Big statements
Albany Symphony Orchestra brash, lively under guest conductor.
What is the Albany Symphony Orchestra without music director David Alan Miller on the podium?
It’s still a fine ensemble with a penchant for ambitious programs played with gusto.
Saturday evening’s concert at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall with guest conductor Lawrence Loh was full of big statements, mostly in major keys and consistently loud. Sometimes the ASO is a mighty beast that needs to be kept in check. Loh brought accuracy and some nuance to the performances, but not much restraint.
Things started off crisp and cheerful, though, with Rossini’s Overture to “La Scala Di Seta.” It was easy work for everybody, but principal oboe Karen Hosmer delivered a long and tricky solo that seemed to sparkle.
Chee-yun, the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, had an impressive command of the demanding showpiece. It just took her a little while to bring some personality to it. She made some unappealing sounds in the opening minutes of that mammoth first movement, which had the ASO at triple forte. The audience applauded heartily, then herd mentality kicked in and we got the first standing ovation of the night.
All that must have warmed up Chee-yun, as she opened her heart during the brief Andante, a haunting dialogue with the woodwinds. Everything came together in the finale, as the violin’s pyrotechnics got infused with dashes and jolts of humor and playfulness.
Receiving its premiere after intermission was Polina Nazaykinskaya’s “Fenix.” She described the piece as an “emotional journey of one melody.” It was fast and heavy, thick and cinematic, quickly conjuring big-screen depictions of folks on a cross-continental expedition, with superimposed images of maps and routes.
The relentless writing would have benefited from less-heavy orchestrations and some variations in dynamics. But the piece was also warm and sincere. Eventually things seemed to collapse into some passages of repose. Above an extended pedal, the winds blew unpitched air through their instruments, like sighs of exhaustion.
The closer was Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 “Italian.” There had been so much going on up to this point that it was easy to overlook Loh, who was keeping everything going. He’s not a showy presence, and eschewed a baton for three out of four pieces.
Sometimes it’s fine for a conductor to just not interfere with the music and let it proceed. But the Mendelssohn, usually such a charmer, was weighty and dense in the outer movements. Traveling music again came to mind in the Andante, which was lighter and picturesque, as numerous scenes spilled out above the walking bass line.