Classical review: RPO performs ‘The Music of Swan Lake’

In Thursday’s concert of mostly ballet music at Kodak Hall,
the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra showed flashes of pure brilliance.
Unfortunately, the performance as a whole was lackluster.

The RPO opened the program with a trio of AntonínDvořák’s “Slavonic Dances,” and was joined
onstage by members of the Rochester City Ballet. Stare conducted with a light
and graceful hand, and the orchestra responded with a provincial charm that was
fitting.

If the first dance seemed to depict a celebration of village
folk, the second was decidedly more aristocratic, with grander gestures and
more elongated lines from the dancers. Musically, it was Stare’s command of
dynamics that gave the music its poignancy, in a way that, at times,
transcended the mere pleasantness of the music and choreography. The
conductor’s sudden swells to forte were emphatic without losing fluidity. In
the final dance, No. 8, the choreography best synced with the orchestra, and
the playful, airy sensibility of the movements matched the freeing quality of
the music.

The idyllic beauty of the “Slavonic Dances” quickly
dissipated into the ether within the first phrase of BélaBartók’s “The Miraculous Mandarin Suite.” Disquiet
and tension pervaded, as strings swirled menacingly and Kenneth Grant’s
slippery clarinet solo lent an added air of danger.

The noise and squalor of the cityscape evoked was akin to EdgardVarèse. Bartók’s music here provokes the listener even as it
forbids, with an exoticism that suggests either the title character, the
listener, or both are out of place.

The expressionistic score — with its angular melodies and
incisive bursts of emotion — is all about setting a mood that’s alluring, even
as it promises both thematic and musical violence. Orchestral unity, as well as
an exacting, almost surgical approach to articulation, is critical here in
order to convey the sheer viscerality of Bartók’s composition. Stare and the RPO did not disappoint.
They showed that, more than 90 years after its premiere, “The Miraculous
Mandarin” still has the power to shock and to awe.

For all the electricity of the Bartók
piece, “Violin Suite from ‘Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty'” — which includes
some of Tchaikovsky’s most beloved music — took the thunder out of the program.
That’s not to say that the elements for an evocative performance were absent.

While concisely arranged by Stare and violin soloist David
Halen, the eight-part suite was still at least two movements too long. Halen, who
serves as Concertmaster of the Saint Louis Symphony, had a lovely tone, even if
it was thin at times. He played with a light, nimble touch, and his legato
phrasing was stunning.

Halen was more than sufficient as a soloist, and yet his
chemistry with the orchestra was nonexistent. Their rapport felt rigid and
lacking in expressive freedom. The results were underwhelming, but mitigated by
the presence of Barbara Allen, Principal Harp for the American Ballet Theatre
Orchestra in New York City. Her playing was magical and lush, with a rounded
timbre that somehow sounded like the essence of water.

The concert concluded with a well-executed interpretation of
Maurice Ravel’s elegant, yet ultimately dystopian “La Valse.”
Although the RPO’s dance-themed program was inconsistent, it’s worthwhile just
to hear the orchestra’s inspired take on Bartók’s
“The Miraculous Mandarin Suite.”

This article appears in Feb 7-13, 2018.