United States Various: Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Emanuela Friscioni (piano), Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine / Theodore Kuchar and Carl Topilow (conductors). Cuyahoga Community College Metropolitan Campus Auditorium, Cleveland, 23.2.2023. (MSJ)
Yevhen Stankovych – Chamber Symphony No.3 for Flute and Strings
Brahms – Tragic Overture (cond. Topilow)
Mozart – Piano Concerto No.10 in E-flat main for two Pianos, Ok.365
Dvořák – Symphony No.9 in E minor, Op.95, ‘From the New World’
During his closing remarks, conductor Theodore Kuchar requested if anybody might inform him the present time. After somebody referred to as out the hour, Kuchar famous that – adjusting for time zones – it was virtually precisely one yr to the second after air raid sirens sounded in Lviv, asserting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. To remind those who the battle remains to be ongoing and to thank United States residents for his or her help, the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine has undertaken a 40-city US tour. This Cleveland live performance was the thirty-fourth of the collection.
And what a live performance it was. Under even regular situations, Kuchar is a compelling conductor, however with the essential sense of mission on this event, one felt that the ensemble would storm the Bastille if their principal conductor so desired. There could also be extra refined ensembles, however the Lviv NPO performs with a form of fireplace that’s uncommon, whereas nonetheless working their rivals an in depth race for polish. They have been round in a single kind or one other since 1902, however Kuchar has introduced them to a world-class stage.
Of course, it was important for such a live performance to incorporate a piece by a Ukrainian composer, however Yevhen Stankovych’s Chamber Symphony No.3 was no mere token illustration. Rather, it’s a searing masterpiece by a dwelling composer that was, by a long way, essentially the most substantial work on this system, Brahms and Dvořák however. The 1985 piece is scored for flute and strings, with the focal flute line taken right here by the orchestra’s principal, Michailo Sosnovsky. It opens with the quiet insistence of repeated notes and stepwise actions however strikes from that spare materials to climaxes each harrowing and radiant in three interconnected actions. Sosnovsky was each good and looking out in his taking part in of the demanding solo half and the strings dug in with arresting depth beneath Kuchar’s sure-handed steering. This is emphatically a composer price exploring.
The full ensemble took the stage subsequent, with a particular visitor. Carl Topilow is a towering presence within the Ohio arts scene, having been director of the orchestra program on the Cleveland Institute of Music for 37 years and founder/director of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra for 25 years. At CIM, Topilow has usually introduced Kuchar in as a visitor lecturer and, for this live performance, Kuchar wished to have Topilow step in for a efficiency of Brahms’s Tragic Overture. It is a bit that’s usually carried out in a reserved, understated method, however Topilow let it earn its dramatic title with a visceral efficiency that reminded listeners why the piece turned well-known within the first place.
Next got here Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Emanuela Friscioni, each longtime fixtures within the northeast Ohio arts scene. Pompa-Baldi gained the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 1999 and teaches at CIM. Friscioni has taught at CIM, however extra not too long ago turned director of the Cuyahoga Community College’s Creative Arts Academy and founder/director of the Tri-C Piano Series of live shows. In Mozart’s Concerto No.10 for two Pianos, they savored the interaction of solo traces, whereas clarifying the dialogue with their distinctive sounds: Pompa-Baldi performed with a subtly staccato contact, whereas Friscioni’s contact was extra meltingly lyrical. Kuchar and the orchestra supported them buoyantly.
Ending the live performance was a masterful efficiency of Dvořák’s New World Symphony. Boldly drawn and executed, the efficiency proved classics don’t get drained and worn out, solely bland, timid conductors do. Kuchar is a throwback to the times of Rodzinski, Reiner and Szell. He makes sturdy interpretive decisions, then ensures that his ensemble executes them to the letter. He prefers highly effective bass traces and clear percussion and might drive a efficiency thrillingly. But Kuchar additionally is aware of the place to belief his gamers and drop again into minimal gestures, giving them room to take possession of the second. Best of all, he is aware of when to transcend the rating and permit room to make a psychological transition.
The second half of the live performance began with an amusing second. After the pianos had been taken offstage through the intermission, the conductor’s podium had been struck as nicely. Kuchar appeared shocked to seek out no podium there when he took the stage for the Dvořák, but it surely hardly mattered. He isn’t enormously tall, however his stage presence is not less than seven toes excessive. He made use of the house by working the whole space in entrance of the strings, interacting intently with the gamers – at occasions his baton ended up between the gamers and their sheet music. None of them had been phased by this up-close proximity. Rather, they tore into their components with much more depth, shredding bow hairs within the course of. From Markian Maksymiv’s craving English horn solo to the halting pauses within the closing look of the principle theme of the Largo, the second motion was a standout.
That second deserves particular notice. I’ve heard this piece many, many occasions, and what often occurs is that when this passage arrives, gamers ‘emote’ with an enormous, weepy vibrato because the theme seems to interrupt down, unable to proceed. Kuchar had his gamers restrain the vibrato and, evidently, requested them to really feel the music as a substitute of simply performing the emotion. The distinction was delicate, but it surely electrified a vital passage that every one too usually fails to the touch the guts in bland performances.
Granted that this system was partially made up of works for the visitor artists, it occurred to me through the Dvořák Scherzo that every one the works, as assorted as they’re, had been unified by use of insistent, repeated notes. Thus, the live performance ended up having a variety of types however was efficient musically. The viewers – which included many from Cleveland’s massive Ukrainian group – erupted with joyous shouts on the finish. Across the again of the stage, two flags had been unrolled, one a Ukrainian flag and the opposite combining the flags of the US and Ukraine. An encore primarily based on a standard Ukrainian track closed the night after Kuchar’s remarks thanking the US for its help.
As I walked out of the corridor, I noticed Cleveland’s distinguished Terminal Tower within the distance, framed by the encircling buildings. It was lit up in blue and yellow in honor of the Ukrainian wrestle, and the stirring and terrifying music of the Stankovych piece got here again into my ideas.
On this evening, music gave witness.
Mark Sebastian Jordan