Schumann & Mendelssohn

Tanglewood, Lenox
Sunday, July 20, 2008
by Debra Tinkham

The Lost and Foundation, Inc. – Cynthia and Oliver Curme Concert featuring Shi-Yeon Sung, conductor, began with Robert Schumann’s ‘Overture from the incidental music to Byron’s Manfred, Opus 115.’ This was Korean born Sung’s Tanglewood debut, and what a debut it was. Sung’s curriculum vitae is longer than a large man’s arm, but she is a welcome breath of fresh air. (Note that Sung will make her BSO subscription series debut at Symphony Hall (Boston) in April, 2009.

Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus 4 was first performed in December, 1945. Schumann’s wife, Clara Wieck Schumann, was the pianist for this performance. Today’s performance featured the very talented Garrick Ohlsson on piano. The interpretive and technical artist is best known “…as one of the world’s leading exponents of Frederic Chopin’s music.” So, if Schumann isn’t his forte, imagine his Chopin!

Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 in A, Opus 90, written while spending two years in Italy, thus known as the “Italian” Symphony, has long been considered his most perfect work. In laymen terms, this would be considered beautiful, easy-listening music; but to a scholar, it is complicated, precise, emotional and euphoric. Written at an early age, (he died at 39) it is one of his….”most brilliantly orchestrated scores of this incredibly precocious artist.”

A “Farewell, Thanks, and All the Best” is in order for three of the BSO members retiring at the end of the 2008 Tanglewood season, who with a combined effort, bring in excess of 90 years of musical talent to the table. Peter Chapman, trumpet; Daniel Katzen, horn; and Ronald Barron, trombone, will be sorely missed in the final Tanglewood concert in August.

Debra Tinkham

Schumann, Bruch, Mendelssohn

Hartford Symphony Orchestra
The Bushnell, Hartford
April 5, 2008
By Donna Bailey-Thompson

The centerpiece of the program, Scottish Fantasy for Violin with Orchestra and Harp by Max Bruch (1838-1920) rendered what followed ("The Italian" by Mendelssohn, 1809-1920) anti-climatic. How could that be? Because Leonid Sigal stepped out of his role as HSO’s Concertmaster to beguile the audience with his love affair with the violin. At one with his instrument, Sigal embraced the various moods of the Scottish Fantasy, including spirited adaptations of various European ethnic dances and passages of fluid abandonment akin to improvisation. There were moments when it seemed as if the composer might have happened upon a wagon encampment and transferred the experience into music which clicked with the romantic within Sigal whereupon he assumed the identity of a solitary gypsy violinist baring his tortured soul. In the program notes, Dr. Richard E. Rodda’s writes: "The invigorating, tuneful Scottish Fantasy is evidence of Sr. Donald Tovey’s trenchant summation of the music of this composer: ‘It is not easy to write as beautifully as Max Bruch.’ "

During the pre-concert talk, guest conductor Grant Llewellyn described the program as a happy combination of music, in essence a musical European Grand Tour. A native of Wales (born 1962), this engaging musician’s other passion is soccer. Like Mendelssohn 150 years earlier, Llewellyn when almost twenty, toured Italy for a year or so, earning some money from playing the cello but more from playing soccer. He praised the Scottish Fantasy, saying that it "puts the violin through its paces as much as a concerto" and that the harp creates "pyrotechnics of its own."

But Llewellyn was most enthusiastic about the Overture, Scherzo and Finale in E Major by Robert Schumann (1810-1856) which opened the program. Obscure, rarely performed, Llewellyn stated, "I love it to death." Composed during Robert and Clara Schumann’s first year of marriage (her father opposed her marriage with a vehemence to rival Mr. Barrett’s of Elizabeth’s to Robert Browning), their happiness is mirrored in the buoyancy of the score.

Nevertheless, the night belonged to Sigal. When he returned after intermission, having resumed his role as Concertmaster, the audience greeted him with enthusiastic applause. At the conclusion of "The Italian," protracted applause signaled Llewellyn and the orchestra of the audience’s appreciation for an evening of first-rate classical music.

Mozart & Mendelssohn

Springfield Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall, Springfield
February 9, 2008
By Donna Bailey-Thompson

The music of a revered classicist opened the evening’s performance – the Overture to the opera, "Cosi fan tutte" ("women are all the same"), a lively five minutes, composed when Mozart was 33. His Symphony No. 29 in A Major followed, written when he was 18. During Music Director Kevin Rhodes’ pre-concert talk, he mentioned that Mozart could "imagine the entire piece in his head" before beginning to write. Honored by admirers as the most accomplished composer ever, the Mozart sound is readily recognized which is rather amusing inasmuch as he often mimicked others’ music. However, his unique essence cannot be eclipsed because often even his slow passages described by one Mozart aficionado as "pure silk."consist of millions of notes. That’s an exaggerated number but not by much.

Following intermission, Mendelssohn’s richly melodic Symphony No. 4 in A Major – The Italian – filled Symphony Hall with Romantic strains (revised by Mendelssohn in 1834 and not discovered until the 1990s). Of particular beauty were the French horns in the third movement. By presenting familiar passages followed by their revisions, the audience could play Holmes to Maestro Rhodes’ Dr. Watson. Not so fast! Without in-depth familiarity with the original score, pinpointing any changes was difficult to impossible with one exception: the revised final movement is a heightened triumph of whirling rhythms that brought the audience to its feet.

Here’s another nugget shared by Rhodes during his pre-concert talk: strictly speaking, Classical is not a blanket adjective but refers to music composed between 1730 and 1820. Other named periods begin with Medieval (476-1400) followed by Renaissance (1400-1600); Common (1600-1750); Romantic (1815-1910); Modern/Contemporary (1900-2000). Perhaps eons from now there’ll be assigned a contemporary avant garde classical period which will have been a stepping stone for an au courant classical body of work. And the beat goes on.

Nielsen, Mendelssohn, Sibelius

Hartford Symphony Orchestra
The Bushnell Performing Arts Center
Hartford
By Donna Bailey-Thompson

Although Carl Nielsen's "Helios Overture" is a musical representation of the sun's daily journey, the piece could double as a musical essay. Both the opening statement (pre-dawn) and the conclusion (twilight into darkness) are virtually identical – a deep, resonance created by cellos and double basses. In between, the essay is fueled by the morning's energy that surges to high noon and then lessens until the sun's rays are obliterated by the horizon. Nielsen included this descriptive note on the score: "Stillness and darkness – the sun rises with a peaceful song of praise – wanders its golden way – sinks silently into the sea." The concluding measures – the continuous bowing of the cellos and double basses – imparted a soothing reverie, a meditation, until a few eager-beavers shattered the meticulously crafted mood by clapping, Chastened by the audience's silence, the clappers stopped, and under Conductor Edward Cumming's unflappable exterior, the bowing never stopped until it reached its designated conclusion.

When the exquisite Rachel Lee's musical education began at age four, she and the violin must have experienced love at first pluck because at age 19, what soars from this pairing is similar to the maturing love of a long-married couple who are still crazy about one another. Her interpretation of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto soothed, swept, soared, and sprinkled surprises.

The HSO's playing of Sibelius' Symphony No. 2 demonstrated, repeatedly, why this stirring work written at the beginning of the 20th century continues to hold audiences captive. Although Sibelius denied that the symphony was inspired by Finnish patriotism, for some that speculation endures. Following the death of his youngest daughter in 1900, an unidentified writer has noted that Sibelius' drinking "changed from youthful celebrating into something more dangerous." The anguish expressed within much of the symphony could be a father's outpouring of grief and/or anger with his growing dependence upon alcohol. Regardless of the composer's inspiration, Maestro Cumming and the HSO joined their forces to celebrate Sibelius' genius to such a degree that the emotionally wrenching theme within the final movement challenged my ability to suppress tears.

Some concert programs hold together better than others and – subjectively speaking – this Masterpiece Concert was superb.