‘Beethoven’s Fifth’ @ Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Photos by Sylvia Elzafon
—Wayne Lee Gay
After a decade's absence, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony returns to the stage of the Meyerson Symphony Center this weekend, as music director Fabio Luisi and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra take on that most familiar and universally admired monument of European classical music.
Not time, nor over-familiarity, nor shifting musical fashion can diminish the work's inherent power—or its steadfast insistence that we can pass from the darkness of C minor to the triumphant light of C major. Conductor Luisi delivers a highly individual reading. conducting with score and without baton.
He has chosen brisk tempos throughout, generally successfully but occasionally sacrificing clarity for speed (as in in the contrapuntal second theme of the third movement, which emerges as a bit of a smudge). Likewise, he has opted to reduce the number of strings to create greater clarity—possibly sacrificing a little warmth of tone, but empowering the brass and winds at full volume.
On the whole, the quick tempos and robust volume levels produce an ultimately thrilling and satisfying rendition of a work that, for many, represents the epitome of the symphonic tradition.
The Beethoven work comes at the end of a high-contrast program, in a concert that opens with Navajo-American composer Raven Chacon's Inscription for Orchestra, receiving its world premiere at Thursday night's performance. Past Pulitzer Prize winner Chacon is notable for unusual instrumentation (sometimes calling for gun shots, foghorns, or rattling coins); in Inscription, his first major work for full orchestra, he sticks to standard instrumentation but introduces frequent micro-tonalities (pitches that fall between the cracks of the standard twelve-tone scale) and other striking orchestration devices.
Dark, stretched notes predominate to create a bleak soundscape; Thursday night's audience responded with polite applause, with patches of obvious enthusiasm scattered here and there in the hall. While not overwhelmed by this first acquaintance with the music of Chacon, this listener would welcome the chance to hear more.
The quintessential romanticism of nineteenth-century German composer Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 provides a worthy contrast as the centerpiece of the concert, and the DSO’s concertmaster Alexander Kerr is a brilliant advocate of the work. Much of Bruch's reputation as a composer rests on the amazing slow movement, a set of variations and transmutations of a glowing, sweeping melody. Conductor Luisi, the orchestra, and soloist Kerr delivered handsomely.
WHEN: February 6-9, 2025
WHERE: Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center
WEB: dallassymphony.org
