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Often The Best Symphony Concerts…

Orange County
Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall
04/05/2008 -  
Beethoven: Overture to Coriolanus, Op. 62 – Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15
Schumann: Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61

Piotr Anderszewski (piano)
Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)


Amidst the plethora of choices and demands on our time, how does one choose the best concerts? In a sense we are in a golden age of classical and modern music: even while the media laments the immanent death of the classical arts, in any week there are an overwhelming number of offerings in any major metropolitan area. In Southern California, it is impossible to attend even a fraction of the outstanding events. Throughout Europe, in Tokyo, and now even in Shanghai there are excellent concerts almost every night. As we read in Concertonet, the possibilities are numerous in Hong Kong as well.

As an interesting aside, this has not happened yet in Dubai, which is rapidly becoming a major world city in many other ways. Soon, there will be tremendous opportunity in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for classical and serious contemporary music. Musicians and impresarios: stake your claims! Groups should be developing their relationships there now.

In today’s globalized world of classical music, symphonies on tour with featured soloists often give the best orchestral concerts. In these cases, the ensembles have played the pieces together numerous times, and have polished their interpretation and performance to a burnished sheen. Even world-class resident orchestras and music directors don’t have the same opportunity for such extensive rehearsals with an international soloist.

While it is not one of the great orchestras, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra concert with pianist Piotr Anderszewski at Segerstrom Hall was precisely one of these outstanding touring performances. Music Director Thomas Dausgaard has led the 38-member ensemble for more than a decade, and recorded the complete orchestral works of Beethoven. Segerstrom Hall’s massive concrete acoustical doors were closed at the ground level, and open only about eight inches on all of upper levels. This unusual configuration helped Dausgaard extract the maximum volume from the small orchestra.

The players made a processional entrance, standing at their places until the conductor took the podium. They played the Coriolan Overture with a youthful military energy and precision. The intense power that Dausgaard drew out of the small forces of the chamber group was the touchstone of the event. The dynamics were arrestingly fascinating: the few instruments in each section often played with extreme force, offering a timbre strikingly different from the larger orchestras that perform these pieces. Each nuance was smartly articulated; whether in the oboes or the strings, the ensemble always felt more like a chamber group than an orchestra. The sparkling bright overture was the perfect opening gambit.

The performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, actually the third piano concerto that he composed, was Mozart-like, emphasizing the bright charm of trills and subtly quiet descending scales. Pianist Piotr Anderszewski clearly has the gifts of speed and ease. The sforzandi on a single note on the piano leaped off the stage in bell-like gunshots. The audience interrupted the performance by applauding at the end of each movement, but it seemed appropriate for this performance.

Dausgaard conducted with broad arm movements, often gesturing with his entire body, turning back and forth between soloist and orchestra. At moments they all seemed to be dancing with each other, each of them leaping their hearts out. It was clear that they had performed the piece together many times; they were thoroughly prepared to fit together and around each other. The timbres of both piano and orchestra ranged from starlight to sunlight, each irresistible.

Their rendering of Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 also leaned toward Mozart, particularly in the opening high call on the trombones. As we are even more accustomed to the Schumann symphonies with larger forces, this was more of a stretch. The chamber quality of the ensemble was again striking, with the pure sound of the winds isolated, coming in high on the wind. But now the conductor seemed more dramatic than graceful, in a sense almost extra-musical, apart from the orchestra rather than part of it. He was lanky, leaning, almost falling over, now directing the music rather than dancing with it. He punctuated the symphony, making it rise and swell, and then slowing it down, marking it. Dausgaard’s performance was so different from other conductors that it was impossible to stop watching him. The second movement Scherzo: Allegro vivace was pure energy.

The Adagio espressivo was much darker, with slow and lithe winds and brass. The steely, thick textures were like a muscular braid of cable, very classical but not at all Mozart-like. The somber melodies brought to mind the mist-darkened atmosphere of Vivaldi’s Estro Armonico.

They leapt into the final Allegro molto vivace with headlong music-making, sublime and triumphant, not lacking in breadth or richness. The audience called them back for an encore. Elgar’s Nimrod, from the Enigma Variations, rose out the silent depths of darkness with a magnificent delicacy. The audience went wild, applauding rhythmically in square time. For the second encore, one of Brahms Hungarian Dances, Dausgaard attempted to conduct the audience applause as well. It almost worked, and certainly capped off a marvelous evening.



Thomas Aujero Small

 

 

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