Classical review: RPO performs ‘Tchaikovsky 5’

The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra lately seemed to be
reverting back to the conservatism that had dominated its programming before
Music Director Ward Stare’s arrival. Yesterday at Kodak Hall, however, Stare
and the RPO presented its boldest concert in recent memory.

The evening began with Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 22.
Stare took a brisk, stately pace that at first felt odd; a slower, more
contemplative tempo evoking “The Philosopher” — nicknamed for the symphony’s
ponderous beginning — seemed like it might have been more suitable. If Stare’s
approach to the opening movement was initially mildly bewildering, it made much
more sense upon the arrival of the second movement. The movement was
characterized by an effervescence and rhythmic buoyancy that could be seen as
well as heard: Stare literally hopped about on the podium in harmony with the
orchestra. All in all, an air of refinement permeated “The Philosopher,” from
the elegant phrasing to the profound sense of unity among the musicians.

The concert took a sharp turn stylistically, however, with
contemporary American composer Allen Shawn’s Oboe Concerto, an RPO-commissioned
work making its world premiere. Shawn is a post-serialist
of sorts. His angular, sometimes jagged melodies recalled the dissonance of Arnold
Schoenberg and Alban Berg, even while pushing past it toward a kind of
cinematic Romanticism. The music was emotionally vague, ominous even, as a
shroud of harmonic fog covered the sonic landscape.

Additionally, the composition enabled oboe soloist Erik Behr
— the musician to whom Shawn dedicated the piece — to stretch his playing
chops, digging into the extremes of the instrument’s range and relishing the
mercurial melodies that were unpredictable and almost playful. Though the music
was undeniably heady, Shawn supplied Behr with an abundance of riveting,
dance-like phrases that kept things accessible for the audience.

By the third movement, the solo melodies soared where they
had previously wafted just above the surface. A more hopeful sensibility
emerged, even as the orchestra’s accompaniment remained as harmonically murky
as ever.

Shawn’s Oboe Concerto is the wonkiest composition — in the
best sense of the word — that I’ve ever heard the RPO perform. It’s sure to please
new music nerds, and this performance was proof that the Stare and company have
it in them to interpret more experimental, left-of-center music that challenges
audience expectation. It’s too bad that next season’s programming is
practically devoid of anything approaching edgy or new (save for Stravinsky’s
“Rite of Spring” and Higdon’s Harp Concerto, respectively).

Similarly to the Haydn symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony
started with slow gravitas. Even as the tempo quickened and the intensity
heightened, the sense of poignancy remained. Tchaikovsky’s music is at its best
when it’s sweeping the listener away — and there was plenty of that at work.
But this symphony carries a sharper, more direct quality, both melodically and
rhythmically, than in the more flowery musings of the composer’s ballet music.

As it had been throughout the concert, the chemistry between
Stare and the orchestra felt easy and intuitive. The fullness of sound gave the
concert and element of majesty that had not been present in the works on the
bill. More subtly, it was the orchestra’s mastery of dynamics that truly made
things click and caused Tchaikovsky’s phrases to pulse with life.

An emphatically strong concert performance, here’s hoping
that Stare will note the spark and more consistently lead the orchestra in
challenging programs that embrace the new in the coming years.

This article appears in Mar 21-27, 2018.