On paper alone, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s
February 2 program already had me hooked: Mozart, Stravinsky, and Hovhaness is an
intriguing combination of composers and styles, to be sure. The audible result
was no less satisfying. Music Director Ward Stare continues to lead the RPO
with a steady hand and a nuanced approach.
Alan Hovhaness’s “Prelude and Quadruple Fugue” is difficult
to pin down; it’s a beautifully enigmatic yet shifty work. The violins were
especially lithe in their execution of the exotic melody, and when the cellos
came to the fore, frenetic and tumultuous, the connective tissue between this
concert opener and Mozart’s headlining “Requiem” became apparent.
Igor Stravinsky excelled at presenting musical fragments as
the whole, distilling the essence of an entire composition into a flurry of
ecstatic moments. And although the jaunty rhythms and chunky, dissonant chords
that dominate the first movement of Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three
Movements recall his most ecstatic work — “The Rite of Spring” — this symphony
is decidedly more straightforward.
Stare’s conducting was both measured and evocative. And the
effortless fluidity of the orchestra’s phrasing, particularly in the second
movement, indicated Stare’s musical sensitivity.
Where much of Mozart’s compositional output comes off as
technical and restrained, the “Requiem” feels all-encompassing, overcome with
broad, sweeping emotion. The more effusive the performance, the better the
“Requiem.”
Stare’s interpretation seemed to reflect this attitude,
accentuating the music’s natural exuberance without sacrificing precision and
prowess. And there was no better case in point than the Eastman-Rochester
Chorus. Its performance of the “Kyrie” was impressive, and the “Sanctus” was
triumphant. But it was during the “Communio,” in
which the choral phrases could have easily become treacherously muddy, that the
chorus’s limber articulation was invaluable. Without it, the music would have
been reduced to noise.
That said, the sopranos and altos were too subdued in the
“Rex tremendae,” and the
absence of attack undercut the impact of Mozart’s fearsome orchestration.
As for the soloists, the female voices sparkled with
poignancy, while the male soloists sounded almost resigned to the background.
Soprano Kathryn Lewek was especially powerful, her
voice cutting through the sea of sounds with a piercing clarity of tone that
never lacked in lyricism.
This excellent rendition of the “Requiem” led me to wonder
how this combined ensemble of orchestra and chorus might interpret other masterworks
of the choral repertoire: J.S. Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion,” Felix
Mendelssohn’s “Elijah,” or Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem.”
A strong showing, the entire concert suggested that the RPO
has indeed arrived at its signature sound under Stare. The transition toward
stability feels complete.
This article appears in The Smallest Minority.
