United States Widmann, Strauss: Antoine Tamestit (viola), Cleveland Orchestra / Daniel Harding (conductor). Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, Cleveland, 20.10.2022. (MSJ)
Widmann – Viola Concerto
R. Strauss – Eine Alpensinfonie
Who says a soloist has to face, rooted in place, beside the conductor? Who says {that a} concerto needs to be within the conventional three actions? Who says a piece have to be both aggressively fashionable or relentlessly old school? Who says a concerto have to be a shallow showpiece? There are many assumptions about concertos, and composer Jörg Widmann discards virtually each one among them in his astonishing viola concerto. The 2015 piece acquired its Cleveland premiere on this live performance, performed by the work’s dedicatee, Antoine Tamestit.
It was evident from the start that this work can be uncommon. Conductor Daniel Harding entered the stage and took the rostrum, however the soloist didn’t comply with him. As Harding stood silently on the rostrum, a number of unsure coughs sounded within the viewers. A slight tapping sound arose from the acute left facet of the stage. It seems that Tamestit had already been sitting on stage and, as he stood up, peering throughout, he wasn’t enjoying his viola within the typical method however tapping its picket high.
After a number of moments of unanswered tapping, the small orchestral pressure onstage lastly acknowledged the soloist with a quick, irritated flourish. The soloist stepped towards the middle of the stage, however his tapping didn’t get additional response. Finally, a bongo on the rear of the stage responded, and Tamestit jerked his head towards it, then crossed over to the percussion part for a quick change. As the piece took form, the soloist moved across the stage, trying to interact with people and sections. The soloist ‘discovers’ enjoying with pitches as he faucets, then pizzicato, and finally, a bow. When Tamestit first encountered the bow, he wielded it like Excalibur earlier than making use of it to the strings. By this level, we have been already a 3rd of the best way by way of the piece.
Bow integrated, the complexity, dissonance and brilliance of the writing grew. The viola had memorable encounters with winds, tremolo low strings, and even grew to become humorous at one level when a struggle broke out with an offended tuba. As the piece hurtled towards a climax, the viola half grew to become ferociously thorny, with Tamestit instantly breaking off with a scream.
In the aftermath of the imploded climax, textures thinned, and the dissonance melted. Tamestit labored his technique to the entrance of the stage, and commenced buying and selling extra lyrical phrases with the strings, which progressively took form as a mournful, tonal lament, the candy harmonies all of the extra shifting having emerged from the previous wildness. In a wide ranging second, the viola joined with the night’s concertmaster, Jessica Lee, enjoying in unison. Then, textures started to sag and crumble, drifting downward. In the closing moments, after the low strings pale out, Tamestit started de-tuning the viola’s low C string, trailing off into nothingness.
The piece was a theatrical tour de pressure, and Tamestit was each fiercely dedicated and musically compelling. He was matched each step of the best way by Harding and the gamers, and the impact was electrical. Composer Widmann has a protracted historical past with the Cleveland Orchestra, having beforehand served as a Daniel R. Lewis Composing Fellow. His 2014 Trauermarsch made a robust impression in a 2018 live performance (click on right here), and this work was much more spectacular, receiving a standing ovation and cheers from the viewers.
As the second half of the live performance was about to start, an aged lady within the row behind me whispered to her neighbor, ‘This next one is by Richard Strauss, so it will be normal’. While it’s definitely debatable how ‘normal’ Strauss’s Alpine Symphony is, this specific efficiency wouldn’t be the sort of regular I want to see frequently. There is not any query in any respect that Daniel Harding is expert, is aware of how the music goes and might construct a climax. There have been many moments the place his broad tempos allowed felicitous particulars to point out by way of Strauss’s busy textures – moments such because the crash into the minor after the off-stage horn calls have been delivered expertly.
So, Harding is aware of the right way to conduct an orchestra. But does he know why we hassle with this extraordinary ritual generally known as a symphony live performance? He was sharply dedicated within the Widmann, and the spirit was electrical. In the Strauss, he demonstrated his absolute information and assurance with out providing a compelling sense of engagement, a bit like a educated however bored tour information. The orchestra’s sound, whereas fairly sufficient, was neither music director Franz Welser-Möst’s silvery sleekness, nor was it the colour Jakub Hrůsa attracts forth, not to mention the sumptuousness Stéphane Denève pulls from the ensemble.
It didn’t assist issues that Eric Sellen’s program word dwelled virtually completely on the picture-postcard points of the Strauss tone poem. While the work itself has some main shortcomings – Strauss’s meandering fifty-minute wander might have been an impressive thirty-minute hike with some centered enhancing – it additionally has some severe underpinnings. Part of the expansion of the work was Strauss’s response to the loss of life of Gustav Mahler, which shocked and depressed him. At one level, Strauss was even considering a philosophical program with the title Antichrist Symphony, demonstrating simply how radical Strauss’s nature worship ran. Flawed although it might be, it isn’t merely a picture-postcard. This efficiency evoked little past the skillfully wrought notes.
Perhaps we’re spoiled in Cleveland with one of many world’s best Strauss conductors in Welser-Möst. When I final heard him lead the Alpine Symphony over a decade in the past, his sense of urgency helped maintain the discursive piece collectively. I’m wanting ahead to listening to him summit once more, now that the orchestra has begun recording a cycle of Strauss works on their very own label. The most up-to-date launch, TCO0004, incorporates a reference recording of the early tone poem, Macbeth, and lithe variations of Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel. Welser-Möst understands the hidden neoclassical core of Richard Strauss like few others, and builds his performances round it, a lot to the music’s profit. Harding’s regular, dutiful slog by way of the work demonstrated his personal talent however didn’t summon the music’s elusive spirit.
Mark Sebastian Jordan