Severance
Hall
September
27
 |
| A skilled purveyor of the Russian sound. |
From
the opening notes at Severance Hall on Friday night, it was clear
that guest conductor Vassily Sinaisky had brought more than an
outstanding pedigree with him. Under his baton, the Cleveland
Orchestra sounded warm and full-blooded, with its trademark silken
strings glistening even more than usual. If the sound wasn’t
entirely Russian, it was a lot closer to Moscow than Cleveland.
Which
was no surprise. The best conductors can transform the sound of a
skilled orchestra to fit the program, particularly when the music is
in their blood. Trained at the Leningrad Conservatory and apprenticed
to the Moscow Philharmonic, Sinaisky is currently Music Director and
Chief Conductor at Russia’s crown cultural jewel, the Bolshoi
Theatre. In concert and opera halls throughout Europe, he has shown a
remarkable ability to bring the Russian repertoire to life with
British, German, Czech and other orchestras.
The
opening piece was a treat – Anatoly Liadov’s seldom-performed
Eight Russian Folk Songs. A set of miniatures that range from
meditative to merry, the songs are relatively simple in form but with
enough variety and fine detail to give the conductor something to
work with. By the second song, “Kolyada,” Sinaisky had the
orchestra in a rich emotional vein, evoking tender feelings of a
beloved homeland with the aid of some particularly fine cello work by
Richard Weiss.
One
of Sinaisky’s trademarks is his combination of warmth and
precision, which came to the fore in songs like the “Dance of the
Gnat” and “Tale of the Bird.” Light and playful, they were also
sparkling displays of sharp, carefully crafted timing and playing.
Sweet in tone and smart in execution, Liadov’s songs were a tasty
apertif.
 |
| Classical jazz. |
Kirill
Gerstein joined Sinaisky for the centerpiece of the evening,
Tchaikovsky’s Piano concerto No. 1. Gerstein was born in
Russia but trained mostly in the U.S., at Berklee and Tanglewood. The
jazz influences that he absorbed listening to his parents’ record
collection as a child are clear in his style, which is technically
fluent but hard and clipped, with phrasing that borders on
improvisation. At times, it sounds like a meeting of two musical
languages.
This
was particularly evident in the Tchaikovsky concerto, an orchestral
staple weighted even more by a century of tradition. Gerstein gave it
a modern burnish, biting off notes and energizing the solo passages with his own distinctive breaks and rhythms. Sinaisky gave him all
the room he wanted, but otherwise kept the orchestra at high volume,
the sound brimming with colors and energy.
Prokofiev’s
Symphony No. 3 was pieced together from material that started
as an opera, and it sounds like it, with sections that set atmosphere
or describe specific characters. This played to one of Sinaisky's
strengths, and his version of the symphony was a study in how to knit
together seemingly disparate elements in seamless fashion. Colors
flitted in and out of the sound, textures waxed and waned, sharp
dissonances flashed like sudden flames – and beneath it all, the
bottom pulsed steadily, like blood from a beating heart. It was a
riveting performance, particularly of a piece that breaks so many structural rules.
Percussion
builds throughout the symphony into a final explosion capped by a
reverberating gong, which provided an appropriate close to an evening
of fresh, engaging music. And a good transition to that other
Russian master of symphonic percussion – Dmitri Shostakovich, who
will share the stage in a few weeks with Beethoven in a festival
titled “Fate and Freedom.” Even Sinaisky would find that pairing
a challenge.
For
more on Vassily Sinaisky:
http://www.intermusica.co.uk/artists/conductor/vassily-sinaisky/biography
For
more on Kirill Gerstein: http://www.kirillgerstein.com/
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