Mozart + Prokofiev @ The Dallas Symphony Orchestra
—Wayne Lee Gay
Sublime Mozart and anguished Prokofiev create a brilliant and fascinating study in contrasts by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor Leonidas Kavakos this weekend.
Breaking free from the traditional focus on an international guest soloist in the concerto slot, the concert opens with the orchestra’s concertmaster Alexander Kerr and principal viola Meredith Kufchak in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat Major for Violin and Viola. Besides proving that great musicians aren’t necessarily imported from the international touring circuit, Kerr and Kufchak demonstrate a remarkable insight not only into the high classical style of Mozart but also into the special skills of collaboration and communication required by this particular variation of the concerto genre.
The approach of all parties involved carefully treads the fine balance required when placing the intimacies of Mozart into the expansive space of a modern concert hall. The downward-pointing main theme of the first movement is one of Mozart’s most poignant moments, here beautifully triangulated among the soloists and orchestra. Kerr and Kufchak clearly understand how to blend a fairly light tone and timbre with an orchestra they know from the inside. Indeed, the final statement by viola, presented with calm command by Kufchak, is the most breathtaking point in the concert.
Mozart answers the downward direction of the first movement with upward-tending themes in the Finale, creating the energy and joy of a folk dance. Between the two outer movements, he provides an instrumental version of an operatic love duet with violin taking the part of the soprano and viola the part of the tenor—albeit, in this performance, with genders reversed. The contrapuntal intertwining of the two “voices” is one of Mozart’s finest moments, and these two soloists “sing” their parts with a perfectly balanced, serene virtuosity. Conducting without baton, Kavakos (also a prominent violinist, appearing in both roles with the DSO in 2018) handsomely navigates the challenge of placing this monument of 18th-century classicism in the modern concert hall.
Though generally identified as Russian, Prokofiev was born in Ukraine during the reign of Czar Nicholas II, and thus also may be identified as Ukrainian. He was, in many ways, a direct musical descendant of Mozart, producing a prolific body of works in which, like Mozart, he expressed a lively, wide-ranging personality within a framework of impeccable compositional technique.
Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 6 in E-flat minor, however, presents a sound world far distant from Mozart’s. The Soviet Union had just triumphed in World War II when Prokofiev completed this work in 1947, and dictator Stalin wanted grand celebratory music from Soviet composers. Instead, Prokofiev offered up a work dominated by agony and desolation—resulting in his fall from favor and subsequent impoverishment. Ill health soon followed, and Prokofiev died only a few years later at age 61—on the same day as Stalin.
This performance of Prokofiev’s Sixth Symphony by the Dallas Symphony was placed on the schedule over a year ago, when the current European crisis was merely a remote possibility. Now, as Russia and Ukraine once again hurtle into violence and depravity at the behest of one mad tyrant, the work has taken on a bitter new relevance.
A naked descending brass motif introduces the work, setting an aggressive tone; the Dallas Symphony and conductor Kavakos unerringly navigate the catalogue of complex orchestral effects—occasionally beautiful, never pretty, and, over half a century after its creation, still sometimes jolting. Kavakos provides relentless energy and the orchestra provides precise execution on the pilgrimage through despair. For a brief instant at the beginning of the Finale, there’s a glimpse of Mozartian optimism, but, ultimately, the work was not intended to provide apotheosis or triumph. The audience Thursday night, in tune with the times, responded with the same sort of enthusiastically approving ovation with which they had applauded the genteel Mozart work.
WHEN: Performances April 30 and May 1
WHERE: Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center
WEB: dallassymphony.org
