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ASO offer Bloated Romanticism, and Laughs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CONCERT REVIEW
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Thursday in Symphony Hall. Program repeats Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org.
Robert Spano and Yefim Bronfman, the conductor and pianist, respectively, of Thursday evening’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert, have a pretty funny comedy act.
After finishing Rachmaninoff’s fire-breathing Third Piano Concerto, and receiving cheers, hollers and a prolonged standing ovation, they returned to the stage for an encore. Spano carried an extra chair. Bronfman climbed the podium. Spano protested. OK, so they both sat down at the keyboard, flipped through a score of Brahms piano duets, settled on a Hungarian Dance and played it for laughs.
And why not? The evening’s program — the Rachmaninoff concerto and Strauss’ tone poem “Ein Heldenleben,” or “A Hero’s Life” — was unabashed entertainment of the late-late romantic variety, both works composed around the turn of the last century.
The piano-four-hands gag was a welcome bit of lightness and clarity in a program that was otherwise akin mood-altering drugs — blurry and seductive, of overripe tunes, succulent harmonies and bloated orchestrations.
The audience ate it all up. The Brahms encore satisfied the munchies craving everyone got afterwards.
The concerto dazzled, as it always does. A brawny pianist, Bronfman played the daylights out of the Steinway. It was an awesome display of jackhammer chords, shimmering colors and heart-on-sleeve emotions. There are other, possibly more nuanced ways around this concerto. (Atlanta heard them a few weeks ago when Valery Gergiev and the Rotterdam Philharmonic performed at Emory University. The pianist for that concert, Vladimir Feltsman, offered an account that was both softer-grained and gave off brilliant sparks.)
Here, the ASO never got a purchase on the Rachmaninoff, and it sounded generic, common. Bronfman, therefore, could monopolize our attention.
The ASO musicians were probably fatigued from the program’s first half. In the 45-minute “Heldenleben,” scored for giant orchestra, the unnamed hero is an everyman, a superman, an echt-Teutonic figure. He’s first heard in the swashbuckling opening theme: in confident strides, this character is in the full trim of life.
Yet Spano and the orchestra, still finding their collective voice, seemed a bit nebbish at the start. They lacked swagger, and that tinted all that followed. Suddenly a brazen attitude looked like so much posturing. Not until well into the piece, when the hero engages in battle, did the orchestra unfurl their banners and really dig into the music.
The tone poem’s second section depicts the hero’s adversaries, whom Strauss evidently found petty and mean. William Safire’s timeless phrase (uttered by embattled Vice President Agnew) — “nattering nabobs of negativism” — catches the same spirit as the music, with shrill woodwinds impersonating a clattering pack of know-nothings. Yet here Spano and the fine ASO musicians imbued this section with sweet affection, giving the hero’s opponents as much nobility and gravitas as the hero himself. Curious.
The hero’s lover is heard as a solo violin, played by concertmaster Cecylia Arzewski. Where the hero — whom we know really to be the composer himself — seems a stock character, she’s a fully rounded person, lovable, flawed, moody, tender. This solo has the reputation as among the most taxing from the entire symphonic repertoire; Arzewski delivered note-perfect accuracy, cool poise and vivid personality. It was easily the most seriously musical episode of the evening.
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By kathy
April 14, 2006 9:43 AM | Link to this
Ah, Pierre, how I loved your windswept whirwind tour of those symphonic dulcet tones. Alas, I was not there for the treat. But you have given me the sweet svelte ride.
First the thunderous firestorm, then the munchies, then the brave Heldenleben followed by Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum in concert.(Gotta get a few laughs to loosen up old Helde.) All this followed by a lovely dessert from the ever proficient Cecylia. Who could ask for more?
Thanks for the description of those soaring sonics. I’ve got to get down there SOON! In case I don’t make it, keep the fireworks handy so I will know the score.