In much the same way that many a concertgoer frets about having to hear any contemporary atonal music, some folks get mighty queasy when faced with a symphony of Anton Bruckner. The fact that he’s a solidly 19th-century, all-tonal composer isn’t enough to assuage their fears.
If you happen to fall into that Bruckner-averse crowd, get up your courage this weekend and check out the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. It’s a great opportunity to experience an absorbing, uplifting account of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 with principal guest conductor Markus Stenz in incisive form on the podium and the ensemble giving him an extra-expressive response.
That the program also fits in one of Mozart’s most profound piano concertos — No. 24 in C minor, with the dynamic Gabriela Montero as soloist — sweetens the deal.
It’s hard for some of us to understand the bad rap Bruckner gets today. He got it back in his day, too. No less than Brahms dismissed Bruckner’s symphonies as "a swindle that will be forgotten in a few years." Otherwise sensible pianist/conductor Hans von Bulow compared the works "to the anti-musical ravings of a half-wit." Ouch.
Yes, Bruckner takes his sweet time. Yes, he keeps pulling the rug out from under you — going on tension-ratcheting melodic rides that carry you to the edge of some grand vista, then cutting everything off and starting all over.
The latest Baltimore Symphony Orchestra program is a one-from-Column-A, one-from-Column-B concoction — something nominally Spanish, but actually Russian (Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio Espagnol”); something British (the infrequently encountered Violin Concerto by William Walton); something solidly…
The latest Baltimore Symphony Orchestra program is a one-from-Column-A, one-from-Column-B concoction — something nominally Spanish, but actually Russian (Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio Espagnol”); something British (the infrequently encountered Violin Concerto by William Walton); something solidly…
But there’s always a payoff with this guy. However distant his music might seem emotionally, it can get under your skin. Before you know it, you’re swept up, caught up in an unexpected, heart-stirring force. And when Bruckner’s climactic peaks finally arrive, it’s like receiving a hearty hug from someone you always thought of as aloof and uncaring.
That sensation had wonderful impact Thursday night at the Music Center at Strathmore as Stenz propelled the BSO during the final, heaven’s-gate-opening minutes of the Fourth Symphony. The hour-long journey leading up to that coda proved just as riveting.
This weekend’s Baltimore Symphony Orchestra program won’t win points on originality. Not only does it follow the long-stale format of overture-concerto-symphony, but it also plugs tried-and-true examples into each of those three slots.
Still, there’s an element of freshness: The concert’s two guest…
This weekend’s Baltimore Symphony Orchestra program won’t win points on originality. Not only does it follow the long-stale format of overture-concerto-symphony, but it also plugs tried-and-true examples into each of those three slots.
Still, there’s an element of freshness: The concert’s two guest…
The delicate tremolo in the strings at the start of the piece was superbly realized. "Ideally," as the late critic and musicologist Michael Steinberg wrote, "you do not hear the music begin; rather, you become aware that it has begun." That’s exactly what we got.
Stenz continued to coax sensitive playing from each section and soloist within the BSO. A brief smudge or two hardly mattered in light of so much warmth and fire from the musicians. Among the highlights: the violas and cellos singing out beautifully in the mysterious Andante; the brass blazing away in the trotting Scherzo; the pinpoint work of principal horn Philip Munds throughout.
The Mozart concerto, with its mix of poetry and shadow, provided a potent warm-up to the Bruckner. Montero offered technical smoothness and pearly tone, sculpting pianissimo passages in the first two movements with particular sensitivity. She also effectively conveyed the finale’s nearly Beethoven-weight drama.
Stenz was a model collaborator in a finely detailed performance. The strings summoned a rich sound; the woodwinds did shining work.
Montero, who improvised her cadenza in the first movement persuasively, also treated the audience to an improvised encore, calling on audience members to suggest a theme. She settled on one, the agitated opening tune of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, and put it through various machinations, a la Rachmaninoff and Scott Joplin, with abundant flair.
The pianist stretched the improv out a little too long, but no matter. She couldn’t have pleased the crowd more.
The program will be repeated at 8 Saturda at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St. Call 410-783-8000, or go to bsomusic.org.
tim.smith@baltsun.com
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