Moments before the music started Hartford Symphony Orchestra Conductor Carolyn Kuan asked all in the audience who are currently serving, or had served in the military to stand so that we could acknowledge them on Veteran’s Day. Veterans stood proudly all over the hall, and it was wonderful to recognize them for their service. Live classical music is shared, and it was pleasing to become aware of the presence of so many vets just before the first downbeat.
It was a fitting start to an evening of music by Brahms as the Hartford Symphony Orchestra continued its 2014-2015 Masterworks Series in the Belding Theater, at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts. Brahms wrote music that has always attracted sophisticated listeners, and many in the audience told me they had been looking forward to this event. In the distracted and impatient 21st century this music sings the virtue of concentration and of slowly unfolding beauty.
The concert started in a festive mood with two Hungarian Dances by Brahms: the seventh, in A major, followed by the famous fifth in G minor. This is music that is filled with suddenly shifting tempos and pauses. Kuan led the orchestra through these works with humor and moxie. She even pivoted to face the audience in the slight pause just before the the final chords of the first of the dances, and smiled. It was a fun start to the program, but these dances also rhymed with the finale of the violin concerto that closed the first half of the program, and thereby helped to articulate a larger design.
Violinist Cho-Liang Lin joined the orchestra as soloist in the Brahms Violin Concerto. In addition to being a concerto soloist that is much in demand, Lin has an international reputation as a conductor and as a chamber musician. He was a thrilling soloist to hear in the Brahms concerto.
Too many soloists attack each note of the Brahms concerto as if each were equally important and the end result is that the work can seem overbearing. Lin let ideas in the concerto flow, and played with a natural musicianship that drew us in. This earnest, sincere playing made room for the fierce passages to explode by contrast.
Lin played the 300-year-old “Titian” Stradivarius and that instrument remains in peak condition. It was a thrill to hear the rich overtones and bite that that magnificent instrument still has within it. Imagine.
After intermission we heard the Symphony No. 4 by Brahms. Kuan taught the pre-concert audience to hear the ghost-like echo of winds that can be heard behind the string writing at the opening of the symphony. This was helpful as an educational insight, but in the performance the winds had been brought too far forward in the texture, almost as if they had the tune. Ghosts lose their mystique by daylight.
But in general it was an insightful and engaging performance. The Fourth Symphony is a work of elemental vastness. But it is in intimate moments that the music blossoms, almost unexpectedly at times, and becomes unforgettable. The second movement is critical to this interplay of forces, and the orchestra played it with intense focus, wonderful balances, and amazingly gentle quiet in all the right places. The third movement had a nice groove and the large-scale design and shaping of the fourth movement was clearly delineated. The central flute solo was stunning.
On a cold and windy evening the warmness of this music lasted all the way home. Kuan was able to bring out the richness in this repertoire and the orchestra sounded great.
Hartford Symphony Orchestra Masterworks Series “Bewitching Brahms” continues with concerts 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13 at Belding Theater at The Bushnell. Tickets begin at $35. Student tickets are $10 and $25 tickets are available for patrons age 40 and under. Call 860-987-5900 or visit www.hartfordsymphony.org
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