It was a busy weekend within the Koussevitzky Shed on the Tanglewood Competition. Following a wet Friday night time efficiency with conductor Alan Gilbert and pianist Kirill Gerstein (evaluation right here), two extra performances beneath clear skies showcased the debut appearances of Dalia Stasevska and of James Gaffigan main the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Three completely different conductors guiding difficult packages over three consecutive days – definitely no simple feat for the BSO instrumentalists!
Whereas listening to the whole 4 minutes of the ‘Canzonetta’ that Sibelius extracted in 1911 from his incidental music to the symbolist drama Kuolema, it was tough to know why Stravinsky felt compelled to orchestrate the piece for a chamber ensemble of two clarinets, 4 horns, harp and double bass. Maybe the urge was partly pushed by his want to reply to the dignity of being awarded the Wihuri-Sibelius Prize in 1963. However, as a prologue to a Sibelius-Stravinsky program, the modest work, even augmented with a Stravinskian sound, didn’t depart a powerful impression. Moreover, the melancholic piece suffered from an absence of precision within the BSO hornists’ taking part in.
Leila Josefowicz, a distinguished interpreter and advocate for brand new music, who has premiered works by composers akin to Esa-Pekka Salonen, Luca Francesconi, John Adams and Steven Mackey, introduced a up to date perspective to Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto in D. Regardless of the concerto being conceived over eight a long time in the past, she ensured that the work by no means betrayed its age.
From her preliminary entrance within the Toccata, the place she engaged in a playful, fractured dialogue with varied sections of the orchestra, to the frenetic Capriccio finale, the violinist maintained an unwavering stage of vitality all through the work. She approached the fiercely difficult passages with a mischievous grin and flawless method. Even within the extra introspective internal actions, a way of irony prevailed, although the second Aria was imbued with heat and a contact of thriller.
Collaborating seamlessly with Josefowicz, Dalia Stasevska was instrumental in highlighting the general ludic nature of a rating by which Stravinsky explored new instructions with humor and inventiveness whereas honoring conventional varieties.
The spotlight of the night – certainly, of the whole weekend – was Stasevska’s rendition of Sibelius’s Symphony No.5. Born in Kyiv and relocating to Finland along with her household on the age of 5, Stasevska’s early immersion in Finnish tradition fostered a deep affinity for Sibelius’s music. She succeeded in bringing ahead the composer’s distinct voice, anchored in lush late-Romantic harmonies, and constantly evolving buildings that flowed seamlessly into each other. The BSO instrumentalists, in wonderful type, helped her to render the music with no trace of bombast, continuously drawing consideration to the intricate particulars woven into the material and the colourful undercurrents that animate it. Smiling and utilizing exuberant gestures, she explored the soundscape’s vistas and foggy nooks with the delight of a kid retelling a beloved story.
With its lighter, extra clear orchestration, Mahler’s Symphony No.4 – the shortest of all – is usually paired, for good cause, with a Mozartean work. However, James Gaffigan opened his Tanglewood debut with the BSO by decoding Anna Clyne’s Sound and Fury (2019), a bit much less becoming throughout the Mozart/Mahler Fourth paradigm.
Like different works by Clyne, the music responds to exterior stimuli. Based on the composer, the first one was Haydn’s Symphony No.60, nicknamed ‘Il Distratto’. Whereas Sound and Fury is in a single motion, it contains six subsections, similar to the bizarre six-part construction of the Haydn symphony. Clyne chosen a ‘key component’ from every a part of the Haydn, utilizing it as a kernel for her personal explorations. Haydn’s specific humor additionally served as a supply of inspiration, with an evident quote from Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra supposed as a Haydnesque joke.
One other stimulus was Macbeth’s well-known soliloquy, which supplies the work its title. As Clyne famous in her reflections, it was not essentially chosen for its pessimistic outlook on the meaninglessness of life, however slightly for its direct reference to the passage of time and ‘the rhythmic use of language’. Nevertheless, listening to the Shakespearean traces over the loudspeakers did appear considerably uncommon.
A fairly prolix composition, traversing a number of landscapes and weaving references to the outdated masters with a up to date idiom, Clyne’s Sound and Fury obtained well-deserved consideration from Gaffigan and the orchestra, with percussionist J. William Hudgins notably making his mark on the xylophone.
James Gaffigan, a distinguished opera conductor, supplied beautiful accompaniment to the promising soprano Elena Villalón in two Mozart arias: ‘Padre, germani, addio!’ from Idomeneo and ‘Deh vieni, non tardar’ from Le nozze di Figaro. As she gained confidence, Villalón, the 2019 Metropolitan Opera Nationwide Council Auditions winner, showcased a heat, glowing voice with spectacular vary and legato. With nice stage presence although a bit overacting, her portrayal of Susanna’s longing and expectations was deeply emotive.
Villalón additionally demonstrated her outstanding musicality and wonderful German diction because the soloist in Mahler’s ‘Das himmlische Leben’, based mostly on a textual content from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a set of people poetry. Her interpretation of the track, which concludes Mahler’s Symphony No.4, highlighted her skill to seamlessly mix the serene and solemn depiction of heaven’s wonders with moments of typical Mahlerian irony, in excellent concord with Gaffigan and the orchestra.
The conductor highlighted the transparency and gentleness of the composer’s writing whereas embracing the highly effective outbursts and ever-shifting rhythms. The Adagio, with its tranquil melody launched by the decrease strings and steadily unfolding via variations interrupted by laments, was superbly calibrated. The Scherzo featured BSO’s wonderful affiliate concertmaster Alexander Velinzon on the discordant solo violin. The portrayal of the medieval ‘Freund Hein’ (or Loss of life) insouciantly dancing on the precipice of an abyss would have benefited from a extra contrasting method. General, whereas Gaffigan succeeded in bringing the multitude of threads right into a consolidated knot, the rendition, alas, was not essentially a conduit for brand new interpretative concepts.
Edward Sava-Segal
10.8.2024 – Leila Josefowicz (violin), Boston Symphony Orchestra / Dalia Stasevska (conductor).
Sibelius – ‘Canzonetta’, Op.62a, from the incidental music for Kuolema (arr. Stravinsky); Symphony No.5 in E-flat, Op.82
Stravinsky – Violin Concerto in D
11.8.24 – Elena Villalón (soprano), Boston Symphony Orchestra / James Gaffigan (conductor).
Anna Clyne – Sound and Fury
Mozart – ‘Padre, germani, addio!’ from Idomeneo, Ok.366; ‘Deh vieni, non tardar’ from Le nozze di Figaro, Ok.492
Mahler – Symphony No.4 in G
