United States Price, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky: Vadim Gluzman (violin), Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra [for the Price], Charleston Symphony Orchestra / Jonathon Heyward (conductor). Gaillard Hall, Charleston, South Carolina, 7.1.2023. (LV)
Price – ‘Dances in the Canebrakes’ (orch. William Grant Still)
Beethoven – Violin Concerto in D main, Op.61
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No.6 in B minor, Op.74, ‘Pathétique’
Jonathon Hayward, newly anointed as music director of the Baltimore Symphony, was greeted with heat and vitality, cheers and whistles when he got here out on the Gaillard Hall stage to conduct the Charleston Symphony for the primary time, an genuine hometown hero. When he circled to steer the viewers within the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’, it appeared like everyone within the sold-out corridor was singing with a full-throated musicality that made this probably the greatest performances of the anthem I had ever heard.
From the primary bars of Florence Price’s 10-minute ‘Dances in the Canebrakes’ in William Grant Still’s colourful orchestration, Heyward elicited element whereas sustaining momentum and confirmed nice tempo decisions, all the time natural and pure. The readability and precision of his conducting was mirrored within the exuberant taking part in by the mixed forces of the Symphony and the Youth Symphony, during which Heyward had as soon as performed cello. He was eager on articulation and built-in small bits into the entire with out ever seeming rushed. With his again to the viewers, he monitored the proceedings with marionette-like strikes on the rostrum.
Heyward started the Beethoven Violin Concerto two-to-a-bar at a pleasant pace which gave the opening tutti a gently flowing, lyrical high quality. With its sense of anticipation and restrained ardour, the efficiency of the orchestra tutti was greater than mere accompaniment. When Vadim Gluzman entered together with his marvelous Strad (the ‘ex-Leopold Auer’ 1690), they instantly caught the pace and stream and with exceptionally phrased rubato, by no means drawing consideration to the soloist and all the time increasing the musical dimensions. The final assertion by violin via the triplets to the massive striding climax was very transferring, and Gluzman’s legato runs have been mesmerizing. Entering the cadenza, a way of private chemistry between soloist and conductor infused the music with a particular heat.
It is unlikely that Alfred Schnittke’s five-minute cadenza, written for Gidon Kremer and working the gamut from Bach to Schnittke with hints and teases of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Ysaÿe and Schoenberg, will supplant Kreisler or Joachim till maybe Spock’s voyages on the starship Enterprise, and it actually has no intention of being integral to the concerto, however the alternative it gave Gluzman to dig into his violin expanded the size of the concerto’s universe.
The Larghetto started with the sort of ghostly, muted pianissimo that requires a conductor who actually desires it. The orchestral passage resulting in the violin’s second entrance was easy and eloquent, the passage with the orchestral pizzicatos, normally a reflective second, was virtually lighthearted. The Gaillard Hall had simply the correct quantity of resonance, and you would hear the subtlest nuances of Gluzman’s taking part in.
After Schnittke, Beethoven’s transient cadenza adlib transition to the Rondo finale appears unnecessarily tame, however Gluzman performed the principle tune, which lately has tended to be peppy and cheerful, with loving intimacy, reworking it into one thing so tasty that I wished to listen to it repeatedly. As the motion proceeded, studded like jewels with beautiful duets between Gluzman and new principal bassoonist, Jordan Brokken, Heyward continued to unobtrusively nail all the pivot factors on which the piece relies upon, together with a miraculous return to Beethoven from the world of Schnittke.
Heyward typically prefers to not communicate to audiences concerning the music he’s taking part in, however he made an exception for the Tchaikovsky. After starting with ‘Boy, it’s good to be dwelling’, he talked briefly concerning the ‘the human connection’. It was a pleasant contact however, in actual fact, the efficiency he and the Charleston Symphony gave introduced dwelling the common implications of each the composer’s exhilaration and his despair. In the opening Adagio, the virtually inaudible basses set the stage for the enduring bassoon solo, performed magnificently by Brokken. Once the Allegro non troppo was underway, Heyward transitioned to the massive second theme, holding again simply sufficient to create anticipation. The final return of the well-known theme, disturbed solely momentarily by a cough within the viewers, was devastating in its unhappy magnificence.
The Allegro con grazia had a swish lilt, Heyward taking part in with the unorthodox 5 beats to a bar meter, and the tendrils on the finish altering from 3/2 to 2/3 have been unusually touching. The Allegro molto vivace, which marched alongside as ferociously as ever, and the lengthy crescendos, taut and fraught with ominous overtones, elicited the standard applause out of which Heyward launched the Allegro lamentoso with a superb sense of timing, ensuring the important first word was heard, reflecting his love of opera. In truth, previous to Charleston, he had ended the 12 months conducting a live performance efficiency of Aida on the Detroit Opera. After the simplicity of Tchaikovsky’s despair and the dying away of the heartbeats within the bass on the finish, Heyward let the ultimate notes linger for a full 20 seconds earlier than letting go.
In an interview earlier within the day, Heyward informed me he wished to make his homecoming ‘very community oriented’, and he began off by giving a masterclass in conducting to music educators. ‘I wanted to make sure I was able to say thank you to the people that got me to where I am today. I also really wanted to reach out to youth orchestras’.
Heyward admitted that he used to skip college to take a seat in at Charleston Symphony Orchestra rehearsals. ‘I’d be this child with a full rating within the again, proper behind the cellos, actually writing down each single factor in a pocket book I nonetheless have that conductor David Stahl mentioned’. Heyward has all of the rehearsal notes: ‘That’s how I realized, absorbing the music for years as a excessive schooler. It was wonderful’.
The Charleston Symphony has a core of 24 gamers, augmented as crucial from a daily roster of excellent freelancers. ‘It’s extremely spectacular what they’re capable of obtain’, Heyward informed me. And there’s a vital distinction for a younger conductor on the rise who has been guesting everywhere in the world. ‘I hardly ever know anyone’s title in these orchestras. Here in Charleston, I do know each single musician. To be capable to say to [concertmaster and artistic advisor] Yuriy Bekker, “I want a little bit more of this”, or to bassoonist Kathy St. John, “Can we come in more slowly here?”, is particular’. In truth, it was St. John who gave the younger note-taking Heyward a gift of the complete rating of Tchaikovsky’s final three symphonies – which he used for his performances Thursday and Saturday nights.
When I talked to Vadim Gluzman after the live performance concerning the younger conductor’s good method, he mentioned, ‘Of course, everything is technique but technique at the end of the day is secondary, it’s a method of transportation and when you don’t know the place to go, you would sit in a Bentley and never get wherever. You need to have concepts, expertise and objective. And once I met Jonathon for the primary time and labored with him this week, I believed, okay, there’s a future for classical music’.
Laurence Vittes