Thursday night’s Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra concert
was the one to attend if you were in the mood for “big.” Big,
huge orchestra filling the stage.Big, 100-plus-voice
choir on risers. And big-voiced soloists, front
and center. It was a night of Beethoven’s Ninth and a Boulanger Psalm.

The RPO was led by guest conductor Hugh Wolff. Wolff has
recorded the complete Beethoven symphonies, and his interests range from
Baroque to new compositions. Wolff’s studies included conducting with Charles
Bruck and composition with Olivier Messiaen. Having lived and studied in Paris
was no doubt a contributing influence to Wolff’s fine interpretation of the
Boulanger.

The Rochester Oratorio Society shared the stage for the
entire concert. The ROS is under the direction of Eric Townell.
Founded in 1945, ROS pulls its voices from Rochester and a surrounding
seven-county region. We would do well to realize that works like the Ninth
Symphony can only be mounted because we have so much vocal talent in our
region, making it both literally and financially possible.

Four soloists were featured: Kelley Nassief, soprano;
Rebecca Ringle, mezzo-soprano; Vale Rideout, tenor; and Jan Opalach, baritone. Each
one deserved the audience’s applause, and I would welcome an opportunity hear
each one in a solo recital so that I could sit back and enjoy the clear, warm
sounds of each voice.

The first half of the program consisted of one work, Lili Boulanger’s
“Psalm 130, Du fond de l’abîme” (“Out of the Depths
of the Abyss”). Eerie, unmistakably French, and hypnotic, it is a 30-minute work
that must be seen live. If you’ve watched it on YouTube, you’ve completely
missed the vibratory sensation that can only come through the live experience
of the low register in which this work is couched. Low
percussion. Long, low pulls across the bass and cello strings. And, the surprisingly low and resonant voice of mezzo-soprano Ringle. Ringle’s tone was perfect for Psalm 130, and
her emotional connection to the work was evident in every note.

I would expect that last night’s audience turnout was
enhanced by the billing of the Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125,
the only work on the second half of the program. Who doesn’t love the Ninth? At
more than an hour, I’m guessing that many in the audience were simply waiting
for those special cello and bass notes signaling that we were coming toward the
moment of the chorus bursting into the “Ode to Joy.”

The performance of the Ninth Symphony won an immediate
standing ovation, and so it should. Compliments across the
board.

But, is it enough to mount a massive masterwork of classical
music? Or should audiences still ask for more?

What felt to be lacking from go was a vision of the work as
a whole – not as something singularly huge, but as something nuanced,
surprising, and full of discoveries to be made. With a piece that long, the consistently
high volume and tempo became anti-climactic. Where is there to go when a work
is already so loud and so fast so often in the first movement, even though it
is marked “Allegro ma no troppo, un poco maestoso”
(meaning fast, but not too much so, and with a touch of majesty)? The dynamic
tension is taken away by that approach, as surely as if a state dinner consists
of course after course of luscious sachertorte, flown
in from Vienna.

One of the most particular attributes of the RPO under current
Conductor Laureate Christopher Seaman is his ability to take the orchestra’s string
section to a level of volume that is so far beyond “piano” (soft) and with such
clarity as to do the seemingly impossible. I’ve written high praise about this
fantastic technique in more than one review over the years. But, last night,
with the exception of passages consisting only of cello and bass, I would
suggest that the RPO didn’t go any softer than a mezzo piano. Bowing furiously
in a work such as the Ninth Symphony is not the quest; it is achieving a full
range of dynamics that allows for an enhanced, uniquely Beethoven, emotional
experience.

I would also question, from a review standpoint, whether a season
led entirely by guest conductors is by now presenting challenges for me on
benchmarking performance. For critical basics like clean entrances and crisp
attacks, is it a particular guest conductor or is it a progressing season
without a consistent captain at the helm? Last night’s orchestration was a
packed stage, along with a guest chorus and four soloists, meaning that even
for a full-time music director and conductor there would have been a critical
mass of extra work to be done. All things considered, to my sensibilities, I’m
going to put a question on whether large works can reasonably be programmed
during a season of guest conductors coming off a protracted period of disquietude.

The RPO also performs the program Saturday, January 18, 8
p.m. and Sunday, January 19, 2 p.m. at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. Tickets
cost $15-$92. For more information call 454-2100 or visit the website.

This article appears in Jan 15-21, 2014.