Concert Review: RPO’s Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique”

The headline number from last night’s Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra concert, conducted by Arild Remmereit, was the 45-minute performance of Tchaikovsky’s
Symphony No. 6 in b-minor, Op. 74 (the “Pathétique”). Unfortunately, instead of
being a headline in all caps, it came in lower case as a missed opportunity.

Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky (1940-1893) is one of the most celebrated Russian composers. His
orchestrations are so brilliant that the music can take performances featuring a
lower level of execution and still elevate them to higher place. He is the
master of gorgeous melodies, themes, and fragments of notes spread throughout
each section of an orchestra, and ensuring that those notes sound clearly above
the orchestral accompaniment. Tchaikovsky died a mere nine days after he
conducted the premiere of his symphony in St. Petersburg. What more reason do
you need to tap into the depths of your emotions when listening to or
performing that work?

I mention all of this about Tchaikovsky and this piece for
two reasons. The first and most important being that if — as I felt happened
last night — the conductor and the musicians do not pour their hearts and souls
into the performance, a great work can sound surprisingly flat. Breaks in French horn lines.Warbling in
sustained trombone tones.Charging through a tempo
marking of “Allegro con grazia” (fast, but with grace). A Finale marked
“Adagio lamentoso” (stately, lamenting) that grew too big too quickly and lost
its poignancy. Every element available through Tchaikovsky’s pen seemed like an
unfulfilled opportunity.

I secondly raise the mastery of the Tchaikovsky score because
it followed a performance of the Piano Concerto in c-sharp minor, Op. 45 by
American composer Amy Beach (1867-1944) that simply couldn’t measure up in that
setting. The Beach composition repeatedly put the piano front and center, into
repetitions of single octaves split as one note in each hand, simultaneous
octaves in each hand, two-note trills one octave apart, and literal scales.
While the pianist, Saet Byeol Kim, appeared to do what she could with the
score, it became difficult to assess whether it was the repetitive notes of the
score or the execution that created walls of sound.

Also, in comparison to the Tchaikovsky, one could ask
whether all of the business (for example, in the second Scherzo movement)
developed the work. With the Tchaikovsky “Pathétique,”
you can scarcely imagine leaving out a note, even though it is a more complex work
than the Beach. The challenge the Beach seems to present for an orchestra, and
especially for a pianist, is how to express subtle gradations of sound, so that
if you have 10 or 20 octaves in a row you have sound that rises
and falls or flutters or cycles, or in some way contributes to the musicality
of the performance.

One final note: I was far from the only person in the
audience who was curious and pleased to hear the “Introduction to
Khovanshchina” by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky (orchestration by Rimsky-Korsakov).
A mere five minutes, this enchanting piece left the people chattering in the
balcony, wanting to hear more.

The RPO will repeat
the program Saturday, November 17, at 8 p.m. in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, 60
Gibbs St. Tickets cost $15-$92. For more information call 454-2100 or visit RPO.org.

This article appears in Nov 14-20, 2012.