LSO MasterWork 6 - The Modern and the Powerful April 1, 2019
As I was entering Wharton Center for a Lansing Symphony Orchestra
concert on Saturday night, a friend said, “I’m looking forward to the Tchaikovsky,
but it looks like I’ll have to sit through a modern piece first.”
It’s true that most people go to a symphony concert and
want to hear the music that is most familiar to them, and if not familiar
certainly tuneful and harmonic.
But Maestro Timothy Muffitt enjoys contemporary music and
somehow manages to find works that any audience can enjoy. As it turns out, “Visions
and Miracles” by Christopher Theofanidis was a wonderful work in three movements
for string orchestra. Adapted from a
string quartet, the work sounded a bit like Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” at
times.
Muffitt has changed the seating of the orchestra recently,
placing the cellos near the center of the orchestra with the second violins
opposite the first violins. I prefer
this arrangement, as we hear the four voices - violin 1, violin 2, viola and
cello – more distinctly. Certainly, it
worked very well for the fugal style in which this piece was written.
A few more instruments were added for the following work on
the program: the Schumann Cello concerto (woodwinds and an abbreviated brass section)
featuring the young gifted soloist, Nicholas Canellakis.
The Schuman is not as popular as many other showstopper
cello concertos, but it is a very poignant, heartfelt piece. Canellakis has a strong, intense sound and
played the concerto with deep expression.
As usual, Muffitt is a sensitive accompanist, and he and
Canellakis clearly enjoyed making music together. Although the work has three movements, they were
played with no interruption.
The big work for the evening, and the reason most people
were in the Great Hall that night, was the powerful Symphony No. 6 “Pathetique”
by Tchaikovsky.
The dark, somber work, for me, is Tchaikovsky’s finest. It was first performed nine days before Tchaikovsky’s
death.
My Russian friends tell me that Tchaikovsky’s music is
not romantic, it’s melancholy. I’m not
sure if that’s true, but I do think it fits the mood of the sixth.
For this work, we hear the complete Lansing Symphony, as
the trombones, tuba, and the full horn section joined the orchestra. And they were all needed to stretch out the full
breadth of the massive chords.
When those chords were especially lush, as they were at
the end of the first movement, I am sure Muffitt would have appreciated a
larger string section to match the woodwinds and brass.
Some key section leaders were filled by substitute players
on Saturday, and a certain soloistic quality was missing at times.
Tchaikovsky seemed to see the future with this work,
meshing instruments together in creative ways.
But the clearest evidence of that modernism is the tantalizing second
movement.
It is here that the Russian composer has the audacity to
write a waltz in 5/4 time, rather the traditional 3/4. Interestingly, the
melody is so lilting and beautiful that few realize that it is a strange meter
for a waltz. The music just flows along,
and the audience members bob their heads in the swing of it all.
As he often does now, Muffitt conducted the Tchaikovsky without
the benefit of a score (it was on his stand, but closed shut) which seemed to
give him a closer communication with the orchestra.
This symphony is a serious work and demands much of the
musicians. Muffitt and the LSO were up to
the challenge.
