‘Elgar & More’ @ Dallas Symphony Orchestra

—Wayne Lee Gay

Not quite decadent (but definitely intense) late romanticism greets concert-goers for the first half of  the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's program this weekend at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.

Franz Schmidt, an Austrian composer virtually forgotten by the music world after his death in 1938, turns up fairly frequently in concerts of the DSO these days, largely because of the advocacy of music director Fabio Luisi. We heard Luisi's take on Schmidt's mournful Fourth Symphony in 2022, and in March will encounter his rendition of  Schmidt's massive apocalyptic oratorio The Book with Seven Seals, based on texts from the Book of Revelations.

This week, French-born guest conductor Marie Jacquot gets in on the Schmidt revival with the brief but densely packed Intermezzo from the composer’s opera Notre Dame.

Aggressively rich melody lines dominate the five-minute work, and conductor Jacquot lures a cavernously resonant timbre from the Dallas Symphony strings. (Schmidt obviously aimed to create a sonic equivalent of the famed cathedral of the title.) The score calls for a generally forte to fortissimo dynamic level, but Jacquot, like many guest conductors, miscalculates the acoustic range of the Meyerson concert hall, and fails to turn the volume down at all, creating five minutes of fortissimo. 

The high point of the evening, and well worth the price of admission, is German cellist Maximilian Hornung's gloriously energetic rendition of Elgar's Cello Concerto. Hornung brings a rare level of insight to the score: Thursday night, I almost believed I was hearing a British musician rather than German, so completely Elgarian was his understanding of the piece. This combines with impeccable technique and a a commanding timbre. The delivery of Elgar’s somber opening recitative, followed by the entry of the gentle and folk-like main theme, sets up an almost hypnotic seduction of the listener.

Conductor Jacquot here demonstrates considerably more finesse than in the Schmidt. The final movement delivers numerous memorable moments—as in the magnificent reiteration of the movement's main theme, with the soloist and the cello section in unison. 

Hornung encored Thursday night with a pristine movement from Bach, gently reminding the audience of the influence of Bach on the Elgar Concerto.

After intermission, Jacquot completely redeems herself with Beethoven's Fourth Symphony, patiently (even suspensefully) unveiling the opening section before launching the joyful main theme. This in turn flows naturally into the serenity of the second movement, followed by the madcap Menuetto and epically joyful Finale. 

WHEN: January 4-7, 2024

WHERE: Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas

WEB: dallassymphony.org