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.