Haydn, Ravel, & Debussy @ Dallas Symphony Orchestra
—Review by Wayne Lee Gay
Spanish guest conductor Juanjo Mena lays out a sprawling feast of eighteenth- and twentieth-century masterpieces with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra this weekend.
Haydn's Symphony No. 44 opens the concert with a work typical of that composer's unfailing combination of energy, skill, and command of structure. Nicknamed "Trauer-Symphonie" ("Mourning Symphony"), the mood, while generally serious, is never what modern listeners would find "mournful."
Mena calls on a reduced string section here, achieving both the requisite classical-era clarity and the substantial tone necessary in a modern concert hall. Supreme classicist though he was, Haydn never disdained throwing the audience an occasional arresting surprise, as in the heart-stopping violin solo (from DSO co-concertmaster Nathan Olson) near the end of the first movement, one of many fine moments in the performance.
One hundred and sixty years after Haydn produced the "Trauer-Symphonie," Ravel, an admitted admirer of Haydn, created a twentieth-century reply to the classical-era concerto with his Piano Concerto in G, here performed by Spanish pianist Javier Perianes in his Dallas Symphony debut. Perianes travels with calm precision through this concerto, in which Ravel pushed past his impressionistic roots into his own brand of modernism. The outer movements glitter and surprise, while the inner Adagio, one of the finest moments in the piano concerto repertoire, emerges with magical serenity in Perianes' performance.
Two more twentieth-century works follow, both evocative of the folk-life of the Spanish-speaking world. Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera's Variaciones concertantes of 1953 provides a fine showcase for various Dallas Symphony principals, including a beautifully evocative introduction for harp (Emily Levin) and cello (Christopher Adkins) to usher in this brilliant exploration of orchestral colors, rich with the aura of Argentine culture. Debussy's evergreen Iberia closes the concert, with that composer's seductive depiction of daytime, nighttime, and a traditional festival. Here, conductor Mena once again creates fine momentum while handling the resources of the Dallas Symphony impressively.
While each work on this agenda stands well on its own, it's hard to find a logic that binds the 135-minute-long concert together meaningfully. Debussy's Iberia well deserves its place in the symphonic repertoire, and Ginastera's Variaciones concertantes is a welcome addition after an absence of half a century. (Its most recent previous performance by the Dallas Symphony was in 1968.) But these two fine works, so similar in mood and style, make odd companions on a single program.
When: repeated on October 21 & 23
Where: Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center
