The Hartford Symphony Orchestra responds well to high energy conductors, and guest conductor Donato Cabrera impressed. He inspired the orchestra into fiery colors and blazing sound in a program of Russian music Friday night beginning the weekend’s three-day concert series.
Cabrera hails from the Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra and the California Symphony and came east to guest conduct the Hartford Symphony as it continues the 2016-2017 Masterworks Series in the Belding Theater, at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts.
The evening was called “Russian Intensity,” but its intensities were aspects of a program filled with elegance, dreamy lyricism and virtuosity that began with the overture to the opera “Prince Igor” by Borodin. Borodin himself never actually notated this overture. The story is that the overture was notated from memory by Alexander Glazunov after hearing Borodin play the work on a piano at a gathering not long before Borodin, the great composer/chemist, died.
Cabrera conducted the overture with terrific visceral energy and helped the orchestra to sharpen the sudden juxtapositions of quiet and loud, and the vibrant transitions that create musical energy in this score. An effective clarinet solo in the opening Allegro created groove. The exposed horn solo came across lyrically, and was the first of many outstanding moments led by horn section. The entire brass section impressed throughout the evening.
The Polovtsian Dances, from “Prince Igor,” are more frequently encountered in orchestral concerts than this overture — and yet the overture fit this program perfectly. Glazunov orchestrated the overture after Borodin’s death and it carries Glazunov’s orchestral stamp in its sound. It was a worthy preface for the Glazunov Violin Concerto that closed the first half of the program.
Concertmaster Leonid Sigal was soloist in the Glazunov Violin Concerto. Sigal discussed this concerto and his long connection to it in the preconcert talk. He learned the work early and has been playing it throughout his life, returning to it at various times and places. He played the concerto with warm, polished edges and we learned new possibilities with almost every phrase.
The Glazunov violin concerto is a work of sonic parentheses. It is possible to get lost within it unless the conductor and soloist guide us clearly and deliberately through its hallways.
Sigal shaped the long opening tune in ways that expressed both lyrical and relentless aspects of its character. This shaping helped us understand the elaborate architecture of this concerto. Another feature of the Glazunov style includes tempo changes without transition between them. Both Cabrera and Sigal kept these changes sudden and sharp-edged.
The concerto has an infamous extended cadenza that is technically challenging and often hard to deliver in live performances. Sigal shaped the inner-voices of this contrapuntal cadenza and it was thrilling to hear. The richness of his interpretive voice remains fascinating. We are lucky to have a concertmaster like him.
After intermission, the audience gasped as Sigal returned to his orchestral seat for the second half of the program, which was centered on the Symphony No. 4 in F minor by Tchaikovsky.
There were several passages in which the sectional strings were so engaged that there was a noticeable sway amongst them. The details of the performance made it memorable. In the third movement the section strings played “sul tasto” by plucking the strings closer-than-normal to the fingerboard. This created a warm, rich sound in the quickly articulated music. The scales of the finale sizzled and were played with amazing coordination.
The standing ovation at the close of the finale was extended as Cabrera stepped within the orchestra to acknowledge wind and brass soloists. Folks were abuzz as they left the hall.
Masterworks “Russian Intensity” concerts continue 8 p.m. Saturday, May 13 and 3 p.m. Sunday, May 14 in The Belding Theatre at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. Tickets: hartfordsymphony.org/tickets; 860-987-5900.
