Showing posts with label Tchaikovsky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tchaikovsky. Show all posts

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Closing the DSO Season with Love from Russia

By Christine Facciolo

The Delaware Symphony Orchestra (DSO) brought down the curtain on its 2016-17 Classics series on Friday, May 12 with a robust Russian program that included Stravinsky’s Ode, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concert No. 3 featuring soloist Sergei Babayan.

DSO Music Director David Amado assured the audience that the program was curated well in advance of the 2016 elections and was not meant to reflect events taking place on the international stage.

Delaware audiences don’t get to hear enough Russian music performed, so this was a real treat to hear it played with the kind of fervor and genuineness that were on display in The Grand Opera House.

Rachmaninoff has a reputation for writing dark, sultry and impossibly difficult piano music. The Third Concerto in particular is often considered to be the Mount Everest of Romantic pianism, an image long cemented in the public mind thanks to its appearance as a major plot device in the 1996 film “Shine,” based on the life of pianist David Helfgott.

Soloist Sergei Babayan was born in Armenia into a musical family. He trained at the prestigious Moscow Conservatory and has performed in some of the world’s most foremost venues, including Carnegie Hall in New York and Wigmore Hall in London.

Babayan offered a multidimensional reading that revealed the depth of both composer and artist. His bass notes thundered on demand and there was no shortage of dynamic punch but there were also moments of ecstatic passion and quiet repose. The DSO for its part provided either gentle support or a rousing call to arms. The communication between soloist and conductor was obvious.

The DSO also gave Amado 100% in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 which followed the intermission. The first movement received an urgent performance yet one that was imbued with an appreciation of the composer’s balletic grace. The second movement was played in the manner of a song without words, allowing Tchaikovsky’s sumptuous melodies to soar. The string exhibited a pizzicato virtuosity in the brief scherzo while the finale crackled with plenty of rhythmic acuity from the strings and the woodwinds in their exchanges leading up to the various appearances of the “big tune.”

The program opened with Stravinsky’s Ode. Commissioned to mark the passing of Natalie Koussevitzky, the work manages only a fleeting elegiac tone in the bustling opening Eulogy. That element is reserved for the concluding Epitaph. The central Eclogue offers the most interesting music. Recycled from an abandoned “Jane Eyre” film project, this section features brilliant wind writing with its lively contrapuntal hunt motif nimbly executed by the DSO horns.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

The Music School of Delaware Opens Season with a "Musical Bounty" for Fans

By Christine Facciolo

The Music School of Delaware opened its 2016-17 season Wednesday, September 28, 2016 by gifting its supporters with gorgeous renderings of two of the best loved works for string orchestra: Grieg’s Holberg Suite and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C Major.

Maestro Simeone Tartaglione conducted a string orchestra composed of music school faculty and three invited guests violists Sheila Browne and Marka Stepper and bassist Arthur Marks.

The program opened with Grieg’s Holberg Suite for String Orchestra. Composed to honor the memory of 18th Century Norwegian writer Ludvig Holberg, Grieg cast the work in the musical language of the 18th Century. Tartaglione applied a light touch, playing up the individual character of each of the work’s dance-like movements.

Following the brisk opening Praeludium was a stately Sarabande featuring a lovely dialogue between cellists Lawrence Stomberg and Eric Coyne. The Gavotte recalled the formality of the court while the Musette contrasted with a folksong quality. The deeper strings imparted a profound solemnity to the Air, one of Grieg’s most beautiful creations.  The concluding Rigaudon paid tribute to Norwegian folk violinists as it featured some virtuosic bowing by concertmaster Stefan Xhori.

Tartaglione conducted with authority and passion as he led the orchestra through Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C Major, an intensely personal work that the composer intended as homage to Mozart whom he viewed as the “Christ of music.” The Serenade is in a vastly different league than the Holberg: Rich in harmonic and melodic invention, it is also more abstract in character and hence more enduring.

The Serenade is Tchaikovsky at his brilliant best and Tartaglione and the musicians did it proud with flair, charm and beauty of tone. The orchestra was nimble and agile in its execution of the second movement — the Valse — with its numerous and sudden harmonic shifts. The third movement — the Elegie with its fugal elements — was ensemble playing at its best. The Finale was played with great virtuosity, bringing the concert to a close with rousing applause.