At the last second, a young conductor subs in at the Pittsburgh Symphony
Review
Eighty years ago, the mighty Leonard Bernstein, then just a young sprat with a baton, filled in at the last second as conductor of the New York Philharmonic. That performance caught the ear of the public and the press alike, catapulting Bernstein into a globetrotting career.
It’s hard not to draw comparisons to Friday’s Pittsburgh Symphony performance.
Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska was to make her Heinz Hall debut but withdrew due to illness. The orchestra rang rising conductor Jacob Joyce to fill in. The concert featured Sibelius’ fifth symphony, and music with recordings of bird chirps by Einojuhani Rautavaara and — coincidentally — Bernstein.
Here’s a spoiler: it went
well.
Joyce, 30, isn’t a stranger to Heinz Hall. He’s in his third season as associate conductor with the orchestra and regularly conducts educational and live-with-film programs with the symphony. He knows the orchestra, and they know him.
But Friday was different. Special. This was a traditional subscription performance. The stakes were much higher — a strong debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony, a highly regarded American symphony orchestra, could help Joyce bolster his reputation and secure a music directorship at another orchestra instead of his current string of guest appearances and associate positions. (He’s currently applying for such positions, which are frightfully difficult to secure, which we chatted about in a 2022 article.)
“I’m not nervous about the concert, actually, the most stressful thing was the first rehearsal,” he said backstage at Heinz on Friday.
(Unlike Bernstein, who went on without a chance to prepare with the orchestra, Joyce was asked to step in with enough time to go through the orchestra’s regular three-day rehearsal process.)
“At the level of the Pittsburgh Symphony, it’s less about fixing balances and more about getting at Sibelius’ life and the notes behind the score,” he added.
On Friday, the Sibelius, which closed the concert, proved the clear highlight. Joyce kept his trunk largely still and led with clear, direct, gestures. This particular symphony is a thickly scored work, with dense textures in the winds and brass and frequently repeating rhythmic cells. Joyce’s aversion to melodrama allowed the music to pour forth from the orchestra with exceptional clarity. Winding passages and melodies built to the finale’s famous bell tolls in the horns, at once triumphant and noble and full of pathos, before culminating in sharp, clockwork-precise blasts from the whole ensemble to close the symphony.
At the beginning of the concert, Rautavaara’s “Cantus Arcticus,” (“Concerto for Birds”), another Finnish work that begins with fluttering, wheeling flutes and later sets the orchestra in a ponderous glide against actual field recordings of arctic fowl. The effect was deeply relaxing. Plus, Bernstein’s “Serenade after Plato’s ‘Symposium’” for violin and string orchestra, harp and percussion allowed the evening’s soloist, the eminent violinist James Ehnes, to shine. Joyce and the orchestra were tight and understated through Bernstein’s Broadway-tinged, circling melodies and musical arguments.
This understatement was refreshing compared to some of the overwrought playing I’ve heard from orchestras at times, but as Joyce continues to develop as a conductor, I’d prefer a little more abandon at key moments, a willingness to throw caution to the wind and cut loose.
Still, Friday’s was an excellent debut. The orchestra world would do well to take note, and Pittsburgh’s symphony should welcome him back to the subscription series in future seasons.