Boca Raton Symphonia (Sunday, March 20, Roberts Theater, Boca Raton)
The Boca Raton Symphonia closed its most recent concert Sunday with one of its better recent performances, one that seemed well-suited to the orchestra’s current period of experimentation and expansion.
Philippe Entremont, in his first year as conductor of the group, also appeared as piano soloist in the Beethoven Triple Concerto and led an instrumental excerpt from a Richard Strauss opera. But it was the closing work, Rudolf Barshai’s chamber orchestra arrangement of the Third String Quartet of Shostakovich, that had the sharpest profile.
One of several Shostakovich orchestrations under the title of Chamber Symphony (this one is in F, Op. 73a) that Barshai created, this reworking of the Third Quartet is faithful to the spirit of the original in that it has the same sense of impishness and wit, but Barshai adds a special dark coloring to the music by using his winds in lower registers early on.
Those same winds are used relatively sparingly to underline the music, which even here is still basically a work for strings. Ensemble was good overall, with logical tempi and a strong sense of unity of purpose. There was fine solo work throughout as well, from violist Michael Klotz, flutist Jeanne Tarrant, cellist Jason Callaway, oboist Erika Yamada and violinist Misha Vitenson.
Entremont kept a firm hand on the work’s narrative arc, moving from the pizzicato smirk at the end of the first movement to a heavy drive for the three-note motif that starts the second movement with no letup in energy or a long pause. In general, this was not a performance that indulged in any longueurs, even with the Beethoven-style figure that opens the fourth-movement Adagio, which moved along in a business-like manner into a sound world that was moody but not inert.
There was some gratifying attention to super-soft dynamics at the outset of the fifth-movement finale, and the transition to the sunnier, klezmer-tinged main theme of the movement was akin to a long-awaited break in the clouds. This was a somewhat demanding, difficult work with which to end the concert, but it was played with impressive skill, and like much of Shostakovich’s best music, it has that mix of bruised tonality and seriousness of purpose that seem so emblematic of 20th-century witness.
Sunday’s concert at the Roberts Theater on the campus of St. Andrew’s School in Boca Raton opened with a chamber orchestra version of the opening string sextet from Richard Strauss’ 1942 opera, Capriccio. This is music of Strauss’ late manner, warm and slow-moving despite the occasional note-blizzard viola solo and a tempestuous contrasting section, and the Symphonia’s strings brought creaminess and confidence to it.
Ensemble at some points in the initial going was not precise, and the same was true at times in the final pages, but it didn’t detract much from the basic effect, which was sweet and highly emotive, or the high level of accomplishment the group demonstrated in playing it.
Violinist Ludwig Mueller and cellist Christophe Pantillon joined Entremont for the Beethoven Triple Concerto (in C, Op. 56) that ended the first half. For the most part, this also was a good performance of an unfairly neglected work, and it made a forceful impression on the audience.
Both Mueller and Pantillon proved to be expert players, but they both had some intonation problems, particularly in Pantillon’s high-register entrance with the theme in the Polish rondo finale, and more importantly there was something of a lack of cohesion between the three soloists. I think most of this had to do with the hall; Entremont’s piano (which he played winningly) faced in, away from the soloists, as it usually does when the pianist serves as conductor and soloist.
But the piano sounded distant and foggy from the audience, its notes swallowed up by the concrete, and it rarely sounded like a partner with the other two. With acoustics like those of the Roberts, it might have been better to set up the three men piano-trio style and have someone else conduct. The way it was, it was difficult to hear the juxtaposition of the three against the orchestra.
Yet there was still plenty of good music to be heard, and this was essentially a fine reading of one of the more interesting concertos in the repertoire, particularly in the finale, which had an engaging sense of high spirits and dazzle toward the close.
The Boca Symphonia’s next performances are set for 8 p.m. Saturday, April 9, and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 10, at the Roberts Theater. Conductor David Commanday will lead pianist Soyeon Lee in the Piano Concerto No. 23 (in A, K. 488) of Mozart, on a program that also includes the Italian Symphony (No. 4 in A, Op. 90) of Mendelssohn and Aaron Copland’s Music for Movies. Call 376-3848 or visit www.bocasymphonia.org.
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Palm Beach Symphony (Thursday, March 17, Palm Beach Atlantic University)
Assisted by a generous acoustic, conductor Ramon Tebar led his Palm Beach Symphony in an exciting evening of interpretive muscularity Thursday in the fourth concert of the orchestra’s current season.
Tebar, a 32-year-old Spaniard who was recently named music director of Miami’s Florida Grand Opera, is an energetic, passionate young conductor who shepherds his vocal and instrumental flocks through performances of great vitality. He is always thoroughly engaged in the music he’s making, and he brings a nice spark of star power to each of his podium appearances.
Thursday’s concert in the DeSantis Chapel on the campus of Palm Beach Atlantic University was most enjoyable, not least because the acoustics of the chapel help round out and fill out the sound of the orchestra. It sounds like a much bigger band because of it, and you could hear the players growing more confident as the concert went on. (After all, that’s literally what good feedback will do for you.)
There were two important symphonies in D major (and minor) on the program, both from early in the respective composers’ careers: Haydn’s No. 6 (called Le Matin), and Mendelssohn’s No. 5 (Reformation, Op. 107), which is actually a much earlier work than its chronological or opus numbers would indicate.
The Haydn symphony was written in keeping with a concertante format that allowed the composer to show off the capabilities of his individual players, especially in the second movement, with its extensive work for solo violin and cello. But there are prominent solo wind moments in the other movements, which adds to the fresh, springy color of the music, helped along here by Tebar’s vigorous tempi.
The first movement had a lovely sense of lift and energy right from the first flute entrance, and the orchestra played all the rapid movements like a young man’s symphony, with exuberance and forward motion. Violinist Laura Miller and cellist Christopher Glansdorp tackled their solo work admirably, and in the same spirit; Miller was slightly under pitch some of the time, but she had a good rustic touch to her initial statement, as if summoning the village band to order.
In the minor-key trio section of the third movement, which features bassoon and double bass, bassoonist Michael Ellert played deftly above a bass dance figure that sounded like a thunderous rumble in the chapel, giving the music a heavier dose of contrast than Haydn intended. In the finale, Tebar chose a headlong tempo that evoked the wide-open fields outside instead of the indoors ritual of Esterhaza, and the effect was invigorating.
The Stravinsky Danses Concertantes that came next was welcome not just for its rarity on local concert programming but for its excellence as a pairing with the Haydn symphony. Written (in 1941-2) in the neoclassic style of the Symphony in C, the Dumbarton Oaks concerto and Jeu de Cartes, it is filled with the wind solo work that was such an integral part of the composer’s contemporary style.
It also shares the Haydn’s sense of fun and innovation, with its unexpected accents, surprising instrumental combinations and overall feeling of good spirits. Tebar and his players paid scrupulous attention to dynamics as well as getting the offbeat accents right, and that helped throw the contour of the work into high relief.
This was a meaty, sometimes boisterous reading of the Stravinsky work, with sharp playing all around, especially from the winds, who have to carry much of the musical argument in the later movements. It’s a pity this work isn’t heard more often in area concerts; it fit this program beautifully.
The concert closed with the Mendelssohn Fifth, which is not as effective a work as the later Scotch or Italian symphonies, but Tebar and the Palm Beachers gave it as persuasive a performance as I’ve heard in some time. The first movement was fraught with tension, and the second bubbled along at a good clip, and some pretty string sound in the contrasting section when violas and celli took up the main theme.
The third movement was smoothly played, and in the finale, Tebar went for bigness. Boosted again by the acoustic, this was the just the kind of celebratory epic sound Mendelssohn might well have been looking for in his mind’s ear when first he wrote his tribute to Luther’s revolution and borrowed his hymn for the finale.
The Palm Beach Symphony will wrap its season next week at the Flagler Museum with a performance featuring pianist Lola Astanova in the Rachmaninov Second Piano Concerto (in C minor, Op. 18) and the Symphony No. 3 (in E-flat, Op. 55, Eroica) of Beethoven. The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $50. Call 655-2657 or visit www.palmbeachsymphony.com.