“You’re going to have to pace yourselves tonight,” said guest conductor Joel Smirnoff from the stage during the pre-concert talk before Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s “Beethoven and Ravel” concert Friday night.
The first of the weekend’s three scheduled concerts presented a program of beautiful intensities as the Hartford Symphony Orchestra continued its Masterworks Series in the Belding Theater, at the Bushnell in Hartford.
This was the third time that Smirnoff has guest conducted the orchestra. He was in Hartford in November 2012 and again in December 2013 and both of those programs centered on early Tchaikovsky symphonies. If you heard them then you, like me, have been looking forward to his return.
The evening began with a performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 133, the Grosse Fuge in B-flat Major arranged for string orchestra. Smirnoff spent 23 years in the Julliard Quartet and his experience in quartet playing and this repertoire in particular gave the orchestra unique insight. That insight was audible as the HSO performed this massive work with stunning impact.
Most impressive was the motion between solo playing by first-chair players and gradual uptakes where the entire string orchestra played. Basses were added tastefully to deepen and underline some passages. The lyrical, otherworldly music in G-flat major was given by first chair players at first; giving the passage an intimate feel often missing when string orchestras play this work. It was clever and engaging.
Pianist Gilles Vonsattel joined the orchestra as soloist in the Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major to close the first half of the program. Vonsattel has a buoyant, natural musicality that lends itself nicely to this concerto, which mixes the spontaneous with the precise, relaxed humor with mechanical complexity. Smirnoff and Vonsattel made an effective team.
The jazzy, chamber-like qualities of this concerto emerged without effort, but the real test of any soloist in the Ravel is the opening of the second movement. Vonsattel let it play without pushing and pulling and teasing and the music revealed deep inner beauty and subtle humor. Early in the concerto Vonsattel showed how the piano can sizzle in F-sharp major, and later how it can interact seamlessly with the HSO woodwinds. The concerto was well received.
After intermission we heard the Schubert Symphony No. 9 in C Major. Smirnoff had a very distinct and particular conception of this work. His tempos were on the fast side during the first two movements to create momentum. He kept the spring coiled much of the time, storing energy with quiet dynamic levels that did not diminish the inner fierceness of the music. In passages where the full impact of the orchestra was unleashed the impact felt ferocious. He made larger designs intelligible to the audience. Smirnoff helped the orchestra anticipate the deviations in phrase structure that add fascination to so many passages in this symphony.
There are places, like the entrance of the trombone choir near the end of the exposition in the first movement, where time seemed to stand perfectly still. Sometimes Smirnoff became still himself and showed no motion with his hands. It captured the wonderful strangeness of the Schubert style.
The orchestra made clear distinctions between rhythms that divided in two and rhythms that divided in three. Often, through inattention these distinctions are somewhat blurred in performance, and throughout the symphony this made for vivid textures. But it also helped connect to the Beethoven and the Ravel where similar rhythmic contrasts are also structural.
This was an adventurous and massive program, played by the orchestra with unbelievable stamina. The majority of listeners met the challenge and emerged energized, humming Schubert tunes.
HARTFORD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA presents its Masterworks concert series “Beethoven and Ravel” 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20 and Saturday, Jan. 21, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 22 in the Belding Theater at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave, Hartford, CT. For tickets call 860-987-5900 or visit hartfordsymphony.org.
