Thursday night, the Rochester
Philharmonic Orchestra performed under the fourth guest conductor of the
season, Christoph Campestrini,
in a performance that included orchestral works by Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky
and a piano concerto by Mozart that featured pianist Barry Snyder. Russian
composers have the ability to take you with them as they rake their souls
across the coals of hell. Unfortunately, I found the performance Thursday night
only lukewarm. Both the Stravinsky and the Tchaikovsky suffered from a lack of differentiation
from each other, and from Mozart.
The Stravinsky work was Divertimento
from “Le Baiser de la fรฉe”
(“The Fairy’s Kiss”), a suite in four parts (1949 version). “The Fairy’s Kiss”
is based on the “The Ice Maiden” by Hans Christian Andersen. It is a story with
a terrifically dark underside. The kiss in question is bestowed by a fairy,
impersonating the true love of a young man (while his true love is off putting
on her wedding dress, no less), which locks him into the Land of Eternal
Dwelling. This is not a fairy bringing glittery good wishes, but rather one
harboring a wicked selfishness.
Stravinsky’s score is at once brilliant
and tricky; there are all sorts of pop-up solos throughout the wind and the
brass instruments. The solo lines and phrases serve as a variety of characters in
this work — it was originally conceived as a ballet — and give an opportunity
to keep the audience on its toes, almost if wondering, “Who did that?”
The performance Thursday,
unfortunately, was missing both the dark undertone and the quirky bits and bobs
that not only make this a unique score, but also make it a work by Stravinsky. When
I had interviewed Campestrini back in August for our
article profiling all of the guest conductors for the RPO’s 2013-14 season, he
said, “This program asks what is necessary for any performance: the stylistic
variety of each requires a totally different approach.” Perhaps that can bear
into the baton for Saturday night’s performance.
Likewise, the Tchaikovsky simply didn’t
take me into the heartland of Mother Russia. There is an essential emotional
component to the Russian masters that, if not captured, can almost leave a work
a bit flat. Perhaps the best way I can articulate it is this: the musicians’
backs rarely left their chairs. By contrast, when guest conductor Jun Mรคrkl lead the RPO in Mahler’s Titan Symphony on September
28, the musicians practically left their seats and took off — metaphorically
speaking — with the music. The RPO is an incredibly talented group of musicians
and can be pushed much further and harder to elicit a stirring interpretation
of this work.
So what then of Herr Mozart? Dankeschรถn, Herr Snyder und Herr Campestrini.
Snyder’s touch was clean on a piano and the sound was clear. The tempos were
nicely selected. And the variation of tone among dynamic markings felt true to
the particular performance. While it is true that my heart lies in the deep
bass rumblings of what one might refer to as “the war horse competition concertos,”
I hope that the RPO will continue to bring us the less-frequently performed
piano concertos. Mozart, in particular, does have this knack for a surprisingly
satisfying impact upon the audience, while fooling us into thinking his
compositions are oh-so-simple.
The RPO will repeat the program Saturday,
November 9, 8 p.m. at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, 60 Gibbs St. Ticket cost
$15-$82. For more information call 454-2100 or visit rpo.org.
This article appears in Nov 6-12, 2013.
