During his first full season of programing Rochester
Philharmonic Orchestra concerts, Ward Stare has included several examples of
what used to be called “orchestral spectaculars,” and he and the orchestra seem
to relish the experience. Last night he chose one of the biggest, most vibrant orchestral
spectaculars going: Richard Strauss’s massive symphonic poem “Ein Heldenleben,” or “A Hero’s
Life.”
The
life presented in 45 minutes or so of lavish musical detail is Richard
Strauss’s own, at least up into his mid-30’s, when he
wrote “Ein Heldenleben.” It
is part cartoon — Strauss’s life was not terribly heroic, at least not in
the Napoleonic or Marvel Comics sense — and part utterly serious. The
then-controversial composer stands up for his artistry, celebrates the love and
support of his wife, vanquishes his critics, and confidently (and as it
happened, accurately) predicts his musical immortality.
Both
over-the-top and highly engaging, this is not an easy work to hold together,
and the audience’s listening was handicapped by not having its different sections
listed in the program — after all, this is program music. Audience
members who’d never heard “Ein Heldenleben”
might be forgiven for wondering why the woodwinds made so much dissonant noise
in one section (they are Strauss’s portrayal of music critics); why
concertmaster Juliana Athayde played by herself so
much (the long violin solos are a musical portrait of Strauss’s formidable wife
Pauline); or why Strauss quotes a number of his own works (they represent his
“works of peace” and artistic legacy).
If
you did know what was going on in “Ein Heldenleben,” Ward Stare and the RPO were extremely
effective guides. This was a much livelier affair than the orchestra’s
performance several years ago under Christopher Seaman, with Stare bringing a
lot of energy and enthusiasm to music that can easily seem over-complicated and
earthbound. The orchestra generally sounded splendid, with those embedded
cellos imparting great warmth to the string sound, and some snazzy brass
playing (with added players) in “The Hero’s Battle.” Athayde
dispatched her solos with such panache as to make me think that she and Stare
should consider reviving Strauss’s rarely heard Violin Concerto.
For
this week’s concert, Stare mixed the RPO strings up a bit, with the cellos
(usually on the conductor’s right) switched with the second violins. The reason
for this was immediately apparent, when the cellos launched the long, confident
opening theme and it projected beautifully into Kodak Hall. The setup also
helped bring several divided-string passages into relief. (By the way,
splitting the violins with firsts on the conductor’s left and seconds on his
right was a practice Strauss would have recognized; it was common orchestral
practice until the 20th century.)
Last
year, Vadym Kholodenko made
his RPO debut in Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto; this week he returns with
the Third. RPO audiences seem to love Kholodenko, and
this Van Cliburn Competition winner definitely has the chops for the big
Russian knuckle-busters. That Prokofiev Second was most impressive — and
so was his performance of this more familiar concerto. It was brilliant in the
extreme, but to my mind the music, virtuosic as it is, often calls for a more
relaxed approach. When Kholodenko lightened up, as he
did in several of the variations that make up Prokofiev’s second movement, he
sounded more engaging and colorful. Much of the rest was exciting, but seemed
dispatched a touch too quickly and efficiently.
Kholodenko’s encore (I didn’t recognize it, but it sounded
like Rachmaninoff) was in a way even better than his concerto performance. The
pianist packed a remarkable amount of dramatic intensity into a few minutes. I
hope he returns to the RPO, but I would now be curious to hear his approach to
the interpretive demands in say, Brahms, Beethoven, or Schumann; technical
demands, he doesn’t have to worry about.
Ward
Stare chose a winner for the concert opener, a short piece by the young
American composer Stephanie Berg called “Ravish and Mayhem.” It is just the
right length, infectiously rhythmic, and vividly orchestrated. Its six minutes
or so do provide a bit of ravishing slow music and, near the end, some genuine
orchestral mayhem, in which the RPO’s horn section became an enthusiastic and
very convincing herd of elephants.
This article appears in Mar 9-15, 2016.
