BSO explores folk roots in works by Bartok and Tchaikovsky
On Thursday night at the Music Center at Strathmore (the program repeats at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall Friday-Sunday), the stage was devoid of orchestral players at the start of the concert. Instead, BSO music director Marin Alsop walked out to introduce Harmonia, a crack ensemble devoted to Eastern European folk music.
The five instrumentalists gave a mini-concert that helped focus the ears anew on the piquant scales and vigorous rhythms that Bartok incorporated into his Concerto for Orchestra, which followed. And Harmonia’s dynamic presentation still resonated later, when Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, which has plenty of its own folksy elements, arrived after intermission.
The Bartok score remains a keen test of conductor and orchestra alike. Although there were moments Thursday that could have benefited from a little more urgency, snap and earthiness, the overall effect proved
The Tchaikovsky war horse had the distinct advantage of a young, exceptionally sensitive rider on this occasion. Canadian-born, Grammy-winning violinist James Ehnes revealed a refreshing concentration on the actual music in the concerto -- no show-off tricks or unduly fussy tempos. Everything flowed with a natural elegance and, in the most songful passages, great eloquence. There may have been a measure or two when the clarity of his articulation slipped a bit, but never the expressive force.
Ehnes’ tone had both sweetness and body, easily holding its own against the orchestral forces, which Alsop guided surely. She and the ensemble sounded as fully caught up in this familiar concerto as the soloist, and the result was a remarkably involving performance.
Comments
It sounds like you enjoyed the Bartok, at least for the most part. Do you have any thoughts on why the audience response was so lukewarm? It seems to have all the elements of a crowd pleasing piece. Perhaps I'm just so used to seeing our audience jump to their feet that I was surprised at this concert. Do you think the Bartok was too "modern" for this audience's ears?
No telling. Oddly enough, I think Bartok, even at his most accessible, still leaves some people cold. TIM
Posted by: Albert | October 2, 2009 2:18 PM
Several University of Maryland School of Music faculty are performing in a program on Sunday at the Clarice Smith Center exploring the folk-classical relationship, and they are also doing Bartók. Very interesting!
Thanks. TIM,
Posted by: Andrew | October 2, 2009 2:20 PM
Is The Sun trying to tell us something by putting your review of this concert in the Obituary section? We got a chuckle out of that at work.
Well, I guess I do write about a lot of de-composers. TIM
Posted by: Marshall | October 5, 2009 1:52 PM
Tim, the Meyerhof was half-empty on Friday night. At the conclusion of the Bartok there was a pause as if the piece had put the audience in a funk. After 4-5 seconds there came half-hearted clapping - perhaps just to be polite.
The Concerto for Orchestra was a favorite of Temirkanov and programmed 3-4 times. His interpretation was cooler and
suited the work better - I felt there was something hard to define 'off' in Alsop's interpretation. How do you compare the two interpretations?
Certainly Alsop seemed to over-inflate the final movement bringing the orchestra to an fff sound level and having the brass babble out the theme as if it were a schoolyard taunt.
Not at all the victory that Bartok intended.
First, I can only recall hearing the BSO play the Concerto one before, with Roberto Abdado, so I can't do the comparison test you asked for. While I wasn't blown away by Thursday's performance, it had cohesiveness and tension and power (the only taunting was where I expected it, in the anti-Shostakovich passage). Maybe there was some deflation the next night at Meyerhoff; things have been known to change from night to night. TIM
Posted by: Jerry McNally | October 5, 2009 2:17 PM
I did not recall Temirkanov doing the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra and I checked the performance archive. Indeed, there is no listing of a performance conducted by Temirkanov.
Raymond Kreuger
Associate Orchestra Librarian
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Thanks for confirming what I suspected. I couldn't recall such a performance, and could find no review in our (sometimes faulty) archives. But my memory is, as you know, notoriously questionable, so I figured I'd better wait until I knew absolutely. TS
Posted by: Raymond Kreuger | October 6, 2009 11:45 AM