Skip to content

Breaking News

HSO Creates Compelling, Collaborative ‘Love Notes’ Concert

Author
PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:

The Hartford Symphony Orchestra has given several impressive concerts over the past several seasons that integrate acting, dancing and/or the work of visual artists, but this one was among the very best.

On Thursday night, Carolyn Kuan, conductor and music director of the HSO, fashioned an event where the short works that comprised its program created a compelling musical narrative that summed into a larger harmonious meaning. But the concert also featured a collection of collaborative surprises appropriate for Valentine’s Day weekend. The “Love Notes”concert series continues through Sunday in the Belding Theater, a continuation of the HSO’s 2015-16 Masterworks Series at The Bushnell in Hartford.

The first half opened with the Prelude to Act I from “Tristan und Isolde” by Richard Wagner. The orchestra played with a rich, lovely sound and with effective balance between the string and wind colors that are so essential to this prelude. When hearing the concert version of this prelude it is common to encounter an ending that attempts to suddenly resolve the tensions of the prelude. Kuan wisely avoided the concert ending, and instead used the magically ambiguous ending from the opera itself.

She highlighted the unsettled nature of that close to move without break into the opening of the “Pax de Deux (Balcony Scene)” from “Romeo and Juliet” by Prokofiev. Then Alexsander Keeperman and Alma Evertz from the Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory came onstage to dance this segment of the ballet. These young dancers had strong presence and charisma, and were both confident and completely fluid in gesture.

Next, pianist Margreet Francis performed “Clair de Lune” from the “Suite Bergamasque” for solo piano by Debussy. Puppeteers Ulysses Jones and Megan McNerney, representing the UConn Puppet Arts Program, gave us an entertaining interlude in this program of surprises. The exotic “Bacchanale” from “Samson et Dalila” by Saint-Saens brought a high-spirited close to the first half of the program.

After intermission we were treated to something even more unusual. The visual artist Maria Rud performed a live series of freely drawn images that were projected onto the back wall of the concert stage while the orchestra played “Francesca da Rimini” by Tchaikovsky. Rud has a deeply musical insight in her artwork, and she was able to transmit a very particular series of insights into this dark and spirited work by Tchaikovsky. The images became understood by us as the musical images and directions became clear in the musical performance, and she smeared colors to create new potentials on the electronic canvas that corresponded to the larger design of the musical work. In this age when music and visual images are thought of as objects to be downloaded, her artwork was as transient and delicate as the sound itself.

After the intensity of correspondence between visual and sonic media we needed a palette cleanser. Pianist Margreet Francis returned to perform the first movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” with a darkened stage and no other movement or motion. Her strong musicianship gave us plenty to focus on.

Rud rejoined the orchestra to create new images during the performance of selections from “The Nutcracker” by Tchaikovsky. The energy behind these images was very different from the earlier designs and it was a treat to be able to watch this process emerge a second time.

If you are someone who does not normally attend live concerts of classical music, this is the kind of event that might provide a new kind of access point for understanding how musical sound unfolds its narrative magic. If you are a regular concert goer, then the many surprises in this memorable event, and its uncanny logic, make it very worth attending.

HARTFORD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’S “Love Notes” concert series continues through the weekend with performances at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12 and Saturday, Feb. 13, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14. For tickets: hartfordsymphony.org/tickets or call 860-987-5900.