Hartford
Symphony Orchestra
April 9-12, 2015
by Michael J. Moran
In a program like this HSO concert, which included a
symphonic poem, a complete ballet, and a suite from another ballet, it may seem
ironic that dancers accompanied the orchestra in the symphonic poem and in the
suite, but not in the complete ballet. Thus does unpredictable HSO Maestra
Carolyn Kuan tweak the expectations of her audiences with delightful results.
Saint-Saens first set his “Danse Macabre” for voice and
piano in 1874 to a poem by Jean Lahor about death as a fiddler leading
skeletons in a midnight graveyard dance. While his later orchestral version,
which opened this HSO program, features a solo violin, the missing text cries
out for expression through ballet. So, Kuan invited Katie Stevinson-Nollet,
Artistic Director of Full Force Dance Theatre, to choreograph a dance
accompanying the orchestra, and four of her dancers depicted death and three
skeletons with aptly ghoulish make-up, costumes, and gestures. The stylized
dance ritual eerily enhanced the haunting orchestral account.
Prokofiev’s 1929 ballet “The Prodigal Son” is much less
familiar than the biblical story that inspired it, but its ten short movements,
lasting just over half an hour, depict the tale with a winning combination of
the composer’s youthful brashness and his mature serenity. Kuan sharpened the
edges of the HSO brass during the son’s rowdy adventures and deepened the lush
tone of the strings during his seduction by a siren and in his moving return to
his father’s home, Prokofiev’s favorite section.
After intermission Kuan jettisoned the preview of Mahler’s
fourth symphony (to be performed by the HSO in June) listed in the program for
some engaging banter instead with Stevinson-Nollet and her dancers, along with
Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory’s Artistic Director Victoria Mazzarelli and
Principal Ballet Master Tim Melady and a dozen of their student dancers, and
demonstrations by all the dancers.
The orchestral performance of six excerpts from
Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty” that closed the program was grand and colorful,
while the dancing by exquisitely costumed Nutmeg students in three movements was
elegant and poised.
Both collaborations further rewarded Kuan’s outreach efforts
with a younger, more diverse audience.
