Prokofiev @ Dallas Symphony Orchestra
—Gregory Sullivan Isaacs
This weekend, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents a concert filled with two of Prokofiev’s major works, his early finger-busting Piano Concerto #1, and a suite from his wondrous ballet music for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
The program opened with what might have served excellently as a peaceful amuse-bouche between the two courses of Prokofiev’s intense music, Aaron Jay Kernis’ angelic Musica Celestis.
Kernis’ serene composition floats from harmony to harmony while incorporating a dash of Modernist minimalism, counterpoint, and a medieval soupçon of Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). The title refers to the medieval concept of an endless group of angels eternally singing praises to God. As a Jew, Kernis’ concept of angels was borrowed and influenced by Hildegard, who wrote a similarly titled work for solo voice.
Hildegard was a mystic and visionary Abbess who, in addition to her amazing discoveries in the sciences, wrote both the music and words to an unusually large existing catalog of compositions. Rediscovered in the modern era, her music inspired many composers as they searched for an escape from the bonds of the Second Viennese School.
What resulted from Kernis’ concoction of influences is a work of great serenity that reaches to heaven with a huge sonic crescendo, but backs away when, like Icarus, it flies too close to the infinite. Some got it, but others among the audience seemed to wonder if the music was going somewhere.
While written decades apart in his career, both Prokofiev works are unmistakably by the same composer. His maturing abilities are evident in the latter work, but his original voice is thrilling, displaying a spectacular marriage between dissonance and tonality. They are both exceedingly difficult to perform. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra certainly had a challenge playing two such complex and technically challenging works on the same program.
The early (1911) über-complex one-movement Piano Concerto is basically a show-off work. The young Prokofiev wanted to display his pianistic and compositional virtuosity at the same time. While the original concept for the work was something short and joyfully light-hearted, what came out was short—but murderously difficult to play. It is a standard in piano competitions worldwide, because of its close approach to impossibility.
The Ukrainian pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk gave an explosive performance. While it is impossible to hear everything in such a fire-hose blast of notes, it appeared that Gavrylyuk mastered all of them. He even added some additional challenges with his surprisingly brisk tempo for the finale. For the most part, Conductor Gemma New kept up with him, but she allowed the orchestra to cover his playing here and there. Most evident at the end, he had to stand up and throw his full weight on the keys in an attempt to be heard over the orchestral thunder.
In observation of the devastation of his native country, Gavrylyuk played a serene version of Schumann’s dreamy short piano piece Träumerei. It was somewhat over-rubato-ed, but nonetheless quite moving considering his homeland’s dire circumstances.
This brings us to the suite from Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet. This is possibly the best ballet music ever written, and hearing only the suite leaves you hungry for the missing parts—quite a testament to the eternal popularity and impact of the music. Written between 1936 and 1939, it is light-years from the early piano concerto in maturity while still being unmistakably from the composer’s pen.
This performance, while exciting, suffered from the style of Gemma New, the DSO’s principal guest conductor. Her arms, frantically waving in the air in easily recognized patterns and constantly at full extension, may have impressed the audience but offered nothing to help the orchestra players.
I noted one section of the ballet suite that was conducted in the wrong time signature, leaving the cellists to fend for themselves. Tempi were sometimes erratic; in the “rumble” sword fight scene she slowed to a fox-trot, an almost unplayable tempo for strings (or dancers, for that matter). Under her unchanging baton, dynamics were pretty much left to the musical sense of the players.
There is no doubt that New overflows with talent and sure musical instincts, but her penchant for choreography at the podium is a distraction—one we hope won’t slow her progress toward the admirable career for which she is otherwise destined.
WHEN: Performances on May 21 and 22
WHERE: Meyerson Symphony Center
WEB: dallassymphony.org
