Photo credit: Ruby Washington, The New York Times
For their first program of the
new season at Carnegie Hall, the Orchestra of St. Luke's presented dynamic
readings of two World War II-era works separated by only two years' time,
Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and
Strings and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9. Led by Principal Conductor Pablo
Heras-Casado, the orchestra was set ablaze with a stormy temperament that
permeated even the most lighthearted and whimsical moments of the evening.
Britten's song cycle—composed for
the composer's longtime partner, the tenor Peter Pears, and hornist Dennis
Brain—seamlessly moves between pastoral serenity and wartime anxiety throughout
its eight-movement setting of poems ranging from a medieval dirge to a Keats
sonnet. Certainly the leading interpreter of Britten's music since Pears
himself, Ian Bostridge was a commanding presence as the tenor soloist (and not
only because he stood taller than Heras-Casado, even while the latter was on his conductor's
podium)—his clear, choir boy-like timbre agile enough to effortlessly float its
upper register and menacingly growl down below.
Particularly captivating were the
"Elegy"—a brooding showcase for OSL Principal Horn Stewart Rose,
whose expressive phrasing and bold articulation were perfectly suited to the movement's
broken, heaving phrases—and the "Sonnet," which allowed Bostridge the
opportunity to reveal his wide-ranging abilities as he transitioned from an
impassioned plea to the staunch acceptance of death over the course of the
poem's final line: "Turn the key deftly in the oilèd wards/And seal the
hushèd Casket of my Soul."
Shostakovich's third installment in his trilogy of "war" symphonies is often compared to the
lighthearted "Classical" Symphony of his fellow Russian, Serge Prokofiev.
Written in 1945, after experiencing the incredible successes of the titanic
Seventh and Eighth symphonies, Shostakovich pared down the orchestral forces to
produce a five-movement set of miniatures that hardly lived up to the triumphal
statement expected of the composer after the war's end.
However, as with all of Shostakovich's
music, the fury swims beneath the surface, and the underlying menace of the music
found below its brassy marches and jaunty piccolo tunes proved to be the focus
of Heras-Casado's interpretation. Leading the orchestra at breakneck speeds, the
conductor seemed ready to send the group off of the proverbial cliff, but,
thankfully, OSL was in top form throughout: balances were in check, even in the
most raucous military moments, and solo woodwinds stole the show with their
elegant tones, phrasing, and blend.
Clarinetist Mark Nuccio and
flutist Elizabeth Mann provided fire and ice, respectively, in the morose
second movement, passing each other the sinewy and serpentine main melody that
never seemed to find its final respite, and bassoonist Marc Goldberg was
particularly moving in the fourth movement's three arias; much like Bostridge
in the Britten, Goldberg was able to effortlessly convey both hushed fear and emboldened
rage within a single phrase.
Opening the program was the
overture to Mendelssohn's A Midsummer
Night's Dream, which found the orchestra in its more familiar territory of
the Classical style. The violins were crisp as they navigated Mendelssohn's
unforgiving writing, and the recurring woodwind chorales provided just the
sense of fairy-tale magic needed for a convincing performance.
The
Orchestra of St. Luke's returns to Carnegie Hall on November 21, 2013, for a
program of Weiner, Schumann, Bartók, and Mozart, featuring pianist Jonathan Biss
and conductor Iván Fischer. Tickets available through the Carnegie Hall box
office.