Music Director Ward Stare and the Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra are embarking on their second full season together, and based on Thursday
night’s opening concert, the excitement will continue. The RPO opened with an
American rarity, before segueing into two pillars of the concerto and symphonic
repertoire, all exceedingly well performed.
If you ever wondered if pianist Jon Nakamatsu
was really beloved by the RPO audience, his reception last night — a long, loud
standing ovation — left no doubts. He deserved it, too, after a performance of
Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto in which he hardly broke a sweat.
I admit I think of this piece as a hyper-Romantic knucklebuster, but neither pianist nor conductor seemed to
approach it that way at all, often to the music’s benefit. Rachmaninoff’s big
tunes and pianistic virtuosic passages were effective but never overstated. The
opening moderato, taken very moderately, even struck me as a bit drawn-out and
dull. This approach may lack edge-of-your-seat thrills, but it provided some
refined musical pleasures.
The performance was remarkable for its delicacy and
integration of the piano and the orchestra. Last season, Stare led socko performances of Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances and
“Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” and this was much more than an
accompaniment: all kinds of interesting orchestral details stood out, including
a number of brief but beautiful solos for flute, horn, and English horn.
Nakamatsu played his encore —
Chopin’s Fantasy-Impromptu, of “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” fame — with charm
and gentle emotion, saying as much in this five-minute piece as he did in the
Rachmaninoff.
When I interviewed Nakamatsu a
couple of weeks ago, he remarked that he was playing the Rachmaninoff concerto
in part because a season opening concert required “a blockbuster.” That word
applies even more strongly to Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, the second half of
this week’s concert.
Stare must have made a strong impression when he led the RPO in
this symphony in July 2013 — after all, they hired him. I didn’t hear that program,
but I am glad I heard last night’s, a near-ideal performance of a tremendous
work.
This may be the most modern-sounding of Beethoven’s
symphonies; it’s certainly the most muscular. Wagner famously called it “the
apotheosis of the dance,” and its relentless rhythmic drive and reliance on
repetition make it sound quite unlike any symphony of that era, even occasionally
touching on minimalist territory. If a performance of the Seventh is too
driven, the piece is exhausting, but if it is well done, it is one of the most
exhilarating and life-affirming symphonies in the repertory.
Stare’s tempos were on the quick side, but well-integrated
and judiciously paced. The RPO strings produced a powerful, impactful sound,
rich but focused, as a basis for the woodwinds and brass (including outstanding
work from the solo oboe and the horns — and a nod to the timpani, who get a
workout in this symphony).
And while three movements of this symphony are whirlwinds of
sound, the second movement (still not really a slow movement) is a serious
moment of repose. Conductor and orchestra judged its emotional content to a T,
in a poised, dignified performance.
This program opened with a work the RPO had never performed,
although it was recorded in the 1950’s by Howard Hanson and the
Eastman-Rochester Orchestra: Ron Nelson’s 1955 work “Savannah River Holiday.”
It’s a lighthearted American concert overture that should be heard more often;
this Eastman alum produced a rousing, colorful piece in the mid-century
Americana vein of Copland, Morton Gould, and Hanson himself (it sounds like
Nelson kept a copy of Hanson’s “Merry Mount” nearby while writing it). Stare
and the orchestra played it with excellent style — and its nonstop energy made
it a surprisingly good foil to the Beethoven Seventh.
This article appears in Sep 14-20, 2016.
