than the sum of our parts.

That being said, I found there were some very enjoyable moments throughout the concerts this week. Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg was entertaining, and thought-provoking with her very individual interpretation of the Bruch Violin Concerto. I wasn’t sure what to expect, not having heard her live for some time, but she gave committed performances and the chemistry between her and Jimmy was the usual fireworks display we’ve come to expect. The Wagner Prelude to the Act III of Die Meistersinger was a nice easy way to open the concert, and showed off the wind and brass sections to good effect with some nice sustained and sonorous playing. I have to say that I have listened to the original version which does not hit a final cadence (it just goes into the next scene without interruption) that I actually prefer that sense of unease that results from the lack of harmonic resolution. It’s a minor quibble, though, and a lovely piece that I enjoyed getting to perform. The Rachmaninoff had its scary moments as well as its delights, and I won’t go into them here - it was good to see the obvious enjoyment on the faces of our three audiences this week, and nice to revisit this piece for one last time with Jimmy.