Virtuosity muscles out romance
Romantic Rachmaninoff
(out of 4) Violinist Nicola Benedetti and conductor Kirill Karabits. Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Roy Thomson Hall. Sept. 26. Repeats Sept. 29. tso.ca The gulf between the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s marketing and artistic departments was thrown into high relief on Wednesday night. Although billed as “Romantic Rachmaninoff,” it should have been called “Three Russian Composers in Search of Coherence.”
Rather than carrying its somewhat sparse Roy Thomson Hall audience away in sweeps of melody, as the title might suggest, the program (which repeats on Saturday) was a display of technical prowess on the part of everyone involved. Artistically, Wednesday night’s concert was provocative and satisfying. The TSO’s strings, especially, delivered an elegant, full ensemble sound.
Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits, who at 41 is making a fine name for himself in England and Europe, made a fine debut with the TSO. He is not showy, but brought taut, carefully crafted interpretations of three works that are not among the most popular among classical listeners.
The Rachmaninoff of the program’s title was his Symphony
No. 3, written in 1936 as the composer savoured his idyllic new home near Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. This, the composer’s final symphony, clearly wants critics to take him seriously as a composer.
Its most virtuosic composi- tional trick is an elaborate fugue in the final movement, hearkening back to an earlier time when this was a hallmark of any serious piece of classical music. But what the symphony may offer in the way of compositional flourishes it holds back in musical interest.
The first movement’s thematic material is thin and repetitive. And there is a pervasive atmosphere of gloom all the way through, which could be attributed to the increasingly dire political situation in Eu- rope at the time.
We also heard the Violin Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Prokofiev, written a year earlier as that Russian composer was dashing around Europe on a concert tour. The guest soloist was Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, who delivered an athletic interpretation.
There is quite a lot of humour in Prokofiev’s score, and both the orchestra and Benedetti demonstrated that they were capable of a light touch, but the emphasis throughout was on technical virtuosity rather than outright musicality.
The evening opened with 19 TSO string players and Karabits interpreting the 2004 revision of Serenade for String Orchestra by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov. This gentle meditation is the musical equivalent of looking at a reflection through the shards of a broken mirror. There were pieces of this and that working hard to cohere into a compelling musical journey. It made for a limp introduction to an otherwise muscular evening of music-making.
Did the three composers find coherence together? They actually did at the hands of these strong interpreters. But appreciating the result was work, not pleasure.